by Sean Oswald
“I would be honored to have you serve as the head of my Meiyo Eihei, but I suspect that Jaselm will feel differently about it, Master Daichi.”
“That is okay, Sir Jaselm and his men guard Emily Nelson, Daughter of Redemption and Baroness Murkwood, while your Meiyo Eihei shall guard Lady Emiri of the Moon Elves ruler of Murkwood District.”
Emily thought, ‘Ah, so that is how it was going to be. The Throne was very serious about this double layer of nobility in Murkwood. This was going to create issues. Dave would undoubtedly be upset, but what could he say, it wasn’t like he had consulted her before agreeing to become a noble of Albia.”
A bit later, Emily learned that even in what was essentially the Moon Elf palace, they still used community baths. They were divided by gender, but it was still a bit of an alien experience for Emily. The hot water though soon soothed her tension and put to rest any concerns about modesty. Following the bath she was guided by a servant back to her apartment where she was greeted by both Jaselm and Daichi. The older elf had arranged for a meal for her, and when she invited them to join her, he indicated that they had already eaten while she was bathing.
The warm bath, food, some wine, and the emotional release from the day combined to cause her to drift off to sleep before even making it to her bed. She slept the deep restorative sleep that she needed in a comfortable chair where she had taken her meal, thus it was particularly jarring when she was woken up.
She thought she must have been having a bad dream because she woke to what sounded like screams in the distance. Bad dreams certainly had not been rare in Eloria, so this was not a new thing. She stretched and started to stand up when she smelled what she swore was smoke. At that very moment, the door to her private area burst open and Jaselm stuck his head in the door, “I’m sorry for the intrusion Chosen, but there seems to be some fighting out in the hallways. Daichi is trying to find out what is happening, but he advised me to have you get dressed and ready for anything.”
Emily understood the words that were coming out of the paladin’s mouth, but they almost didn’t register. This should have been a safe place. Sara was practically restored to her and her family was doing well, political games aside. Of course nothing good could ever last, apparently not even for the evening.
“Okay, give me a couple of minutes and I will get back into my leathers. I will have your back if anything goes wrong.”
“I never doubted you would, it shall all be as Shanelle wills.”
With that the paladin shut her door and Emily quickly grabbed her elven leathers and began changing. It was still a marvel how easily her new body moved. After sleeping in a chair on earth she would have been stiff all day, but now she was still able to move with fluid grace and not a hitch in any of her muscles. Outside she heard the sounds of yelling. Whatever was happening seemed to be getting closer to her apartment. Keen elven hearing was definitely an advantage.
Just about the time that she finished pulling her boots on she heard the voices directly outside. She heard Daichi asking what they wanted, and as she buckled on her knives, she heard the response that made her blood run cold, “We are here for the human loving heretic. You can either stand aside Master Daichi, or you can be put down with her.”
Her immediate impulse was to rush out of her room and join the old elf at the entry door to her apartment. She didn’t want the old elf to be hurt for her, but a calmer, more rational part of her mind prevented her from going out as her sudden appearance might set things off. So she waited, listening intently with a healing spell at the ready.
She heard the older elf say, “Don’t break the peace of the circle or the command of the Throne at the behest of a child.”
That same angry voice responded, “Lord Itsu is the only one not beguiled by her lies. The Archdruid and the Throne don’t know what they are doing. If we accept her, then soon we will be slaves to the forgotten gods or overrun by humans who destroy everything they touch.”
“Well if that is how you feel then come in and say it to her face.”
“What? Had Daichi just betrayed her?” She really hadn’t known him for more than a few hours, but he had such a way of putting her at ease. Oh well, at least she could count on Jaselm. With that thought, she stepped out of her private room pushing past the paladin who whispered for her to stay behind him. She didn’t listen to him. If they wanted to make her a noblewoman to use her for their political games, well she could play games too.
The kirashemi she had eaten as part of her meal last night was still coursing through her blood and accelerating her mana regeneration. A quick inventory of her skills told her that she was poorly equipped for combat, but she would do her best. An idea of how to make use of her limited resources came to her. She would just have to hope that Jaselm could keep them distracted. Dave would be so proud of her for acting decisively without trying to talk her way out of this.
Speaking of them, she saw Daichi step to the side of the doorway and four elves came inside. From their attire clearly one was a druid and the other three were warriors. With just a thought she assigned all of her character points. There was no time to consider new skills, so she just focused on maximizing the skill she already had. Luckily that went well with her plan. So she added ten points to Short Blades (25), Sneak Attack (20), Stealth (25), Improved Critical Strike (20), and fifteen to Double Strike (16).
Then she quick cast Minor Blessing granting both herself and Jaselm an extra twenty-five health and fifteen percent bonus to attack and dodge. The faint glow around her and the paladin revealing her actions. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the same glow settle onto Daichi but was too busy executing her plan to consider it. The elves immediately recognized that she had cast some sort of buff and stepped forward to attack her. The druid calling out, “Stop the heretic before she calls upon her forgotten Mistress.”
The three elven warriors flowed past the robed druid and went straight at her in an arrowhead formation. The first swung his slender blade right at her and cried out in victory as it dug into her neck. Then his celebration was turned to consternation as the blade passed right through her. A single thought having triggered the magic of her cloak and her body took on the consistency of smoke. The passing of the weapon still caused damage, but it was reduced by ninety percent and so Emily only took a single point of damage. Her form quickly passed behind the warriors who found themselves now between Jaselm who’s blade was now drawn and glowing with a golden light and their intended target.
Emily trusted Jaselm to deal with the warriors, but having seen what Mira could do with magic, she was more worried about the druid. She still hadn’t really decided what to do with Daichi. But as her smokey form flowed around the elven druid, he focused on casting a wind spell to disburse her, and Emily learned the greatest weakness a spell caster has. Just as she got behind him, she cancelled the magic of her cloak and thrust her Dagger of Piercing at his back. It scored a direct hit, and she felt the brief resistance of his flesh give way before the tip of her blade. Then the warmth of blood coated her hand. It was horrifying to her, but the instinct of self-preservation kept her going, making her pull the blade back with a twist like Dave and Max had told her to.
She need not have bothered though because of the notification she got.
You have scored a critical hit using your weapons auto crit effect causing (42) damage. However because the target was actively casting your Sneak Attack skill triggered despite the target being aware of the attack. Total damage: (171)
You have slain Rei Sanyu, 14th level Moon Elf Druid. XP gained: 84
As she looked back on this moment later, Emily would have liked to say that she had been able to continue on. She didn’t want to feel like this was an okay thing or that she should get used to it, but she liked to think that she would have been able to do what was necessary. The truth though was that she was paralyzed, reeling from the shock of having killed another person. Elf, human, there was no difference. Heck for all intents
and purposes now she was an elf. This was nothing like fighting the animals in the forest or even the undead. This was a living breathing person just like her. One who likely had a family, hopes, and dreams. She was stunned into inactivity by the realization of what she had just done. With that shock, her plan of action fell apart, and she stood there looking at the blood on her hands. Caught in an instant as she watched a drop of blood fall to the floor.
The three enemy elves all turned directions and headed back towards her. Their purpose so single minded that they ignored the fact they were turning their back on the human paladin. They moved rapidly towards her, and still, she was unable to act. Not Jaselm, though. He charged forward with a quick rush and his golden blade descended at a forty-five degree angle towards the back of the closest elf’s neck.
In that instant, the Daichi exploded into a series of contradictory actions. First, he moved so quickly that he seemed to blur. His right hand impacted Jaselm’s sword arm with a flat palm. The blow was enough to turn his own momentum against him and not only turned his sword strike aside but also resulted in him spinning out of control. Then he swung his left arm in a sweeping motion across his body. A wave of force erupted off his arm in spreading out in the same arc that his arm moved through. The invisible energy impacted all three of the elves who were attacking Emily and sent them flying forward face first while causing damage to all of them. (84) The force passed them and hit Emily. Although it had been weakened by its impact against the attacking elves and Emily was only staggered back and took minimal damage which was absorbed by her Minor Blessing.
Each of the elven assassins were agile enough to catch themselves or roll with the impact so that they all ended up on their feet. It didn’t do them any good though. Daichi was in their midst before any of them could so much as thrust a sword at him. His hands moved rapid fire in a quick succession of two open handed strikes to each of the closest targets. Each strike landed unerringly and with a sense of power beyond anything that Emily had yet felt in Eloria. The first blow to each elf broke ribs and sent shards of bone into their lungs while the second blows were knifehands striking the side of their necks and ending with the sickening sound of broken necks.
The third swordsman ignored the deaths of his companions and thrust his sword at Emily. Again, Daichi’s rapid movement came into play, and the older elf intercepted the blade with his body. His evasion triggered and turned the thrust that should have impaled him into a glancing blow which cut his robes and thinly cut to his abdomen. Daichi continued the motion of his step and dropped into a circular sweep which took his target’s legs out from under him causing him to fall head first and feet up. Yet his head never struck the ground or only did as Daichi’s first impacted the side of his head, driving it into the ground and leaving a wide splatter of blood and brain matter pushed out of the head which had been cracked like an egg shell.
As Daichi stood upright he found, Jaselm’s blade held against his neck. He placed his hand against his side, and from the amount of blood on his robes, the wound underneath must have been worse than Emily had originally thought.
“Explain yourself, elf. And if you so much as twitch, I will open your throat.” Jaselm’s tone was cold and distant. It was clear to Emily that he meant every word.
Before, Daichi could answer Emily added her own question, “Yes, I want to know why you offer to be my bodyguard, then let people intent on killing me into my chambers. Why did you attack us and then kill them?”
Speaking through gritted teeth, the older elf said, “It is not what you think, but may I please sit. I am not as young as I once was and this sort of activity is very hard on my body.”
Jaselm never even glanced at Emily. All his attention remained focused entirely on Daichi, but Emily said, “Just don’t try anything. Jaselm watch him, but let him sit on the chair.”
“I don’t wish to argue with you Chosen, but he is too dangerous. I cannot guarantee your safety.”
“That is on me. I believe his actions warrant at least a chance to explain himself.”
Jaselm pulled his sword back reluctantly and Daichi practically stumbled over to a small couch and sank down. “I am sorry for the confusion. I will answer your questions.” He seemed to catch his breath and then continued, “I meant it when I offered to be the head of your Meiyo Eihei. I let them in because I needed them to be off guard so I could be more confident in stopping them. And to be honest, I did not believe that after all of these years that it would come to violence between Moon Elves. It has been over one hundred years since the last murder of a Moon Elf by another of the circle.”
As he spoke there was a look of pain across his face even greater than the pain his wound was causing him. He stood up slowly bracing himself with one hand upon the couch and then bowed to Emily. After rising back up he said, “I am sorry. It was my mistake that put you in greater danger. I have lost honor in your eyes and owe you a debt now. If you no longer wish me to serve on your Meiyo Eihei, then I am sure that the Throne will be happy to replace me.” He kept his eyes lowered as he spoke.
“That still doesn’t explain why you attacked us.” Emily said with an angry look upon her face, although there was more confusion in her voice.
“I didn’t actually attack you. My palm strike to your paladin’s arm was meant to keep him from causing a political incident. It wouldn’t matter what the reason was. If an elf was killed by a human then war would be almost inevitable.” Emily and Jaselm looked at one another as if checking to see if they believed him. “Then when my Dragon’s Wing attack knocked down the three assassins some of the attack knocked into you. It was unfortunate but I gauged that the damage to you would be minimal and certainly better than taking a sword blow.”
Emily had always believed that she was a good judge of character, but she still looked at Jaselm. “What does your truth spell say?”
“He is telling the truth, Daughter of Redemption.”
Upon hearing that, Emily placed a hand on the wounded elf’s shoulder and cast a healing spell which closed the small wound. “As far as you losing honor, you wanted to believe the best about your people. Things just got out of hand very quickly. Your actions show that you are very worthy of being the head of my Meiyo Eihei.”
“You do me great honor, Lady Emiri. I will do all that I can to atone for my error in judgment.”
“Again, Daichi, believing the best about people is not an error in judgment. It is part of how I view life and I would expect nothing less from those who will guard me. I believe you will truly be able to protect not only my person but also my honor. All I ask is that you work with Jaselm.
Oh and as far as that Lady Emiri stuff, I know that it is necessary in public, but in private I would prefer that you call me Emily or Emiri if you wish. I am sure that with your wisdom you have much to teach me and I would prefer for ours to be a relationship of equals.” Then she chuckled, “It’s already bad enough with this one,” as she jerked a thumb at Jaselm, “I can’t get him to stop it with all the ‘Chosen’ this and ‘Daughter of Redemption’ that.”
A faint grin crossed the old elf’s face as he bowed deeply and said, “It shall be as you wish, La— , I mean Emiri.”
Jaselm’s face got a bit red, which was sorta funny for the battle hardened veteran as he stammered out, “Well it’s only proper.”
After that, the three of them started a brief conversation about how security would be run. It was quickly interrupted when a squad of elven soldiers accompanied by the Archdruid himself came in the still open door to her apartment. It was explained to her that Lord Itsu and some of the other young nobles had attempted to put together an assault. It seems as if their primary intent was to assassinate Emily, but when that failed, they left with all their troops and a few recruited from other elven nobles. When pressed by Daichi, the Archdruid admitted that even a number of the druids went along with it. Ultimately, Hidenori informed them that the Throne wanted them to leave right away as soon as Daichi could a
ssemble a proper honor guard. The thinking was that if she was gone then the issue causing the dissent would be gone.
Hidenori did his best to reassure her that the agreement with the Throne was still in place and even brought her a magical ring as a token of apology from the Throne. It would allow her to communicate once per sunrise for three minutes directly with the Throne, specifically with Yua.
Emily looked at the ring cautiously. Since she didn’t have Dave here to Identify the ring, she was a bit nervous about putting it on. Noticing her obvious hesitation, Hidenori cast a spell which must have been an upgraded version of Identify because it created a stat screen for everyone to see what the ring’s properties were.
Ring of Noble Command
Quality: Mythic (1 of 9)
Active Effect 1: May speak with the current female member of the Throne telepathically 1/sunrise for up to 3 minutes.
Active Effect 2: May cast Dominate Mind (Tier 5) 1/moon rise, so long as you are within the lands of the Moon Elf kingdom.
Passive Effect 1: 20% melee damage is reflected back at source and ignores damage resistance/defense.
Passive Effect 2: Each single target spell you cast with a duration of instant may automatically target a second target (up to Tier 2)
Passive Effect 3: Bestows right of rulership over a district of the Moon Elf Kingdom.
Wow! She didn’t even know what to say. The item was amazing. Emily wasn’t all into the game stats like Dave was, but even she could do simple math. This item was far beyond any of the other stuff that they had seen so far. And a Tier 5 spell. More than anything so far, this ring was a tangible indicator of the difference between the development of the Moon Elves and the humans of Albia. Dave had gotten some potions when he was in the human capital, but here she was being gifted a ring that was more powerful than any item she had seen yet. Dave had spent far too much time trying to explain to her the significance of the different levels and tiers of skills and gear, but she hadn’t completely ignored him. It was obvious in this instant that the elves, her people, had access to resources beyond what Albia could offer.
