Back to Yonder for Publication, page 17
“You continue to be a mystery. Luckily for you when one is as old as I am you tend to crave mysteries and new things more than anything else. Eternal life is a burden in many ways. Perhaps you can bring something of a respite to my boredom.”
“Well more than one of my wives has said that I’m their favorite form of entertainment.”
She giggled. It was almost girlish, and seemed out of place with the power of the aura I was now able to sense from her, particularly when combined with her alien features. “Now look who’s being unfair. It isn’t nice to flirt with a woman who’s been sexually deprived as long as I have, but then again—that is part of our story.”
Then she looked upward. “Daughters, create a small grove and prepare tea service.”
The twelve fairies overhead all began to flit about. I felt numerous strands of mana being tossed out. Earth Mana, Nature Mana, Plant Mana, Summoning Mana, there were simply too many for me to track even though my still forming mind core made the task easier than it would have been before.
As the ground sprouted up trees and a table shaped from a tree, complete with chairs woven from branches, I took a second and glanced at my other notifications in the hope that some of them would give me a leg up against my opponents.
You have been struck by Null-Magic. All active magical effects have been negated. The duration of your Potion of Flight has been forcibly ended, immediately.
Well, that explained the initial attack. That was likely a powerful ability. I ran through my mind thinking about how it might affect my strategy. I didn’t know if it would stop my guns from being shot. The powder was, after all, an alchemical composition— even if the rounds were just solid metal slugs.
Most of my gear was magical—from my sword, to the armor Sativa had given me when I was transported here. I didn’t know if it would affect a sentient weapon but then again, the blade would still be a sharp piece of metal even if it did. As for the armor, I didn’t really depend on it for protection now. My body was likely more durable than the armor now, but I wore it out of habit.
My bow would definitely be effective, but I likely wouldn’t have used it in this situation anyway. I wondered if she could cancel my use of mana by-products. They weren’t really magic. They were the waste product created when I converted mana to ki—waste products that I had learned were not such a waste after all.
Thinking about my ki, I doubted that her power would affect it at all. She had seemed completely unprepared for it. If I had to guess she had powerful sensory ability which allowed her to detect mana but my ki was essentially invisible to those senses. All of this simply helped me focus on what strategies would work.
She might actually be stronger than me, but I didn’t think she was beyond me because she didn’t have a good counter for my cultivation-based abilities. I just had to remember that I couldn’t count on my gear to work for me including the gravity powers in my shield which would have been useful against a flying foe or the mana draining powers of my gloves. Fortunately, I could still drain mana on my own, just not as quickly.
I looked at the next couple of notifications. Nothing was really odd but them, but they were all welcome.
By-Product Manipulation: +3% (current 92%)
Metallic Body +1
Mind Core +1% (current 97%)
Toxic Resistance: +2
Hmm… I didn’t recall her trying to poison me, but it was a good warning. Actually, a really good warning if she was expecting me to drink tea with her.
As I read the last of the notifications, I looked around and saw that the grassy hillside we had been standing on, or that I had been standing on and she was hovering above, was now a perfect little forest grove. A ring of thirty-foot-tall willow trees had sprung up around us. Various flowers grew all around the trees creating a colorful backdrop. In the center of the grove was what appeared to be a table carved from a tree stump, but I could still sense life in it. There were even green sprigs budding from its sides. Two chairs were set on either side of the stump. They were made of woven branches or rather vines which had sprung up from the ground.
It wasn’t lost on me that someone who could create a chair like that could also use those vines as a weapon or more likely a type of restraint. Sitting on such a chair was going to open me up to that. If I was going to listen to her, I was going to have to count on my superior stats to get me through.
Delicia descended fully to the ground and then took a step to the chair on the far side of the table. She sat down gracefully, no sexily. I checked myself for any sense that she was influencing me, but no this was just the simple fact that she was an attractive woman and the way she sat pulled her gown up to expose more of her shapely legs.
“Won’t you join me? Or is a chair like that too tough for you to sit in? I would have thought with your density, that it wouldn’t matter if a tiny thorn or two poked into your back.”
She was taunting me. Ugh, how I would have preferred to simply fight, but I was trying to act like how Rava might in this situation. That gave me the idea to reach out, but I wasn’t able to make contact. Either they were still too far away, or the mountain between us was blocking my attempts to reach her.
I stepped up and took my seat across from her. The chair was surprisingly comfortable with just enough support while also shifting to accommodate my form. In front of me on the table was a tea pot, two cups, what looked like sugar cubes, and perhaps cream.
She waved her hand and another of the fairies grew to be the size of a regular human woman. She was just as alien in her appearance as the queen, but not quite as beautiful.
Delicia said, “Sema, please serve our guest.”
The fairies eyes lit up and she said, “I’d be happy to serve him in anyway which you’d allow, my queen.”
Ugh, so we were back to that.
“Not really sure how to address a queen, but since I call gods and goddesses by their names, I’m gonna follow the same policy with you. Delicia you can cut out the little games. We need to reach an agreement of non-aggression, or this is just going to devolve back into a fight considering your people attacked my caravan and then you attacked me.”
“Well truthfully, I was a bit upset by how you handled Princess Gamia, but my attack was more of a test. One which you passed with flying colors.”
“Whatever, I like training as much as anyone.” Then I chuckled. “I suppose my wives would say I like it more than is healthy but any offer you make is going to have to be convincing given how our relationship started off.”
“I suppose so, hmm, now if only there were something I could offer you as a gesture of good faith.” Then she got a wicked grin on her face.
Chapter 21 – Verbal Sparring
“If I must take it on faith, what—if anything—that has come from you or yours has been good?”
Her smile grew even wider. “Oh, I knew there was one way you could be fun, and then fighting with you was quite exhilarating, too. I don’t think I’ve been this worked up in a couple hundred years. I never would have guessed that the verbal sparring would be so entertaining.”
I made a flourishing gesture with my hand and a half bow while staying seated. “Glad to be so entertaining, your majesty.”
She made a show of fanning herself. “Oh, don’t start using honorifics now. I thought we were getting intimate and those ‘your majesties’ ruin the mood.”
I grinned. “Really, one of my wives sorta likes it when I call her Mistress. She is my alchemy teacher after all. Then she likes it even more when I turn the tables on her, and the mistress finds herself on the receiving end of a spanking.”
She winked. “Playful indeed. But yes, you were asking for a non-aggression pact. Suitably wise. I doubt you’ll want to drink my tea without some assurances. So here we go: I, Delicia, queen of all fairies, pledge that you will be entirely safe from harm…”
“As defined by me,” I interjected.
She frowned but then continued. “You will be entirely safe from harm, as defined by you, from myself or any of my people for the duration of this conversation and for one hour thereafter. As gesture of good faith, I offer you this token.”
Then she made a quick circular motion in the air with her hand and suddenly a slender rod with a clear crystal atop it appeared in her hand. It was perhaps ten inches long, not including the crystal, and an inch in diameter. In her delicate hand, though, it looked much larger.
She held it out for me to inspect but rather than touching it, I simply assessed it.
Null Magic Rod - single use item.
Wt: 1.2 lbs.
Effect: This rod will trigger a single use of null magic on any target within 300 feet. The target and everything around them within a 5-foot sphere will be affected by null magic. Duration: 15 seconds give or take 10 seconds depending upon the power of the affected target.
Null magic temporarily shuts down any mana-based effect, including enchantments, potions, and personally created effects. Duration may vary but never exceeds a few seconds. Mages will suffer headaches and nausea, which may be debilitating, when subjected to null magic.
Hmm… was it possible that she was truly trying to negotiate in good faith. Now, I was halfway curious to see what she wanted from me, although given what my wives had told me about the situation the fairies were in made me pretty sure I knew.
“And what do you desire in exchange?”
“Why, simply for you to listen to my side of the story and a subsequent proposal I shall make with an open mind. You can stop listening at any time, but as soon as you do, the one hour of non-aggression begins. Of course, if you accept my proposal then this won’t be an issue.”
Oh yeah, I knew where this was going, but fighting my way out of here was probably only a 50/50 proposition, given their apparent ability to negate my Potions of Flight.
“Okay,” I nodded, “I agree to your offer and accept your gift given as a sign of good faith.”
I reached out and grabbed the rod from her hand. There was a tingle as my gloved hand brushed against her skin. She was brimming full of mana, a practical smorgasbord. I almost got hungry, just from that touch.
I slipped the rod under my belt rather than in a spatial pouch, as I didn’t know if it would be compatible with a magical container. I figured the best thing, would be to allow Rava to take a look at it. For that to happen, though, I needed to get safely away from here.
“Okay, I’m listening,” I said.
To prove my point, I added a couple of sugar cubes to my tea and took a sip. My stomach clenched up for just a moment as I braced myself for poison, but I didn’t feel a thing. It turned out the tea was actually quite good, if you liked that sort of thing.
“My people are ones who exist on other worlds—although I was born here on Olimero and any of the fairies who were brought here by Telmorra and Sativa have long since died. We were only modified in one way by Sativa, and that was to strip us of our ability to travel across dimensions. Thus, all the fairies of Olimero are trapped here, and no other fairies can travel to this world.”
I nodded. “That sounds like Sativa, alright. She didn’t exactly give me all the details before she brought me here, either.”
“My people are bastions of magic, and any world we live on has a higher grade of mana. We are connected to Telmorra as she was once a member of a related race—you could say we are distant cousins—but we revere her like an honored older sister, not like a goddess.”
“I bet she loves that.”
Delicia smiled at my sarcasm. “I can see that you’ve met Telmorra, then. When she is in a good mood, she can be quite helpful… but when she feels disrespected or gets upset, she is a full-on bitch.”
I didn’t say anything but grinned to hear Delicia’s assessment.
“So much so, that when Sativa became angry with us for subjugating the lesser races, it was Telmorra who helped her to curse us. Keep in mind that my people didn’t ask to be brought to Olimero. To us, the beastkin, orcs, and even the elves—who we somewhat related to—were crude in their understanding of magic.”
She paused, sighing. “Although, sadly, we too have lost much of what we once had. Having fallen far from the pinnacle of our power, even here.”
An uneasy quiet settled between us, as the fairy queen pensively stared off into nowhere, obviously thinking about the past. Hell, depending on how ancient she really was, possibly even remembering it.
She shook her head to bring herself back to the present. “We can hardly be blamed for trying to bring order to this chaotic world. We went to war with all the other races and, despite being greatly outnumbered, our leaders thought we had a decent chance of winning.”
She took a sip of her own tea before continuing. “I was not yet born when the war started and was quite young when it ended.”
“Dare I ask why your people lost?” I ventured, brows raised.
“The problem for those who are magically strong but physically weak, is much like what you saw while we were battling. Magic is a powerful tool and can wreak great destruction—but if we slip up even once, we can be physically overwhelmed. Add to that the fact that virtually all of my people have to sleep to recover our mana—well, we couldn’t be perpetually vigilant.”
“I can see where this is going,” I said. “You fairies were overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the other races. I’m not going to agree with your characterization of them as lesser, though, just because they were different from you.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps you’re right, but it is hard to reverse hundreds of years of thinking a particular way all at once. Suffice it to say, that we were defeated and then cursed by the gods as a punishment. The last of our males died during the war and no new ones would be born. We had the magic to entrap males from other races and due to the way Sativa made Olimero, all of our children are born as fairies—but the curse makes it so that any fairy who is born, is female.”
I winced. “That is rough, but I’m sure some directors of questionable films back home would love a set up like that.”
She seemed confused by my comment, so I waved it away and said, “Never mind. Sometimes I make references to things from the world I came from which make absolutely no sense here.”
She smiled then. “You really are quite entertaining. But, ever since the curse, my people are a dying race. We can capture males and have more fairy girls, but it has become more and more dangerous to get close to any of the populated areas. Thus, you find us living near the frontier, but not so close to the truly wild parts that we have to deal with monsters—the irony, of course, being that we are no longer considered a race of Olimero, but instead are considered monsters.”
“What makes you unique, then?” I asked. “Unless that is rude of me to ask... I mean, it is obvious that you are powerful—perhaps even to the point of what might be considered A-rank. If there were more than a few fairies as powerful as you, then I would have to think that even the cities wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”
“No, you are not wrong.” The look she gave me was a mix of self-pity and self-loathing. “I am fully considered an A ranked monster on Olimero, now. But the gods get nervous about monsters as powerful as me. I think they fear that we might find a way to ascend beyond mortality. Thus, both the elder dragons and fairies have each been smited by the gods—just in different ways.”
“If you are that powerful, how is it that you couldn’t easily defeat me?”
“First off, you’re assuming that I couldn’t have if I wanted to, but being fair, you are not a weakling yourself. Your path of power is completely different from my own—which is what gives me some hope, but if I had to guess, you are nearing A rank yourself. Just know that the final jump is quite significant. As for our fight, your type is a perfect counter to me, but with enough preparation I could overcome that.” A grin tugged at the corners of her lips as she took another sip of tea. “So, don’t think yourself too safe.”
When she smiled this time, her teeth had grown sharp, and it was a bit terrifying.
“So essentially your story is the same as what I was told but you paint yourselves as the victims because you didn’t ask to be brought to Olimero and somehow that justified you subjugating or was it going to be exterminating all the other races?”
“Yes, but it sounds harsh when you say it like that. Yet, I can’t explain the decisions of those who came before me. They had their own motivations. Honestly, until encountering you, the lack of soul based abilities for all but a few monsters truly make the other races seem lesser.”
“So, you did try to possess me?”
She leaned forward on her elbows and stared directly into my eyes. “No. I did not try to possess you, but I did attack your soul. It wasn’t a particularly powerful attack, but it at least confirmed that you do have abilities beyond just the Law of Blood.”
