Finally. A stroke of luck. Why had the Immortal of Desire intervened now? How were they able to send me back in time like this? Was this the same timeline, another dimension, or some other weird time travel trope? None of this mattered right now. I laughed a little, laughter of relief and joy, then picked myself up and ran to the wall. I scaled its sides with balance magic, rushing right up to the top with the surprised sentries who were setting up the massive crossbow that was supposed to fire the exploding arrows. Standing on the edge of the top of the walls, I looked back down on the open fields, confirmed there was no sign of any fight nor battle down there, and realized this was probably when I had gone down to set up the moat and ramparts that Noel had all but completely ignored.

I turned and looked down inside the city. A crowd of fairies was busy working on weapons and armors and battle drills. The humans were practicing some spells, led by Kezler and the other elders. I even saw Taoc the spirit hovering near them, her tiny frame somehow generating a loud voice that carried all the way to the top of the walls. Something about traditional formations and battle tactics. From what I remember, she was supposed to prattle on and on about that for a bit until…

There he was. My mouth spread into a stupid grin. I ran straight off the other side of the wall, ignoring the wide eyed gaping expressions of the fairies preparing the crossbow. My shadow traveled across the ground, catching the eyes of the fairies down below, with cries of elf, great elf, reaching all the way up to my pointy ears. I descended quickly but softly, my drop accelerated and cushioned with air magic. I fell right next to the spirity Taoc and Elder Kezler, who gave me a surprised look. Taoc even shut up when I dropped next to her. Despite the fact that she was always chattering on when I wasn’t around, she was better than the other spirits because at least she shut up when I showed up.

I ran up to the group, swooped right in, and grabbed Kelser in a tight embrace. The bewildered redhead recoiled for a moment, but soon realized he couldn’t break my grip, and so let me awkwardly hug him one-sidedly.

Of course I had realized what it meant when Kelser did not show up as a part of Prince Alek’s mind controlled army. I didn’t linger on the thought, pushing it to the side with the hope that he had snuck away somehow, but I had known that that was simply wishful thinking.

I let go of Kelser, who began saying things like what’s going on, what happened, are you okay, but I didn’t reply. Smiling, I hopped up with a little air magic, ruffled his red hair, and made a quip about how quickly he’d grown up. He grew a little indignant but I ignored him once again, before rounding up on the spirit Taoc. I wanted to go back to the Senate.

“The Senate?” asked Kelser from behind me, “but didn’t you say you’d look into it later? I know you’re curious about the mosaic but the enemy army could get here at any moment.”

“They’re already here,” I said.

Kelser frowned. Elder Kezler looked taken aback. Taoc seemed, uncharacteristically, at a loss for words.

Elder Brol took over from Elder Kezler, while I asked Elder Mann to go outside with some humans to set up some defenses. The moat would be unnecessary, but we could use some ramparts and barriers. Kesler, Taoc, and Elder Kezler joined me as I walked right through the main street of the capital city, ignoring the many glances and shouts and pointing fingers from the fairies of the city. A few younger fairies even tried to walk up to me, but their parents held them back by their wings. I kept scanning the area, searching for any signs of things that shouldn’t be here.

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Although I had been brought back a day into the past, I still had no idea where Prince Alek and his supporters were hidden. None of the spirits or fairies had ever mentioned them to me, nor had any demons come across him throughout our stay in the capital. I could assume he had hidden himself by controlling people’s minds and manipulating them to not say anything to me, but if he’d had that much power, he could’ve controlled the entire city before I’d even got there. There must be some sort of limit to his power. Perhaps he could only control a certain number of people, or they had to be suitably beaten up or controlled first. Or maybe he’d known that Noel would come to this city and didn’t want to give himself away until she’d spent a bit of her energy. I didn’t forget that the Immortal of Evil that Alek served had the ability to tell the future. And from what I remembered about the way I’d ruined the Oracle’s plans, I could mess with the Immortal’s precognitive ability. My appearance in the city must have already ruined his predictions, which must have been why he’d started mind controlling more people than he had wanted to.

I walked past the Senate’s imposing facade and entered through the tiny door. Inside, the gathering of spirits was still hovering above their chairs, talking to each other in charged tones about how best to defend the city. A fiery male spirit was just about to denounce the ‘evil elfin dictator who is trying to overthrow and conquer our free and fair republic’ when I slammed open the door and walked right on in. I apologized for coming in unannounced, but the fiery male spirit had already shrunk into his chair while looking around from side to side, possibly searching for a fairy guard despite knowing that they were all at the city gates.

“There you are,” I said as I walked up to the front of the table, to the seat vacated by Taoc. Taoc herself hovered beside me a little annoyed at seeing somebody else on her seat, which almost made me chuckle. Wasn’t she the one that had offered it up in the first place? As a gesture of good will and friendship between different races?

“Great Elf, we were not expecting to see you in here until after the battle. Have you changed your mind on inspecting the mural after all? I have made sure to defend it while befriending the spirits, as you advised,” said Bain Rusta in his calm, reassuring voice. The old demon had been sipping some sort of local beverage. It looked dark and unwelcoming, although when I had tasted it myself, I had been surprised by its sweetness. Bain Rusta saw that I had eyed the drink and asked me if I wanted to try some.

I smiled and said sure, why not. I walked up to him, letting my eyes trail along the mural of Sharun, the hunter of the Jora tribe who I had been certain had died long ago, and even reached out to touch the weapon in his hand. Good old Dragon’s Tooth. Man, did that bring back some memories. The spirits held their breath as I touched the mural, although of course, nothing happened. The mural was just a mural. It told a story, yes, but it was a single page. I had to get the rest of it from someone else. Perhaps Noel had figured something out about it, which was why she was trying to come here. Or perhaps only the Immortals knew what had transpired for something like this to have been created.

“No, I did not come here to inspect the mural,” I said as I walked up to Bain Rusta and struck him in the back of his neck. The old demon slumped forward onto the table, his eyes wide and stunned. A spirit let out a cry, the others hid behind their chairs or shrunk away while hovering. Even my companions couldn’t believe their eyes.

I walked up to the old demon, put a hand on his head, and used a magic I had only ever used once before. A subtle but clear film of red light appeared around Bain Rusta’s body, clinging to him like a second skin. As I poured more energy into the spell, the red light began to flicker and shrink. I let go of my hand, the magic would do the rest.

“If you don’t want to be drooling on the table like this gullible old man, then you better line up and let me pat your head,” I said with a menacing sneer as I walked up to the spirits of the Senate.