The trip to Delar was uneventful, and we reached the outskirts of the town in less than three weeks. Using glamour to hide my Rank and create an illusion for the Cernunnos, I even managed to make use of a public teleportation hub that shaved off a month of travel time.
We were never really accosted or challenged because we didn’t stay in one place long enough to be recognized. Additionally, I wasn’t certain if the Seelie Court had branded me a fugitive and were interested in apprehending me. There had been no sign or rumor of me for over a year, so it was entirely possible Queen Mab thought I was trapped on the other side when the dungeon closed.
A’Craig would have informed her differently, but they had no idea of what my plans were or where I was headed. Blayney did contact me a couple of times to inform me that Seelie was sniffing around his colony. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t been summoned before the Court and interrogated; he thought it likely that Mab was hoping to deal with me without the Unseelie becoming aware of events.
Blayney’s warning didn’t affect our speed much. When we needed to rest, we found suitable camping locations and established arrays of concealment and protection bypassing towns and cities. The Cernunnos managed to keep up with Meala easily despite the disparity in size. Their size and the gravity may have made a difference if we hadn’t discovered a feature unique to their constitution. They had a core and meridian network that gave them the ability to process and use the ambient magic, to stave off issues with endurance by cycling the World energy as they ran.
In some locations, their ability to maneuver around and over obstacles was even more effective than the honey-badgers, they were able to duck and weave around obstacles that forced Meala to detour around. Danu had designed them to be Keepers of the forest and field, so it only made sense that they would be able to negotiate any obstacles they might encounter in those environments.
My first impression of Delar was one of surprise. The town was a more fortified military base than a town or gathering place for residents. They equipped walls with heavy weaponry, guards stationed in an overlaying area of responsibility, and Slaugh night-fliers constantly canvassed the air.
Seelie and Unseelie worked together to protect what they had built. Except for the military aspect, this was what I had envisioned for my Capital. Individuals working together based on abilities, not faction. These people bore no resemblance to the disenfranchised and down-trodden I had envisioned. They were focused, always searching the surrounding area for threats, comfortable in their skin, they seemed content with their roles and life as guards.
The shimmering of air and energy outlined the defensive shield that an array empowered and made active. The only way to enter the town was through various checkpoints established where gates existed, or by destroying the defensive shield. I wasn’t certain, but I would bet that anti-glamour mechanics were in place, which would make it almost impossible to sneak in. It could be done, but it would take knowledge of placement and type so that a brute force method, a method that circumvented those checkpoints could be utilized.
I had further conversations with Basil and Brianne, so I wasn’t entering the place blind. I knew a council comprising of both factions and multiple species ran the town. A rotating system was used to determine who headed the council. No member could serve a second term before each species has had an opportunity to hold the chairman position. This system managed to limit graft, corruption, and unfair advantages for the factions. Anything a council head could sneak in as policy; the next council head could undo.
The governing system seemed as fair as possible. And it worked.
They stopped us before we could enter, a pair of guards approaching to ask their questions and levy their tolls. A Night-flier hovering over our group to make sure we complied. Night-fliers were the monster of the Unseelie.
Slaugh, warped caricatures of darkness and shadow. Their shape continually adjusting to their surroundings. As they fluttered and undulated, they exuded void, a miasma of nothingness that heightened the fear that those that encountered them experienced.
Their bodies were able to reflect light, even during the brightest day, this ability made them hard to see. Just as the Volar-fey made capable assassins because of their ability to go anywhere, the Night-flier made for the most fearsome front-line shock troops.
Their bodies of void encapsulated a devouring maw of serrated teeth that spun circularly when attacking. This ability to rotate their teeth at frightening speeds was a testament that their bodies had very little substance. A feeding Night-flier would bore through whatever it was eating like a wood-chipper.
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They most closely resembled stingrays, if they had crossed stingrays with octopi. A mass of swarming tentacles allowed them to grab prey, and a stinger allowed them to fire poison darts that immobilized targets at range.
They came in all sizes, but the most frightening were those with prodigious void aspect, some as large as entire villages and towns. The one monitoring our group was on the smaller size, not much larger than Meala, but it was only one of many.
The guards that came to meet us were Redcaps. Another Unseelie boogeyman. They towered over our group, even mounted. They had to stand at least fifteen feet, their size intimidating. But it was the cap that gave them their name that was the reason they were considered a monster.
Legends and tales speak of the betrayal they suffered, their people attacked and slaughtered by the Roman legions. Brigda, Goddess of Spring, and fertility was just beginning to cast her countenance over the land when the legions attacked and they slaughtered the Sidhe.
The women who had lost husbands and sons, wailing in despair, were opening their own veins attempting to inject their lifeblood into those that lay dead. Brigda in her aspect of healing and spring used these women’s sacrifice and devotion to create the Redcaps. A species of Sidhe that would forevermore be identified by the explosive growth in size that she gifted and the unending flow of blood.
Blood that flowed in rivulets down faces only to be absorbed and spilled again. A symbolic representation of the sprinkling of blood and water that the Sidhe practiced blessing the fields each spring.
Blood calls to blood and one of the properties of the Redcap’s new ability was the euphoria they experienced when they bathed in the blood of their enemies. That habit was what transformed them from Seelie to Unseelie.
Queen Titania cast them out, caring little that they had been gifted by Brigda. And the Unseelie absorbed them. Making use of their size and ferocity as troops, their prowess only second to the goblins for sheer destructive power.
My group and I were comforted when the entrance into the town was more about professionalism and less about extortion. The entry fee to enter was negligible, a token amount that would need much more traffic than was obvious if the funds were used to pay the guards. Those that had greeted us spent most of the time admonishing our group about policy, warning us not to bring faction, politics, or blood-feuds into the town.
They did give us the handshake protocols to allow our M-AI’s to sync to the local network as part of the intake procedure allowing me to access my bank accounts, our GPS locations, and the messaging and communication networks once more. We had been cut off from M-AI functionality from the moment we had crossed the Seelie boundary. These lands had not been claimed by either Seelie or Unseelie and infrastructure for M-AI’s was spotty. Dead zones and lack of coverage had meant we’d had no updates for the past several days.
It had been strange when it happened. I hadn’t realized how much I’d come to rely on that unobtrusive device. Not until I was cut off mid-conversation with Blayney had I realized that was even a possibility. When I was able to get a signal, I’d spoken with Brianna with no problems, but connecting with Blayney remained impossible.
The town’s access explained why Brianne was able to connect between territories and I wasn’t. The town’s guards were finally able to explain the reason for the disconnect. It was as simple as the coverage area. The devices we had attuned and synced to the network had no permissions, not until we reached Delar and created a profile.
It seemed frivolous to me. An outdated response to factional and suspicion. There was no reason shared user information couldn’t be supplied for each territory. Something to consider when I claimed my territory.
The guards were kind enough to give us directions. What I thought would be restrictive and regimented, with areas within the Keep surrounding the ward. I’d assumed the lodgings Brianna and Basil had procured would be a floor or two of the castle towers. Delar didn’t look large enough to contain private homes and estates.
I was mistaken. The construction of Delar had used slope and misdirection to create an enclosed Keep as the town proper, but once you entered the Ward some roads led around Keep walls and opened up into a residential area that seemed completely separate.
Brianna and Basil had leased an estate to house all the servants, staff, and guards that had sworn to me and come with them. Because land prices were relatively low in the unclaimed territories, they had managed to find something that had barracks, stables, and staff quarters.
The protections afforded those that dabbled in land ownership, the rights that Lords, Earls, and Dukes could claim as part of Fief and Demesnes that the Seelie and Unseelie used to allocate dominion were unavailable here. Arrays, town formations, and land claims could not be recognized and keyed individually since there was no Over-King or Court to assign permissions.
This made it harder in some respects, living in this area, but personal magic and muscles were able to replace most of the adaptability of arrays. The lack of ley-line efficiency also added to the problems of establishing proper settlements. Without that magic to help with infrastructure; power, water, and waste management, these services had to be powered by the residents' innate magical ability.
Towns here had to be established almost directly on ley-line pools for enough energy to be siphoned to be effective. Even instituting a magic tax on residents, a levy that required them to channel a percentage of their energy into collecting stations was barely enough to overcome the shortfall.
It made no sense to me why the ley-lines in this area would be so stunted. I could find no problems when I sent my perception questing, examining the deep grooves and channels that were a dearth of power. The channels appeared healthy, the connections and intersections well-spaced. But for some reason, the energy that should have been coursing through the land, the lifeblood that sustained and allowed life to flourish was absent or diminished.
It didn’t change my plans to claim the land. Honestly, I had little choice. It was here or challenge the Seelie or Unseelie monarchs, and that option wouldn’t allow me to change the political landscape of the planet. I needed there to be three equal factions to ram through a treaty that would allow Talahm to join the interplanetary council.
Jennie was the first to burst out of the gates as I arrived, her joyous shout of welcome and celebration drew the first genuine smile I had since leaving the CERN dungeon. Time and tide may wait for no man, but Jennie would hold fast the tether of love and affection despite those obstacles.
“Your Majesty!” she exclaimed waiting impatiently for me to dismount, “It’s about time you got here. Brianna and Basil are about to tear their hair out they are so giddy with expectation.”
Kneeling so I could look Jennie in the eyes, I embraced her, my hug fiercer than required, but my deep affection for this wondrous woman who had been my mother requiring this tactile response, this muscle memory of my youth that had comforted my fears and silenced my nightmares.
Jennie was home. And I would take this moment, this second of respite, to renew and appreciate those feelings before I began the real task of claiming and establishing my own Kingdom.