.
Long before sunrise, I sat shoulder-deep in the murky water in the middle of a half-flooded grove in the Greenwater Fen and concentrated on my vampire sense. The whisper-thin web of Darkness spread outward from me to cover every inch of this eerie place.
Since I hadn’t wanted my clothing to get wet, I had removed everything before getting in. I had Dilorè guarding me from a little hump of dry land nearby.
It was one day before the Day of the Full Moons, so on top of the slight fog rising from the water to dim the stars, there was next to no moonlight. But the mana spring was nearby enough to support some magic flora, including some kind of slightly phosphorescent algae that faintly glowed in the water.
I could not truly eliminate the possibility of Amelia being in this place, but I felt I had least had a chance of identifying her if she actually was here, as the Berado believed. Tiana had lived together with her for twelve years, so I had a very clear image of her aura. Therefore, on the chance that the Amaga really had her, I had to try this.
According to Aunt Elianora, the blanket that I was creating was so thin that it would be unnoticeable to anybody except perhaps another vampire. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that Mother could detect it, but Dilorè had reported she couldn’t sense anything, so at least the average fairy can’t feel it.
While passing my attention from one person to another, and letting my body soak in mana, I identified Sidis, sleeping in a treehouse near ‘Center Isle’, the place I had visited yesterday. One human woman and three other bird-kin were also sleeping there. At a guess, she was home with her family, although her father Saerim was sleeping in one of the houses next to the command tent.
Yes, it’s somewhat voyeuristic, spying on people where they are sleeping, even if I am not getting a visual image of them. I was only concentrating on each person long enough to identify their species and appearance, but I was peeping in on them nonetheless. But, this is why I was doing this at such a barren hour. I was in no hurry to peep in on people engaged in reproductive activities or the like. I had departed Lisrau three hours after midnight specifically so I could do this search at such a time.
I was a bit surprised how few people were actually within the barrier. I shouldn’t have been, given the nature of the territory, but knowing that it was functioning as the Amaga capital had led me to imagine more people had taken refuge in this place than were actually here. I could see perhaps five hundred troops, along with family dwellings scattered sparsely throughout, including the somewhat more densely populated middle, consisting of a birdkin hamlet in a forest near that lagoon, a small community of humans and beast-kin next to the mana spring who were probably the staff of the workshops built beside it, and in various spots here and there, dwellings of a certain monstrous species.
I was feeling that my need for Water mana had been sufficiently sated around the same time that I felt a strange feedback through the Dark mana, and noticed a handful of those monsters begin approaching me. I had let myself be a little too lax, I realized.
They were close enough to appear in Dilorè’s fairy sense as well. She called, “Your Highness..”
“I see them,” I answered.
I decided it would be better to get ready for trouble than to keep hiding myself in the water. Staying calm, I stood up, preparing to get out of the water.
They were moving as fast as my grandmother could move. I had waited too long. A wake rushed across the water ahead of something moving swiftly underneath, and I nearly grew my wings to fly right there and then, but the person under the surface halted about four paces away from me.
After the wake rolled past me, a sensuously-curved woman as nude as myself, with bits of moss in her hair, rose out of the water. Her blond tresses and naked skin were glowing slightly thanks to the algae.
“A pleasant night to you, neighbor,” the rusalka greeted me as her two companions rose out of the water nearby.
“Greetings,” I said, caught in an awkward situation. I needed to turn away and wade ashore, but now that she was talking to me, I couldn’t easily do that.
“You’re not from my clan, but you have the smell of my kind. Have you come to take refuge here?”
I wondered exactly what smell that was, but I asked, “Refuge?”
“I feared that perhaps another fen had been destroyed. We had a few new sisters join us, some years back, after the mortals drained their clan’s water.”
I frowned a bit at that news. In Orestania, we usually try to leave intelligent monster communities alone if they behave themselves. Destroying their habitats only leads to trouble. Of course, we have no experience with this species, and our reports say that they seldom coexist peacefully with others. There was no telling if the clan she mentioned had made an agreement with their mortal neighbors similar to the one Sidis had described.
“That sounds terrible,” I responded, “But it isn’t what brought me here. I am merely a visitor who paused here to soak for a while. How did you find me so quickly?”
“You cast your senses outward. I felt it, and I’m sure other strong ones amongst my cousins could feel it as well.”
That was a shock. Rusalki had a skill similar to Vampire Sense?
She began moving closer, and I wasn’t certain what her intentions were, but before Dilorè did something dangerous, I grew my wings.
She halted, smiled and said, “Ah.”
Speaking of Dilorè, she had stealthed when the monsters first approached for some reason. Probably just a precaution of some sort.
“My apologies,” I stated. “I am not one of your kind. Am I trespassing here? If so, I apologize.”
With a smile that looked slightly disappointed, she shook her head. “This place is considered common ground. Our livestock are grazing nearby, so we came to check on the stranger who had arrived.”
“Livestock?”
“My sisters and I keep a flock of carp,” she explained, gesturing to the two women behind her. “Some ducks, as well.”
Carp move in flocks? I wondered to myself.
“Then I will get out so I don’t disturb them,” I answered with a smile and a quick bow of my head. I began wading away from her.
“Another question, neighbor!” she called out.
I stopped and looked back. “What is it?”
“I must know why you have come. If you are not of the water kind, what are you doing in our water?”
“I’m an adventurer, and my work brought me here.” I continued wading.
“Ah, it should be okay if you wish to stay!” she said, holding out her hand. As I glanced back, she waved in the other direction. “My nest isn’t far away. Perhaps you could stay for a drink?”
Socializing with monsters you don’t know, especially if you know little about their breed, is not a wise move. It can end up like my visit with Möemnen nearly ended. Or worse.
I shook my head. “I should not drink. I need to meet with the mortals once the sun is up.”
I continued to the shore and climbed up, dispensing with my wings in order to avoid tangling with tree limbs. The rusalka had followed me and now pulled herself up onto the knee of a huge tree root protruding out of the water. She perched there prettily, combing her hair with her fingers.
“The mortals are terribly busy these days, neighbor,” she cautioned me. “They say those nasty men who filled that other water have come to bring trouble here.”
“It’s true,” I confirmed. “I helped the mortals in that fight, yesterday.”
“Oh!” she clapped her hands together, suddenly delighted. “You are the fairborn who my cousin’s mortal told her about! The one who fought a fairy knight!”
“That’s me,” I smiled as I brushed my hair back, waiting for the water to finish running out of it. I should have kept it dry, but I had succumbed to the temptation to go under when I first got in.
She put her hand on her chest and stated, “I’m Piri.”
“Tia Mona,” I replied, nodding back. It wasn’t like I could curtsey.
Stand still and I will dry you, Your Highness, Dilorè told me, using [Secret Voice].
I stood straight, and warm air began blowing all over my body and warm fingers of wind combed out my hair. I don’t know how well the rusalki watching could see it, but the effect probably looked pretty unreal.
They could see enough. Piri asked, “That’s a wonderful magic! Could you teach me? What elements does it use?”
My eyes had already told me, so I could answer. “Wind and Fire”.
“Fire,” she echoed, drooping slightly. “That’s too bad.”
Yeah, rusalki were guaranteed to have Water as their main element. I doubt they had many who possessed Fire as a second affinity.
Once Dilorè finished, I retrieved the ribbon I had tied my hair with and re-did my ponytail.
You make such a terribly tempting sight, Dilorè teased, but I suppose you wouldn’t want me touching right now, in front of these ladies.
I shot a dark look her direction. In response, she pooched her lips and then stuck out her tongue.
My cousin had mostly behaved herself during this trip, but she did take liberties once in a while. I had ferried her here in my arms, the same way I had done with Sidis, except she had wrapped her arm over my shoulders, putting her face next to mine. She had taken advantage of the situation in order to steal kisses several times along the way.
While I pulled on the rest of my outfit and re-equipped my sword belt, my conversation with the rusalka continued.
“My mortal is fighting those dreadful people too,” Piri commented, a little sadly. She was still finger-combing her hair, and she had a slightly faraway look. “It’s terribly sad, to think he might not come back. I wonder why that is.”
“It’s natural to worry about your loved one, if he’s fighting in a war.”
She tipped her head and grew a slightly puzzled frown. “Loved one…? Could that be why it bothers me?”
I blinked at the odd response. “Isn’t it?”
She thought for a bit. “I’ve never thought of him that way. I mean, if he dies, the tribe will just assign a new one to me. We take care of them and we make sure not to hurt them, so that the mortals won’t become angry with us, but we’re not married to them. That’s why my feelings were confusing me”
“Do you get along with him?”
“Well… yes. He’s very gentle to me, and he’s nice to our daughter.”
I remembered Sidis chiding her father about not counting his rusalka mate as one of his wives. Perhaps both sides had been developing emotional bonds without admitting to them?
I stated, “Well, if you would be sad to lose him, then at the very least, he matters in some way to you, whether you call it love or not.”
She considered it a bit, then nodded. “Perhaps you’re right.”
But then she switched subjects. “Will you continue helping our mortals to win?”
“I may continue to lend a hand, where I can help.”
“So it’s not the reason you came here?”
“I’m an adventurer. I’m currently on a job.”
“Is that why you were searching our water?”
She had slipped it in smoothly, but this was probably a question she had been hoping to casually include in the conversation from the beginning.
“That’s right,” I admitted. “I’m working for the family of a woman who was captured by the enemy tribe.”
“She was captured by the enemy, but you think she’s here?”
“She has escaped, and the enemy thinks she’s here, so I was checking. But, I don’t know if my sense could really find her, in such a wide place with so much stray mana.”
She switched her hands around to begin combing the hair over her other shoulder as she contemplated my answer. Then she smiled. “Nobody can be here in this water without my grandfather knowing. Perhaps you can ask him.”
I was confused by the claim. “Your grandfather?”
She laughed lightly. “All of us of my generation are cousins. Our mothers are all sisters. Our grandfather is the vodyanoy who built this water. He rules the spirits of this place, so he knows about every person who passes in or out.”
“But why would he help me?”
She paused her combing and looked at me, puzzled.
“We are his daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters, and you helped our men fight. Why wouldn’t he help you?”
