Two Omnivorous Cyclops cows were glaring at each other in a field. Neither moved a muscle. Around them, the rest of their herd had formed a ring, and were watching closely to what looked like would become a deadly fight. The Mexican standoff carried on for a minute, with Elise furiously spamming {Suggest} to try to get one of them to make the first move. After another long minute, one of them pawed the ground and moo-growled a challenge at the other.

Yes! She thought. Finally!

“Eli-ise!” came Jean’s voice from the distance. “Elise?”

Shoot!

He was still too far away to be heard by the cows, but his second call had been much closer than the first. She silently cursed his timing. She was just about to make a breakthrough too. She went back to using {Suggest} at the cows, hoping that she could at least get it started before Jean got there, but it was too late. A few seconds later, Jean called her name again, this time close enough for the cows to hear. They turned toward his voice, which also happened to be toward Elise, and a few caught sight of her fur between the leaves of the tree she was hiding in.

“Dangit!” she said, flying up and away.

A few lasers hissed through the air behind her, but she was too fast and too far away to be of any danger to her. She met Jean a few seconds later, flying above the forest.

“Elise!” he called. “There you are!”

“What do you want?” she grumped.

“Come with me! Quick! It’s important!”

Elise’s attitude flipped like a switch. If Jean had bothered to come all the way out to the forest to find her, it must have been bad. Was there conflict with the dwarves? Did Salome or Osanne receive another prophecy? Had Emilia’s cabal of non-humanoids come to do… whatever it is that they did?

“What happened?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” he said. “C’mon, let’s go!”

He turned and zipped away without further explanation, forcing her to follow behind. He was still faster than her, but with four more levels under her belt than the last time she had needed to follow him, it was much easier to keep up. Elise asked a few more times what was going on, but her voice must have gotten lost in the wind, because he never responded.

They made it to the Mother Tree a couple minutes later, but rather than going into the center like she expected, Jean led her past it to the other side. Some of the drow waved up at them from the grassy fields as they flew overhead, none of them looking in any way distressed. That meant that either whatever had happened was not yet known to the public, or it was nothing important at all, and Jean was just making a big deal out of it because he could. She was starting to get a feeling it was the latter.

A minute later, they came to a clearing full of drow. It was utter chaos, but a happy chaos full of laughing children playing pretend and fighting with sticks and frazzled parents trying to keep track of them.

“Jean, what’s going on?” asked Elise as they slowed down for their final approach.

“It’s my friend Carol’s birthday today, and she really wanted to pet you,” he explained. “I promised her that I could get you here, but I almost couldn’t find you.”

“You called me here for a kid’s birthday party?”

“Yeah! C’mon, let’s go see Carol.”

“I’m not-” she started.

It was too late to back out though. She had been spotted, and children and parents alike were calling out to her and Jean with joyful smiles. She didn’t want to waste her time here when she could be doing more important things, but most of the children looked eight or nine at the oldest, and many were toddlers. If she left after showing herself and after Jean had explicitly said he would bring her, there would be mass tantrums.

It was fine. She would tough it out for however long she needed to, and then she would get back to work. A lost hour or two wasn’t the end of the world. She was still annoyed that her first successful attempt at starting a fight with {Suggest} had been ruined by Jean, but she could always do it again. She had another four weeks before the drow’s non-aggression agreement was up.

Carol turned out to be a newly six little girl with a congenital defect that left one of her arms about half the length of the other. Apparently, even that was more than she was born with, and it was only through Emilia’s blessings that it had managed to grow as much as it did. As soon as Elise got within reach, Carol reached out to pet her, only to be pulled back by an adult male drow.

“I am so sorry, Lady Elise,” he said. “My daughter has been obsessed with you ever since she saw you flying into the Mother Tree when you arrived. She wouldn’t stop pestering Lord Jean to invite you to her party.”

“It’s alright,” said Elise.

“Daddy, I want to pet her!” said Carol, squirming against her father’s arms.

“Sweetie, you can’t just reach out and pet a Great Fey without their permission like that,” said the dad.

“But Jean said I could!”

“Lord Jean said you could,” he corrected. “But did you get permission from Lady Elise yet?”

“But Jean said I could,” she repeated, her lower lip trembling.

“Carol, what do we say when we want to ask nicely for something?”

“Can I please pet Lady Elise?” she said, looking up at her dad.

“Don’t ask me. Ask her.”

She turned to Elise with the most adorable puppy dog eyes Elise had ever seen and clasped her mismatched arms together.

“Lady Elise, can I please pet you?”

“Of course.”

“Yay!”

Elise lowered herself down as Carol’s father released his daughter, and a moment later, she was wrapped up in the little girl’s arms. She had skipped straight past petting and gone straight to a bear hug.

“Carol, no!” said the father, reaching toward his daughter.

“It’s fine,” said Elise, slightly muffled.

Carol was only 6, so she wasn’t strong enough to actually do any harm, and with only one fully functional arm, what little strength she did have was effectively halved. Elise’s wings were cramped at a bit of an awkward angle, but she could simply deactivate them to relieve the discomfort. After a few seconds when it was clear that Carol had no plans to let go, she did just that, and wiggled around to settle herself more comfortably in Carol’s good arm.

Soon, they were surrounded by a dozen other children, all reaching in to get a feel of Elise’s fur. She cringed a little bit when she saw how much dirt and who-knows-what-else was on their fingers, but she bore with it. It actually didn’t feel too bad. The children weren’t the gentlest, especially since they were all jostling each other around, but none of them were too rough either, and with all their fingers constantly moving around on her back and side, it felt like a many-handed massage.

Even Jean got in on the action, swooping in from above to sit on Carol’s shoulder and scratch Elise’s forehead. She stayed in that position for longer than she would have liked to admit until the children evidently got bored of just petting her, and Carol set her down. The children had backed up a few feet, allowing her some breathing room.

“Do some magic!” said a little boy from behind her.

“Shhhh,” said someone who Elise assumed was one of the boy’s parents.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know any fun magic,” said Elise.

“Awwww,” said everyone.

“I do!” said Jean. “Watch this!”

He descended to the ground next to Elise and waved his hands in front of him. Visible mana flew out from his hands and coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape, which then grew thicker and more distinct until there were two Jean’s standing on the grass. Jean and his double stood proudly for a short while to allow for proper ooh-ing and ah-ing, then he waved his hand again, and the illusion’s shape changed.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

A moment later, Elise was staring at a copy of herself. There was another round of oohs and ahs, then the illusion faded. The children all pushed inward and started talking over each other.

“Do one of me!”

“Do me next!”

“Me! Me!”

“Can you make an illusion of me?”

Jean shot up between them into the sky with a smile.

“Sorry guys, but I’m almost out of mana already. I can make one of you next time.”

“Awwww,” said everyone again.

The party lasted for another hour before the young drow got too tired, and started to be taken away by their parents to nap. Elise wasn’t sure why she stayed the whole time. She could have left after Jean’s magic show with no issues, but she decided to stick around for some reason. She usually didn’t like being around so many small children, but something about the party felt relaxing. While she had been stressing herself out with getting stronger and stopping a war, all these ordinary people were living ordinary lives and having ordinary fun.

As the party came to an end, and parents started actively searching for their children to pry them from their friends, Elise made up her mind that it was time for her to leave as well. When she turned to leave though, a familiar face made her stop.

“Oh, Lady Elise,” said Naomi. “What are you doing here?”

“Jean dragged me over,” Elise replied. “The birthday girl wanted to pet me, apparently. What about you?”

“I’m here to see my niece.”

“Auntie Naomi?” said a sleepy voice from behind Elise.

Carol was stumbling over, holding her dad’s hand with her good arm and rubbing her eye with the short one.

“Did you have a good birthday, Sweetie?” asked Naomi.

“Yeah,” said Carol, reaching up toward Naomi.

Naomi bent down and scooped her up with her fleshy arm, ruffling her hair with the wooden one. The man looked at her, a bit nervous, but he didn’t do anything to stop her.

“Stop!” said Carol, giggling.

“Carol is your niece?” asked Elise.

“Yes she is,” said Nicole. “And this is my little brother Benoit.”

“It’s an honor to formally meet you,” he said, bowing. “Thank you for coming to my daughter’s birthday party. It made her very happy.”

“I thought you were busy roughin’ it out in the forest,” said Naomi. “You didn’t even have time to meet with me. What are you doing at Carol’s birthday party?”

“Jean brought her!” said Carol. “I got to pet her!”

“You did?” said Naomi. “Was she soft?”

“Yeah!”

“Jean dragged me over,” Elise confirmed.

“Good,” said Naomi. “We’ve barely gotten to see you since you arrived. You should spend more time socializing. It’s good for you.”

“I’m fine,” said Elise.

“Maybe,” said Naomi. “Maybe not. I tried living alone for a while though, and I eventually had to come back. Loneliness is dangerous.”

“I’m fine,” Elise repeated.

She knew that Naomi’s advice came from good intentions, but it was starting to get on her nerves. Maybe loneliness was bad. So what? Better than getting too close and having to watch them die. She didn’t plan on failing to stop the war, but if she did, the less drow she knew, the less it would hurt.

“If you say so,” said Naomi, shrugging with the shoulder that wasn’t holding Carol.

The little girl was yawning, and her eyes were getting dangerously close to closing. Naomi looked down at her and smiled.

“Well, Carol, I’m glad you had a good birthday party.”

“Mhmmm,” said the girl.

“I’m gonna give you back to your Daddy now so you can go take a nap.”

“I’m not sleepy,” mumbled Carol.

“But before I do, do you remember what I always say?”

“Naomi,” said Benoit in a warning tone.

“Never trust,” said Naomi with a grin.

“The fairy dust!” finished Carol, mirroring her smile.

“Naomi!” snapped Benoit, reaching for his daughter. “You can’t go around saying things like that!”

“I can say whatever I want,” said Naomi, handing Carol over. “And that’s not just advice for her, it’s advice for you too.”

“The fey have been watching over us for centuries-”

“They’ve been controlling us for centuries,” said Naomi. “It’s the mushrooms. Have you been eating the ones I’ve been sending you.”

“No!” said Benoit. “Of course not! Who knows what you did to them?”

“I didn’t do anything. I just grew them myself, away from anywhere Emilia might be leaving her droppings.”

“There’s a fey right here!” said Benoit. “You can’t be saying all this!”

“It’s okay. Elise is on my side!”

“I wouldn’t say that…” said Elise.

“See?” said Benoit.

“Ah, she’s just shy,” said Naomi.

“Anyways,” said Elise. “It was nice meeting you, Benoit and Carol. I need to get back to what I was doing.”

“It was an honor to meet you,” said Benoit. “Please don’t take what my sister says seriously.”

“Bye-bye,” said Carol, waving lazily as she drifted off to sleep on her father’s shoulder.

Naomi said something else after that, but Elise didn’t pay attention to it. She was already on her way out. She didn’t want to get caught in a sibling argument. Especially not one liable to get her on Emilia’s bad side. She started to make for the other side of the cavern again to continue her hunt, but before she could even get past the Mother Tree, another voice calling her name made her stop. She turned to see Emilia flying up toward her, an unreadable expression on her face.

Did she overhear Naomi? Elise thought.

“Elise,” she said. “I’m glad I caught you. I have important news.”

“What is it?” asked Elise. “Did something happen?”

“Oh, it’s nothing to worry about,” said Emilia. “It’s just a minor scheduling change. My departure this month will be delayed by ten days.”

Oh thank goodness.

She didn’t elaborate further, but she gave Elise a certain look to make sure she knew what her statement meant, as if it wasn’t obvious enough already. Ever since their first conversation about it, she had been bringing it up whenever they ran into each other, and Elise was running out of ways to say she wanted to think about it more. She had thought about it plenty, and was coming close to a decision, but the more Emilia talked about it, the less she wanted to commit to anything.

“Okay,” said Elise.

“Do you think you’ll be able to join me?”

Elise hesitated. In truth, she did want to go, if only to see what it was. Her main concern about attending the meeting was that she would get dragged into yet another major conflict in which she wanted no part, but would feel compelled to participate in anyway. No matter how noble their cause might be, Elise didn’t want to be the lynchpin for the survival of any more people groups.

Part of her wanted to say “what are the odds?” but she was two for two so far, and saying that would almost definitely jinx it. Still, it was too intriguing to ignore. If she could manage to go and return without getting dragged into anything, she would be privy to some very important information, and she liked being privy to important information. If it was important enough that even Salome couldn’t be told, it had to be much bigger than anything the Drow were related to.

“I’ll go,” she said. “But I won’t promise I’ll join. I don’t know enough about it yet.”

“That’s fine,” said Emilia with a smile. “But I think you’ll want to. You plan to leave the Drow, right?”

“...Was it that obvious?”

“A little,” she admitted. “You spend your days alone and try to avoid contact with anyone. It’s not hard to tell that you don’t really want to be here.”

“It has nothing to do with any of the people here,” Elise clarified. “I don’t dislike anyone here, I just-”

“Want to get out?” Emilia finished with a smirk. “You feel cramped in here? You’re trying not to get too close to anyone so when you do leave, it won’t be as painful.”

“Right.” She had hit the nail right on the head. “As soon as the Dwarf situation is over, I’ll be leaving.”

“I understand. I’ve actually been feeling the same way recently.”

“You have?”

“I outgrew this little place a long time ago,” her gaze grew distant. “But I committed myself to the Drow, so I need to see it through to the end, one way or another. When the situation with the dwarves is over, I think that I too will leave. I’ll come back to visit, of course, but I’ll be devoting more of my time to my other work.”

“I see,” said Elise. “Makes sense.”

“I’d like for you to join me,” she said. “I think you have a lot of potential, maybe more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Thanks, but I’m not going to commit to anything yet.”

“I know,” said Emilia. “But I think you’ll come around. It’s hard to go far in the world of the humanoids without help, and I can provide that for you.”

“Maybe.”

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your hunting. Have you figured out what I showed you the other day?”

“I think I’ve almost got it. I actually almost had it just now before Jean dragged me away.”

“Well, good luck!” Emilia smiled widely. “If I don’t see you before then, I’ll see you in three and a half weeks.”

“See you then,” agreed Elise.

Later that day, Elise finally managed to succeed in making two of the cows fight. It didn’t turn deadly, but it got violent, and left one of them with a cracked horn and a wobbly gait. It wandered off into the forest on its own, apparently shunned from its herd for having lost, which made it easy pickings for Elise.

It was another week before she could make the fights happen consistently, and it was only as the third week came to an end that she caused her first deadly battle. She only gained two more levels that entire time, but they were the most satisfying levels she had ever gotten, after how hard she had worked for them.

When it came time to leave with Emilia, she was in high spirits. While its level had not grown much, having reached an apparent cap, her mastery of {Suggest} had made huge strides. Really, it was more of an enhancement of her observation skills. Brute force was only able to get her so far, and what really caused her breakthroughs was paying closer attention to the cow’s habits and proclivities, so that she could really get into their heads when making her suggestions.

This time, for their departure, Emilia stayed around long enough to enjoy the farewell feast that she had missed on her last outing. Unfortunately, like everything that the dwarves and drow seemed to eat, it was all mushrooms. At least, that’s what it was for Elise. The drow were enjoying generous portions of purplish steak. Emilia had promised Elise that she’d be able to eat other things once they were aboveground, and honestly, more so than sating her curiosity, that’s what she was looking forward to most.

They said their farewells, and then from the perspective of the Drow, they vanished, teleporting to wherever they needed to go. What really happened was that Emilia turned them invisible, and they exited the cave the old-fashioned way: flying through the secret tunnel hidden behind the leaves at the top of the cavern.