Monster Party Book Six: Only mortal trust or faerie dust...
Epilogue: You've taught me skill is not enough, it can't compare to love.
Alexander Diamondclaw (returned to his human form and wearing a new eye-patch that James had provided him with) stood facing Maeve, Princess of the Shee. Maeve's appearance was as always beautiful and flawless, not a single drop of blood had dared to stain her finery, nor was her forehead dampened by even a single bead of sweat. Only the nearly empty quiver of arrows on her back suggested that she might recently have been involved in a momentous battle.
"Pleasure seeing you here." Alexander greeted her as if they were simply meeting on some street corner by chance.
"You were supposed to keep the Obsidian Gate from ever being opened." Maeve declared in much the same manner that a young girl might announce that her new pony was the wrong color.
"The Regalia of Arak had additional powers that you didn't bother to warn me about beforehand. If I'd known, I could have buried the crown somewhere, dealt with Loht, and then closed the Gate with one of the items he was wearing." The silver haired man replied calmly.
"You're lucky I had more plans than I felt the need to divulge to you." She insisted a touch condescendingly.
"Speaking of what you didn't care to divulge to me, would mind explaining what you and your companions are doing here?" He couldn't help but inquire.
"I am immortal, and so I must consider problems on an immortal scale. What immortal being could ever truly trust a mortal to succeed? If the Obsidian Gate was opened, then there would have been only one single place where we could possibly flee; back into the Obsidian Gate and the land of shadows where we were first remade. With this entire world full of new subjects to control, why would the Twilight ever return to his homeland?" The white haired Arak explained.
"Let me guess, you've know about this possibility so long..." The silver haired man began.
"That shortly after the Obsidian Gate was first sealed I warned my subjects if they ever saw my blackstone ring in the hands of someone else that it was a sign they should gather by the Obsidian Gate in preparation to escape through it? Yes. Speaking of my ring, I will take it back now." Maeve insisted, holding out a delicate hand.
"Well your help was appreciated, it is no easy thing to fight a god." Alexander admitted as he returned the ring to its rightful owner.
Maeve slowly stood up completely straight and Alexander relaxed his posture enough that their heights were more or less equalized.
"There is a single law that me and my brother were in utter agreement over, that every Arak holds utterly sacrosanct, from the most genial alven to the most cold hearted sith." She announced to the silver haired man in polite measured tones.
"It is known as the Law of the Arak, and it states that none of us will ever under any circumstances slay another. This one law has persisted unchanging for as long as our people have occupied the Shadow Rift, and knowing the punishment it would bring, it has only been broken once." Her voice rang out, crystal clear to all those present.
Then her eyes slowly drifted up to the Obsidian Gate before returning to her conversation partner.
"Gwydion was the one who actually killed Loht." Alexander offered with a nonchalant shrug.
"That is a rather pathetic defense. If you toss someone with broken legs in the path of a stampede do you claim that the horses were truly to blame?" Maeve countered, looking deeply into Alexander's left eye.
Another nonchalant shrug was the only answer she received.
Maeve leaned in close and firmly ran her hands through Alexander's hair, pushing it aside to reveal the round ears beneath.
"A much better defense is that the Law of Arak states no Arak shall kill another Arak. You are a human though, aren't you?" She pressed before slowly pulling her hand back.
"Human enough." Alexander said, sounding vaguely ashamed of the fact.
"There has never been a law made to dictate what should happen if a human is able to kill an Arak as thoroughly as you have slain my brother. Harm yes, kill, no. With that in mind though, you did no great harm to Loht. At worst he might have suffered some minor discomforts while you carried him to the Obsidian Gate.
Let none say I am so capricious a ruler that I would create a law and immediately set about punishing those who had 'broken' it the day before. Not that there should be no accounting for the deeds you have preformed inside my kingdom of course." The Shee Princess insisted.
She took a moment to look over Alexander once again, then Florence, then Cal, then Devi, and finally James who was still flitting awkwardly around Mirri, making sure that she had not suffered any long term harm from his actions.
"One boon, each." Maeve decided.
"We're already good." Cal insisted at once.
He did not have his superior's seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of fairy tales, but he knew well enough that an improperly phrased "boon" could quickly prove itself a curse.
"Simply don't ask us to give back anything we took from the Malachite Palace, with the exception of your crown of course." Devi suggested, her bag of holding still containing the truly tremendous amount of treasure that the six had absconded with.
"Oh? You managed to find the hidden treasure vault?" Maeve asked, tilting her head to the side prettily once again.
"The hidden treasure vault?" Both Cal and Devi chorused, a sense of dread creeping up on them.
"The one hidden beneath the fake treasure vault. The fake one is filled with Fairy Gold, that will turn back into rocks, twigs, and everyday stones the moment sunlight falls upon it." The Shee Princess noted with a look of great amusement on her face.
Both elf and alchemist hung their heads in the painful realization that indeed they'd been completely taken in.
"Do not look so sour. The trap door leading down to the real vault is among the most genius of its type ever conceived by Firr and crafted by Brag. I understand that opening it requires planting a great deal of weight on one particular part of the floor, so if someone should take all the treasure in the fake vault they'd have no hope at all of activating it." She further explained to twist the knife.
"Can we exchange some of this fake treasure for the real stuff then?" Cal suggested.
"It will be done." Maeve promised.
Finally assured that Mirri was undead and well, James slowly approached the unquestioned ruler of the Arak, ready for his own boon.
"Gwydion destroyed my harmonica, it had a lot of neat spells on it..." He began.
"You will be given a new one, more magical and beautiful than the last." Maeve declared without a moment's hesitation.
"Can I get a get a new hat as well?" The werecat added quickly, his feline ears flattening themselves in abasement, worried that this would be a step too far.
"It will be sown of finest fabric." Lady Maeve promised at once.
Mirri followed after James, her own mind quite thoroughly made up as well.
"I need several skulls tied up in a leather necklace. I've got no interest in getting caught up in all this god business again without properly having one of my own to call upon. Worshiping Kali is all very well, but I'm going to need one of her icons if I really want her to help me." The vampire explained.
"The skulls will come from the most magnificent beasts in the land." Maeve promised.
Those four dealt with, Maeve next turned her attention back to Alexander and Florence.
"So, what will the two of you ask for?" She pondered.
"I will need more time to think." The Dryad insisted.
"That dancing woman, the first one to retake the field, I have business that I need to settle with her." Alexander insisted.
XXX XXX XXX
Alexander slowly walked into a large room in the Malachite Palace, he was finally alone with the muryan that he'd picked out. Like most of the dancing men she was tall as any human, and had long free flowing brown hair that would have been the envy of any woman in Tepest.
Her piercing blue eyes looked Alexander up and down but she said nothing. She didn't move either, not standing still with the dedication of a soldier, but rather the poise of a cat who simply sees no reason not to be at rest for the moment.
"According to what Maeve could find out, your name is Iriwa, is that correct?" He inquired in an attempt to break the ice.
The muryan only nodded.
"Do you know why I asked Maeve for some of your time?" Alexander asked.
The Arak shook her head, not to a degree that displayed curious confusion, just enough to make it clear that she didn't know the answer.
"You're aware of everything I accomplished to get that particular boon thought aren't you?" The silver haired man followed up.
The muyran nodded again.
"I'd like to have a conversation with you, but that tends to require both of us to talk." Alexander pressed.
The shadow fey just shrugged her shoulders.
"I was afraid of this..." Alexander sighed and turned his attention away from the dancing woman.
He walked over to a large wooden barrel that he'd also requested Maeve prepare ahead of time.
"Luckily I have something here that might loosen your tongue..." Alexander promised her.
From it he pulled out a pair of wooden swords.
"Can you guess what I want to do with these?" Alexander inquired as he took a moment to examine the blade's heft and balance.
She nodded and a small smile began to curl at her lips.
"Catch!" Alexander commanded and tossed her one of the wooden blades.
Holding the other in both hands he assumed his traditional fighting stance (though the weapon he now held was a bit smaller and lighter than Wolf Claw) and began to whistle a jaunty song.
Iriwa's entire body suddenly seemed to suddenly come alive now that she had a sword in hand (even if it was only a wooden one) and her lips pursed to echo Alexander's tune.
The two began to circle one another looking for weaknesses in the others stance, striking out with quick slashes that were inevitably either parried or dodged.
"I wondered what kind of lee-due it would take to kill the Prince of Shadows." The muryan finally spoke.
"You're about to get an answer. Though if you plan on swearing some kind of blood oath against me over it I'd be happier knowing in advance." Alexander replied as his black booted feet dancing back and forth.
"Ha! They call it the Law of Arak because it is for Arak. Besides, the little lordling had his head so far up his own ass it was a wonder he didn't choke on his own shite. These days he hadn't even been able to help us find where the best fighting was! Not like you..." Iriwa was suffice say something less than heart broken over Loht's death.
Not that Alexander didn't have to desperately weave out of the way of an expert slice a moment later.
"Even the Pretty Princess likes you, that's not easy to do, if you want to have any fun. It's gonna be horrible down here now that she's in charge. It'll be nothing one set of balls after another and the there aren't even wooden swords involved with the kind of dancing she likes!" Iriwa moaned in exasperation, before needing to back flip away from one from one of Alexander's blows.
"For the moment you can count on me to keep you entertained." Alexander pointed pressing his advantage.
"You're no ordinary lee-due that's for sure." Iriwa admitted, as she eschewed her blade and instead struck with her lower body, managing to land a spinning kick that knocked Alexander back slightly.
"Are you wondering why I stood and fought rather than running?" Alexander pressed verbally even as his sparring partner's expert blade work began to force him to retreat a few paces.
"A little..." The muryan replied, somehow managing to work a shrug into her movements so smoothly it seemed more like an obscure combat maneuver of some sort than a conversational response.
"I've got a different perspective on 'eternity' than most born on the surface. Gwydion would have wanted to enslave us all sooner or later. There are some things that even Arak and humans can agree on… Like how there's no better way to make a name for yourself than battling a god and winning." Alexander declared as he threw himself right back into the fighting.
"You've been putting your years to good use. Your technique is excellent, how would you like to live forever and become a truly legendary swordsman?" Iriwa offered.
The silver haired man launched another blinding strike but when the dancing woman moved to block it too late she discovered that it had only been a faint to get her sword out of position freeing him to land a firm kick of his own.
"I already am will, I already am." Alexander boasted.
Iriwa could only pant for breath, Alexander had a kick like a mule and though the muryan were among the physically strongest of the Shadow Fey, they were still built to favor speed over resilience.
"Ooph… it as been a long time since a lee-due managed to land a blow on me in a duel. How did you gain such skill with such a short life?" She demanded with a deep relish in her voice.
"I learned to fight for someone rather than something.
Like when one of the ellefolk saw a man fighting with all his skill but still being tormented by a hag because she had magic and he had none..." Alexander answered before whistling that same tune he'd opened their fight with.
Iriwa whistled the tune back at him again, and slowed her movements for a brief second as it became clear that she was focusing on her (long) past rather than the present duel.
"Magic? Bah! Magic is for sissies who don't want to grab a blade and join the dance! You know who likes magic? The Twilight!" Iriwa spat and smiled smugly as if she'd just declared some great philosophical truth.
"You could have taken that knight as a transcended rather as your husband." Alexander reflected solemnly, even going so far as to use the shadow fey term for changeling to help keep things civil.
"Well given how thoroughly bespelled he was I had to do most of the fighting to save himself myself. Always get a bit frisky after a good fight. You ever try to f**k a transcended? I've known trees that could give a girl more satisfaction!" Iriwa answered, licking her lips eagerly as she sized Alexander up once again.
The silver haired man took a very pronounced step back.
"We'd both suffer worse that the Priestess of Spiders." He warned the dancing woman.
Iriwa pouted like a disappointed child.
"Tis a shame. Don't suppose you've got a protegee of sorts then?" She inquired.
"Do you know what vampires can do to an Arak?" It was not the most direct of responses, but it got the point across well enough.
"Eh, can probably just find one of my own to dance with now that Mohrg doesn't have us all going on those pointless raids. That'll have to do." Iriwa reflected as she slid from abrupt stillness back into rapid movement and launched another round of attacks on Alexander.
The silver haired man struggled to keep up with his blows and also direct the conversation onto a less perilous topic.
"You also didn't have to stay with him in the village pretending to be human, and teach your family how to fight." Alexander offered his voice wavering between respect and hesitation.
"I didn't? Please! The lee-due need to have at least some swordsmen who know what they're doing, otherwise what's the point of dancing? Dancing with farmers or merchants makes me bored, and eternity is such a horribly long time to be bored." Iriwa sighed wistfully.
Alexander said nothing and instead focused on his sword work.
At first.
"What you really didn't have to do was have yourself get 'kidnapped' by other Arak in front of the entire village one night." He eventually pointed out.
The dancing woman stopped moving threw back her head and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
"I nearly forgot about that! You lee-due have no sense of humor! That was the best part, seeing some scream their heads off, others running in fear, more crying to their powerless gods in horror! I even stuck around long enough to watch the funeral that they threw for me! Stuff like that is what makes life worth living!" She insisted blithely.
"Do you remember what your son did?" Alexander growled, unable to keep his voice steady.
Showing a complete and utter lack of anything approaching proper dueling etiquette the moment Iriwia paused to search her memory he launched his next attack before she chance to answer. He struck with such raw strength that he was able to plunge his wooden sword into Iriwa's stomach up to its hilt.
Then he calmly let go of it and took a step back.
Iriwa just as calmly reached down and pulled the sword out of her stomach, there was a black gaping hole in her body where she'd been impaled, and yet once the weapon had been removed it seemed to pull itself back together with regenerative speed that rivaled Alexander's own.
"Course I do. He charged one of my fellow muryan with his bare fists and started biting away at anything his teeth could get a good grip on. That fiery passion for the dance in his eyes… that was when I knew for certain he was everything I could ever want in a son." The muyran reflected.
Then she casually raised the sword she'd just taken out of her stomach along with the one Alexander had originally tossed her.
"He wasn't the brightest lad of course… but spontaneity is what makes the dance exciting in the first place." She insisted before lashing out with both blades.
Alexander darted back away from the flashing wooden swords and delivered a firm kick to the barrel he'd pulled them out of.
It spiraled end over end up into the air and Wolf Claw dropped out of it falling into the silver haired man's waiting hands.
XXX XXX XXX
A few days later the six adventures gathered up their supplies at the edge of a fracture leading out of the Shadow Rift. They weren't exactly sure what it would entail for them to pass through it, but they'd survived the trip going in and so were fairly certain they could do so again.
"You aren't thinking about leaving without me I hope!" A female muryan called out to them just as they were extinguishing their campfire.
"What are you doing here?" Alexander couldn't help but ask in confusion as Iriwa approached them, a pack strapped to her back and a sword sheath on either hip.
"It seems some little twig told the Pretty Princess that I should be in charge of the muryan now that Mohrg is going to be dead for a while, and there's no way to be certain what breed he'll come back as. So the Pretty Princess made me the Fighting Princess, and put me in charge of returning all the shadows back to the lee-dues of that town Mohrg insisted we raid.
One sibling gives us orders attack a village that doesn't even have any decent fighters, the other makes us resew shadows until from dusk till dawn..." The muryan moaned, rolling her eyes at the eccentricities of royalty, even if that was a category she now fell into.
"Do you know two know each other?" James Firecat couldn't help but ask, his new red hat shifting slightly as his ears raised and lower themselves rapidly in confusion.
"This is Iriwa, she's the muryan who saved me from that axe wielding undead." Alexander explained.
Florence promptly delivered a very firm elbow to Alexander's midsection.
"She's also my mother." The silver haired man added after a moment's hesitation.
Everyone spoke up at once….
XXX XXX XX
Dear Dame Renier
I am happy to report that despite my earlier worries the evil sorcerer fiend Gwydion has been banished back to the Obsidian Gate. I know that may not sound so important to you since you've got to deal with Vlad Drakov invading every so often, werewolves from Verbrek, and spies from Valachan but I'm proud to say that we won't have to worry about a being of near godlike power starting to smash his way across the Core! This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest foes.
PS: It really is a shame what sort of stuff family can drive us to do if we're not careful. He was a major jerk to say the least but Loht clearly did love his father, but he loved him so much that he couldn't think straight and ended up doing something that was stupid and evil even from the perspective of other Arak! So I guess what I'm saying that if you ever hear any rumors, have dreams. or whatever about someone claiming to be your grandfather come back to life and seeking to return to the throne of Richemulot for the good of its people, DON'T TRUST THEM! Besides, from what my dad says you're much nicer than Claude ever was and Richemulot only really started to gain the respect of other realms once you took control.
PPS: There's a lot of nifty stuff down here in the Shadow Rift even if it is not easy to get at and the folks don't always take kindly to strangers. Still we're in good with Princess Maeve and so maybe it'd be possible to establish some kind of a trading system? You just have to pass through the fissure which is why I'm writing you this letter as I do it and so I can record all the JIFDSESWEFZIVJOBSEGNOSJEIOBW we have gone through…. Ummm Dame Renier my ink seems to be getting a little smudged…. five minutes after I wrote it….
PPPS: Alex is such a great guy, he made Cal share the actual treasure that Maeve ended up giving to him and Devi since the group has always had a share and share alike policy when it comes to treasure no matter who finds or wins it.
PPPPS: Grand Dame Jacqueline Renier of the Realm of Richemulot. The red furred one has been kind enough to take dictation from me, Iriwa, Princess of the muryan. Though vermin extermination has never held much excitement for me, he claims that in your land there grow rats as big, intelligent, and strong as a man. If that is true I would very much be interested in going dancing through your land's sewer system to see a few of these rats for myself. In the interest of proper procedure as befits a Princess of my standing, I am asking rather than just sneaking in and dancing whenever the urge takes me since the red furred cat child insists that such behavior is hardly appropriate for a Princess. He of course knows nothing of the ways of Arak royalty. If we can come to no accord on this issue, I heard that you are besieged by a group of warlike humans know as Falkovnian who share a border with the Shadow Rift. Would it bother you in the slightest if I went dancing with them?
Your Faithful Servant
Longhair (except for that PPPPS obviously).
End Book.
AN: I'd like to start with an apology.
I had figured out most of my characters back story well enough in advance/before I started writing book one. I had figured out most of it, but not quite all of it. I knew exactly who and what Alex's father should be and what kind of relationship they had.
I never put much though into his mother though.
It was only when I was writing Book 5 (you might have been able to guess that since near the end of it is the first time she's mentioned) that I gave any thought to who she might be, since she didn't seem important/ Alex with his weird right eye would easily have outlived any human parents/not wanted to stay in touch with them even if they were still alive.
Then I read Van Richten Guide to Shadow Fey a few times as part of writing book five. As I did so I discovered to my surprise that while most other forms of half-shadow fey display blatantly inhuman qualities like antennas, hooves for feet, fur covering the body, white eyes without pupils, serpentine eyes, hair that looks more like feathers, unnaturally pale skin, or a fox's tail… there is only one particular breed attribute listed for half fey born between a human and a muryan.
I will quote directly from table 9-5: Breed Attributes on page 107.
"Extremely long, unkempt hair."
Huh.
Well, now you can't complain that Alex looks unnaturally bishonen like for a Ravenloft character! Also I bet that "Alex's favorite marching song is also a famous Arak battle anthem" explanation from last chapter doesn't seem so silly now does it?
Feel free to go back and reread this entire book again keeping that particular reveal in mind. I'll mention where I tried to hint at it in various different ways in my author commentaries.
By the way, as a heads up, this gives you another important "corner" piece to the puzzle of Alexander Diamondclaw's back story. There's only one more that is missing, and that one will show up in the Side Story I'll soon be posting in a week, and worry about the story commentary after it. I'm curious how much of his past you guys can guess/theorize at this point!
Also, muryan are completely immune to damage from wooden weapons. I decided this makes more sense to interprate as their body's mystically healing rather than them having some kind of wood sensitive force field that prevents them from being temporarily stabbed/impaled by wooden weapons.
Yes Alex was very much aware of that fact before he stabbed Iriwa.
Also due to the loosey goosey continuity of these stories (except for this one obviously following Book 5) Iriwa will not be joining the party, (gee I can't imagine why Alex wouldn't want to keep her around for longer) beyond fixing up the people of Briggdarrow, though that might take a while so we may see some more of her in side stories in the future.