The Faerie Ring Aralu, the Gaol of Always h Come, Neti, chief gatekeeper of the nether world, Unto the word which I command thee, give ear Of the seven gates of the nether world, open their locks, Of the gate Ganzir, the ‘ face’ of the nether world, define its rules —“Inanna’s Descent to the Nether World” (Sumerian mythology) Since time immemorial, the cavern complex known as Aralu has stood in a dark and forgotten corner of the fey realms, rumored to be inhabited by all manner of the strange, the vengeful, and worse It is widely believed that those who haunt the place are damned to dwell there for all eternity for some forgotten transgressions Time passes strangely in Aralu, and the foreboding caves are far larger on the inside than they appear to be from without Rumors abound that Aralu even contains its own pocket dimensions, wholly and eternally infolding unto itself Aralu’s is an elder magick inherent in its very stones, a dark and misunderstood power that is even older than the fey themselves, but its original purpose has long since passed into the mists of time What the fey know about Aralu is that it acts as a prison of sorts to creatures inside of it, and powerful wards hold those unfortunate souls fast within its confines, usually never to be heard from again Aralu has long since been used by the fey powers to house their enemies and worst criminals, and any number of creatures are rumored to be held captive in various portions of the caves, with each such portion acting as an individual prison cell As opposed to mere locked gates, there are ancient wards in Aralu They function so that if one is tricked into accepting imprisonment or is forced into such punishment, the creature is bound to the place by the terms set at their imprisonment Jasmine, among all of the prisoners in Aralu, is a special case Queen Mab coated the walls of Aralu in glamour and coaxed Jasmine’s agreement to remain bound through trickery, but Jasmine accepted only upon condition of becoming lady of the place Accordingly, Jasmine alone among the prisoners there has free reign to move about all of Aralu without limitation and, thus, is widely regarded as the ruling sovereign there DEEPER DARK While many end up in Aralu for petty reasons, the gaol also contains the worst living criminals among the fey Those foolish individuals that choose eternal imprisonment over execution are contained within the Deeper Dark In this pocket of Aralu, no light can exist, and the most powerful magical illumination is immediately snuffed out Even the once mighty or terrible must grope blindly alone through the black labyrinth While time passes slowly in Aralu in comparison to the Material Plane, individuals within the Deeper Dark experience time normally (as marked by the Material Plane) within their minds A prisoner might consciously feel the passage of days while crawling a dozen feet Thus, communication becomes nearly impossible, with it taking minutes or hours to speak a few words Often, the entrapped that were not mad to begin with become insane from extreme isolation FALSE PALACE In truth, Jasmine’s palace is a dark cavern of bloodcovered stone carved into shapes approximating furniture and buildings Layers of glamer and figment cover every surface, transforming the moldy rock into a palatial estate fit for a sovereign So strong are these illusions that they possess true substance While magic might manage to pierce it, mere disbelief is no match for Queen Mab’s trickery Over the long years, Jasmine has added her own glamer to Mab’s foundation, learning much of her nemesis by unweaving and reweaving the trappings with her Shadow Scepter The illusions themselves have taken on a sort of sentience, continually renewing or — 55 —