Daniel took two overly tall Fae with him down through the old tunnel. There were lights flicker as they approached and turned off as they left that section. It was cool in the tunnels, and very quiet. Marrin looked like a wet cat, edgy and afraid of another bath. Esra looked like her was going to get lunch somewhere.

Daniel himself felt hungry and tired. He had thought he had solved the needing to eat thing. But apparently the amount of power needed to fuel a Fae was larger than he had thought. He thought again about using more power, just to stop his hunger. He wept thinking about all the meals he skipped because he was working, back when he was Lordling Elswith. Just exactly how powerful had he been? It was like falling from the highest room in the palace and landing in a muddy field. Technically one could make a rival palace, but sitting in the mud staring up at the multitude of swirling windows and glittery stone towers as it reached the sky made the mud hut a poor comparison.

Daniel knew that they needed to keep moving.

Marrin was gripping his hat again, muttering something like 'excuse me' each time his too tall frame disrupted the roots from above.

How had such a person made it to Middling?

"Where...are we, if you don't mind me asking."

Daniel nodded. At least the second part prevented extracting a favor. If one answered, they didn't consider it worth gathering Favor. Marrin needn't have worried, because as a Lowling, the Servant Branch would be hard pressed to extract whatever small favor. And Esra didn't even bother with the Law of Fae at all. He was pretty much invisible to it, and unbound by much of the limitations it imposed.

"The O'Tells Family are an expansive and powerful Family and Estate, in many ways holding more power than a smaller Fae Court." Daniel informed, enjoying thinking of history more than other things. "But did you know their start, untold generations ago...was as a tavern?"

Esra barked out a surprised laugh. "Tell that to Orville's uppity Uncles and Aunties. Oh, I bet they hate that."

Marrin looked equally surprised.

"Some of them do not enjoy discussing that history." said Daniel. "But many members of their family delight in it. Do you know Brandy O'Tells, Orville's oldest uncle, runs a brewery?"

"No way." Said Esra.

Daniel paused, and checked forward, but there was still a way. He continued forward. "But this tunnel was from the time when beer was outlawed."

"Like how chocolate is outlawed?" Said Esra.

"Chocolate is outlawed?" Said Marrin, surprised.

"Of course. It has been for the last ten years. Outside of the Dusted Plains, no chocolate is permitted. Why, have you had chocolate here?"

Marrin's face went a strange color.

"You had chocolate?" Daniel said.

"Um...Look a bug." said Marrin, pointing to the wall.

So...the Common Fae had a source for chocolate that the upper echelon of Fae did not. So much so that some common Fae didn't realize it was banned.

"Do they make you eat it in their store? Is it like a parlor?"

"I just thought that's what fancy people do. Or...would do...um...it really is a very interesting bug." Marrin pointed behind them. He seemed very uncomfortable suddenly. And the Sword of the Storm started to hum again...

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Daniel let it pass. Marrin had probably sworn an oath of secrecy. And chocolate was the least of Daniel's current worries. Also...he had no money. Not that he often spent money, but lesser Fae used money to exchange for goods, instead of having entire infrastructure of people working under you to create those same goods, and trading those created goods for the specialties ones allies or rivals created. That or being the Lord protector over that realm and rightfully claiming a tithe.

Being weak was strange.

"So this passageway built long ago. Now. To more pressing concerns. What to do with a newly minted Heirling?"

"I don't want to use the sword again." Marrin stated, as if it was a fact. "I don't..."

"You are an Heirling now. That choice is gone."

"I don't want to! The stories all say Heirlings go insane."

Esra made a noise that he agreed, muttering something under his breath like "That does explain Spikes..."

Daniel wished he could have left Esra behind in the Servant's hall.

Instead, Daniel shrugged and made a shoing motion with his hand, like he was brushing away Marrin's concern. "Those are just stories for children. And too tall Mages who speak of 'bois trips' and 's'mores'. The Swords are a Power to rival the entire kingdom, Seelie and Unseelie, of the Fae."

"I don't care. I don't want to."

Daniel had a moment of irritation, and wished he had left both Esra and Marrin behind. But he tried to be kind, remembering his promise not to abandon Marrin. "You are in a good position." Honestly, if Daniel wasn't in a Game...if he was an independent Lord, Marrin would be an excellent opportunity. "You need to rise to Lordhood, quickly. As fast as you can."

"I am barely a Middling. There is not path to power..."

Daniel had to hunch down through the next narrow section of the tunnel. "Swords break the rules. The Swords make their own path. They just do. If you do not rise up in power to match it, only then will you be destroyed."

"So...I get promoted? Will I be the commander of the Sky Court's enforcers? Will I be promoted to Knight like Knight Commander Kane was?"

The Sky Court was corrupt and so emmeshed into the Waasla alliance that any Lord there was merely a pawn. "No. You need to leave the Sky Court."

"I can't."

"No, you can't. I'm working on that." a way for Marrin to be cast out in shame and defeat. "You were a Lowling first, right?"

"I can't return to Lowling. My family..."

"Would rather you live, I assume. I have to assume that, because my would rather I die, and sometimes it is hard to imagine having someone wishing me life." He did not look at Marrin and Esra, who were both making pitying faces at him.

Time to bring back the conversation to the most important point. "And should others discover what you now are...you will probably be killed."

"What?"

"You are a new, rival power. With training, you may master it. If not, it will master you."

"I thought you said the Sword was kind."

"It is a kind, playful, loyal Sword. But it cannot change what it is, and what it will do."

"It's just a sword!" Marrin complained.

Authority arose from Daniel unsummoned, and the tunnel became dark. Marrin made a frightened sound and tumbled backward into the wall.

"Just a Sword? Just a Sword?!" From the very walls came the sound of the Red Sword played, and Marrin could hear its unsavory notes. "Until you have enough mastery, Marrin Son of Castor, until you can control the Sword of the Storm..." Marrin needed to listen. He needed to understand. Or else he would die. "You cannot refuse."

"I don't want to be an Heirling."

"There is a way, of course. To become free from such things." Daniel said, gathering himself again and pulling back the hymn of the Red Sword.

"I'll do it. Whatever it is..."

"Wait your turn until I'm done. Can you survive a Game? Can you ignite the passion and interest? Can you find a cause large enough to cast your entire future behind?" Not that Daniel had chosen that on purpose. It had been a gut reaction, as he saw cruelty and dishonor so great. It had been complicated. But he had been planning on running away, escaping his fate as the Heirling of the Red Sword.

Marrin looked him up and down, and whatever Daniel looked like, it must not have been good.

"So...how do I...master a sword?"

"More importantly than that." Daniel said, feeling somewhat insulted. He had put on the much better clothes of a Hall Attendant. "This is a heavy matter. This could even upset the balance of power of the current Game. All the various groups that would want power to stay the same. The Lord currently using the fake 'Sword of the Storm.' The Sky Court's delicate position. The Wizards alliance may actually be the most dangerous, as they studied the arcane laws of nature."

Marrin looked pale.

"Therefore, total secrecy was needed. But secrets are hard to keep. The old adage goes...Three can keep a secret..."

"If one is an idiot and the other is a crafty Spiky haired guy, and the third will die if it comes out." Said Esra. So he had been paying attention.