This pursuit was starting to wear Sagle down. He had been following this outworlder great fairy around for the better part of two days now. He would just go from one location to another, look around a little, and then find a rock he seemed to like that apparently conformed to what the last message he read must have instructed him to find.
Sometimes, the outworlder would go to another location and then double back to the first. Sometimes, he would make a stop somewhere without even looking for a message. Several times he made stops near bodies of water where he would look at a rock for a while as though studying it closely before throwing it into the water.
They had stopped at over fifteen locations so far, over half of which Sagle was reasonably sure must have been fake meeting points. They were definitely trying hard to make them work at this. There were even locations where the outworlder would line up five stones, and then place a sixth just off from it, clearly mocking them to inform them that they knew the exact number of the pursuit group and the arrangement of their command structure.
This girl the outworlder had called a ‘spook’ was definitely good, no doubt about it. She knew exactly what she was doing. She knew very well that this was not going to loose the tail. She clearly had something else in mind. She wanted them tired, and she wanted them to be unguarded. Was she wanting to launch an attack?
Such thinking would be perfectly understandable. She was likely still assuming both her and the sister were still being pursued for death. Wouldn’t anyone feel the need to kill before they get killed in this situation? That Indirniri had really made fowl of this one. He may have not gotten the chance to meet the girls face to face, but he still gave orders that made it to the ears of those girls, and now they would not trust easily.
Just meeting with them now could pose a risk. Assuming that noble was not exaggerating, they did enough damage on a sneak attack to bring a great fairy close to death. If that is true, a group of lesser fairies and a changeling with a suppressed spirit would not stand a chance. The target had already demonstrated herself capable with ambush tactics.
This was not a good situation at all. They had clearly indicated they knew the numbers of the pursuing group. The tactics they were using indicated clear intention for an ambush. It was clear that it could come at any time. This put them under constant stress as they had to be prepared at all times, and they became on edge every time they stopped. The only time they could even relax a little was when they were moving, and even then not by much. They didn’t even have time to look for where the targets may be hiding. They sensed no energy, but the lesser fairy noble who was with the outworlder had said he couldn’t sense a thing from them either. The girls had likely left the others and were moving alone, making them a truly frightening enemy who could strike from anywhere and at any time.
Under these conditions, becoming tired was a matter of course. There was nothing they could do to prevent it, especially when this had gone on for so long. The outworlder could freely relax knowing he was not the one being targeted. He could keep this up as long as he and the grey elf girls wanted to. They, on the other hand, could not relax for a moment and would become more tired the longer this continued.
The smart decision would be to simply abandon the mission and declare the target unapproachable. But, the more he saw the second-hand influence of this ‘spook,’ the more Sagel wanted to meet her face to face. He had to meet and try to talk to her even if it might be the last thing he does. He had come to the conclusion it would be a bad idea to leave an entity this dangerous roaming loose with an animosity toward the court. One way or another, this had to be settled. Hopefully in a peaceful manner.
Just in case, Sagle sent one of the fairies under him back to the capital to deliver a report about the current situation and the thoughts Sagle had on the matter. The rest looked at the one who was leaving with a small bit of envy. They had clearly all been worn down by this mission. The mind games these girls played were truly exhausting and any one of them would be glad to be free of it.
Anyone in this world will have long since grown comfortable with the idea of going into battle. However, that only counted with an enemy they could see. This was the first time Sagle had been targeted by someone who toyed with him in this manner and with such understanding of exactly what they were doing to disrupt him mentally.
Somehow, everyone could sense that this couldn’t last much longer. The outworlder would likely arrive at the final true meeting point tonight when it got dark. If they did not survive, then at least a message will have gotten out.
Just as they had prepared themselves with these thoughts, Sagle realized the outworlder had turned toward the direction of the capital. He thought it was strange, but something was nagging at him. He felt the feathers on the neck of the avian form he had taken begin to stand up. He was beginning to get a very ominous feeling.
The outworlder closed in toward what seemed to be the next destination. It was a small free-standing grove of trees. They were sparse skinny trees that were spaced out from one another and had no low-hanging branches. There was some heavy underbrush and bush cover near the roots of the trees.
There was an area near the middle of the grove where the soil had obviously been disturbed. It appeared as though many of the small bushes about had been uprooted with magic. A lack of obvious uprooted bushes suggested they had been re-planted somewhere else, likely the reason why the perimeter was so thick with foliage.
This area had clearly been groomed with the green word. The staging was so obvious that Sagle doubted what he was thinking. This had to be another mind game, right? But then, Sagle saw something that made him pale and freeze.
It was a small elven girl. He could not tell if she was human or elf, but if she was a human then she would be a mere two cycles of the seasons in age. She was wearing a plain white linen dress that might as well have been a sheet with a hole for the head cut out of it.
He saw she had metallic grey hair and ashen skin, as well as pointed ears. He knew these three features had some kind of significance, but for some reason he could not make his mind put the pieces together and every time he tried it made him feel sick.
There was something especially disturbing about this sight though. The girl was holding something in one hand. It was a fairy. And not just any fairy. It was the very same one they had sent back to the capital a mere 30 or so minutes earlier.
When Sagle saw that, he felt as though he was suddenly released from some kind of spell. He finally put together what was important about that ashen grey skin and could not believe how he had been so muddled of thought a moment ago. This was, without a doubt, one of the two girls they had been after this entire time.
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That is another problem though. Only one of them? Why only one? He was already unsettled, but this only made the fear in him rise to even higher levels.
‘Hello Mr. Adderson.’ The small voice of a child rang out in the courtly speech ‘I am sorry we had to send you around on such a wild trip.’ The voice said. ‘It wasn’t until now that we were able to locate the three little friends this fairy had running around with him.’ At these words, the girl lifted up the limply hanging fairy who suddenly seemed to stir upon hearing those words
[What? Three?] The captive fairy said in a groggy confusion.
‘Oh, make that two now. We just have to catch one more and then that changeling leading them, and then we will finally be free of pursuers.’
After this, she turned a little and Sagle found he was eye to eye with the frightening girl. She found him! How?
[Nooooo! Don’t kill me! We are not trying to kill you!] There was a lot of screaming and panic as four small fairies all erupted from the bushes and dropped the invisibility magic they had concealing them.
All of them were alive and uncaptured! The words had been a falsehood to draw them out. In part, he was relieved to see this. However…
Sagle was vaguely aware of the girl in the clearing moving as though she had thrown something. Suddenly, he felt as though he was hit by a force as though the air had turned solid and then slammed into him. He had been the subject of wind magic attacks before, but this was somehow different. He could not feel any winds weak or strong brushing against him, but he was being tossed around against the violently swaying trees. It was as though an invisible hand had come about and just decided to shake the very fabric of the world.
He had felt something like this once before. It was when he rode a boat and was being tossed about by the violent sea. Right now, he felt like he was by himself out in the raging sea. It was as though the space around him had manifested into an invisible and very angry ocean.
Sagle hit the ground. A second later, disoriented by what he had just experienced and feeling as though he had become drunk on far too many spirits. A hand was reaching down and picking him up and he could barely do more that twitch a foot as he tried to right himself. Before he could even respond, he was captured.
‘This sparrow is the changeling. He didn’t get startled and scared off by the sudden outburst by the fairies. Mr. Adderson, please get two of those fairies. Tiaren will get the other two.’
Tiaren. That meant the one holding him was indeed Asaren. The one who had the ice magic powers. This is not good at all. From what he had heard, she has ice magic so potent it can freeze someone solid with a mere passing brush of her hand as brief as the impact from a punch. As he recovered from the stunned state of that strange attack she had thrown at them, he was gripped by the sudden fear as he realized just how deadly these hands that were holding him really were. If a momentary contact could freeze the arm of a great fairy, these hands that were holding him could surely transform him into a lifeless block of ice with a mere thought. He wouldn’t even have time to lift the spirit seal he had placed on himself for the sake of concealment. She would sense it long before he could get enough power to save himself.
The hands of this child were so small they could not even fully wrap around the form of even the small bird Sagle had transformed himself into. However, these tiny hands were so terrifying that Sagle had frozen as though he had already become ice and was unable to move or even attempt to speak as she awkwardly held him by pinning him against her with an arm.
The five fairies were quickly lined up on the ground, each wrapped in some kind of chord that Sagle was able to identify as plant roots after some brief examination. So, that was the reason for moving those bushes then. This child really had set a brilliant ambush. It was exactly the same experience that fairy noble had described. Before he even realized he was being attacked, the battle was already over.
No, it’s not that. They had been meticulously fighting this battle for the entirety of the two days they had been pursuing the fairy outworlder. Every single action she had passed along for the outworlder to perform, even those that were seemingly completely insignificant, each played a part in this downfall. By themselves, each action was meaningless. However, it was that very bizarre meaninglessness that made the trap. It had caused them to become used to the strangeness, and being used to the strangeness caused them to fail to sense the true danger when it was upon them.
Spooks. No wonder that outworlder had such a cautious attitude toward them. If the world he is from trains entire combat forces with the capabilities of this girl…
Suddenly, Sagle grasped the true differences between this one child and the rest of the outworlders. So far, these troublesome outworlders have been from among the dregs of society that the other world had to offer. Even those dregs had great potential due to the powerful spirits they possessed. However, this girl was the first among those who were truly capable and powerful. He had heard the outworlder fairy was some sort of common soldier, likely the equivalent of some human city guard. The rest had been civilians. This girl, then, must have been from among the mage class of that world. The higher end of what they had to offer.
The others only had those strong spirits to offer, and what little magic they could learn in the past few years as the frustrated fairies of the capital did the best they could to teach. This girl had all that and very much knew how to use it, and the results showed just what could be done by an actual capable and trained member of that world. He simply could not afford to think of this girl the same as he had come to regard the rest of the unruly lot from that world. He had realized as much before he even left off on this mission, but now he truly realized just how completely different an existence she was from the rest of them. Merely being in the presence of this child who had held them in the palm of that tiny hand for two days without them even realizing it until she decided to close it upon them, the experience was absolutely terrifying.