§
Lady Feraen of the Old Grove, Fairy Knight of the Forest and Field faction and proud granddaughter of the ancient satyr chieftain, Lâsin of the Old Grove, is a woman of supreme self-respect. Learning of her own unwitting service to demons through her contract with Lord Parna seemed like a fatal blow to her dignity at the time. She meekly gave her parole and humbly sought the help of Morrígan, a woman for whom the Forest and Field hold, at best, cold disdain. The Fairy Queen never quite exceeds the neutrality of the Royals but, as a woman of reason and science, her activities are an anathema to the traditionalist fairies of Feraen’s clan.
Feraen, crushed in defeat, sought the help of such a person. More than feeling surprise at her presence when I entered my office, I felt honest relief at the return of her proud posture.
Naturally, here in a crowded room, she had not materialized her beautiful gypsy moth wings, but her ostentatious white cape, her maximally-bared skin, clothed only in a fairy steel mail tee-back and an even more revealing upgrade for her cuirass– a skimpy fairy steel mail scarf, just like Serera! — accessorized with short gauntlets and minimal high-heeled sabatons, screamed fairy pride in fortississimo. When the group sat down, she even sat with optimal dignity, shoulders back, chin and chest held high.
She regarded me with a wry smile and nodded her acknowledgement of my greeting.
“I imagine I do require an explanation, Your Grace. For the record, this time I’m not here to fight you.”
“I should hope not!” I retorted, barely suppressing laughter. I already assumed that much.
Serera wondered, “If it is difficult…”
“Of course not, My Lady,” the fairy knight answered. “I can explain for myself.”
She rose and turned to face me, giving a fairy knight fist over heart salute and a bow of the head, and declared, “Your Grace, I now possess no clan name, but the Fairy King granted me the epithet Feraen the Faultless and recognized my knighthood, so that I still may style myself a fairy knight with his imprimatur.”
Surprised, but careful of my etiquette, I nodded with a smile. “Congratulations, Fele Feraen.”
Losing her family name wouldn’t normally be something to take pride in, but an affirmative epithet from the Fairy King himself more than compensated for her loss, especially when granted along with recognition of her knighthood. It didn’t make her a royal knight, but it gave her the unquestionable right to continue calling herself a fairy knight.
She needed to answer the obvious question, so she continued.
“My uncle, who now leads the clan in my grandfather’s absence, disowned me for disavowing my contract with Parna. He also annulled my knighthood, but His Majesty stepped in to protect me. For now, I am a knight errant. I offer my services to your side of this conflict, if you are willing. I will quite perfectly understand if it is not…”
“Hired,” I snapped, not wishing to watch her continue to humble herself. “When can you start?”
Her eyes grew and she stammered, “Um… immediately, of course, but… are you certain, Your Grace?”
“You disavowed your contract,” I echoed. “A knight of your dignity would only do such a thing if you witnessed direct confirmation with your own eyes of Parna’s demonic entanglements, regarding which I previously warned you. I am more than willing to accommodate your fairy pride, which demands that you fight in opposition to those that deceived you and dealt your honor such a vile injury. Am I mistaken in your motives?”
She pressed her lips together, her lips curling upward, and shook her head.
“You are not mistaken at all, Your Grace. Lilhàn and I returned in stealth and observed the sheer number of demons in the forces of Cullen. But even worse, we observed…”
Her sudden hesitation and her glance toward the others confused me, until I realized that whatever she saw was of a severe and sensitive nature. She wasn’t sure what she should reveal. But I had a guess.
“You saw that the upstart Cullen was either possessed by a demon or possibly himself a demon impersonating the original disowned prince.”
I heard a number of soft exclamations around the table.
She nodded. “I would say the latter, Your Grace. How did you know?”
“You may have heard that I was injured. My husband and I were attacked by a demonic proxy of this fake Cullen, during the attack two months ago.”
More quiet noise, but this time was those who already knew, confirming it to those who didn’t.
“Is that why you yourself are using a proxy to be here, Your Grace? I am quite certain your living self is not in this room, and this, too, is a proxy.”
The non-fairies in the room made confused noises. Uncle Arken’s eyes began glowing, using his elven [Magic Eye] skill. Of course, neither Lady Serera, nor Princess Amana, nor the two Hekatoncheires, showed any surprise. They already knew.
I nodded. “My actual body, and my babies, are sequestered in safety in Relador while I recover from my wounds. I am using a special technique to send a proxy of myself here. For the record, my babies are in no danger. They merely need their mother to remain where she is and complete her recovery.”
Uncle Arken objected, “This is not an illusion spell…”
“Naturally not, Sir Scholar,” Princess Amana agreed. “An illusion cannot display a living aura to fairy eyes. At best, a particularly adept illusionist could reproduce her complete mana signature and fool a mortal with magic sight. Rather than an illusion or an optical projection of some form, this is a quite exotic technique that Her Grace is using.”
“His Majesty the Fairy King has visited her physical self in her refuge, and confirms that Her Grace is safe and recovering,” Lady Serera added. “I should note that our other guest is here via the same technique.”
She indicated Fan Li.
Ryuu nodded. “I was keeping my mouth shut, but… how are you both here at the same time now?”
Fan Li inclined her head. “Her Grace has recovered considerably more of her former life knowledge since we last met, Mr. Kowa.”
Several people frowned in confusion, but Brigitte is the one who voice their question. “Why wouldn’t they be able to be here at the same time?”
Of course, what followed was a repeat of explanations I have made before. Suffice it to say, I told them, and several blinked with uncertainty. I couldn’t blame them. Even from my own point of view, it seems bizarre.
Ryuu understood completely, though. “Your real body is in that place right now, right? You’re stronger there.”
“I am,” I agreed. “And I ought to inform you that I’m keeping Amelia with me, so you can rest reassured that she is safe, as well.”
He just pressed his lips together and nodded. I could see visible relief in his eyes, actually. He knew how safe she was, tucked away in Sky Ocean.
“So now it’s your turn,” I told him. “You appear to have changed out some of your party members. Or should I wait until after I hear about Oseri?”
Ryuu pursed his lips and then noted, “You already know Bruna, of course.”
Resting his hand on the shrine maiden’s shoulder, he continued, “This is Laylin. Your main temple insisted that she join us. She’s… um…”
He looked at her with tender concern. She nodded, then knitted her sleeves together in a practiced move and face me with her head bowed close to her folded forearms.
After she remained silent, I realized why and told her, “You may have already noticed, this group does not hesitate to address me. You are present as one of them, so please speak freely as well, Miss Laylin.”
“Laylin, novice of Narses Temple, greets Her Grace,” she stated meekly.
I suppressed a sigh and answered, “Tiana of Pendor accepts your greetings, Miss Laylin. I ask you to relax now. I’m quite friendly.”
I heard several chuckles. The others were regarding her warmly.
“She has dreams,” Ryuu stated. “She tried to warn us before, when we went out and got trapped at that tower.”
I deduced that he meant the Green Tower, where Áne trapped members of the first attempt to recover Mother and Uncle Owen. It wasn’t a malicious act. She did it to prevent them from running into a demonic ambush.
“The young lady is an oracle?” I asked, glancing toward Gyges, one of the two Immortals in the room.
The Hekatoncheir smiled and shook her head. “They don’t use that term in the Dorian faith. Those that have such tendencies become prized mediums. The temple trains them to not to become maddened by the divine, but as a result they cannot receive detailed knowledge, only vague dreams.”
Fan Li fed me additional details. The gods don’t purposefully connect with oracles. They are accidental priests, tapping into divine thoughts while lacking appropriate safeguards. Dorian spiritual mediums, with assistance from the Immortal with whom they’ve connected and training from the Temple, tap into the Sea of Knowledge in an orderly but highly restricted fashion, instead of encountering Immortal thoughts directly.
I asked her, “And you warned Ryuu and his people not to go?”
“I…” she hesitated. “I failed, right? They went anyway.”
Ryuu immediately touched her arm, reassuring her. From his body language, I began to wonder about his relationship with her now. Did Amelia and Chiara have another rival?
Probably. It was about time. One thing I know about Ryuu is, he cannot keep his pants zipped.
Laylin screwed up her courage. “I’m a healer, Your Grace. The head priest told me to go to Sir Kowa because… um…”
Her look told me that she feared the reason was stupid, so I guessed, “Because you had another dream?”
She looked down, but Ryuu confirmed it.
“She dreamed of herself healing us and trying to shield us with her power from something awful. The priest decided it meant that the kami were pushing her to join us.”
The sudden Japanese word told me that he had noticed the similarity between Dorian faith and Shinto. But because the alien word confused others, I corrected, “The Dorians say ‘spirits’, Mr. Kowa.”
Just as in English, the Dorian word has many other meanings, and his internal translator probably failed him when he wanted to specify the Japanese religious concept in particular.
“So, Laylin replaces Melione and… Bruna replaces Chiara?” I asked, glances toward the amazon warrior.
Bruna grinned. “I think they’re waiting to hear if a royal knight needs to come along, Lady. I’m just hanging with them on my own, ’cause Mom’s got other instructions for Ceria. Ryuu said he don’t mind.”
I had wondered about that. Bruna and Ceria are practically inseparable, and yet, no cat girl.
Ryuu confirmed, “Bruna’s blade is always welcome.”
With a nod, I said, “I’ll allow it in exchange for something that I’ll discuss with Bruna in private.”
A few eyebrows rose, but I didn’t want to say what it was. It was Fan Li’s idea, anyhow.
“For now, Lieutenant Madrin should be sufficient as a liaison, since you’re staying in Pendorian territory,” I concluded, closing the question of who replaces Chiara. That was also Fan Li’s idea, although her reasons for requesting Kottos were more complicated.
I returned my gaze to the map, or rather the illusion of a map, displayed on my conference table. “So, you’ve assembled us here, Lady Serera, and revealed that it has to do with Oseri. Shall we hear the details?”
§
Not that I needed the details, having already learned them from Fan Li’s thoughts, but the remainder of the meeting consisted of their plans, and at the end, my authorization for them to proceed.
In a nutshell, Mother never had an opportunity to deconstruct the demonic magic formation in Oseri, or even to inspect it. Morrígan asked Kottos, present in this room as ‘Lieutenant Madrin’, to inspect it and deconstruct it if possible, and she, in turn enlisted Princess Amana. Through Amana, several former members of the Oto expedition became involved. Finally, Lady Serera dragged in Lady Feraen, who had just arrived in town , to serve as additional protection for the fairy princess.
Catching wind of another expedition forming while stealthily keeping an eye on things during my Investiture, and knowing how miffed I was previously about Rod forming the ‘Oto Expedition’ without my knowledge, Fan Li horned in while pretending to be Lhan to insist that they bring it to my attention first.
After all, they had, in fact, intended to charge out there without saying a word to me!
But in the course of ‘Lhan’s protest, Lady Serera called Fan Li’s act out, knowing that Lhan was in the Kasarene with Sirth and Shindzha. Of course, her fairy eyes told her that she was another of my Incarnations rather than an imposter, and thus, Fan Li came to be part of this discussion.
Long story short, Fan Li prevailed in convincing them in the end, and here we were.
<It was a matter of principle, after all. You are the sovereign in this land, and they should consult you first before acting. This meeting was a necessity.>
<You could have just told me,> I pointed out.
<You were busy with the official functions of your investiture and didn’t need the distraction,> the scholar replied. <And you deserved a break and a pleasant evening with your family after a long and difficult day of ceremony. This morning was plenty soon enough.>
And there it was, her sole motivation for hiding her thoughts from me. I gather sometimes that Fan Li sees me as a young child whom she fondly looks after and gently protects.
Well, I guess I am, sort of, a child from her perspective. And when I can actually feel her earnest thoughts, and see myself through her eyes, it’s hard to get mad at her.
