High above the rolling land, lingering in the silver shining trees in which he ruled his court, The High Fae of the Green Sword Faction, threaded his fingers together.
“Interesting.” He said, observing. While the tone was completely pleasant, there was something dark lurking under the surface.
There, displayed by the Game, was the Servant Branch, formerly the Heirling of the Red Sword, running across a wide expanse of water, steps as sure as though he were striding across solid ground. Behind scrambled a golem, thing too stupid to prevent a partial plunge into the deepest part of the lagoon. The weight sent a wave out, as the golem began attempting to return to the land.
Standing to her feet unaware, the High Lord of the Castalas Faction grimaced, as though she personally felt the agony of the minion of her Faction. She clinched her hands around thin air, and as she did, there was the sound of rending and tearing, as the space between the two Fae began to unravel.
“How he is doing that?” She asked, clutching the quivering space. “What deep magic is this?”
The High Lord of the Green Sword chuckled darkly, a hand shoeing away the debris of collapsing reality. “Do not be alarmed, this is merely an unexpected interruption. As for the Servant Branch, all secrets will be discovered in the end, even if we have to cut him open to do so. Whatever deep magic this is cannot save him from us.”
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In the Darkest Depth of the Sea, a serene figure flowed through an abandoned structure. Not a Fae, as such. But a close enough cousin that the Law of Fae still delighted in her truthfulness and cried at her broken oaths, not that she had many. She flowed through the ruined castle of her old home. Her eyes glowed aquamarine, in the darkness of the great pressure of the sea as memories of the destroyed past, her pale skin illuminated like the gem of Serpentine, beautiful, greenish in color and a delicate, patterned appearance.
She flowed upward, where the deep reliefs and stories had been left behind. She needed just to find the last one, the last hidden detail...That was when the Game had taken an unexpected and exciting turn, and stole her attention away.
She drifted downward, free in the embrace of water, as she observed.
She saw what ever Fae of high enough position or authority saw. A ragged looking person running apparently on water. But where was the magic to support such a thing?
"Elswith. Always so clever. Never forgets." she said, and considered what the possibility of his victory today may entail. She had vaguely planned on his failure, like most other Fae.
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Should the Game truly begin...
She looked past the Game, back to the dark and forlorn reality of the abandoned structure. Sadness cut her heart as she considered her children would never be able to join her in the ancestral home, even to visit. This was a place few Fae could tread, and her children were more Fae than of her kind.
In the midst of her musing, the depths of the ocean floor shook. She turned and a Fae Lord standing as plainly on the Sea Floor as though the water and the pressure did not exist. Power and strength quivered from him, as the water dare not make him wet. Each step the ground shook.
“You are early.” She said, and reached out a hand to him. He stood, while she was suspended in water.
The Lord of the Oceanfloor, a Fae often overlook, gently and delicately, wrapped his fingers around the offered hand, and gently kissed the back of the Sea Which’s hand.
“I returned as soon as I saw. Does this change our plans?”
“The plans may be altered, but never revoked. I will have my revenge.” She said, cold like the arctic sea.
He kept her hand, and drew her nearer to him.
“Patience love.” Then he reached out his other hand, caressed her face, and kissed her. “Our revenge.” He emphasized.
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Across the Seelie Realm, and even some places in the Unseelie, different observing Lords and High Lords, Senate and Court alike, watched the scene from afar.
“What is he doing?” The Lord of Smoke said, roasting meat over a fire.
“I thought he had no Water affinity?” Said the Lord of Grass.
“Who is aiding him?” Cried out a Senator who resembled Kane.
“Clever, and well done.” Said the Lord of the Northern Wind.
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But while everyone else was observing from afar, there was a certain hobo, who saw things from much closer. She was trying to get back to the bunkroom and still hopelessly lost, having left work late. Not wanting to cross the maddening streets of the Citadel, she made a dumb choice. She choose to take a shortcut and look at the pretty lagoon.
This hobo had red hair, and was not currently aware completely of everything that was transpiring. People didn’t tell servants about world changing games.
But as she was leaving, and getting close to the lagoon, she spotted a coworker running toward her.
That one new guy everyone called the little lordling, was running on water.
This certain hobo, attempting to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s food and eventual ride across the universe sea (See Shelby Crossmin Realm Wandering Hobo, for more information) stopped and stared. She had seen a lot of weird stuff, but weird stuff always had a color to it.
Over her stay in Fairyland, she had seen reality get messed with a bunch. She had seen a guy play with fire, but there was a sense that the rules of the universe were twisted that for him, at that time, fire was a perfectly lovely playmate. She had seen a chick sing and plants bloomed, nothing princess movies haven’t done for eighty years back on earth. Earlier today she had even seen a guy can walk on the ceiling! (She was not expecting that, by the way. Holy cow. It looked fun, but our beloved hobo was too intelligent to ask to have her gravity changed.)
But as she watched him run on water, there was no sense of reality changing. There was no feeling of weird CGI being added over the normal rule of reality.
A certain hobo would have stayed longer, but she then wisely realized that she should probably run.
Because a deep roar from a giant earth thingy bellowed and hurled some kind of stone across.
“Stupid, me, real stupid. Why did I think taking a shortcut would work for me? It never has one time before!” she cursed.