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A nervous aide led me through the hotel repurposed into an army command center while I drew worried looks from all around.
Our destination turned out to be a ballroom repurposed into an open command room with a large wall map and map table on one side, and a sea of tables and desks. A group of army personnel had gathered in the map area, where some sort of dispute was ongoing, while other staffers not involved were standing up at their work areas trying to see what was happening.
As a woman in a Royal Army captain’s uniform noticed us and split away from the group and hurried over in order to receive me, I realized that she was someone I had met before. As she arrived, she returned the aide’s salute, then curtseyed to me and greeted me with, “The Royal Army greets you, Fair Knight. How may we be of assistance?”
I smiled and said, “Hello, Miss Nandi.”
The silver-haired college student blinked in surprise at my greeting, then recognition dawned in her eyes.
“Lady Tiana?” she stammered, momentarily shocked. She regained her composure as quickly as she lost it, though.
I smiled and nodded, while noticing that the dispute in the map area had died down. It turned out to be because all eyes over there were on us.
With her voice back in order, Nandi noted, “Your armor…”
“You never had a chance to see it at school,” I nodded. “I’m a member of the Royal Knights, as you’ve heard, but I am also a fairy knight in direct service to His Majesty.”
“Even though you’re a… no, you told us that you’re also a fairborn, didn’t you?”
“That’s correct. And my fairy knighthood is recognized by the Fairy King himself.”
She glanced down at my outfit, and her brows arched. “Even so, it’s amazing you can wear that.”
The army aide, who was still waiting to be dismissed, gasped and Nandi immediately paled and looked wary, realizing what she had just done.
Normally, it would dangerous for a mortal to speak ill of a fairy knight’s armor. But I wasn’t showing any anger, so she just gave me a professional smile and quickly changed the subject.
“I’ve married a nobleman, so I have a surname now, My Lady. I am now Lady Nandi Branimoor.”
“Branimoor…” I echoed, then identified where I knew it from. “You must have married that swordsman from the Demon Patrol, My Lady.”
The ‘Demon Patrol’ had properly been the First Squad of the Student Guard, an organization of which I had been a member for all of one day.
She nodded. “Gabe’s proper name is Lord Gabus, fifth son of Lord Mathin Baron Branimoor.”
“You called him a house knight before…” I recalled.
“He’s the fifth son of a baron,” she enunciated with a smile.
“Right,” I nodded with a smile. “I stand corrected.”
That would indeed be a perfectly normal job prospect for such a low-ranking scion.
“Things have changed considerably in five weeks,” I observed, my eyes on the captain’s bars on her lapel. “You’ve advanced all the way to Captain.”
A student of the Royal Academy is a cadet, after all. When serving in the military, they normally receive the same rank of Yeoman that I received while I was a squire, the Orestanian equivalent of a Warrant Officer. A few standouts should receive commissions at the rank of Second Lieutenant. If Nandi were one of those, she had since received two promotions.
In five weeks time. In the peacetime army, it would take three to five years to reach captain’s rank.
She smiled, looking a little embarrassed. “A lot happened after you left the school, My Lady. When everything came apart at school, His Highness drafted the First Squad to lead the loyalist faction. During the trip north to report for duty, we became his leadership corps, and it somehow turned out like this.”
“You got married along the way?” I wondered.
She nodded, her smile becoming warm. “When we arrived in Bray Seaport. Gabe believes that going to war while engaged is bad luck, so…”
That belief reminded me of the ‘death flag’ of talking about getting married after the war was over. I wondered if such a superstition had anything to do with that cliché.
How long had it been since the last time I noticed when a cliché popped up?
“Congratulations,” I told her, trying to sound as sincere as possible. I was never good at that sort of thing, so I hoped it came across well.
She beamed. “Thank you.”
Holding up my orders, I stated, “My mission is in Cara Ita. I am here to report my plans to His Highness Prince Gerald.”
Her eyebrows went up, then she held out her hand. “May I see them?”
I hesitated, then handed them over. “I’ll need them back. They’re addressed to His Highness.”
She nodded affirmation as she opened the flap on the envelope and took it out. At that moment, the aide next to me cleared her throat.
“Ah…” she smiled as she realized the girl had been waiting to be told whether she could leave. She nodded to her. “Thank you, Private. Dismissed.”
She looked the papers over as the girl hurried out of the room. After reading, she pushed them back into the envelope and handed them back.
“I think you need to be part of our discussion, My Lady,” she stated, her head tipping briefly over her shoulder toward the group watching us from the map area. “Would you join us?
I agreed and followed. As we walked across the room, I noted, “On the way here, I heard someone mention that Prince Gerald is not present?”
“That’s correct, My Lady. He headed to the front to deal with the situation there.”
“The ‘situation’?” I asked.
“A fairy knight has appeared on the other side,” she stated. I noticed a slightly anxious tone in her voice.
I blinked. The fairy knight I had been sent to deal with was Aenëe, who I had just noticed was seated, garbed in her armor, in one of the chairs lined up along the wall. In the chair next to her, a lad around five years old sat with his arms around his legs and his chin on his knees.
So there was another fairy knight, in addition to her?
“His Highness is smart enough not to face her directly,” I noted.
“I pray that you’re right, My Lady,” she answered, letting her worry honestly show in her voice. “My husband is with him. Actually, the whole Demon Patrol is, except me.”
I remembered that Nandi was a very capable battle mage and became curious why she had been left behind. I didn’t get a chance to ask before we arrived, but I had a theory and concentrated my recently-strengthened fairy sense on the silver-haired captain.
Yup, I thought to myself, smiling as I confirmed it.
“My Lady has arrived here from Atius on His Majesty’s orders,” she reported to the highest ranking officer in the crowd, a colonel.
I bowed and identified myself to him. “I am Tiana of the High Forest, a knight of Faerie in service to His Majesty, King Owen, and a royal knight of Orestania. My orders are addressed to His Highness, Prince Gerald.”
“Colonel Vincridge, Royal Army, My Lady,” he identified himself gruffly, saluting me.
I gave him my counter salute. With that taken care of, he cleared his throat and asked, “Might I see the orders?”
I stepped closer and held the envelope out to him.
One of the younger officers, a young lady, whispered to the young man beside her, “Isn’t that…”
“Yeah, I think it’s her,” he confirmed, just as quietly. They probably thought I couldn’t hear them.
I avoided looking in their direction, but when I had looked over the group while approaching, the two had been young enough to be college students. In other words, they were probably Advanced School students who had arrived with Ged. Which meant they probably saw that mess with Duke Parna.
The colonel finished looking over the papers and slipped them back into the envelope. “Very well. My Lady, before you leave to where His Highness is, perhaps you can help us solve a predicament.”
I frowned as I accepted the envelope back from him. All these detours were getting annoying. “What is this predicament, Colonel?”
“The predicament would be me,” I heard Aënee call. Either her hearing was as good as mine, or she had been eavesdropping by way of magic.
She stood and asked, “May I join your discussion now, Colonel?”
He sighed and nodded. “Of course, My Lady. We’re sorry to have kept you waiting.”
Reached down, she told the little boy, “Come along, My Lord.”
The child obediently slipped off the chair and took her hand.
“Ëi onar lâ, Fele Aenëe,” I greeted her as they approached. She brushed purple hair back over her shoulders, then nodded in acknowledgement.
“Ëi onar lâ,” she replied. Then she apologized, her crystal blue eyes darkening slightly. “Ci Surëo, Fele Tiana, I could not complete the task you entrusted to me.”
“You had to prioritize the safety of the young baron,” I noted. “Protecting your lord requires no apology.”
The look in her eyes mixed dissatisfaction with gratitude for my understanding. I suspected the former was because she didn’t want to be let off the hook. That was her fairy pride speaking.
The little boy was looking back and forth between the two of us with wide eyes. I had to suppress a smile to maintain my image.
“So how do you constitute a predicament, My Lady?” I asked her.
Her brow wrinkled up. “They are simply being stubborn. All I’m asking is their agreement for me to protect their prince and an assistant to help care for My Lord as I do it!”
The colonel scowled as he supplied, “Whom you intend to bring along, My Lady. Bringing a child and a nanny to the battlefront is out of the question.”
“I must ensure My Lord’s protection!”
I tried to intervene in what was clearly an ongoing argument. “I am sure His Highness is protected by a large number of combat mages, My Lady. And I doubt he’s calling attention to himself. Prince Gerald is an intelligent man. He knows better than to go up against a fairy knight.”
“She’s no fairy knight, but they won’t believe me when I tell them!” she countered, becoming huffy. “She is the same demoness who drove My Lord and I away!”
Colonel Vincridge shook his head. “My Lady, the mages all agree that the enemy in question is no demon. According to every mage observer, she shows no signs of demonic mana, and visually she is clearly a fairy knight. And she identifies herself as such, as well.”
Aenëe lifted her chin and demanded, “Then what name does she give?”
“You’re asking this again?”
“Has she ever stopped and presented her name to anyone on your side?”
“She has launched multiple devastating attacks against the front lines, My Lady,” he answered. “We have had to fall back in several places already.”
Aenëe repeated her words, stressing them slightly more. “Has she stopped and identified herself?”
“There’s no report of that…”
The fairy knight turned her eyes toward me, looking triumphant.
I scratched my cheek. Then I told him, “Colonel, you should take My Lady’s concern more seriously.”
He looked at me with his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”
“Our etiquette is quite rigid,” I explained. “Unless the opponent is without honor, such as a demon, a beast or a bandit, or unless the opponent is already her acquaintance, she must identify herself when she first shows up in the field, before fighting. Any opponent who is not in the midst of a dishonorable act is an honorable opponent, so she would not treat your soldiers as bandits. It would sully her honor.”
He frowned as he chewed over my words. After giving him a moment to think, I added, “I’ll ask My Lady’s question again. What name does she give? If the answer is none, then that’s no fairy knight. Probably not a fairy at all, since a fairy pretending to be a knight would certainly know to give the opponent a name.”
A man beside the Colonel objected, “But she’s a ridiculously powerful warrior, and a powerful tamer, too. She’s controlling many more monsters than any mortal mage can.”
“A tamer?” I asked, my ears pricking up.
“High-rank monsters are now appearing and wreaking havoc on the front lines,” the Colonel explained. “They seem to be under her command.”
I nodded. “Then that’s her. The asura that I came up here to deal with is an extraordinary monster handler.”
