I had no idea how long it would take the dwarves to contact their superiors. Should I grab some snacks from my storage?

“Well, I am off.” Frida said and turned back the way we came from.

“Wait, shouldn't you report to your superior?” I asked.

“Nah. He is just gonna yell a lot. Thanks for the whisky, stop by when you are in the area!” She said, waved goodbye and left.

“Not our problem.” Lucy commented while watching her go.

“True.” I agreed.

“No worries my ladies, Iris will make sure that all your soldiers are going to be better than that. Any such behaviour will not be tolerated. Troublemakers will be fed to Shani.” Lily assured us.

“Hey, I don’t eat people!” Shani protested. “But I would happily slaughter the unworthy!”

“Killing our own soldiers is a big no. There are more appropriate punishments.” I told them.

“Like donating blood.” Shani said with a grin.

“While Shani is a great deterrent for bad behaviour, keep in mind she is not always around. Most recruits will hardly ever interact with her.” Lucy pointed out.

“Could you summon her on a more permanent basis?” Lily asked.

I scratched my head. “I don’t know. She would need an anchor to stay in this plane, without a spell keeping her here. Also, would Shani even want to stay here?”

“I am pretty busy doing lording stuff back home! But I could spend a few hundred years here I suppose…” Shani looked rather excited. “You do need a court elemental after all.”

Was that a real title? I had a feeling people just really liked to make up titles.

“My ladies should build a proper court, yes. Lilith has many powerful beings in her service. Guards, servants, generals, diplomats, spies, assassins,...”

“I like the idea, let’s make her our court elemental.” Lucy proposed.

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“We still need to find a way to anchor her.” I reminded them. Then I pulled some cookies from my storage. This seemed to take long enough to warrant some food. I offered them to Lucy and Lily as well.

“What about the bond? Can she be included?” Lucy asked while grabbing a cookie.

“Hm. She did open a connection to the plane of wind inside Lily during the maid knight ceremony. Maybe we can attach her to that somehow? I am just not sure how.”

Shani’s mouth formed a disturbingly large grin. “Blood! The answer is blood!”

“Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You need to feed me the blood of a powerful magical creature from this plane!”

“Like, myself? Or Lucy?”

“No, you are from the realm of the fey! Lucy could work.”

I munched on a cookie while thinking. Was I really from the realm of the fey? I was born… created in this dimension. I was certainly not a normal archfey, I sort of evolved into one.

“I suspect I count as a being of this dimension. But we could use mine and Lucy’s blood. We are sharing a bond and she is my warlock. You know, what if I cast the summoning spell as a ritual? And we use our blood as a component.”

It was somewhat improvised but I had a good feeling about the idea. The magical knowledge in my head found no fault with my theory.

Shani watched eagerly as I began to draw runes on the stone floor with a piece of chalk. Lucy and Lily watched while munching on cookies.

“Uhm. Excuse me ladies, but what are you doing?” I heard someone from the wall ask.

“Oh. We are just conducting a ceremony to appoint a court elemental.” I answered.

“I have no idea what that means.” He answered.

“It’s nothing dangerous. We are just using the time while we wait for your captain to return.” He had left to use his messenger stone. I had no idea how long that would take.

“Ma’am, if you summon something that threatens the fortress we will use the beast slaying ballistae.”

“I have already summoned something dangerous, we are trying to keep her here.” I pointed at Shani.

The elemental waved.

“I see. Hm. I suppose she was on the list.” He pondered the situation. “Ok, carry on. But you will be held responsible for any damage you cause to this area.”

“Fair enough.”

I continued drawing the runes.

“Is this a game?” Ben asked.

I looked up. Ben was here, with his parents. “Why are you not back at the wagons?”

“Frida said it was all sorted and she would return to the gate. Ben wanted to see the fortress.” Lynn explained.

“We are conducting a ritual to allow Shani to stay with us, without me spending a lot of spell slots. It should be harmless but please stand back.” I said.

“Yay, more Shani!” Ben cheered. “Big sis has cookies, can I have a cookie?” He asked while running towards Lucy.

I continued drawing the runes. Once finished, I collected some blood from Lucy and myself. Shani was in the centre of the circle with the blood, which she consumed. I activated the ritual. A tiny storm cloud formed above and rained on us. Lightning arced between myself, Lucy and Shani. Soon, it was over.

I was pleasantly surprised to see drains at the side of the road. The dwarves were prepared for any water magic.

“Foolish mortals! You have given me access to this plane. Feel my true power! Muahahah.” Shani was laughing.

“Does Amaya count as a mortal? Aren't archfey technically immortal? Sure, they can be killed, but I don’t think they die naturally. Wait, if I am a kitsune, am I mortal?” Lucy asked.

“If the dwarves hit you with their ballistae it's your fault, Shani.” I told her.

“Why is Shani speaking in a scary voice?” Ben asked.

“It’s her way of telling us the ritual worked.” I explained.

“Indeed! I am now the official court elemental!” Shani said proudly.