Fae Chronicles 7

Visha’s status as a prisoner of war was… inconvenient. She was treated as one of the nurses by most of the soldiery, another bit of casual sexism that caused the young girl so much grief. 

More distressingly, the territory occupied by the Francois included the family estates owned by both of her most valuable servants. They had made preparations, so the amount that could be pillaged was somewhat limited, but industrial manufacturing plants were not something that could be packed up and put into storage, nor liquidated into Waldstatten bullion. 

Fortunately, with the raw power they were granted as part of their deal with the Imperial army, Tanya didn't need to bluff when threatening mortals anymore. 

“Get out of my house!” Tanya demanded, sending another wave of illusory coins to the Francois invaders. Their bodies got crushed by the weight of the silver disks, their bullets unable to penetrate through feet of the soft metal. 

The coins evaporated into myst, their purpose fulfilled. Snapping her fingers, Tanya spent more glamor to fix the damage inflicted by the attack. Funnily enough, the damage registered as ‘illusory’ to her senses, so it was a simple matter to just dismiss the ‘illusory’ damage, which was a bit mind-bending when one thinks about it. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t metaphysically own this property, so she couldn’t simply create barriers to bar entry, she needed to deal with them manually. 

Count von Degurechaff came up from behind her. “Thank you for dealing with them.”

Tanya raised a hand for silence. “Hm… they’re not gone yet.” She walked to the entrance of the estate. “Shit, they have a tank.” Those damn Francois were really stubborn, weren’t they? 

They took a deep breath and spent a few motes to increase the volume of their voice. “This is not a military installation! We are sheltering civilians only! Your attacks on this structure have already violated the laws of hospitality and good manners, but to proceed further would violate the laws of war!” This was actually true. Tanya didn’t have the legal leeway to protect Elya’s family home the same way they can the Degurechaff estate. So they had evacuated a while ago, and were sheltering in place here. In addition, a sizable portion of the local nobility were also temporarily living here. 

The tank commander had his own loudspeaker, fortunately. “This city is now under martial law! You are to submit to a thorough inspection of the premises or we shall employ force.”

One of the other soldiers elbowed the other. They could hear them, sort of, through the part of a fey’s nature that allows for clear communication regardless of language. It made Tanya a stellar lip-reader. “Bet there’s tons of stuff in there we could bring back home, don’t you think Pierre?” 

Pierre laughed. “I hope that girl’s mother is here. I’d like to give her a Frankish hello.” His fellows laughed with him. 

A third Francois soldier spoke up. “These Imperial nobles think they’re so great, let’s show them how we Francois treat nobility.” 

Ugh! Looting? Those barbarians! They weren’t even going to acknowledge the other things. “This house is under my protection, as a Duchess in the Peerage of Arcadia, head of House Argent. I am the Lady of Currency, and your mortal weapons are as dust to me.”

“Well I don’t believe in fairies!” Said the commander. Of the various tales of fae, Peter Pan was one of the more amusing. “FIre!” 

The tank’s shell boomed as it fired, but it impacted the defense Tanya had set up while talking: it bounced off a mirror that manifested, launching right back into the barrel of the tank, causing the vehicle to break, and the tank commander to scream in pain as his legs were destroyed. Dealing with such a powerful force, even if it was mundane, was not exactly cheap… by her old standards. Just a few facade motes did the job just fine. 

“Do you understand now, mortals?” Tanya shouted. “Vacate these lands or be removed!” They spent a few echoes to make themselves more visually impressive, growing to be three meters tall, the intimidating projection garbed in golden robes. 

“Retreat!” Shouted what was presumably the second in command, who promptly evacuated the not-quite-dead commander out of the wreckage of the tank, and the Francois soldiers all ran away. 

Walking back inside, Tanya went to where most of the nobles were hiding: the dining room. It was lunchtime, so they were eating: it was simpler fare than they were likely accustomed to, and food stores were likely insufficient for a prolonged siege, or even a short one, but they still had some luxuries. 

Tanya accepted a slice of chocolate cake that was set aside for them. “They’re gone for now, but there’s nothing I can do if they make a determined effort to destroy this structure. As long as their objective remains to claim spoils of war, we’ll be fine.” An extended artillery bombardment would exhaust their reserves of glamor, and if they deployed a battalion of mages, they might just blast through Tanya’s attempts at defense outright. They may be fueled by minutes and hours of every mage in the Imperial military, but there was a rather substantial loss in translating that power to their own ends. 

The small group of noble heads at the far end of the table looked grim as they listened to Tanya’s news. Count von Degurechaff, Margrave von Lergen, Baron von Watter, and Baron von Goltz. “Troubling.” Commented Margrave von Lergen. 

“Is there anything else you can do?” Asked Count von Degurechaff. 

“There is no agreement or bargain keeping me here.” Tanya said, bluntly. “In some ways, this is helpful, as I can just cut my losses if they decide to just start shelling the place.” Count von Degurechaff paled. “It would reflect poorly on me to let you die after declaring this place under my protection, but it’s a manageable loss of face.” Ironically, despite being so stringent about keeping one’s word, to the point that most people thought they literally could not lie nor break a promise… Fae had very little concept of personal honor. Yes, Tanya would be laughed at, maybe even ridiculed, for failing to protect something that they swore to protect, but the mockery would be no more intense than the amount that they recently escaped experiencing just for being very poor. 

“So you just need it to be worth it.” Summarized Margrave von Lergen. 

“I’ve already spent more glamor defending this place than I ever got from my agreement with Count von Degurechaff.” Tanya groused, “From a strict cost-benefit analysis, I should already be gone.” This was a little misleading. Tanya didn’t get glamor for that agreement, instead getting that legal mortal identity and a permanent foothold in the mortal realm that was the foundation of their other businesses. Which they no longer needed.

But Visha would be sad if her parents and little brother died. So that was worth at least a little bit of unwise spending. “Our long-standing beneficial relationship is the only reason I’ve done this much. Degurechaff.” Tanya said, “But my largesse is not infinite.” Best not to admit to that decision, though. 

“So what would it take to allow for something more secure?” Baron von Goltz asked, heavily sweating. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead. 

Tanya took a moment to think about it. “It’s not really a matter of economics. While yes, paying me will let me hold off more looters, the modern industrial warfare of the mortal world can wear away even my mightiest defenses, eventually.” At the despair in the men’s eyes, Tanya smiled. “However, if it’s merely a matter of saving all of your lives, there is one option.” 

“What is it?” Asked Baron von Goltz. 

“If I was to own this plot of land, I could open a doorway to Arcadia that could be traveled through, and from there into Berun.” Tanya explained, “You couldn’t carry much in the way of wealth through it, though. I could carry a little bit through, some critical legal documents and whatever liquid currency you possess would be a good compromise of importance and bulk, but you’d need to abandon the rest.” 

“See Degurechaff?” Baron von Watter said. “There is a way.”

“Giving away your family estate is no small price.” Murmured Margave von Lergen. 

“I bought it shortly after I was ennobled, five years ago, it doesn’t have the kind of history you’d think.” Count von Degurechaff said, “But how likely is it that they’d try and destroy us? That may be too extreme.”

“Giving the Fair folk land in the mortal world is no small concession.” Margrave von Lergen elaborated. “It can be used for great evil.”

Tanya chuckled. “You’re a bit late for that, old man.” Tanya said, grinning. “This wouldn’t even be the first plot of land I own in the Rhine Industrial Area.” She had locked down the bakery, closing the door to her Arcadian lands after extracting everything of value. She may end up losing the territory, depending on how the war ends, but it wasn’t worth fighting for. “Now that I think about it, that does provide an alternative option: If we travel the two miles through hostile territory there, we could evacuate through the door I’ve already set up… although again, that is not a service I would provide for free.”

“Degurechaff, you should do it.” Baron von Goltz said, “We can all chip in for the cost.”

“Maybe you can.” Baron von Watter said, “All of our lands are occupied by Francois. All we have left are some bank accounts, and we’ll need every mark.”

“You know, if we just go and surrender, the Francois would be obligated to allow us to evacuate. You’d lose most of the things here, but you’d keep the land.” Margrave von Lergen pointed out. “Either way, you’d lose a lot, but by selling out to the fey, you’d lose more.”

“It’s down to a matter of trust.” Tanya simplified. “Which do you trust more? The Francois’ honor and their adherence to the laws of war… or me, and my ability to follow through on my promises?”

Count von Degurechaff looked towards his wife, Visha’s mother. She was holding little Hans, the little troublemaker. “...How much do you demand?”

“Let’s talk numbers.” Tanya said. 

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As it turned out, the Francois did decide to just level the place instead of preserving it for looting. She bet the tank’s escorts really talked her up. Fortunately, the place was already evacuated, and she happened to now own several additional properties… that were also getting occupied by the Francois. This fact made them exceedingly willing to part with them, so Tanya was pretty sure she got a decent deal, given that she cared a lot more about the land than the structures on top of them. Her brownies can erect new structures. 

Come to think of it… “Are there more of you?” Tanya asked the Foreman. Whenever they was present, he was always sure to attend to her and have the answers to all of their questions. She appreciated how self-motivated the lot of them were. They also understood that he was in charge of parceling out the job tasks, which gave him immense influence among his kin. 

“Ah, you noticed that.” The foreman said sheepishly. “Well, y’see, when a brownie gets worried that they’re not going to finish all their work on time, sometimes they kind of… split in two.”

…Tanya was beginning to understand why their fellow nobles have so much trouble finding things for the brownies to do. “Don’t fix up the new properties if they get damaged, we’ll rebuild them fresh when the war’s over.” They instructed, moving on. 

“Yes ma’am.” The foreman said, saluting. 

“Feel free to salvage them for materials, though.” Tanya added. 

“You got it.”

With that matter handled, Tanya went back to her room and decided to peek back in on Visha, but saw only the interior of her skirt, which was not nearly as exciting as one would imagine. After an attempt to move the view out from the skirt, Tanya grumbled. “She must be in a well-lit room. No shadow.”

With an effort of will, she listened in. “Forceps.” Visha murmured over the sound of boiling water. “Scalpel.” Ah, she was operating. “Clamp.” And apparently doing so without magic. Did they not want to give the POWs computation orbs? That made… some sense… they guessed. Hopefully Visha’s truncated medical training will serve her well enough even without the tools she was trained on. 

Still, Tanya let a small breeze from Arcadia go through the connection, and when Visha tapped her left foot twice, Tanya just reached up and gave Visha’s ankle a reassuring squeeze before withdrawing and closing the connection. 

What’s Elya doing? From her shadow… apparently she had replaced someone on an Albish submarine. At least, if the Albish signage meant anything. Tanya had, to preserve their investment, lent Elya a magical disguise treasure that didn’t register on mortal magic scanners. 

“The Imperials have halted us, and we have already agreed to be boarded.” An Albish gentleman said. 

“No! Our agreement!” Said an, older man. 

“You were told at the start that we would disavow the attempt if we were caught. What exactly did you think we meant by that?” The gentleman said sardonically. “Setting up a government in exile if you make your own way to Albion is one thing, but it’s quite another to be caught smuggling you there. Sadly, this means you must die.”

Elya lunged towards the man, grabbing his orb and inserting her own mana into it. With the interference, the orb executed its emergency shutdown, and Elya punched the Albish mage out, the magically augmented strength of her first cracking his cheekbone. “You will not be doing that, sir.” Elya said, her voice sounding normal to Tanya but to them, it would instead sound like the young man she was impersonating. 

“Oh thank you, thank you so much.” Said the older man. Elya grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. “I have the Councilman, comrades!” She shouted in Imperial. The old man’s expression, now visible to Tanya, fell as Elya dismissed her disguise, revealing her Imperial mage flight suit. 

Well, looks like she’s busy too. Tanya spent a single mote to send a message along the wind to Elya’s ear. “Good job.” Elya gave Tanya a discreet thumbs up a second later, and Tanya closed the aperture. 

Let’s see… Do they have anything to do? …Not really. Hm… when was the last time they checked for beckonings? It must have been at least a week. They made a treasure to alert them when House Argent was specifically beckoned, in the form of an earring bell that chimes when it happens, and they check those out, but open ones? 

Tanya walked to their poster, and with a gesture the tracking treasure turned on, displaying all open beckonings. 

…Oh my. That’s a lot. No less than twenty beckonings were active throughout Europe, and none of them were more than a half hour old. Back when they were getting started, they had to wait for hours to find just one!

…Was this their fault? Did they kick start some kind of fae beckoning fad? Note to self: go check the public records on what kind of bargains other fae have been striking. 

But first… This one looks good. Tanya connected a string of their existence to one of the beckonings and let the ritual pull them along. 

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War made for many desperate people. While Tanya will admit that they had taken on no small amount of risk, in accepting land that may be seized by right of conquest, at least they were bought cheaply. Besides, they had snuck in a clause in their deal with the Imperial military that any land claims Tanya had in Imperial territory would be honored and not seized by that military, so the risk was minimal in Legadonia. It wasn’t quite ironclad, as the deal was with Zettour in his position as a representative of the Imperial military and not the Kaiser, but the threat of taking away their superweapons, even if it wasn’t as enforceable as Tanya would like, should keep them from doing so. No matter how amicable their relationship, it was still smart to make it difficult for the Imperials to swindle them out of their rightful payments. 

Claiming Imperial land which may be seized by the Francois, on the other hand… Well, it was a riskier investment than they’d like, but they were sufficiently hedged that losing that bet wouldn’t ruin them. But the returns… 

Still, after the thirtieth answered beckoning, one came in that called for House Argent specifically. Oh? Who could that be? Their penetration of the Legadonian market wasn’t that deep yet…

…Oh. “You again?” Tanya asked, shocked. Was this the same place as last time? They had no idea. 

“Yes. Me.” Mary said indignantly. 

“I hope you managed to get something you can barter with, since last time.” Tanya said, sipping at the offering. Steamed goat’s milk with added chocolate, very nice. “You do have excellent taste in offerings, though. I will hear you out.”

“My dad’s been captured by the Imperials.” Mary said, “I need you to get him out of there before the Imperials do horrible things to him.”

…Admittedly, Tanya hasn’t had the chance to visit an Imperial POW camp, but they weren’t treated that badly, were they? “I certainly could do that.” Tanya said carefully. “What do you offer? Land? Servitude? Magic?”

“What do you demand for his return? Nothing is off the table.” Mary replied. Tanya frowned. That was surprisingly shrewd… “I got tested just yesterday, and I’m a mage. I’ve already been conscripted…”

Wait. She has notable magic? Tanya could have swore she checked the girl for magic last time. She wasn’t entirely bereft, but the reason Tanya used an obvious scam deal to break off the negotiations was because they didn’t think Mary had anything worth what they were asking for. Tanya focused on the girl, calling on the magic of the beckoning to judge her sincerity with King Oberon’s authority. Hm… she wasn’t lying, at least. She believed what she was saying. 

Taking a risk, Tanya spent some facade motes to increase her perceptions of reality. Was there… huh. There was some kind of treasure in her body. It was… like a fae treasure, but it didn’t have the same… qualities of law and lies that glamor had. It must be granting her magic. “Tell me… Mary, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“Was yesterday the first time you got tested for magic?” Tanya asked. 

“No, but I didn’t have much of it last time.” Mary replied. That… was impossible. 

Tanya stared at Mary, who just blinked back, confused. “Did you happen to meet any kind of supernatural entity between now and then? Beg for assistance or power from anything?” Tanya asked. 

Mary shook her head. “No, no fairies.” She said, misinterpreting the question. “I did pray to God every day for the power to help Dad come back, but I think I’d notice if I was blessed by God.” Wait, that’s a treasure made by Being X? 

Tanya wanted it. “So that’s what that is…” They murmured, deliberately loud enough for Mary to hear. 

“Wait, I have a blessing from God?” Mary asked, disbelievingly. 

Tanya hummed. “Well, as I’m sure you’ve heard before, whenever anyone asks a question that was too smart for the priest, he works in mysterious ways.” Which Tanya was perfectly willing to agree with. They still weren’t sure what Being X’s endgame was with turning them into a faerie. “If you want your Father rescued, one hundred percent, instead of letting him languish in that POW camp for months while you get trained up to rescue him yourself with that blessing…” Tanya trailed off. Mary looked like she just tasted something awful. “I’ll take that blessing off your hands and use it to rescue him, no problem. He’ll be back by supper.” Tanya paused. “If you know where he is, of course. If I have to track him down, I’ll need at least a day.” More if they fail to track him down the easy way. 

“...I don’t think I can sell a blessing from God.” Mary said nervously. Ah, got her. 

“Which is why I will have to insist on payment up front, with my efforts contingent on success.” Tanya said, “If it fails to transfer, we’ll need to figure out something else.” and they’ll need to annul the deal before they can make another anyway. 

Mary thought about it. She was about sixteen or seventeen, so Tanya didn’t feel too bad about swindling her out of her X-granted blessing. “Deal.” She eventually said, extending a hand. 

“Then let’s formalize this.” Tanya said, snapping her fingers and creating a contract. “You don’t want the language on this deal automatically generated with a handshake.”

It took a little bit for Tanya to explain each clause. In short, she agrees to pay Tanya using the blessing of magic she has. Once payment is received, Tanya will quest to release Anson Sue from wherever he is and bring him to Mary’s home. If Being X stole the blessing from Tanya after Anson’s return, there would be no blowback on Mary. This included a few boilerplate authorizations, such as an open invitation to their house so as to allow Tanya to just teleport there, but after seeing nothing nefarious in the verbiage, Mary signed the document with the pen Tanya provided. 

There was a surge of power as the contract was warped into King Oberon’s domain. Oh? They may have just made a mistake. Tanya reached out towards Mary, laying their hand on the girl’s heart. The power of King Oberon locked on to that contact, and with a burst of golden light… Tanya’s fingers sunk into the girl’s flesh, and by grasping the thing inside and pulling, they withdrew a computation orb. It heavily resembled the Type 95, actually, but… fancier. It had many golden wings, and the surface was etched with a chart that tickled their recollection of… wait, they remember this from that mecha anime with the judeo-christian symbology! It was the tree of life, the… Kabbalah!

Well, that just about confirmed the origin of this treasure. “Wow…” Mary said, impressed. She poked at her chest, where Tanya’s fingers sank in. As expected, there wasn’t a single mark on her skin and her blouse was completely undisturbed. “So you’ll save my dad?”

“Certainly.” Tanya replied, grinning widely. They recognized this power. It was Being X, alright. “We have an accord.” Tanya finished off the offering, and faded away in front of Mary. As a flourish, they made sure to keep smiling, and to create a small illusion of that smile to fade shortly after their departure, to make that smile appear to linger in the air. 

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Getting a meeting with Zettour was… not exactly easy, but Tanya could still just turn invisible and waltz right up to his office in Berun, needing to go through just three walls to manage it. “General Zettour, hello.”

Zettour did not even flinch, merely glancing at them from his pile of documents. “I greet you, Lady of Currency.” He said gruffly, barely polite enough to pass muster. 

“I’ve struck a bargain, and need a small favor. I would offer you a magical trinket for your assistance.” Tanya explained. 

“Why?” He asked simply. 

“Because I am making a profit, of course.” Tanya said simply. “You are in a position to lower my costs, and I am offering you a portion of that savings as your rightfully earned recompense for that assistance.”

Zettour took a moment to think about it. “Will we be needing a magical contract for this?” He asked idly. “I thought you couldn’t make more than one.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but no, we can keep this just between you and me. A matter of honor.” Tanya said calmly. “No need to file something at Avalon Castle. Quick and easy.”

“...If you were anyone else, I’d assume you’re trying to trick me.” Zettour said carefully. “I’m listening.”

“A young girl in Legadonia asked me to get her soldier father home. Supposedly, he’s a prisoner of war in an Imperial prisoner camp.” Tanya explained. 

“Hm. Easy enough to confirm.” Zettour said, “You want me to release him for you?”

Tanya waved their hand vaguely. “Well, explicitly releasing him isn’t really necessary. I need two things from you: The man’s location, and to smooth over the situation at the camp when one of their prisoners goes missing. I can work around both of these problems, but it will require me to expend magic to do so.” Quite a bit of it to track the man down, in fact. Making a convincing fetch of the man would be small in comparison. “As I said, you are in a position to reduce my costs. If I don’t need to spend that magic, I can instead spend, say, half as much on a gift for my very helpful friend. Do we have a deal?”

Zettour took a moment to consider Tanya’s proposal. “Alright. We have a deal. I want something to help with my damned back.” He reached behind it, attempting to adjust his posture. Hm. Tanya couldn’t really sympathize, they didn’t live long enough to have back problems. 

Eh, it was a cheap request. “Done.” Tanya said, creating a pendant out of glamor on the spot. “This will keep you in good health, protected from the ravages of age. It won’t make you immortal, but if worn continuously, it’ll make your final years far more comfortable, and I’d put good odds on you surviving to triple digits.”

Zettour’s eyes bulged. “...What’s the catch?” He asked, voice faint. 

“Don’t take it off.” Tanya said bluntly. “Once you’re old enough that you would have died without it, anyway. You’ll die instantly.” The amount of stress one would be under by having their lifeline be just a flimsy pendant… they shudder to imagine having to do that. Tanya smiled brightly. “But your spine will be nice and healthy as long as you have it on, exactly what you requested.” They tossed it to the man. “Try it out.”

He put the simple pendant, a wooden disc with a cowrie shell carved in its face, on and gasped. He stood up and bent down, touching his toes. “I feel great.” He said, smiling. 

Tanya hopped onto the man’s desk and took the pendant back. “Now, do your part and it’s all yours.”

“I’m beginning to understand why the Church calls your kind devils.” Zettour grumbled as he walked out of his office. 

Tanya chuckled as they followed him. “It’s just reciprocity. Hans. You scratch my back, I'll fix yours. It’s fair.”

“What soldier do you want?” He said as they walked to where presumably the files were. 

“Anson Sue.” Tanya said immediately. “I’m given to understand that the man’s rank is Colonel?”

Zettour paused. “I know that name.” He said, wincing. “That’s the man who started the war.” He turned around, heading back to his office. 

Tanya’s eyes widened. “Really? The whole thing?”

“Well, he was following orders from above, of course, but yes. He was in command of the most important part of the Norden operation.” Zettour recounted gravely. Quite the celebrity… “His unit killed the fresh-faced officer that was acting as an artillery spotter, took out the aforementioned artillery, and let the rest of the Legadonian forces to act with impunity.” Zettour sighed. “I’d tell you to pound sand, but his value as a POW isn’t much anymore, we captured him at Osfjord. He knows nothing useful.”

Tanya hummed in acknowledgement. “Does that mean he’s in an exceptionally secure location?” They asked. 

“Anyone of his rank is shipped to a specific place for interrogation.” Zettour explained. “It’s near Berun, so you won’t need to travel far. I’ll call ahead, tell them to bring him to an open area where you can pick him up.”

“That would fulfill your part of the deal quite nicely.” Tanya agreed. 

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“Daddy!” Mary shouted happily as she embraced her father. Tanya had given him an outfit of glamor for his trip through Arcadia, so the image of Mary hugging her nude father was only visible to Tanya. Quite amusing. If only she knew…

“Mary, you really shouldn’t have bargained with a devil for me.” Anson scolded, but still hugged her back tenderly. 

“If it makes you feel better, she swindled me.” Tanya said cheerily. “This thing is absolutely useless to me!” She said, twirling the computation orb-looking thing on a golden chain like a pocket watch. 

“It is?” Mary asked. 

“Normally, magical objects like this give me magic over time.” Tanya explained. “This one doesn’t give me a drop of it.” It was a powerful object if it did, too. It felt a lot like one of King Oberon’s treasures that they had cause to examine: it was equivalent to a treasure made of tier six glamor. Tanya wasn’t a fool, they had some ideas, but the reason they wanted it was gone.

Anson laughed. “Well, looks like you got what was coming to you!”

“Enjoy your life, Colonel.” Tanya said, “I would highly suggest that you stay at home, the Entente will be surrendering soon.” At least, if they understood the situation correctly. 

“The Empire’s devil-worshiping days are numbered.” Anson said seriously. 

Tanya barked out a laugh. “Worship? Please. If you had any idea how difficult it was to get anyone of importance to agree to even meet with me, you wouldn’t be saying that.” Tanya gestured to their ostentatious outfit. “I am a fae of business. War is good for business.”

Mary’s brow furrowed. “Is that why you rescued my Dad? So the war would go on?”

“The only thing better for business than war, is peace.” Tanya said immediately. Given the typical fae business model, this wasn’t actually true, but they were a peace-loving person, so they’ll just have to survive being well-positioned in mortal markets to profit in peacetime while their more predatory competitors flounder in a less-fearful market. “It’s too late for the good Colonel to influence matters, even if he tried. Stay home, enjoy life.”

“...I will.” Anson said, nodding carefully.