Deer were not native to Australia, Jackie knew that. And in seeing the way they lived now, she could still see little echoes of that transplantation. In their way they were like the western country that had brought them here, strangers in a land not really made for them.
But Voeskender had done his best to change that over the years, replacing grasslands too hot and sparse to support them with jungles that hogged moisture and forests that spanned thousands of miles. The plants relied on magic to survive here, in a climate that was far too dry to support them otherwise. In that way, the deer were the tenders of all the unnatural world. And also its inheritors.
She didn’t have to construct some elaborate spell to hunt them down, or even scour the Dreamlands for the strange places their near-feral minds reached. All she had to do was search for the densest, healthiest stretches of jungle, and look for the smoke.
Meliora had been constructed using a single central magical tree. Capreo was a settlement of dozens of such trees—not modified in any way, not settled with houses and walkways—they were only the walls.
They came in from the air, Jackie on her own wings, and Liz flying with the aid of her fancy new armor. Once below the canopy and its exotic explosion of colorful life, she could see what the deer had done to clear the ground here. They had farms—of a sort, just areas where a desired plant was placed many times and anything large enough to compete was trimmed back. They had no roofs, and no walls except for densely-woven branches, which connected the trunks of the village trees.
There was only one exception here: the longhouse, which like their own structures seemed shaped from wood. But where City Hall was something like an industrial building, with the tree growing more or less as large and as quickly as possible, the longhouse was a truly ancient tree, grown so slowly that its trunk formed a natural curve, and its room was a dense canopy of leaves that let in a little light but no moisture.
The magical control required to create it staggered Jackie as she looked, and from the carvings traced delicately into the sides it looked like it was still alive. They still wept just a little sap, without actually healing over the dense geometric patterns.
The deer themselves were of a tan variety, with spindly desert legs and huge ears meant for dealing with heat. And there were hundreds of them—working in their diverse groups. A few of their scouts were already pointing in their direction, waving bows menacingly up into the air. I could probably dodge an arrow by now. If she saw it coming. If one of them decided to shoot from a direction she wasn’t watching, well… that would be the end of her adventure.
By then she could catch a few of their voices, and recognize the language. A decadent version of a Middle-Eastern tongue she’d learned only during the final war. The dialect here was stranger, but she could still puzzle it out. Dream magic worked best when it was understood.
“We’ve come to meet with you!” she called, as they came into range. She herself wore dark robes that exposed only her head and wings—like the armor Liz wore but more symbolic.
The soldiers were males obviously, though the season was wrong for antlers so they had only short stubs. They wore thick turbans over their heads, and satchels, but modesty was as lost on them as the deer of other parts.
Not so with the females she could see. They all wore clothing like hers—robes, cloaks, wraps, obscuring more of their features than she did. Only female faces were visible to her, though most were already darting back to their homes.
“When you said they were patriarchal…” Liz sang from beside her. “I didn’t think you meant backward.”
Jackie shrugged. “They don’t reverse birth responsibilities like seaponies do, so don’t be too surprised. They’re even more dimorphic than ponies, in a conventional way. You need to act respectful here.”
“Or what? We get mobbed by barbarians?”
Jackie bit back her annoyance, then stepped past her companion and over to the guard. They were on the city side of the wall, which was already as bold as she dared to act. “There is a great sultan here, yes? I can see his lands are vast, and he has many females. I must speak with him.”
The guards shared a look. One of them gestured towards her lean body, the other at her wings. Though they used no words as they did it, the meaning was obvious.
But she shouldn’t have worried. The longer they stood here, the more of a crowd was building. Already there was a semicircle of other guards and random deer passersby that there would be no way for them to escape. The sultan was here, and he would notice eventually.
“You presume to order us?” said one, annoyed. “Don’t think your magic will scare us, mageblood. This land is ours. Voeskender will protect us from your tricks.
“No tricks,” Jackie said, spreading her wings wide as though she might be hiding something inside. But there was nothing—she’d brought no gear at all, nothing except the knife that she could always reach in an instant if she wanted to. “Nothing but friendship.”
The guards exchanged more hushed conversation. They weren’t ponies, but Jackie could still read their body-posture. They both felt confident in overpowering her, but also had some part of themselves that feared her. Deer lived short lives, but there were still stories of what ponies could do. Even if none had lived here for many of their generations.
Eventually the debate over what to do with her was resolved with one of their elders—a deer with a graying coat but still vigorous eyes. He stopped them, pulling the guards back with a gesture. Enough to give the two of them some privacy.
“I don’t see what we have to gain from this,” Liz whispered, not using their language. Jackie wondered if she could, but now wouldn’t have been the time. “These primitives… what are they going to do to help?”
“It’s not their fault,” Jackie said. “Their lifetimes screw them. If they spent as long learning as most ponies do, they’d die of old age before they even started working. And they’ve depended pretty tightly on the favor of some of the Morpheans. They tend to hold mortals to pretty strict codes and rules, rules that might prevent them from innovating.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Liz muttered. “It makes sense—it’s like seaponies. We don’t die of old age, so we keep all our experts and our science is more advanced. Fine. But I don’t care whose fault it is that they’re primitive. I just want to know why you’re so intent on recruiting them.”
Because I saw a vision from a deer god where their magic was incorporated seamlessly into our society. “Because we can make up for each other’s shortcomings. Right now we’re depending too completely on the dream world, and the real world is undefended. But from what I saw, their numbers are about the same as ours. If we work together, we could improve their quality of life and they could help translate Meliora into the real world. They might even want to live in a city after helping to build one, instead of sleeping on the ground.”
Their moment of privacy was past. The elder soldier approached them confidently, far more than any of the watching crowd. There were so many deer now that they covered the ground as far as Jackie could look.
“We have heard… rumors… of ponies intruding upon our range. Do you come from the ravaged lands on the coast? Where it is safe for no deer to walk?” He spoke slowly, as though he wasn’t sure if they would understand even so.
And from Liz’s expression, she barely could.
“We are,” Jackie said. “We have been sent as envoy from that city. Stories of the might of Ankaa have traveled south, and we wished to supplicate ourselves before him.”
Her companion’s eyes went wide, and she glanced sharply at Jackie. Wait, you did understand that? Are you understanding or not? She had known plenty of seaponies who could speak all languages, in the same way that song itself was universal. But Liz hadn’t seemed nearly magical enough.
The guard nodded, as though this was the expected response. “Ankaa wishes to enquire why a proper envoy could not be sent. One with… greater faculties and understanding.”
Because I thought you were more advanced than this. “Because… one will be coming. But he wishes to be seen only by the eyes of a fellow regent. You cannot see him, but he is with me now, unseen. He is our greatest king, and his powers work even in land protected by holy ones.”
A murmur passed through the crowd. Deer glanced from right to left, as though searching for the invisible deer she’d just spoken of.
But the guard only nodded. “Very well then. Neither of you will be permitted to speak in the presence of Ankaa, of course. It is unbecoming for even I to speak to you. You may converse with his wives if you wish, while proper arrangements are drawn.”
“I’m sure my companion will enjoy that very much,” Jackie muttered, smiling a little smug grin. The strange irony of the situation was not entirely lost on her.
They were led into the massive longhouse, surrounded with a crowd of guards. She could see no male who wasn’t a child who didn’t carry a weapon. Likewise, there was no female who wasn’t a child who didn’t also wear near-total protection for her body. Getting these people integrated is going to be an uphill battle. Did you foster this culture, Athena? Or was it spontaneous?
But most of the crowd could not accompany them inside. They formed a line outside, pushing the crowd back to their previous tasks. Only a handful of the most prominent females circled around to join them.
“So, they don’t want to talk to us. I need to look male. Don’t be alarmed when I change. I’m going to create a fictional king. Act loyal and obedient, okay?”
Liz raised an eyebrow, her own faint grin forming on her lips. “I’m surprised you even know how.”
Jackie only shrugged in response—they passed through a layer of woven curtain, beyond which she could make out a smokey throne-room. Pitch torches flickered there instead of sunlight.
But their escort blocked the way. “The king you spoke of may escort you inside. But not without him.”
“Very well,” Jackie said. I can’t wait to see the look on your king’s face when he finally figures out we’re the same person. But it couldn’t happen soon—couldn’t happen until their nations were thoroughly intertwined. But if he sincerely believed anything his culture did about females, he would be in for an unpleasant surprise.
She changed quickly—stepping so swiftly into the dream and out again as another pony that there was barely even a flash of magic. She took on a taller, stronger shape, as tall as a proper Alicorn would’ve been, with all the features that most other mares admired. She might never understand, but she could imitate. For good measure, she threw in a little costume, black with gold trim. Like the military uniforms the HPI had worn long ago.
“I will see him now,” she said, her voice appropriately adjusted like everything else. The illusion was firm enough to survive even physical contact—but it was just a dream. A trick like this would never have worked if the court had even a single unicorn.
But it was all deer in there.
“Your name?” the guard asked.
“First Speaker of Meliora,” she answered.
“First Speaker of Meliora!” her escort boomed, and a pair of golden-robed does pulled the curtains open.
It was time to make a deal.