The Court of Souls?

“The aos sí ([eːs ˈʃiː], older form aes sídhe [eːs ˈʃiːðʲə]) is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology (usually spelled Sìth, however pronounced the same), comparable to the fairies or elves. They are said to live underground in fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans. This world is described in the Lebor Gabála Érenn as a parallel universe in which the aos sí walk amongst the living.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Draconis***

***Shade***

“We have to follow and stop them from whatever they are trying to accomplish,” my father growls and steps forward towards the broken glass front. His eyes flare with pure hatred and I can feel a chilling cold emanating from him. In a moment he will be blindly charging after our enemies, not caring if it is a trap or not.

Nonetheless, I reach out and hold him back at his arm. The cold chills my hand, but it's bearable.

“No.”

Ishaan turns his attention towards me. “What!?”

“I said, 'No'. We are not going to follow them,” I answer, trying to keep my emotions under control. To be honest, I would like to hunt down Moonray myself. Especially when he has his back towards me and is fleeing like prey. The slimy bastard had it coming far too long. But... that's exactly what he wants.

I gesture at phoenix who is disappearing in the distance. “He wants it. That's why we are not going to do it. Or why do you think that he is flying that slowly? He could have simply teleported away. A much better solution.” Advertisements

Ishaan blinks and that's when I know that I got through to him. “He wants it?”

“Of course. Why do you think he give that provoking speech to Doreen? I haven't seen much of Moonray up until now, but what I have seen tells me that he is a calculating bastard. He knew exactly what he had to say in order to flip the fury's switch.” I look down at the badly hurt Doreen. “Sorry.”

“Don't worry, Shade.” Doreen answers between clenched teeth. She is currently being patched up by Chloe, Elona and Titho. At first I wasn't sure if we should take the dryad with us. Titho isn't much of a fighter, but her healing magic is worth having her with us. And it turned out that we needed it.

I return my attention to Ishaan. “What I want to say is that he was much too unperturbed by the fact that we uncovered his machinations. There is only one explanation for that. It doesn't matter to him who controls the fighting force he was collecting all these years. He just wants it to be in a certain place, at a certain time. That's why he tried to provoke us into following him towards the mana storm.”

“Fighting force? What fighting force? Look around you. He just killed at least seven of his own higher immortals,” Ishaan sweeps the room and the corpses with a gesture.

I raise an eyebrow and wait for the moment when the gears in my father's head start working again. Ishaan is an incredibly fast thinker, when he wants to, but sometimes his brain simply shuts off. That's why I suspect that he has a good, old gearbox up there, and sometimes a pebble gets caught between the gears and the whole thing cants.

After a while without results I decide to make it easy for him. “We have currently thirty one higher immortals. Draconis had forty-seven, minus seven who decided to go crispy, minus four who we killed, minus Moonray himself, minues nine of his goons who fled with him.

“That puts Draconis down to twenty-six and their leader is gone. According to what I've heard, the dragons in this region are very strong. Draconis might not be able to survive on their own, so what are they going to do?”

Ishaan tilts his head. “They are going to ask us for help. And maybe they will even join us, taking the recent events into account.”

I continue. “That puts us up to fifty-seven higher immortals, who are all very angry at Moonray. Plus, we have to deal with all those lows and mids. All of us have a reason to go after Moonray. Very convenient, don't you think?”

My father turns to stare at the phoenix. “He is flying very slowly. If I remember correctly, he could go much faster. But in that case... there were other clans in the past, clans who had the fighting power which we are talking about. Why didn't he antagonize them? Why this strange plot? He could have simply created a reason for the alliance to gather its forces and presented it with a target!”

The alliance, a mix of several different clans who swore to protect each other in case of aggression. I think if there really was something that actually poses a challenge they would scatter like sheep. “Would any clan in the alliance have a reason to fight until the end? How stable is this so called alliance? Wouldn't they just split and run if they are thrown into a meatgrinder? And why attack a location which is close to a mana storm?”

I point my finger southwards. “Because that's where he wants us to be. Right next to a mana storm. Which clan would be stupid enough to follow him there with a major fighting force?”

The coldness which is emanating from Ishaan retreats a little and my father takes a deep breath. “Nobody. Nobody would be that stupid. They would bunker themselves in and wait for Moonray to come to them. They wouldn't follow him into the vicinity of a mana storm.”

Finally. “Ok, so that's what we are going to do. We assess the damage and prepare ourselves for a few more spirit attacks. And then, when we've made our preparations, then we go back and hunt that bird.”

Ishaan nods with clenched teeth when a member of Draconis approaches us. The man has white hair and the demeanour of a bureaucrat. His fine tuxedo is perfectly clean, a sign that he didn't join the fighting, and I could swear that the eyebrows above his brown eyes are trimmed.

“I am Jera, the closest to what can be called Draconis' leader right now. I've talked to my... remaining clan members. Everyone is of the opinion that Draconis is no longer habitable.” Suddenly he bows. “Please take us in.”

I raise both eyebrows in surprise. We already predicted that something like this would happen, but why is this place no longer habitable? “What do you mean? No longer habitable?”

Jera winces. “You do realize that we are standing on a gigantic, tamed beast? Well, turns out that nobody but its master can command it.”

I continue Jera's train of thought. “And Moonray is its master. Judging by today's behaviour, you would rather avoid living on top of a pet under his influence. So without him, you don't have control over your own city. That must suck.” I observe without mercy.

“It doesn't happen every day that a clan leader abandons his whole clan in such a... spectacular manner,” Jera comments sourly.

“Of course you can join us,” Tisha appeared out of nowhere to pat Jera's back and smile at me. Apparently she listened to the entire conversation and decided to step in when it came to decision time.

I raise a finger. “Actually-”

But Tisha doesn't let me finish. “You just said that we shouldn't do what Moonray wants us to do. Namely taking in Draconis. But I am not sure that he was really hoping for such an outcome. This jellyfish is finished until we find a way to control Moonray.”

I look up to Ishaan. “Is there a way to control this thing?” My father doesn't care to answer. Instead, he raises a mocking eyebrow as if to say, 'I am a fucking titan and not some stinky beast tamer'. Advertisements

I sigh and decide to say the only thing which leaves me with a bit of self esteem. “We get all of your resources, this city gets ransacked to the last stone, no discussion.”

To my great surprise Jera lets out a sigh of relief and bows to me. “I'll see to it that everything gets transferred.” Then he hurries to get out of my sight before I am able to change my mind.

Finally I realize that he probably would have agreed to everything as long as his people get a safe home.

“I should have asked for more.” Like a thousand sacrifices to restock my army of souls.

.