Author's note

Lol, how does my brain even work!? I literally had no clue what I was going to call this chapter and was stressing about it the entire time I was transferring stuff over. Then, right as the very last step, I went to write the chapter title and that title that fit the chapter perfectly just came straight out of nowhere without me even putting any effort into it. Crazy.

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Túeth’s POV

Aerien was awake. She was finally awake but, just as her master had predicted, the queen took her daughter the very moment she woke up. This left her feeling rather... empty. There was nothing but regret for her in all of this. It is not until she lost her daughter that she realized how much she wanted to form some kind of relationship with her.

No, now that she thought about it, she had always wanted some connection to her daughter, even during those painful days when she was still filled with the sense of pain from the memory of how she was conceived. Back then, she stayed away because she was certain the girls would simply be discovered and killed before too long. She did not want to become attached. Then, once her master told her they could be saved and placed under protection, the part of her that wanted to get to know her girls was stimulated again. However, the part of her that was in pain was more powerful. She felt she would have to deal with that first. She could not love her daughter while she was still seeing flashbacks of that night every time she looked at her.

It was ok, she told herself. An elf’s life is long. Now that the girls will no longer die in a short time, she would have centuries to deal with herself slowly and eventually make a connection to the girls. This was a foolish way of thinking, and now she was left with nothing but regrets.

She glanced over to her remaining daughter who was held, as she usually was, by her human while her human was held by one of the queen’s great faeries. She was left feeling like nothing, once again she was the single least significant existance in the room. A worthless woman who had been defiled by a demon among all the greatness within the queen’s court. She had not missed that she was given no official appointment by the queen. In other words, her entire worth was depenent on her master and what was going to come of his trial.

Gaerien was even appointed as a knight for her strange and deadly power. Gaerien had value to the queen. She had none. Well, at least for now she seemed to have been assigned to the princess, as Aerien now was. She was not really that certain how she should think of this, but at least she would get to see Aerien again after she was done with whatever the queen wanted her for. Now, however, their potential for a relationship was completely different.

She was lead down various corridors, lit overhead by light emitting mosses that grew from the celing. The mosses glowed rather brightly, enough so to show off the fine carpets and the various trophy items that must have been collected over the centuries and mellenia. All of this simply made Túeth feel uncomfortable. She felt as though she could not touch a single thing in this hall without risking major consiquences.

They came to a hall with an ornate tapestry on one wall, and a blank wall opposite to it. The great fairy who was carrying Aerien’s human went to place her hand on the blank wall, causing it to open up into a room. As Túeth entered, the first thing she was struck by was the fact that this whole room was larger than her master’s entire house was. Well, before that incident anyway. It was not by much, but the celing was as high as two floors, and easily had over two times as much floor space as any of the rooms in her master’s house.

The second thing she noticed was that, on the wall opposite the way they had entered, there was a large window made of clear glass. This was the first time Túeth had ever seen such high quality glass. It was not the smoky domed glass that was used for windows in the two villages she had lived in, it was a perfectly clear and perfectly flat glass. She could not even imagine the technique that must be used to create glass of this sort. Being perfectly see-through, it was an easy matter to look out over the devistated lands the heaven’s fall had caused and out to the forest and the pile of dead trees that marked the edge of the scar.

“Here we are, this has been a high class guest room up until now but from today onward this will be the princess’ room.” The great fairy who lead them in announced. “The young knight here is assigned to the princess, and I trust she will likely want her pets nearby as well. For now, until we can sort out your position, you can be a caretaker for the princess’pets and stay here as well.”

Túeth could only nod in acceptance of this. It was more than she deserved, it allowed her to stay close to the girls, and it even gave her at least some purpose. The boys, meanwhile, were making some noises of appreciation and saying something in their language. Túeth had never learned their language as her master had, but with the way they were looking around the room they were likely admiring the fine furnature.

“Hmm... that’s odd.” The great fairy said. “What is that language they are speaking? It is not anything I recognize.”

“Wait!” The other one said, “I recognize it! It sounds an aweful lot like the language the new great fairies from the other world use!”

“Ahh... yes.” Túeth responded. “Actually, I have heard they are from the same world.”

“Truly?” The great fairy said. “Hmm... well, I guess you had best keep a close eye on them then. I have heard the ones from that world are quite a handful to deal with. The new great fairies have been causing all kinds of problems since they arrived two years ago.”

“Honestly, why are so many of them gathering around here?”

“Wouldn’t that be because there is some kind of connection between them and the Heaven’s Fall?”

The two great fairies seem to be satisfied with the conclusion they have come to and nod.

“It’s strange though, shouldn’t they have been given the fairie’s treat when they were brought to your village?”

“From what I have been told, they were.” Túeth responded. “It sounds like their spirits were too strong to be affected by it.”

“Oh? That’s quite strange.” The great fairy said as she put Rolwen and Gaerien down on a soft cushoned couch. “Well, I certainly do sense they are giving off an unusual amount of spirit energy for a human. I would say it even matches the level of a sub dragon.”

“I guess they are the perfect pets for the young princess and her knight then. Although, given that the nature of her power is to summon energy, are such fine pets even necessary for her?”

“Well...” Túeth spoke up, “It seems like Gaerien’s power requires her to consume an unusually large amount of spirit energy. So, most of it, including the extra that overflows from Aerien, umm... I mean the princess... it all goes to her.”

“Oooh? Greedy little thing!” The great fairy said with a faint glare at Gaerien. “Well, I guess given they are blood related sisters, it’s fine so long as the princess is ok with the arrangement. As for the human’s resistance to the fairy’s treat, the ones prepared by actual fairies are far stronger than the imitations you elves prepare. Please consult the princess about this subject, it should make handling them easier.

“Oh! Speaking of that, humans require solid food regarless of how strong their spirit is, right? Well, I suppose they may be getting hungry soon. We should find something for them.”

“Right, you get on that. I will go back to the court to escorte the princess once her majesty’s business is complete.

-

??? POV

On the northern edge of the fairy queen’s forest, the former site of the forest capital was now nothing more than a great crater of loose soil and rock. It was quite the sight, at this scale it was difficult to diffeentiate between this place where a large chunk of the ground was simply scooped out and the more typical crater created by something impacting the surface and pushing all the material to the side.

On one side of the crater, there was a path of cleared forest floor, revealing the soil beneath that had been worn down by hundreds upon hundreds of foot-falls as the former residents of the capital too weak to resist the arcane energies for an extended period of time had been forced to leave the capital on foot. Their destination was the Heaven’s Scar, the new site where the capital was being moved to. It would take them months to arive, but by the time they got there the arcane energies ought to have settled down enough for them to once again take up residence. That was to be the plan as it was told to everyone at least.

There were, however, 5 individuals left behind at this place. Their lower bodies up to their waists were encased in a strange metal, making it impossible for them to follow. Their winged upper bodies revealed 5 extremely bored looking great fairies.

“So, was anyone here into comics? How about we talk about who would win between batman man and spider man?” A younger man in the group suggested.

“Uuug! Not this stuff again! No one cares!” One who looked like a teenage girl admonished the 20 something looking skinny man.

“Actually, didn’t death battle do an episode on that?” Another young woman cut in. “Spiderman won that one I think.”

“Death battle is biased, you can’t take them as the authority.” The first man retorted.

“Jeeze you guys!” The teen girl yelled at them.

“Hey, the’re entertaining themselves. It’s not like there’s anything better to do stuck in these lumps of metal.”A middle aged man at the far end admonishes the teen girl.

“I know, seriously!” The young man who spoke up first suddenly inserts himself into the discussion the other two are having. “You think they could give us a TV or something to pass the time, this is deffinitely cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Oh yeah, you think!?” The teen girl retorts. “Well, at least we don’t have to eat or use the bathroom as fairies now.”

“Well, who knows?” The middle aged man said. “Given this situation, it might have been better if we could starve to death here.”

The three in the center all gave strange looks to the man on the end.

“You’re scaring the children Steve.” A middle aged woman at the far end said, looking rather bored about the whole thing. “How about you two go on with your super hero conversation? I actually found it kind of interesting. It’s a lot better than just sitting around after all. And you should learn to be less confrontational in all this young lady, we have to live with each other like this for who knows how long.”

“What’s up with that anyway!?” The teen girl shouted, flailing her arms angrily. “Just because we talked to a stupid tree ghost about it, that monster dragon goes and calls us trouble makers, does this to us, and then goes on ahead and implements our plan anyway! It’s just wrong!!!”

“Heh, seriously, how were WE supposed to know that was some kind of crime for them?” The young man in the center says.

“Guys!!”The young woman says, her body is twisted in order to look far over her shoulder.

“What!?”The young man respons. Upon seeing the way she is looking, he twists his own body in order to get a look over his shoulder, followed quickly by the others. “Wait, is that!?” What they saw behind them was what appeared to be a green-haired woman in a white robe-like dress adorned with embroidery that seemed to be fashioned from real living leaves and vines. A soft light seemed to emit from every inch of her body, including her clothing and hair, giving her entire appearance an ehterial quality.

“Don’t talk to it, we might get in even more trouble knowing that queen.” The teen girl gave a fatalistic interjection.

“How would she find out? She’s long gone by now!” The young man said.

“Well, I think we might wind up having to talk.” The middle aged woman said. “See? It’s coming toward us.”

“Wait, how is there a dryad around here anyway!? I heard them say that there is only one dryad within a certain distance in the forest, and the big one here only left recently. There shouldn’t have been enough time for another one to appear!”The young woman said in a panic.

At about this time, the glowing “woman,” who by now was quite clearly the projection of a dryad, had come rather close to the five of them. They looked over to the young woman, giving her a gentle smile. “Would you like me to answer that question?” They asked. They all gave weak nods. Meanwhile, the woman had a rather sour look on her face as she looked down toward their lower bodies encased in metal. “You look very uncomfortable, I think you should turn around.” The dryad said. At those words, some vines began crawling across the forest floor and wrapping around the lower bodies of all five of the great fairies. Then, with the vines wrapped around all of them, they were each slowly turned to face the dryad who had appeared before them, allowing them to face it in a far more natural way.

“Now then, you wanted to know how I have appeared here now?”

“Uhh... yeahhh...” The young man replied, getting a big smile from the dryad.

“Well, I wasn’t born here, I traveled here. It’s as simple as that.”

“Wait, I thought dryads were bound to their trees!” The young woman said, getting nods from the rest as they all directed confused gazes toward the dryad, who was smiling in satisfaction at their reactions.

“Well, that is normally the case, but you see... I’m pretty special. Now then, how about a deal? I bet you want to get out of that mess that’s on your legs right now.”

“What kind of deal?” The middle aged man asked.

“Well, you all said it was the queen who made you like that, right? I would really like to hear about her. If you can talk to me for a while, I can get you out of those.”

“How are you going to crack solid metal without harming us?” The middle aged woman challenged.

“It is rather easy,” The dryad responded. “The roots of a plant can crack anything that’s stationary given enough time.”

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Subscribers' Comments of the chapter

That awkward moment when you accidentally break the law since you were reborn as an adult in a strange land.

                      -Vorquel

bet you Aerien's first fuck up will be coming into the room and screaming MOM!! with a driving hug only to get a smack on the head from random guard, "No that's a Maid"

                      -Roy

With that power, that versatility, that knowledge, they just need Aerien rule breaking power and we'll get a dryad god in no time

                      -Asekhan