Kevin Curry
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Fae Chronicles 8
🕑 Added 2024-04-21 21:44:46 +0000 UTCAs Tanya had predicted, the capture of the last remnants of the Legadonian government removed their ability to set up a government-in-exile, and the captured member of the Council of Ten signed a formal surrender in short order.
However, the condemnation of the Albish that came with that announcement for their attempted interference forced the Kingdom to, to borrow a phrase, ‘put up or shut up’... and they decided to join the war, fully supporting the Francois to humble the Empire.
It was… unusually direct for the English they had known when studying European history. The good news is that while the Unified States were still profiteering, they didn’t seem to be doing anything more overtly supportive, like a proper lend-lease program.
The bad news, on the other hand, was what they had been hearing from Avalon.
“I’ve gotten twenty mortal slaves now.” Boasted the Lord of Flowing Waters. “They’re practically giving themselves away! They’re so desperate to escape those other mortals, it’s hilarious!” He was a handsome man who wore shawls of water, gleefully showing his sculpted body.
“What do you promise them?” Asked the curious Lady of Thunderclaps. She was a soft-spoken red-headed woman wearing literal clouds who had a legendary temper that Tanya had never seen.
“Oh, I just need to move their dumb mortal families from one spot to another, I get to take one in four of them for my collection, it’s great.” Said the Lord of Flowing Waters. “I’ve been thinking of getting them trained as a living chess set.”
“Good idea.” Said the Lady of Thunderclaps, “I bet the Lord of Fortresses would love to play against a mortal set, he loves chess.”
“I am not playing that tryhard.” The Lord of Flowing Waters retorted, “I want to win.”
In another conversation, another fae noble was bragging about their recent deals. “Yeah, they don’t have any idea what ‘own completely’ means. Yeah, I only own it for a day, but that doesn’t stop me from eating it.” The Lord of Wildfires was a giant of a man, if he was mortal. He had shaped himself into a regal dark-skinned gentleman with literal fire as hair, spilling off his shoulders like a mane. His biceps were larger around than Tanya’s shoulders, and the rest of his musculature was proportional with that. “You don’t rent bread, after all!” Him and the fae of lesser status around him all laughed.
“I asked him if he could give me his name, and do you know what this stupid child does?” The Lady of Burrowing Teeth said to her own coterie. She was a woman dressed in a modest period dress made of dirt that didn’t crumble off, with mouths stitched all around it.
“He yelled at you?” Guessed the Lady of Choking Coils. She was a woman with the lower body of a snake, completely naked and without caring of her bare chest, large and pillowy enough to be a suffocation hazard on their own.
“No, he gave it to me!” Laughed the Lady of Burrowing Teeth. “The one mistake every single beckoning book warns against, and he did it straight off!” More fey laughter followed the cruel declaration.
Fools. All of them. Still, they had paperwork to deal with, so they had to stay here. Idly, they checked their supply of motes. They could still only hold so many motes before they were forced to condense them, and a handful of cheery myth motes, the fifth tier, warmed their soul. They needed twenty to permanently transform themselves into an adult.
Finally, King Oberon appeared in a burst of light on his throne. It was time for him to hold court. As it was summer, the man’s hair was even wilder than usual, and he wore a light toga of bright green leaves, each leaf from a different plant. He wore nothing else, proudly ignoring the fact that his modesty was not adequately preserved when sitting down. Each and every fey present stood firm, alert and paying close attention to which of them the King would deign to select first. It was possible to stay here for weeks while the King picked matters to be handled based on his own inscrutable whims, but there were ways to accelerate matters.
Such as being the center of court gossip. King Oberon’s gaze locked straight onto Tanya. “Titania of House Argent.” He announced, “More mortal properties?” He asked, annoyed. Normally, this would be a very bad place to be, but this was a marked step up in his esteem for them.
“Well, yes,” Tanya admitted, “-but I also wish to declare a new treasure as my primary armament. It’s mine by right of bargain.”
King Oberon raised one of his wild bushy eyebrows, and glanced at the throne that the season’s primary queen was to sit. Queen Titania was not currently present, which was quite fortunate. “Alright. Present it to the throne so I may judge its worthiness.”
Tanya snapped their fingers and summoned Mary’s blessing into their hand, the computation orb gleaming gold. In Arcadia, its magical presence was far more visible, an angelic choir filling the air as it shined with divine light.
Gasps and murmurs traveled through the crowd, and King Oberon’s other eyebrow rose up to join its sibling. “...It has been five hundred years since such a relic has been seen.” King Oberon said quietly, but his voice projected to everyone just the same. “Unusual it may be, it is still a magical treasure, and thus you shall be dubbed Duchess Titania Argent, Blessed with the Favor of God, Sovereign of the Twilight Crossroads, Lady of Currency.” After a moment, he continued: “Now, do you swear that all of these new properties were secured by the same standards of diligence your previous acquisitions have been?” Tanya nodded firmly. “Okay, done. You may leave.” He glanced at the queen’s throne again. “Leave quickly.”
“Thank you, your Majesty.” Tanya said, bowing deeply. They then ran out of the room, barely hearing the distinctive sound of ignition that heralded the arrival of Queen Titania after turning into the hall. Dodged a bullet there.
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Visha’s imprisonment at Arenne’s hospital was still going strong, as the fourth month of it began with one more sunrise. “How are you feeling?” Tanya asked, slipping into their servant’s arms as she laid down on the cot.
“Better, now.” Visha said, squeezing Tanya tightly. “Any news from the Empire?”
“They’ve already sent the type 95s to this front.” Tanya whispered, “While I don’t pretend to know their timetables, I would think this would be the last month that Arenne suffers under the Francois occupation.”
“That’s good.” Visha said, smiling.
After a moment of companiable silence, Tanya decided to share the thing they learned yesterday. “Did you know that having enemy doctors treat your troops is improper treatment of prisoners of war?” Tanya asked.
“Really? I had no idea.” Visha said.
“Yeah, it’s a conflict of interest thing.” Tanya clarified, “Dr. Mueller’s probably going to get court-martialed for his orders to cooperate with them.” Whether he’ll actually be punished for treason was more up in the air. On one hand, doing so would be irrational. On the other hand, this was still the 1920s. Rationality on the international relations front is in short supply.
“He was just following his oath.” Visha said, worried.
Tanya shrugged. “Dr. Mueller is an intelligent man, and from what I’ve seen a principled one. I assume he knew this, and will be, like a proper leader, taking full responsibility for those orders.”
“We should help him.” Visha argued, shifting on the cot so Tanya was laying on top of her instead of beside her.
“I’m sure there will be an opportunity to provide a positive character witness.” Tanya said, dismissing the concern. “Now, has anything changed here?” She didn’t come by every day, but she made sure to check on Visha every so often.
“It’s not much different than the Empire’s mobile hospital.” Visha said ruefully, repeating her previous opinion. “The Francois aren’t as polite, but it’s still work.”
“If they start taking liberties with any of the prisoners, breaking the rules of war more egregiously than they have already, I’ll get you out.” Tanya repeated their promise. The crystallized oath in their soul hummed, affirming their resolve.
“I know. Thank you, Tanya.” With one last full-strength hug, Visha got up off her cot and started to change clothes.
“...I’m going to take a look around.” Tanya said, “I have a bad feeling.” If there was going to be any change, it would be now, just soon enough to hear about the Empire’s wonder-weapons arrival on the western front.
A few motes of myst glamor concealed Tanya’s presence easily, and she walked straight to the administration level of the hospital, which is where one of the Francois officers was. For some reason, the top level officer of occupied Arenne decided to base in the hospital rather than the building allocated to the local government, which was destroyed in the insurgency. Tanya looked through his paperwork as he went through them, easily reading the Francois language despite never actually learning it. It was supposedly because fey use Truespeech, which is some kind of magical language innate to their nature.
“Damn it.” The Francois officer said as he read the missive that was held in his inbox. “The Imperial reinforcements have arrived.” He stood up and walked to his secretary. “Call a meeting. It’s time to execute Operation Fatted Calf.”
That doesn’t sound good. Tanya debated whether or not to follow the officer or the secretary, but decided to stick with the officer. He gathered some paperwork that was still in folders, walked to a mirror hanging on the wall to inspect his appearance, and then walked towards where they set up the radios.
It took about forty minutes of following him, watching who they now knew as Colonel Moreau, issue orders while speaking in vague terms as to what, exactly, they were preparing for for Tanya to finally get a hint of it. Damn their adequate infosec.
“Okay, now, the Imperials are coming instead of surrendering.” Colonel Moreau announced, “Reports have them advancing rapidly. We have been instructed to prepare to defend our territorial gains.” He slammed his fist on the table. “For that, we will be supplementing our forces with mercenary units, paid for with the one resource we have far too much of: Imperial dogs.”
The other Francois officers grinned savagely, expressing their approval and anticipation of the specified course of action. They had been previously briefed, apparently. Only one of them seemed to be even slightly discomfited at the idea, although he seemed outright ill at the idea. “Now, how long will it take for the Imperial prisoners to be properly secured?”
“We will have enough by tonight.” Assured one of the lower ranked officers. “The Lord of Red Rivers will be well paid.”
Ah. They understand now. The Francois have decided to enlist the help of Arcadia’s armies. Well, they know what to do about that.
Let’s see, she’s memorized most of the nobility by now… the Lord of Red Rivers was a Marquis underneath the Lady of Battlefields, House Macedon. Those lands were… to the southeast of their lands? Tanya slipped back home, to the Twilight Crossroads. Ever since King Oberon had renamed the place, the sky was in a perpetual dusk, which made remembering which way was which a simple matter.
One of the massive trees in their territory bent one of their branches, snagged Tanya’s body up and threw them in the appropriate direction. As they flew in the air, the sky shifted smoothly into a state that reflected the actual time of day. Still, they couldn’t cross that distance so easily, so…
Tanya temporarily reshaped themselves, four pairs of wings sprouting from their back. The wings also included extra pairs of eyes, allowing Tanya to watch the ground pass beneath them without ignoring any potential obstacles. The input of the extra organs didn’t register to their conscious mind, but the wings adjusted autonomously to the sensory input, both the vision and the tactile/thermal input from the feathers, to maximize their speed. For even greater thrust, the blessing that Tanya bought from Mary gleamed with power from its position in their hair, buoying the strength of their wings and lowering the resistance from the air as a corona of light trailed behind their head.
Hopefully they’ll be able to get there in time…
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The Twilight crossroads, despite the name upgrade, still didn’t take up that much space. While internally, Tanya can and has expanded the amount of space available, objectively (to the extent that that word can apply in Arcadia) it only took up about three acres. Six gigantic trees and the space both beneath and between them.
The lands of House Macedon, on the other hand… had been long diminished since their heyday back when Alexander the Great used their patronage to conquer most of the known world, but they still possessed around fifty thousand-ish square miles of territory scattered throughout that area, albeit mostly concentrated within contemporary Greece, currently known as Hellas in this world.
It was enough land that they needed tens of thousands of human lives consumed to even approach income to reach levels that materially affected their power. It was a bit intimidating to approach them, but Tanya had a plan.
The Lord of Red Rivers was the Sovereign of the Crimson Delta, a coastal demense that, as his name implied, was a literal river of blood. The border of the Atlantean territory meant that the blood sharply turned into ordinary seawater the instant it flowed into the Mediterranean, but it was still an impressive sight.
Even more impressive was the literal army of hobgoblins, feral little savages not even a meter tall holding two meter long spears, drilling their cavalry charges while riding their worgs, even more fearsome fay in the form of large wolves that looked about as fearsome in comparison to real wolves as those wolves compared to corgis.
Clearly, they have yet to be deployed. It was subtle, telling the difference between them drilling for training and them drilling to get into the proper mindset for deployment, conserving their energy instead of putting in their best efforts, but there was one easy way to tell, if you were looking at a large enough group: Tanya couldn’t see a single one of them rutting like the animals they resembled. It takes orders from above to force most lower-caste fae to refrain from near constant orgies.
The castle of the Lord of Red Rivers was placed on a bridge, aesthetically reminiscent of three giant swords sticking out of the ground, with structures binding the three together. Tanya set themselves down in the receiving courtyard at the top of the western blade, which vaguely resembled a helipad but was meant for flying guests to have a way to arrive politely.
Stepping a little past the level of propriety, Tanya immediately descended the stairs. They were of a higher rank than the Lord of the castle, so it wasn’t quite a violation, and time was of the essence. “Ares!” Tanya shouted, spending a few motes to make their voice reverberate among the structure.
In short order, a very testy “God of War” revealed his presence and both of them met in a room that transformed into a battle arena. “We greet the Duchess of House Argent on this day.” He said through gritted teeth. “For what occasion do we get the honor of your visit?”
Tanya took a moment to bask in the obsequious greeting. It was a sign of their hard work finally paying off. “You’ve arranged a deal with the Francois military.” Tanya eventually said, hardening their gaze. Their wings adjusted on their own to direct their own eyes to their scrutiny of the other fairy.
Ares puffed up his chest. “It’s the largest, most lop-sided deal in over a century!” he boasted. “They’re promising me more than your entire fief for assistance in a single battle.”
Tanya sighed. So he was just fooled. “Except they’re scamming you.” They said bluntly.
“Eh?” Ares said, blinking in surprise. “They’re offering me everything they have conquered in that city. People and land.”
“They haven’t conquered that area.” Tanya corrected, “In modern times, they cannot claim ownership until a peace treaty is signed. Their so-called ‘ownership’ of that land is only as peaceful as it is because of that understanding.”
“But by the Laws of King Oberon, they do own it.” Argued Ares.
“When laws conflict like that, it’s up to the laws of the land.” Tanya shot back. “In both the Republic and the Empire, that’s how things go. The Treaty of Worms” Which was the local equivalent of the Hague conventions, “-outlines the proper treatment of occupied territory and prisoners of war. They violate those agreements with your bargain. You’re opening yourself up to a legal dispute, which risks all your gains.”
“A legal dispute would only matter if someone who has standing to object objects.” Ares retorted, which was a very good point. “Mortals are too ignorant to know it.”
“Not the Empire.” Tanya said, shaking their head. “They’ll know and bring up the point.”
“Because you tell them.” Stated Ares. It was not a question. “Why do you care?”
Tanya re-affirmed their glare. “Because some of the things they’re trying to trick you into stealing for them are MINE!” They said, outright snarling at the final word. “If you dare attempt to follow through, I will not only oppose your military forces, slaughtering them to the last man, “ A bluff. They had a lot better odds than one would think, but they also don’t know the full extent of what Ares is sending. “-but I will be filing the legal challenge myself.”
Ares burst out laughing. “You? Challenge me? King Oberon’s going to put it to a challenge duel, you know.”
“Which is why I came here to warn you.” Tanya said smoothly. “Even in the best case scenario, where you manage to defeat me and win the territory in the eyes of King Oberon, you will still be laughed at in the Palais Bourbon as a fool who will be stuck defending territory that is not rightly his from their enemies, and Colonel Moreau or whoever’s idea this is will go down in history as a clever man who got one over on the Fair Folk.”
Ares stilled at the scenario Tanya outlined. When it came right down to it, all that really mattered to him about this venture were the bragging rights. The idea that it could be spoiled by the mortals thinking themselves as his better would be intolerable. As another layer, Tanya was right here, with full knowledge of the trick, and every reason to spread the story.
Unless… “Alright, let’s make a deal.” Ares said immediately. “We’ll settle this between each other, just as if we put it before the King. I win, you keep your mouth shut, argue for my side if needed, and I get whatever you have in that place.”
Tanya raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a lot of risk for me. What do I gain from this wager?” Also, ‘settling this between each other’ also means that all of the normal guard rails for ensuring compliance were null. Only his personal sense of honor would enforce it, and he was not one of the fey that would play fair in that.
“The armies I was going to send. They’ll be yours.” Ares said, “Also, land enough to support them. The Twilight Crossroads is part of the Giant’s forest? Three hundred square miles of it is under House Olympus’ authority. I can wager that much.”
“You realize, of course, that I’ll want this wager affirmed by the Lord of Storms.” Tanya said immediately. It wasn’t that Tanya didn’t trust Ares to be truthful, but it was exactly like a fay to immediately lay a trap that they had just been warned against, to humiliate the one who warned them. “But with those tempting stakes, I am willing to accept, contingent on you refusing to deal with the mortals who are attempting to offer you Arenne until it is resolved.”
Of course, the real reason Tanya had come was to just delay things. If Ares got a hold of Arenne for any amount of time, the damage would be catastrophic. Sure, they could extract Visha beforehand if needed, but Tanya felt a small iota of responsibility for opening this level of disaster, and no amount of punishment of the Francois or Ares would reverse the loss of human resources the deal would have caused.
“Bringing in Lord Zeus would ruin the point of the deal.” Ares said, scowling.
“Which makes it a perfect time for you to overpromise.” Tanya retorted, crossing their arms. “How large is your fief?” Tanya asked.
“Two thousand six hundred square miles.” Ares replied, a little confused.
Tanya nodded. “Instead of providing land directly,” There was a reason he offered that, as Arcadia’s terrain was mutable enough that it would merely appear at the borders of their own, as long as it was still part of the same region. “-how about instead a tithe of your land’s income equal to double the proposed amount? I get the glamor, but you keep everything else. You can even keep the soldiers.”
“Absolutely not.” Ares said angrily. They understood why, it meant that Ares wasn’t, to use a corporation as a metaphor, offloading the cost to other departments. Losing a fourth-ish of his income could easily put his balance sheet in the red.
“Perhaps we could file the stakes at Castle Avalon?” Tanya proposed. “That way,it would only be seen if someone deliberately looked it up. Dueling stakes don’t require King Oberon’s direct approval.” Also they could note that Tanya’s own stake was something vague like ‘discretion and support in a sensitive matter’. Plus, if they went that way, Tanya could have some fun telling people very specific things that the sensitive matter was not, which would be something that could increase their popularity among the court.
Ares didn’t seem to like the idea, but Tanya had also put him in a rhetorical trap. He couldn’t both follow through with his plan and leave Tanya the ability to ruin it, but he also couldn’t abandon the plan without some sort of acceptable reason.
The fact that he also literally couldn’t kill them, only injure them painfully if he even manages that much before they escape back home, also factored in. There was a reason that he didn’t go straight to violence, after all. Inflicting pain on someone was inviting revenge, and as Machiavelli said, “Never do an enemy a small injury.”
Which, admittedly, did put their own actions as a bit foolish, but… fae don’t really change much. He lacked the deviousness required to do anything that would actually injure them, and he lacked the authority to declare a war between their houses.
It was a big risk they were taking, but they had an edge: with Mary’s blessing, they were effectively an aerial mage, a powerful one. Was it enough?
“I accept your terms.”
It would have to be.
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Castle Avalon had a room for pretty much anything. It responded to the will of the inhabitants, although King Oberon most of all. As such, it was a simple matter to, after creating and signing the wager agreement, relocate to a courtyard that was a model battlefield.
In the past, they would have played with miniatures on a table modeled to look just like this.
Flaming letters in the sky announced each of them. Above their own head: “Duchess Titania Argent, Blessed with the Favor of God, Sovereign of the Twilight Crossroads, Lady of Currency.”
Above Ares: “Marquis Ares Olympus, General of the Eternal Armies of Hellas, Sovereign of the Crimson Delta, Lord of Red Rivers.”
Tanya was back in their ordinary form, as it was against dueling etiquette to come pre-shaped. That said, they wore a golden facsimile of aerial mage gear, with the sole exception being, as before, X’s stolen blessing acting as a hair ornament, a golden glow sheathing Tanya’s head.
Ares took the form of a four-meter tall giant, surrounded by ghostly Greek (or, Hellen they supposed) soldiers, already organized in a protective phalanx. He wore his hair long, draped over his shoulders as his neatly trimmed beard framed his eager grin. He wore a simple toga, which was a dead giveaway that his first move will be to shape himself substantial armor from glamor.
This was Tanya’s first duel, although they had studied strategy for a while, and wouldn’t have even considered this if Ares didn’t frequently fight for rather petty stakes. They knew what to expect.
“Attack!” Ares ordered, although it was theater. The ghostly army was an extension of his will. The ghostly army threw their spears in a wall of ethereal iron as Ares shaped glamor into a suitably fearsome panoply. Tanya instead set their computation orb to focus on the barrier, doing the same as Ares and shaping their glamor into a rifle.
As expected, the probing attack of Ares’ army washed off the barrier like rain. “Good… if it couldn’t manage even this much, I wouldn’t have had a chance.” With their brand-new anti-tank rifle ready, the length of it thrice as much as their diminutive height, they were ready.
So was Ares, unfortunately. Bronze molded tightly to his skin, which bulged from his muscles growing to twice their previous thickness. His toga was discarded, and he marched forward with his armies completely nude. He wielded a large shield and a thick spear, the only thing he had that resembled clothing was a plumed helmet enclosing his head.
Fortunately, Tanya had explosive spells. X’s blessing was, by their will, modeled into an echo of the type 95, for ease of use. Thus, it required a single mental nudge to form thirty-two such spells in a simple aerial formation, and Tanya unleashed a single volley as a test.
Hundreds of ghostly specters were blown away ignominiously, despite raising shields. There were still thousands more, but Ares had fallen down from the earth shaking beneath his feet, his shock visible through his helmet, as it deformed to match his expression like an animated character.
“The phalanx has been broken!” Ares announced boldly, recovering quickly. “Recover, you Catamites! Stand firm!”
Well, if he was going to just repeat himself… Four more volleys should get most of them. A song suddenly popped into their head, and the warm feeling of power put Tanya in a good enough mood to voice it as they sent the first volley. “I send a pestilence and plague, into your house, into your bed,” This tune was kind of catchy. “-into your streams, into your streets, into your drink, into your bread!” Tanya sent the second volley, targeting the gaps in the formation from the broken shields and willing them to shape their explosions outwards instead of upwards.
Tanya continued the chant-like lyrics. “Upon your cattle, on your sheep, upon your oxen in your field, into your dreams, into your sleep, until you break until you yield!” The third volley was sent to the outer reaches of the formation, aiming to hit the press of bodies as they scattered in a rout.
“I send the swarm, I send the horde!” Tanya shouted as the last volley was aimed straight at Ares, the most power they had ever drawn from the stolen blessing at one time. “Thus saith the Lord!”
Tanya victory suddenly became as ash in her mouth as they realized what had happened.
“Hello, Tanya.” Being X said, the world standing still to his words.
