I drummed my fingers absently as a faint snicker ran through the audience, and the famous Mr. Newford belatedly realized he’d just received a devastating social hit.
“Mr. Newford, you’ve convinced me that I am doing something wrong in giving away this Ritual that is going to save Human civilization. I think I will demand five billion dollars instead, one for each section of land that needs to enact the Ritual to save us all. Is that something more in lines with your expectations?” I asked, staring at him. “Before you answer, I will give you a ten percent commission for your fine suggestion if you agree.”
His rebuttal stuck in his throat, and the blood drained from his face. But all eyes were focused on him, and he naturally could not agree to that. “I, I, no, Lady Fae, that is not what I meant.” He managed to take a deep breath as nearly half a billion dollars slipped out of his grip forever. “I meant that there must be something in it for you if you are giving it away...”
I looked up, swayed my head in obvious thought, my fingers danced in calculation, and I slowly shook my head. “Hmm. I will have to content myself with establishing a good reputation and being known for doing the right thing at the right time, Mr. Newford.
“I can’t think of any way this would benefit me personally at all. I believe I could abscond with my followers to any of a number of locations, although I believe Michigan will be among the areas least affected by the conflict that is to follow. The sheer amount of money I have been making is only good if there’s a Human civilization, so if the rest of you are slaughtered by warring Beast Rulers, it’s no good to me, and so unimportant in the overall scheme of things when all the banks become tumbled bricks.”
I dropped my eyes back down to him. “I’m afraid you’re just going to have to be satisfied with the fact I’m doing the right thing at the right time. Perhaps it is for some egotistical satisfaction of proving I’m better and smarter than anyone. Perhaps it is because I’ve some overwhelming need to be lauded for my actions. Perhaps it is because I love the limelight ever so much, I can’t pass up this opportunity to be in it.
“Yes, indeed, those MUST be the proper reasons for me acting like this.” Not a soul there could possibly have believed me, courtesy of Truth. “Congratulations, Mr. Newford. You have exposed me as a shamelessly vain and shallow needy person in search of attention. Please continue your exposé on your next show. Do mention the fact you gave up half a billion dollars to expose me like this, too, when I offered you a commission for your wonderful idea of charging people to save the world. We can’t have you accused of also being a spectacle-creating attention whore.”
He retreated to his seat, pale as a ghost. I think he had some idea of the trouble he was in, but he’d likely find out fairly quickly just what a blunder he’d made. Gods-damn, there were reasons my Sense Motive, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks were over +40, and dealing with weasels like him were just part of them!
“Lady Fae, something less confrontational?” an older man asked. Georges Malone, from the Boston Tribune. I gestured for him to speak. “What do you think the reasons were for the Sage Team to go to Antarctica?”
“The Sage Team were all masters of Ice. The fact that they even managed to reach The Ice Emperor is a testament to their prowess in that land. There are only two reasons they would dare the wrath of a High Emperor, and likely both were involved.
“The first was if, by some kind of luck, they were able to slay Him. That would one hundred percent be the most ideal situation for the ambitious of Humanity, taking the number one danger from the Beasts off the board, and showing the rest of them that, boo-yeah, we can kill them, too!” I lifted both hands in mock cheers all around, but for some reason nobody laughed, because I sure wasn’t.
“The second would be demonstrating enough prowess to be recognized by The Ice Emperor, which would have involved challenging Him and then being able to retreat successfully. This would be a form of proving our Tribe to the greatest Beast of the other side, and that He had underestimated us. I imagine it was the true goal, as likely the High Emperors utterly ignore the power of Humanity and our Sages, and such proud and mighty individuals who stand atop the world cannot bear to be so dismissed!...” I clasped my hand to my chest as the audience snickered knowingly.
“Recognition of those Sages’ efforts would have meant recognizing the leaders of the Synod and the Mage Association, as the former has the most powerful assembly of Sages and allies in the world, and the latter commands the overall greatest magical power of Humanity.
“As matters turned out, this test and proof of strength failed utterly. The Ice Emperor will recognize strength when He sees it, He doesn’t need a bunch of ants who crawled out of their caves in the time He blinked an eye to tell Him how to measure us or respond to our demands for recognition.
“That doesn’t mean He isn’t aware of what they tried to do, and since they chose to represent Humanity, He has sent a small lesson out here to Humanity in return.
“Now, whether that means they will take responsibility for what was done is another point completely! I believe we can all agree that the Synod and the Mages Association are masters at discovering that anyone but themselves are the ones actually responsible for things going wrong. Obviously the seven Sages they organized and sent out there will be found to have been acting on their own initiative, perhaps exploring for revolutionary treasures or Heaven Seeds or some other such nonsense, and they and theirs had nothing to do with this, how dare they be blamed when such unscrupulous individuals caused such a disaster?! Rely on us, we’re going to save you now, and we’ll look real good doing it, too!”
I clapped slowly off to the side. Tellingly, not even the other Mage Association people present spoke up in defense of their organization, and maybe or maybe not they were looking at the pile of broken men still stacked up around the glowering Briggs... and just where had Sama gone?
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Those are dangerous words, Lady Fae,” the reporter grimaced.
“I don’t expect you to write them, Mr. Malone. You don’t have the protection needed to live to regret doing so. I, on the other hand...” I pulled up my Holo of the Ritual behind me. “I’m sure some will suffer such incredible blows to their egos that they will have to act, confident they can rescue the world without any contributions on my end, and who cares about spells for minor mages? Death at their hands for offending them is an honor I should appreciate, yes?
“But those people also know more about me and what I’ve been doing. They also have people watching them, and those people are not happy with what the Synod took it upon themselves to do, yet are going to let others pay the price for their pride and arrogance.
“The word is going to get out, Mr. Malone, have no fear on that. It is going out now, as a matter of fact. And while the whole world stares and the Synod and Mage Association attempt to cover it up, the seas are going to rise, the Aquatic Tribes are coming, and at any time the world wants, they will be able to stop it.” I tossed a thumb at the Holo of the Ritual. “As I said, give me a week.”
“Isn’t... isn’t the knowledge of the Beast Rulers and their territories classified information?” Peggy Smalls from the New York Times spoke up in shock.
“The Synod, the Mage Association, and many governments do classify them that way, Miss Smalls. The Beasts, however, consider it just common knowledge, and the idea that Humans don’t know who their neighbors are is just one more reason why they think we are stupid. Thunderbird informed me of all of this without any hesitation at all, and I’m passing it on to you. If other powers want to censure me for it, they can go talk to Thunderbird and the other Beast Emperors, who I’m sure will be very understanding of their views on the situation.”
Nobody believed that, either. Darn that Truth requirement!...
“I believe the Synod and Mage Association do this as a form of morale-boosting, so that the average person just does not realize how little power Humanity actually holds in the real world, and just how vastly outnumbered and outpowered we are by the Beasts we share the world with.” The audience kind of stared at me as I shrugged. “The situation now is really no different than it was a thousand years ago, it just looks better on our end because there’s more of us. We’re still outnumbered, still outpowered, and always have been.
“The narrative crafted by our magical leaders has always been Humanity against the Beasts of the world, which is foolish when it is the Beasts who’ve allowed us to advance to the level we are at. By keeping us ignorant of that fact, it becomes a lot easier to wage selective wars on the targets of their choice, keeping us uninformed of the eventual consequences of such actions when the Beasts have had enough...
“Well, that’s what we’re going to be finding out if the Ritual to break The Great Flood doesn’t come through, because our neighbors are coming in from all sides, and none of them like us too much, hyperaggressive little Monkeys that we are.
“On the other hand, if we do make that Ritual in a timely manner, we really will have done something that they could not do, instead of just gnawing away at them over the centuries like we have been. It would be nice to be able to start a dialogue at that time, but given how different our views are than most of the Beasts, it could be difficult.”
“Lady Fae, how many Emperors have you been in contact with?” an eager-looking younger mage asked. I didn’t miss the Blue of his Aura; he was also looking for some dirt on me.
“Emperors, specifically? I’ve met Thunderbird, Fire Phoenix, and Queen Gichigumi. I had neither the status nor reason to interact with any others here in North America, so I’m not going to be rude and bug them with my trivialities.”
“What inspired you to go pay a call on The Thunderbird, of all Beasts?” he pressed.
“Oh, He’s the Emperor of North America. I was Summoned to Him as the designer of the spells from the Lightning Spellhouse, and so off I went, my services at His disposal. He introduced me to Fire Phoenix. For the same reason, I have visited with both Queen Gichigumi and Princess Karegnodi, and naturally enough Babe the Blue Ox and I are friends, and he introduced me to his ornery pal Husker, too.”
He gawked at me with just about everyone else. “You... went and paid homage to Thunderbird?”
I blinked once. “What?” I repeated slowly, staring directly at him. “Are you stupid?” I went on directly. “Where did you get ‘paid homage’ out of that? Do you think Thunderbird is a god or something?”
He backpedaled rapidly. “You said you went to his summons and offered him your services...”
“I said nothing of the sort. I said I was summoned by Him, and my services were at His disposal.” The completely different weight of my words bore down on him. “He is the Emperor of North America. And before you make some flippant comment about Beast-lovers and traitors to Humanity or some other drivel, every other species of Beasts, their Rulers and Emperors, in the entire world acknowledges that this is Thunderbird’s land.” I stomped my foot on the ground once, and magnified acoustics echoed a BOOM through the entire hall, silencing the mutterings. “Every single one of them! They all know it!
“Humanity exists here in North America because He allows it. Because He allows us here, the other Beast Emperors have not at any time over the past thousands of years ambled over and wiped out our farms and villages, casually leveled our cities to the stone, and returned everything we have done to the pristine wilderness they so vastly prefer. We’ve basically only had to deal with their dumb and ferocious children, vying with us for territories of their own.
“Because He is here, the Aquatics haven’t wiped us away from the shoreline, and instead content themselves with a couple Littoral Zones to test our mettle and occupy us, instead of random, dangerous raids up and down the coastline which would have driven us far from the shores long ago.
“Now, knowing all that, if Thunderbird sent you a message saying you were to Attend Him, would you have the balls to turn Him down?” My eyes bored into the twat as he paled. “Once you got there, would you even have the slightest amount of power to deny His Imperial Majesty’s slightest whim or request, little speck of a furless Monkey that you are?” I just snorted as I looked at him. “A stray thought from Him and you’d be a bloody smear spread across the ground. He could kill you just by standing in front of you too long, suffocating you under His Presence!
“His image is on the Seal of this country! He’s on every dollar bill and coin! He inspired the entire School and Element of Lightning Magic, His descendant Eagles serve with the national military, and He’s spoken of in every native Human tribes’ legends, as well as Edison, Tesla, and Franklin as their greatest inspirations!
“Every single Beast, Ruler or otherwise, acknowledges that this entire continent is The Land of Thunderbird!”