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Using [Blood Mist], Sen detected the presence Shinzha found when we were about a half-mile from the campsite. She halted the immaterial [Blood Effigy] and I manifested my image, standing on a [Water Step]. The two fairies who had been gliding along behind us using [Feather Foot] came to a halt.
Sen had avoided using stealth so they could follow my mana signature, but we used immaterial form in the first place so that I wouldn’t make any noise that might warn our quarry. The fairy skill they had been using, which Mother had tried and failed to teach Tiana, allowed walking through nature without making noise or footprints, so even with the nature of the opponent being what it was, we should have not spooked it yet.
Lady Elhàn, the young fairy knight who led four fairy warriors from Tëan Tír to be the reinforcements Tiana requested, had only earned her accolade a couple decades ago. She was nowhere as skilled at advanced techniques as Lady Serera, so she had no skill at [Secret Voice] either. Fortunately, Serera was fine with doing all the work for the three of us, and was maintaining a shared link for us.
Elhàn spoke through it first. <Miss Hiléa, I sense nothing special here. Why did you stop?>
<This is an appropriate spot,> I replied as I turned to face them, forcing myself not to say ‘great ones’. Part of me was still terrified to be dealing with fairies, after all. Doing so is often a lethal experience, where I come from.
After taking a moment to put myself in the right attitude, because I was still mostly pretending to be an adventurer by acting how I thought Tiana or Sirth would act, I folded my hands behind my butt and prepared my explanation. After all, the only thing I had told them so far was that we had an unwanted escort and refused to say anything further near the others. I needed to explain the rest very carefully.
<I have sensed the presence I mentioned, but first I must inform you about the other presence we may encounter, and why I don’t want you to go after her,> I stated.
Lady Serera’s eyebrow shot up. <We have more than one uninvited guest?>
<Uninvited by everyone else, yes, but she is working for me. Dilorè, Diur and Pasrue already know about her. I will need your help later to tell Melione, Ceria and Chiara through [Secret Voice]. I will leave whether to tell Amana to you. I’m not sure who else is safe to tell. Arken, perhaps.>
I could see disapproval on Elhàn’s face already. She turned concerned eyes toward Serera. But the senior of the two fairy knights grew a wry, smug smile.
<I think I already know what’s coming next,> she replied.
In the back of my mind, Sen muttered, <She’d be doing that o-hohoho laugh if you were talking out loud, I bet.>
I forced myself not to react to Sen while I nodded to Serera. <It’s the hellspawn whom Her Highness turned into a Servant not long ago.>
Elhàn’s eyes grew wide. She opened her mouth and nearly retorted out loud before snapping it shut and using the silent link. <Have you gone mad? A hellspawn?>
<We are confident she is loyal,> I immediately pushed back, forcing myself not to shrink. <Fan Li… one of my seniors had a long talk with her after Diur took custody of her. Or I guess I should say they interrogated her. You can ask Lady Falere about it if you need a third party; she was present as well. Between Pasrue and Fan Li, they were able to clarify her feelings quite well. The loyalty that Shindzha the hellspawn feels toward Tiana is the first time in her life she has felt loyalty at all.>
Nodding, Serera mused, <Demons operate on greed, fear, enslavement or pacts of mutual benefit. They really have no other motivations. All relationships are either transactional or chattel. If she is genuinely feeling loyalty for Her Highness, it would certainly be the first time she had that feeling.>
Elhàn looked concerned and unconvinced. <I heard that Her Highness was attacked after she supposedly enslaved the demoness?>
I felt Sen’s instant disapproval at her terminology on top of her desire to defend her Servant. For a moment, I thought she would take over, but I kept control of the effigy and took up the defense myself.
<I was there and can tell you, the hellspawn did not attack Her Highness. Her former master seems to have used what was left of his connection to her to attempt a direct ambush. Her Highness destroyed the connection when she destroyed the enemy’s proxy. Fan Li inspected the hellspawn closely and confirmed that it is gone.>
Serera frowned, then commented, <This Fan Li was one of these ‘incarnations’ of Princess Tiana that helped us out before, correct? I remember the name.>
<That’s right,> I nodded.
<I wonder, does this hellspawn have one of those bracelets that gives blood slaves more freedom of thought?>
<Would you please use the term ‘Servant’?> I countered, feeling Sen’s annoyance myself. <The relationship was never meant to be like that, and with proper training, the bracelet wouldn’t even be necessary. Too much knowledge has been lost since the ancient times.>
<If such knowledge was lost, isn’t it the vampires themselves who lost it?> Elhàn demanded, her chin raising.
I sighed while wondering if I should trade with someone else. We did not have time to deal with the ancient fairy vs. vampire interspecies friction when we had more important concerns.
But Serera corrected her before I could.
<You’re being unfair, My Lady. I’ve learned quite a lot recently about the time before the ancient fairy age. Both the Fairy King and the Fairy Queen have spoken at considerable length in court about it since Her Highness showed up. At the end of what the King calls the Elder Age, the only members remaining of not only the fairies, but also the vampires and several other monster races were mere children fending for themselves. Before they became adults, all the previous generation had passed, along with most of their knowledge. Did you know our ancestors used to fly to other worlds, and they maintained houses out beyond the atmosphere, circling the world?>
Now Elhàn gave her the ‘have you gone mad’ look. <How could one possibly fly out beyond the atmosphere! The Wind Mana grows too thin for anyone to fly above twenty miles!>
Serera just gave her a level stare and a raised eyebrow and replied, plainly, <I don’t know how, My Lady. That knowledge was lost.>
<Can we get on with this?> I asked, growing impatient. I could have told them that they had someone back at the camp they could ask, considering Diur had spent decades up there, but that wouldn’t help anything now.
<My Lady?> Serera asked with a look toward the junior fairy knight, passing my question to her.
Elhàn heaved a sigh, then just gave her lip a bitter twist and shrugged. I took that as a yes and continued.
<I could have withheld this from you, but I wanted to fill you in, and ask your help to tell the others whom I want to entrust with the information. We’ll probably tell everyone after she’s had more time to prove herself.>
Serera’s mouth twisted. <That’s what you needed this distance for, as well as a silent communication? I could have accomplished as much with an anti-eavesdropping spell.>
<No, the other reason is that Shindzha found us a different uninvited escort. Considering how I’m using Shindzha, the other presence might be somebody you or somebody else arranged, so I wanted to discuss with you first before alarming anyone.>
The senior fairy knight’s brow rose, then she shook her head. <Not anyone I know about, anyhow. Exactly what sort of escort are we talking about?>
I should have asked Sen or Shindzha first, I realized in a panic. But Sen supplied the answer.
<Tell them it’s a pooka. And from the behavior Shindzha described, there’s no way it’s acting on its own.>
For a moment, I almost didn’t relay it, forgetting that my conversations with her and the [Secret Voice] with Serera and Elhàn were two different things. But I recovered and relayed her words.
Serera considered it, then asked Elhàn, <Do any of your warriors or the mages have a taming skill? Such a critter would make a useful scout in this sort of territory.>
<It’s possible, but I don’t know of such,> the junior fairy knight answered. <One would think they would have had it with them on our journey to this land, and we would have noticed it.>
Meanwhile, I was wondering what this creature with a strange name could even be, and Sen answered my thoughts. <It’s a magical race of roughly mortal intelligence. They existed in the Elder Age, just like pixies, and we considered them to be a related species.>
Serera nodded to her junior’s reply. <That’s a fair point. We should probably assume it is not an ally. But a wild pooka would normally either ignore us or approach and play pranks. It may be prudent to assume it’s somebody’s pet.>
Elhàn turned to me. <That’s why we’re out here being so secretive, then? And you know where it is?>
I nodded. <I’ve already found it, but I’m not sure how we should deal with it. Do either of you have any ideas?>
The junior fairy knight immediately turned to her senior. Serera pursed her lips and smiled. <I think I shall let it know we see it. Putting the fear of fairies into such a creature is always a good idea, before they get it into their head to play games. Can you lead me to it?>
Sen suggested, <Go back into immaterial mode and I’ll fly us there.>
I relayed that to them, then dissolved my image.
§
I flew the [Blood Effigy] through the forest once more, taking care not to exceed the speed I used previously so that the two fairies could follow. Serera had cast her stealth technique on both herself and her junior, so keeping track of her position, while I could do it, would have distracted me from the target. Better just to stick with what worked.
I was kinda proud of how Lhan was handling herself. I knew she was nervous, so I wanted so much to pat her on the head and encourage her. The kid is a tiny thing, even compared to me and Mother, so it’s hard not to think of her as a little sister. I actually had a younger sister back on Earth, who had been Lhan’s apparent age not that long ago, which made it doubly hard not to see her that way.
We reached the tree where the creature was hiding out, neither too close nor too far from the camp, in not much time at all. Once we were close enough, Serera could sense it, so she stopped following me and went straight for the target.
Robert’s knowledge of Gaelic folklore and Tiana’s knowledge of wilderness species were not in perfect agreement on this creature, the Pooka or Púca, but as things usually worked out, they had a lot of parallels. Tiana had never seen a real one though, so I was aching to learn how the real creature was going to turn out.
I felt Lhan’s annoyance with me and grew contrite, since she was right. She had learned a lot about pookas from my thoughts after I explained them to her, and the one thing we both understood was, this was a dangerous wilderness creature. One of the things that both Huadean wood lore and English folk lore agreed upon was how risky an encounter with the creature could be. But, somehow, with Serera stalking it while exuding the kind of confidence that comes from knowing exactly what one is dealing with, I was finding it hard to actually become worried.
And I felt my lack of tension was entirely justified when a massive gust of wind ripped forth, surrounding the tree where the creature was hiding in a whirlwind, while Serera let out her high-spirited ojousama laugh.
“Oh-ho-ho ho ho! Where’s the naughty little boy who’s been spying on me? This big sis wants a look at you!”
When I felt Lhan at a loss for words, while Elhàn’s face said everything she needed to say at that moment about her senior’s utter failure to maintain her dignity, I could only giggle a little.
