Salome’s smile vanished, and she and Emilia stared at Elise with blank expressions, as if they hadn’t understood what she just said.

“Stop attacking the dwarves?” asked Jean. “Are you crazy?”

“No,” said Elise. “Please let me explain.”

“We have received a prophecy from Titania herself,” said Emilia. “Although you are a fey, we cannot just stop our actions which were divinely blessed.”

“I spoke with some other drow recently,” said Elise. “They said that the prophecy was simply that there would be no living dwarves left in the cavern after one year. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” said Emilia. “When did you get a chance to speak to other drow?”

“I can explain later,” said Elise. “But that prophecy doesn’t say that they will all be killed, does it? It can be fulfilled without the Dwarves dying right?”

“Theoretically,” said Emilia, nodding. “But I don’t see how else it could happen.”

“The Dwarves are planning to leave,” said Elise. “If they are left alone, they will depart from the caverns on their own within three months.”

“Preposterous!” said Jean. “Where on earth did you get that idea?”

“From King Hallbjorn himself,” said Elise. “He has sworn that, as long as the drow cease their attacks, he will take the other dwarves and dig to the surface. If you stop your attacks, the prophecy will be fulfilled, and the conflict will be resolved without a single drop of blood being shed.”

“That would be ideal, yes,” said Emilia. “However, can you guarantee this? How did you hear this?”

“Hall- King Hallbjorn told me.”

“He told you?” she asked. “As in you directly?”

“Yes,” said Elise. “I’ve been living with the Dwarves for a month now, and have grown close with the king.”

“Close?” asked Jean. “To those monsters? No way! You were a captive! If he was being nice to you, it was only so he could use you. He probably told you they were leaving to try to trick you.”

“No, he didn’t!” said Elise. “And I wasn’t a prisoner. He despises the Drow, yes, but his dream is to take his people back to the surface, and he has sworn to make it happen.”

“I’m sorry Elise, I’m sure you mean well, but I’m having trouble believing your words,” said Emilia. “You say you spent a month with the dwarves? Frankly, that’s impossible. You are not strong enough to manipulate them, and while their intelligence is lacking, they are not so dumb they would not recognize you for what you are.”

“I have the Rune of Fate,” said Elise. “They saw my Rune of Fate and that’s why they didn’t kill me. They have a prophecy of their own regarding the Rune of Fate and how it would lead them to salvation.”

“I don’t see a Rune of Fate,” said Jean.

“Only the Dwarves can see Runes.”

“How convenient,” said Emilia. “Are you sure you didn’t just imagine the whole thing? Are you lying to us? Are you an Unseelie?”

When he said that last word, Elise was filled with dread, and not because of the atmosphere. It was like the word itself had the power to give her chills, even though she wasn’t even sure what it meant.

“An Unseelie?” she asked.

“Calm down, Emilia,” said Queen Salome. “She’s clearly not an Unseelie. She is probably just traumatized and being used.”

“I’m not!” said Elise. “I’m perfectly fine! The Dwarves really are planning to leave!”

“Did you get any kind of guarantee from the Dwarven king?” asked Emilia.

“Yes, he gave his word.”

“That’s not enough. The Dwarves are liars and thieves. You need something more. Did you make a deal with him?”

The way she said “deal”, like with “Unseelie” seemed to carry a deeper meaning. Elise instantly knew that she was referring to her {Fey Bargaining} skill, which she still had yet to use. Its description was too vague, and she didn’t want to test it out on any of the dwarves out of fear that something harmful would befall them if something went wrong.

“No,” said Elise.

“I’m sorry, but without that, I cannot condone this plan,” said Emilia.

“My deepest apologies, Lady Elise,” said Salome. “I do not believe that you are lying, but as Lady Emilia has said, I cannot trust your words enough to go against a divine prophecy. It would be irresponsible of me to gamble the lives of my people and the favor of our goddess on a maybe.”

“It’s not a maybe!” said Elise. “The dwarves will be gone in three months if they aren’t interrupted. Can’t you just pause the attacks for that long to allow them time to leave? If they’re still there by the end of that time, I will not protest any more.”

“Three months?” said Emilia. “If you had come three months earlier, then perhaps we could have considered it. However, Titania gifted us this prophecy eight months ago, and the prophecy stated they would be gone within a year. If you are wrong, then that will leave us with only one month to annihilate the dwarves.”

“It’s a prophecy, not a command,” said Elise. “You don’t have to be the ones to make the dwarves disappear.”

“If we don’t, then who will?” asked Emilia.

“The dwarves! They will make themselves disappear! Or do you not trust your goddess enough? Do you think she’s too weak to make it happen on her own?”

All three of the others gasped. Salome looked like someone had just told her that her children had all died, Jean looked like he had been slapped, and Emilia looked almost angry.

“You’ve gone too far!” said Jean, zooming around in circles. “Too far, too far! You dare to doubt our goddess?”

“Jean, calm down,” said Emilia with a grim expression. “She doesn’t know any better. Elise, I’ll forgive you for what you said this time, but do not take my warning lightly. If you disrespect Titania once more, it will not be tolerated.”

If she’s just going to let this war happen because she’s too lazy to clarify her prophecy, maybe she deserves to be disrespected, thought Elise, but she was wise enough not to say that out loud.

“No, it will not!” agreed Jean.

“Alright, sorry,” said Elise. “I didn’t realize. But you still need to stop attacking the dwarves. The longer the conflict goes on, the more people will die. On both sides.”

“You say that like the dwarves are people,” said Jean. “They are no better than animals.”

“They are not!”

“They are! They are, they are! I know it! Salome knows it! Emilia knows it! It’s only you who doesn’t!”

“Facts aren’t determined by democratic vote! When was the last time you talked to a dwarf?”

“When I begged for my life while they ripped off my wings,” said Jean.

“Oh.”

“Elise, perhaps you had a different experience, or perhaps you were manipulated, but what you experienced was not normal,” said Emilia. “The dwarves are sadistic and cruel, and they have no empathy for the Drow or the Fey. They tortured Jean. They’ve killed countless drow and fey. They poisoned the Sister Tree. When it comes to dwarves, our options are kill or be killed.”

“They’re not,” said Elise. “If you just stopped killing them, they would leave.”

“I’m sorry Elise, but as much as I’d love to believe you, I can’t. Centuries of conflict can’t be washed away by a single fey’s words.”

Elise looked at Salome with pleading eyes, but the old woman shook her head. Elise’s heart sank.

“I’m sorry, Lady Elise, but we will be continuing as we have been,” she said. “That is my final verdict.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Elise opened her mouth to protest more, but decided against it. The debate was lost. Well, calling it ‘lost’ would imply she ever had a chance in the first place. Why had Marie thought the queen would be amenable to her proposal? She had never even considered it.

“Sorry for wasting your time,” said Elise.

She flew away without waiting for their response. She knew it was disrespectful to do such a thing in front of a queen, but Salome seemed to have been treating her as if she were of a higher position, so it shouldn’t have been that much of an offense. Maybe it was disrespectful to Emilia and Jean, but she honestly didn’t care. She was disappointed and upset, and most of all, confused.

She flew out of the center of the Mother Tree, over the crowd of curious Drow, and up into one of the many alcoves pressed into the trunk. Many of them, she saw, actually seemed to be occupied. There were things that looked like rudimentary beds, as well as extra sets of clothing folded up along the edges. The higher she flew, the less common this type of recess became, and when they stopped entirely, she decided this was a good place to hide out and think.

What was she supposed to do now? How would she stop the war? What if Hallbjorn turned his attention upward, thinking Elise had everything handled there, only for his people to be massacred from behind? What if the attacks continued, and he never got the time, and the dwarves were ultimately wiped out as the prophecy stated? What if the prophecy was a lie, and it was the drow who were going to be wiped out? She didn’t know them that well, but she didn’t think she would like it if that happened either. They were people too.

She would need to take matters into her own hands and find a way to stop the Drow attacks without the queen’s consent. But that would involve directly intervening with the scouts. Could she even do that at her level?

“Elise!”

Jean popped up suddenly in front of her.

“Elise, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she said, turning around so she couldn’t see him.

“Really? You looked kinda upset. Emilia was worried we were too harsh. We didn’t mean to totally dismiss you. Not at all. But Emilia has been here longer than the dwarves. She knows what it was like before they showed up. She knows everything they’ve done. Dwarves are bad news. Bad, bad news. I’ve experienced it myself.”

Elise turned to look at him. He was doing slow motion somersaults through the air, his wings flapping lazily behind you, dropping the occasional sparkling mote of dust.

“Did the dwarves really…?” she started. “You know…”

“Rip my wings off?” asked Jean. “Yep. Ripped ‘em right off.” He made a tearing sound. “Just like that. One second I could fly, the next second I couldn’t. And they were laughing.”

“How did you get them back?”

“Oh, that was Emilia,” he said. “I owe her a lot. She’s really powerful. Healed me right up. Just a little bit of dust, and Bam! I had wings again.”

“How did you get away though?”

“I was lucky. Very, very lucky. I spawned in one of the dwarves’ caves. They found me almost immediately. Ripped off my wings, and started pinching at my arms and legs. But there happened to be a Scout there, and they rescued me. Best day of my life. She abandoned her mission and took me straight back here, and I’ve been living here ever since.”

Elise didn’t respond. Jean didn’t seem like the type to lie. Actually, he seemed incapable of it. Everything he said was exactly what he thought and felt. And that meant that what he had said about the dwarves was probably true. Obviously there were bad eggs in every culture, but it still felt bad to hear about them. She couldn’t imagine enjoying torturing anything, no matter how much she hated it.

What about the warg? said a voice at the back of her mind.

I still wouldn’t torture it, she said to herself. She couldn’t tell if it was true.

“So, you found yourself a cubby-hole already, I see,” said Jean. “I’ve got one too. Mine’s down lower though. Closer to the ground. That’s where everyone else is, and I like being with everyone else. But sometimes, I like being alone too. Do you like being alone?”

“Sometimes,” said Elise.

“Me too! Hey, do you want to see the rest of the cave? You probably didn’t get to see it all when you flew in. I can introduce you to everyone too! They’re going to love you!”

Elise started to reject his offer, then stopped herself. This was actually a good thing. She needed to get a better idea of her surroundings, and who the important people were so she come up with a plan, and what better way to do it than on a completely unsuspicious guided tour? Besides, Jean seemed harmless. A bit emotional sometimes, but he really seemed like just an energetic child, more than anything else.

“Sure, that sounds nice,” she said.

“Hooray!” he said. “Follow me! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

She followed him back down the tree trunk toward the slowly dispersing crowd below. Everyone who had left, however, immediately returned when the crowd saw Elise and Jean and started to make more noise again.

“Hello, everyone!” said Jean. “Look! This is Elise, our newest Sister!”

“I don’t know if-” started Elise, but her protests were drowned out by applause and cheering.

“Elise, this is about a quarter of the village,” said Jean. “One fourth. You know fractions, right?”

“Yes.”

“I just learned them last week. Emilia’s been teaching me.”

Elise looked down at the people below, who were still cheering and reaching out to them.

“Jean, I don’t know if this is the best place to have a casual conversation.”

“You’re right,” said Jean. “Let’s go meet everyone else!”

He zipped off toward the forest, and Elise struggled to follow. His Agility was clearly higher than hers, and by a significant margin, and he didn’t seem to notice. The only reason she didn’t lose sight of him was because he seemed to insist on doing loops, and circling around random trees whenever he could.

Soon, they came to a copse where the trees grew so closely together that Elise couldn’t see through them, and their branches wove together to form a canopy impenetrable from above. Jean flew around to the side where there was an opening.

“Welcome to the school!” he announced. “Or one of them, at least.”

Inside, there were a hundred or so children, all of whom started seated on a small bed of leaves, and all of whom leapt to their feet as soon as they saw the pixie and started crowding around, calling “Lord Jean!” like it was a mantra.

“Lord Jean,” said a louder voice.

The speaker was an adult drow woman who had a bit more weight about her than a typical drow and a much rounder face. Normally, Drow heads were very narrow, and their features pointed, but this woman’s face was as round as the moon.

“Lucia!” he said. “This is Elise! She’s our new Sister!”

“Lady Elise, it is an honor,” said Lucia, curtseying. “Children, greet Lady Elise properly.”

“Hi, Lady Elise,” said the children in not-quite unison, performing haphazard curtseys and bows.

“Hello, everyone,” said Elise.

“Forgive me, Lord Jean, but we were in the middle of a lesson when you arrived,” said Lucia.

“That’s okay!” said Jean. “I’m just showing her around. She was captured by the dwarves before, so I wanted to show her how nice everyone was!”

“I wasn’t captured,” said Elise.

“That’s very kind of you,” said Lucia. “Have you visited Eleanor yet?”

“No, we’re going to see her later,” said Jean. “This is the first place we stopped.”

“Well, it’s been wonderful to meet you, but we really should be getting back to the lesson. Children, say goodbye to the Fey.”

“Goodbye, Great Fey,” they said, even less unified than the last time.

“Okay, Elise, let’s go!”

The next place they went was a farm, of sorts. The Drow apparently didn’t really do farming in a traditional sense, but they did have areas where they used skills to speed up plant growth in order to produce more mushrooms. Elise met and spoke with a few of the laborers, but didn’t have time to exchange more than a few greetings before Jean dragged her off to the next location.

They visited a dozen more such “farms”, a second school, where Elise met the Eleanor that Lucia talked about, and a few various other areas, like the river where the Drow got their water, an area where a herd of the cyclops cows lived, as well as a some of their earlier and later evolutions. They didn’t get too close to that place, but Elise did get a clear look at them from a distance. The evolution from the [Omnivorous Cyclops Cow] seemed to just be a bigger, meaner [Omnivorous Cyclops Cow]. She was willing to bet that if she used {Inspect} on it, it would just say [Greater Omnivorous Cyclops Cow] or something like that.

The last place they visited was the place Elise most wanted to see: the scout headquarters. Calling it a headquarters would have been a bit of an exaggeration though. Really, it was just the leader’s house, a small copse barely ten feet in diameter, and a clearing outside where the scouts could train.

“I don’t really like it over here,” prefaced Jean before they descended. “Naomi and all the scouts are kinda weird.”

“Weird how?” asked Elise.

“I dunno. Just weird.”

There were four scouts practicing archery on a set of crude wooden dummies shaped like dwarves, and two more having a mock knife duel with wood blades. They all greeted the two Fey respectfully, then returned to their training. They only seemed mildly interested in Elise.

“I guess they really did have a Fey in the castle,” Elise heard one of them whisper as they walked away.

“See?” said Jean in a low voice. “Weird.”

“They seem pretty normal to me,” said Elise. “Is Naomi in that house over there?”

She asked, but she already knew the answer. She could hear the sound of someone breathing slowly inside, and she could sense the mana swirling around the inside. She didn’t know exactly what was happening, but clearly, this Naomi woman was doing something, or else she would have heard the commotion and come out.

“Yeah, probably,” said Jean, fidgeting with his hands. “But I dunno. Do we really have to meet her? She’s weird. She doesn’t live in the Mother Tree like everyone else.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s weird.”

“Well, I’d still like to meet her.”

“Well, if you say so,” he said. “I think she’s busy though. We can come back another time. I still haven’t shown you the-”

“I can wait,” said Elise. “I’d really like to meet her.”

“Okay,” he said, looking disappointed.

They hovered in the air, waiting for Naomi to finish whatever she was doing inside that had the mana moving so violently. After no more than a minute, Jean started drifting around, unable to hold still. Another minute later, he was doing loops and barrel rolls in the air.

“You can go if you want,” said Elise. “I’ll stay here. I know the way back. I’ll meet you back at the Mother Tree.”

“Are you sure? I still haven’t shown you the Mother fruits!”

“You can show them to me when I get back. As soon as I’ve talked to Naomi, I’ll go straight there.”

Jean hesitated. “Okay. You’d better come straight back though.”

“I will,” promised Elise.

Jean zoomed away without looking back. As soon as he disappeared from sight, the mana in the cabin slowed to a halt, and Elise heard someone stand up and walk up to the curtained opening in the tree. There was something weird about the footsteps though. One foot sounded normal, but the other sounded strange, making a thunk sound when it struck the ground.

The reason for the oddity became clear as soon as Naomi emerged. Her left leg was made of wood. As far as Elise could tell, her entire leg was wood, as the twisted branches continued all the way up past where her skirt stopped. Her left arm was made of wood as well, and her left eye socket was empty, and the surrounding skin was mostly scar tissue.

[High Druid of the Cave, lvl ???]

“Finally,” she said with a hoarse voice. “Thought he’d never leave. So you’re the newbie, huh? What did you wanna talk about?”