The king sat with tired half-closed eyes in his dining room surrounded once again by women. The room was filled with the quiet sounds of food being chewed. One particularly unlucky woman was chewing his food up as well and feeding it to him baby bird style.
As they ate the sound of gradually louder footsteps and distant shouting was approaching. Before the footsteps could reach the door however a giant raven with a wingspan greater than two men’s height slammed through the door and stood proudly looking in the king’s direction.
The bird’s beak opened, and it sounded as though a prerecorded message played out in Adeliza’s voice.
“Little prince Davie Jr.”
“King! Davis the second of the lineage of the hero-king who united the kingdom!”
“And this is why I always hated Nepotism. No matter how noble a parent’s cause their children can never be trusted to take up the torch. Professing to be my descendant you act like this? Disgraceful.”
“How dare you address your king in such a manner!”
“How dare you! Address your ancestor as though you had sovereignty over me. Do you forget that the actions I take to benefit the kingdom I do of my own free will, from the good of my heart? That I do not have to be kind to you. That it wouldn’t affect me at all if humanity died tomorrow. If this body dies I will yet live, if you die I will yet live and nothing of value will have been lost.”
“So long as your home remains in my territory you are my subject and are subject to my laws and decrees. Do not mistake your position here, I am the one in charge here.”
“Imagine that a king who is both arrogant and lustful. I give you a month before the people revolt for your greed, stealing all the beautiful gems of the kingdom and sullying them with your filthy hands.”
“I refuse to be addressed so disrespectfully in my own home!”
“Well then, if you’d like to continue this conversation you know where to find me. I take it you no longer want me to make an appearance before you seeing as it will simply be a repeat of what’s already occurred then.”
“No, you will appear before me!”
“Ha! Do you honestly think there’s anything you can do to me that hasn’t already been done? Think any idea in that tiny hollow skull of yours could even dare hold a candle to the things I’ve seen in my time on this wretched land.”
Before the king could continue arguing the bird began to disappear into dust. Starting from the talons and rising up to its beak as the bird floated for half a wing beat and descended leaving behind its final parting words
“Well, it seems my time here is up, if you live, I’ll see you soon, Davie jr.”
As the last of the dust faded away a small thin glass vial fell from where the bird’s head was containing a faint purple liquid that clattered faintly unbroken before rolling on the floor to the feet of one of the girls.
No one moved the room was frozen with curious thoughts as to what the contents might be.
In a certain bed where one half-asleep woman was clinging almost intentionally to the hero, Mia, as the other two women sharing the same bed awoke and excused themselves from her flailing Adeliza mumbled sleepily the words the bird was saying earlier.
A well-placed fist to the temple knocked Adeliza out of her half-asleep state and she finally let go, allowing Mia to make a mad dash for her clothes and get out of the room. Adeliza sat in a meditative pose as she watched the bird in her head disintegrate from her lack of concentration and she uttered the final sentence out loud.
“Well, it seems my time here is up, if you live, I’ll see you soon, Davie jr.”
Adeliza decided to take her time on Mia’s armour and cast a few spells in her free time to mess with Davie Jr. it took her three weeks of labour to finish Mia’s armour. She even fashioned a couple of gravity knives for her with the excess mithril she’d made.
“Thanks, master, this could really help.”
“As long as you’re not on the front lines with the daemons I suppose.”
“How do I use these new weapons?”
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“What? Oh, it’s easy, watch.”
She took the gravity knife and flicked it open for her. She then showed her the spring under the blade that locks it in place and showed her how to close the knife again.
“try it.”
She began swinging her arm a few times and managed to open the blade on her third swing. And then she pushed back the spring and closed the knife again. She began flicking it open and closing it incessantly.
“That’s enough I think you figured it out.”
Adeliza said after putting her hands over the hand Mia was using to hold the knife.
“Sorry master.”
She chuckled awkwardly and put the knives away in her pockets. The completed armour looked slightly different from the armour she wore in the training room, but she liked it, all the same, the gold trim was brass, but it looked gold enough for her liking.
She didn’t get a tiara but the helmet she wore gave the impression of a crown. As she didn’t have a gun like Adeliza did in her former body, she didn’t need the extra vision provided by not wearing a helmet. In fact, her helmet completely covered her head.
Her long blond hair still flowed back from behind her like a golden fur cape almost. Her polished mirror-like armour made her feel proud. It reflected the area around her and made the metallic parts of her ensemble almost invisible if not for the skirt, grieves and protruding bits of uncovered leather, fabric, hair and so on she could have blended in with any surrounding.
“Well then, I best be off to see the king. He did call for me and it would be rude not to torture him in person.”
Back at the mount of heroes at the back entrance where the nations offered tributes to the master of the mountain the soldiers had the elven women who were spared to be offered at the mount bound lined up and waiting. The soldier at the mouth of the offering place held his blade at the ready and moved to slit the throat of the girl standing before him.
She stared at the ground with dull eyes trying not to let the enemy see her fear. The soldier smiled a cruel grin and when he was about to slit the girl’s neck he stopped at an incredible shout.
[Halt! Who dares kill with intent to rust my alter with elven blood?]
“M-my apologies… it’s just… we were told to sacrifice these women here and we were under the impression they would die.”
[has it been so long that humans have forgotten how to give offerings? Are all the trinkets given pre-broken, is my alter covered in trash because you think I only desire what is useless? Their lives are what I want not their death. Simply throw their bodies in and I will do the rest.]
“Right of course.”
The mouth of the offering place opened up wide enough to receive a humanoid body. After which they stuck the girl headfirst into the cramped opening about until her elbows after which they removed her shackles and pushed her the rest of the way in.
The girl tumbled helplessly and fearfully into the abyss. She wanted to scream but she was afraid of biting her tongue. At the end of her headlong slide into darkness, she was met with a fairly well-lit room. there were a couple of subpar quality knives around where she'd fallen. The first things she noticed when she landed were the littered daggers.
As it dawned on her that she was still alive she began to look up farther. She began looking up to see a woman with skin painted to look like her bones were on the outside and covered in detail... or at least that's how it seemed to her. She was wearing a blanket over her mostly uncovered skin. Her crossed legs and indifferent attitude captivated the elf girl.
“Shh, I’ll take you to a safe place.”
She heard in her native language. She was going to ask her who she was, but before she could the woman pulled her to the side and another elf fell in her place. Only now did she realize the translucent membranous wings protruding from her back.
“Daemon?”
“shh…”
She began leading her by the hand through the halls, they ran so swiftly the elf girl had to jump and allow the girl in front of her to drag her through the air. Once they reached the place the woman tied her blanket around her waist and fashioned it like a toga. When she was satisfied, she turned to leave the girl in the room.
“I’ll be back with your friends don’t touch anything”
She heard as the woman disappeared back down the halls. She wandered about the room she was left in. large tubes filled with green liquid lined the walls. There were instructions written in elvish on a note in front of the tubes.
“Remove every article of clothing and enter a tube, you’ll be given a new face and protected from the humans that might return?”
As she read it the woman returned with another elf. The new woman was afraid and about to throw up from the rough handling.
“What’s this?”
“You wanted to know who I am didn’t you? Do as the note says, quickly before the master of the cave wakes up.”
In a rush, she began to do so and after climbing the ladder and seeing the girl below gesturing for her to wait a moment, the girl she only just met began typing away at the monitor in front of her.
“Let’s see, change race to (looks up) daemon. What’s your favourite colour?”
“Green.”(she said as she jumped in.)
“Ok, got it.”
After a bit of typing her body was dissolved and replaced with a similar body to the woman she’d just met but with green skin, while the other elf in the room just watched. After inputting another set of commands into the keyboard the girl inside opened her eyes and the girl outside helped her out.