.
A short while after I climbed back into the sky to resume my flight, Kiki reappeared. I had been so busy I didn’t realize she’d been missing.
“Where have you been?” I wondered.
“Sneak sneak on greenie!” she said as she reclaimed her perch, this time right between my shoulders with her legs hanging down each side of my neck.
I interpreted her words to mean she’d been sneaking up behind the hidden fairy in the woods. Maybe we ended the fight before she could ambush him.
“You should let me know what you’re planning,” I complained. “I could have hit you with that warning shot!”
“No problem, Big Sis! Kiki dodge!”
So I actually did fire at her?
# # #
As it turned out, our flight only lasted another fifteen minutes or so.
“There it is!” Kiki declared as we were following a little river upstream through a narrow valley.
Immediately ahead, a pair of tall pillars stood on each side of the river. They looked naturally formed, but couldn’t be. They were just too skinny. They rose at least a hundred paces from the valley floor, in a fashion that just didn’t match the geology. An Earth mage with immense power had likely created these things. The clincher was the ‘natural bridge’ that crossed between the spires near their base, that actually spanned the river and the ‘natural’ walls from the spires to the nearby slopes.
Tëan Tīr means ‘High Valley’, and they aren’t kidding. All of the surrounding mountains were still snow covered, and the tree line was less than a hundred paces above the valley floor. This place was a ski resort ready for marketing.
Beyond this barrier, the valley grew into a much wider bowl. I could see scattered buildings visible within the dense expanse of trees. The broad valley floor, also featured wide lawns and steaming pools in random spots. I could see a cluster of towers a couple miles ahead, but they didn’t seem like either a city center or a castle. Nothing about the place really suggested a community.
But that appearance was an illusion of sorts. It looked unusual because I was viewing it from a human perspective. Humans clear the trees out of the way when they settle somewhere. Fairies live among the trees.
“Land there, Big Sis!” Kiki said. She had leaned out over my head so she could point down at the road following the river below. A small number of people and animal-drawn carts were lined up there, waiting to pass under the natural bridge and enter the valley.
I descended, but I asked her, “What’s to prevent me from just flying over?”
“No way! Only entrance is under bridge. No other way!”
A very faint image of a barrier of some sort appeared in my fairy sight as we got close, which passed through the spires and bridge. I realized it kept going, curving around the mountains encompassing the valley. Did it wrap the entire place?
I landed and noticed that I was the only fairy. The people who were lined up were all mortals. The ones who watched me fly in were staring at me, and I knew that look. With my looks and wings and without my armor, as usual, they thought they were seeing a succubus.
“We have to stay in line?” I asked Kiki, as I walked up to stand at the end of the line, behind a large mercantile wagon. Down the road, a similar wagon was climbing the grade, so I guessed I would end up slotted between two large vehicles.
When the wagon in front of us pulled forward suddenly, it revealed a pair of mortal children, a boy and girl of around ten, who had been peeking at me using it as cover. Of course they weren’t a surprise to me. At that distance, any living being is going to show up in my fairy sense unless they possess very advanced stealth. I gave them a smile and a slight bow.
Having now been caught, they looked at each, and then the boy stepped forward and bowed like a proper young Dorian. The girl followed. Then he said, “Um… excuse me, miss?”
I tipped my head. “Yes?”
“Um… my dad was sayin’ the gate might be a problem for you.”
I knew what was coming, and resigned myself to it. Besides, the kid was being polite about it. So I just wondered, “How come?”
“Um… he said you’re a succa… succi…”
“Succubus,” the girl supplied, coming forward as well.
“An’ they might not let you in,” the boy completed.
I nodded. It was as expected. But hey, the kids were being helpful and warning me. And kids this age probably didn’t understand anything about succubi. They didn’t intend to be mean or anything.
So I just bowed again. “Well, thank you for the warning. I’ll just have to hope for the best.”
They kept staring at me.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“Um…” the girl hesitated, then blurted, “Your wings are really pretty!”
It caught me by surprise, just a bit. Slightly charmed by the kid, I smiled and gave a third bow. “Thank you, young miss.”
From the front of the wagon came an adult man’s voice. “Tol! Mena! Get back here!”
The two dashed away.
So I was going to be dealing with something like a restriction on monsters. I was grateful to the kids for telling me. It was confirmation of what I was already suspecting, based upon the massive magic field, but it was good to know.
I had considered landing out of sight downhill and walking up to the entry with my wings dematerialized, but that would have made me an apparent mortal. It would be odd for such to be on foot traveling alone, as I look like a seventeen-year-old human and I was wearing only a sword, an unusual dress, and silk slippers. And, since I did not know how to stealth my obviously non-human mana flow, any lesser fairy guard could spot that I was faking, and would be able to see the miasma that gave me away as a monster.
It seemed like the best choice was instead to go ahead and ask for entry, without hiding my non-human nature, and see how it went. And escape if it went badly. I would have Kiki find me somewhere in the hills to hide while waiting for Serera to find me as promised.
Why not try to use Cloak and sneak through the gate? Well, that was a possibility too, but I wanted to see what they had at the gate, first. I had run into a few too many fairies who could see or detect me through the cloak, recently.
The four-horse team that had been approaching finally arrived while I was debating my options. The claustrophobic result reminded me of being stuck in traffic between two eighteen-wheelers. The teamsters handling the wagon were quite appreciative of the ‘succubus’ in front of them, too, but they didn’t approach me, and I was used to it by now.
As I watched the wagon in front of me being inspected by the guardsmen, one of them shot me a mystified look, then returned to the guard station. A short time later, as the wagon was allowed to pass through the gate, a pair of lesser fairy warriors appeared in the air headed my direction.
While they approached, the guard asked me, “Are you aware of the entry requirements for monsters, miss?”
That was an interesting way to start, but I guess my wings made it obvious to them that I was a monster. The only fairies with bird-like wings were sylphs, whose wings are never black. Although, I was willing to bet that these guards, too, were assuming the wrong kind of monster.
“I am not, but my grandmother has sent me here to see my grandfather, so I assumed I am permitted entry.”
The guard frowned, glanced over his shoulder at the two warriors as they landed, then stated, “It’s not about being permitted. Monstrous races that behave themselves can enter, no problem, but we need advance notice so we can be prepared to suspend the purification field from the arch. We haven’t received any notice that travel permission to our city has been granted to a monster.”
“Not everyone needs to ask travel permission to find their way here, sir,” I pointed out with a polite smile. “You do know that there are those who have permanent travel seals?”
He frowned again, as the fairy warriors joined him. The tall blond warrior on his right crossed her arms and stated, “I’ve never heard of a monster receiving such a thing.”
I looked around for Kiki, but she had disappeared on me again. I kept it simple.
“It seems my guide had the authority to lead me,” I said with a smile. “She’s run off somewhere at the moment, or I would introduce her.”
I felt confident about that. From what I had understood now, if a guide tried to lead someone without a seal and didn’t have the authority to lead that person, both guide and follower would end up lost. So Kiki must have been allowed to lead me.
The fairy glared at me for a while, then sighed. “Well, it’s true you shouldn’t be able to get here without it. But you can’t get in until someone comes to suspend the field. You might be waiting until tomorrow.”
I shook my head, then glanced at the natural arch before us. “It’s a purification field, you say?”
“It’s strong enough to kill a monster on the spot, even if the monster is flying through, miss. Please don’t try it. Give me your name so I can apply for a permit for you.”
After a moment of thought, I decided to give the entire thing.
“Pendorle lianelfen Orestaniale enorafen Vesirle enel Semöan Cenole Tianà.”
The blond and her partner, a short, pink-haired thing who reminded me a little of Mireia, stared at me.
The blond scowled and snapped, “Neciydd câhu (Do not lie).”
“Öilzo (It is the truth),” I countered in a level tone without batting an eye.
She frowned and then stated, switching back to Dorian, “I need some proof to give them.”
“I’m not carrying anything to serve as proof.”
“A princess just walked up to the entrance on her own, without advance notice? How am I supposed to tell them something like that?!”
I looked at the archway. I was only a couple steps away from being in the field. I didn’t need to guess at where that field was. I could see the mana flow. The entire natural arch was a giant magic item, flooding the two-pace-wide space below it with a heavy dose of [Purification]. It even stronger than the casting I used to kill a lich.
“If that’s too difficult, then let me confirm something. It is actually legal for me to walk through this gate, and you simply need someone to turn the field off to let me pass. Is that correct?”
“I…,” she looked flustered for a moment, as she considered the question. “Well, the guards are only here to prevent suspicious items from coming in. The purpose of the field is to block wild monstrous beasts, not people.”
“Very well,” I said and began circulating mana.
Both of the fairies jumped back, with the blond pulling the guardsman with her and forcing him behind. They had their hands on their swords.
But then the pink-haired one grew perplexed and asked, “Healing mana?”
It ramped up as high as I could make it, until my wings began glowing white. Intoning, “[Healing]”, I coated my flesh with it. They all stared at me in confusion.
I walked forward into the archway.
