Chương 119: BECMI Chapter 118 – On a Higher Cause

Princess Brittabelle fixed me with a sterner eye.

"Now, I must ask, far as we are from both of our peoples… why have you sided with us instead of your people?" she pressed me.

"Surely, a woman of your youth, beauty, power, competence, and drive could easily earn accolades and a position of power among them, irrespective of your father's identity…"

"Your Highness," I replied coolly, "if you care to go back over any and all of your meetings with me and the things that I do, when did it ever seem I was motivated by race politics?" Her mouth opened to say something, closed, and then she turned her head to look sideways at the Free Company, composed of members of four different races, if only represented by one hyn.

She considered elves sitting with dwarves without animosity, discussing the fine points of wine and beer, different songs and styles ringing out from the humans, all at ease and trusting one another as only those who'd fought and bled together could do.

"Race politics," she repeated once, turning over the words.

"That sounds… very close-minded."

"When the highest goal is the advancement of your clan, tribe, people, or species over another, and anything is justifiable in that context… it is extremely close-minded. I note you have great admiration for King Antius, who has also somehow managed to bring in all four peoples to make something new here in the North, and thus found the legend that is Darkmoor.

"It is something you do not see in Zanzyr, riven as it is along family lines and basically tribal conflict. Is not your own presence in Zanzyr basically an attempt by a Sidheduiche family to gain insight into the magic and unique power of the Radiance that underlies Zanzyr?" She started to deny it, but I just held her eyes and slowly arched my eyebrow.

"You… are also familiar with the Radiance?" she asked, shocked.

"The shadenelves were aware of the magic around the Radiance for millennia before the mages of Zanzyr were. The gammathauma radiation allows Gaebrel to empower His priestesses as Clerics, and after the spells of the Radiance were discovered, He also is able to grant them to His priestesses.

"He emphatically does not reveal them to the mages of the shadenelves. They are all mystical powers granted by their Immortal Patron as a reward for their unstinting belief in Him." She sucked in a quiet breath, aware this was a huge secret that had just fallen into her hands out of nowhere.

"The shadenelves can use the Radiance…" she whispered, more than a little horrified at the implications.

"Only underground." She blinked.

"Use of the Radiance can only be done with the soul crystals, mined underground and reserved for use by the Priests of Gaebrel alone. The crystals… they obviate the negative consequences of the Radiance on the Casters… at a price." She waited for me to go on, but I did not. If she wanted to know…

"I am almost afraid to ask. What price?" she asked softly, leaning forward.

"Are you aware that abuse of gammathauma radiation results in radiation sickness and withering of the body?" She nodded slowly.

"It is… rumored that those who rely too much on it gain a sickness of the body they cannot rid themselves of, and it can even kill them!" she nodded.

"No, it won't kill them. Because if they die from it, they will promptly Animate from it as a Lich of the Radiance." Her lips pursed in consternation, and she was about to say something when I raised a finger.

"The soul crystals siphon off this unwanted aspect of the Radiance, and at Gaebrel's direction, it is sent out into the bloodlines of his faithful. The corruption does not take place in the wielders of the Radiance, but instead corrupts some of the children of the shadenelves as a whole." Her face looked like she wanted to throw up.

"These cursed children are naturally obvious at birth, and there is an entire branch of the priesthood which is dedicated to disposing of them. The malformed, mutated babes are walked out into the tunnels by the Priestesses of Gaebrel, and left out there in the dark." She started to cringe in empathy.

"Where they are found by orcs, goblins, kobolds, and the like, and raised among them as their own." Her eyes opened very, very wide in shock and mounting horror.

"I daresay that after two thousand and more years of this, there is not a single tribe of anthroids in the Bleaklands that does not bear some elven blood, and the shadenelves have been butchering their own descendants for generations when they unknowingly come raging back to attack their forebears with their savage families." This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The horror on her face as she stared at me was unfeigned.

She made a pretty horrible manipulative Zanzyran Wizard-Prince, after all.

"That was nearly my fate, not appearing as a normal elf-child," I went on coolly, ladling it all in icily.

"Thankfully the matter of my father's identity explained much, and I was not expended for the sake of the race and sent out to become a bloodline stabilizer for a tribe of goblins or something." Belle shivered at the chill in my voice.

"Race politics and Immortal Projects." My eyes were probably shining like lit rubies as I stared at her.

"I think you can see why I believe in neither."

"I, I do…" she whispered, trailing off.

"And your people don't even know this is happening, or why, do they?" she gasped.

"No, the shadenelves do not know. Actually, not even the Priests know. They have no knowledge the power of the Radiance can be wielded by mages as they do, and would smugly think that the power of Gaebrel protects them regardless.

"No. The corruption and mutation among the shadenelves did not start until well after they began mining soul crystals and the first Priests among them manifested with their facial markings. I am aware of the costs of using the Radiance, and the Priests of Gaebrel wield it without fear and without the danger of those here on the surface." My voice dropped lower.

"Because all shadenelves pay the price for them." She winced and looked away.

"And this Immortal Patron of theirs is not an evil creature?" she had to ask, shuddering.

"Uncaring, possibly. Misdirecting, certainly. Malicious? I don't think so. Gaebrel probably simply considers it an acceptable cost… and might even delude Himself into thinking it's a good thing by stabilizing the bloodlines of the anthroids. He has treated His people well, made them strong, given them unity and purpose. That they are deluded pawns and tools for Him is a given.

"I, I refuse to be one of them. I have… other plans." She looked back at me, but I didn't give her much to go on.

"Is your bringing me back in time to this era to work on the martial skills I have never endorsed part of it all?" she had to ask.

"Most certainly. Your martial weakness was unacceptable in one of the most open-minded and goodhearted beings that I have ever encountered. It has been gnawing at your thoughts for decades that, despite your magic, you were not strong enough to save your husband and do what must be done to defend your people.

You know your lack of martial skill is a weakness in the eyes of your people, the Bleaklanders, and your rivals in Colorajo, but you simply did not have the time to work on that and fortify yourself and your will to do what must be done.

"Giving you the time to do so was thus paramount for easing your state of mind and giving you a much-needed relief from your duties without ignoring your responsibilities and without chance of interruption. There are so many things you are going to do when you return… but you will have the energy and the ability to do them." She gave me another assessing gaze.

"You have more things for me to do?" she asked, half-affronted, half-intrigued by such blunt assessment.

"You are losing influence with the other Princes of Zanzyr, and by extension in the country itself," I replied calmly, startling her with the blunt statement.

"You are aware of it, but you are not taking the proper moves to alleviate the problem. You are attempting to take the high road of showing them there is a better way, of living in harmony with and caring for the land… but they are humans. The vast majority of them simply do not have the lifespan, the magic, or the inclination to live anything close to the way we elves do, and so it is not working. Living by example appeals to only a few humans…

and not the sort of aggressive, ambitious humans who want to live in a magocracy, despite the fact you have potentially the most powerful and versatile of the Secret Schools to offer as enticement.

"No, Belle, you must do something a bit more direct." She arched her own eyebrow at me, but at least I was openly manipulating her, not dancing around the subject.

"And what might that be?"

"The road has already been trod for you, in Siricil. The Cyapri elven clans there pushed back against the culture of Siricil by, instead of closing themselves off from the aggressive humans, opening themselves up. The Rangers of Emertaltan are well-known even in Zanzyr.

"I am aware," I cut her off before she could speak, "that many conservative elves consider the existence of the Rangers an affront to elven uniqueness and a sign of weakness. In the Sidheduiche, they have no martial obligation or debt to a human empire to repay, and so spurn the recruiting of humans to train Rangers of their own.

"They are, of course, completely missing the point." She stared at me intently, thinking hard on my words. I watched point by point arguments flitter past her eyes.

"Those Rangers… they are expressly empowered by a Ritual tied to the Lumina Trees. That means they are approved by Correllin Himself. This is not about race politics…" I nodded slowly.

"Each such human to be so honored is judged by the Tree and Correllin directly. That means THEY find the human worthy of elven teachings.

"To put it another way, the humans must have good hearts, and share many of the beliefs that the Sidhe elves do.

"This is an out-and-out benefit to humans who can qualify, and it is not dependent on their birth or lineage. They must be smart, and swift… and they must have good hearts in the face of the judgment of an Immortal.

"If the Trees and your own patron Immortal judge them worthy, who are you to deny them this great gift?" She pursed her lips in hard thought.

"And it is not something they can steal," she reasoned out slowly.

"It is not something they can abuse. If they act in a vile and evil manner, the blessing can be withdrawn…"

"And yet, each and every Ranger is a blessing to the elves, a human who shares their beliefs, yet adds human energy, drive, and ambition, along with a viewpoint for action that elves typically do not understand or appreciate." Overworking neo-goths aside.

"I am sure there are dozens of humans in the lands of you and your vassal nobles, and probably hundreds throughout the lands of Zanzyr, who would qualify on basis of virtue, and it merely remains to teach them the elven ways and see if they are compatible.

"From the research I did, you should probably recruit an elder of the Emertaltan to help set up the program, but I imagine that within three years you could add dozens of new Rangers to Erendyl, and your influence and reach would start to grow among humans. Your adherence to high principles would now have clear benefits and rewards, which will gratify and inspire others to follow those principles, because it is now Good to do so."