The startled whuff from the Blue Ox was followed by a moment of thought and consideration. The northern end of the peninsula, the Fingers, had stretches of preserved old growth mixed with regularly harvested strips, all of it carefully overseen by Babe and the Lumberman’s Guild.
I turned my eyes to the Unicorns, who were watching me alertly. They were understandably wary around Sama, but she was broadcasting friendly, while I was stirring up the Manafield the way only a Sage could.
“I’ve access to an old growth forest, Erdos Rating 7 or 8, that you are welcome to stay in in America across the pond. The local Ruler has agreed to let you move in and serve as caretaker until the forests here are restored, and you and your blessing can return here. It’s not an island, it is surrounded by fresh water and not the sea, and there are no hostile Beasts equal to you in Bloodline or ranking nearby, so it is safe to raise your colts. The local Humans will be warned of your presence and supportive of it, as will several Avian families of high Bloodline.
“If this is amenable to you, you can go there right now!”
“Lady Fae!” protested the wide-eyed lieutenant who had escorted us in here. “You-“
Her words choked in her throat as the Unicorns, Sama, and I all turned our eyes on her. The Irish reverently standing in attendance upon the sacred Beasts all went pale, especially as Noble went to full length, and the Tokens of Emperors glimmered with their Will.
“Stop. Not another word,” I warned her softly. “You are speaking about one of the Great Sacred Tribes of the world. You do not own them. They are smarter than you are, and they like living here in an Erdos 0 forest as much as you’d like living in a sewer. The colts will grow up stunted, and their own cultivation is not happening every day they are here.
“This is not the fault of the Irish, but they cannot stay here. Bright Moon Unicorns need old growth forests, and the old Mana that flows through them. They do not want to leave, for this is their territory, but they cannot stay until the forests return.
“If you want them to return, then allow a grand old forest to rise in Ireland once again, a place that would be a proud home for them, and in a century, perhaps they and a larger blessing can return to make the Emerald Isle glow again.
“If you think to keep them as pets, mascots, or the like, you do not understand what they are, and the consequences for restraining them.”
The pale-skinned, sandy-haired Irishwoman flushed under my gaze, her eyes flinching when she glanced at the Tokens, gritting her teeth at the subtlest rise of my power. She couldn’t even look at the frost in Sama’s stare.
“As the Unicorns will it,” she finally said grimly, and bowed unwillingly, clearly distraught over losing such a beloved symbol of Ireland on top of everything else they had suffered.
I noted the patch on her shoulder. “You are a Unicorn Maiden, lieutenant?”
“Yes, Lady Fae,” she confirmed quietly. “I have served and protected the Unicorns since I was a child.”
“Then you and yours are now bestowed a Quest. Grow the forest, and bring the Unicorns home.”
There was a whuffing above me as the stallion stepped up, and slowly dipped his alicorn down, the tip glowing with Blessing Light. The officer closed her eyes and put her hands together as the tip of it just touched the crown of her head, and a blaze of silvery-white rose among the light brown of her hair.
“The Unicorn Maidens will never be denied the right to visit their blessing. Make sure their numbers continue, and raise for them a home to return to.”
The Lieutenant went down on one knee, and was quickly followed by the other Irish around, bowing reverently to the Sacred Beast. “It will be done! I swear this on behalf of all of Ireland!”
Mare and stallion huffed in approval for her words, tails swishing grandly. They looked at me, and I waved up the Portal to an unspoiled section of the Michigan Peninsula, where only occasional herb-collectors passed through once or twice a year, and which was otherwise untouched by Humans.
The two Unicorns huffed their approval of the sounds, scents, and feel of the Mana coming through the Portal, and trotted through in royal form, leading their colts from this deprived area to a place rich enough to raise them.
I put my hand on the tearful Maiden’s shoulder and pulled her gently to her feet. “Keep this truth close to your heart: the Unicorns WANT to return. This is their land, their home. But they cannot stay here in the condition that it is in without withering and their colts growing up weak and vulnerable.
“Put the blame for this where it should be, upon the Aquatics who turned your homeland into what it is. Grow them a new home, leave it pristine, and they WILL return, though it take a hundred years.”
“Yes, my Lady!” she agreed, wiping away her tears, and her eyes hardening as she felt the onus of her new Duty upon her. “I will see that it will be done!”
I eyed the blaze in her hair. “The Unicorns must approve of you to earn their Touch. I see you are a Plant and Healing mage?”
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She looked a bit startled I could discern that. “Yes, my Lady. It is the preferred path for a Unicorn Maiden...”
I nodded and held up my arm, where a transcendentally beautiful rose of scarlet and gold opened from a vine extending out of my sleeve. In the middle of the bloom a single electrum Seed gleamed invitingly.
Her dark green eyes went very, very wide as she felt the Bloodline of an Imperial Plant, swallowing thickly. She dared not pluck it, merely extending slightly shaking cupped hands for the Golden Heavenly Sun Rose to deposit the Seed upon.
“Plant it in the land that will be the Unicorns’, and it will raise that forest into a wonder of the world,” I told her gently. She could only nod silently and clutch the Seed to her breast as the Rose withdrew, slowly starting to understand the depth of the responsibility that was now resting upon her.
The blaze in her hair glittered with determination. She would take the burden and do what needed to be done to rebuild!
------
Electronic communication wasn’t totally shut off, especially since there wasn’t an Aquatic within five miles of Ireland’s shores now, so their interference with satellites bouncing signals wasn’t present. The other end was being broadcast from sufficiently far inland that the Rulers about England’s shores weren’t interfering with it.
Unsurprisingly, it was Coralost technology, the very bleeding edge of a Holographic display, showing the Queen of England and her closest advisors about her in formal military dress.
The Irish had had some fun with Briggs, dressing him up in a clanless tartan and black kilt. Given he towered head and shoulders over everyone else present, he still made an incredible impact. Neither he nor Sama were going to do this in full Armor, after all.
Sama was in a perfectly-cut military uniform with red trim, looking totally proper and wildly out-of-place all at the same time, like putting a tiger in a clown’s outfit. The Sages and Archmages about her looked like quaint little fellows playing at being dangerous near her.
I was in my whites, the closest thing I used to formal attire, as opposed to the blacks I generally took into a fight. I was amused that Briggs was the only other one in the room with anything approaching dark skin, although Sama was as sun-bronzed as the California beach bunny she was, save for her Cursemark. Noble was out and the Tokens on him wafting gently under their own power, everyone in the room aware of their power, if not overwhelmed by it.
If they were to realize the Emperors so represented could be aware of everything about the Tokens, as fed to them by Noble, well, they probably would have been alarmed, so I never said anything about that.
Everyone bowed formally to the Shining Queen of England, a simple diamond diadem on her head conveying her status, an Artifact of Windsor rumored to have great defensive capabilities. I had my own Diadem safely concealed so as not to compete with glitter, and even Briggs and Sama bowed politely.
“Greetings from England and the Crown,” Queen Diana said softly, but the steel in her eye belied her gentle tones. “The news we have received from the shores of Ireland these past few days have been of great relief to us. It is our understanding that we have the Redshore Marines from America to thank for coming to the relief of our Irish cousins?”
Her eyes were on me, but I just glanced to the side as Briggs spoke up, “I am Commander Briggs of the Redshore Marines, Your Majesty. Our efforts only built upon the sacrifices of the brave and the innocent who perished before we arrived.”
“Then we thank you for your efforts regardless, Commander,” she recovered smoothly, doubtless wondering what was going on. “We have received many reports. Can you inform us as to the situation on Ireland now?”
The Irish Sages started to open their mouths, when Sama stepped forwards and snapped her fingers, instantly and remarkably silencing all of them with the simple gesture. “Sama Rantha of Coralost, Your Majesty.” She barely gestured at me, and a strategic map of Ireland hovered up before us, filling in with speed as to the current strategic situation, showing deployment of green Irish forces very lightly scattered around the perimeter, and the vast majority concentrated around the Castle of the Leap.
There were no red Aquatic forces within five miles of the shores, although there were uncounted numbers of them in all directions beyond that limit.
“The vast majority of the surviving Irish people and forces are currently engaged in massive harvesting efforts for the sudden crops that have bloomed in the wake of the invading Aquatics feeding the land. That food will be essential to the survival of the Irish and England both for the upcoming winter, and everyone who can work is engaged in the harvest and storage of the Land’s Bounty.
“These are the numbers of the remaining population of Ireland,” Tremble began to fill them in from her belt, current vs former population, “soldiers available and their spread,” the numbers at each Tier were listed out smoothly, “and the casualties.
“If you have not been informed before, I regret to do so now. Of the ten thousand British soldiers fighting in defense of Ireland, less than five hundred survived the fighting, and all of them are wounded.”
But being treated and getting fixed up quickly, courtesy of Red and the Phoenix Mages and Regeneration.
Sama broke down the currently available military forces with thorough speed and calm certainty, probably alarming the Irish with just how much she knew of their forces and the disposition of them. I could see the Queen and her advisors were also startled by how much she knew and how thorough her breakdown was.
The Redshore Marines were not broken down, and only tangentially referred to. After all, they were not soldiers of the British Isles. Technically, their job was done, and they were only waiting to return home, merely volunteering to keep busy!
Still, the military situation was horrible. The population of Ireland had been about two and a half million a year ago. Now it was down to under half a million, with fewer than thirty thousand soldiers of all types remaining, although all of them were now grim veterans and extremely blooded against Aquatics.
They were still surrounded on all sides by millions of Aquatics. The situation was anything but good, and it wasn’t like they could let their civilians go unguarded in a classical sense.
There was precious little, if any, relief to be expected from Ireland, and the odds of any aid coming from Europe was also vanishingly small. Every nation in the world who might help them had their own problems, as well as difficulty getting here... and to say there was a huge amount of pressure from many factors for England to sink or swim on its own, just like many other nations were facing, was not an exaggeration at all.
If Britain wanted help, where would it come from?...
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Author’s Note: One of my Discord/Patreon supporters came in with the name of Erdos, which they told me means ‘forest’ in Hungarian. I thought that was too appropriate not to include in the story, and the name of the Rating system for the potency of Magical Forests was a no-brainer. By way of comparison, Gabon’s jungles would be 8 or 9, and the Amazon would be a 10. Michigan’s forests are light on Magical Beasts and truly old Plants, so they rank a bit low.