The Ambassador was about to say something, but the Fae raised one open palm to stop him and said, “And why do you have two Sub-Demons with you, anyway? The one who could have such a pair near him in this room is King Vosen, not you. This is not an Ooman country, you know?”
Furious, the Ooman Ambassador grabbed the head of one of the Sub-Monsters and made him screech in pain from the squeezing. “They are my property, and they follow me if I see fit!”
Meryda closed her eyes and trembled, feeling the screams in her core as if it was she who was being squeezed. The Fae noticed and asked, “Meryda, do you mind freeing those poor things from that Ooman’s claws? They will be happier with you than they were ever with him.”
Meryda asked, with her eyes still closed, “I… I can do that?”
“My dear Meryda, you can do whatever you want! It will also be a good way to show that fool that he shouldn’t mess with us.”
With a single nod, Meryda looked at the two chained beasts and started to shine. The two Sub-Monsters shone in response to her Magic, and the Ambassador took one step back, muffling a surprised scream when he heard Meryda say, “Come to me, my friends, you are safe now. No one will hurt any of you anymore.”
The two Sub-Monsters got up and took one step forward, with the Ambassador’s assistant quickly grabbing the chain that tied their necks to their wrists, stopping them.
Meryda slowly shook her head, and while still shining, she asked, “Lyzy, do me a favour and cut those chains with your teeth.”
The scary Salamander ran forward in a flash, and even before anyone could understand what was happening, he cut all the chains of the two Sub-Monsters and growled at the assistant, making him stumble back.
He then escorted the two to his owner, and Meryda hugged them both while saying, “That’s it; you are safe with me, okay? I have two Sub-Monsters just like you on my farm, and they are helping me a lot. They have a room for them in the barn, and they are well-fed. You are too skinny, but I will make sure to feed you both properly from now on.”
The King sat down on his chair again. Because of his surprise, he had jumped out of it the moment he saw Meryda glowing, and while there were a choir of voices from the Nobles asking what happened, the King said, “Meryda… Did you just… tamed two Sub-Demons? That is impossible!”
With a slight smile and while still caressing the heads of the two happy beasts, Meryda explained, “They are Sub-Monsters and not Sub-Demons. I can tame animals and Monsters; that is how I am sure of this.”
“That cannot be! Everyone knows Sub-Demons are impossible to tame because they are not Monsters! They have to be trained to obey commands, and you don’t need Magic for that!” the King exclaimed.
“Then everyone is wrong. Why other Monster Tamers could never tame them, I don’t know, but I sure can, like I demonstrated.”
The King slowly shook his head and said, “This is absurd… Can you order them to do anything?”
“I don’t need to order them; I just need to kindly ask.” Meryda then looked at both Sub-Monsters with a gentle smile and spoke, “Can you do me a favour and make a twirl, then jump two times? Just for me to show the King what you can do?”
With a vigorous nod, both Sub-Monsters agreed and did as Meryda said, receiving a hug in the end from a happy little girl. “That was so cool! You can jump so high!” She then looked at the King and said, “See? I just need to ask them when I want something, and if they need something from me, they can make gestures or point, and I will try to do what they want.”
“Amazing… Can you also tell them to fight for you?” asked the curious King.
“I can, and they will use their fingernails and teeth unless I teach them how to use a dagger or a sword. I taught the two Sub-Monsters I have on my farm how to fight with two daggers, and they are very good with them. They often go to the forest near my farm with my two spiders to hunt, and they always come back with prey.” It was then that Meryda noticed her father slowly shaking his head, and she realised she had spoken too much and hadn’t done what he had told her — to let him do all the talking.
Her words and the following silence made the King curious, and he asked, “You said spiders? What kind of spiders?”
Craydon spoke while staring at the surprised Ambassador, who was too dumbfounded about what happened before him. “Perhaps we should continue this interrogation without prying ears around. I don’t feel comfortable enough to let my daughter speak anymore with so many people in this room, many of them, Oomans. You might trust them, but I surely don’t.”
“This is not an interrogation, just a mere conversation,” the King explained. “But I understand what you are saying. I will not ask anything more, but it makes me wonder why you are going to the front lines with your daughter if you don’t trust Oomans.”
“It was not my first choice, but my daughter wants to see what is happening there and then decide what she will do.”
Ambassador Mairo Soosaar recovered from his shock and said with a grin, “She will join the Alliance, of course. Not joining is not even an option. It is, in fact, a tremendous honour, and considering her absurd power, we will finally have a chance to conquer the mountains.”
Craydon grinned back and said, “You know, the Ooman envoys who came to my farm also thought they had a simple task — to take my daughter with them, and they left empty-handed. I heard that the Ooman army they called to force her had to retreat without swords and horses. I am not even mentioning the horses and the Emptiness that came with us, nor the two flying menaces who are hiding nearby. It also seems the Fae took a liking to my daughter, and we both know how annoying those things are with their resilience and stubbornness.”
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With a frown, the Ambassador asked, “Are you perhaps threatening me?”
“Why would I threaten you? You are just an Ooman Ambassador. Who are you to pose any kind of threat to me or my daughter?”
“It is not wise to talk like that to me, Demi-Cat! You have no idea the power I hold!”
A green form came from the ground and stood close to the Ambassador’s face. An angry Fae stared straight into his eyes and spoke in a harsh, low voice, “You shall mind your words, Ooman. You are this close to fading into oblivion. This will be your last warning.”
“You… can’t threaten me… Fae are not violent…” the Ambassador stuttered.
“We are not threatening; we are warning you. Lyzy! Come here, dear!”
Surprisingly, the Salamander vanished from its place at an incredible speed and stood at the Ambassador’s feet, at knee height, growling at him.
The serious Fae spoke, and the Ambassador felt a shiver along his spine. “If he says another word, bite his face off, okay?”
Meryda tilted her head, completely blown away by what had just happened, and asked, “Fae, since when did Lyzy obey you?”
“Perhaps Lyzy is also fed up with this Ooman?” asked the Fae, feigning ignorance.
“Strangely, I am not believing that. You are hiding something, aren’t you?”
“We don’t know what you are talking about, cute Meryda! No idea whatsoever!”
In a clear voice, the King asked for everyone to leave because he wanted to talk some more with his guests without so many distractions around.
It was not only the constant interruptions from the Ooman Ambassador, but the whisperings and comments from his Nobles were starting to annoy him, and he was more than curious about that young Monster Tamer girl, who seemed so powerful and yet so ignorant about what an Ambassador from the Shian Empire was doing in Oka and what his presence meant. Perhaps he could use her, and finally…
The Nobles, all of them usual members of his court, retired without a word, together with the Royal Guards and the Mages.
Ambassador Mairo Soosaar complained that he should stay as the King’s most trusted advisor, but seeing that the King didn’t budge, and the orange Salamander was still at his feet, growling at him, he also left the room with his assistant right behind him.
When the door closed and Captain Ermo Sepp, Craydon, Meryda, and the Fae were the only ones with him, the King sighed and said, “Now let me explain some things that perhaps none of you, except probably the Captain, are aware of.”
He spoke about Oka’s golden years when his ancestors were ruling supreme and respected by the neighbouring countries.
It all started to change when the Ooman army came to the mountain range, after negotiating with the King at that time that they would camp near the mountains to protect Oka and at the same time try to mine Magical Crystals that they would share with Oka in equal parts.
Over the years, Oka’s share diminished until it didn’t exist anymore because, as for the Ooman Alliance excuse, the continuous fights were killing their Mages, and they needed all the Crystals to arm new ones.
With the presence so near the capital of an increasing Ooman army, the Demis’ soldiers and Mages began to fear them, and the King accepted to receive in his court an Ooman Ambassador, who would serve as a means to facilitate the conversations between Oka and the Alliance.
It all went smoothly until one of those previous Ambassadors directly warned the Demi King of that time that he should blindly obey the Alliance, which he refused.
One night, the King, his son, daughter, and wife were killed, and the Alliance backed a Noble who was often favouring the Ooman Ambassador during the discussions about the affairs between Oka and the Alliance to become the new King.
His reign was brief because the supporters of the previous Demi King killed him one night. To stop the violence in Oka’s court, a distant cousin of the previous Demi King received the Noble’s support, together with the Alliance’s support, and it was from that moment on that the Rask bloodline became the rulers.
In the end, the King confessed that his hands were more or less tied because he had to always think about the well-being of his people with such an enormous Ooman army nearby.
Seeing that the King had finished his explanation, Craydon asked, “But what about the Crystals the Oomans are selling? That can only mean they are mining them somewhere.”
“I received some reports that occasionally a few mines in the mountains are profitable, but the Alliance denies everything. They keep saying they can’t mine anything because of the Monsters’ continuous attacks. Something that my men also told me is that the Monsters don’t attack; they merely stop the soldiers and Mages from going near the mountains. It is all a big mess, and it has been like that for several years now. This stalemate has been going on forever and ever, with several deaths among Oomans and Demis.”
“Then it is no wonder that Meryda’s power is such a temptation.”
“It is true, and if she is as powerful as she demonstrated, she could turn the balance and the Alliance would get out of the stalemate, but at the same time, I fear what will happen if they mine every Magical Crystal there is and next, go beyond the mountain range to the Demon's country. So far, no one is sure if Demons actually exist or why the Monsters in the mountains only stop the Alliance and don’t deliberately attack, but if the Alliance invades the land beyond the mountain range, they might find more than they can chew and drag the entire World into an absurd mess.”
The silent Fae stared seriously at the King for a brief moment and then said, “The Dark Eight won’t stand still if the Ooman Alliance reaches the Demon's country. If that happens, Oomans will find out that there are worse things than Monsters. So far, they haven’t made a move because of their own circumstances, but if they think their people will be in danger, the Alliance will cease to exist in mere seconds. And even the Fae can’t help if something like that happens.”
King Vosen Rask found the Fae’s words strange, and there was a designation that confused him. “Dark Eight? What is that?”
“We can’t speak about other species, but we can say they are the Demons’ council in charge of ruling their lands, with eight extremely powerful High Demons in command. None of them you would like to meet.”
“You mean… There are actually Demons beyond the mountain range? How do they look like? What do they want? Are they a threat to us?”
The Fae slowly shook its head and said, “We can’t speak any more than what we already did, but until now, they were never a threat. If the Alliance invades their country, that might change. With Meryda in the Alliance, there is a big chance for that to happen, and then things will for sure change. It can also happen that the entire World changes, and there will be no place for Oomans anymore. They will all go extinct.”