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As Sirth’s memories drifted across to me, keeping me up to date on Shindzha, I stroked the snoozing Syl’s hair. She’d nodded off on my arm after I fed on her, and I needed to move her head soon so she could rest in a healthier position, but I didn’t feel like doing it just yet.
She appeared to be a human about five years older than me, although her ears suggested she might have a portion of Elven blood. Not a lot, just a hint of triangularity to the tips. Of course, ear shape is not an indicator of how much Elven blood one has. Dana the courtesan is half Elven, yet has entirely human ears. But, as I understood it, she was somewhere in her mid-thirties, which would put her firmly in her forties on Earth.
Despite the probable Elven blood though, Syl claimed that she’d had a human growth rate until Father blood-bonded her. The effect of her ancestry on her aging had been negligible. Her youthful looks now were entirely due to the longevity enhancing effects of the blood bond she’d received as a girl barely out of puberty.
I didn’t like to admit it, but my father’s bond had at least benefited her in that respect. And the effects of the bond somehow continued after his death, for her and all his Servants. Which seems strange to me, but that is how it works. Syl wouldn’t look the age she ought to look right now until much more than a decade into the future.
I grew a rueful smile and brushed Syl’s hair out of her face. I was definitively cheating on my husband here. I couldn’t even pass the blame to Sirth any more, since I had allowed her hands to do whatever they wanted while I fed on her. Might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb, as Robert’s mom used to say.
Not that I hadn’t already cheated, in Sky Ocean. But I had hypocritically tried to keep my hands off the domestic staff here in the castle where my husband also lived until Sirth crossed that line for me. I suppose she was right to ignore my ‘line’, anyhow. It made no sense to pretend that the location mattered.
<Your husband already told you that he did not mind it,> Fan Li noted.
I know. When I pressed my husband for details on what Mother told him about me, I learned that she and Uncle Owen sat him down when they first proposed our betrothal to him. They even brought Aunt Elianora in to back their words up on the vampiric side. And they did not mince words.
They wanted to make absolutely certain he understood what sort of shameless adulteress I would be. Mother would not agree to the betrothal until he promised he would never hold my philandering acts against me. He had to understand that, neither as a fairy nor a vampire was I capable of remaining faithful to him, and neither as a fairy nor a vampire would I expect fidelity from him either.
Well, I guess that last part was certainly true. The first thing I did was fix him up with another woman, right?
But she said, while he couldn’t expect fidelity from me, he could expect loyalty from me instead. Neither fairies nor vampires betray their people, and both prioritize their closest ones fiercely. I can’t say whether it’s true, but… well, it’s true that I, and Tiana before me, have gone to rather great lengths for the Royals who were our foster family. I couldn’t say either she or I ever felt any loyalty to the kingdom, itself. Instead, she, and I, have served king rather than kingdom.
I carefully slipped my arm out from under Syl and arranged her in a good sleep position. Meanwhile, I continued to receive updates on Shindzha. They were entering the town at that moment.
Having already blown off the day’s schedule, taking advantage of everyone’s belief that I needed to rest due to my pregnancy, I went ahead and remained in bed, watching the snoozing maid’s face. Sirth called her a ‘cutie’ and I couldn’t disagree. But I now had something concerning me that I had never confronted before.
Wasn’t what I felt, not only for Melione or Ceria, but for all my Servants, actually love? The bond is the only thing that could explain why it warmed my heart to just relax and watch one of my Servants while she slept. Syl should really be no more than a work acquaintance to me.
It took me this long, but at last I was realizing, the bond affects my mind as well. I’ve always hated how it bent the minds of the women I bonded with, but how should I feel about it affecting me too?
I mean, in the cases of Melione and Ceria, I already considered them friends, and didn’t notice any change in my feelings toward them, although I saw distinct changes in their behavior toward me. Mireia, I never disliked, however weird the beginning of our relationship was, but somewhere along the way, she became a dear friend. But if I look objectively at Chiara…
Well, when I bonded with her, it was to put her under my control, because I couldn’t trust her around my foster sister otherwise. Before that, I fully intended to see her punished for what she did. But once we left Ilim Below, I shielded her from royal punishment and turned her into a valuable asset without a thought.
Then I did the same with a hellspawn, of all things! Ever since I took her as a Servant, I’ve protected her as well. I now treat both Chiara and Shindzha as dear to me.
I wondered what Immortal Mother would tell me, if I were to ask her. Should I ask her? I had a vague idea this was something one needed to be an Immortal to properly understand.
That was as far as my ruminations went before they began chasing their own tail, round and round, without me reaching a more certain conclusion. I didn’t want to imagine my mind had been bent so severely, but if it were the case, at least I understood now why none of my Servants resented it. The effect was too subtle to feel.
Syl began lightly snoring, so I helped her adjust her head position a little, then froze just before bending down to kiss her cheek. Not because I caught myself before going through with the impulsive act, but because dire events were underway in Oseri.
The knowledge hit me like a bat, as Sirth experienced Shindzha’s adrenalin rush. I closed my eyes and linked my awareness to Sirth.
Around her, a [Whirlwind] packed with both Wind and Earth, opposing elements, threatened to blind Shindzha and carry her off her feet. She activated her Earth skill, [Sure Foot], before it did, then whipped her sword out while fortifying her arm and grip to keep from losing it in the wind. Meanwhile, her [Demonic Sense] sought desperately for her invisible attacker without success.
To attack her in the middle of a street, in the middle of a town like this, the enemy really didn’t care, did they? Although the street was empty and the [Whirlwind] was tight and well-controlled, so they weren’t doing damage to anyone else.
My mind raced, searching for what I could do and realizing that relying on my Servant and her allies was the only option. But my thoughts got no further than that when a brilliant flash and a massive surge of mana blew the magic away.
In its place, Serera stood in front of us, with her sword held in a low side-guard position because she held her other hand out in front, holding a ball of mana ready to fire. Fairies, like certain animals which puff themselves up to appear larger, grow their wings to intimidate their foe, so her gray bird wings were high and spread.
An armed, largely naked fairy knight, with her wings grown and her skin sparkling with the glow of the excess mana in her [Fortification] magic, is a daunting sight indeed. Especially one with Wind power causing her hair to rise up and blow with an invisible breeze. Imagine a vengeful angelic warrior clad only in bikini armor and a massive coat of mana. Even from behind, I felt that whatever she faced had low odds of survival.
But, the total lack of Serera’s ‘ohohoho’ suggested that she faced a seriously heightened danger.
Unfortunately, all of the above meant that Shindzha couldn’t see whatever it was. She could easily read in her demonic senses the dense ball of Wind mana in Serera’s free hand, but they were failing to reveal whatever danger the fairy knight faced as her body blocked the view.
“I am Serera of the Gray Mountain, Royal Knight of Faerie!” she shouted. “Reveal yourself and make your name known!”
Seems the threat was stealthed anyway.
Shindzha had frantically gathered and circulated Aether and Earth. She had no easy source of Darkness, and did not seem to have mastered Benedetta’s trick of drawing it out of the dark spaces underground. But she was now a bristling ball of all the mana she could hold, with no target to use it on.
<You’ve been practicing how to use your Demonic core. Will you not use it?>
I was the one who said it, but I could feel something like a nod from Sirth.
<You fear it is a demonic foe, Mistress,> she explained. <It might be better if I don’t reveal my nature. The illusion might be working on them.>
She had a point. A certain pixie was still flying somewhere nearby, disguising my Servant as a human adventurer.
After a long pause, an unexpected and familiar voice replied in calm tones.
“It’s quite odd for a high blade of Faerie to shelter a demonkin,> he noted. <My Lady, I’m uncertain, due to the illusion cast upon her, but is it perhaps possible that the creature behind you is the one belonging to the Commander?>
Serera also paused a long time before answering, then replied with a single, perplexed name.
“Diurhimath?”
“Indeed, My Lady,” he agreed. “May I have an answer to my question?”
“This is Shindzha,” she confirmed. “Why did you attack her?”
“An unidentified demonkin was walking around a mortal town in disguise,” he stated. “I find that a peculiar question. You should ask yourself instead, why I wouldn’t.”
At last, Serera’s figure relaxed, and she dispersed the mana she had gathered. She dispersed her wings as well, and at last, Shindzha could see past her to the wingless, unarmed Diur facing her. If he used a focus to generate that [Whirlwind] before, he’d already put it away.
<Disperse your mana, Shindzha,> I ordered, and Shindzha did so, although reluctantly.
“I suppose you have a point,” Serera agreed. “Shindzha is under my protection. Do not attack her again, Mr. Diurhimath.”
He nodded. “I shall heed your warning. Had I been able to recognize her, I would not have done so in the first place. What are you two doing here?”
“Investigating a town which isn’t empty, but ought to be so,” Serera stated while at last sheathing her sword.
His face darkened slightly, and he pursed his lips. “I see.”
That momentary expression just now in his eyes, what was it?
“Would you come with me to meet the rest of our party, Mr. Diurhimath?” she requested. “They’re waiting outside of town.”
“Of course,” he agreed.
They spent the short stroll through and out of town, to the spot where the mission waited, largely in an uncomfortable silence. I had the strong sense that Serera still distrusted Diur at the moment.
Well, I understood why. It was strange that he appeared in such an obscure spot, out of the blue. I did not distrust him, but I suspected he had quite a lot to explain.
The fairy knight did converse a little with Shindzha. But she waited until we returned to the camp and introduced Diurhimath to those in the group who had never met him before she asked Shindzha one very important question.
“Did you sense anything demonic back there in the shopkeeper you spoke to?”
“Nothing at all, My Lady,” Shindzha replied. “I felt nothing out of the ordinary in him at all, other than how wary he seemed.”
“Why would you be looking for demonic traces?” Diur asked.
They spent several minutes explaining the mission, and the mysteries they had encountered. Especially, the mystery of the charm-proof but otherwise perfectly ordinary citizens.
That had been long enough for me to work out what was going on, hand Shindzha off to Sirth, return my awareness to my [Blood Effigy], and cast my next magic.
Shindzha had long since confirmed with her [Demonic Sense] that not only no gidim, but no low-level demonic spies of any stripe lurked in the area. That’s why, even though I avoided advertising my presence up to this point, I did not hesitate to cast [Blood Presence] and appear in their midst now.
