.
“It sounds like I arrived at the right moment,” came a familiar male voice.
I looked that direction to see Manlon emerging from the fog. It might seem strange that I wasn’t feeling these men appearing until the last moment, but the mana-laden fog was clouding my fairy and vampire senses. They could penetrate no further than my normal eyesight.
Manlon’s disciples followed him into view, but while he doffed his clothes and waded into the pond to sit on the other side of Tenre, they politely bowed and sat on their knees at the edge of the clearing.
“Your concubines are too lovely to play wallflowers, Little Manlon,” the Queen commented. “Have them join us.”
They both gave nervous laughs, but when their master beckoned, they too slipped out of their clothing and took seats at his sides. I did my best to minimize my attention to Talene’s undulating bust. Those beauties had to be at least F cups…
The girls’ attempts to hide the most important parts with their hands buoyed my spirits a little. It helped to know I wasn’t the only one embarrassed.
I asked Oberon, “Are you going to let me leave here now?”
The truth was, I would had left without permission if Kiki hadn’t been hiding on me. All I needed was a means to defeat the spell that impeded travel through Relador.
I still find it mind-boggling, but it seemed that Oberon had cast the spell to cover this entire country back when he settled here during the Legendary Age. The very definition of ‘Relador’ was in the end, ‘the area affected by the [Great Labyrinth] spell.’
He nodded. “I’ve been specifically asked by your mother to send you to the Kingdom of Arelia.”
My brow wrinkled a little as a certain sore spot appeared. I had been expecting Mother to show up or contact me for several days. Given everything that had happened to me, and the fact that she surely had heard about it by now, it was strange that she hadn’t. But given the way the mysterious ‘fate magic’ worked and the fact that she’d had serious suspicions about me, I wasn’t entirely certain she was still an ally. When I first arrived in Tëan Tír, I had even been prepared for the possibility she would be here, waiting with the intent to dispose of me.
Hearing absolutely nothing from her had been worse, since I didn’t know what it meant.
“So you’ve been hearing from Mother, Your Majesty? I’m troubled that she hasn’t contacted me at all.”
“I had received reports, relayed from your king. Your mother’s defensive magics make it impossible to initiate [Far Voice] with her, so matters had to wait for my letters to reach your king. But a mage capable of directly communicating with us joined your king today. We at last have direct communications.”
Manlon added, “Your mother can’t contact you directly, anyhow, Little Tiana. You cannot receive [Far Voice].”
“I can’t receive [Far Voice]?” I echoed, perplexed. “But… I’ve had people speak to me with magic before.”
Manlon explained, “Most likely, that was [Near Voice] or [Light Words]. Those are respectively Wind magic and Light magic. [Far Voice] is Aether magic, and vampire biology interferes with that spell. Your kind has natural defenses that resemble the defensive magic Esteemed Sister uses. For long range communication, a very few Vampires have the spell [Shadow Call]. A few can use [Hidden Words] to communicate secretly, but only at close range. Both are Dark magic, which is Esteemed Sister’s weakest affinity. She probably cannot cast either spell.”
Mages have affinities to particular elements. All spells are not available to all mages, so many spells exist with overlapping functions but different elements.
I was still a little confused though. Why did another mage have to join Owen? Wasn’t Mother with the king?
One of the servants appeared, carrying a small orb. She offered it to the Queen, who waved it off. “I’m tired. Have that boy’s lover handle it.”
While the servant walked to the other end, Oberon stated, “I record all communications from your king, so I have your mother’s message to you. There are no confidential personal matters, but I am hereby decreeing that any mention of my ally’s circumstances are hereforward crown secrets of Faerie that I am enjoining all present to keep. Servants, leave us and do not overhear, until your mistress bids you to return.”
Pasrue accepted the orb with a smile, then the servant bowed and left, following the rest who had already departed. She gathered Light mana and cast the spell that had become familiar now, to project the viewing glass image for an audience to see.
I wondered if my suspected reincarnator Talene had realized yet that she could create a cinema industry with this magic. I would have to check on that. I would love to see if she had ‘invented’ Anime yet.
Above us, an image appeared. Mother was wearing her normal thirty-year-old-human disguise and her mage vestments, which are surprisingly conservative for her, with a moderate degree of bare midriff and decollétage. She held her mage’s staff, a thick, straight, heavily polished silverwood bough with its upper end tapering into a corkscrew curling around a four-inch diameter adamant orb.
The first time she showed it to the young Tiana, she described how she’d personally cultivated a silverwood tree branch to grow that way. It’s the only focus she ever uses, except for a little conductor’s baton that she keeps in her desk for convenience.
Robert’s term for Mother’s body type is ‘slender busty’, so her normally tiny waist was already showing an undeniable baby bump.
“Is Little Deharè pregnant again?” Tenre immediately exclaimed.
“Um… yes,” I verified. “That’s why she officially became Owen’s concubine.”
She shook her head. “That’s the third baby in less than a century. That child…”
“You could stand to make a few more babies yourself, woman,” the Queen scolded. “Now be quiet and listen. Play it, child.”
My mother began speaking. “This message is for my daughter, Tiana.”
After a pause, she continued. “I’m afraid I have only a short time, Dear, so I will be brief. Your Uncle Owen needs you, but he does not want you to come to him. He wants you to meet up with an Orestanian delegation in the Kingdom of Arelia. Go as soon as you can, as it is urgent. Because this message could end up in the wrong hands, I will not name any persons, except that you should approach the Headmaster of the Academy of Dausindiu. That person can identify you, so you should have no problem contacting him.”
She thought for a moment, then added, “If you are unable to contact someone with whom you are already acquainted, then something is amiss, so get out of there. Find your way to Pendor instead.”
She paused, then smiled. “Prince Gerald has described to me the events at the Academy. I feel quite aggrieved that your time there was so rudely cut short, but I am proud of how you handled yourself.
“Our kingdom is now at the cusp of civil war. The true purpose of the war on Hamagaar appears to have been to isolate my darling and his loyal subordinates away from Atius, to give Parna and his allies an opportunity to usurp him. In addition to highly questionable political actions in the Privy Council and illegal actions involving the Provincial Guard, Parna has taken control of the military structure in the capital, and has organized several of Pendor’s neighbors into an invasion of my duchy. All has clearly been in planning for a long time.”
After pressing her lips together, a habit she had while organizing her thoughts, Mother stated, “My loyal subjects are fighting to defend my duchy. I cannot abandon them, so I have returned to Pendor. I would prefer to stay at my husband’s side, but he was the first to encourage me to go.”
I smiled at the word ‘husband’. She was his concubine, so properly, Owen was her master, not her husband. But as the one and only concubine of a widower, she might as well be his wife. I don’t think any mortal would try to argue the point with her, in any case.
“Normally, you should also go to his side, but you will learn in Arelia the reason you are not to do so. I have asked my father to send a proxy to Owen in our place.”
She glanced at something ‘off camera’, then back to us. “I must go. Tiana, you have a tendency to take unreasonable responsibility for things, so I must tell you, you did not cause this. Parna clearly planned his actions long before the events in Copen. I suspect he planned to arrest you and the princes on whatever excuse he could manufacture at the time. Your escape has forced him to hasten his schedule, so you may have successfully compromised his plan.”
With a brief smile of merriment, she said, “Fairies are at our best as a vexation for greedy mortals, so I shall say, well done, Tiana.”
Another glance to the side. “I must go. I am relaying this through someone who also has a message for you, which she will add.”
The image faded. Pasrue asked. “Is the message she just mentioned here?”
“It’s the next item,” the Queen answered. “Play it.”
A new figure appeared and Manlon immediately exclaimed, “Mother?”
On the screen was an extremely ancient elven woman in an Orestanian officer uniform.
Niaela of Erna descended into a shaky deep curtsey, something nobody should ever expect a woman of her advanced age to attempt. At the bottom, she declared, “My Lady Tiana, daughter of Pendor and Princess of the High Forest, you have rightfully demanded an apology from me. I cannot deliver a proper one now, because I am not before you so that you might accept or decline it. In its place, I make you a promise. At our first meeting, you shall receive your apology from me. You have demanded I also give it to our King, and I have done so. Given the current situation, I cannot say when you may receive it from the school faculty, but if I have any say in the matter, it shall be done. You have my word as the King’s Knight and as a retired baroness.
“As for the explanation you must desire, I will tender it in person as well, but for now, I shall say only that my intent had been to prove your innocence. I failed to see in time that the means I chose was flawed. The only correct choice would have been to send you immediately as far from the Academy as possible. This is a pathetically feeble excuse, so I do not pretend that it defends my action.”
She attempted to rise and couldn’t do so. Aides rushed into view and helped her to her feet. After she gave a nod, the image faded.
I found myself without words. In the silence, Pasrue asked, “Master, that was your mother?”
“It was,” Manlon nodded. “Even elven women grow old eventually. She never developed any desire to cultivate a non-mortal body.”
“I offered to help her try,” Oberon said. “She is my precious concubine, after all. We share many fond memories.”
I was still angry and unable to sort out how I felt about the message or Niaela, so I focused on Mother’s message instead.
Might as well get straight to the point.
“When can I depart, Your Majesty?”
