§
I will never learn to like it when Sen suddenly takes over the [Blood Effigy] to make me do or say things like a puppet, but I had to accept that I was out of my depth in this case, and she needed to.
Still, when I got a moment, while the fairy knights and the Reladorian mages huddled to deal with their new issue and the soldiers and fairy warriors stood their tense watch, prepared for the fight to erupt again at any moment, I let my displeasure known.
Sen’s mental voice chuckled in my head. <I know. And I do apologize.>
<If you want to take over so much, just switch with me!>
<For two very important reasons, I cannot.>
Yes, I already knew that too. I had an identity in this place, as ‘Miss Hiléa’. I couldn’t just suddenly become a different person. Shape-shifting beings do exist in this world, but they change from humanoid to non-humanoid. They don’t change from one humanoid to another, with different personalities.
<The second reason being, my local identity is the one who is supposed to be in Narses right now,> Sen added. <Physically, anyhow.>
Right. Sen wasn’t ‘Sen’ so much as she was Tiana-with-her-memories. I had begun to think of her as a different person.
<The other Tiana has left, right? I don’t see her anywhere, at least.>
She disappeared soon after I suggested that she deal with the Lady of the Red Tower. Perhaps she had done so.
<She’s still not far away. But Rhea tasked her with a different mission. We’ll have to deal with Alwain ourselves.>
<You guys sure like ordering people around,> I grumped. <I’ll bet she’s tired of it, too.>
<Why am I getting lumped in with the Immortals, suddenly?> Sen demanded.
I understood why she disagreed, but she could see my thoughts too. I answered her, anyway.
<You’re an awful lot like them, after all. You hide outside the mortal realm while ordering us around.>
Sen let out a deep sigh. <Lhan, even Rhea is far more advanced than I ever became when I was still an Immortal, and that’s far above where I am now. And as part of the whole together with me, this all applies to yourself as well. When you let yourself remember, you can recall our existence as an Immortal, can’t you?>
Nope nope nope nope. I wasn’t ready to admit that yet. I had been very specifically refusing to see those memories. Sen might be that amazing, but…
<You are amazing too, Lhan. The way you fought Lilte toe-to-toe was awesome. You managed all that just from the training that Fan Li gave you, right?>
Pushing aside the obvious attempt to distract me with flattery, I deflected, <That was borrowing all the things you learned as Tiana, too, you know. I’ve barely done anything.>
<You won’t get away with that, young lady. I’m not letting you. You did well.>
I didn’t reply. Instead, I gave my attention to the fairy meeting. I had not joined them when they stepped away, but thanks to my Elder-level hearing, I could follow their discussion.
‘The reasons that Feraen behaved as she did’, was how Sen had put it while borrowing my mouth. And of course, I knew what it was all about, as soon as Sen said it, because in that moment the whole strange episode replayed from her memories.
During Sen’s travels while she was Tiana, she encountered various fairies, more than one of whom nearly killed her. They turned out to have a strange infection. Demons had somehow programmed Dark spirit parasites to infiltrate fairy minds and prevent them from seeing demonic mana.
It wasn’t clear what other problems the spirits could directly cause, but the infected fairies tended to be hostile to Tiana. That was probably Mireia’s magic at work, but the parasites were definitely widespread among the Field and Forest faction of the noble clans of Faerie which seemed to be allied to Tiana’s enemies, and could somehow also have something to do with it.
Whatever else they did, the blindness they caused was really bad all on its own. Somehow, the fairies who supported the rebels against King Owen, and now against King Gerald, were blind to demonic mana while demons appeared to be assisting the rebel side.
Before, Tiana had only known bits and pieces of the story where it had affected her, but now, through my eavesdropping, I learned the complete story now, because they were explaining it to the fairy warriors working for Serera. The Fairy King’s people had discovered the parasites after Tiana forced a strangely trained gidim out of Lady Mára, a senior knight who attempted to kill her. Prince Manlon trapped the gidim and he and the Fairy Queen discovered what it had been doing inside her.
The gidim was a sort of parasite factory. While hiding inside her, it trapped Dark spirits, turned them into parasites and infected other fairies with them. It had of course infected Mára first, when it took up residence inside her, and then infected her family.
There was no telling how many such gidim existed. Surely, the one in Mára was not the only one out there. So the Fairy King tasked the mortal and fairling mages of Relador, who weren’t parasite targets, with the job of eliminating them and purging the parasites they spread.
Naturally, as they were supposed to, every time they encountered fairies, the mages from Relador cast their detection magic during the battle with Domerà and her band. As expected, they found them infected with the parasites.
<This is all more-or-less what I already knew,> Sen noted. <At least, the bits I didn’t know, I had already guessed.>
<What about Alwain? Might she be infected, too?> I worried. But Sen didn’t.
<She’s an Elemental,> Sen answered. <They don’t have anything like the same physique as a fairy. Of course, she has fairies among her people. I suppose she should be warned to check them.>
Neither of us said it, but we both made the decision to go and suggest it to Serera and company.
Serera replied with a wry smile. “I don’t think any of us are in a position to tell her. Could you?”
I frowned. “Without proof, I don’t really know how.”
“So you understand,” she nodded, a slight smile still playing on her lips. “It’s not an easy story to believe.”
“What about removing the parasites from Domerà’s people?” Lady Dilorè wondered.
“I’m not really sure about that, either,” Serera admitted. “It sure would be a good way to cause trouble for the rebels if we could send them back nice and clean.”
Some of the warriors didn’t seem to understand. Serera let out a light, “Ohohoho” while observing their confused faces.
Dilorè also laughed, then told them, “Demons have mixed into the rebel side, acting as trainers and mages, which means all the fairies on their side must be infected. If these guys return and suddenly start seeing demons everywhere in the rebel ranks, what do you think will happen?”
The fairy knight Lady Elhàn, the captain of the fairy warriors, mused, “In that case, shouldn’t we help these mages purge at least one enemy knight? It would certainly cause considerable damage to the other side.”
Princess Amana immediately sharpened her voice. “My Lady, no matter what, our primary goal must remain guiding the mortals through their mission in one piece, while allowing them to complete the retrieval of Mother and her husband. We’ve lost two mortals already. This isn’t the time to lose focus.”
Lady Serera nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. You are absolutely correct. But besides that, Elhàn has a point. If we can send a few of them back to Parna or Fiore with their blindness cured, it would be like sailing fireships into the enemy fleet.”
Amana gave a delighted, fairy-standard giggle, causing all her elders to glare at her. She sobered and wiped her eyes with an apologetic smile.
“Sorry. Hearing a naval metaphor out of a sylph just caught me by surprise.”
“Your Highness…” Lady Dilorè started, then shook her head and told Serera with a wry smirk. “Forgive my cousin, My Lady. She’s played around with a few too many sailors.”
“You mean I’ve had fleet experience,” Amana corrected with a frown.
“An entire fleet?” Dilorè shot back with mock surprise.
“Ladies!” Serera scolded the two, while forcibly controlling her laughter. “Right. Do we try for that stretch goal or just concentrate on our mission?”
“His Majesty the Fairy King did send mages with us who can purge any infected fairies they encountered,” Lady Elhàn noted. “It is indeed one of their priorities.”
One of the mortal mages, an older man with strong Old Dorian features, deep brown skin and graying hair, spoke up at this point. “It’s a secondary priority, My Lady. His Majesty was adamant that the safety of the princess and the mortal mission came first.”
<We’ll help them do it, Lhan,> Sen suddenly said.
“What?” I squeaked.
She had caught me off-guard, so I accidentally said it out loud. Everyone turned their confused attention toward me.
“Sorry,” I muttered, and looked down. <What do you mean?>
<Tell them we’ll go get Alwain’s help. With some help from us, you can do it.>
All confused eyes were still on me when I looked up again. I had to gather my nerves a bit to say, “Um… I think I can get Alwain to help us.”
Serera’s eyes grew huge. “Do you have any idea what you are proposing, Miss Hiléa?”
<Tell her yes. You know very well about her.>
Why did I have to do this? I sighed and said, “I’m very familiar with her. I mean, I don’t personally know her but… I know a lot more about her than you probably think.”
“Do you understand what sort of a being she is?” Dilorè demanded.
I had overheard Lady Tiana explaining about her while Brigitte and I were carrying back the second dead SAS trooper, but they didn’t know about my hearing ability, so they thought I hadn’t been present. Dilorè might know how sensitive Tiana’s ears were, but she didn’t know Fan Li had matched the senses of the [Blood Effigy] to Tiana regardless of which of us used it.
So they probably didn’t expect me to say, “Lady Alwain of the Red Tower is an impossibly ancient Elemental, as old as the Fairy King himself or maybe older. Just like all the other characters from the ancient stories, she’s unimaginably strong. Her father was a Blaze, and her mother was an Apsara, so she’s an Apsara who possesses both Wind and Fire elements. Yes, she is very dangerous and very scary.”
After a moment’s pause, I concluded with, “And I’m going to get her help.”
Serera stared at me for several seconds, while visibly making up her mind. I raised my chin, trying to project confidence like a brave little mouse. Hopefully, I didn’t look like a terrified rat, instead.
“You’re… not to do anything that might get you killed, Miss Hiléa.”
Should I tell her that Alwain couldn’t actually kill me? A ghost is already dead. Of course, not-dead people walking around are considered a bad thing in this world, so I probably shouldn’t share that part with them.
I sighed. “I can avoid that, My Lady. I am certain that I won’t get myself killed. I’m not quite as confident of my success in getting her help, but I really do believe I can pull it off.”
<Nicely put,> Sen judged.
“Very well,” Serera nodded. “I only want a plan for trapping some of the fairies where the mages can deal with them while driving the rest off. We are not trying to trap all of them, and we don’t want any more deaths, on any side. Understood?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “If that’s all, then I’ll get going.”
“Right now?” Amana blurted.
“The sooner the better, don’t you think?” I answered. “Before fighting breaks out would be best, right?”
The fairy princess sighed, and looked around. People were looking at each other, but nobody voiced their objections, even if they still had obvious reservations.
“Top priority is our original mission,” she stated at last. “Everyone remain clear on that. That includes you, Miss Hiléa!”
After I saw nods all around, I nodded and gave them all a little Dorian bow, like I learned from Sen. Then I dematerialized.
