Overcoming Destiny

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Wireless communications"

Ch 22

Chtholly looked out from the top of the roof of the orphanage over the nighttime city of Arun as she remembered a promise that she had made to a certain individual before they entered the battle that had ended their lives. "Willem were are you?" She asked to the air.

Nygglatho came up behind her asking. "Are you obsessing over that young man again?"

"I just wish that I would know why we were sent to this world." Chtholly answered not altering the direction of her gaze.

"If you were sent here you can be assured that Willem is here somewhere." Nygglatho answered.

"Grey! Get your foot out of my face!" Natsu cried indignantly.

"Cool down, Flame-brain!" Grey yelled back.

"Die, Ice-cube!" Natsu cried, the sounds of fighting drifted up.

"Looks like we'll have to take care of our charges before they burn down the building." Chtholly stated sighing heavily.

Nygglatho gained a vicious grin before she left to reenter the building.

"Ah! It's Nygglatho!" Grey cried in surprise.

"We weren't fighting, we were just showing off our moves! Not fighting at all!" Natsu said quickly.

Chtholly laughed to herself at the antics of the pair as she went back inside to resume her duties.

OOooOO

"This just goes to show that we can't trust them!" One of the generals yelled attempting to be heard over the clamor of the war room where Henrietta and her advisors were discussing the attack on Tarbes.

"The Fae have shown themselves to be nothing but honorable, and-" General Godfrey Gramont said.

"Come off it Gramont." The rather portly general stated interrupting the other man. "You're opinion is biased due to your youngest being one of them."

"I have never let familial relations color my opinions in political matters, Lambsbottom." Godfrey said heatedly.

"Godfrey, you and I both know that your two eldest only hold the positions that they do because of you." General Lambsbottom stated.

"Are you trying to say that my sons haven't proven their worth, Edward?" Godfrey said standing up with a stormy look on his face.

"How much of that is their own work vs. your coddling?" Edward asked with a malicious look on his lips

"All right, That's it, I challenge you to a duel!" Godfrey yelled quickly standing pointing an accusing finger at the rounder man.

The escalating argument was interrupted by a bang that drew their attention to their princess. "Will you two stop this useless posturing we have more important things to deal with like maybe; Why are we sitting around doing nothing while our new neighbors are taking all the risks keeping us safe?" Henrieta asked looking at the rest of the rooms occupants with barely contained rage in her eyes.

"Because certain nobles have been blockading my efforts to mobilize." Godfrey answered as he retook his seat while glaring at Edward.

"At the moment we have no means of competing with Albion's airforces as all of ours where sunk at Tarbes." Edward shot back with a smug look on his face.

"That's why you take your allies into account rather than turning down assistance from willing parties." A cloaked Fae stated as she dropped into the room from the sky light.

"See, we can't trust them they're spying on us even though we're supposedly allies!" Edward stated with an accusatory finger pointed at the little Fae.

"So nice of you to join us, Argo, though I must say you did take your time." Gramont said with a relieved look.

"I thought it would be more prudent to make an appearance when it had the most impact." Argo answered shrugging. "That and I don't like sheep's butt over there." Argo said nodding towards Edward.

"My name is Lambsbottom." Edward stated his jowls jiggling in fury.

"And that's any better?" Argo asked sarcastically shrugging dismissively.

Godfrey fought to hide his laugh. Henrieta had no such restraint and she collapsed laughing.

"Well, you certainly chose the best time." Godfrey said still trying to stifle his laughter.

"You do realize that it's alright to laugh at others expense when they've earned it." Argo said as she removed her hood from her head letting her long violet hair fall down her back.

"No. I'm going to wait till I'm at home and can enjoy it better, perhaps with a nice glass of wine." Gramont said as he sat down. "I might tell George about it as well. I'm sure he'll enjoy it."

"Gramont, I believe that the poor man has endured enough for one day." Henrieta stated trying to catch her breath as she crawled back into the chair she had fallen from when she started laughing. "I needed that."

"Glad I could be of service." Argo said with a straight face.

"So, what do you have for us today?" Godfrey asked.

"Yes, a Mr. Wardes might have a thing or two that he wishes to say to you, your majesty." Argo answered looking at the man in question.

"Wardes?" Godfrey asked looking at him. "Surely you're mistaken, he's the leader of the Griffin knights."

"Then why would he have a reason to speak with a Reconquista spy in the middle of the night?" Argo asked standing unconcerned when Wardes tensed.

"Sir Wardes, what is she talking about?" Henrieta asked concerned.

"She has it wrong, that person is working for me." Wardes said worried.

"Really?" Argo asked looking surprised. "Then how is it that the man that's 'working for you' immediately went to his superiors and got the ball rolling? This lead to the attack on Tarbes."

"Working as a spy is dangerous work young lady if you don't occasionally produce results then it would be hard for them to trust you with the more sensitive information." Wardes answered heatedly.

"I'm an information broker young man I know how dangerous this occupation is." Argo said looking down her nose at him, which was a feat to see seeing as she's just over a meter tall while he was just at two meters.

"And an information broker is what exactly?" Wardes asked confused.

"You would know me as a spy that has a network of other spies." Argo answered patiently.

"You mean a spy master." Wardes said flatly.

"Oh but spy masters only work for one individual." Argo explained holding a hand like she was correcting a small child. "Usually a countries monarch, as it is on this continent. An information broker on the other hand we give information to whomever is willing to pay us."

"So a mercenary of the spying world as it were." Wardes clarified.

"This conversation is very informative, but it still doesn't explain what you were revealing to us earlier." Henrieta explained interrupting the banter.

"Yes, Wardes here is under the mistaken impression that he's still engaged to our queen and that she's a void mage." Argo answered shrugging before continuing. "Which she was before she became a Fae and married her current consort."

"I don't think that subject has ever come up. So who is her consort?" Godfrey asked.

Before Argo could ask for payment Henrieta beat her to it. "A charming Fae or I should say at the moment dragon by the name of Klein is her consort."

"Klein? I don't believe I've met the fellow. Though speaking of consorts I heard Godfrey has reunited with his wife." Godfrey said.

"Yes funny story about that." Argo started. "But that can wait for another time seeing as we have more important matters to deal with at this time."

"I am well aware of the fact that she chose to break off our engagement, however that has no bearing on the matter at hand." Wardes said. "When we reached that point in the meeting I would have brought up the fact that-."

"But you don't seem to get that every action you have taken in the last ten years has bearing on this meeting." Argo said when she interrupted Wardes explanation.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Wardes said.

"Your father died under unusual circumstances leaving you to inherit his title." Argo started explaining leaving Wardes off balance. "You worked hard to achieve your current rank as leader of the Griffin knights. But you never seemed to think in terms of bettering yourself against yourself. You measure yourself against others and consider it good enough. You've stagnated letting yourself be drawn into promises made by other individuals on things that they can't deliver on to further your own ambitions."

Wardes was about to make a spluttering reply when they where interrupted by a shimmer of air over the princess that deposited a rather small fae onto her head.

"Your Majesty!" "Are you all right!" "Where's the intruder?!" The guards called as they burst into the room.

"I'm perfectly fine." Henrieta said as she swayed dizzily as she stood letting the slight fae fall to the floor. "Oh I'm sorry are you ok?" Henrieta asked the young fae worriedly.

"Give me a minute I'll get back to you on that." The now obviously female fae said woozily from where she lay.

"Well that's new. I've never watched someone coming from my home world before." Argo stated in fascination.

"Where'd Wardes go?" Godfrey asked as he looked around for the afore mentioned man.

"And that just proves my point." Argo stated as Henrieta clearing her head sat up.

"Henrieta is that you?" The new Fae asked looking at Henrieta hopefully.

"Uh yes, and who might you be?" Henrieta asked the younger girl.

"Henrieta it's me your cousin Wales." The little Fae said with hope for recognition on her face.

Henrieta looked at Argo expectantly.

"It would appear that during the transition Wales got sent to my world." Argo said looking over the physically younger Fae. "As fate would have it Wales you are the most recent cross dimensional traveler and you apparently went with the first avatar the system presented to you."

"What?" Wales asked confused.

"Congratulations Wales or should I say Frekka you are now female." Argo answered deadpan having noticed the player marker that had flickered momentarily when the other Fae landed.

Wales reached for her crotch, feeling nothing she said. "Oh. I guess I am." With a glazed over look in her eyes.

"You're surprisingly calm about the whole thing." Godfrey said.

"I'm sure it's because I'm just in shock at the moment." Wales/Frekka said dazed.

"Oh Wales, I mean Frekka the first time we meet in ten years and there is no way we can be together." Henrieta said after a false start bringing the smaller girl into a hug.

"Ok people I don't think we're going to get much further today so meeting adjourned." Godfrey said quickly.

"I second that, besides we have a rouge commander to track down." Argo stated

"I'll have some people start tracking him." Godfrey said standing up.

"Hey you can't just decide that on your own?" Edward Lambsbottom protested as the other generals filed out of the room.

"It appears that you're the only one that feels that way." Argo stated standing in front of the round man before turning on her heel and leaving the spluttering man behind.

OOooOO

At the same time in another part of the country. It had been a week since Titania had requested that Kuro connect Natsumi's shop with George's home.

"Now that that's done, you can praise me now!" Kuro demanded as she stood with her hands on her hips.

"Now Kuro thank you for this but 'praise me.' really?" Titania asked her while standing in George's home.

"It's alright, I don't mind." Natsumi said as she studied the door. "So does this work like the Wardrobe then?"

"What wardrobe?" Kuro asked in confusion.

"I thought the 'Tales of Narnia' was required reading in japanese schools?" Louise asked the leader of the Imps.

"Was it? I forget." Kuro said looking off to the side.

"Natsumi do you get the feeling that she never paid attention while in school?" Louise asked the Catsy.

"Unfortunately a lot of the younger generation aren't trying as hard as they should. I blame the economy." Natsumi answered.

"We really ought to test it out!" Kuro said frantically waving her hands in front of her before indicating the door. "If you would."

"That's quite alright." Louise said with a sickly sweet smile.

"Eh heh heh." Kuro nervously laughed.

"Success!" Natsumi called excitedly from the Freelia side of the doorway.

"It worked?!" Kuro asked in surprise.

"I was under the impression that this spell has been used before." Louise stated to her race leader.

"Well yes, but spells aren't always working like they're supposed to at the moment." Kuro said as she accompanied her speech with gestures. "And this is the first time we've actually tried this spell as a permanent fixture so we'll be visiting now and then to check the status, like every month or two."

"And with that my work here is is done." Louise stated as she left the building.

OOooOO

Yuuki sat morosely with her legs drawn up to her chest on the roof of the building that had become the orphanage/ boarding house for those Fae that were to young to live on their own and didn't have parents in the game with them.

"Yuuki?" A Undine asked the young Imp as she landed on the roof as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

"Why?" Yuuki asked in a dead voice looking off into the distance.

"Why what?" The Undine asked she sat next to Yuuki with a look of concern on her face.

"Why did Aiko have to die a week before Alfhiem was transferred to this world?" Yuuki her long purple shifting in the breeze as tears started spilling down her cheeks.

"There was nothing that could be done. Plans had already been made and it would have been very difficult to hasten the outcome." The Undine tried to explain as she tried to comfort the young Imp.

"That doesn't make it any easier Shiune." Yuuki sobbed as she hugged herself tighter as her body began to tremble with the effort. "I didn't even get to say goodbye. The wake was scheduled for the day after we left."

"At least you didn't leave anyone behind. My parents and younger siblings don't have anything of me anymore besides family photos." Shiune stated doing her best to comfort the younger girl.

"And that's supposed to make me feel any better?" Yuuki asked giving a sidelong glare to the other girl.

Shiune laughed nervously when Yuuki's moping was interrupted by a cry of fright as a young Undine flew into her.

"I'm sorry! Are you all right?" Levy asked helping her up.

"Yeah perfectly fine." Yuuki stated as she sat back up.

"You ok down there Levy?" Lucy asked from overhead.

"Yes, I'm fine." Levy said.

"Are you still having problems flying?" Lisanne asked as she landed next to the three.

"I have the theory down, unfortunately I'm still having problems putting the theory into practice." Levy said sheepishly.

"There's theory behind flight?" Yuuki asked Shiune.

"I never thought about it, but I guess so." Shiune stated as she watched Levy prepare to take off.

Levy took off flying with a noticeable wobble. "Dinner!" Nygglatho's called from the dining room window.

"Dinner!" Natsu's cry could be heard from the other end of the building.

"You're supposed to wait for your elders, Flame-brain!" Gajeel admonished from the same general direction.

"I'll just eat your portion for you metal head!" Natsu yelled.

"We'd better make sure Nygglatho doesn't eat them." Levy said as she started slowly dropping to the ground.

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Yuuki asked practicality keeping her from falling back into her funk.

"Sure." Shiune answered as everyone made their way to the dining room.

OOooOOooOO