§
Aunt Elianora’s unusually young look was due to an undercover assignment. Apparently, she regularly drops her forty-something facade, using her natural appearance as a disguise, as backwards as that sounds.
She arrived as part of the emergency response to the devastation from the raid in the role of a Royal Army nurse. Physicians and nurses don’t have the same set of job skills, but it seems she often adopts the identity of fresh recruit ‘Nurse Ellie’, and she had fully-trained in nursing in order to do the job.
To avoid causing the lookouts any headaches, we both used [Vampire Cloak] to quickly return to the camp, touching down in an area still in shambles from the attack. She couldn’t see me. I saw her looking around several times, before continuing on to where she was leading me while trusting that I was following.
She cast [Silent Shadows], a simple Dark magic concealment spell similar to [Realm of Silence], except with visual obscurement as a bonus, then dropped her cloak. Her eyes widened slightly as I also dropped mine, appearing in front of her.
While shaking her head, she said, “It really beggars belief, My Lady. You should simply not be able to have a cloak strong enough that I can’t see through it, at your age.You’re still fifteen, right?”
I nodded. “That’s right.”
She sighed, her mouth turning into a twisted line as she stared at me, lost for words.
Although I had a lot to do, I decided I needed to explain better. “Look… Uncle Owen and Uncle Matthias have already learned about this, so you should too, I think.”
With that preamble, I gave her as brief a rundown as I could of my previous life and death, the immortals and my origin, descending from their world, and the fact that I had replaced the Tiana she knew.
“I know it’s difficult to hear about her,” I concluded. “It’s very confusing for me, to be frank.”
“You’re not Tiana, but rather, her great-grandmother…” Elianora summarized.
“It was Oranos– the immortal who’s considered a god around here– who decided to bring me back and put me in this body,” I stated. “I’m very junior to the immortals, pretty much just a pawn, so I had no choice in the matter.”
“They could resurrect her body, but not bring back her soul?” she asked, clearly troubled by that.
I hesitated, then stated, “It seems that rules required that she move on to a different role. I don’t know where she went.”
“Hm,” she scowled. “I suspect you’ve been lied to by these so-called immortals. The claim that she couldn’t be brought back is too convenient a coincidence.”
I hesitated again, then gave a wry smile. “I… sort of suspect the same thing.”
Her mouth twisted, but she didn’t say more.
Deciding to move on, I noted, “I hope that you can continue your relationship with Tiana through me. In a sense, through the memories I inherited from her, I am still your niece, Aunt Elianora.”
“That’s… difficult,” she admitted. “I will have to think about it. I still don’t fully understand some things. It is difficult for a scientifically educated person to accept a vampire and a fairy happening to perfectly reproduce an ancient race. There are some serious biological issues with that claim, My Lady.”
“I’m… no longer crediting it to chance. I’m certain that Oranos had a hand in guiding the results.”
She raised an eyebrow. “If so, why not just directly reproduce the original creation of the race? Didn’t they create the Elders in the first place?”
“That…” I frowned, wondering how to explain the many harmonic levels of the Immortal Realms and the great difference between the immortals of each level. The difference from one to the next was as great as the difference from the Mortal Realm to the very lowest Immortal Realm from which I came.
After thinking a bit, I tried to simplify it. “Purposeful creation of species is a skill far above the level of ordinary Immortals. The gods whom we know needed the help of beings as far above them as they are above us, when they created the Elder race. Getting that help again would be difficult. The fact that they haven’t done it implies they are unable to obtain that help a second time.”
She twisted her mouth. “Just speaking of gods is hard to hear. When you have a concept of just how vast the universe is, the idea of these gods who guide and create it…”
To the astronomers of Huade, the ‘galaxy’ and the ‘universe’ were essentially the same thing. The one simply described the whirlpool of stars in the middle of the other. I kept to myself the irony that, with her understanding of the size of the universe limited to one galaxy, she actually had no idea just how vast Huade’s universe is. The scale in reality was immensely greater than what she was imagining.
She had just stopped her sentence without finishing and shook her head. I took that opportunity to answer.
“Oranos and his group only oversee this one stellar system. One star and its planets. They’re here because there is intelligent life here which they need to protect. If this stellar system had no intelligent life, only an occasional patrolling immortal would drop by on their rounds every few million years to check for changes. But there’s a whole universe of systems like ours out there, with other worlds and other guides, and that is just this one universe. There are hundreds of billions of universes out there, and they only compose the Mortal Realm. On the other side of the Spiritual Realm lie the Immortal Realms, with each level far vaster than any mortal universe. Each one is a higher existence than the previous. Somewhere far above us, in some place unimaginable even to gods like Oranos, are beings great enough to take all of it in, but it isn’t relevant to what I’m talking about, because the immortals I work for only deal with this one planet.”
Scientific Elianora pursed her lips, growing a faint smile. “You could almost start me believing in gods, My Lady.”
With the intellectual wall forming, I didn’t see any point in preaching to her. As long as she understood who I was, it would be good enough.
I switched subjects, asking her about what she had observed so far. She verified that the rebels did try to take advantage of the situation, both through a second raid the following day and stealthier intrusions. All attempts, both overt and covert, had ended in failure. The surviving loyalist command staff was in control. Neither she nor anyone else could guarantee that spies weren’t present, but at least the leadership could be trusted.
“This is good information,” I said. “I can’t worry about individual spies, anyway. What’s important is that the place is secure enough for Rod’s arrival. I should get back to report…”
“Absolutely not,” Aunt Elianora retorted.
Her sudden strict tone caught me off-guard. “What?”
“No matter how ancient you are, you’re still a young knight making young knight mistakes, I guess,” she grumbled. “Why are you going to just trust my word?”
I blinked. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I know of several cases of my fellow Royal Knights being compromised by the enemy. The knight who helped capture Princess Amelia is only one example. Our foe is devious and using all manner of extortion to undermine us.”
Our roles had suddenly switched back to teacher and student, even though she had never particularly taught me about my job with the Royal Knights before.
“But I don’t believe they could do anything to you…” I protested.
“No matter how much you trust me, if you go back now, you base the prince’s safety on a dangerous assumption. If you take time to verify what I’ve told you, you go back with the independent reports of two different knights. Which one is better, My Lady?”
Of course, she was right. A short time later, I bid goodbye to her, then ascended into the sky and began my inspection again.
After expanding my mind to the fullest that my spiritual vessel could manage, I cast out a net of spiritual sense. I wanted a different perspective than the view [Blood Mist] had shown Elianora.
The thing that struck me the fastest and hardest was the morgue. Dozens of tents housed crude body bags sewn from tent canvas, each holding a dead soldier. The numbers weren’t in the hundreds… I ended up with an estimate of two thousand dead waiting for burial. Hundreds were already buried.
My thoughts now in a much more solemn place, I continued on, taking in the high number of craters from magic blasts, the many shattered and broken pieces of war engines like arbalests and magic bolt batteries littering the grounds, the several field hospitals…
And I found the blasted remains of the headquarters I had found Owen in, only five days ago.
I spent several hours going through every square inch of the camp. I did not find any evidence of demons, which was my number one concern. But I withdrew my spiritual sense, then spilled forth condensed blood from my core as mist to make doubly sure.
Of course, this time Aunt Elianora did not react, although I’m sure she felt it.
I still saw the same thing as what Elianora reported. I was able to return home and endorse the plan that we had made at dinner.
§
As planned, Dilorè and two knights departed in the morning for Langram, to prepare for Rod’s arrival. We loaded both the ducal livery coach and the estate’s unmarked second coach with Rod’s retinue and followed them, timed to arrive a couple hours later.
I had my armor in a bag under the seat, just in case, but Rod had requested that I go as ducal daughter rather than fairy knight. Having Pendor showing support for him would reassure the troops. Therefore, I wore a visiting dress (one of Mother’s designs, but relatively tame) and a tiara that I did not know that I owned.
Benedetta insisted I wear it, explaining, “Her Grace commissioned it for your debut, but you’ve never had the opportunity to make one.”
Apparently, I also would have worn it for my betrothal, and missed that chance as well. Benedetta wasn’t going to let this event, my first official public appearance as the First Daughter, also pass without it.
Rod and I shared the Pendor Estate main carriage, Mother’s fancy ride, decorated with full ducal livery, with Matthias and the archmage from Relador. They became absorbed in a debate which they were inexplicably conducting in Dwarvish, leaving Rod and I as conversation partners. But we did not really start conversing for most of the journey. I was itching to have a long discussion with my fiancé on several topics, but not in the presence of these two old men.
I could sense the squad of fairy warriors that Oberon had sent to Rod flying cover. I wanted to be up there too.
“I feel like a sitting duck like this,” I grumbled while watching the landscape go by. We were traveling at a pretty good speed, since the driver had harnessed a full six-horse team.
“I haven’t complained about you carrying your sword,” Rod countered. “That armor you wear doesn’t give any protection, so how can you feel vulnerable without it?’
“That’s not what I meant, Your Highness,” I explained. “I would rather be up in the air, where I can see the threat coming.”
“Your grandfather sent the fairy guards currently over our heads to do that job, Ti,” Rod stated, switching suddenly from his usual amiable tone to something almost stern. I turned to look at him in surprise at the sudden change.
He didn’t say anything further. He just looked at me with his brow bunched up slightly, like something was bothering him.
“Did I say something wrong?” I wondered.
After heaving a sigh, he answered, “Ti, learn to delegate. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what he was talking about, so I just tilted my head slightly to communicate that fact.
He explained, “I’ve heard how you were constantly working throughout your time in Cara Ita, hardly even stopping to rest. And I know you did the same thing in the Tabad while you were there to find Amelia. Ti, it is true that many things you do are things that only you can do, and we are profoundly grateful for them, but… save yourself for when you’re really the only option. When it doesn’t have to be you, it’s okay to leave it to others. You’re a princess, for heaven’s sake. You’re supposed to let other people do the work.”
“… says the prince who charged straight to the front line,” I mused.
His expression clouded. “This is a case of something only I can do. A Royal has to come here, to stabilize the situation and re-establish morale. That meant either me or Ged, and I couldn’t let Ged do it.”
“What about everything else you’ve been doing?” I asked. “You look like you haven’t slept properly in weeks. You’ve been taking on too much also, right?”
He stared back at me for several seconds, then twisted his mouth. “Maybe we both need to listen to my advice, then.”
Those words amounted to Rod admitting he was wrong, which left me blinking. It also left me with nothing to reply to, so I went back to looking out the window.
