"Should be decapitated"

"No, remove the skin starting from the fingers"

"No. Better to bury quartz needles between the flesh and the nails. We did that last time and the proud Evil-heat peed herself and begged for mercy. Pitiful and delicious"

The recommendations overlapped. Those beautiful women, leaders of their respective families, wasted no time in proposing ever more horrendous fates for the elf standing on the parliament's parch. Moonsong kept her countenance serene, eyes closed, hands folded behind her back. She seemed immune to the various punishments promoted by her failed invasion.

Does that mean that Moonsong is not afraid to receive a gruesome death? Not at all, receiving pain scares her as much as she likes to deliver it. The idea of falling into the clutches of an expert torturer is something she dares not even imagine. It is a scenario only desirable when suffered by an enemy, or a person she dislikes, or someone who offends her.

Moonsong allows herself to be calm because before the session in the parliament began, and even before arriving in City of Horns, she sent Blood and Guts to bribe a part of the leaders. And if that was unsuccessful, then to bribe the leaders' favorite lovers to sweeten their ears.

The Moonsong wealth is not infinite. But a percentage of abstention would be enough so that, after the vote, their only punishment would be to receive that bad time.

Of course, any of them could betray her, that would be a logical possibility. It could even be the case that Blood-And-Guts disobeyed the order on a whim. However, another asset that allows Moonsong not to fall into despair is the mysterious benefactor that allowed the invasion in first place.

An attack by the dark elves in broad daylight was unthinkable for humans, and much more for the elves themselves. But thanks to the magic of a new power factor in the underdark, Moonsong made it possible. Although numerous attempts were made to find out the identity of this mysterious benefactor, including paying off the members of her harem, Moonsong managed to keep the secret and incidentally made cruel examples of several of her lovers to keep the rest on the right track.

No family would seek to antagonize Moonsong until discovering where her affinity with this new power reaches, and knowing how much the unknown benefactor can do. Some believe Moonsong made a deal with a demon, others that she fornicated with a forgotten god.

"Is it true that the commander failed, and it is evident her incompetence to conclude what she started... But it is also true that it is the first time we managed to penetrate so far into the human realm, don't you think the same?"

Moonsong contains the smile that forms on her lips when she hears the first voice in her favor. The next minute another leader comments that, although tying Moonsong's limbs to four bicorns and having them tear her apart sounds reasonable, perhaps it would be better to give her a second chance.

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The mood in the parliament changes. What promised to be a slur-fest is now less clear. The elder matriarch, covered by a cobweb veil that prevents her figure from being seen clearly, makes her voice resound. A voice that, unlike her congeners, sounds raspy, worn, it makes you wonder how many millennia of life she must have experienced to sound like that:

Time to vote.

The dark elves prepare their cobweb scarves, draped over their thighs. When asked to vote on the motion to kill Moonsong, 49 of the 100 leaders raise their scarves and wave them. Moonsong opens her eyes and seeing that her cruel death did not get a majority, she smiles freely.

From beyond the thick web veil, the shadow of the eldest matriarch, red eyes so intense they seem to glow, declares:

"Moonsong of the seventh-fifth thorn, you promised victory and long-lived immunity from the light during your campaign. In both promises, you failed. But you also promised blood under the sun, an impossibility in which you delivered. I still don't know what to think of you, but the majority spoke with their silence. You can retire and live another day, and thereby, maybe, gain the redemption and respect you lost"

Moonsong accepts the words with a slightly bowed head. She doesn't want to seem too relatable to the Elder Matriarch either. The obeisance is a trait of a servant, and Moonsong is determined to flee that label like the plague.

After Moonsong leaves the parliament, Blood-And-Guts, who was waiting at the entrance, joins the elf's walk. She asks how it went, and Moonsong doesn't answer because even Blood-And-Guts knows it's a stupid question. If something had gone wrong, Moonsong wouldn't be walking free under the bluish roof of the City of Thorn's justice floor.

The city is a single tower, giant as a vertical kingdom, 40 floors in all, some as tall as mountains. At the wide, bulbous tip of the tower, 100 sharp, spear-like thorns point in disorderly directions. In reality there are more than 100 thorns, but more than a hundred have already been cut, representing the families that fell from grace and now exist only as humiliating stories.

In the tower shell and on different levels there are tall, unglazed windows, from which the vastness of the underdark can be seen. Although they have no sun, Moonsong doesn't think they need it either. Luminescent mosses and fungi, as well as a thousand diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and precious mineral ores including plenilunium, serve as an eternal starry loom.

To Moonsong the underdark ceiling is more beautiful than the surface sky, compact, colorful, with ever-fixed points of light that make it the only thing a dark elf can trust, and all without that vulgar vastness that makes you dizzy the first time you glimpse it. Her mother, on the other hand, seemed enamored of that forbidden sky, hence naming one daughter like the moon. A decision Moonsong disagreed with, and perhaps one day, after her mother dies, she is determined to achieve an accomplishment broad and impressive enough to change her name.

Moonsong desires a name like Blood-And-Guts, only less visceral. In reality, there are a multitude of things she desires. Having ambition is a respected and sensual trait among elves. No one likes the faint-hearted. For example, one of her current and most needed desire is a long hot bath and an even longer passionate session with her boyfriends.

However, Moonsong has no time to waste, and as soon as she arrives at the palace house and separates from Blood-And-Guts who is off to harass young men in the taverns, she enters the bedroom and asks the servants not to be disturbed for anything in the world. She then dons a hood so dark that she turns into a shadow, and enters the secret tunnel hidden in the false bottom of the closet.