.
I had to admit she was right. That little schoolyard scuffle I had with Aenëe was not a fairy battle.
Remembering her again, I wondered how she was doing against the demons threatening her city. If Trisiagga was still around, the obvious rookie Aenëe would be no match for her.
I did my best not to show a reaction to Mára. I saw my uncle’s mouth quirk slightly as we both turned our attention to her.
With a smirk, she told the prince, “Little Aenëe is a half-fairy whelp that my sister birthed on a whim. Your father gave her permission to take knighthood if she could find a crown to grant it to her. That weakling in Hamagaar is the one who actually dubbed her, so she’s hardly a proper fairy knight.”
I heard voices laughing from the seating around us. “So that little fool has found a king to knight her? She’ll die if she ever faces a real fairy knight!”
“What delusion makes her think she can ever survive it? She should be hiding as far from battle as she can get!”
“She should just come home and attend to her duties in the king’s bed!”
Looking a little non-plussed at the derision, and especially the last comment, the crown prince turned a questioning glance to Mára. She answered it with a wry smile. “To receive your father’s permission, she agreed to become a royal companion. In addition, if she ever advances to true fairyhood, she must immediately bear your father a child. She was so desperate to prove herself to her elder sisters, she actually agreed to all of it.”
Her mocking tone was pissing me off. I seriously wanted to wipe that smirk off her face for Aenëe’s sake. I mean, yeah, a royal companion is not the same as my mother’s status as a royal concubine. It can mean a lot of things, but for a young female of lower status, it could only mean she had agreed to be the king’s plaything. A true fairy might happily dally with the king for a night if she happened to be in the mood for it, but ‘royal companion’ would be a long-term agreement. A commitment like that is below a true fairy’s pride.
But Aenëe was doing her job as a knight, even staying and defending the town after the ‘baron’ she was serving turned out to be a fake. When I left, she had effectively taken over the government of the town until the appropriate heir to the baron could be identified. Even in the face of a potential threat far beyond her ability to handle, she was rising to her responsibility. She deserved more respect than these women were giving her.
But I had my own duel to fight right now. I couldn’t stick up for Aenëe at that moment. I intended to say something about it later, though.
“The pathetic little thing even got scared and squawked for help!” Mára continued, letting out a light laugh. “She’d imagined there was an asura running around her little barony!”
There was a chorus of jeers and laughter from the audience.
So much for saying something later. I had already had enough.
“What ‘imagine’! I saw that asura myself!” I shot back. “If Aenëe is as weak as you claim, then you’re the idiot for leaving her on her own to face it!”
“Hah!” she shot back. “What are the eyes of a foolish monster worth?! It’s probably just some minor demon fooling you into thinking it’s a higher order!”
With a chuckle, she added, “Oh, yes, that’s right! When I responded to her call, I obtained an interesting recording. She’d made a memory stone of her meeting with you, monster!”
She raised her voice as she turned to the crowd. “Look at this! Look at what this monster thinks a fairy knight looks like!”
She walked toward the side with most of the people, holding her hand up. I think she had completely forgotten about the prince behind her. She cast a light magic that formed a three-dimensional image in the air. It wasn’t the full fight, just a carefully selected cut. It was me, from Aenëe’s point of view, backing away while sheathing my blade, then retrieving the fan from my belt and opening it to cast a [Wind Wall].
It was the moments right after Aenëe lost her blade. Despite her mocking, had Mára chosen to save her niece from the embarrassment by not showing that?
She froze the scene with me in defensive stance.
“Look at that armor!” Mára jeered. “Covering practically everything! What sort of fairy knight would ever go into battle so heavily protected!”
She looked at me. “You don’t even understand the pride of a fairy knight! Don’t you know what this armor is for?”
Perplexed, I answered, “Messing with male opponents?”
Letting out a boisterous laugh, she declared, “What is this mortal foolishness! See what happens when a child spends all her times with mortals?”
“And exactly whose fault is it that I was raised among mortals?” I retorted.
She ignored it and told me, “A fairy knight’s armor is her pride, foolish monster child! It is her declaration of how pathetic and worthless a mortal’s armor and skills are! It is her assertion that she could stand and fight completely naked and it would make no difference!”
For a moment, I tried to think back and remember who exactly had told me that the purpose of bikini armor panoplies was to use male libido against them. Yeah, now that I thought about it, I realized it was probably something I learned from the men in the barracks while I was still a squire.
Incidentally, those man hadn’t known that I would be a fairy knight myself. They were just teasing the female trainee, suggesting that mortal female knights should try the same tactic.
Sexual harassment? Orestania isn’t quite so socially advanced. They’re not horrible; they do recognize that the more extreme forms of sexual harrassment are wrong, but they don’t recognize the more subtle stuff the way Twenty First Century Western Civilization does.
Thinking about Mára’s words, I realized she was probably telling the truth. The theory I learned in the Royal Knights didn’t really make a lot of sense at the end of the day. Who would pay attention to that, in the middle of a fight for their life?
“And I suppose instead of your armor, you intend to fight in that dress? It’s even more cowardly!”
“How is fighting in a dress worse than fighting in armor?” I asked, incredulous.
“It’s clearly enchanted, and strong enchantments at that! I’ll bet it has multiple defensive spells! Your Highness, what do you say about this?”
I looked at the man who had been patiently biding his time, practically forgotten during Mára’s grandstanding. He looked back at me, apparently expecting me to say something.
“Your Highness, I honestly don’t know what enchantments are on this dress,” I admitted. “It is something my grandmother made for me.”
Actually, after my battles earlier, I had a pretty good idea that Mára was right.
“Is your grandmother a master-level magical tool crafter?” Mára retorted. “That dress is clearly a master-level magic item!”
“My grandmother is the Lady of the Lake,” I answered plainly. I had no information to give Mára about Grandmother’s level of mastery as a craftsman.
“The what? My dear, the mortals have called three different women that name, and none of them are tool makers!”
“They have named four Ladies of the Lake, to my knowledge, Lady Mára,” the crown prince corrected. “The ancient Ostians called Demigoddess Lâra by that name, in the distant days long before the empire. And Lâra is a woman renowned for her enchanting skills.”
Mára blinked as she realized the implication of what he had said. With an uncertain glance toward me, she asked, “Demigoddess Lâra?”
I was feeling pretty uncertain at that moment, myself. I mean, I know that Grandmother had referred to the temple of Eurybia as ‘Mother’s temple’, but I had refused to entertain the simplest explanation for why she would call it that.
I simply affirmed, “My grandmother’s name is indeed Lâra.”
He pursed his lips. “You are too young to grow a raiment, I believe.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“But you cannot fight in that dress. If your grandmother made it, it is likely too strong a protective item to use in a duel. You will need to remove it.”
Paling a little, I said, “Fight naked in front of everybody?”
He glanced toward Serera, who laughed ‘o ho ho’ lightly before responding to him with, “Perhaps you wish me to loan her my armor, Your Highness? She and I are very similar in build. I would be honored to let the child borrow it, if the request were to come from you!”
“I am indeed making that request,” he responded with a solemn tone.
“Will you cast a screen to allow her to change, Your Highness? Nobody in this place is strong enough to see through your magic.”
“Certainly,” he nodded. He raised his hand, then hesitated. Looking at me, he noted, “You are less heavily equipped now than in the images I viewed just now. Didn’t my sister give you Father’s mithril sword? You appear to carry an excellent magic sword, but it is not the equal to Father’s blade.”
After thinking an apology at Durandal that the old guy may or may not have been able to hear, I nodded. “This sword also comes from Grandmother, Your Highness. All my own gear, including Grandfather’s sword, is either in the safekeeping of the first prince of Orestania, or has already been stolen by the traitor, Duke Parna.”
“You hold your tongue, monster!” Mára blazed. “Lord Parna is an honorable man and a long-time friend of my clan! An insult to our ally is an insult to us!”
“What honorable man?! Your long-time friend has already told me to my face that he plans to overthrow my king and put a loathsome criminal on his throne!”
“You dare!”
“Take your hand off your weapon!” Lady Serera ordered. Mára froze with her hand on the grip of her sword.
Mára’s eyes moved from Serera to the prince. Looking as if she only now noticed what she was doing, she let go of her sword.
I heard the distinct sound of Serera resheathing her blade behind me. The fairy captain muttered, “Your pardon, Your Highness.”
“I am grateful for your protection, My Lady,” he responded with a smooth smile. He turned a brief scowl at the belligerent green-haired knight, then returned his eyes to me.
“I noticed you used a magic focus during that fight, child. You are too young to use combat magic properly without one. We should at the very least provide you with a replacement.”
Having said that, he turned and looked up at an empty spot in the seats. “Little Manlon, I can feel your presence. Show yourself.”
I heard a chuckle I had heard in the afternoon. “I can never hide from your eyes, Esteemed Brother.”
In the spot where Gelon was looking, a familiar looking man with a beauty on each arm faded into view, seated in the tiers. The two girls seemed to be mortals rather than fairies. In context, the man between them was obviously the Prince Manlon who had interceded for me earlier thanks to Kiki’s magic. Except…
The last time I met him, he had been calling himself Miröen Fairling.
