.
The first ten paces or so of entry did feel like entering a natural cave, but I could find nothing natural in my fairy senses about this cave. It felt like she had used alchemy to recreate the natural magic hardening and strengthening that Giant Moles and other burrowing monsters employ to make their impractically large burrows feasible.
Or, come to think of it, perhaps the Queen had tamed a mole or two to do it for her.
Why do I assume it was her? Fairies don’t tend to trust others to make their dwellings. This was my step-grandmother’s work, for sure.
The cave wasn’t a simple straight shot into the ground. It rose a bit for the first three paces, plateaued in a slightly larger chamber with spots to sit and little alcoves in the wall bearing potted luminescent magic plants– I suppose it was a receiving room– then began descending in a ramp only barely shallow enough not to require steps. All along the way, luminescent mosses clung to the walls and ceiling, much like in any cavern near a source of excess mana.
The surroundings began changing away from the natural motif after those first ten paces. But unlike the Fairy King, who had also cut his castle of the living rock but left shapes inside in the form of buildings, his wife’s abode lacked an architectural shape. Instead, it wore the appearance of a dense forest. It might as well have been the grove outside. If I could not sense the solid rock beyond the trees surrounding us and their limbs arching over us, I would have thought we had exited from the underground.
We arrived at a clearing with a slab of stone in the middle, propped up by two others, like a dolmen, but only waist high. Several more fairy and half-fairy women were waiting there. The bearers lowered the stretcher and unbound Diurhimath– he had been strapped to the frame in order to protect his spine– then the full fairy leading them waved a fan similar to my own, levitating him up and onto the table.
Diur spoke at last, once he was safely settled. His eyes remained closed and he didn’t turn his head, but his voice was clear.
“I detect an old friend hiding nearby. Perhaps she thinks she has grown big enough to hide from me now?”
“It has been a very long time, old friend,” I heard a familiar voice answer in a lightly laughing tone. But it wasn’t the Fairy Queen’s voice.
I looked in shock in that direction, neither seeing nor sensing the woman I had heard, but I was certain of who she was. Since I was in the Fairy Queen’s palace, and I was in my armor, I decided to go full formal protocol. I gave a deep bow in the direction I had identified.
“Dôlirmi í sëanílu, Didinnedo (May you have pleasant things, Esteemed Mother.)”
“Ëi onar lâ, Tiana. I’m relieved to see you well,” she replied. “Forgive me for using stealth. I had Esteemed Stepmother’s permission to do this, as we knew the two Old Grove girls were coming, and we did not want to scare them away.”
Worried, I looked over at Feraen and Lilhàn, who did indeed look nervous.
Mother’s voice continued, “Please accept my assurances, My Ladies. The ‘sworn enemy’ title your clan gives me is unilateral on your part. I have never felt anything but strict neutrality toward the Old Grove, even despite you targeting my daughter of late. And I am continuing that position as my daughter has shown she can defend herself without my help.”
It didn’t look like they relaxed much. Mother’s familiar chuckle came out of thin air again, and then she faded into existence like a reverse cheshire cat. She was only lightly aging herself, looking like a human of about twenty one, the same age Amana usually chooses, and her raiment was pure seduction nightwear, as usual. Now three months pregnant, she was proudly baring that part of her anatomy to show it.
“Really, children, I’m a woman of my word,” she added. “Relax.”
Feraen recovered, and bowed. “Of course, Your Highness.”
Lilhàn quickly followed suit. “The Old Grove greets you, Your Highness.”
“Mm,” she nodded. “Tamodero (Greetings), good knights. Please be at ease.” She glanced past them and stated. “Their claim of peaceful intentions appears to be sincere, Esteemed Stepmother.”
The Fairy Queen faded into existence in the same manner my mother had done, appearing between two trees at the edge of the clearing. Her faux cobweb raiment challenged Mother’s for greatest sexual firepower.
“I’m relieved to see it. However, Fele Feraen, Fele Lilhàn, you must give the same parole to my husband and I as you have given the Orestanians. Your clan has been in open rebellion, after all.”
The two had turned toward the Queen as she spoke. Lilhàn appeared ready to protest, but Feraen grabbed her arm, then bowed again.
“Of course, Your Majesty. I give you my parole. Until I have returned to the seat of my service in Parna so that my lord can clarify the nature of his allies, I shall take no offensive action toward you and your kin, nor toward anyone in your service, nor toward anyone under your protection.”
Lilhàn seemed to hesitate a moment or two more, but gave in and repeated the same vow.
I understood her reluctance. Giving parole to the Faerie crown was as good as accepting that she was not one of those people under their protection herself. But that was the nature of fairy knight service, after all. While carrying one’s sword, one belonged not to Faerie but to the lord one is contracted to. I, too, was not part of Faerie when I represented Uncle Owen.
Despite their having given parole, the tension did not drop just yet. The Fairy Queen spoke again.
“I hesitate to say this, but we have concerns about the nature of your weapon, Fele Feraen. I shall have to ask you to give it up. Fele Lilhàn, I have a similar concern about two particular treasures on your person.”
Lilhàn sighed and nodded. “I suspected as much. Are they equally accursed?”
“You can truly not tell, then?” the Queen asked. “That is the report that we received.”
The two glanced at each other, then Feraen stated, “We don’t understand it at all. I have never been blind to demonic mana in the past. But we saw with our own eyes the demons whom we could not identify until their disguises were removed, in whom we could not see any demonic mana, and with whom other fairies suffered no difficulty detecting.”
At some unseen signal, a pair of identical twin half-fairies came forward with velvet-cushioned trays. Unlike their raiment-wearing seniors, they were barely clad, wearing only silk pareos around their hips, revealing that they, like me, were too young to make raiments. They knelt in front of the two Old Grove fairies, setting the trays on the moss-covered ground in front of them. Both then sat on their heels and bowed deeply, remaining in that position.
“My daughters will take care of those items, good knights,” the Queen stated. “Please leave them sheathed and lay them on the trays.”
Feraen frowned, then took off her sword harness so she could detach the scabbard. She fretted, “I wish now that I had not left my normal sword in Berado.”
“Before you leave, I shall provide you with a blade in return for this one, Fele Feraen. And suitable treasures to replace your items, Fele Lilhàn. I cannot countenance allowing you to continue possessing such foul items.”
Lilhàn had already laid a sheathed dagger on the tray in front of her, and had just removed a cloth bag that was about the right shape for a large hairpin from her belt-wallet. She asked the Queen, “Your Majesty, have I chosen the correct items?”
The Queen nodded. “You have, child. Are there any other items on your person about which you have suspicion?”
“No, Your Majesty. The commander gave me only these,” she answered as she laid the bag on the tray. Feraen also knelt and laid her sword on the tray that had been placed in front of her.
They both stood back up. The juvenile half-fairies picked up their trays– the one receiving the sword had to slip her hands underneath, because the weapon hung off both ends– and stood, then turned and bowed to the Queen.
“Bring them to the hazardous items storage and have Melin log them in,” she directed. “No one is to touch them until I have assessed them personally.”
They both bowed again and left with a word.
“Your Majesty, may I request something selfish?” Feraen asked.
The Queen tipped her head and an unreadable smile appeared on her lips. “Go ahead?”
“I have heard that my grandparents are imprisoned here. Would I be allowed to see them?”
“After I have completed my examination of you, I shall make a decision on that. You seem to be afflicted with the same ailment as them, but I would like to confirm this before you meet them again.”
“Must they remain imprisoned, Your Majesty? Uncle is raging to go to war against the crown in Grandfather’s name, now. We are in a very dangerous situation.”
“That is not mine but my husband’s decision, child. And the key to defusing the situation and perhaps freeing them may depend upon solving the strange blindness you are suffering. You do understand the obvious implications of that blindness, and what it probably means, considering the recent behavior of your clan, do you not?”
I was beginning to feel sorry for the once-proud Feraen. It looked like she was not far from tears. She hung her head.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I have realized it, or I would not be here.”
“You are parolees, not prisoners, but I should like you to accept my hospitality. Please rest assured, this is not house arrest. You will be allowed to go out. I only wish for you to reside here until I can determine the cause of your odd symptoms. My daughters will escort you to your rooms.”
A different pair stepped forward, this time full fairies. I was beginning to wonder, were all the fairies working in this place the Fairy Queen’s daughters? It’s a rare fairy who has a child more often than once every four or five hundred years, and yes, Mother is a rare fairy. But she kept referring to the dozen or so women whom I didn’t know in this room as ‘daughters’.
The two knights followed their escorts out of the room. Dilorè went with them after bowing to the Queen. Nothing had been said to her out loud, but perhaps Her Majesty had requested it using some form of [Hidden Voice].
The Fairy Queen finally moved, entering the clearing at last. She advanced directly to the table, inspecting Diur without touching him.
“I assume the bandages were strictly ornamental,” she commented.
“The mortals would have been too distressed by my appearance,” Diur replied. “It has been a long time, Morrígan.”
“More than four thousand years. I was sure you had finally gotten yourself killed,” she commented as Diur levitated about six inches off the table. The bandages began unwinding. I couldn’t tell who was doing the magic, but that probably meant it was the Fairy Queen.
All the bandages covering his horrific wounds, and all his clothing except a breechcloth-like undergarment, were soon removed. I had been operating in Tiana FBM while dealing with him before. Without it, the nearly nude man was a bit too much for the normal Tiana side of me, and I had to look away. I ended up looking toward Mother.
She smiled and wordlessly beckoned for me to come over. I did, and suddenly found myself in a tight hug.
My brain went offline for a moment. Then, I understood that she’d been worried sick about me. Although I had seen her not that long ago, that had been a recorded message. This was the first time Mother was seeing me since talking to me in Copen, before things went crazy.
Until this moment, she’d maintained her dignity as a princess, but with the other knights out of the room, and everyone else concentrating on the patient behind me, she could finally be a mother.
“I’m fine, Mother,” I assured her and hugged her back.
