Chương 107: BECMI Chapter 106 – Another Courting Call

Tempus Fugit had ensured that I only needed two hours of downtime to Meditate, clear my Slots for High Moon Renewal, and was then free to start a new day. The fortified locations of the Khirifi in the Duchy of Elb had been wiped clean of them. There might be scattered patrols or forces in the middle of being transferred who were still alive, but their bases of operations and thus supply depots were now gone, and in the hands of native Elbers who were not going to give them up again.

Indeed, with the horses, weapons, and armor the dead had left behind, the Elbers were very quickly going to find themselves equipped to do battle once more, possibly making up for their poor performance from years ago. King Antius had crossed into the Duchy and secured a foothold that the Khirifi were going to have no way of breaking without some really powerful magic... the kind of magic that I had just violently shut down.

Soon enough a fleet would also be crossing over to Isoford and taking the territory formally. The odds the Elbers would turn down his leadership were slim to none at this point, especially given what I had done and my recommendations. To the Khirifi, it was going to feel like a giant hammer had dropped down out of the sky and blotted out all their work of the last decade. Then they were going to trace it all back to me and take on some really unsightly expressions.

Whether they would realize that before I started rolling them back up was a different matter. A lightning bolt crackled skywards from the trailing edge of the forest below. It didn't get within fifty yards of me, but it obviously had been sent up to gain my attention. Given I was Invisible at the moment, that meant someone was actually looking at the sky with invisibility-piercing magic, trying to find me. Far be it from me to deny their invitation.

I had a Mystic Shield, basically a Globe of Invulnerability good against up to Valence VII's (VI's for clerics), ready in case I was about to be attacked, and wouldn't that be a nasty surprise to anyone trying spells on me. It basically shut down almost all spells of the Casters hereabouts, as there was only a handful of powerful Casters here in the Northlands who could spin spells that powerful… and the Caster of that Lightning Bolt wasn't one of them.

My Vista of Eternal Darkness saw them before my eyes made them out, camouflaged in tree cover via treeslipping and Elven Cloaks as they were. I ignored the one in the open, directing Duum to spiral down as lightly as a butterfly and then stop and hover exactly in the middle of their group, facing the concealed ones more than the obvious one.

"If the five of you would care to speak openly instead of skulking?" I asked in rather cutting Elven they could all hear without me raising my voice. Acutely embarrassed that I'd found them out, the other four elves came out of cover, bows in hand but arrows hastily unnocked as I waited there on Duum, who was hovering there lazily fifteen feet off the ground. H is sonar was also blanketing the area and letting me know I hadn't missed anyone close who might have a Div Ward powerful enough to deny my Detect.

"Lady Edge," the first one to break cover spoke up, his Brown-Gray Aura indicating he was the highest Level, a D Rank, and the others were spread from Eight to Ten.

"I am Revylon Tauirmist. I greet you in the name of the Court of the Wilderwood." He was average height for an elf at about five foot, fair of skin, but very dark of hair. H e and his clanmates, all male, were all very dark brown or straight black in hair color. One of the Mealyn tribes, who only acknowledged Waynder Equavus under protest as the Lord of Elves in the North. Also probably the ancestors of the shadow elves, and thus my own ancestors.

They had some bad history with humans, stemming from a battle in which badly mauled humans had fled under magical bombardment, leading to the elves having to carry the victory and taking losses they blamed on the fleeing humans. This had so warped their worldview that further help from or alliance with human forces had become nigh-impossible, resulting in even more elven losses and even attacking human lands in retribution by those elves.

The elves responsible had been cursed by the dying elf king of the day for their actions, rendered sterile and unable to have children, as well as blackening their hair to match their hearts. It meant their numbers had plunged and they had been forced to abandon any thoughts of retribution against humans to protect their children, but they still did not get along with any of the humans in the north at all… including King Antius and his frankly heroic companions.

Once treacherous and cowardly, always treacherous and cowardly in their minds. The fact that so many humans who fled to the woods were indeed that way, and both the Khirifi and the Empire of Iberon didn't have many positive aspects about them at all, didn't help matters. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

However, most of the Elbers were perfectly happy to leave the elves alone if they were left alone, but it also meant the Mealyn clans did not lift a finger to help them, except on a rare individual basis, during the entire decade-long fighting against the Khirifi, considering it a conflict between greedy humans that was none of their business.

For their part, the Khirifi also ignored the elves, not wishing to be caught up in the kind of guerrilla warfare elves excelled at, and correctly reading that the isolationist elves weren't going to do anything. They could always be dealt with later, regardless. Isolationist meant not a threat and not competition, and also vulnerable to being dealt with piecemeal when it was time to finally turn on them.

These fools were solidly Brown to Gray, what was good for their tribes and clans was what was good, and that was that. They had the metaview of frogs in a well, and I had about as much use for them. Fate said some of them would manage to flee the Doom, and eventually grow into my ancestors in the other timestream. It hardly meant I had to encourage them in the here and now.

"An envoy of the Wild er wood Court," I repeated calmly, regarding him absolutely neutrally, clearly not impressed by his status.

"Given we are nearly forty miles from the borders of your Court, and the swamp behind you is not part of it, you must have a keen wish to speak with me, elder. Even going so far as to set up camp on my path to Fort Brazenhorn." His smile was clearly a bit forced.

"There were some attempts to speak with you at the Weirwood Court, but you were… evasive," he said politely.

"I was rather cuttingly negative, elder," I corrected him directly, unperturbed.

"The lack of initiative, xenophobia, cowardice, and deflective blame of the Mealyn clans did not impress me or Belle in the slightest." I leaned forward as he flinched.

"Ah, you have heard of the path of Elven Magery. You are hoping to learn it from me, as Belle will not teach it to you, and High Lord Equavus is obviously not going to advocate it for you and risk losing it for the Ceruil clans.

"You will not bother to learn it. It is, after all, derived from human magical Traditions, and so you want nothing to do with it." His expression of thwarted desire and stunned revulsion was really rather hilarious.

"You… you must be jesting…" I just elevated an eyebrow.

"You come from the future!" Ah, so that had escaped him.

"Surely this must be knowledge that was discovered in the future by our people!" he demanded of me.

"That knowledge exists in this time, discovered by the People who had long contacts with human Wizards of great power, discovering that our people's natural and instinctive focus on martial ability could be bent and channeled into greater magical power instead.

All of the initial higher-Valence spells were of human design, although naturally the styles and methods of the two Traditions have diverged over the centuries, much as the more basic spells have, yet are both understandable to the other," I corrected him with detached, cruel patience.

"The one thing that has been done has been suborning some of the natural Druidic, Primal magicks into elven magery… but this new Halcyon method has been very inefficient and not a proper Theurgic T radition. That is probably because the elves try very hard not to let humans know of this ability, fearing they will lose an edge, when in fact humans will eagerly take it and improve upon it.

"It is really rather funny to look at the foibles of my p eople, and I shake my head at it. We think ourselves so superior with our universal skill in magic, and our long years, and grace and artistry… and the humans take everything we pride ourselves in, exceed it, improve on it, and leave their mark on the world, while we fall into shadow and dreams, lost and never remembered.

"Like the Mealyn are doing even now." My dark amusement at their expressions was infuriating them, but they dared not get angry at me.

"If this Tradition exists, we can learn it independently then, Lady Edge!" he challenged me.

"Indeed," I so nodded.

"And once again, competing with humanity and deriving from its creativity and ambition benefits the People, much as we hate it. Much like having to deal with dwarves meant we ventured into using metal instead of all wood and leather." Again, the expressions on their faces.

"But I have things that need doing, elders. If you have no more questions?" I asked perfunctorily, Duum starting to rise with only the slightest shift of his wings.

"If so, I will regularly be in attendance upon the Weirwood Court, and can be contacted there. You really are rather exposed here, and should go hide back in the Wild er wood."

"Attacking the invading humans will only bring disaster upon all of us!" Tauirmist exclaimed loudly. Maybe he even believed it. More likely it was just trying to guilt me into obeying one of their decisions.

"They are conquerors and slavers. NOT attacking them is madness, because they WILL turn on you and the disaster you attempt to avoid will come at the time of their choosing, instead the time of yours," I replied icily.

"What hunter waits for the beast in the wilds to stalk them? Quit being fools and engage the world, elder. The world does not care and will roll over us as time passes as surely as the mountains rise and fall… and the mountains rise and fall at the whims of the Immortals, not the will of any mortals, including the elves!" Then I was out of their shouting range, and winging south once more, heading for the new northernmost outpost of the Khirifi.

Dealing with Soul Eaters was going to cost the Khirifi their lives, and my mercy quotient was non-existent for shit like that. The only way they had to counter me was coming after me with similarly high-Level stuff being dispatched. The Khirifi didn't have the powerful people of their own to unleash on me, which meant their Immortal Patron was going to have to pull some strings and send some things after me personally who could handle me, or come down and do the job Himself.

Of course, He was also going to be leery that someone was backing me, and that might result in Immortal vs Immortal, which was very much not permitted on the Prime, so He'd have to be secretive or back-handed about it. I expected the next ramp-up to be efreet granting Wishes and trying to attack me with those things. Unfortunately for them, I could Counter a LOT of Wishes, and genies Wishcrafting also drew a LOT of Immortal attention. I didn't know which Immortals would be attracted, however…