§
While infantry squads worked their way through the city, supported by mages using demonic mana detecting tools, I went to check on the only people I knew in this town.
The ruin, a labyrinth of dilapidated mansions rebuilt into tenement houses, then later abandoned and rebuilt again by successive generations of squatters, was as difficult to navigate as before, but this time I grew my wings and entered it from above. I arrived where the mother and child were hiding quite quickly.
I had to control my nausea as I entered. The place stank of urine and s***. The people looked like living skeletons. I wanted to avoid being mobbed by those between me and the two I came for, so I remained cloaked until I had crossed the room to reach them.
Ana was more starved and haggard than the others. Worried as I saw her from closer up, I used [Healing] on her lightly to check her health, then cast a quick [Restoration] spell on her once I determined she was just malnourished. I dismissed my cloak in the process.
“My Lady?” she asked, looking a little frightened as she revived to notice me suddenly appear over her. “How… Why have you come here?”
The others around us began to react as well. They didn’t have the energy to confront me, but they were showing their shock and beginning to draw away.
I stood up straight and looked around the room, then addressed them all. “I am Tiana of the High Forest, a knight serving His Majesty, Owen the Second of Orestania. This city is now a possession of my king, and you are all from now on his subjects.”
The few weak whispers to each other were a little disheartening to me. Somebody had truly crushed the spirits of these people, in addition to sapping their strength.
“Are we… Can we leave?” one gaunt man rasped at last.
I paused, then said. “Once it is safe out there, you can leave. The army is still combing the city for demons. They will come to bring you out when it’s safe.”
“Demons,” I heard someone mutter, and another say, “I knew it.”
Then I told Ana, “Pick up your child. I’m going to bring you out.”
She nodded and gathered the child into her arms, then I scooped her up. Her eyes grew wide but she didn’t protest.
“Where are you taking her?” the same guy demanded, finally showing some strength. He struggled to get to his feet.
“The army will need witnesses to interview,” I answered, making up a reason on the spot. “I know this woman, so I can vouch for her.”
I had put some steel into my reply, putting on my intimidating fairy knight act, and the gaunt man lost his resolve.
It was a fib, of course. I just wanted to get the little kid out of that filthy place as soon as possible.
§
I stayed beside Ana while Aurie sat in her lap, quietly slurping little spoonfuls of soup and listening to an Army Intelligence officer interview her mother. It had occurred to me after we exited that my fib was actually a pretty good idea, so I had tracked him down. Fun, irrelevant fact: I learned in the process of introducing them that Aurie’s proper name was Aurora. It was just too much of a mouthful for a kid her age.
“It started about five weeks ago,” Ana explained quietly. “The city watch began taking people away. It was just the homeless and beggars at first. The watchmen claimed it was the orders of the lord, but there wasn’t any proclamation.”
The aide seated beside the officer dutifully scratched away on his writing case, recording her words. Once the officer saw that he had caught up, he asked Ana, “Do you remember any other changes in the city at that time?”
“They said there was a new fairy knight working for the lord, and she was directing a clean-up of the city. That was why they were rounding up the poor people.”
The intelligence officer nodded as if that confirmed something to him, then asked, “Was she the only change in personnel serving the lord?”
She shook her head. “No. The adventurers at the tavern talked about how there were too many new faces among the watchmen. And the watchmen who used to visit our tavern didn’t show up any more. But then the mines closed and the adventurers all left town, and we had to close the tavern.”
“When was that?”
“They closed the mines four weeks ago. Master closed the tavern about a week later.”
The intelligence officer’s eyebrows rose. “Why so soon? Surely there were still people wanting your business after only a week?”
She pressed her lips, then quietly said, “Master said it was too dangerous to stay open.”
“Dangerous how?” he prompted.
“The watchmen came and closed the tavern owned by his brother, and took everyone in it away. Master’s brother never came back.”
“Did you ever hear a reason for it?”
She shook her head. “People near the place saw everyone being marched away, so it really happened but there was no news. Master decided he didn’t want the same thing to happen at our place, so he shut down.”
Her story continued. Other places where people gathered together were raided. People began hiding in their homes, afraid to go out. She had done so as well, until the watch caught her and Aurie and took them to the place where I had found them.
The ruin had become a sort of concentration camp. The inmates received only water and one biscuit for each adult per day. The children only received whatever an adult would share from their own rations with them.
“Nobody would ever tell us why we were there,” she finished.
The intelligence officer shook his head. “How long ago were you imprisoned there?”
“It was two weeks ago.”
He jerked slightly in surprise. Then he looked over at me and commented, “The state that you describe these prisoners in… Even at such minimal rations, it doesn’t make sense for them to be that badly debilitated in such a short time.”
I had a strong suspicion concerning the answer. “Someone must have been using demonic magic on the prisoners, Lieutenant. They were draining pneuma and mana from them.”
He probably wouldn’t know enough science concerning vampiric feeding and blood magic, so saying ‘draining pneuma and magic’ would tell him more than saying ‘draining blood’. Especially since such magic only took the bound pneuma and mana, the living blood, and leaving behind only serum and dead blood cells. It would be just as debilitating as normal blood loss, if not worse.
He asked me, “Did you see that magic in action, My Lady?”
Shaking my head, I explained, “No, but such a magic would only operate when the caster was present to receive what it stole. There should be traces of the formation, though. The mages should look for evidence of a demonic array covering the prison area. Make sure they bring healers when they go in to bring the prisoners out as well. Some of the victims may be too weak to walk out of there.”
I had an ugly feeling in my stomach as I realized who would be the most likely creator of such an array, since the blood that she stole from them now resided in my core. Unfortunately, I knew of no way to return it to its rightful owners.
When the Intelligence officer was done with her, I escorted Ana and her daughter back to the tavern. We could not find her master, but the tavern had sufficient remaining goods to open for soldiers on R&R. She decided that she would do so in a day or two, even if the master didn’t reappear. If she worked hard enough, she could keep the place open until he returned.
Neither of us mentioned what we both knew, that she might end up the proprietress of the place, if her master never returned. Assuming she could somehow stay open without him, that is. The way the world had turned upside down for the locals, stories like hers would be repeating themselves throughout this remote city. I wished her the best of luck and left, worried but unable to think of anything else I could do for her. After all, the future might be difficult for a young female tavern keeper in a town whose public order had yet to be restored.
§
In the evening, Pasrue moved Manlon’s launch to the lawn of the Baronial palace, while I helped the mages go through the building, searching for booby traps and other dangers. The palace staff could not be found, so the soldiers of Ged’s headquarters unit did the work of turning it into a place fit for a princess to spend the night. I can’t say they did a princess-worthy job, but Amelia didn’t complain. She had seen a lot worse in the past few months, after all.
Aenëe appeared in time for dinner, looking quite tired but carrying little Lord Miron in her arms. She had spent the last four hours on a round trip to Thuriben and back, to relieve Nandi of her babysitting duties. The proud fairy knight supervised as the little boy introduced himself to Ged and Amelia with a clumsy but earnest bow and the sing-song tone of a young child reciting from a memorized script.
“Lord Miron, Baron Carael, greets His Highness and Her Highness.”
Until that moment, I had no idea the proper name of the barony was ‘Carael’. You miss all kinds of details when you’ve been hopping around the country as fast as I had been doing.
His guardian beamed down at him like a proud mother. Well, for all intents and purposes, she was his mother, now. Amelia did her best not to squee, favoring him instead with a smile not that much different than Aenëe’s.
Ged nodded gravely and replied, “Lord Carael, the crown recognizes the assistance you have provided us through your knight and deeply appreciates it. We are your guests, so please raise your head and be at ease.”
The boy’s eyes glanced up uncertainly to the fairy knight next to him. She told him in a stage whisper, “That means you can stand up now.”
It looked to me like she was going to do alright as a foster mother. Most fairies wouldn’t, but as a fairborn, she was likely to have been raised by humans, with her real mother behaving more like an aunt who visited from time to time. Her foster parents must have been good role models.
Army cooks managed to put together a meal from the remaining stores in the mansion kitchens so that the two could play host to the royals as the new masters. During dinner, I told Aenëe about Ana and asked her to keep an eye on her place as a favor to me. When I identified it as the establishment where cat-kin and dwarves were the main patrons, she knew which tavern I meant. As I had thought before, it was a pretty unique place.
All the main actors were present at dinner, so plans could be discussed and pretty well set in stone for the next day. As I headed to Atius, Pasrue would carry Ged to Thuriben and Amelia to Bray, along with their respective retinues. Ged chose the place where he already had a large team of known allies for his temporary capital over the safer option that Rod had suggested, Dara. His retinue was his knights and most of the people he had brought with him from school. Amelia’s retinue was basically Allia’s Company.
After dinner, I was considering flying right away rather than waiting, but a certain pair latched onto me before I could.
