Book 3 Chapter 9: Punishment time.
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Arc 3: Earth’s dark influence
 
2nd act: Consequences and punishments
 
Aerien’s POV
 
[Oh, Logim, before we go, did you also get what I asked for?]
 
The old gnome made an unpleasant and hesitant face in response to my question. [I did, but… are you certain?] He asked, walking over to a drawer while constantly looking over his shoulder at me.
 
[What did you ask for?] Levin asks.
 
[Something that someone in her position absolutely shouldn’t BE asking for is what!] Logim spat, venting his frustrations. [Honestly! I would not make this for anyone aside from you, and that’s only because you’ve taken the oath and were still able to request it.]
 
Levin and Rolwen were looking with interest as Logim pulled open the drawer. He retrieved a small item from the drawer and handed it to me. It was a long ovoid stone, almost shaped like a carrot that was slightly shorter than my fore-arm. There was a clear and clean cut-line at the thick end, making it obvious this was actually the sheath for something. When I grabbed the cap and drew the object, it was revealed to be a long tapered and sharp metal spike with a stone head. As I drew it, I immediately felt the same sense of tension coming from the spike as I did from that pit of iron impurities.
 
[I fired and bashed this iron just like you asked. It’s proper fire-forged iron, the type that will rob a fey of their power. The stone it’s made of is the same type my workshop is made out of, it shields the damaging energies from the iron that affect the fey. Of course, the fact it lets you carry the thing around without accidentally puncturing something is a fine bonus, as is the fact that the ‘sheath’ has got enough heft to it that you can use it as a hammer to drive the thing.] Logim explained the qualities of his creation to me, and I was frankly impressed by all the thought he’d gone through for something like this, something he was clearly opposed to creating in the first place.
 
[Thank you Logim.] I said as I sheathed the thing and then stowed it away in a small belt pouch. [You truly are a master craftsman, you really think of everything when you’re making something for a function.]
 
Logim just grunts dismissively. Meanwhile, the boys are looking at me with concern. [What is that all about?] Rolwen decided to be the one to break the ice and ask.
 
[She wants to throw an insult at the dryad!] Logim tells him and glares at me before dropping his arms with a sigh and shaking his head. [Honestly, I think the very idea is reckless, but she clearly thinks it’s the right approach in dealing with this unusual dryad.]
 
[Yes] I said with a look of resolve on my face. [Dryad has been in hiding for almost two weeks now, and the arbor committee is making no progress in finding their main body. I am sick of waiting when Dryad has kidnapped Eirlation and my mother! So, I’m going to enter into some negotiations and I need a little something to show just how serious I am.]
 
-
 
After getting everyone back to what it seems had officially become the royal floor, I proceeded immediately to the upper branches. My mission this time, speak with Lord Baltair of the Arbor committee and get included on the next venture out to intercede with a dryad at a village. All I had to tell the queen was that I was going to act in accordance with my oath, to go and reprimand this dryad. She seemed to think this was a good approach to the issue, saying I was the one most suited to confront this dryad, both for the reasons that I knew Dryad better than anyone here and also that Dryad would likely give me far more leeway and be more likely to listen to me than any member of the arbor committee.
 
Soon enough, Lord Baltair had decided he was going to convey me himself, along side two true dragons from the defense committee. This time, they were sending me out with what could be considered a true royal escort. Considering I had been sent off with a single dragon looking to redeem his embarrassment last time, I was forced to wonder just how much of this was for my protection and how much of it was for appearances since the prescribed course of action this time would have us approaching an actual populated village.
 
I could be certain of one thing though. Lord Baltair’s reasons for taking me himself seemed to have more to do with the fact that he was actually the ONLY dragon with the arbor committee left in the entire capital, they had been taking this dryad situation quite seriously and all their upper members were constantly dispatched at this time. Of course, his pride likely had a lot to do with this as well. Why wouldn’t he want to play a part in the excursion most likely to bear results in the area that had been giving his committee so much trouble?
 
Something seems to be up though. I still do not have all that great a sense of scale for just how large the distances we are crossing here actually are, but just comparing my last dragon flight to this one I have definitely gotten the sense that we are moving slower. The boarder between the barren of the heaven’s scar and the forest at it’s edge is a pretty distinct land-mark, and the last time I flew with a dragon we were over it in just over a minute. About the same amount of time has passed now, and we are barely a quarter of the distance to the edge of the scar.
 
‘Well then, your highness.’ Lord Baltair addresses me. Of course he wants to talk, that makes sense as to why he’s going so slow. ‘I think while we are on our way, we had best discuss how it is the arbor committee generally conducts itself in dealing with dryads. Although this dryad is highly unique, perhaps you could draw some inspiration from this.’
 
Well, I was about to simply deal with Dryad as I would a normal person who had done the same things, but I wasn’t about to reject his offer. If I was supposed to act like a princess and all that stuff, it would be valuable to forge a good relationship with the heads of each committee. Even if I don’t use this information, just knowing how the arbor committee works would be useful, but the time and effort Lord Baltair invests into telling me all about it will be absolutely invaluable toward forging this connection. It’s a dirty little psychological trick, there’s no better way to raise a person’s opinion of you than to allow them to teach you something. People simply love to teach others, it is easily observed by how children like to try teach their own parents, even things the parents just taught to them a short time ago in some cases.
 
“Alright, go on.” I said. I felt my voice was simply being lost in this wide open air, but with my spirit energy backing it and transmitting the meaning of my thoughts it’s likely that even the queen and those we left behind back on the tree could still hear me at this distance.
 
‘Well,’ Lord Baltair continued now that he’d received my affirmation, ‘once again, these rules mainly apply to the usual dryads we had been previously encountering. They have a far more child-like demeanor to them than this one we are dealing with now, but there is something that they do share in common with the current dryad. Even a young and new dryad has the power necessary to end the lives of most normal elves in the area, and some are even powerful enough to kill dragons. This dryad most certainly does have that kind of power and more, so that is something that always needs to be kept in mind. Although, I suppose this much is a given.’
 
“Yes, this dryad has so much extra power there are copies of them all over the forest.” I commented.
 
‘Indeed, and my subordinates have confirmed that they are capable of sharing information with one another.’ Lord Baltair said. ‘Of course, I take it you are counting on that for your negotiations today. Although we are going to one of the dryad’s subordinate bodies, your words should be able to reach the main dryad regardless.’
 
“Yes, that is the plan.”
 
‘Well, one way or another, one thing that a member of the arbor committee always needs to keep in mind is when to use their power in order to overwhelm the dryad. Due to their immature nature, they can easily lash out if their will is disturbed. When this happens, simply dominating them with spirit power turns out being the only way to stop a tragedy from unfolding. This is why only nobles of sufficient power are allowed to negotiate with dryads, and when a normal citizen does so they are held responsible for any actions of the dryad in response to them. However, this also needs to be kept in balance. We do not always want to pour our spirit energy into a dryad. Our spirit energy is limited, we must breath it in from the entities around us and it does not replenish on it’s own. Meanwhile, the dryad becomes stronger from our spirit energy, and the next time we have to use the same tactic, more energy will be required.’
 
“Doesn’t sound too much different from being a parent to me, the only real difference is how quickly others are inconvenienced if you do a bad job. Don’t worry, I have experience from my last life, both with children and also with rebellious teens. I feel like the latter will be more applicable here.”
 
I could feel Lord Baltair’s scaly nose vibrate under my feet in response to my comment. ‘According to the queen, it would likely be better to think of this dryad as a less mature copy of your very own mind.’ He said. ‘This is the reason why you are the one best suited to deal with them. Of course, it also helps a great deal that they seem to have an attachment to you. We have been having to recruit members from the diplomacy committee to deal with this dryad, and they have been showing more success in their dealings with this dryad’s sub-bodies than my own subordinates. However, I estimate you may be able to get away with tactics even they wouldn’t even be able to dream of due to the deference the dryad is likely to show you.’
 
“Yes, this problem for the kingdom is the major factor giving me value in my mother’s eyes. Don’t worry, I have already made a plan around all the things you have said. Do try not to get too upset with what I am going to do though, part of it may be rather shocking and directly against anything you’d ever consider in dealing with a dryad.”
 
I could sense the concern rippling through Lord Baltair’s radiant spirit energy. However, he chose to say nothing on the subject. ‘Well then…’ He said in a slightly more hesitant tone. ‘Our destination will be Rima village. There may be some difficulties as this is the village where the refugees of Cundo fled to, but it is also the village that was closest to Cundo as well. We are unsure if there is any hierarchy among the dryad’s sub-bodies, but if there is then this one is likely to be one of the higher ones and thus the one we are most likely to see the best results from. Please allow us to talk with the villagers when we arrive, you need only concern yourself with the dryad.’
 
-
 
Terlu’s POV
 
Terlu had been left with nothing to do for the next couple of days after he’d scared off Úrdes. None of the other nogoth down here would talk to him. It was just fortunate that, due to the small size of the nogoth, he was able to just barely reach the food served in the mess hall with his short size. They seemed to eat at around the same level he had been fed back in his cell, which he assumed was pretty good once he compared his own meals to those served to the other kids in the cell.
 
He was left with nothing he could really do. He was quite the distance down in the ground from where his cell was, and even if he COULD separate the stone the way Úrdes did, he would have absolutely no idea how to find his way back. All he was able to do was the same thing that had made Úrdes freak out in the first place. He continued to train his magic from his elven side.
 
According to what Úrdes had told him, the magical energies involved in this elven magic were very strong down here. This meant that he could cast his rock-breaking magic over and over again with his mind being the only thing to get tired and his technique constantly improving. He eventually started making a game of it, focusing on one of the rock walls as he kept breaking off one stone after another and slowly creating a small tunnel through the rock using only his mind. It ultimately didn’t do much else except for make a mess, but it at least helped him feel like he was doing something.
 
One day, just a couple days after Úrdes had left him alone, he saw another nogoth adult leaning with his back to the wall he’d been constantly working at tunneling through. The small pile of broken-off rocks Terlu had accumulated were now missing and the wall he had taken them from was suddenly intact. That would probably be that edan-side magic more responsible for fine controlled actions, he’d used it to repair the stone wall Terlu had been breaking down.
 
The short man’s eyes locked on Terlu as he came into view. Was the guy waiting for him? He wasn’t going to be scolded for breaking the wall, was he? Well, at this point, any interaction might be a good thing.
 
The man was wearing a red stocking-style hat. He didn’t know what that hat meant, but he’d seen a few others wearing it. Normally the red-hat wearing people walked around like they owned the place and bossed around the ones not wearing the red hats, while the ones without red hats seemed to grovel and avoid them. It’s pretty clear there’s some kind of rank system down here, and the ones wearing the red hats are higher on the pecking order.
 
Terlu hesitated to approach much closer as he processed all of this. Why exactly would it be one of the higher rank people who repaired his wall? And why was this guy suddenly interested in him? Could this guy be that, uhh… Near-something that Úrdes talked about was going to train him? Is this guy his new teacher? He looked pretty serious.
 
[Hey, kid!] The man barked when he saw Terlu had stopped moving. Great, he was coming over now. He sighed, and then grabbed Terlu by the back of his shirt collar. [You’ve been summoned to the “paim-sambe” to testify on the cowardice of Úrdes. You’re coming with me.] He took a pretty firm grip on the back of his shirt as he was dragged along. This guy really didn’t seem to care whether Terlu was interested in walking on his own or not, and also did not seem interested in answering any more questions. All he did was just drag him over to a nearby wall which immediately opened and also formed a walk-way through the path they were taking.
 
This guy’s skill and control seemed to be at a pretty good level higher than Úrdes’ was, it was like the stone itself wanted to stay out of his way and make a path for him. Through this though, Terlu very quickly discovered that the few connected rooms he had spent the last few days in were barely even a small portion of the rooms available down here to the nogoth. He had wondered when he hadn’t seen any bed rooms, and how the area was just empty of anyone at night. He knew there had to be other rooms only accessible if you could separate the rock, but as they just passed through one large room after another he just got the sense there was quite a bit down here.
 
Eventually, the moment one stone wall was opened, he heard a man screaming. [No! I’m not a coward! Those roots! At the upper levels, those spirits are not something that can be fought! It’s not cowardice! Those are enemies we need to stay away from and come up with a better tactic to fight against! My matriarch is a fool for sending us on that mission! Everyone else who went is already dead!]
 
The man seemed to be pleading. The room Terlu was now entering looked like a horror show of discarded and decayed bones strewn about the floor and what looked like bodies sealed into the wall. To top it off, there were these creepy weird vines covering all the walls and ceiling. He was getting a very bad feeling of what this whole cowardice punishment stuff was going to entail.
 
 
Author's Note
 
Aaaand I'm back after a 2 week unplanned break, announced only by the poll I posted between acts. First off, I finally found the actual "author note" button. Now I can have a little box with a different color around my author note. This is not what I wanted to talk about though. Let's talk about the poll.
 
As for the poll, it was actually at 50/50 exactly as I was finalizing this chapter. It's shifted from there now, but it's still tighter than 52/48, so it's definitely within the margin of error to say neither option is really more popular than the other.
 
There are two ways to interpret this. Either you guys are telling me to do as I like or you guys are telling me I don't get to take an easy way out and I should just write better. Knowing all of you, I kinda doubt it was the latter. However, that's exactly what I wound up doing. Thanks to the week off, I managed to stop and think about my direction a little more and was able to revise my approach a little in a way that can wrap up a whole lot of the loose ends I was fretting about pretty darn fast. So, we are going to get  time-skip pretty quick here, but it will not be any form of compromise in the writing to get it out this quickly. Best of both worlds, it wound up working fine.

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