§
After my ordeal dealing with the Lady of the Red Tower, my nerves remained frayed for some time. I almost didn’t register the trip back. But I had to fly rather than turn immaterial, because of the fairy warrior with the bead dress who accompanied me as Alwain’s intermediary.
That’s right, my negotiation was a qualified success. At least, I somehow convinced Lady Alwain of the danger of the Dark spirit parasites inhabiting fairies. Apparently, she had seen something during the fight that bothered her about the opposing fairies, and thought this served as a good explanation for it. She was at least willing to maintain the truce with us while she learned more.
I wasn’t going to complain at the results, but it unnerved me that she had ‘seen something’ when nobody else with [Fairy Sight] had any inkling, just from looking at the infected. The Fairy Queen and Miröen Fairling were able to devise detection spells that could identify them, but not even they could ‘see’ the infected.
The fairy warrior, a lesser fairy whom Sen estimated to be on the more evolved side, was quite a distraction, at least for Sen. Her hair actually was pretty amazing, almost like a white lion’s mane, but Sen’s wandering gaze kept dragging my eyes lower.
The girl’s ‘bead dress’ was as distracting as any fairy knight armor, you see. It was literally just beads. Of course, strings of some nature must be involved as well, of course, to hold the beads together, but she literally wore not a single inch of cloth.
The design, if it were cloth, would be decent. In the terminology I knew through Sen, it was a halter minidress, exposing the back to allow for her eaglelike wings but ending above the knees at a reasonable length. The problem was that you could see every inch of her body through the large gaps between the beads.
I forced my eyes away for the tenth time, throwing some non-verbal irritation at Sen, as we approached the expedition’s position.
<I can’t help it,> she argued. <I was a guy once, you know.>
<Lecher,> I replied while turning my [Water Step] into descending stairs down to the group. Sen had sent a warning ahead to Dilorè that we had an envoy from the Lady with us, so those on the ground were not taken by surprise.
She kept her wings manifested after she landed until after she had performed a formal fairy warrior salute (basically pounding her chest with her fist while holding her spear upright, at rest) to Lady Selena and General Kosto. She probably should have done so toward Mr. Kowa as well, but nobody told her he was the leader of the King’s contingent, and he didn’t present himself. He remained leaning against a tree in the background, just watching the proceedings.
“I’m Somono,” she stated flatly, speaking in Forest Tongue. “The Lady told me to bring back a mage to look at us.”
It was a Fae name, and it basically means ‘brightness’. I thought it matched her white hair and fair skin perfectly. She even had bright blue eyes.
<Lessers usually get new names upon evolving,> Sen explained. <Someone probably picked it for her for that reason.>
“Does that mean she accepts our word about the parasite?” Lady Serera asked, in the same language.
I was a little surprised she said this right in front of the general, although it had been in a different language.
He noticed my concerned glance and gruffly explained, “Lady Serera has already briefed me.”
Also in Forest Tongue.
Serera told me, “I decided, considering what we are planning, that the mortal commanders needed to know why. I’ve made clear to them that this is a Faerie matter and we don’t want it widely advertised, so the rank and file won’t be briefed.”
She turned back to Somono. “Our mages are ordinary mortals. We don’t want them to go without protection.”
Her blunt response: “Hiléa is allowed to return, together with one mage. Nobody else.”
“Um…” I raised my hand and noted. “Tiny little me can’t really carry a full-grown human, I’m afraid. Unless you’re planning for us to walk that distance…”
She gave me an annoyed look, then, after a short pause, stated, “I’ll carry.”
Serera noted, “Just so we aren’t accused of hiding it later, I should let you know that all our mages are combat-trained.”
Somono gave her a grave nod. “Understood.”
And thus, we returned, having acquired one somewhat anxious fairling mage. I understood his anxiety well. I suppose flying through the air in a fairy’s arms would itself trouble any sane man as well, but he didn’t know where to look while she carried him.
<I can’t blame him,> Sen chuckled. <Can you? Just look at her!>
<I want you to stop making me look at her!> I retorted.
The merry laughter in the back of my head reminded me of fairies. I think Sen was gradually moving closer to her roots.
We returned to the stone circle that Alwain employed as her base. The blacksmithing seemed to be done, and now the odd stone box in the center of the ring had become a place for her to sit, with a variety of her subjects standing behind and around her.
It certainly wasn’t everyone. Her troops remained arrayed throughout the forest, intent on blocking progress up the valley by either our forces or Domerà’s. But, if I were to guess from what I had seen of the fighting forces earlier, at least half of her fairies and half-fairies had gathered around her.
As taciturn as she had been from the beginning, Somono flew directly up and deposited the mage on the ground before her ruler.
I stopped a respectful distance back and gave a Dorian bow, as did the mage, once he recovered his footing.
“Welcome, human,” the apsara greeted him. “You’re the first mortal to make it this far in quite a long time.”
He looked uncertainly over his shoulder at me. She had spoken in Forest Tongue, which it looked like he did not understand.
“My Lady,” I spoke up. “He does not speak Ostache. Shall I translate to Dorian for you, or would you rather speak in his language directly?”
She looked annoyed, but switched tongues. “I would rather you had brought someone who spoke the local language.”
He bowed again, and stated, “I beg your gentle forgiveness for our ignorance, My Lady. The Forest Tongue is not spoken in Relador, and none of the mages knew it.”
“Hm,” she replied with grudging acceptance. “And how are you called?”
“My Lady, I am Urrit Fairling, a mage of Relador serving the Fairy King.”
“Fairling? From what clan?”
“Um…” Urrit glanced at me again.
Sen commented, <She’s expecting him to be associated with a noble fairy clan.>
I told him, “She wants to know what fairy clan sired your father, Sir Mage.”
He scratched his head, then confessed to her, “I know that I’m a great great grandson of the Fairy King, but that’s all. I’m told the name my father gave my mother was fake.”
Sen sighed. <Am I ever going to stop running into descendants?>
It puzzled Lady Alwain. “If you don’t know your father, how would you know that much?”
“A fairy princess visited my mother and told her. She also gave my mother support. I have always thought the princess may have been my grandmother, cleaning up after her son.”
Alwain chuckled, shaking her head. “It’s fortunate she was one of the responsible ones, I suppose. Well, Good Urrit, what do you propose to do to my girls? I have gathered several here for you.”
He looked a little flustered, since her tone was on the suggestive side. Certainly, her words could be taken a very different way. But he cleared his throat and said, “The detection spells work quickly, but I must direct them on one fairy at a time. I have brought the device with me.”
“Device? You don’t simply cast a spell?”
“In mortal magic terms, it would be a fourth level spell if a mage were to cast it. I would quickly run out of pneuma if I were to cast it directly, My Lady.”
It was interesting to hear Urrit not say he was not high enough level to cast it. A fourth level mage is no joke, and he might be at least that advanced. Well, he was sent by the Fairy King, so that would not be surprising.
“Very well. You may proceed. Cast your magic upon me, Good Urrit.”
He was startled. “My Lady, I understand you are not a fairy. We do not expect you to host the parasite.”
“I can’t ask my girls to undergo a spell I haven’t faced myself.”
He blinked, then nodded and knelt to begin digging objects out of the bag.
As he set up his gear, I asked her, “You mentioned before having seen things that made you suspicious, My Lady, but have you seen the same in the fairies who follow you?”
I deliberately didn’t look around at those fairies. They were mostly lessers and half-fairies. Only two of them looked like they might be fully evolved fae. But they would still have their pride. If I understood fairies correctly, looking at them in this context would be like accusing them.
“I have not. But what I saw was only in a few of the fairies in Domerà’s group, but in none of yours. It was something most unfairylike, and I felt someone among their companions should have sharp enough eyes to see it.”
Urrit looked up, his eyes suddenly quite sharp. “Something demonic, perhaps?”
I paled a little, since that was awfully direct, without a respectful ‘My Lady’ to soften it. But she didn’t seem to care.
“Perhaps,” she stated. “When will you cast your magic, o mage?”
“I am ready, My Lady.”
“Proceed.”
In front of him sat an assembly consisting of two crystal balls on top of a cedar box with jade inlays. He placed his hand on the right hand globe and it filled with Light mana and began glowing white.
She flinched very slightly, but relaxed immediately. Then he took his hand from the crystal ball and the white light faded.
“You are free of any parasite, My Lady.”
After gazing at him for a moment, she raised her eyebrow and asked, “Pray tell, what does the other ball do?”
“Ah… well, if you are infected, then I must test you for the progenitor that spreads the parasites.”
She tipped her head. “Explain?”
“The parasite spirit which causes blindness to Demonic mana is an enslaved Dark spirit, My Lady. It does not have the means to spread to other fairies on its own. A trained gidim is the progenitor which spreads them. A fairy infected with the blindness may or may not carry a progenitor, but one infected with the progenitor will definitely have the blindness, since she must be blind to the gidim. So once we determine the fairy is blind to Demonic mana, we test her for the progenitor using this globe.”
“Then do so.”
“If you don’t have the blindness to Demonic mana…”
“Do so, Good Mage.”
He clamped his mouth shut, then nodded. In a moment, he confirmed that Alwain was free of the progenitor as well.
“Very well,” she nodded. “If that contraption does anything other than those two spells, I shall know it the moment you try it. Somono, will you go first, please?”
The fairy warrior gave the fist pound salute she had given before, and submitted to the test, proving herself clean.
I honestly expected all the fairies to be clean. After all, they were out here in the hinterlands, and clearly not part of normal fairy society. And, completely uncharacteristic of fairies, they were dwelling peacefully with a number of monstrous species. These were surely outcasts from Faerie. Possibly even outlaws.
So it came as a real shock when one of the fully-evolved true fairies, a bee-winged green-haired beauty in a provocative raiment of leaves, caused Urrit’s device to glow bright scarlet.
