Taik

Creation

Taik was created by writer John Ney Rieber and artist Peter Gross in The Books of Magic issue 28 in 1996.

Major Story Arcs

Taik is the son of Auberon and Titania, the king and queen of Faerie. Titania cursed him to take the shape of a horse, and he lived in her stables. There was a rumor that he was cursed, and that was why he had a pebble in his hoof, why his mane was always tangled, and why his tail can't brush away flies. However, it is really just that no one in Faerie ever does any actual work.

When Molly, who is stuck in Faerie, sees him, she knows it's just an ordinary pebble, and pops it out. She can also tell he was not always a horse.

She brings him with her, and he helps carry things for her gardening and treehouse-making projects. She calls him Prince, although she does not know his specific origin.

Titania tricks Molly into eating Faerie food, and now burns everything she touches, so she leaves Taik briefly to yell at Titania. However, she ends up being gone for much longer than she intended, and starts a war, burning much of Faerie down.

Taik starts wandering on his own. Once again he has a pebble in his shoe. We see his human form when he is reflected in a mirror in a town market. He finds an old man, Myrvyn, who knew him as a boy, and writes his name in the dust so he recognizes him. They try to find some roses for him to eat, which would dissolve the enchantment, but Molly has now burned the market.

Some enchanted wet towels created by Titania attempt to snuff out Molly and her fire, but Taik kicks at them. He wants her to get on, but she's afraid to burn him. Undeterred, he grabs a rose from the ground and tosses her on his back, running away from the towels. She begins to fall in love with him.

He eats the rose while she's asleep and turns back into his normal form. He finds a pebble in his boot--it may have been part of the curse after all.

When she wakes, he tells her that he expects to be king soon, and wants her to be his queen. She asks why Titania turned him into a horse, and he says she never said.

Molly starts to hear voices and see things--she has a history of schizophrenia, and she doesn't have her medicine. It looks to her like Taik is now creepy-looking, and speaking cruelly. However, he then asks her, what if she isn't seeing hallucinations, what if it's real?

Meanwhile, some of Hell's lords come to Faerie. They say that Taik's soul, which was supposed to be in Hell, has now escaped, and they want it back. Hell and Faerie have a long-held deal called the Tiend where Faerie pays Hell 7 souls essentially for the rental of Faerie's lands, and Taik was part of that.

Molly's eyes are now so affected by her fire that she can't see Taik at all. Taik continues to taunt her. He has been in the process of being possessed by a demon, Abaddon (presumably the one who appeared in The Demon). The other Hell Lords are part of his army. He says he'll kill her if she won't join him in killing Titania.

Yarrow, a flitling who has been inspired by Molly in the past, finds her and says she'll help Molly see him, to fight him. However, the trick doesn't work and Taik catches Yarrow. However, Auberon shows up and knocks Yarrow out of his hands.

All of Faerie is now covered in a mist, caused by Huon, first king of Faerie, and the Leveler, who is fated to restore the kingdom to its true nature, or destroy it. Everyone in Faerie is separated, and often faces their inner nature.

Taik the demon Abaddon now faces Taik the boy, riding a horse. Taik the boy describes how Abaddon tormented him in hell, and slowly insinuated himself into him, without the boy even realizing it. He says Titania saw the demon in him, and that's why she turned him into a horse. The two fight with knives, and Abaddon stabs him, but then the horse stomps the demon.

Yarrow becomes the Leveler, and restores Faerie as it was meant to be. Faerie no longer needs to pay the Tiend. Taik is in the form of a horse once again, but he is now free of the demon.

Seeming Contradictions

There are two seemingly contradictory narratives about Taik's soul. In the first, his soul was sent to hell. Then when his horse form (presumably animated by a portion of his soul?) turns back to human, his soul is seemingly fully freed from hell. The Hell Lords then come for his soul. However, Taik's soul was earlier tainted by Abaddon, and now becomes fully possessed by him. But why would the Hell Lords come for Taik's soul if it is already possessed by Abaddon? Is it just all a trick to defeat Faerie?

But this doesn't resolve the fact that Titania already knew Taik was tainted by Abaddon before turning him into a horse. That implies that Taik was in hell, then he came back, then Titania turned him into a horse. But this doesn't make sense because seemingly he has been a horse for a long time, and the Hell Lords say he only just escaped from hell.

There are various possible solutions that are not fully supported by the comic. Perhaps Taik came back from Hell and was turned into a horse just before Molly found him. Perhaps his time in Hell was metaphoric, and being a horse was his Hell. Perhaps when Titania turned him into a horse, it hid him from the demons, and they didn't know he was gone until he turned human again.