.
The scene played out before us, starting from the gloating Duke Parna’s damning words as the soldier brought me up to him.
“You’ve shown your true colors faster than I could have ever dreamed, monster.”
I cringed a little as my words ‘you are already dead’ came back from my past to haunt me. Oy, did I really use the ‘Omae wa mou shindeiru’ line?
If this had been a video shot on a smartphone from the distance at which we were seeing it, our words would have been thin, mixed with crowd noise and wind noise, making them hard to understand. Instead, they were clear, as if a guy holding a boom mic had stood next to us to record them.
Everyone heard him declaring he would to ‘deal with’ Lady Sasara. I didn’t know how many people present knew that she was the same person as Princess Deharè, but it was clear from his words that he planned an action against her, and that he intended to sieze the mighty duchy ruled by my mother.
And everyone heard the declaration that Owen would be removed as King.
I glanced to my left while Parna was declaring that the Fairy King wouldn’t even remember my existence. In the past few days, I had come to understand how deeply this man treasured his family. Oberon’s eyes narrowed and his cheek muscles bulged as he clenched his jaws.
And while the me in the video glowed with Healing, they heard the duke order me killed, and watched as he struck me with his blade himself after the spear failed to fell me. The scene ended with me being peppered repeatedly with arrows at his order as I made my escape.
“What evidence do I have, you asked?” Oberon inquired. “If you doubt the words of Little Tiana, perhaps you are also about to suggest that my concubine contrived this video?”
Lâsin continued to glower at the King, but did not reply.
“When I first learned what had passed in Copen, I made my own inquiries. I already have confirmation of this event from other sources. Perhaps you will claim that the man you saw was some imposter? Once our Little Tiana escaped him, Parna sent word to your granddaughter to ambush and slaughter Tiana from stealth, and he moved rapidly to put the rest of his plans into play. I have received considerable word of other dire events now happening, which Parna appears to be directing.”
“This accusation of my granddaughter is merely the words of a monster…”
Oberon interrupted. “And the observations of my loyal royal knight, sir! She watched the ambush take place! She also brought back evidence.”
He looked over his shoulder. “Lady Serera, the evidence is on board Prince Manlon’s galley. Please bring it.”
Lâsin’s attitude had lost a lot of fire during the video replay. The wait for Serera’s evidence and the drop of tension gave me time to assess what I had seen. Mostly, I was trying to come to terms with Oberon’s bizarre claim that his concubine was the one who had recorded it.
Memory stones are difficult things to use, requiring magic training and practice. Only someone with good affinity for Light can use them, although an audio form exists for people with good Wind affinity. I suspected, due to the quality of the sound recording, that the person who had shot my conversation with Parna had actually used both magics. When sound is recorded using the Light mana recording the image, it tends to be tinny, like it was coming across a cellphone.
I was racking my brain trying to remember who had stood where, in order to figure out from the angle of the view who this concubine was. I knew from Grandmother that the Fairy Queen (who I had yet to meet) was his ‘wife’ only because she had given birth to the crown prince, and I understood that he decreed that women who bore him daughters bore the title of ‘concubine’ (making Grandmother one according to Royal Law, although she only grudgingly acknowledged it.) So he was talking about the mother of one of my aunts, right?
But of course, she could be one of my aunts and still look like a second- or third-year student in the academy. Heck, when Mother completely drops her aging disguise, she looks that age, too. But I suspected my fairy sight would have spotted a fairy posing as a student, had there been one in the student body.
Serera flew to us from Manlon’s boat bearing a wicked-looking black spear that I saw last at the fairy camp at the border of Relador. It had a spearhead with seven backward pointing barbs made of polished black material that I suspected to be Shadow Poison Marble. The shaft of nightsteel had the remnants of Dark mana inscriptions on it, evidence of a ruined enchantment.
She carried it on her outstretched hands up to the King, who accepted it and inspected it carefully.
As he turned it over in his hands, he commented, “Until Little Tiana struck it hard enough to shatter the magic built into it, this was a weapon purpose-built for murder. Weapons like this were built during the Imperial era, but they are illegal in most nations of the modern world. Its only useful purpose is to chase the vampire upon whom it is targeted down and deliver a lethal purification charge. The control spell is broken, but the purification charge is still stored within. A typical mortal healer would have exhausted himself twelve times over in the effort to imbue the quantity of mana storied in this vile weapon. Or of course, a dozen healers could have done it in one go. Either way, it represents through its very design a purposeful effort to murder.
Returning his gaze to Lâsin, Oberon stated, “By her own admission, Lady Feraen received that spear from Duke Parna’s people, along with the command from him to use it to kill this young woman, a princess of Faerie and the fiancée of the Ostish second prince, the son of his suzerain lord. That command would be treason in his kingdom and most others.”
He kept using the term ‘Ostish’, like we were back in the old Imperial days. It’s ‘Orestanian’, Grandfather.
While considering the weapon in his hands, he noted, “This is a relic of ancient times. A tool for a trade that has long been banned everywhere. The mortals with the knowledge to create such artifacts died off millennia ago. This is the legacy of the Vampire Hunters who served the temples of the old Light of Truth sect, back in the days of the Shor Shin priest-kings. The founder of the Dorian First Dynasty destroyed that reviled cult when he overcame the last remnants of that ancient tribe during his conquest of the East.”
I blinked. The foundation of the First Dynasty? He was talking about events from more than three thousand years ago!
He handed the spear back to Serera, who bowed, turned and flew back to Manlon. As he watched her depart, he mused, “How such an ancient treasure came to be in Parna’s hands can certainly be guessed, if one knew his father. That man coveted Pendor and hated its ruler, Little Tiana’s father. He must have obtained that weapon with a plan to use it to kill Duke Pendor, once he had sufficient support from his fellow lords. From the moment the ancient vampire king began going mad, he had grown more and more isolated from all his old allies. Likely, when my daughter killed him, he was only a few years away from the previous Duke Parna gathering a coalition to do so.”
Lâsin had no bluster left, only a sullen stare that moved from Oberon to myself to Tenre and back.
The King continued, “I will not demand that you apologize to this child now, but she is here if you wish to take that opportunity. And if you agree to our continued custody of your wife and cooperate with our investigation of a troubling matter concerning her, I will not force you and all your daughters to watch a similar record of the shockingly unchivalrous behavior she displayed during the duel you mentioned, nor her dishonorable act of disobedience to the crown. They were recorded from several angles by multiple mages. You will not have to watch as this child destroys your wife’s heart with a lethal thrust to the chest, before she quite charitably saves her life by restoring that heart with a remarkable dose of healing.”
Lâsin scowled, looking at me with suspicion. “Healing?”
I bowed deeply and stated, “I have some small skills at healing, My Lord. I was relieved that I could prevent your wife from dying.”
Sorry. I know it’s impossible for a fairy my age. I know it’s also impossible, for a monster of any age. Somehow, I can do it, anyway. You wouldn’t believe the only explanation I can offer you.
“You say ‘cooperation’,” Lâsin growled. “What would you have me do, King?”
I had noticed something. Just like the way Oberon never called me his granddaughter, Lâsin had never addressed Oberon as ‘Your Majesty’. He only begrudged Oberon the barest token recognition of royalty, just calling him ‘King’.
Oberon answered, “Find your granddaughter, Lady Feraen, and bring her to me. I wish to investigate the cause of her irrational behavior. And send all of your knights to pass through the purification field of the public portal of Tëan Tír, yourself included.”
“What!?” Lâsin at last regained some of his fire. “You dare tell me…”
“I want them purified. I want to drive out any demons like the one which Tiana drove out of your wife.”
“Preposterous!” he roared. “If you imagined seeing a demon coming from a fairy, it’s obvious this monster summoned it to trick you!”
“My son and his disciples had many instruments on hand. They had the intention to study Little Tiana’s body. She’s a scientific anomaly in many ways. A monster who can use healing magic, a rare blend of magical and monstrous biology, showing characteristics unlike either parent, and a child who can channel truly frightening levels of mana. As a result, he recorded her single combat very closely, with many scientific tools…”
“I am done with this farce,” Lâsin interrupted, drawing a huge draught of mana into his body. “If I must fight my way out to end it, then so be it.”
He rapidly backed away, withdrawing into his line. The knights and warriors backing him up all grew tense, their postures going back into fighting mode.
“Your Highness, please excuse my rude behavior,” Oberon told me, then held out his hand. Durandal was yanked out of my grip, flying handle-first into his grasp.
“You won’t mind helping me out, Durandal?” he asked.
I would be happy to assist you, Your Majesty. This fool of a fairy truly needs a beating.
I didn’t know if the King could hear the reply, but Durandal had delivered it as if expecting that he could. I was just barely grasping the fact that Oberon had called him by name when a huge wave Earth mana geysered up from the ground below, flowing into and through him, into Durandal. Pointing the sword directly at Lâsin, he commanded,
“[Holy Smite!]”
