§ Aunt Elianora’s unusually young look was due to an undercover assignment. Apparently, she regularly drops her forty-something facade, using her natural appearance as a disguise, as backwards as that sounds. She arrived as part of the emergency response to the devastation from the raid in the role of a Royal Army nurse. Physicians and nurses don’t have the same …

§ After introducing Dilorè to Mother’s kelpie at the mill pond where she lives and  learning from Carson how to operate the front gate for myself, I changed into my armor. Genette shook her head in silent disapproval the entire time I was arming myself. The two-piece swimsuit exists in this country, but my armor would be on the daring …

§ Dinner was hell. It was actually a tour-de-force of the estate chef’s finest, truly befitting a royal guest. The chef had shaved an aged ham made from golden bristle boar, the signature luxury meat of the local hill country of Western Atianus, in beautiful thin slices, serving them as an appetizer beside potatoes fried in duck fat, following that …

§ In the basement of the mansion of the Pendor estate in Atianus, one can find all the expected usual contents. The chef keeps well-stocked, climate-controlled cellars of wine, cheese and cured meats, as well as more mundane stores of root vegetables and dry, canned, and pickled goods. The house steward maintains a lumber room for spare furniture and other …

§ Reia settled gently onto the broad front lawn using up a lot less distance to land than if I were piloting, then taxied our direction while the technicians restored the shield over the estate. The fairy warrior escort landed near the aircraft’s hatch once it halted perhaps twenty paces from where the house knights, footmen, and maids were properly …

§ I arrived at my destination to find powerful defensive mana walls surrounding it, preventing any entry. This was an impressive installation. It would be normal to expect something like this around the property of a powerful and wealthy mage in Relador, or surrounding the grounds of a royal retreat, but it was beyond anything a reasonable person should expect …

§ “You’re with us, Lady,” Ceria cooed into my ear. She wasn’t at all shy about wrapping herself around my arm, right there in the dining room. “My Lady Ceria, you need to be a little better behaved in front of others,” Melione scolded, with a very nostalgic tone. It was exactly the way she used to lecture Tiana. “You …

§ While infantry squads worked their way through the city, supported by mages using demonic mana detecting tools, I went to check on the only people I knew in this town. The ruin, a labyrinth of dilapidated mansions rebuilt into tenement houses, then later abandoned and rebuilt again by successive generations of squatters, was as difficult to navigate as before, …

§ The moment he heard the news, Ged’s eyes told me he was not expecting any aircraft arrivals. Turning the direction that the soldier had pointed, I pushed my fairy sense through the city wall and into the open field beyond. I recognized the aircraft immediately. I reported, “It’s Miröen Fairling’s launch, Your Highness.” For a little over a week, …

§ In the early morning hours, before dawn lit the sky, after a short night and a field ration breakfast, while our soldiers were forming up, preparing for an assault at first light, I and Aenëe again hovered high in the air above. Captain Macias and the Cavalry would kick things off with a demonstration pass in front of the …