Episode 26: Part 2
the King and Queen of the Summer Court eyed their new human visitors carefully and studied them. It wasn't often humans were ever deemed worthy enough for an audience with the rulers so this was a very unique and momentous occasion. Kristen gripped her staff firmly, "Highness, you had mentioned that the threat of Balor is growing and that you were interested in negotiating some kind of separate peace with us?"
"That is correct Druid," Oberon said, "We are looking to see that your knights have grown in strength so that they may be better able to resist a large scale Fomorian assault. It's possible that they will have to be able to hold their own in case the monsters fully breach the veil to the human world."
"Wait... if we were to ally with each other, wouldn't the soldiers of Summer be able to come and help us?" Noelle asked curiously.
Titania laughed lightly, "No my dear girl. No Summer Fey soldiers are ready and willing to die for Earth just yet. We have other pressing military deployments to consider."
"Such as?" Kristen prompted.
"You see... the Sidhe of Winter are testing our borders," Oberon explained, "At the moment, our realm is mustering an army and our Spring allies have pledged to stand beside us with their own forces. The only problem becomes... how to do we commit a force strong enough to check Balor without letting our guards down against Winter too?"
Laura bit her lip in thought for a moment before stepping forward, "You Majesty... if I may, perhaps we can work on securing some sort of temporary treaty or alliance against Balor. Surely the Winter Court would be worried about Balor too and they must be asking themselves the same questions."
"Your intentions are admirable," Queen Titania said, "But they are also naive. The conflict between Summer and Winter has been fought since the dawn of our people. The wars whether direct or indirect will not change and we highly doubt they ever will."
"But the Four Courts have joined together once before... to oppose Lord Balor," Connor said while speaking up and raising his ring, "Otherwise these rings would not have been forged. Parts of your realms' powers would not be placed in these rings, and the humans who carried out the battle for you would not have been able to succeed. Kind Oberon... Queen Titania... my original four friends here are as different as can be but we've come together to protect each other and uphold the greater good. If we are your human representatives in our world, then surely the Four Courts of Faerie can do the same."
Stephen stepped forward and bowed his head slightly, "He's right Your Majesties. The Court of Stars has been working as a sort of forum to hash out differences between the four factions. There are many Elven lords and leaders who desire some sort of accord against Balor. If not, they would not have granted me my powers either. Lord Gwydion of Summer and Lord Sigurd of Winter may be adversaries, but they both believe in this cause. My fellow knights and I are begging you to consider our words and to believe in this cause too."
He stepped back and exchanged a nod with Connor and Laura before they waited for a reply from the monarchs. The rulers of Summer sat quietly for a long moment before they reached out and took each other's hands from where they sat. They rose together and Oberon replied, "We will call a recess and consider your words mortals. The things you said to us have merit, but how practical they will be is yet to be determined."
"Until then, the Court of Summer will stand alongside your efforts in the battlefield to vanquish Balor," Titania said, "To that end, we will grant you a boon as a show of our goodwill. Now... call your armor."
The five friends looked to each other in momentary confusion before summoning their weapons and armor in a colored flash. Titania produced the golden life apple from the Gallow Tree and raised it up before transfiguring it and turning it into swirling ribbons of golden magic. With a gesture from the queen, the ribbons of energy zipped toward the knights and encased them in a brilliant light. Kristen stepped back and shielded her eyes for a moment before she gasped in surprise at the new transformation. Standing before her were five magnificent warriors in even more ornate and impressive looking armor. The lines were all sleeker though the overall design of the Elven armor looked to be a little more antiquated and adorned with twinkling lights. Intricate Celtic engravings adorned their armor plating and a gentle colored aura radiated from each of them.
"Behold your new Sidhe armor," Titania said calmly while gesturing with her hands, "It will grant you greater speed, agility, and strength. You may call upon it any time, though you must be aware it will not last forever. Like the life forces of the apple who were used to make this armor, the power is finite and will eventually wear away until you summon it again. Life is fleeting, as is this power. Use it well and when you do, use it to its fullest potential."
"Wow! Awesome! Look at this," Quinton said in awe while admiring the way his armor and weapons had become even more stylized and ornamented.
"I can't wait to try this thing out," Noelle added as she stopped to admire her own suit of special armor before dispelling it again with the others.
Kristen gave a modest bow toward the two monarchs, "My King... My Queen... I thank you for the gift. If you need more time to think on our words, the six of us would be willing to wait as long as it takes."
Oberon nodded, "Very well. Our Court will have more meetings to conduct on the matter. Until then, you are free to stay here in the palace as our guests."
With that, the monarchs began to depart the throne while the royal guards began ushering everyone out. Once they reached the reception garden, the group couldn't help but marvel at tasteful and aesthetically pleasing decor and offerings. As they regrouped, they were approached by a lesser servant Elf carrying a large plate of food. The servant gave a bow and stepped back by the entrance gate to the garden, "Please… stay as long as you'd like and make yourselves comfortable."
"Uh… thanks," Connor replied as he and the others ambled back into the garden courtyard lined by pillars and hedgerows. Of the Elven courtiers who didn't depart or retire to other chambers, they milled about enjoying the sun and partaking in some food and refreshments that were served. In all respects, it was like being at an uppity medieval garden party.
"Huh… I guess that went well enough," Laura sighed as she looked over and caught sight of two Elven nobles standing near a small fountain. They were a young beautiful couple with brunette features and wearing fine green colored clothes. As they drank from wine goblets, the two talked quietly and kept their eyes on the human visitors. "Kristen? I think we're being watched."
The Druid tilted her head slightly and turned back to the knights, "That is the Lord and Lady of the Spring Court. I've heard that they're already in favor of working together with the Summer Court against Balor. If we made a good impression just now, I'd imagine they'd be willing to ally with us too. Some members of my order have told me that the Spring fey have become more accepting of the idea of dealing with humans more. At that, Quinton couldn't help but think of the little gnome who he had befriended last year. No doubt she put in a good word for the humans as well. "Well… maybe we should go talk to them. I could…"
He was cut off as a few panicked cries rang out and serving plate was dropped. Everyone turned in the direction of the commotion only to see a female faerie creature dressed in poison ivy with wooden skin and long flower covered hair. Beside her were two servers who changed shape and immediately dispelled a fey glamour spell to reveal themselves as dark skinned Elven assassins. Before they could react, the Lord and Lady of Spring gasped as the assassins sprung and drove daggers into the sides of the two nobles.
"What the hell?" Noelle gasped as she saw the Lord and Lady of Spring fall to the ground before the evil Hamadryad. As they lay amid a small growing puddle of blood from their stab wounds, two more dark fey warriors appeared right behind the Spring nobles' bodyguards and cut their throats from behind, causing them to collapse.
The Hamadryad gave a delighted laugh and snapped her fingers as several more assassins emerged from seemingly innocuous hiding places in the garden. She glanced back over to the gateway of the garden where an apparent servant of the Summer Court stood. "You know what to do darling."
The servant dropped the tray of food and ran off shouting loudly, "Treachery! Assassins! The human knights are assassins! Help!"
The knights gawked in surprise at everything unfolding before them before Kristen gripped her staff angrily, "You! Who are you? What are you doing? You're going to ruin the negotiations!"
The dryad gave a sinister smile and reclined by the fountain where the nobles of Spring were slowly bleeding out, "Of course. We can't have the Courts of Faerie unify again. I, Leucifia have a duty to prevent that."
"You're setting us up!" Laura shouted angrily, "Whose side are you on?"
Leucifia shrugged and gestured to her band of assassins, "That won't matter. If you won't be my scapegoats, I'll just have to kill you too."
Connor turned to Kristen as the evil fey warriors attacked, "Kristen, go save the Spring nobles! We'll take care of these guys!"
The five knights raised their rings in unison and called upon their powers for battle, "Athru!"
No sooner had they drawn their weapons, the assassins were upon them and a vicious melee erupted in the royal garden. Amid the storm of steel and clash of faerie weapons, Kristen charged forward, ducking and dodging her way through to the other side of the field where the nobles lay dying. A silver arrow sliced through the air nearby and knocked an assassin back over a bench while Noelle's whirling sword flew by and disarmed another assassin.
As Kristen made it and knelt down beside the nobles, she felt the buildup of static electricity in the air from Quinton while Connor and Laura took on the other assassins in direct combat. From her seat at the fountain, the treacherous dryad Leucifia reclined and lazily smiled, "Better hurry Druid. You're running out of time. You can either try to capture me, or save the Elves. Your choice."
Kristen gritted her teeth before turning to the two dying victims. It was going to be quick and dirty, but she opted for a handy healing spell Druids often used to staunch bad wounds. She poured some water from a hip flack on the ground and scooped up some mud. She grabbed some large laves nearby and plastered the bleeding sides of the Spring nobles before speaking the words of a Celtic incantation. A warm green glow engulfed the mud and leaves as they became soothing vital energy and sealed the knife wounds. The victims had lost a lot of blood and were still hurt, but the spell would stabilize them at the very least.
"Bravo Druid," the dryad laughed as she got up and opened up an escape portal, "That was fun, but it's time I be off!"
Amid the chaos, Connor brought his blade around and struck down the last of the warriors with a fatal blow. The dead fey assassin slumped over and collapsed to the ground as Laura gave an alarmed cry and pointed her rapier toward the escaping form of the Hamadryad assassin Leuficia. "Hey! She's getting away!"
The knights regrouped from their own battles with the assassins while Stephen took a half aimed shot at the last fleeing enemy. The dryad jumped in the portal just in time as the arrow whizzed by and struck one of the marble pillars decorating the garden. Before the portal could close, everyone stopped as the gate fluctuated and widened again slightly. Nearby, Kristen knelt over the bodies of the Spring nobles and aimed her staff toward the portal. She gritted her teeth while exerting some magical effort of her own and she called out, "The portal! Go after that assassin!"
"We don't even know where that leads!" Noelle called back in worry as Stephen nodded in agreement.
"What about the nobles of Spring? We can't leave them!"
Kristen shook her head and struggled to maintain focus on holding the portal open, "I've stabilized them for the time being! Now go!"
At that moment, a band of heavily armed Summer soldiers and royal guardsmen burst into the garden and stopped at the sight of battle along with the assassins' bodies littering the bloodstained ground. The captain of the soldiers drew his sword and shouted in outrage, "Halt! What is going on here?"
The Druid gasped again and desperately shouted to her knights, "There's no more time! I'll take care of things here! Go!"
The five young people gave reluctant nods before blindly leaping into the portal and leaving their mentor to fend for herself in the Summer realm.
As the portal space closed behind them, the five felt themselves churned and jostled about like they were articles of clothing in a washing machine. After being blinded and disoriented by the light of the now unstable portal, the five knights emerged on the other end and were thrown face-first into an icy snowbank.
Unlike the warmth and temperate nature of the Summer Realm, the knights now found themselves surrounded by white snow and ice while a cold wind howled around them. Had they not been protected by the magical warding of their faerie armor, they would have been dangerously exposed to the vicious elements outside. Despite the clear skies and the bright sun above, the landscape around them was a frigid snowy wasteland.
"What is all this? Was that assassin a Winter agent?" Connor asked aloud as he examined their surroundings. At the moment, he and his friends were situated on a high hilltop overlooking the frosty plains. In the distance looked to be the tall spires and buildings of a city… or at least some kind of civilization. If he had to guess, it was probably a good ten miles away from their vantage point.
Noelle rubbed her hands together and blew into them to stay warm, "That dyad didn't look like a Winter fey. Maybe it was a Fomorian?"
Laura seemed to spot the city as well and pointed out toward the horizon, "We can debate that later. Right now we should probably try to find some shelter and safety. Who knows what will happen if we stay out here out in the open?"
"Agreed," Stephen nodded while gesturing to the snow ahead of them, "It looks like whoever we're after is headed in the same direction. These tracks look pretty fresh."
"Awesome Stephen! Do you think you can track them?" Quinton asked hopefully.
The Silver Knight shrugged, "As long as it stays toward that distant city, I can try. I just hope the weather and winds hold up."
Connor drew his sword and ignited it to provide some ambient warmth for his companions, "All right. Lead the way Stephen. If we've really stumbled all the way over into Winter, then we're deferring to Laura if we run into any locals."
Finding themselves all in agreement, the five friends set off down the hill and across the icy tundra, hoping that the tracks they followed would lead to some kind of shelter, and the answers they sought.
After about an hour or two of slogging through the thick snow fields, the knights kept pushing forward, trying to keep their spirits up and not thinking that they were alone again in Faerie without Kristen's guidance. The thought of finding the would-be assassin and getting to the bottom of the apparent Fomorian plot would be the thing they would focus on while they pressed on. They eventually traversed what looked to be a frozen river and continued on over the icy plains until they came upon an unusual sight.
In the near distance, they spotted several wolves with brilliant white fur. Unlike normal tundra wolves, these were extremely large and vicious looking. To the knight's surprise, they saw that the wolves had surrounded what looked to be the whelp of the pack. The smallest wolf appeared to be injured and stood its ground, growling and snapping at the others who encircled it.
"What's going on here?" Quinton mused curiously.
Laura warily eyed the wolves as they tried to keep a safe distance and pass, "If I had to guess… survival of the fittest. That runt is injured and slowing the pack down. If they're hungry enough, they might be trying to kill him and eat him."
Noelle frowned, "No! That's not right! I refuse to believe that. Wolves stick together as a pack… like us. Real wolves would never do that sort of thing to their own kind in the wild."
"This is the Faerie Realm Noelle," Laura reminded her, "Things are different here. I hate to say it, but if that smaller wolf is already weak, the others might be doing it and the rest of the pack a favor."
As they began to pass, all the large wolves stopped and turned see the traveling knights cross into their territory. Ever so slowly, the wolves broke formation and ignored the wolf runt in favor of the new prey. Stephen summoned his bow and warily nocked an arrow, "Shit! I think they spotted us."
Connor grimaced and tried to rally everyone, "Let's keep trying to move away from them. Maybe if we keep our distance, they'll leave us alone."
Unfortunately, the wolves continued to shadow the knights and spread out to encircle their new targets. Unlike the clumsy humans hindered by snow and armor, the wolves moved swiftly and easily through the frost.
"Okay… any more bright ideas?" Laura muttered in dread as she drew her rapier.
The Summer Knight watched the wolves draw even closer, "Yeah… let's host a doggie obedience school today."
The knights all drew their weapons and formed a defensive formation to meet the wolfpack before the lead canine gave a baying howl and charged.
Stephen let loose with an arrow which struck the lead wolf and caused it to skid off to the side while the next two made bounding leaps toward the other boys. Connor grunted as the abnormally large wolf slammed into him like a freight train and knocked him over into the snow. As they fell over in a tangled heap, the wolf snapped and barked until the knight raised his red hot blade. The wolf bit down on the steel and gave a yelp before it recoiled. Connor kicked the wolf off and swept his sword around in a backhanded slash which partially penetrated the beast's thick hide and wounded it in the flank. As that wolf backed down, the other flew by Quinton as the Spring Knight dodged it.
Quinton slashed both his weapons and kept his enemy at bay before the beast struck low and tried to clamp down on his shin. Quinton gasped in surprise as he was tripped but his armor protected him from the wolf's teeth and allowed him just enough time to slash the beast across the face with his sickle.
The wolf gave a yelp and retreated back while the remaining wolves tried to pounce on the others. Stephen batted aside a beast with his bow before using it to shoot another one in the ankle. That wolf which had been threatening Noelle stumbled and limped off while Noelle turned and gave an appreciative nod to Stephen. Without wasting another moment, the Autumn Knight raised her sword to block the bite of another wolf before she channeled the power of her ring into a burst of air. The pocket of concentrated wind threw back the wolf several yards and left it lying stunned in the snow. Despite the circumstances, she still grimaced apologetically toward the hurt animal, "I'm sorry."
Nearby, Laura fended off two wolves with her rapier. Using her agility and dexterity, she warded off the alpha wolf and another pack wolf while dancing around their swipes at her. She had tried scaring them off with elemental ice, but their thick fur coats resisted her magic. Instead, she opted to do things the old fashioned way. As the pack wolf lunged again, Laura slipped sideways and rolled off its side before meeting the follow up bite of the alpha.
As the Alpha struck, Laura raised her ring and focused a small shield of concentrated ice energy to ward off the attack. While the alpha's teeth glanced off the shield, the Winter Knight turned her rapier upwards and thrust it straight up under the chin of the beast. The vicious wolf tried to howl and snap, but it gasped and gurgled as Laura followed its momentum to drive it to the ground and sever its windpipe. The wolf thrashed a few times amid the puddle of blood in the snow before it went limp.
Laura exhaled and slowly withdrew her blade before looking to the other wolf, the new leader of the pack. Upon seeing its old leader dead in the snow, the wolf gave a low mumble and withdrew, leading the others wolves in an orderly retreat. As Laura stopped to clean her sword in the snow, Quinton watched in mild awe, "Wow Laura… that was kinda cool, but also kinda scary how cold blooded you were just now."
The Winter Knight grimaced and nodded silently behind her visor. In truth, she hated having to kill in such a vicious and merciless way, but it had to be done. As the others caught their breath, they were surprised as the small wolf who had once been victimized by his pack limped over. Connor gripped his sword and took a defensive stance, "Careful now…"
"No…" Noelle said stopping him with her hand. She slowly walked out and extended a gentle hand to the creature. To everyone's surprise, the wolf accepted her touch and nuzzled her arm in return. The Autumn Knight put her arms over the neck of the wolf and carefully cuddled it, "Aww, that's a good boy. You just want to be friends, right? You found a new pack?"
"Well I'll be damned," Stephen sighed, "Noelle might be the next dog whisperer here."
Moments later, the skies darkened and an icy blast of wind swept across the plains. The shaken knights stopped and flinched as another powerful gust of icy wind swirled around them. Despite wearing their fey armor, the five friends save for Laura were staggered as the temperatures dropped further and a chilling feeling of paralysis swept over them. Quinton gasped and looked around the obscured tundra before speaking through chattering teeth, "What's happening? Where did this sudden storm come from?"
Noelle turned in surprise as the huge winter wolf she had been holding shrugged her arms off and gave a low moan before trotting off into the blizzard.
"Hey! Come back! Where are you going?" she called out in confusion to the animal.
A minute later, the wolf returned but this time, several other figures emerged from the swirling cloud of snow and wind. Several warriors rode on white horse like creatures wearing deep blue garments and armor tinted a blackish purple color. A few of them carried spears with blue pennons trailing behind displaying a white snowflake design. As the riders approached, they appeared to be Elven soldiers and their mounts looked to be even more unusual. Instead of having four legs, the beasts had eight legs. To anyone well versed in Norse mythology, they would have recognized the creatures to be Sleipnir horses.
Having been caught out in the open snow fields, the knights tensed up and watched in growing dread as the Winter Court cavalry riders closed in and encircled them. It was clear that even with their powers and skills, it would be near suicide to try and fight the Winter patrol. The knights were already tired and had been drained from whatever debilitating blizzard spell had just been cast. Even worse, it would be hard to move in the deep snow and the cavalrymen had an added advantage of speed and height on the knights too.
The knights watched and waited as the leader of the riders cantered forward and leveled his polearm with a serrated icicle spearhead, "You five are trespassing on the lands of her Majesty Queen Mab. State your business!"
Laura stepped forward and slowly raised hand up begging for restraint, "I am a knight of Winter… my friends and I are searching for an assassin."
The rider glanced around at the wide snowy tundra around them, "Out here? In the middle of nowhere? I find that hard to believe."
Laura grimaced and thought furiously for a moment to talk her way out of this, "I give you my word as a knight that this is the truth. If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to plead my case before Her Majesty myself."
The rider gave a mocking laugh, "Oh I will take you back to the Winter Court. But whether or not Queen Mab will show you any mercy depends on her. Now, lay down your weapons and surrender to us."
Laura turned and saw her four other allies tense up and grip their weapons tighter in case of a fight, but she shook her head toward them. The Winter Knight calmly looked back to the riders and slowly placed her rapier in the snow before raising her hands in surrender. She hated to do it, but it was the only way to buy time and be taken back to civilization. Perhaps they'd even have some luck pleading before the monarchs of Winter.
The other four knights watched Laura surrender before grudgingly laying down their weapons too. The riders dismounted and gathered up the knights' weapons before binding their wrists next. The leaders of the riders stopped a moment and curiously studied Stephen before he turned and gave Laura a little shove forward in the shoulder, "Seems you humans aren't as stupid as I thought. We'll just have to see if the rest of the Winter Court agrees."
A/N:
Major parts of this current plotline have been adapted from a campaign played by my longtime tabletop gaming group. I can't think of a better team of people to go on imaginary adventures with that are full of violent battles, drunken mayhem, and more absurd humor than you can shake a +1 longsword at.