Day 68

15th of Hematite, Morning
Pocket Realm of Aryther

Brunhilda was preparing herself and looked at herself in the mirror, her bear armor was squeaky clean and shone under the sun’s rays penetrating the windows of her bedroom. Today was the day Aryther was going to war; Elissa was only taking her main force with her, Narsenelyn and Sizalda would teleport to Dragon Fang Tower to use the tactical scrying screen there in order to keep Elissa updated through magic mirrors.

The Princess took her warhammer from it’s special pedestal and placed it at her hips and looked at herself again, thinking that she looked dashing. Smiling, she made a few different poses; then the door to her bedchamber opened suddenly and startled her, Astagith entered her room and grinned as she caught her best friend in a compromising position.

“Ah will make a memory crystal of dis scene.” The huntress said with a smirk on her face.

Brunhilda glared at her and hollered, “Dinna dare, Astagith Redbane!”

“We will see.” Astagith said as she examined the princess who was in her best armor, it sparkled a bit too much.

“As ya can see, ah’m ready.” Gauntlets on her hips, Brunhilda posed for the huntress.

Astagith shook her head and said, “Princess, it hurts me tae say it but we will need tae darken yer armor. Dis is a mission dat asks for stealth.”

Brunhilda’s shoulders slumped at Astagith’s remark. The dwarven princess had hoped that Elissa would attack Thafnoris’ armies on the field and dismantle them, but the Lady of Aryther didn’t want to attack the civilians and soldiers whose only sin would be to follow orders; no Elissa Dragonfang would take the fight directly to the clans ruling over the City state of Thafnoris.

“Ye are lucky dat tha guildmaster predicted yer mistake.” Astagith took something out of the pouch she had in her hands.

It was a glass container, inside there was some kind of powdery substance that seemed to absorb light so completely calling it black didn’t suffice. Hilda looked transfixed as Astagith handled the powder; the huntress took a handful of the powder and applied it onto the princess’ silver gauntlet. As the huntress spread the powder, the gauntlet became as black as night.

“Dis is amazing.” Brunhilda said as she watched the process, the powder solidified and didn’t fall away from the metal as if it had been absorbed.

The huntress has been enchanted by everything Elissa had done so far, a pocket realm with a language enchantment embedded into it, a Gigantic Spire made of Mithril, impossible and original feats of Alchemy; her guildmaster was outstanding. “Ah agree, M’Lady Dragonfang said dat it absorbed light and masked heat signatures whatever dat meant.”

“Hmm, there are spells able tae let mages or reptilian monsters see tha heat signatures of invisible or camouflaged people.” Brunhilda could already see the military applications of such substances and how much her father would pay for it.

“Ah dinna know dat M’Lady was an alchemist too.” Astagith said out loud.

“Aye, Elissa is a healer, an alchemist, a mage and a warrior.” Brunhilda said.

She had been awed when she had discovered that Elissa was a healer after the impressive feat of wiping a beast tide with her magic, it was a supremely respected profession in dwarven society. But it wasn’t all, her friend had revealed herself to be a powerful warrior too, even more mighty than any Earth Blessed dwarf she had heard of in legends.

Brunhilda greatly admired Elissa, she was both honorable and the fiercest person she knew so far. Elissa never lied, and always kept her word; however the dwarf princess wasn’t blind, she did see that Elissa had darkness in her.

“Ye know princess, she scares me a lil’bit. But then ah remember how angry she got when the twins were hurt.” Astagith said, looking directly at Brunhilda while she continued to apply the black powder on her armor.

Brunhilda looked at her huntress friend and saw that she had the same opinion of Elissa as she did, she was a good friend to have but a terrible enemy to possess. Once catalogued as an enemy her foe was fiercely dealt with.

“She’s a good lass, but her recent changes have been impairing her emotions.” Brunhilda was startled by Elissa’s change in behavior, from a confident and easy going girl to a disturbed one scared of her own power.

Astagith finished applying the black powder for the princess and began applying it on her own leather skin-tight armor crafted by Sizalda’s dexterous hands. It was made of brown drake leather from the Sisterhood’s own stores and enchanted by Elissa to silence the dwarven huntress’ footsteps, as well as deflect slashing and stabbing blows.

Astagith nodded and said, “Aye! But ah told ye she would get through it! Now see, she came back tae normal and had us all fight her last night and she won. No one was wounded, of course.”

Even though the huntress sounded cheerful in her heart of hearts she thought, *Thank Holaf for dat.*

Astagith had been a huntress since she could hold a spear or dagger in her hand; her father and mother were also hunters by trade and had developed magic to help them be more efficient. The Redbane clan possessed stealth skills and knowledge of the land that had been unrivaled since the first beast tide. They had been compared to dark elven assassins once, and warred and feuded with others, gaining a reputation as fierce warriors.

Yet all her family history and battle skills didn’t prepare her for the turn her life had taken; Astagith Redbane was now in the service of Elissa Dragonfang, dragonslayer and ruler of her own fledgling Queendom. Now, she was going to war; not one with armies clashing on a field on the surface or in a giant cavern in the Underdark like in her people’s previous history when they took refuge in the Underdark since the first beast tide; but a war with a group of elite people tasked to take a city state.

They were finally done with their preparations and exited the tower to gather in the center of the fortress where Elissa’s main abode was located. Everyone was already gathered, Brunhilda arrived as Sindanelyn was giving a pair of shining silver gauntlets to Elissa. They were a mix of leather, articulated plates and minuscule chains, the digits ended up looking like claws.

Elissa equipped them and the dwarf princess wasn’t surprised to see that the articulated metal plates of the gauntlets began to glow blue and green as the ruler of Aryther charged them with mana.

“Excellent Sin, you surpassed yourself in making this.” Elissa praised Sindanelyn.

“It was difficult… ah had to combine Adamantite, Mithril and Oricalchum into a flexible alloy conductive of magix and with tha augmentin’, strengthenin’ and unbreakable enchantments ye provided. Dis was tha first time ah had tae build an item of such power. Ah thank you, M’Lady for tha opportunity ye gave me, it was an experience dat inspired me for new methods of crafting weapons.” Sindanelyn said eloquently.

Manipulating precious material and having an unlimited budget did wonders to satisfy her inner weaponsmith. Sindanelyn was wearing black leather pants and a hooded fireglass leather vest, on her hips her belt was full of slots and pockets charmed with a spatial enchantment containing all the recent gadgetry she had made with Elissa and Sizalda’s respective occupations; strapped on her back was a big black and silver repeating crossbow of untold power. Around Sindanelyn’s shoulder was a mechanical tool bag with all her enchanted ammunition.

“You’re welcome Sin, I am happy to have made you even deadlier.” Elissa said as she closed and opened her fists, the gauntlets fitted her perfectly.

The young woman conjured lightning and as it coursed through the gauntlets Elissa thought of an enchantment in her mind and she punched the sky. A powerful beam of electricity was emitted by the gauntlet piercing the clouds.

“Yes, it will do.” Elissa made a predatory smirk.

“When are we leaving?” Nabideth, Sindanelyn’s twin asked.

She wore half plate armor, a spare that Brunhilda lent her after her own mithril armor was reduced to a deformed husk in the fight against Siodhanth.

“As soon as I claim my third spirit.” Elissa said while still enamored with her new weapon.

The platinum blonde looked at her friends and shooed them away from her before beginning the ritual by first casting the spell Protection from evil. The spell manifested as an aura around Elissa’s body and the Sisterhood behind her. After all, with the kind of spell like conjure elemental you never knew if the elemental would be good or evil; she lucked out with Farad and River.

“Conjure air elemental.” Elissa intoned loudly.

A breeze could be felt flowing around her until it turned into a gale, the elemental took form. It was a minor elemental that giggled like wind chimes. Like Farad and River it was in the form of a Sylph. The elemental kept flying around Elissa taking her in and loving how she felt to her; almost like an elemental queen.

“Here little one, come to me.” Elissa said soothingly as she held out her hand, palm open.

The air sylph came to stand in Elissa’s palm, awaiting any request she might have. It was the weakest of its siblings but could still fulfill menial tasks for a fledgling mage, but this elf felt terribly powerful and was in no way a novice. The elemental felt trepidation at being summoned by her as well as curiosity.

“My name is Elissa, I wish to enter into a contract with you. I offer you five percent of the wild mana in my dominion if you serve me until I die.”

It sounded terribly appealing. But the sylph felt that it was too advantageous, deals like those always came to Elemental Lord or Kings.

<Where’s the catch?> The sylph said in Auran, the language of the Elemental Plane of Air.

<I am Elissa Shaera Snow Phantasia, serve me and I shall make you powerful.> Elissa said in the same tongue.

River and Farad manifested at her side, crackling with magical pressure and in their own sylph form but were the same height as Elissa. The air sylph crouched in fear in Elissa’s palm trying to make herself insignificant to the big elementals. They felt like Great ones!

<Don’t worry, you have nothing to fear. These are River and Farad, like you, they were minor elementals.> Elissa poked at the air elemental with her claw.

<She is speaking the truth.> Farad explained.

With the part of her armored finger that wasn’t clawed, Elissa patted the tiny elemental’s head. <I will treat you right, if you help me, I will help you.>

The sylph looked at her, there was hope in her eyes but she was still wary. Elissa didn’t like the look in her eyes, this poor thing must be living in fear all the time. Her saving people thing was going full on already. 

Giggling, the lightning spirit looked at her mistress. <Though, mistress I am happy that you did not get one of the evil ones.> Farad began to say.

<Evil? I am not like the bad ones! They are horrible, always bullying a good sylph like me.> The little sylph became angry, its wing flaring with white light.

Elissa’s voice became soothing and seductive as she asked the tiny sylph, <Do you want to get back at them? Shall I destroy them?>

<You could?> The sylph stood in Elissa’s palm, looking intently in her eyes.

The platinum blonde smiled, this elemental was knowledgeable and intelligent but was still naive. However, this is what made it appealing to her. She loved cute things. Some people liked to collect cute tiny animals, but Elissa prefered magical creatures.

Showing off to the little sylph Elissa deliberately unleashed her magical aura. It was so powerful that the Aether around her became visible. The Sisterhood stepped back in awe, Brunhilda just shook her head while Sizalda was taking recordings of the output of the aural discharge. In her own research on Elissa she was discovering odd things like her mana signature not matching what an elf’s should have been.

<Easily.> Elissa said.

It was more than enough for the sylph, this much mana looked delicious to her but she didn’t take it in without permission. Her father and mother didn’t raise her to be an evil and uncouth child. The sylph asked one last time, to be sure that it was what this powerful being wanted, <You would enter the elemental plane to deal with them?>

Elissa said seriously, <When we get the time, we will go there and let you kill them by draining them of their mana. Deal?>

<Yes!> The elemental jumped in the air.

The contract was signed, sealing the fate of an untold number of the members of the elemental plane of air. In the near future, the inhabitants of this plane of existence would shudder in fear. Syphoning the wild mana that was attributed to her and a bit of Elissa’s own, the sylph gained in power and the next phase in its evolution made it become a greater elemental on par with Farad and River.

<My name is Mistral that blows in squalls on the lowlands.> Mistral said.

She now looked like a giant fairy with Elissa’s face and body type. Her wings fluttered as she examined herself.

<I receive your name and shall cherish it, you can call me Elissa Snow.> Elissa said.

Mistral looked up to her new mistress, smiled beatifically and turned into a ball of light that entered Elissa’s body. The elemental mark appeared on her back and left flank and stopped at mid-thigh. River and Farad didn’t like that Mistral had taken so many liberties with Elissa, they too wanted more surface for their own marks.

Now that she was finished, Elissa was ready to go do what she had wanted to do since she got stabbed by that Idami bitch. Mistral materialized out of her body and returned to her tiny form and sat on her mistress’ head, using her Valkyrie helmet as a handlebar.

Elissa turned to her friends who were looking at her as if she was silly. “So girls, we have everything ready?”

“Tha logistics is all here, guildmaster.” Sindanelyn reported.

“Perfect.” Elissa nodded to her second favorite dwarf.

She then turned her head toward Sizalda who eagerly informed her. “The teleportation circle is ready for the outpost hub in the Rislt Plains.” 

The Rislt Plains were where Elissa had killed Persandoral and destroyed the Bhelveth clan’s army. The Rislt Plains were divided into several topographical parts. In the northern parts a vast tundra of treeless plains with swamps of snow and ice dominated the landscape. The tundra south of the mountains, The Aryther region of forests and gigantic lakes suitable for farming. Further south are steppe grasslands where in the old days elven herders had let their cattle graze annually. Also worth mentioning that the desert to the east was not inhabited.

In the end, Elissa planned to push the limits of Aryther to include the plains. Taking a sizeable part of the upper moon-continent, claiming the nodes and nexuses; this way she will also be able to take Thafnoris and its surroundings. Elissa was going to take everything away from those clans.

The platinum blonde focused on her non-combatant guildmates and commanded, “Narsenelyn, Sizalda you go first, Dragon Fang Tower awaits you; thanks to the control rings you should be able to communicate with us long distance.”

Elissa intended to use a special ritual in the Underdark to chip away at the wards of the dark elves and take them over. Sizalda and Narsenelyn would help Elissa in navigating the Underdark through the powerful tower.

“Aye.” The two said at the same time, saluting her with a hand on their chest.

Leaving, the two women entered the teleportation circle and disappeared in a pillar of light. Astagith and Brunhilda went first into the circle then Sindanelyn and Nabideth. Before Elissa could enter the circle, she was stopped by the Lutrinians Matriarchs.

“Chief, we have something for you.” The eldest matriarch came forward and handed her a lacquered black wooden box.

Solemnly taking the box in hand, Elissa asked her Lutrinian Matriarch, “What is it?”

“This is a good luck charm.” The matriarch said enigmatically, half closing her eyes and smiling. Her teeth showed and Elissa rubbed her head unconsciously.

After that Elissa opened the box and looked inside, on a red velvet cushion an ornate silver bracelet with a blue, green and white string; in the middle of the silver ornate plate a translucent gemstone with small flashes of colors was set.

“A bracelet and it has my favorite colors and… is that an opal? No, a water opal!” Elissa shouted with enthusiast as she recognized the precious gemstone.

Water opals were rare and highly prized for use in decorations, jewelries and in the creation of scrying devices such as crystal balls.

“For luck.” The Matriarch in charge smirked.

“You are the cutest, you know that?” Elissa said as she put herself on her knee and delicately hugged the matriarch.

“Yes.” The lutrinian female said as she patted Elissa on her back.

The platinum blonde kissed the matriarch on the top of her head and let her go to and told her, “Thanks, I will bring back souvenirs for you!”

“Good hunting!” The three matriarchs said in unison.

They were used to their chief going on raids and hunting all the time nowadays and getting them needed supplies as she should be, she was the chief after all.

Elissa chuckled at that and waved goodbye to her subjects. “Oh believe me, it will be something to remember.”

Elissa walked into the teleportation circle and willed herself to go to the outpost.

---

Rislt plains Outpost

Fenirael and Reinatiel were waiting for their mistress, while the pseudodragons were patrolling the skies over the outpost and had been told to avoid being noticed. Those two had been getting fatter lately and accepted the task with gusto. They had been tasked by Elissa to secure the outpost last night, not wanting for an encore from being ambushed.

Now the Sisterhood will act as if the Dark Elves from Thafnoris knew all the locations of their outposts and territories. Brunhilda as the second in command was aware that the intelligence network of the dark elves’ city states was extensive even amongst the dwarven nation; if there was one thing the Elves of Svartalfheim mastered it was spying.

In her best and most powerfully enchanted dark armor, Fenirael was guarding the outpost’s entrance with her two handed shadow sword. It was her most prized possession, she had pried it from the cold dead hands of a Fallen general of the Demon Fist army back in Phantasia when they were escaping with Malicia and Elissa to Hekate’s lost temple.

Lowering her black enchanted hood, a dark lock of Fenirael’s hair flew in the breeze, her tanned and beautiful face was finally visible. She then turned to the teleportation circle in the middle of the cave feeling a disturbance in the Aether; the demoness put her sword on her shoulder waiting for the Sisterhood to appear.

As for Reinatiel she had already started preparing her ritual implements, ward breachers, ward takeovers and subversion potion were already prepared for her mistress. The demoness now finally felt unburdened, her choice was made and she let her previous mistress go without too much guilt; with renewed enthusiasm Reinatiel had started working and smiling all the time, going back to her usual self.

She too felt the disturbance in the Aether as the teleportation circle activated. The geometrical shapes and runes in the circle shone with a white light and two tall pillars of light appeared and from within the forms of two dwarf women could be identified.

Astagith and Brunhilda appeared, looked around them and waved to the two demonesses who bowed slightly to them. The two dwarves left the circle and placed themselves at the handmaiden’s side, waiting for the next arrival. Nabideth and Sindanelyn flashed into existence in the circle, smiled at their comrades and hobbled to them.

They waited for five minutes to see Elissa finally appear as she was putting a bracelet on her arm and then equipped her gauntlet again.

“Is everyone assembled?” Elissa asked, peering at each of her companions, then nodded as she made a quick headcount. “Good.”

“Today we are going into Thafnoris and will exact revenge with the intent to make those noble clans kneel. If they don’t I will kill their Matriarchs one by one and take their city either way. They are surely waiting for me to make such a move, maybe gathering an army or something, but the time when armies gathered on a plain is over. Today we strike directly at the ruling body as a team.”

Brunhilda raised her hand and spoke, “But Elissa, why not engage them on the field of battle?”

The Dwarven princess wanted to fight, win glory through battle and see whose fate was stronger, hers or her foe’s. 

Elissa narrowed her eyes at her friend.

“I am not seeking fame or to obtain victory over my foe in an epic struggle. The dark elves don’t respect such opponents, they think them stupid.” Elissa said.

Dwarves and Elves on this planet were really different, you had a society built on honesty, hardwork and honor; another where deceit, corruption and cunning where their building blocks. There will be no honor to be had in a battle against them.

This was something she learned from Dicinna as she spoke about her people; the dark elves sought to emulate their past glory. The Dark Elven Empire fought like this before but it slowly won territory by deceit, political maneuvering and betrayals.

“No, today I will show them a new form of war. You better take note, Brunhilda.” Elissa said to her fellow princess.

Elissa stared at Astagith who squirmed under the gaze but didn’t avert her eyes. For the dwarf huntress, this was like being put upon, she wasn’t used to being noticed by those in power and as everyone noticed where Elissa’s gaze laid they looked at her too.

“Asta, you’ll guide us to an entrance to their part of the Underdark. You travelled there before, you said.” The platinum blonde said as she walked forward to the exit.

Everyone followed her, Astagith more closely than even the handmaidens.

“Aye, ah know tha way.” Astagith said as she walked forward taking the lead, the grassy plains extended far and wide, they followed the river.

“Then we will follow you.” Elissa followed.

Astagith chuckled as she advanced silently, going East. “Ah know just tha kind of entrance ye wants guildmaster, out of tha way and lightly guarded.”

Rilo and Aghri followed the Sisterhood’s procession over the plains. Reinatiel boosted everyone’s speed and stamina with buff spells and they pushed east, then north-east to finally arrive at the Sarai mountains. It was one hundred and twenty kilometers later that everyone arrived at the foot of the mountain chain separating the plains from the tundra of the north.

Elissa realized how easy it was to cross this plain, it must have been a trade route before, linking all the kingdoms or towns before the first beast tide. She decided that she must have it, this was an economic game changer that if she were to acquire it would be useful and monopolized by Aryther once her plan to push her Pocket Realm border over the rest of the continent happened.

This planet was a prize and as none of the original habitants wanted to put the effort in to retake its surface she would oblige and take it from them.

The Sarai mountains were big, they consisted of a series of parallel rock ridges rising to at least one thousand meters or so. Rilo and Aghri agreed that this mountain offered a good view from afar over the Rislt plains, as Elissa linked to their sight, she could see the splendor of this now untouched land, the verdant bed of the Naal river linked to the stream of her outpost.

Astagith stopped before a series of cave entrances, the grey stones and moss being undisturbed. Elissa looked at Astagith, the other doing the same.

“Which one is the entrance.”

“All of them.” The dwarf woman said. “Yet they are all dangerous tae enter as monsters and creatures of tha Underdark roam there.” 

Astagith turned to Elissa and said, “Dis is tha least guarded entrance tae Thafnoris. They think dat the monsters are free guards, tha fools.”

The huntress spat on a stone, her face showing how disgusted she was with the liberal attitude of the dark elves from this city state.

Elissa shook her head, understanding why Astagith was mad. “That is, indeed, very conceited of them, I would have exterminated all the monsters and creatures and protected this entrance by putting a garrison to guard it.”

“Ye can’t count on tha elves tae see reason sometimes.” Nabideth laughed at that, she took out her new magical ax that she was given as part of the loot from the Dragoness Siodhanth’s lair. She was ready to rumble, her twin sister had already taken her crossbow, loading it with ice and lightning quarrels.

As for Elissa, the young woman looked at the position of the sun in the sky and noticed that they had already burned half of the day lights. “If we go in right now, we might be able to finish everything tonight.” 

“Mistress what are we waiting for?” Fenirael asked eagerly.

“For Rilo and Aghri.” Elissa said, and just as she finished talking the two giant familiars turned into their original forms mid-air and landed at the young woman’s side.

Mistral manifested in her sylph form, flew around Elissa twice, stopped before her face and curtsied prettily with her wind wrought dress.

<Mistral, scout out this entrance before us.> Elissa choose the cave with the biggest entrance.

The elemental bowed her head, her form melting, becoming one with the air and she disappeared. Linking with Mistral’s sight, Elissa stood still as she saw the irregular walls and weird glowing fungus lighting the way; there were goblins in there as well as trolls and other weird creatures without sight but using some kind of tremor sense to feel around them, which noticed Elissa’s elemental.

Mistral was fleeting fast through the cave system, she scouted about one kilometer before stopping and coming back to Elissa who now knew why these caves were judged too dangerous, there was a tribe of cave trolls at the end of it.

“Reinatiel, we will need your fire.” Elissa turned to her handmaiden and held her hand.

Reinatiel took Elissa’s hand in hers. “How much?”

“Everything you have, we will form a circle and I will feed you mana. Understood?” Elissa said smiling as they linked their cores and minds.

“It will be my pleasure.” The demoness whispered with trepidation.

Reinatiel looked resplendent in her blue, black and golden robes that seemed to have been largely inspired by asian fashion. Her robes were a mix of kimono, imperial chinese dress and mongolian female robe with a vest. She had a leather belt that supplemented the obi with her bag of holding. Reinatiel’s hair was styled in a middle parted haircut decorated by blue and green gems upon a silver thread around her head.

“Go wild Reinatiel. Fenirael, Nabideth, guard her.” Elissa commanded, the demoness was the first through the cave entrance.

Nabideth and Fenirael entered after her and took position at her sides each with their shields out. Elissa entered next followed by Sindanelyn and the dwarven princess took the rear, grumbling about not being used to the back of a formation.

The trip through the cave system was anticlimactic with Reinatiel burning every dangerous creature in it, Elissa didn’t care to harvest parts of their bodies for materials. She didn’t have the time and she was focused on fighting, stealth, destruction and subversion. The smell of burned flesh had become prevalent but with her power over the air Mistral dissipated the worst of it.

The tunnels quickly emptied, the weakest creatures went into hiding as the overwhelming group speared through it. It wasn’t long before they reached the place where the tribe of Cave Trolls nested. It smelled disgusting, Cave Trolls seemed to live in squalor and with the stench of their biological dejections fouling the air.

Elissa finally saw them as they too noticed the group entering their dwelling; off the top of her head the young woman recalled the information from the Sanctum Library on them. Cave trolls were an instinctual, less intelligent sub-species of trolls that were predominantly found in underground lairs. Like others of their kind, cave trolls had an insatiable appetite and would endlessly hunt.

They were brutal hunters, who relied heavily on their instincts, pouncing on their prey, raking and rending them with their claws. These trolls were larger than their regular cousins, standing 10 feet tall while hunched over and weighing over 350 Kg.

“Reinatiel sanitize this cavern for me, please.” Elissa ordered.

Not answering, Reinatiel focused and created a football sized sphere of black fire that expanded and divided into another one and chanted as she stared hard at the five charging Cave Trolls, “Black Flaming Sphere.”

At the speed of thought, the two black spheres of flame met with their foes, expanded and began to burn the skin of the Cave Trolls that still charged at them. However, this wasn’t the end as the black fire began to devour their target and immolated them as if they were dry hay. The flames spread on the ground and everywhere. Elissa incanted and placed a spherical magical reactive shield around them. The three yet unburned Cave Trolls crashed against the shield that didn’t even buckle under the impacts.

Reinatiel smiled devilishly and took more power from her core and her mistress’ and the black fire furiously spread everywhere in the caverns and the roars of excruciating pain of the three creatures filled the air. It was two minutes later when everything went still in the Cave Troll den.

After Mistral cleared the smoke with her air manipulation, the Sisterhood saw that Elissa’s order to “Sanitize” the cavern was taken seriously as there was nothing there anymore. Only rocks, even the glowing moss had been burned. Elissa stopped feeding mana to the magical reactive shield, making it dissipate but was ready to cast it again at a moments notice.

The brush of air coming from the tunnel behind them brought fresh air and Mistral destroyed the smelly molecules of the Cave Trolls with her magic.

“This was fun, Reinatiel.” Elissa quipped.

The demon mage shrugged and smiled at her mistress, conjuring a ball of light for better visibility in the cavern.

“We still aren’t out of the woods yet, Mistress.” The demoness warned.

“Reinatiel had all tha fun…” Nabideth whined.

Staring at her, Elissa found the dwarf woman looking like a teenager pouting. The young woman had had no control over her power at the time and seemed to have pushed the twins back to their teens. Elissa realized how out of control healing could be really bad.

*I will be more careful next time.* Elissa promised herself.

Sindanelyn took Light Orbs that Sizalda had given her from her gadget belt and asked Elissa and Reinatiel to pump them full of mana as they were the only mages in their party. With that done, the Sisterhood could finally see the damage they had caused and were not happy to find that they even melted the loot the Cave Trolls had stashed.

“That’s too bad, well we are all rich enough.” Elissa commiserated.

The young woman made the decision to turn this cavern into an extraction point if things turned for the worse and began to fashion gates at each end of it with a combination of ice construct and transmutation. It was more accurate to say that it was a system of portcullis that she enchanted to only be usable by someone in possession of a control ring. From ice to stone, from stone to iron.

Having finished with the gates, Elissa, helped by Reinatiel, traced a disposable teleportation circle just in case. Having a point of egress was a basic rule in any war.

Done with building their get away system, Mistral scouted the tunnel that led to the upper dark. The elemental reported the presence of low level creatures. Elissa gave Mistral the permission to kill them all as she met them. The air elemental was merciless, the colony of cave spiders she found was crushed, the lesser goblin beheaded; anything larger than a rat was exterminated, until she found a slumbering giant iron snake.

Those types of monsters were venomous and hard to kill as their black hard scales armor were difficult to cut; in general only people with a mithril or higher tier weapon could combat them. That was not a problem with Gram or Gungnir for Elissa, but it might be for Nabideth, Astagith and Sindanelyn. Fenirael harrumphed and simply asked her mistress to let her kill it.

Elissa frowned at that, this poor creature was just nesting and not bothering anyone; the young woman would at least try to negotiate passage with it. “Why kill it? If it’s cognisant enough I will try to speak with it.”

“Sure, M’Lady.” Astagith said not wanting to argue with her guildmaster.

The other girls from the Sisterhood were not sure about Elissa’s plan at all, but when they saw that neither Fenirael nor Reinatiel were worried they followed. As they advanced the path was littered with dead monster bodies, Elissa collected them all in her spare spatial ring. The cave system grounds and tunnel became even more uneven and narrow and it became difficult to navigate.

Thankfully, the bioluminescent moss lit the way and with the Light orb most of the obstacles were visible. To Elissa it seemed so dark and inhospitable, she didn’t understand how the dark elves could tolerate living underground. She needed the sun, the wind on her face, the cold and the sea; the world was too beautiful on the surface, she would go crazy if she stayed here.

*No wonder they are all cranky and backstabby.* Elissa shook her head.

Finally arriving at the Snake’s lair, the Sisterhood stayed at the entrance of it’s nest while Elissa went alone to negotiate with the monster. The snake was sleeping under the light of a giant crystal giving off sunlight set into the ceiling. This cavern was just a big natural solarium and Elissa understood why this metal snake seemed to like this place.

The young woman walking up to the big reptile woke it up by setting off its tremor sense. It lifted its head and opened its double eyelid red eyes.

Elissa’s lips curved into a smile and the iron scaled snake hissed at her.

<Elf! Begone!> The snake hissed and reared its head back like a cobra, ready to strike.

Not afraid for even a single second, Elissa put her armored fists on her hips looking defiant and said, <Snake, I have come to bargain.>

The Iron Snake hissed in surprise, slowly bringing its serpentine head down looking at Elissa. <Youuuu sssspeak the Draconic languageee?!>

Elissa didn’t think that her gambit would pay dividends this early, it seemed that the Iron Snake was mildly draconic too. Humans who spoke the Draconic language were often seen as trusted allies as only a true-dragon who deem them worthy could teach them.

<Yes.> Elissa answered.

The Iron snake coiled on itself, the nervous tension left it as it rested and rested its head on the ground as it had a favorable impression of the moon haired elf.  <Sssspeaker, well met. What can I do for youuuuu?>

Good. Elissa liked that, the snake was direct and knew she needed something from it. <I am looking for passage to the second layer of the Underdark.>

<Iiintriguing.> The Iron snake hissed. <What areeee youuuuu offering for paaaayment?>

The platinum blonde grinned and took from her spare spatial ring the still fresh bodies of the monsters her elemental Mistral took down.

<Help us, Snake and you’ll never want for anything again. I can give you a place on the surface with an excellent sunbathing area, free from danger and the occasional hunt. I already took the tribe of trolls to task they will never bother you again.>

<Why, would youuuuu do thisssss for me?> The snake cocked its head.

Elissa nodded. <I am asking a lot, this is your home and we invaded it and you might guide us to the dark elves.>

<Thisssss isssss more than adequate paaaaayment.> The snake sounded delighted.

Elissa went to pat the snake on its head while it avidly ate the mound of felled creatures. Fifteen minutes later, Elissa turned back and led the giant creature to the entrance of its den. Unlike Elissa, the rest of the Sisterhood were afraid of the Iron snake when it reared its head toward them. Brunhilda unconsciously drew her warhammer, Sindanelyn gulped, Nabideth stood fascinated by the beast and Astagith couldn’t believe that Elissa had done the impossible again.

“Ah shouldn’t be surprised anymore.” Astagith mumbled.

The sisterhood came warily before Elissa who was spoiling the twenty meters long reptile monster. She even began to heal wounds it had previously and made its scales shine brighter under the light of the sun crystals.

<Thhhhank you sssspeaker.>

The sisterhood stepped back as the monster made Elissa climb on its body. Looking at her guildmates she Elissa gestured for them to do the same, Sindanelyn tried to climb behind her guildmaster but was beaten to it by Reinatiel who firmly put her arms around Elissa. Fenirael followed suit, took pity on Sindanelyn and put her behind her. Reinatiel allowed the pseudodragons to enter their pocket realm in the familiar ring that Elissa wore on her right middle finger.

When everyone had boarded the Iron Snake slithered to the secret tunnels that only it was aware of, that led to the dark elven city. This was like riding a roller coaster, as the Iron snake veered left and right at great speed, stopping only to avoid too narrow or tight tunnels it couldn’t take with his riders. Elissa and her handmaidens cheered the snake on to go faster as they loved the ride.

As they arrived deeper in the underdark the Sisterhood noticed how the cavern system changed, there was bioluminescent moss everywhere, sun crystals and other elementary attributed ones lighting their path. The most notable ones where the yellow sun crystals that were attuned to the light on the surface and gave off sunlight, then there was the fire and wind crystal that were respectively red and green.

To Elissa this place was full of resources and ready to be exploited, however the ecology of the underdark seemed more fragile than the one on the surface. Clouds of red glowing insects akin to fireflies harmlessly flew over the sparse vegetation that the young woman could see, some weird little birds with glowing electric blue feathers were hunting and eating them.

After another hour Elissa and the Sisterhood could see traces of inhabitation the more they advanced. 

<Stop there, Snake.> Elissa said.

Stopping, the Snake felt the young woman climb down from his body and saw her use elemental magic. Mistral went to scout ahead and relayed that there was an outpost this way. Elissa narrowed her eyes, and began to think furiously.

“I will use Mistral to scout ahead, and attack the guard inside the outpost we detected.” Elissa said her plan out loud for everyone to know.

<Sssstrike vissssciously, Speaker.> The giant snake nodded with approval of her plan.

“Thank you, Snake.” Elissa acknowledged the advice for what it was.

Elissa turned to her favorite demon mage. “Reinatiel do you still have the Stasis sphere that we used to help Fenirael?”

“It never left my spatial ring, Mistress it is a really handy item to transport the wounded and dying to help them heal at a later date.” Reinatiel answered instantly.

The stasis sphere never left her ring now, it was supremely useful even though it was a morally ambiguous magical item. Only Dark Mages and Necromancers used those, but as she was in the service of a powerful healer she justified its use and presence as being a safeguard against the worst fatal situations.

Elissa beautiful smile blossomed on her face. “Great, I’m going to suffocate the guards in the outpost.”

“Why not kill them?” Brunhilda asked.

Elissa’s good mood fled as Brunhilda didn’t understand her actions. The young woman planned to conquer this place, it wouldn’t do if she involved the normal citizenry and the law enforcement arm of the city state. She only wanted to take down the dumb nobles and this was when Elissa realized that she was projecting the problem Daphne had with the Phantasian nobility onto the dark elve’s.

She shook her head, *It will not stop me from doing what’s necessary. But it’s good to know that I can have an introspective moment before a battle like this.*

Coming before the princess, Elissa looked down at Brunhilda and said. “I don’t want anyone to know that we are coming, but I don’t want to kill unrelated people that are just doing their jobs.”

The dwarven princess looked directly into her eyes, her eyes shining with comprehension and gaining new respect for her friend.

“Oh, dis is a controlled revenge.” Brunhilda was relieved in a way, but horrified in another. Elissa wasn’t just going to lash out at everyone she meets in this city.

“Yes.” Elissa had thought about flooding the underdark with ocean water from the southern ocean on Svartalfheim but the Dwarves lived there too.

However, Dicinna talked her out of it with horror in her eyes. “Dicinna convinced me that the average dark elf doesn’t care about politics and wants to be left alone, but those in power crave for influence, wealth and even more power. So I will heed her advice and leave them alone only taking out the rank and file with minimal force but members of the clans are fair game.”

Elissa understood that only the elves of Thafnoris had the gall of trying to attack her, the others didn’t after having gathered information about her, and the number of mithril or higher ranked adventurers who could take her on could only be counted on one hand. After the news of her defeating a dragon that the dwarves had without a doubt disseminated, there wasn’t going to be any challengers.

Brunhilda nodded and left the conversation at that. After giving more orders to her guildmates, Elissa put a knee on the ground and linked her sight and mind with Mistral who embraced her new mistress’ awareness with hers.

The operation started immediately; the outpost was basically a keep with four towers and a garrison. Mistral and Elissa became one with air, the elemental now invisible to everyone but the most sensitive mages. They began to do a rapid headcount, visiting every room of the military installation. Elissa liked how flighty and airy of character her elemental was. In fact, she was so innocent that the young woman hesitated to let her do harm to the elves.

Nevertheless, the elemental reminded her that she was older than her and that she had to kill before to survive her enemies in the Elemental Plane of Air. Seventy-two soldiers, all the officers and common soldiers were dark elf women with only the rare male elf in a support staff position. It seemed that this outpost was staffed by the unwanted and those who offended clan members from what they spied.

Another reason to not kill them all, they would be easily swayed by the change in policies that she intended to make. Elissa began the attack, forming a bubble around the outpost and taking away the oxygen inside. The guards on the walls began to claw at their throat, falling on their knees, then Elissa attacked those inside the walls of the keep. It was fast, methodical and merciless how Elissa suffocated everyone not missing a single one.

With a burst of speed with the stasis sphere in her hand Elissa ran over the crenelations and imprisoned every guards she found on the walls, manning the gates. With no effort she destroyed the doors to the garrison and proceeded to put every unconscious body into the green sphere. It took five minutes to do it, when she finished Elissa released the suffocation bubble.

“Objective  accomplished.” Elissa said on their communication channel.

“Understood guildmaster.” Sindanelyn acknowledged.

Elissa was putting the enchanted stove from the kitchen of the garrison into her ring, and when she saw the food prepared on the table and stole it all, putting it in her spatial toe ring. As she began to raid the pantry she listened to the communication going on through their channel.

Sigh. “Dis is getting boring, Elissa ye could take dis city by yerself.”

Brunhilda was getting bored as Elissa stole their thunder yet again.

Chuckling Elissa thought that the dwarven princess had too high an opinion of her. “I cannot, stop whining Hilda.”

“Ah am sure dat we will be needed when we breach tha city proper.” Astagith commented.

“Oh yes, we are going to have our work cut out for us. Mistral is saying that there are wards around the city two kilometers away from here.” Elissa revealed.

“Dat is not much distance.” Brunhilda argued.

Elissa didn’t think so, she spoke her mind to her friend. “Maybe not for you, Hilda; however this is the underdark and it is dangerous. I noticed that in Nirnyahr everything is connected and this outpost is clearly not.”

The Garrisons around the Dwarven City State were all connected by the rail in the inner walls for fast deployment. The elves didn’t seem to see the danger in not securing such a position, Elissa was disappointed.

“There are monster dens surrounding this outpost, but their mission isn’t about exterminating them but to thin them out.” Elissa told her friend.

Brunhilda eyes widened. “What? But…”

The dwarven princess looked between the outpost and Elissa, clearly shocked by such a gross mistake. Her father was an idiot, but not this much of one as he knew that his people’s lives hung in the balance between the monsters coming from the lower dark and invading them.

“I know Hilda this is foolish, there shouldn’t be any monsters between the two locations. I am surprised that the inhabitants of the lower dark haven't attacked them en masse yet.” Elissa said in a mocking tone.

The Sisterhood travelled the rest of the way with the Iron Snake as a deterrent for any monster, Elissa spotted a few that looked at them in fright or in hunger. There were all sorts of creatures on the way, mainly exotic lizards, slimes and mutated giant bats.

Reinatiel was ready to use the ward breachers and Sindanelyn prepped to take out the guards with her tranquilizer quarrels. There were only three sentries at this gate, Elissa was disgusted by this lack of competence from the elven military. How long had it been since they were attacked? She would remind them that they should take their security more seriously.

They were well hidden with the air spell that held them aloft out of sight from the bored sentries; Elissa watched them with her piercing gaze from afar, yawning or playing cards on a table. It seemed that this gate was the most underused one of Thafnoris, still their unprofessionalism made her ill.

Sindanelyn strafed all three sentries with her special quarrels, armor piercing projectiles whose blades were covered with an alchemical tincture to forcibly put a dwarf to sleep, as dwarves and elves had a different physiology it was going to tranquilize them for a long period of time.

Two of the sentries were hit, but one evaded being hit by the quarrel by happenstance. He looked at his fallen comrades who groaned on the ground bleeding and fled at full speed to sound the alert only to be caught in the back by a quarrel.

“Oops, sorry.” Sindanelyn said on the channel.

Elissa shook her head, it seemed no one was taking this seriously, the tranquilizer was a job done in haste last night and she didn’t have a lot of time to calibrate the dosage for elven physiology, she hoped that none of those slackers were dead.

“Your turn, Rei; breach the gate’s wards, without alerting anyone.” Elissa said, speaking with her ring close to her mouth.

Reinatiel harrumphed as Mistral slowly made her descend from the air. “Mistress, I did this kind of thing before you were even born.”

Elissa narrowed her eyes, Astagith smiled when she heard the antics of the demoness.

“I will call you grandma if you continue with your sass.” Elissa threatened.

Reinatiel landed and panicked when she heard this, she didn’t want Elissa thinking of her as too old to be with her.

“Working, working!” Reinatiel said in a hurry.

Reinatiel stood before the black metal gate, large enough to let four carriages pass. She thought that there would be other sentries to attack them when the three behind her were down and prepared herself to work while under assault. However, there was no alarm ringing, no troops deploying to stop her. Without knowing she mimicked Elissa’s disappointed expression and began to work.

Planting silver rods before the gates in the soil, Reinatiel connected her mana to the enchanted items and the ward scheme around the walls and gates appeared. Glowing lines of elven symbols scrolled up and down on their surfaces. The demoness held her hand before her, now that the ward scheme was laid bare before her through the mana that she put in the resonator rods in the ground, she let her mana interact with them, slowly subverting a line and rewriting it by writing in the air with a finger in elven.

Reinatiel switched some runes, deleted some and subtly began to take control of this part of the wards. To Elissa it was akin to hacking her way into a database, on Phantasia such a thing must be a common occurrence in the criminal underground. The young woman became interested in her handmaiden’s background and more subtle abilities.

Reinatiel spoke on the communication channel, “I am done. No one is the wiser that I subverted the wards of the south gates.”

“Excellent, Rei.” Fenirael praised her sister.

Brunhilda planted her warhammer in the ground in relief. “Finally, we are going tae see action!”

Elissa turned to Iron Snake and said, <Snake, Would you prefer to wait for us when we are done or go to your Den and wait for me to come fetch you to the surface?>

<I will go back.> The giant serpent said without hesitation.

It coiled on itself and brought its head to Elissa that kissed between his eyes and said, <Thank you for everything, you helped a lot.>

<Later Sssspeaker.> The snake left in silence after waving its tail at her for a second.

It was fun to Elissa to be friends with a monster for once, this one was even nice to look at. Reinatiel opened the gates, Fenirael was already running toward her while the Astagith and Brunhilda waited for her.

“Girls, let’s do this!” Said Elissa as she turned to her friends.

She walked to the gate and imprisoned the sentries. Her gauntlet glimmered as an arc of electricity ran around them as she was full of anticipation.

---

Thafnoris
Bhelveth clan Hold

Aeruirn felt alone, and as a matter of fact she was alone. When she had gotten back from the last gathering she had assembled everyone from the clan and told them who they had offended. A sun-elf demigoddess who easily wiped out their army; and defeated Siodhanth the fire dragon some weeks ago. They inherited this formidable enemy because her mother wanted revenge for her exiled son who had stolen from the sun-elf.

It had not been easy but she told all of them that she was disbanding the clan and that they should seek shelter and not wear the colors and badge of the clan, she felt that Lady Dragonfang would attack the city soon. Some of them laughed at her, but others took her seriously and left by taking their badge from their clothes and throwing it before her feet.

Those who knew Aeruirn knew that she was doing this to protect them and thanked her. Each of the ex-clan members was dismissed with a pouch of gold and with the advice to go to another city state as Thafnoris would soon be taken.

After emptying the clan hold, Aeruirn raised the wards to the war footing setting. She now waited for the clans and the city to fall on the balcony of her mother’s bedroom. The Dark elf woman had a fifty year old bottle of wine and her favorite crystal glass decorated with unicorns and watched the city below her. The clan hold was built over an artificial hill that gave an excellent view over the palace and the market. She could see the adventurers’ guild too and the rich abodes of the most well-off of her kind.

On another hill, facing hers, there was the Druldred hold. She had never liked the old bat leading it and after what they tried to pull with the others some weeks ago, she loathed that Matriarch. Suddenly the clan hold of the Druldred clan shimmered, Aeruirn narrowed her eyes, delicately put her wine glass on the table near her lounging chair. She walked to the rail of her balcony and activated her mage sight.

“They activated their wards and… are those people fighting?” She asked herself as she saw from afar what was happening behind the Druldred’s wards.

“Oh, it has finally begun. She’s here.” Aeruirn realized. “She took her sweet time.”

---

Druldred clan hold

Brunhilda was given an order, kill everyone regardless of their age, sex or whether they were non-combatants. This wasn’t a battle for glory, but a slaughter. It was dark work. Elissa had asked the princess if she could do this, if not she would let Fenirael do it. Now, now she regretted wanting to look tough before Elissa, she wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing.

“Look for tha Matriarch.” Brunhilda ordered in her ring.

Sindanelyn’s quarrel struck a guard who was charging Brunhilda and was immolated in a ball of flame as its magical payload activated. Brunhilda nodded in thanks to her guildmate who smiled and went to look for another target.

“It seems she is in her suite behind a heavily shielded door.” Astagith whispered on the channel.

Brunhilda looked for the huntress’ location and found that she was two floors from her. Her stealth always amazed the princess, she was already near the Matriarch compared to them. Nabideth roared as she fought two guards and Hilda threw her warhammer in the most vicious way at one’s face and turned his head to mush, blood, bones and brain splattering everywhere.

Nabideth stabbed the second one in the heart with her sword, his obviously shoddy breastplate not protecting him enough. She then ran into the adjacent corridor. Brunhilda walked to one of the guarded stairs that led to the next floor. The Dwarven princess then recalled her hammer to her hand and it flew back to her handle first.

“Break the walls around the door to enter.” Elissa said helpfully as if she was speaking of the weather.

Brunhilda raised an eyebrow and couldn’t believe that such a thing would work. She twirled her hammer in her hands like a cheerleader with a stick.

BOOM. A powerful explosion rang and made the entire clan hold shake.

“Holaf! It worked!” Astagith shouted in glee.

Brunhilda, when she heard a second explosion comparable in power and then the cry of pain and fear ahead, thought, *It did work.*

Through the communication channel they listened to Astagith, Fenirael and Reinatiel fight. A war cry and noises of metal rending flesh could be heard, while Brunhilda climbed the stairs and killed an elf maid servant who had a crossbow in her hand and sent her hammer in her direction, the maid fired before the hammer struck her in the head, killing her instantly.

“Ouch.” Brunhilda screamed as the quarrel grazed her face, leaving a scratch and letting a thin line of blood flow. She should have gone for a full helmet like her brother had told her.

Things seemed to be going well, so the princess asked on the communication channel, “Elissa how is it going in the Adventurer’s guild?”

“Oh, I am being stalled from seeing the Guildmaster. I have deployed Mistral around the building to stop anyone from fleeing.” Elissa growled.

It seemed she had the political job and Brunhilda regretted not going with her. She sighed heavily as another maid passed in the corridor and ran as she saw her. Brunhilda didn’t attack her and let her run. Rilo would get her if she left the clan hold.

Brunhilda chuckled. “Ah am surprised dat ye are nae killing anyone inside.”

Elissa was clearly not a mad dog, she could come up with the most devious plans but she clearly preferred brute force any day.

“I could, but I need them later when I conquer this city. Finding helpful and competent hands is difficult, Hilda.” Elissa said as if such a thing should be normal.

Brunhilda didn’t know what type of upbringing her friend had, but the mother she’s emulating must be one scary bitch.

“Sometimes ye scare me Elissa.” Brunhilda said frankly.

Elissa chuckled. “I’m doing something good then. Now, finish your mission Princess.”

“Understood.” Brunhilda said amused.

Elissa cut her side of the channel and Brunhilda climbed the stairs until she reached the last floor as no one was attacking her anymore. She twirled her warhammer and whistled a dwarven folk song. She finally found the floor of the Matriarch as the bits of walls were strewn on the ground. The dwarf princess heard a feminine voice pleading someone and the noise of flesh hitting flesh.

*They are having fun there.* Brunhilda thought.

“Please, kill me but not my daughter!”

“You should have thought of that before.” Another feminine voice said.

Brunhilda was familiar with it, it was Reinatiel.

“Please, please let me see your mistress. I can give her everything she wants, but let my daughter live!” The feminine voice pleaded once again, it was becoming annoying to the dwarf princess.

Brunhilda entered the room and saw a lot of bodies bathing in red blood, looking sightlessly at the ceiling. They all wore armor and there was even an old elf with a disfigured face, Brunhilda recognized the staff he had in his hand, this was one of the elves who had ambushed them near the forbidden forest. A middle-aged looking elf woman in black robes held a really young elf girl wearing a cute pink dress with blonde hair in her arms.

“Princess you are finally here.” Fenirael noticed.

She was standing guard over her sister and Astagith, her eyes were glowing like red embers from the shade of her hood. Brunhilda thought that she looked properly demonic.

“Aye, ah am here, what’s happenin’ here?” Brunhilda asked.

It was Reinatiel who answered, her blue robes swishing as she walked up to Brunhilda. “We captured Matriarch Druldred and we were about to execute her and her family.”

“NOOOOOO.” The woman screamed and held the youngest girl elf tightly against her.

The elf seemed to really love her daughter and this made Brunhilda’s heartstring twang. There was no way she was going to let the little girl get killed. She decided to play along with this.

“Dis should have been done already.” Brunhilda looked at the Matriarch with eyes narrowed.

The Dark elf held her daughter with desperation as if she was going to protect her with her body.

Reinatiel began to say, “There’s some kind of magic shielding stopping us from killing her and the girl.”

Bloodline wards, there were the same security features in the dwarven palace. She chose not to share this with the rest of the sisterhood.

“Fine, take out tha stasis sphere and place them inside.” Brunhilda ordered Reinatiel.

Reinatiel looked at the princess with disbelief; on a harsh tone she said, “Our orders were to kill everyone inside the clan hold.”

Brunhilda heavily put her warhammer on the ground, and she looked defiantly at the handmaiden. “I am the second in command and I tell you to take them prisoner.”

Reinatiel knew that Brunhilda was right, she was the second in command in their Guild and she could make decisions that opposed Elissa’s. Brunhilda wasn’t a child murderer, she wasn’t scum and killing children was against her code whatever Elissa’s problem was.

“I will do so under protest.” Reinatiel said as she took out the green orb from her spatial ring.

The dwarf princess shrugged. “Aye, aye.”

“Thank you.” The Matriarch Druldred said with thanks in her eyes.

Brunhilda frowned as she said, “I didn’t do it for you elf, but your daughter deserves to live. Not you.”

The two elves disappeared in a haze of green light.

---

Adventurers’ Guild

Elissa grew angry, the cold around her was getting more intense; the more it grew, the more the adventurers and staff tried to step back from her. She had come in good faith, asked for the guildmaster to receive her after she gave her name -and terrified everyone- but now they kept stalling her. Fortunately, she had taken steps to stop anyone from leaving the guild’s headquarters.

“I am a patient and a merciful Lady, however you are pushing the envelope.” Elissa said as her gauntleted hands slowly crushed the counter.

The clerk looked at the sun-elf’s hands, then looked at her eyes and gulped. “I-I assure you that the guildmaster will come.”

There was so much anger on this Lady’s face that he wanted to curl up in a ball and make himself insignificant. Abruptly looking at the door, Elissa listened to the report of her elemental; Mistral informed Elissa via their link that someone was attempting to leave the building. The cold intensified, then receded before a vicious rictus appeared on the young woman’s face.

“I will get back to you when I’m done with your coward of a guildmaster.” Elissa said airily.

She turned toward the door as she gave instructions to Mistral to capture the elf. Noises of a scuffle could be heard outside the tall white building, it was even better she didn’t want to destroy the infrastructure.

*I will need it later, after all.*

An old but tall elf in rogue armor and cloak was trying to destroy the Shackles of Air spell that Elissa had imprisoned him in. The air around him was locked preventing him from moving in any way. Elissa smiled wolfishly as she saw the shadow and water spells fly in vain.

<Bring him to me.> Elissa said in Auran.

Mistral complied and dragged the elf towards her mistress, when he saw the tall and voluptuous sun-elf he struggled more frantically. The elf fell on his ass, but it didn’t matter if he did; Mistral dragged him to Elissa’s feet.

“Well, well, well. Look what the wind dragged in.” Elissa sabbatons echoed on the pavement as she met her prisoner midway.

“You won’t…” He had wanted to say that Elissa won’t get away with this, but she quickly interrupted him.

“I won’t what? I came in good faith to talk and you didn’t even deign to receive your better as you should. This is a clear breach of etiquette and an insult. What’s more, it exposed you as a coward, unfit to lead.”

“I am the guildmaster!”

Elissa crouched and caught him by the throat; raising him high in the air, his feet not touching the ground. She then turned him toward the entrance of the building where everyone looked at him. Some in fright and others in contempt.

“You are no master, I intended to let you live after speaking about this bounty you had authorized to be put on my august person. However, after this display of cowardice and corruption… I am afraid that I shall make an example of you.” The young woman emulated Malicia perfectly, so much that she lost herself in the role.

The guildmaster tried to stand up but after soiling his breeches with urine he slid on his own fluids.

“No! Please don’t! I-I won’t run again! You want to talk, then let’s talk!” The guildmaster tried to appease Elissa seeking forgiveness for his slight.

This was the first time that he was confronted by someone so ruthless and not afraid of showing it. The political arena and the underbelly of Thafnoris were a strange dance between putting on airs and being as cold and calculating as possible, they didn’t shy away from most crimes. But here? This she-elf was a demon!

Elissa theatrically rolled her eyes. “Oh, Hel. I cannot do that. I can’t be told to compromise on this now that you have tested my patience, and trampled on my bottom line.”

Elissa let the elf fall, like a cat he fell on his feet and attempted to flee but ran into a wind wall that sent him back to the ground at the young woman’s feet. Farad, Elissa’s lightning elemental manifested herself and took humanoid form.

“Others won’t ever try the same when I am done with you; after all, they’ll never doubt your calcined body lying at my feet. A most formidable reminder.” Elissa said in a cold tone.

This was about respect and prevention. Elissa couldn’t keep letting the dark elf disrespect her as they had been doing since she came to this planet. Battle after battle, ambush after ambush, she had become weary of it. Every time she left her Pocket Realm she didn’t want to have to watch her back everyday. If she had to sully her hands to have peace of mind? She will gladly do so.

After all this world was becoming like a home to her, Earth was becoming such a distant afterthought; the only thing she loved there were her friends and family. She didn’t care about what happened to that planet that had stifled her socially and mentally.

Farad created ten golden lightning balls, and Elissa pushed as much mana as she could into them until they gained a purple tint. That was a sign of mastery of the element and made the guildmaster recoil in fear.

“No! NOOOO!!!” He screamed, giving her his back before running into another wind wall.

Elissa cackled. “Rejoice, they will now speak your name for eternity.”

*Even though I don’t know it.* Elissa thought.

The guildmaster’s white hair was in disarray, he was now separated from his cloak and looked at Elissa with fright as he fell yet again. There was only silence for two seconds, until Elissa gave the order that her lightning elemental had been waiting for.

“Farad, kill.”

One ball of lightning fell on the guildmaster’s leg and the elf began to seize, screaming at the top of his lungs. The execution was slow and methodical, each ball only falling on a part of the body that would avoid killing the elf too fast. He screamed till he broke his vocal cord and lasted only to the sixth lightning ball.

Farad and Mistral stopped their spells, took their sylph forms and came to sit on Elissa’s shoulders. The young woman’s face was hugged by both of them. Shrugging, Elissa attempted to go back into the building but the sounds of numerous booted footsteps made her stop. From each of the alleys and the road on the market facings the guild’s headquarters.

The streets quickly filled with soldiers in silver armor pointing their spears at her but still keeping their distance. Elissa tilted her head, surprised by this quick response from the authorities. An elven woman stepped out of the sea of armored soldiers, she wore a golden armor and she looked gorgeous in it; red hair, grey eyes and athletic.

“Lady Dragonfang I presume?” The elven woman’s cool and dignified voice rang.

Elissa frowned, putting a gauntleted hand on her hips. “It is I. Who might you be? And is this gathering for little ol’ me?”

The young woman heard a snicker in the soldier’s ranks. The tittering breaking the seriousness of the situation. The golden armored elf walked up to Elissa before she felt a warning breeze strike her face, Mistral didn’t like how there were this many people after her mistress.

“I am General Ilyrana Grejeon. And yes, the crown is taking you seriously. After all you are a dragon slayer.” Ilyrana said, she knew that the breeze that just struck her could well have been a windblade that could have beheaded her. It was so fast that she didn’t have time to raise her magical shield, it had been a warning from the green sylph on the sun-elf’s right shoulder.

Elissa chuckled. “I almost regret my fame right now.”

Yes, she wanted them to take her seriously now. But now she kind of regretted that. You can say what you want about dark elves, when they had concerns they went to all the stops.

Ilyrana nodded. “Your notoriety will be growing even more after what you just did to guildmaster Davyre…”

The dark elven general was really sensitive to magical auras, the barely restrained one of this sun-elf made her not want to face her at all. She was dangerous, volatile and ruthless from the torture she just enacted on the guildmaster. But she had a duty to defend Thafnoris’ citizens, and a stranger coming in to terrorize the population couldn’t be tolerated.

“Oh, he deserved what happened, believe me.” Elissa said, her voice serious and her expression neutral.

Ilyrana felt the aura of the sun-elf gain in intensity, a sure sign that she was ready for battle. The general wanted to avoid this at all cost, she wasn’t the kind of opponent that an army could take on.

She swallowed hard and said, “I am sorry to say this, my Lady; but we are inviting you to the Palace. The Royal clan wishes to…”

Elissa clicked her tongue. “You shouldn’t finish that sentence, I’ve really started to like you general.”

The general shook her head, then unsheathed her sword. “Please... I insist.”

Elissa really liked that woman, she had guts and a sense of duty; she felt that she was different from the dark elves she has met lately, reminding her a bit of Dicinna. The atmosphere tensed, Elissa could feel that everyone was readying themselves for battle, tightening their hold on their weapons. 

The young woman chuckled derisively. “Tell you what general, I will go to the palace later but for now I have other business to attend to.”

Ilyrana opened her mouth to answer. “Wha-”

Elissa cast her Dimension door spell and left the guild’s building by teleporting away, leaving a stunned battalion behind her with their general cursing like a sailor.

---

Thafnoris Sharan Royal Clan Hold

Everything was going to hell, the Druldred clan hold was attacked and their mansion was now a smoking ruin. 

*And now? Now there’s a report of the guildmaster having been killed.* Alais Sharan thought.

They had been warned, that the she-elf called Elissa Dragonfang would come for them but they didn’t expect her to come herself; they had made plans for an army to besiege them and demands made to hand over the Matriarchs that had slighted the sun-elf. However, this was a completely different form of war they were being given a lesson in.

Alais looked at the report, it told her how the sun-elf had breached the protective wards of the southern gate; a gate rarely opened and that was the least guarded. It had been used as a punishment assignment for the soldiers judged inept.

*And it has cost us. It was as if she knew our vulnerabilities since the start.* Alais narrowed her eyes, putting the report on her desk.

Knock. Knock.

“Enter.” Alais said without looking at the door, keeping her gaze on the report.

A tall dark haired and silver eyed beauty entered the study, she was wearing a light silver armor comparable to the royal soldiers but even more heavily enchanted. Her name was Aleesia and she was heir to the royal clan of Sharan.

“Mother, what is happening? The city is on high alert…” Aleesia asked as she was straightening her sword belt.

Alais’ eyes fell on her panicked offspring and said with gravitas, “Daughter, we are being invaded.”

Aleesia’s hand settled on her sword’s grip in anger her beautiful face showing a sneer. “Who? Is it Destar or Kalyn?”

Those were the name of the nearest elven city states, those two had been eyeing Thafnoris for its resources and underground water way. Aleesia will be damned before she let those two shit holes try to take her birthplace and-

“Worse. Lady Dragonfang.” The Matriarch heavily sighed.

Aleesia raised an eyebrow at that. “I thought her a fictitious character.”

For good reason, a sun-elf able to destroy a dark elven army without being killed was outlandish to the heiress. Aleesia sat before her mother on the chair facing her desk, she was confused by her mother’s reaction.

Alais laughed nervously. “Oh, she’s real and she’s powerful. She killed Siodhanth and now she’s sowing chaos in my city!”

The Matriarch was a black haired and older version of Aleesia, to her daughter she looked older and weary. It made Aleesia’s heartache to see her like that, soon she would take her mother's place and send her to a home where she could practice her hobbies or freely travel for vacations. That’s the least she could do to relieve her.

“What brought her here?” Aleesia asked, worried now.

A dragonslayer was a terrible foe, they could take on armies of thousands and win; from what she heard from the rumors, Lady Dragonfang was an accomplished warrior and mage.

Alais facepalmed. “Those stupid clan matriarchs did…”

Anger suffused Aleesia and she stood up from her chair and screamed, “I told you mother, we should have killed them all!”

Her mother has been too lax in the management of the clans and they had been taking in more and more power. If it was her, Aleesia would have purged them long ago!

“Well, this…” The Matriarch tried to say something to defend her position, but she knew that she wouldn’t be winning this argument as the clans truly had overstepped their bounds this time by making  powerful nobility from outside their world their enemies.

“Mother-”

KRAKOOMMM. BOOOOM.

With the sound of thunder, the clan hold shook as a terrible impact struck the wards protecting it. Alais deployed a magical shield around her and her daughter, thus ensconced in a viridian bubble of energy the two elf women combined their mana by quickly forming a circle to boost their shield.

BOOOM. KRAK.

And then the attack suddenly stopped and the clan hold didn’t shake anymore. Mother and daughter looked at each other and said in unison, “What’s happening?”

Sounds of boots coming their way came from behind the door of the study, the door opened and was almost off of its hinges.

“Your Majesty! We are being attacked.” The female soldier announced.

Aleesia rolled her eyes. “That’s obvious soldier!”

The elf woman cringed and lowered her eyes.

“Who is it?” Alais asked.

“It’s a sun-elf in dark blue armor, accompanied by dwarves.” The female soldier gave even more bad news.

Putting her hand on her chest, Alais closed her eyes and said, “Nodicea have mercy.”

---

30 minutes earlier
Bhelveth clan hold

Aeruirn looked at the smoking ruins that the Druldred clan hold had become, not surprised for even a moment that it could become so in less than an hour. This has been a long time coming, the black haired elf sipped her wine and thought about how right she had been to dismiss everyone to save their lives. Aeruirn felt that, yes, it’s going to be her turn soon.

“I see that you are having a good time.”

Aeruirn froze for an instant, then looked up. The most beautiful sun-elf she had ever seen looked down at her, her skin glowing gold, her platinum blonde hair billowing in the breeze; what shocked her the most though were her icy blue wings allowing her to hover.

“Lady Dragonfang?” Aeruirn asked.

The sun-elf didn’t have red hair but from the pictures of her she saw from the memory crystal she was really similar.

A voice full of assurance and poise answered her, “It is I. And you are not Idami.”

The sun-elf’s eyes narrowed on Aeruirn, roving all over her body, Aeruirn had the impression she was being judged and catalogued. This was the first time that her beauty had no effect on anyone, and now she understood that there was no getting away from this one.

“No, mother is dead and in Nodicea’s embrace.” Aeruirn confessed.

Elissa understood it as either she suicided or was killed by her daughter for her to become Matriarch. The young woman landed on the balcony, dismissed her blue wings by snapping them back onto her back and they dissipated. Elissa walked up to the beautiful dark elf in her white gown. Aeruirn braced herself, awaiting death; just like she wanted. She was sorry that she couldn’t see her brother and his family now.

The dark elf closed her eyes, however, all she felt was intense cold that made her shiver. She opened her eyes to see what was happening.

Elissa, with a move of her hand, made an ice construct in the shape of a wineglass appear between her right thumb and index finger; she then proceeded to fill it with wine from the bottle on the table near Aeruirn. She smelled it and not smelling or seeing any poisonous molecule drank it slowly.

The wine was fruity and lightly alcoholic, she let her weary mind rest.

“I had hoped to finish this with my hands around her neck, I am so disappointed.” Elissa said in dejection.

Aeruirn stiffened at that, this imposing and dangerous elf was unpredictable. It made her afraid and weak at the same time.

“I am sorry for what happened to you, but…” Aeruirn wanted to apologize for how her mother had treated her.

But she was interrupted by Elissa who suddenly turned toward her, her wine glass in hand, taking her in with her emerald eyes.

“First, what is your name?” The sun-elf asked.

The dark elf felt silly to have neglected such a basic sign of courtesy, Aeruirn curtsied as she said, “Hum, Aeruirn Bhelveth I am... was the matriarch. But there’s no clan Bhelveth anymore.”

Lady Dragonfang was suddenly before her, she didn’t even see her move. Aeruirn was shocked. *This is how fast death would come for me?*

“What do you mean?” Lady Dragonfang asked.

Aeruirn smiled wryly. “I knew you were coming, so I disbanded the clan to save all of their lives.”

Lady Dragonfang looked surprised, and seemed to look at Aeruirn in a new light. “Oh, smart. Though why did you stay?”

Aeruirn swallowed hard and kneeled to Elissa. “I want to take responsibility for my mother’s actions. You want to kill her but she isn’t here anymore, now do your worst, my Lady.”

The dark elf lowered her head, waiting for Lady Dragonfang to kill her. She waited for over five minutes for the blow that would take her life, but nothing came. The sun-elf took Aeruirn’s face in her hands and forced her to look at her in the eyes.

“You are really gutsy. I like you and it would be a shame to kill you.” The sun-elf stroked Aeruirn’s face making her briefly blush.

“I want to join my mother, please.” Aeruirn pleaded in a sad tone.

She had nothing to live for anymore after all. However, this seemed to displease Lady Dragonfang and Aeruirn felt it as the sun-elf’s hands became cold as they held her face.

“Why should I give you the gift of death? No, you’ll repent in her stead. She escaped me.” This was said so conversationally that Aeruirn almost didn’t think she was angry, but the light in her eyes said otherwise.

Aeruirn dared to ask, “How?”

Elissa’s hand slid on the beautiful dark elf’s face and stroked her silky hair, Aeruirn felt aroused. A piece of parchment appeared in the air and in a smooth movement, Elissa caught it and presented it to Aeruirn.

“Read and sign this contract with your blood.” Elissa took a dagger from her spatial ring, threw it and planted it at Aeruirn’s feet.

Aeruirn's heart beat faster as she read the contract, it was a blood contract. Something that she didn’t see enforced often even in her position as heiress of the clan.

“Slavery?” The dark elven beauty asked, she looked at Elissa but she had disappeared.

Then she felt a presence behind her and hands brushing her hair sensually and a smooth and voice said in her pointy ear,  “Indenture, you give me 100 years of your life and become my handmaiden. We will be together for a long time.”

Aeruirn now imagined herself being ravaged in a bed by this beautiful and powerful elf, “You want to bed me.”

She said, sure of what Lady Dragonfang wanted.

Elissa laughed throatily at the kinky elf girl before her. “Cute, but no. I agree that you are beautiful; but one of my future wives would kill me if I tried, one of them is a dark elf. It’s because of her that I didn’t flood this entire city underwater by the way.”

Aeruirn thanked Nodicea to have put this dark elf who won Lady Dragonfang’s heart on her path and for sparing the city from that fate. She still felt the Lady stroking her hair, she was jealous of it? Turning her body toward the woman, she indeed saw a coveting gaze on her face. Aeruirn took the dagger at her feet, slightly sliced a finger and wrote her name with a bleeding finger on the contract.

There was no sky, but the rumbling of thunder could be heard. Aeruirn looked at the sun-elf and bowed her head, “I… thank you for this opportunity.”

Aeruirn felt that there was a need to have more dark elves with Lady Dragonfang to limit the damage she could do to her people. Elissa held her hand to the dark elf who took it without hesitation, not even deterred by the greedy smile she pasted on her face.

Elissa’s face approached Aeruirn and she whispered. “Now I’m going to take this house, everything you own belongs to me as well as your soul, your body and smarts.”

Aeruirn shivered, at once aroused and horrified. “Did anyone tell you that you don’t act like an elf?”

Elissa smiled, “I was raised by a demoness and a dragoness.”

Surprised, Aeruirn answered, “Oh, that explains so much.”

She wasn’t raised as a traditional elf Aeruirn supposed, other sun-elves were brash, opinionated and haughty as they thought themselves better than anyone. Their wars often spilled into other worlds because of their arrogance and not a lot of other races liked them.

Ting.

Aeruirn was startled by this sounds that seemed to come from Lady Dragonfang’s ring. As for Elissa she wanted to continue to flirt and play with the beauty but someone had to ruin her fun.

“M’Lady Dragonfang.” Sizalda’s voice became audible for the two of them to hear.

The dwarf wouldn’t call Elissa if it wasn’t important, so she asked, “Speak Sizalda, what is going on?”

“Tha army is converging tae yer position.” Sizalda said with urgency.

Elissa swore. “Ah, that’s not good.”

She didn’t know how they found her, she had wanted to loot this entire mansion with its foundation to bring it to Aryther. She resigned herself to do that later. Elissa took Aeruirn’s hand and walked to the rail of the balcony and saw that the Royal army was at the foot of the hill.

“The royal clan wants you badly, my Lady.” Aeruirn said as she looked at the silver armored sea of soldiers.

Elissa didn’t like how much distance her new dark elf was putting between them, “Call me Elissa, Aeruirn.”

Aeruirn saw the narrowed eyes of her new mistress and relented, “I… very well. Elissa.”

“Good.”

Elissa then focused on the familiar army before her, she noticed a familiar flash of gold armor and she  wasn’t surprised to see that the first to put a foot on the hill was Ilyrana Grejeon, General of Thafnoris.

“Ilya isn’t giving up, huh.” Elissa said as she watched the general swagger to her new clan hold.

Aeruirn saw Elissa’s lips quirk slightly, she seemed to be fond of this familiar person. The new handmaiden looked at the golden armored woman who approached and finally recognized her.

“That’s General Grejeon, do you know her?” Aeruirn asked.

Elissa nodded. “Yes, she tried to apprehend me earlier, didn’t work of course.”

Another thought came to Aeruirn who said, “I am surprised that there were no casualties from you two meeting, Elissa.”

Idami had described Elissa like a dangerous monster on the loose, an amoral one. But so far, Aeruirn didn’t see it. In fact, she found herself attracted to her new mistress and she felt that it was wrong; that she shouldn’t feel this way as she was related to her mother’s death. Weirdly, she couldn’t hate her.

Elissa answered, “My dark elf, Dicinna; she told me how so little of you there are on this planet. Barely a million Dark elves. I do not want to contribute to your extinction.”

There was a sad tone to coming from Elissa’s voice, a sadness that suddenly distracted her. Aeruirn felt more and more that this Dicinna was sent by Nodicea herself; was is possible that those two were in the process of the choosing?

“You sound like you listen to her a lot.” Aeruirn asked, curious.

“Yes, she’s the only true treasure that I found on this damned planet.” Elissa said with relish, her eyes not leaving General Grejeon for a second.

“LADY DRAGONFANG, SURRENDER.” Ilyrana Grejeon’s voice was amplified magically.

Elissa cackled at that, this general had spunk. Her? Surrender? *I am the heir of the Phantasian throne, I won’t retreat, I won’t stop and I won’t quit. Just like Mother Daphne.*

After letting herself go and cackling like a mad elf, Elissa said, “I really like this woman, I want her in my army.”

Aeruirn shook her head, she was noticing a pattern, “Elissa… do you have a hobby of collecting people?”

As if it were an afterthought, Elissa commented, “Huh? Now that you mention it, since my new instincts kicked in, I noticed that I have developed a bad habit of collecting women, precious metals and gems.”

Aeruirn wouldn’t be surprised that this sun-elf wasn’t completely an elf, the more she conversed with her, the more she saw draconic traits in her. This didn’t bode well at all. The dark elf felt an arm snaking around her waist and noticed the gauntleted hand possessively on her hips.

“I DON’T THINK SO ILYA, BUT DON’T WORRY YOU’LL SOON BE MINE TOO.” Elissa amplified her voice and addressed General Grejeon.

Elissa picked Aeruirn up in a princess carry. “Now we must go, there’s one last item that I plan to add on my shopping list.”

Reddening, the dark elf avoided Elissa’s eyes and asked, “Oh, what might this be?”

“The City of course.”

Elissa used Dimension door, disappearing in another flash of blue light.

---

Sharan Royal Clan Hold
Now

Elissa had attacked the shield wards with a call lightning spell, she dented them but didn’t breach them yet. It had flickered and then a hole appeared in the energy bubble around the clan hold. She lamented the fact that she didn’t have anything to breach wa-

*Wait, I do have something.* Gungnir manifested in her hand and she began to charge it with as much mana as she could without depleting her core.

Pleased that she was still at half a tank, Elissa activated the Fortress Breaker enchantment on the spear that made armor or walls completely irrelevant. Holding the middle of the spear within the palm of her hand, Elissa looked for any weakness beside the hole she created in the shield ward, she found one at the entrance. Elissa aimed after establishing the balance point of the spear and had a comfortable grip and threw it with all her strength.

Elissa had badly judged her strength and she realized it when the shield ward shattered on impact. *Urgh, I only wanted to make a tiny entrance!*

Aeruirn looked at the contrite expression of the sun-elf and put her hand before her mouth to avoid showing her smile at her new mistress’ blunder. If Aeruirn understood Elissa, she wanted the city intact with no harm to the population. This was why she didn’t come here with an army, the casualties would have been staggering.

*Or maybe I am reading too much into this.* The dark elf thought.

Ting.

The ring’s communication beeped again while soldiers filed out of the royal clan hold. Mistral and Farad kept them at bay by containing them in a cage of wind and lightning around the building.

“Mistress we are almost there.” Fenirael’s voice sounded hurried, as if they were running.

Elissa looked at the entrance of the palace-like clan hold and spoke in her ring. “Good Fenirael, did it go well?” 

Silence. Fenirael seemed to take her time to think and thirty second later she said, “We had a change of plans, Mistress.”

Farad reacted to Elissa’s annoyance and zapped one of the soldiers, frying him on the spot. The soldiers stepped back, crowding the gate as the wind picked up to the storm level.

“Explain.” Elissa tone lost all warmth.

It made Aeruirn step back from her a little, the dark elf thought about how much Elissa was like the storm, always in movement emotionally.

Fenirael began to explain, “Princess Brunhilda and the Sisterhood decided to not destroy the four clans that were left, Mistress.”

“They had orders.” Elissa said as her gauntlet had an arc of lightning escape from it. The high concentration of electricity on the piece of armor produced a sound reminiscent of many birds chirping.

Aeruirn put her hands over her sensitive elven ears and stepped back further.

“Yes Mistress. They captured the Matriarchs instead for you to put to death or spare.” Fenirael felt the building anger in Elissa’s mind through their bond.

“I see, better than nothing I guess. Hilda, I know that you can hear me, we will discuss this later.” Elissa walked to the gates of the palace, alone.

“Dinna worry, Elissa. Ah’m nae going tae avoid it, we must talk.” Brunhilda answered without fear.

The silence on the communication channel was heavy, Aeruirn didn’t know if she had to follow Elissa or stay here. But seeing her stop and turning to her, she understood her intention. She cast a magical shield around her and walked up behind her new mistress.

Elissa walked predatorily, calling back her spear into her hand, she stashed it back in her spatial toe ring. The soldiers and mages at the gates were ready for her, spells already cracking and weapons at the ready. She and her handmaiden passed through the wind and lightning as if it didn’t exist and at the same instant Elissa was attacked. But she was furious, and caught the spear and punched so fast and strongly that she turned the soldier into paste inside his mangled armor.

Spreading her awareness in a five meter diameter around her, Elissa avoided being stabbed by countless spears and broke them with her striking gauntlets, maimed and batted away her foes; burning like a hot knife, her freeze ray spell took care of neutralizing any mages trying to attack her. They were constrained by trying to not damage the palace.

Elissa heard the sisterhood coming behind her, Fenirael and her sister coming first as usual. Unleashing black fire, Reinatiel kept the other mages busy, still they kept the loss of life to a minimum by just keeping the elves busy. The young woman avoided being impaled by a spear by avoiding it at the last moment making the soldier who tried to stab her plunge his spear’s blade in the thigh of a female soldier behind Elissa.

Ice, wind and lightning was enough to ward off the attacks; Elissa having finished the squad decided to seal the gates to stop reinforcements from General Grejeon from coming. The Sisterhood was here, and Elissa’s eyes found Brunhilda’s who shrugged and continued walking. Elissa knew it wasn’t yet the moment to argue with her friend in the middle of an operation.

Creating a block of ice to seal the gate with, Elissa transmuted it into stone making it as dense as possible, then iron and was satisfied with the hyperdense material she had created. The wall she created looked like reinforced carbon steel in the end.

“Let’s go, we have a ruler to meet.” Elissa said without stopping and walked to where she could hear the sounds of footsteps shuffling and gathering.

In silence the Sisterhood followed her, until it was broken by the curiosity of the eldest dwarf twin intrigued by the presence of an unknown dark elf woman.

“Who’s the lass?” Nabideth asked looking at Aeruirn.

Aeruirn was startled by how casually this dwarf woman was addressing Elissa, she looked at her disapprovingly.

“My new handmaiden and servant.” Elissa announced.

Nabideth and the rest hoped that was all it was, they knew Elissa preferred women to men and this new lass was too comely; Dicinna might take offense, and that white-haired dark elf was stalkerish and obsessed with Elissa.

“Mistress are you dissatisfied with us?” Reinatiel asked looking startled by the news.

“No, she’s there because I like her don’t be jealous, ok?” Elissa held her demoness’ hand.

As Reinatiel thought of making Aeruirn’s life hell, they continued to walk. The corridors were full of silver frescoes showing the history and the decadence of the previous dark elven empire, the white stone of the palace was certainly marble and the architecture decidedly elven. Elissa asked Aeruirn if she knew the layout of the palace and she answered that yes she did, that they were in the corridor called the little gallery showing the collection of Matriarch Sharan.

They passed a door leading to a staircase that led to the royal court. Elissa wasn’t surprised to find that it was guarded by a lot of soldiers, however, they wore different armor from the silver ones the other normal soldiers so far seemed to wear. They wore full plate mail.

“That’s the royal guard, their armor is heavily enchanted.” Aeruirn reported.

Elissa thanked her, and commanded Fenirael to, “Protect Aeruirn, she’s squishy.”

“I am not!” Aeruirn talked back, offended. “I was the best mage in school!”

Elissa chuckled at that, *Not to my standards.* She thought.

The magical shield she had seen her cast earlier was sloppy, Malicia’s magic missile would have cut through them like swiss cheese. Elissa was fourteen years old when she could cast solid magical shield at the speed of thought under fire from her adoptive mother. Still, she found that Aeruirn had potential and a pretty mana color, it was silver.

Reinatiel growled at Aeruirn who ignored her, “She’s too proud mistress, permission to teach her her place?”

*Hel, this is going to be annoying. I hope Dicinna comes back soon.* Elissa thought.

“Don’t go too far, Reinatiel she’s a good girl and you’ll have to teach her our brand of magic, not that elven foolishness.” Elissa began to stretch as she looked tauntingly at the royal guards.

Aeruirn was more than offended, she was outraged! Elven magic was one of the more refined and powerful in the Yggdrasil network of worlds after the Aesir’s. She will show them! Aeruirn clapped her hands and a ball of silver flame appeared between them. Reinatiel harrumphed when she saw that and created a bigger flame than her.

“Certainly mistress.” Reinatiel said.

Fenirael placed herself before Aeruirn who didn’t like the fact that she needed to be protected, she had to pull her own weight or she would be seen as dead weight.

“We aren’t going to kill those people. Sindanelyn break out the Ice stasis brew.” Elissa ordered.

Sindanelyn’s eyes seemed to shimmer as she heard Elissa, this was a product that they jointly created using alchemy and ice magic. As the name indicated it placed the person hit by the bottles of brew in an ice prison and in stasis.

“Aye!” She shouted.

The royal guard charged as Elissa lunged toward them, using agility and their own power against them instead of brute force. Sindanelyn threw vials at them and when struck, those vials broke and once the liquid inside was exposed to air it expanded and froze the target and imprisoned them in a coffin of ice in the position they were in.

Elissa used the minimum amount of force to deal with the guards who were handled like toddlers. Reinatiel and Aeruirn roasted them and Sindanelyn froze them when they couldn’t fight anymore. Thankfully, their armor seemed to protect them from the flames.

“This has become boring.” Brunhilda whined.

Fenirael secretly agreed with her, Elissa ignored them; there will be a time when she’ll be able to speak with Brunhilda. She climbed the stairs and stopped before the giant doors, with a quick and explosive jab Elissa destroyed the supposedly warded door and swaggered inside.

The court was just like she imagined it to be, luxurious, well decorated and filled with tapestries and columns hiding would-be guards. The black carpet was something else, it looked like what you’d find in the Tilton hotel, soft and non-skid. At the end of the room Elissa could see a group of people surrounded by guards in silver armor.

With a confident gait, Elissa walked up to who she assumed to be Matriarch Sharan. Releasing her magical aura, Elissa wasn’t surprised to see the guards behind the columns appear and closing any avenue of escape by surrounding her. However, they didn’t count on the Sisterhood coming behind them and neutralizing them with Ice Stasis Brew.

The Matriarch looked middle-aged, the kind of soccer mom that you find pleasant to speak with; Dark hair and silver eyes, she wore a heavily enchanted golden armor but it meant nothing to Elissa’s power. Nevertheless, being too confident was the height of hubris and Elissa wasn’t ready to make the same mistakes as before. She pulled her awareness inward and reducing it to a thin layer above her skin.

“Matriarch Sharan, I presume?” Elissa asked acknowledging her with a nod.

The guards around her put their hands on their swords grip, making Elissa’s smile brighten and daring them to unsheath.

The dark elven woman nodded in turn and said, “Lady Dragonfang.”

The sounds of Elissa’s sabatons were muffled as she approached the throne a little more, but was stopped by a woman looking strangely like the Matriarch. As she smelled their scent, she noticed that they were related; another one of the female guards had the same distinct scent. Elissa turned her head toward her and found her looking viciously at her.

Elissa’s eyes found the Matriarch’s. “You were easy to find, do you know why I am here?”

Her magical aura intimidated them and she didn’t seem to care about the guards around the Matriarch, Alais swallowed slowly and knew exactly why she was there, but decided to delay it as much as she could, waiting for her Golden General to come to the rescue.

“You have been dealing with each the most influential clans in Thafnoris and killed the guildmaster.” Alais Sharan said.

She knew that all those incompetents were the cause of this current tribulation and hoped that they rot in the Nodicea’s abyss.

Elissa nodded. “I killed that corrupt and incompetent elf in the guild because he slighted me, as for the Matriarchs their people dared to attack me and I answered in kind.”

Every guard tensed as they saw Elissa cross her arms under her breastplate, they were ready at a moments notice to attack her. The sisterhood was ready too, Sindanelyn was already setting up targets while Brunhilda was thinking that there was too much useless posturing right now and Nabideth narrowed her eyes as she saw the youngest looking guard make finger signs to the others. The handmaidens moved behind Elisssa.

As for Alais, she looked at Elissa’s company, the dwarves were not a surprise, but the demonesses guarding a familiar dark elf Matriarch was. “I see, but I have a question for you? What is Aeruirn Bhelveth doing with you?”

The ex-clan Matriarch didn’t even react when her name was called, but the vilifying gazes she received from every dark elf present disturbed her. There was so much hatred here that she had wanted to hide behind Elissa, however, she didn’t. She was a grown elf and she accepted that her choices had consequences.

The Sharan Matriarch speared Aeruirn with her gaze and added, “Though I am not surprised by how quickly she turned coat. Like her mother, did she sell her services to you?”

Aeruirn gasped, that insult made her eyes go red; Reinatiel stopped her from saying anything by putting a hand around her arm. The dark elf turned to look at the demoness who slightly shook her head at her. Aeruirn closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down; nevertheless Elissa didn’t take this insult lying down and got offended for her.

Voice cold and her magical aura pressuring everyone around her, Elissa said, “Be more respectful please, Aeruirn is now my handmaiden and she has begun the penance that her cowardly mother escaped by killing herself. This dark elf isn’t like most of the clanners that I’ve met, she has honor. Something that most of the Matriarchs of your city state have forgotten exists.”

Alais was surprised by the verbal attack, pointing out the deficiency of her own people, too greedy to see the bigger picture. The Matriarch Queen frowned and her anger got the better of her, “Did you attack my palace to tell me that? An audience could have been arranged.”

Elissa cackled evilly. “I didn’t come to Thafnoris as a petitioner, but as a conqueror.”

Every elf in the throne room froze for an instant when Elissa told them her intention, they knew what always happens to the ruling family when their city was taken. Death.

Unsurprisingly this caused tempers to flare and the youngest guard who was the Royal Matriarch’s youngest daughter shouted, “ATTACK, ATTACK!”

The other guards didn’t move though, they knew it was a losing fight, still it didn’t deter Alais’ youngest daughter. She lunged at Elissa with her sword drawn, ready to cleave her in two; however, the young woman caught her sword between her fingers while she was in mid-air broke it and then delicately slapped the young elf into the nearest column that almost broke.

“Alyndra!!!” The matriarch stood up trying to go to her daughter but was stopped by her guards.

Elissa walked toward the downed Alyndra, and checked her pulse. She was alive, fortunately. Elissa had pulled her strength sufficiently. The platinum blonde took Alyndra’s hair in her hand and pulled on it to look at her bleeding face, “She’s got such a pretty name and face, it would be a shame that she died right now or your other daughter too.” Elissa said as she watched the other black haired and silver eyed royal guard.

Alais didn’t like it, it was as if this she-elf knew everything about her. Her offspring were being threatened.

“Matriarch Sharan I am giving you a chance, kneel or die.”

Everyone of the elves looked at each other, just for that they wanted to attack but contrary to their expectations the Matriarch didn’t order them to attack. Alais looked contemplative.

“If I do, what will you do to my people?” The Royal Matriarch asked.

Aleesia, her daughter looked shocked, just like her guards. Elissa was pleased, pleased to find someone who finally thought about others in this crappy city. “Oh finally! Another one!”

Elissa turned to her new handmaiden, a happy expression etched on her face. “Aeruirn, see, you aren’t the only one!”

Aeruirn bowed her head to Elissa and then to Alais who looked slightly surprised. “I knew she would ask, Matriarch Sharan is a good person surrounded by... bad ones.”

Elissa happy go lucky face disappeared, she crouched next to Alyndra and began to heal her. The guard didn’t know how to react as the gold and white light shone around the princess who suddenly was awake. Elissa carried her on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and gave her to her elder sister who inspected her. This reminded the young woman about Cassandra, she missed her so much.

Elissa turned to Alais and said, “If you swear fealty to me, Alais Sharan I swear to place your people under my protection, to teach them and bring them under the sun where they truly belong. Of course, I am not going to accept your word for it, you and your daughters will have to sign this blood contract.”

The platinum blonde wasn’t naive, the only way to get true loyalty from dark elves was either out of love or by enforced magic contract.

Alais’ expression darkened, “A blood contract!”

“Yes, I am not taking any risks.” Elissa looked solemn as she spoke. “When I arrived on this planet, the first time I met Ssri-tel-quessir (dark elves) they attacked me on sight, no questions asked. Then they hunted me and sent an army after me in ambush.”

Elissa crossed her arms, eyes blazing. “Your people are so far gone that they forgot something crucial, when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” She said using that famous quote.

Strangely the dark elves seemed to understand the analogy she put forward, it completely described what the clans were doing since the fall of the dark elven empire.

“Your people landed you in this position that we find ourselves in today, if you had the stomach to rule you would have put Idami Bhelveth to death long ago and let’s not talk about the other Matriarchs.”

“I cannot… I cannot deny that you are right, that my weakness caused this situation but…” Alais began to say, however, Elissa didn’t want to give her any leeway. She wanted this woman behind her, she realized. She was a good person, and she didn’t want to kill her at all.

Finding good dark elves was like searching for a real diamond in an ocean of zircons.

“Matriarch Sharan, do you think I am going to kill you after this?” Elissa really could.

She stared at the Matriarch who just snorted and said, “Seeing your eyes right now, I think not.”

Chuckling Elissa was happy that this elven woman could still read people. “No, no, you are a good person and now that you have learned what weakness will cost you, you are wiser for it. I’m not going to depose you, you’ll continue to rule Thafnoris, but the city will be under the Dominion of Aryther. I intend to change how this city works socially and politically.”

“What about the Matriarchs?” Alais asked as she leaned in her throne.

Elissa’s voice was cold when she said, “They kneel or they die.”

The Matriarch closed her eyes as a headache reared its head and massaged her temples. “You know, some of them won’t.”

The Matriarch knew them all, even the minor clans won’t; but strangely she didn’t seem to mind, maybe it was time for a culling.

“And you should not care about them if they don’t.” Elissa smiled.

After another back and forth between them, Alais stood up and walked up to Elissa, her guards and daughter let her pass reluctantly. The Matriarch knelt before Elissa and bowed her head. “I, Matriarch Alais Sharan, Queen of Thafnoris swear that I will be faithful to the ruler of Aryther, never seeking to cause her or her people harm and will observe my commitment to her completely against all in good faith and without deceit.”

That was almost word for word what Queen Mab said to Empress Ersha of Phantasia when she had taken her realm hostages. Something broke inside of Elissa, she realized that she was being a tyrant, she looked behind her at Brunhilda who noticed the quandary her friend found herself in and nodded to her. Elissa bowed her head in shame.

She didn’t want to be an Ersha, she wanted to be a Daphne but with more steel in her. Elissa took a parchment, dagger and a blood quill from her spatial toe ring and placed them at the feet of Alais who without hesitation signed. Thunder rumbled overhead, showing that part of the contract was fulfilled.

Elissa looked at Alais’ daughters, the youngest was finally awake and looked at her, defeated. They knelt, gave the same oath and signed.

“With this, you are now part of Aryther. I take good care of my people.” Elissa made Matriarch Sharan stand up and asked her to go back on her throne.

She created a copy of Dragon Fang Tower’s throne, a temporary one placed at the side of Alais’ “We are going to need General Grejeon here.”

Ting.

Elissa was about to give orders to the Sisterhood, but was interrupted by the communication channel suddenly coming alive.

“Elissa.” The familiar voice of her sweetheart Dicinna rang. Her tone sounded sad as if she had been crying. “Please, help me. My family is holding me prisoner.”