You would think finding someone in a place you’ve lived two hundred years is easy, Tyaethe thought, wandering up and down Candaeln to try and find someone she normally had no cause to start a conversation with. Not, for once, carrying a sword, but actually a heavy-looking book. With the glasses, adult figure, and dress, the vampire looked less the paladin and more a bookish noble.
Eventually,
eventually, she found her way onto one of the rooftops – one still opening onto ramparts.
“You know, I almost forgot that this roof wasn’t converted into an attic like most of the others. I guess it has the best view over the city,” Tyaethe said, looking out over Aimlenn and as it sloped down towards the riverside, “I was beginning to think you weren’t here after all, but everyone said you hadn’t left Candaeln today.”
Oh, wonderful. And here he’d been hoping for some quiet time to himself. Renar bit back his annoyance and marked the page of the book he’d been reading before he turned to face the less common adult face of Tyaethe, folding his arms.
”It’s not often that you actually call on me for anything.” Which made this somewhat alarming. He could hazard a guess or two as to what this was about.
”This is about the skirmish with the Midnight Hunt, I take it?” He’d been prepared to accept the consequences of defying Tyaethe’s order to allow her to fight alone, but it was still irritating to think that one of either Gertrude or Rolan gave up his name. Oh, who was he kidding? It was almost certainly Gertrude.
“Yes,” she nodded, stepping closer and… still having to crane her head up. He was
annoyingly tall, not so huge that it was normal, but still so much taller than herself that it made things awkward for all of them involved. Unfortunately, the ramparts obviously didn’t have seating on them. “I’m curious about your opponent. It was… annoying to fight it in the past when we were constantly on the move, and we were focused more on Rozenalt and not getting overwhelmed. I never got a good chance to look at it, and none of us found the chance to try and defeat it.”
”Oh, that?” Even now, the memory of victory in that duel brought Renar no small amount of satisfaction.
”To be honest, I’m still not certain of all of how he, it, she fought. It was vulnerable to impaired vision, yet could conjure traps and tricks from thin air, it seemed. I’d not managed to get a handle on all of its limitations before I managed to finish the fight.”“Yes, that’s what I remember. Traps imposed where they couldn’t have been prepared, regardless of how far or fast you lead the Hunt away… not an ideal skill for a direct confrontation, but extremely annoying when you’re trying to
avoid the Hunt and being dragged into Faerie,” the vampire nodded, “It seemed to start relying more on fire towards the end? I have to admit I had trouble noticing at that point, I was… distracted.”
And then everything was on fire
anyway, so whatever Renar’s duel produced wasn’t the most obvious.
”Indeed.” Renar allowed a displeased expression to cross his face.
”It cost me my favorite trophy. Fortunate that I repaid it in kind, several times over. And before you ask, Ardor did check it all over. The panoply’s all free of any sort of fae corruption or impurity.”“Corruption and impurity, certainly, but I have a different thought…” she tapped at the book, “What was inside the armour? I don’t think it had a pulse, or any blood at all. The houndmaster did, the falconer did… I’m not so sure about the lady; we never fought her. Obviously Rozenalt did. The trapper was always a
blank in that regard.”
”Curiously enough, nothing.” Renar tucked his own closed book aside as he pondered the question.
”By all reckoning, it seemed to have exceeded some sort of threshold for damage and collapsed after my last assault upon it. When I examined the armor, there was nothing within. You believe it to be a spectre of sorts, then?”“Something fae, still, but… well, it’s not like I could see it,” Tyaethe admitted with a shrug. Terrible eyesight, on fire, and half a clearing away; not an amazing combination, “I’ve asked a few people but they had other things on their mind.”
”Then I suppose we stand at an impasse on this matter. Outside of what I’ve already told you, let’s see…the flames surged out of the armor after I bested it. They coalesced into some sort of person, still comprised of fire. And then it simply dissipated. What brought this on, anyway? Simple curiosity? Or do you believe it left some sort of lingering surprise behind?”“I don’t think it left a surprise, but… I have an idea about the armour,” Tyaethe started flicking through the book, scanning through the pages until she stopped on a particular spread and turned it around. One side had nearly a dozen sketches of various flame-like creatures in various forms of humanity, and the other…
Well, the text was in Elvish. She wasn’t sure if he could read any of that. “Any of those look similar? There’s a couple of pages of these.”
Well. It was a good thing he’d been educated in Elvish. Though likely not for any sort of reason she’d assume. No, Renar’s father dearest had decided his least favorite would have the same diplomatic education as any other noble, solely because his future spy would at least need to know what was being spoken to report back.
He started perusing the pages, his lessons coming back to him.
”It’s been some time since I’ve had to actually use my language education, but I can manage. Let’s see…”“Let me know if you can’t read anything; this one’s high elven, and it’s pretty heavy on the magical theory,” she replied. It was hard to tell which dialect someone had been taught, and when magic came into the picture…
High Elvish wasn’t necessarily the issue, but the magical theory did take him a few moments to parse. Renar hadn’t invested too much time into learning of magic outside of how to counter it once it had been confirmed he didn’t have the talent for the art. Still, he wasn’t an idiot, so it wasn’t impossible to start understanding the gist of what was written down. Merely rather difficult.
”Ah, I think I may have hit upon it.” He flipped the tome around to point the entry out to Tyaethe.
”This…’primal flame’, is it? From my understanding, the trapper exhibited few of the traits mentioned here outside of being ablaze. Would it be a safe assumption that the armor was imposing some sort of structure upon it?”“Fire’s ability to destroy, but not its ability to warm, or light, or cleanse; merely an all-devouring hunger that leaves ash in its wake,” Tyaethe read, eyes tracing the corresponding lines, “The forest fire that clears out the old to make room for new life, the mountain whose destruction leaves new fields for planting. Yes, that could be bound, all its power chained and directed into something a facsimile of its true nature. It would explain the predilection for flames whenever it could use them, it’s all destruction and shadow.”
“But,” she straightened with a smile, “If we want to
know – and I think it may be useful if the armour
did bind it – then we need to check with an expert.”
She was smiling. Oh, this bode poorly. Renar let an open frown show on his face.
”You’re anticipating enjoying something. I take it this is to be at my expense?” He sighed, but didn’t shift from where he stood.
”Fionn wouldn’t be nearly this troublesome if that’s whom you were thinking of. So not him, then.”“Who better to take a look at fae-forged bindings than another fairy?” The paladin closed the book with a snap and turned back towards the door, “She might not be a smith, but Fiadh would have a better sense for whatever magic
was used than Ardor.”
“I think there’s more in it for you than satisfied curiosity,” she added, suspecting that otherwise Renar would decline… and access to the armour was going to be needed to check this.
”Such as?” Renar quirked an eyebrow, mildly annoyed that Tyaethe was accurately assuming how he would have responded otherwise.
”If I’m to spend time interacting with fae whimsy, I would hope there would be something worth the time and headache.”“Fae are very big on their obligations,” Tyaethe started – that should be obvious, it was the entire cause and solution for their last problem, “So what do you think it would be worth if the trapper’s involvement in the Wild Hunt
wasn’t a voluntary arrangement?”
”Oh, very well.” Renar sighed, his mind following Tyaethe’s words. Damn it.
”Do what you must. The armor is within my quarters. Shall I bring it out, or ought we make our way there?”“Best to just bring it along while we visit Fiadh.”
With armour in tow, there was only one likely place to find Fiadh: in the gardens. Possibly hanging around that one tree, as usual, but most likely in the garden. Hopefully
not off who-knew-where or breaking into Fionn’s room, but…
Fortunately, it wasn’t too hard to find the little-but-large-for-a-niyar fairy, Fiadh leaning out of the usual tree as soon as the two of them came near.
“Oh, hello! Has the captain said I can bring in a new tree yet? I’m still thinking which one would be best…”“I don’t think I’ve had a good time to ask, you should find her herself,” Tyaethe said, gesturing behind at Renar instead, “We’ve got some armour we need a fairy to take a look at.”
The fairy tilted her head, visibly confused.
Once he was bid to, Renar set the bundle he’d been carrying down, proceeding to unwrap it and lay out the trapper’s - his armor now, piece by piece.
”I seized this from a knight of the Midnight Hunt after besting it in combat. Whatever fae spirit inhabited it abandoned the armor upon its defeat, but Tyaethe believes there may be something lingering within.”“More… can you tell if it was just shaping, or binding?” Tyaethe asked, getting a long ‘oooooh’ out from the fairy as she jumped down, pointy feet lightly sinking into the earth. Fiadh walked closer, leaning over for an inspection and… stopped.
“There was a fay in here?” That was much more despondent than she’d normally sound.
”There was, yes.” Renar nodded. Wonderful, Fionn’s ‘’’wife’’’ was already in a damned snit. Best tread carefully, or he’d never hear the end of it from the other knight.
”Is there some sort of issue we aren’t aware of regarding this?”“No, this armour is just…” Fiadh reached a hand out closer to the metal, then snatched it back as if burned,
“It’s not nice to have any of us in here. It’s…”“Not steel?” Tyaethe asked.
“Most of it is! But it was… um, there’s cold iron on it? On the inside?”“Plated?”
“That’s it! It was plated, and even if you were very strong, it would hurt to be in there. And it feels like it wants to suck me in, even though I’m all wrong for what it wants to do,” Fiadh continued, nodding and moving away further towards the tree.
”So it did serve as a prison for the flame spirit, then.” Renar nodded. Fortunate that nothing about cold iron mattered to humans. Then he went over the last part of what Fiadh said again.
”And what exactly does the armor ‘want to do’? Is this in addition to serving as containment?”“Bind and reshape and control. It’s a very unpleasant feeling. And it wouldn’t even work,” the niyar raised a finger to her lips, brows creased in concentration,
“I’m a fay but I have a body. Even if I was pulled into it, I couldn’t be what it wants me to be, and I don’t have the magic it needs.”“But a spirit that’s more of an element and less of a
person…”
“Oh, they would definitely be drawn in, if they were weak enough. Or weakened. But they would hate it forever.””That does explain much about the nature of what it did as opposed to what it was...” Renar mused, rubbing his chin in thought.
”Helpful, thank you. Do you know if that would influence a human who wore the armor as well?”“Only if someone ripped your soul out of your body and then squeezed it in. It would be a tight fit.”“Don’t leave Renar with a necromancer, then.”
”As opposed to eternal darkness?” He joked. Well, not fully. The more he thought on it, if he didn’t have a body left by that time…thoughts for decades in the future, at least.
”In any case, this has been of much use, appreciated. Then there’ll be no issue with my wearing mine trophy.” A grin.
”I’d been needing a full, coherent set of plate for formality’s sake, anyhow.”“Would the bound spirit owe Renar anything?” the white-haired girl wondered, looking between the two, “If it could be summoned?”
“Maaaaaaybe? It should, but would something like that recognise a person very well…” Fiadh’s finger tapped away,
“I guess if he brought the armour along? I don’t know what it could do for you, though, it doesn’t seem like armour meant for something very nice.”Renar shared a look with Tyaethe at that.
”Odds on it feeling rather charitable for my technically freeing it? Or would the sting of defeat override that sentiment?”“Well, I don’t think anything would ask to be in there, not with cold iron,” was the assertive response,
“And it would never be doing what it wanted. Or is meant to, if it thinks that way… I don’t think it would really care about fighting.””Then unless you’ve any way to summon that creature to see, I suppose we can table this as a non-threat?”“Even if I did, I wouldn’t want anything like that near the trees or the rest of the garden!”“And I wouldn’t want anyone summoning something like that
anywhere in the city anyway. But thank you, that’s been very helpful.” Tyaethe added, smile getting somewhat exasperated at Fiadh’s explanation that of
course she’d help any companion of Fionn. Mostly for the phrasing, obviously.
Renar simply inclined his head in lieu of thanking Fiadh for the second time in a minute, turning back to Tyaethe.
”If this matter’s been resolved to your satisfaction, I’ll be taking my leave. Unless there’s some other lingering concern to be voiced…?”“Not at all. And if you ever need that sort of power… well, I think Gertrude probably knows about summoning, she seems the type,” the girl replied, shrugging and giving no further explanation of
that. “I wouldn’t
recommend picking it up yourself, but it doesn’t really need much magic, it’s easily started externally… but that’s a lot more dangerous.”
Kind of obvious, really. Just because you could provide a lot of the required magic to
start it by other means, since it was generally all ritual, didn’t mean you could then adjust anything on the fly. Or augment the defences.
”I’ve no talent for such regardless, but good to know. Perhaps if I’m desperate enough to owe a favor to that girl.” He wasn’t. At least not until they were in far more dire straits. The cost of owing even an apprentice Witch a favor, even one as petty as Gertrude…especially one as petty as Gertrude, was likely more trouble than it was worth. With that in mind, he took his leave of the garden, wrapping up his armor to bring with him.
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