Algebrun

  Adventurer Level: N/A

  Arch-Fae - Deepwyld Forest

  "This is boring," Tits whined. "Why can't we just kill them?"

  We had met to speak of the vampires. They had suddenly reappeared along with the daemons that invaded, and had taken the Night Kingdom from the orcs. They had done so alongside a force of daemons, as well.

  These events had been witnessed by several wylder. Unfortunately, a good portion of them were either quite far from us, which made informing us an afterthought for them, or aligned with the court. As such, it had taken quite some time for word to reach us.

  Tits knew the answer to the question that they had asked. I knew this... Instinctively, for lack of a better word, because we shared a little piece of each other between us. This had happened when Nick named us, but we hadn't fully realized the extent of the connection until later on. We had decided that since our ascensions were... Unique, it would be best to keep the connection to ourselves. Let the higher ones reveal it, if they felt the need.

  Mumuldobran rubbed a bulging forehead vein and sighed heavily. I couldn't help but agree with the sentiment. Despite the connection between Tits and I, it would be a lie to claim that their antics didn't wear on me.

  "Like I FUCKING said, Tits, High Chief Ulurmak has decided to play at diplomacy with the fallen ones," Mumuldobran explained. Again.

  "I find myself in agreement with Tits," said Horth, the Bone Fae King. "This IS boring, and I think we should go and fight them. Ulurmak and his orcs bedamned."

  By the time we'd received word of the vampiric invasion of the Night Kingdom and agreed to act, the vampires had already secured their position and sent a missive to the orcs. Tix, our representative to the Unified Chiefdoms, appeared before the High Chief just in time to find him reading the missive. They wished to negotiate a peace, up to the point of a mutual defense pact.

  Through Tix, Ulurmak made his wishes clear. Though he carries a deep distrust of the vampires, the daemons are obviously the bigger threat. He believes that the vampires regret their dealings with the daemons and wish to seek help parting from their company.

  If that's indeed the case, then it certainly puts the vampires at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiations. Getting them to agree to stipulations that would be necessary for their coexistence with mortals would be far easier than it had ever been. Whether the vampires would uphold their end of that bargain was a whole other matter, and the crux of our current worries.

  "Oh yes, bedamn the orcs," Mumuldobran said with a sarcastic venom, then shook its head in disgust. "More brawn than brains, this one. Stupid."

  "No, what's stupid is believing that the vampires will hold true to their word," Horth growled. "It isn't as if they became vampires because they're worthy of trust."

  "Whether the vampires stay true to their word or not isn't relevant, bone-head. Attacking the vampires would require us to leave the forest. Since doing so would weaken us, such action is foolhardy. In addition, the attack would harm relations with the Unified Chiefdoms. While I doubt that Ulurmak would call our trust into question over this matter, it would make him all the more likely to do so in the future should we inadvertently offend."

  "Who cares, though?" Basinoth, the Blood Fae King, asked. "If we dissolve relations with the Unified Chiefdoms, how much would we actually be impacted? We lose out on some trinkets and herbs? The occasional guest? Bah."

  We were holding our meeting in a grove that was centered within a clearing. There were several lesser wylder hanging around, but they were all being uncharacteristically silent. Everyone present stared at Basinoth. Some seemed to agree, others seemed horrified at the suggestion. Most of the fairies seemed confused.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "We made a promise," Mumuldobran replied with a grave tone. "We SWORE that we wouldn't repeat the mistakes of our past. On our blood, bones, and being, we bound ourselves by our word that we would coexist with the mortals. History is cyclical, something you and the King of Bone Fae should know all too well. Tell me, if you've a brain between the two of you, what's to stop the orcs from taking this forest? What has stopped them from using our friends to make their houses and tools?"

  "We'd kill them if they tried," Horth said.

  "Oh, yes, of course," Mumuldobran laughed sardonically. "And the first few would even go down nice and easy. But we know what would happen next. They would come with iron and fire, just like in ancient times. We might be able to fight off the first wave, but they would keep coming. Over and over and over again, until all that's left of our home is logging camps. The only recourse we would have at that point would be to run, but what would be the point? Violence is cyclical, and once we start that cycle we're doomed to partake. We'll hate the mortals for what they did, and eventually one of us will strike out at them again, and then they'll come again. This will keep happening until we're completely overrun, and we'll once again become bedtime stories that mortal parents tell their children. Is that what you want?"

  Horth and Basinoth stared at Mumuldobran with open contempt, but remained silent. They knew the wisdom of his words. We all did. Whilst none of us had survived the humans, we all knew what had happened. It was one of the few memories that each of us had been born with.

  "I thought not," Mumuldobran scoffed. "And so, we'll let the orcs and the damned vampires negotiate with each other. Let them find peace and coexist. I'm more worried about the daemons, anyway. Are we certain that they've truly fled from the mortal realm?"

  "As far as we can tell," I answered. "Their advance into Bolisir was routed, and word from Calkuti claims that their reinforcing army was met with an empty battlefield."

  "So there's nothing to do?" Tits pouted.

  "Not necessarily," Mumuldobran said. "This surprise disappearance stinks of a regroup. My guess is that their original scheme didn't go to plan, and they've decided to come up with a different strategy. We'll need to maintain our readiness for when they return."

  "I mean for ME to do."

  "Oh... Well... I guess not."

  Tits huffed angrily, then looked thoughtful. This change in their demeaner immediately set everyone on edge. Even I eyed them warily.

  "What if-"

  "I promise that if what you're about to say is as foolish as most of the things that come out of your mouth, my foot is going to become acquainted with your ass," Mumuldobran interrupted. "And not in the nice way."

  Tits winked and continued, "What if we send a representative to attend the negotiations? We have a vested interest in whatever is agreed upon, don't we? We should make our voices heard."

  Everyone stared at Tits in shock. Uncharacteristically, they had made a really good point. There was only one problem with the suggestion.

  "Who would we send?" Mumuldobran demanded. "Any wylder capable of killing a vampire would practically be required to, and any wylder incapable of doing so would be at a disadvantage during the negotiations."

  "Oh? How so?"

  "None of them would be intimidating in the slightest. Fuck's sake, imagine how you'd feel if a fairy started making demands of you."

  "That would be pretty cute, actually."

  "Yes, but the vampires are an enemy. Sending a cute representative would demonstrate weakness, and that could harm negotiations. If the vampires see us as weak, they might try attacking us again, and the orcs wouldn't be very happy about that. Hopefully. The end result would be similar to what would happen if we were to simply assault the vampires."

  "Well, what if our representative wasn't a wylder?"

  "What? Who, then?"

  I gave Tits a confused look, but then I felt it. The one who named us, the last human, was nearby. Tits winked again, indicating that they'd felt the pull sooner than I had.

  "Nick," I said. "He's nearby."

  "The human?" Mumuldobran asked. "How do you... No, never mind. Why would he help us?"

  "He's a friend."

  "You declared it yourself, buffoon," Horth chuckled.

  Mumuldobran's face contorted in anger, "Go fornicate with a fern you-"

  "We would need to reward him this time," Basinoth interrupted. "This is likely no small favor for such a young human, and we asked a lot of him to secure our friendship. Almost too much, honestly. The promise of a future favor wouldn't be enough to cover the debt this time."

  The King of Blood Fae made a good point. Nick had secured our friendship by assassinating an enemy of ours. One that he had no real quarrel with. Asking another favor without offering something in return would be tremendously rude. Though, knowing Nick as I do, he would probably still agree to do it. I kept that to myself, though.

  "Fine, fine," Mumuldobran's hands shot into the air. "Damn it, Tits. Now that you've put the idea in my head, having our voices heard during the negotiations sounds too good to pass up. I'll think of an exchange to make. I'll even hear his preferences on the matter. Fetch him."

  Tits grinned at me, and I suddenly had a dreadful feeling in my gut. Before I could object, though, they leapt up and disappeared into a void. I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed.

  "I need to go, as well," I said.

  "Yeah, that would be a good idea," Mumuldobran said. "We'll discuss what terms we want to present at the negotiations and the reward we'll give Nick for helping us. Go temper her flirtations, please."

  I nodded and opened a void.