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I asked Bruna to set up this conference in the first place in order to tell them exactly what Astaroth gained from the formation. Before I learned that people were somehow reappearing in Oseri, I sent this group with what I thought would be sufficient information, so I didn’t need to bring in spiritual concepts unfamiliar to Huade’s present-day scholars. Furthermore, Kottos was present, in the case that the knowledge of Immortals truly became necessary.
In short, the knowledge that the Demon King sacrificed an entire town full of mortals in order to resurrect himself ought to be sufficient for a simple trip for Kottos and the fairies to observe the demonic magic beneath the town. They were going in order to bring that information back to Morrígan, who was working toward the long-range objective, eliminating the formation.
But when I learned that people were reappearing in town, the situation became more uncertain, more worrisome and more urgent than I imagined before. Kottos should know everything I did about the formation, but she did not know what Immortal Mother told me about my Servants. Even though it was unrelated to the formation, it had just become a vital issue. And it was now the reason the conversation currently hung suspended in palpable confusion.
“You can offer an explanation, Your Grace?” Arken finally echoed with a perplexed tone.
By which, he meant an explanation why the unexpected inhabitants of Oseri possessed a strange resistance to fairy charm.
“More accurately, I can offer a hypothesis,” I told him. “Specifically, I can reveal the only perfect defense I’m aware of, for a mortal facing fairy or vampire charm.”
“As I said before…” Feraen began, but I interrupted her.
“Hang on just a moment.”
I glanced up at Genette, who was standing by. Before we began, she dismissed the usual maids for secrecy reasons, but it was up to me to dismiss her.
“This is absolutely a secret,” I told her. “I’m willing to entrust you with it, but you may leave if you don’t wish to carry the burden.”
Genette looked slightly relieved, but rather than leaving, she squared her shoulders and stated, “I can stay, Your Grace.”
That relief puzzled me. Was she worried that I forgot she was standing there? But I nodded and returned my attention to Lucy’s stone.
“Most of you know about me, but I must first reveal myself to those who do not,” I stated as an introduction.
Being an Immortal herself, Kottos already knew I was an Elder when we first met. Amana learned because she was present during my first meeting with Oberon. Oberon told Serera, and I told the other five while we were traveling together in the Tabad.
Which, beyond Genette, left Miss Laylin and Lady Feraen, who needed to hear what I proceeded to explain, regarding my original identity and the Elder Race, before I could answer the question.
They were close enough to the [Blood Sigil] on Bruna’s back that I could follow their movements through its limited [Spirit Sense]. Laylin was glancing regularly toward Ryuu, who was nodding confirmation each time. But the sense isn’t distinct enough to tell facial expressions, so I honestly don’t know how much she believed.
Lady Feraen interjected her doubts and questions throughout my explanation, so I could read her reaction in her voice. If not for Amana and Serera assuring her that I was telling the truth, I don’t think she would have believed a word.
Except, once I finished, Feraen did grudgingly admit, “You’ve been impossibly strong for such a young fairy, since the first time I met you. I have to admit, this would explain it.”
Feraen was the granddaughter of a major clan leader and the original head of the Forest and Field faction. She struck me as hardly older than myself or Aenëe when I first met her, but that’s because she’s more than just a bit impulsive, having a fiery temper. I had learned since that she was closer to three centuries old.
Although she withdrew before it happened, she knew that I nearly killed her grandmother, a fairy knight on par with Lady Serera. And of course, she herself nearly lost her life to me, before that. And she would know that both were alive now only because I healed them as well. That’s what she meant by ‘impossibly strong’.
The thing that stood out to me, though, was that she always called me a monster in the past, refusing to acknowledge my fairy side. Instead, she just described me as a ‘young fairy’.
It was weirdly gratifying, but I didn’t bring it up. I felt it would be best not to point it out.
That’s when Miss Laylin made me fill in the one part I tried to gloss over, by quietly asking, “So… if fairies began from your race, does that mean that you’re their ancestor?”
“Ah…” I hesitated, then glanced up at Genette.
She’d learn at some point. I gave her a wry smile, then told them, “That’s right. Although it’s a bit complex. There are many paths to fairyhood, but some fairies are my descendants. I gave birth to the first true fairy, and all other true fairies are modeled in one way or another on him. If you have any ancestry from the Fairy King, then you’re descended from me in my first life.”
The majority of them already knew this. My closest descendant among them, Princess Amana, began chuckling quietly, observing the expressions of those who did not.
“That’s a little hard to accept,” Lady Feraen admitted.
“Aren’t you going to call her Grandma?” Amana teased.
“I’m not that close a descendant!” she protested.
“Um…” I hesitated to ask.
“It seems you are my great-great-grandmother, Your Grace,” Feraen grumbled. “My mother is a granddaughter of the Fairy King.”
Feraen shared the same relationship with me as Dilorè. No, she has one fewer ‘greats’, so she’s actually closer… I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I just shook my head and moved on.
“So, that’s that. Now you know why I know what I am about to tell you, and how it is I can speak with authority on it.”
But I wasn’t ready to deliver my thesis statement. I needed to add some supporting arguments first.
“The Elder Race depended upon mortal Servants. In Bruna’s homeland, they know all about this, because it’s part of their religion, where they remember us as the Stregas. The Elder Servants were mortal helpers of extraordinary ability who supported the activities of the Stregas. What I need you to understand now is that being blood-bonded to a vampire and becoming fairy-touched are both incomplete versions of the blood bond between Elders and Servants.”
Although I wasn’t sure they needed these details, I wasn’t sure how much they would need to understand where I was going, so I was telling them anyway.
“Vampires possess the physical ability to take the mortal beyond the charmed state into the vampire blood bond, but the bond is incomplete, lacking the fairy elements that tie Elder and mortal together in a mutually-beneficial relationship. Fairies lack the physical ability of consuming Mortal blood and making it their own, so when they carry a mortal past the state of being simply charmed, they cause them to become fairy-touched, rather than proper Servants.”
After thinking about it, I added, “That’s probably all I really need to explain about that. Just understand that the bond is incomplete for both races. Being in a vampire blood bond is not enough to protect a mortal from fairy charm because the bond lacks the fairy element. And as for being a mortal who is fairy touched… that condition lacks the tie to the vampire’s spiritual strength that would shield the mortal from a vampire’s charm.”
After a pause to put my thoughts together, I declared in one breath, “The one perfect defense against the magic behind [Fairy Charm], [Vampire Charm], and any skill of the other civilized monster species which is equivalent to them, is the Elder Blood Bond. It’s the completed form, because it includes both the vampire and fairy components.”
That statement drew no response, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of puzzlement or shock. But perhaps they were just still absorbing it.
“The problem is, I only know of two Elders in this world. One is myself, and I assure you, the people in that town are not my Servants. The other… Well, most of you have already met Diurhimath. But Diur has no motive. I’m not even sure if he even knows about Oseri.”
While I paused again, considering my next words, Arken pointed out, “But if he’s the only other Elder…”
Kottos interrupted him. “No, I think I know exactly where Her Grace is going with this. High-level demons have all sorts of mimicry abilities, that include mimicry of vampire skills. And their mental powers parallel those of fairies. The original demons were trying to become the equals of Elders, after all.”
“Precisely, Lieutenant,” I agreed.
Kottos was present with the party through a body with the identity ‘Lt. Madrin’, one of fifty or more human lives that Kottos spreads her soul out across in order to dwell in the Mortal Realm. It isn’t ‘possession’ precisely, because she is the actual soul of all her bodies.
She asked me, “But do you have evidence for your understanding of fairy and vampire effects on mortals, Your Grace? This is knowledge unknown to this world’s scholars. It can’t be wisdom from your first life, when vampires and fairies did not yet exist.”
I pressed my lips together, then asked, “You know my connections to the Immortals. And you probably know my relation to… well, a certain Immortal of great antiquity…”
Her lips curled slightly. “Your caution is unnecessary, Your Grace. You’re trying to avoid describing the mother of your first life, I believe.”
I cleared my throat, then nodded. “Since she has no mortal name, I think of her as ‘Immortal Mother’, to differentiate her from my mother in this life.”
“Why would you avoid mentioning her?” Lady Serera puzzled.
‘Madrin’ stated, “She is a being of higher existence than any of the gods of this world, My Lady.”
“What?” several of the mortals exclaimed.
I sighed, annoyed at the Hekatoncheir and her big mouth. Laylin was not from the Ostish faith and didn’t believe in heavenly gods per-se, just in the collective will of the souls ascended to Heaven. Ryuu was not a believer in any religion. But the other mortals all carried some degree of religious beliefs that put Oranos at the top of the stack.
After pausing, in case of any other questions, I stated, “So, Lieutenant Madrin understands what sort of an authority Immortal Mother would be.”
“I do,” she confirmed.
“You will have to back me up on this with the others, then,” I told her, then explained, “I asked Immortal Mother to evaluate the fairy and vampire effects in detail. I gained new knowledge about them as a result. And as you implied, I suspect that a higher demon has placed these mortals in a blood bond somehow analogous to the Elder Bond.”
“To what end?” Lady Serera puzzled.
“Since it is not precisely the Elder Bond, but rather a demonic parallel to it, I can’t say, nor can I guess what the demons would use it for in general. But I suspect the motive for using it in this instance may be as simple as shifting enough mortal bodies back into Oseri in order to trigger the formation again. I’m assuming that the bond forces obedience on those bonded, but that wouldn’t be strange for a demonic power. So, these mystery townspeople might only be the first installment of a much larger sacrificial population on the way.”
Silence on the other end stretched, so I moved on. “The one behind this demonic blood bond, for it to have the result that Lady Feraen discovered, must be of very high spiritual strength. It’s almost certainly the same demon who owns the formation. But at best, this is a hypothesis. I have no means to prove it from here.”
“We’ll need to go back into town and take a closer look at them,” Lady Serera mused. “Perhaps we can detect demonic influence on them.”
“No, we should follow a different strategy,” I stated, which confused me, until I realized Fan Li hijacked my mouth.
<Don’t do that!>
<This small one apologizes, but is adamant that everyone, including the fairies, should avoid entering that town until we understand things better. Your hypothesis is good, but it is still only a hypothesis, and the situation is quite dangerous. It was necessary to speak immediately.>
Naturally, I saw that Fan Li’s ‘different strategy’, which now filtered across our shared mind to me, made good sense.
“Your Grace?” came Lady Serera’s puzzled query, because I picked an odd spot to fall silent.
I pursed my lips, still annoyed at my prior Incarnation, but stated, “For now, conduct your analysis of the formation from outside the area of effect. Nobody is allowed to enter the hazardous zone. I’m sending a better scout to you.”
