Chapter Sixty-seven

‘The truth is a tricky thing?’ I echoed the words of Fenar’s wife as we filed into a room on the first floor, following a number of other people I didn’t recognize.

The councilwoman walked over to the other end of the room and joined three important looking elves who were already sitting at a table, organizing stacks of paper — they must have been the rest of this famous Defense Committee.

The woman who had been watching our short conversation in the foyer like some kind of spy, also walked to the same table and sat down. Behind them, at a separate table, sat two men, stacks of paper and pots of ink and pens in front of them, ready to write everything down. Dedicated scribes, I deduced.

Tricky thing, huh? My father used to say that, too. Krissy commented.

Dimal got a chair for her and motioned her to sit down. She was happy to do so, leaning her crutch against the wall. The others stayed standing.

Someone came along to offer her a cup of tea. I hadn’t seen this sort of thing in the normal, day-to-day operation of a ranger’s compound — I supposed the servers were a part of the staff the Committee members had brought with them from wherever they were based. Maybe, during a break, we could sneak some Earl Grey to them and see if the committee people liked it.

I didn’t know why it had never occurred to me to ask someone about elven government. I knew there was the Solace Council — the main decision-making body — and that there were a number of committees dealing with different aspects of governance. But I had no clue where they were based. Hell, I didn’t even know if Solace had a capitol city or not. I knew the names of a few towns, such as Gal Themar, where Third Rangers had their base, or Sek Artem, where we currently were. I had heard Rok Ternem mentioned — a port city on the western coast of Solace, where most of the trade with the Mainlands happened.

But rectifying my woefully uninformed state had to wait. It seemed everyone who was supposed to be here had arrived — some of them I recognised, some of them I didn’t — and the Defense Committee members seemed ready to begin.

Sini was here with a few rangers I’d seen before, standing not far from us. Tomas, Ferin, and a few other elves I recognised from the Graal’s Enormous Pride were sitting on chairs, looking nervous. The last two people to enter the room were none other than Master Fenar, and an equally dangerous looking ranger, whom I guessed to be Sivaren Rols, Master of Fifth Rangers. The fact that Dimal, Sini, and even Tomas straightened themselves upon seeing the men coming in, pretty much confirmed my suspicion.

The council members all stood and bowed their heads in greeting to the people, announced that this was a sub-committee of the Defence Committee, then proceeded to introduce themselves to the room. I had a feeling most of those present already knew them and this was just a formality.

Councilwoman Korolan Mirei — also known as Mrs Hellspawn — we knew already. I was sure Fenar was calling her Komi at home.

The woman who’d been gracing us with suspicious glances in the foyer was Krisoret Itani. She was a young-looking woman, in her early one hundreds by my estimate. I figured her casual name would be Krisi. Elven names were weird as always, but as far as I was concerned there was only one Krisi and it wasn’t her. It was my Krissy.

Something was going on between Mrs Hellspawn and Fake Krisi. Most people probably missed — or ignored — the hostile glances the younger committee member shot at Fenar’s wife, but I had a tentacle hovering nearby, and I knew disdain when I saw it. But the introductions weren’t done yet, so I focused on that.

Levoten Armat, sitting between the two women, was an unusually tall man, even for an elf. He must have been quite old; I could see wrinkles developing around his eyes. He also had the somewhat annoyed expression of a man who wasn’t sure why he had to be here when he had better things to do.

The next committee member was Simiten Ralf, sitting on Mrs Hellspawn’s right. He wasn’t a young one, and he looked familiar. After staring at him for a moment or two, I remembered where I’d seen him before: he was the Defense Committee liaison I’d seen with Fenar, when we’d first met him, right in the middle of the evil spirit kerfuffle.

The last of them was Gautal Sev, a man who looked to be about the same age as Krisoret Itani. He was sitting on the woman’s left, smirking for some reason, but then he shot a less than friendly glance at Fenar’s wife, just as his colleague had done moments before.

I wondered if these people were elected officials. I remembered someone saying that Mrs Hellspawn was a permanent member of the Solace Council, so maybe they weren’t. I had never been overly interested in government affairs, but suddenly I was curious enough to consider asking someone about this in the future.

‘What do you think this is about?’ I asked Krissy.

I haven’t been told. But … from what I remember, whenever my father called meetings like this, it always ended poorly for someone. Usually for someone whom he wanted to have humiliated. Or executed.

‘Oh. Are they trying to get us? Are we on trial?’

I don’t think so. We’re outsiders. Besides, if they were that worried about us, we wouldn’t be in the same room with all the important people. We’d be locked up somewhere.

I was happy Krissy was talking to me normally after how badly our breakfast conversation had gone, but I wasn’t liking this whole business with the committee.

‘Then, why are we here?’

Could be just the way they do things here. Or could be political. Krissy speculated. I found it a little strange Master Fenar’s wife coming to talk to me before the hearing. She didn’t tell us anything relevant, did she?’

‘No, not really. The truth is tricky was all she said. By the look of it there’s no love lost between the fake Krisi and Mrs. Hellspawn, so that looks tricky enough.’

The fake … what? Oh. Yeah. Fake Krisi. She realised what I meant, squinting at the committee members sitting at the table at the other end of the room.

The committee members sat down. Except Krisoret Itani. The young councilwoman stayed standing and began the proceedings.

‘Thank you all for attending this hearing,’ she began her speech, scowling like there was no tomorrow, giving a nasty look to Fenar’s wife. ‘We have disturbing and potentially dangerous issues to discuss, so let’s begin.’

‘Oh, this will be good,’ I mumbled.

***

The council proceeded to call the witnesses, and I was beginning to feel we were indeed on trial, for most of the questions were about Krissy and I.

Dimal and Sini were the first. They answered all questions, recounting everything that had happened from the moment we’d met them. They commended Krissy’s dedication to the mission, praising her for willing to put herself at risk, and indeed getting injured during action. They didn’t skimp on the details of the communication abilities I had provided, and even acknowledged that the “blonde patron god-thing” had been of tremendous help in interrogating the captured orks.

So far so good, nothing out of the ordinary, only a few leading questions from Krisoret Itani and her partner in crime, Gautal Sev. They were trying to steer the focus onto the dangers of unruly spiritualists, while Mrs Hellspawn and the liaison guy were trying to do the opposite.

After the scout-masters, Tomas, Ferin, and the few elves from the galley were next.

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They told the committee about everything they had experienced, from getting kidnapped by the orks to the moment of their liberation — the scary spiritualist, the Navy, and of all things a god.

Listening to their testimonies made me realise what a terrifying experience the whole ordeal had been for them, and in all honesty, I couldn’t blame them for being as scared of Krissy and me as they were of the orks, if not more. They made it clear they were thankful for the rescue, but their worried glances in our direction weren’t exactly flattering. Fake Krisi had a field day with that, asking question after question, getting them to describe everything they saw in gory detail.

The committee members’ reactions were varied. Apparently, the kind of things I had been doing was in the domain of gods and evil spirits, not familiars, and the survivors’ account of events made everyone in the room visibly uncomfortable.

Maybe I was just paranoid, but these people — or at least Fake Krisi and his henchman Gautal Sev — were out to get us. I wasn’t sure to what end, though. Perhaps they were just trying to put us on a ship and expel us from Solace. I could live with that, but if they sought something like … execution, that was not going to end well for anyone involved.

Once the rescued people were done, the committee moved on to questioning the Third Rangers’ trainees. They weren’t able to provide any important information the committee hadn’t already heard from the others, except their personal experiences with Krissy and I during training and our trip to Sek Artem. I was pleasantly surprised by the positive light in which the trainees portrayed us. I hadn’t expected anything less from Arde and Hisa, but even Timo managed to put an emphasis on how much he respected Krissy for her determination during her training, as well as all the useful abilities her familiar had been providing.

I noticed that out of the five members only four were asking questions. The fifth, possibly the oldest among them, Levoten Armat, was listening quietly, constantly taking his own notes. Maybe he didn’t trust the scribes to do a good job.

Finally, the inquisition got to the Master of Third Rangers.

‘Master Fenirig Arte,’ Krisoret Itani began grilling the man. ‘Having heard about the events of the past few days from those who were directly involved, would you agree that Third and Fifth rangers were insufficiently prepared to deal with the ongoing invasion of the barbarians?’

Fenirig Arte sighed — a sign of annoyance or exasperation, probably. The Master of Fifth Rangers, Sivaren Rols, looked outright furious. But he stayed quiet and let his colleague do the talking.

‘No, councilwomen, I don’t,’ Fenar said, trying to sound calm and collected. ‘We are always at the ready.’

‘Yet you sought outside help. Very dangerous help that could have proved and could still prove to be detrimental to the safety of our nation.’ the woman pressed on, looking at Krissy and Kiwa.

Komi — I was just going to call Fenar’s wife Komi — rolled her eyes. Quite visibly.

I think I know what’s going on. Krissy sent her thoughts to me. This isn’t about us. This is that woman trying to discredit the rangers. Or maybe just Fenar. I don’t know why, though.

‘If you’ve read any of my reports, councilwoman, Third Rangers’ relationship with the spiritualists of the Bureau precedes current events, and their conduct has been good,’ Fenar explained, still trying to be calm, but the venom in his voice was leaking out. Unfortunately, the young and irritating councilwoman didn’t miss a beat.

‘And what is the relationship exactly?’ the woman asked, not looking at Fenar, but looking at Krissy with a weird smile on her face. ‘I’d like to hear it from the spiritualists themselves. Would you mind introducing yourself and explaining?’

Krissy nearly flinched sitting on her chair. She reached for her crutch, but Fake Krisi just waved her hand, motioning her to remain seated.

‘I am Krissintha Arlonet Dar Ghelain. I’m better known by the nickname Misery,’ Krissy began, then paused, sending me her panicked thoughts. What am I supposed to tell her? Relationship? I was just doing some training, that’s all.’

‘Oh, I see. “The truth can be tricky, Fenar would know.” I remembered Komi’s words, and now I knew why she had said them to us.

I stretched one of my tenties across to Fenar while quickly making a short communication thread out of Essence and Mana. To his credit, not a single muscle on his face moved as I connected the thread to the node in his soul.

Finally! He almost yelled at me once I was done, his words slamming against my mind, and through me, to Krissy’s. Now. This is what you tell that damned witch.

Krissy was quick on the uptake, not to mention good at paraphrasing Fenar’s words in a way that made it sound like her own.

‘I have signed a contract with Fenirig Arte.’ she recounted the fictional event. ‘My copy of it is in Gal-Themar. No-one told me what this meeting was going to be about so I wouldn’t have it on me anyway. The contract itself is about martial training for myself in exchange for assistance to Third Rangers should they need it. But the contract is more of a personal matter for me, and secondary to the main reason I’m on Solace.’

‘And what is the main reason you are here?’ Fake Krisi asked.

‘To investigate,’ Krissy stated while listening to Fenar’s quasi-telepathic instructions.

‘To … investigate?’ the councilwoman raised her eyebrows. It was obvious this wasn’t the answer she had expected. ‘To investigate what?’

For the first time, the tall and old elf looked up, his eyes settling on us. Huh! Finally, something other than his own notes caught his interest.

‘Well, I believe you’re familiar with the name Sivera,’ Krissy said, looking straight at the councilwoman. ‘I know Solace tends to keep out of the business of gods. I tend to do the same, but our patron god ordered us to investigate the possibility of Sivera’s involvement in both the barbarian raid and the recent evil spirit incident. You might have heard or read reports about the interrogation of the green fellows?’

Fake Krisi and her cohort, Gautal Sev began to browse through the papers in front of them.

I’d have been fucking surprised if the brats had read the most recent reports. Fenirig Arte chimed in.

What is this about? It’s tedious and it has nothing to do with us, does it? Krissy asked through the voice-chat.

No. This is about a vote in the Council next year. Some of them have some stupid ideas about budget distribution and the establishment of a standing army. The man in the middle, Levoten Armat. They’re trying to win his vote by portraying me and rangers in general as incompetent or inadequate. Fenar said, his thoughts radiating some sort of anger, or at least disdain.

As far as I was concerned Fenar absolutely deserved to be discredited. Contracts? Investigations? For god’s sake, the only reason we had ended up staying here was because Krissy had asked to be trained on an impulse, and Fenar had agreed, also on impulse. And not a good one.

I would have loved to see Fenar being dragged through the mud for a change, but I still wasn’t sure what exactly was going on. Before Krissy or I could ask him to clarify a few things — and this affair definitely needed to be explained better — Fake Krisi finished going through her papers and turned to Fenirig Arte.

‘I see. Regardless, for rangers getting involved with the affairs of gods is not a good idea. We have a tradition not to do so. Worse, you have admitted a spiritualist into your ranks, your training compound, one whose familiar acts like an evil spirit. And to make things even worse, a god made a personal visit. Have you considered that a god that endorses a familiar that acts like an evil spirit would be dangerous?’ the woman demanded, glaring at the ranger-general accusingly. ‘A familiar like this is unheard of.’

‘It’s not unheard of, not if you’ve read any history at all.’ Fenar scoffed.

‘Are you implying I don’t know our own history?’ the woman demanded angrily.

‘No, I’m implying you don’t know much about gods and spirits,’ Fenar retorted.

‘And you do?’

‘I do,’ he stated, then gestured towards Krissy. ‘Is her familiar powerful? Yes. Is it dangerous? Would be if the creature wasn’t a pushover.’

‘A what?’ Fake Krisi asked.

‘A what?’ I asked, too. ‘Seriously? Krissy, tell him I’m not a pushover! Tell him this instant!’ I demanded, half-screaming into her head.

Shush! Not now. Krissy hissed at me.

I quieted down. But no. I’d be just proving Fenar’s words if I took this lying down. I opened my metaphorical mouth to demand Fenar to take it back, but I didn’t get to do so.

‘Misery, did your familiar tell you to tell me it wasn’t a pushover?’ he asked.

‘He … did,’ replied Krissy.

‘And?’ the elf prodded.

‘I told him to be quiet,’ Krissy said.

‘And?’

‘And now he’s quiet,’ she said.

Fenar turned back to face the committee with a half-smile on his scarred face.

‘There is a difference between powerful and dangerous,’ he said, and didn’t expand on the topic. ‘When we left Fayr-Sitan to settle here, we swore we’d not give in to the influence of the gods ever again. I remember, I was there,’ the man said, looking each member of the committee in the eyes one after another. I seriously doubted the two younger council members had been there. ‘I also remember we didn’t explicitly forbid spiritualists — or gods for that matter — to set foot on our land. Now a god is trying to exert influence on us, and another one is trying to stop it for her own reasons. I am making the best of the situation.’

One of these days I had to study up on Solace history.

Also, I was surprised how Fenar was managing to utter whole sentences without any swear words. Then again, he wasn’t talking to some lowly, pushover familiar who could kill him with a flick of a tentacle, or some hapless trainees — he was convincing a government body that he was a responsible Master of Rangers.

‘That may be so, but surely you are able to see the risk the god and the familiar poses, are you not?’ the councilwoman demanded.

‘I considered every risk. That’s why I signed the contract with her.’ Fenar said. I was sure that was a lie. He had just wanted to kick a spiritualist around.

Fenar pulled a rolled up piece of paper from somewhere in his robe.

One of the scribes — who had been faithfully jotting everything down so far — stood and rushed to Fenar, took the contract and delivered it to the councilwoman.

There is an actual contract? Krissy asked, astonished but outwardly unperturbed.

If they ask if it’s your signature on it, say yes. Fenar replied calmly, as if forgery was his casual, Tuesday evening activity.

The councilwoman skimmed through the paper and passed it on to the others to do the same.The older elf, Levoten Armat, was the only one who read it thoroughly, humming as he was doing that. No-one asked about the signatures.

‘When is this meeting going to be over?’ I asked.