925 - Up the Food Chain
“My plan won’t work, will it?”
It was one of the most bitter admissions that Loraestil had ever made in his life, but he couldn’t stop himself from speaking it, watching as Lex Legis – the titan whose strength he’d so grossly underestimated – stood within the raging vortex of flames and gravity created by Burly Brawl, easily weathering the assault.
Not only weathering it, but counterattacking, lashing out with his claws and slicing his enemy to ribbons. Only the fact that Burly Brawl seemed to be able to completely heal himself even beyond death kept the fight from ending right then and there.
As much as Loraestil hated to admit it, he wasn’t even qualified to set foot onto such a battlefield. Although his companions had enchanted Uskeche’Kerym to the point where the Ghost Blade seemed to thrum with power in his hands – and Thilaera had healed the spiritual damage he’d taken in activating the blade’s signature power multiple times now – that would amount to nothing if he died before he could ever get close to either of the warring equines.
A moment later Lex Legis seized Burly Brawl and kicked him into the air, the hornless brute unable to stop his upward momentum, reminding Loraestil that the destructive aura he was hiding from was being emanated by the pony who was – based on how the fight was progressing – the weaker of the pair.
If Loraestil couldn’t even approach the lesser of the two fighters without perishing, what chance did he have of striking Lex Legis down?
“You won’t know unless you try!” Thilaera’s encouragement was unexpected enough that Loraestil couldn’t help but give her a surprised look, not having thought the or-tel – a member of one of the most conflict-averse ethnicity of elves – would still see this as a fight that could be won. “Vystalaran said that there was a chance, right?” she continued, looking at the apprentice High Mage.
But the wizard’s face was grim. “I said that, in my best estimate, everything we’ve done to enhance Uskeche’Kerym has given it maybe a one-in-four chance of defeating that halo Lex Legis is using. And even if it does, there’s likely to be a powerful magical backlash. All of which assumes that you can even get close enough to attack him in the first place-”
It was at that moment that Lex Legis caused the sky to be covered in giant, disembodied claws, which began to tear the still-airborne Burly Brawl into pieces over and over again, the earth stallion trying and failing to fight back as he was continually torn apart and restored.
The sheer pain that he had to be in, unable to die even as he was slain again and again, caught in the middle of a seemingly-endless storm of talons that mutilated him without the slightest moment’s respite...
It was enough to turn Loraestil’s stomach.
He had hunted demons and devils alike, beings whose capacity for cruelty knew seemingly no bounds. But not even those creatures had been able to put someone through what had to be agony beyond imagining, making their victims feel every inch of their body being rent into bloody gibbets with no surcease, unable to find release even in death. For anyone else, the shock alone would have killed them, freeing their souls and granting them peace, but to take advantage of his enemy’s regeneration in this way...
Somehow, he dragged his eyes down to look at Lex Legis.
Only to see that the titan was staring up at Burly Brawl with a mild scowl on his face, as though the earth stallion wasn’t suffering enough for his taste.
Loraestil had never once met an enemy who had put fear into his heart, frequently mocking those who expressed any sort of worry or hesitation when facing a foe.
But now, for the first time in his life, he was afraid.
This isn’t someone I can hunt!
“Thilaera.”
Vystalaran’s voice almost made Loraestil jump, somehow managing to keep his inner terror from showing on his face as he looked at the apprentice High Mage.
“Thilaera!”
Unlike himself, the wood elf did jump, gasping as she tore her terrified eyes away from Burly Brawl’s suffering. “Y-yes?”
“Call her.”
Loraestil’s brows knit together in confusion, and he wasn’t the only one, a blank expression crossing Thilaera’s face. “Call...who?”
“Your family’s patroness. Call her.”
Somehow, Thilaera managed to turn even more pale than she already was. “How do you know about that?”
“Nevermind that now,” retorted Vystalaran, his expression darkening even more. “Just call her! I have no confidence that this barrier will last once the titan turns his full attention to it! You need to act now if we’re to have any hope of seeing Lex Legis defeated!”
Loraestil could feel his confusion mounting. Thilaera’s family had a patroness? And they were someone that Vystalaran thought could win against the sort of power Lex Legis was able to wield?
But he didn’t have a chance to give voice to any of those questions as Thilaera seemed to come to a decision. Giving a shaky nod, she knelt down and began to pray, chanting to Gladoneral as she closed her eyes.
It was at that moment that Lex Legis put an abrupt end to his storm of claws.
Burly Brawl fell to the ground, hitting it hard enough to make Loraestil wince. With Thilaera’s chanting in the background, he watched as Lex Legis approached the fallen stallion, saying something that was unintelligible at this distance, after which Burly Brawl stood up-
And caused Lex Legis to vanish.
Only for the stallion to return an instant later, forcing his way out of the pinpoint of blackness that had swallowed him up. A single punch later, and Burly Brawl lay still, either dead or unmoving as the titan slowly approached him, looking as though he was about to finish the earth stallion off once and for all.
Then Thilaera’s spell took effect.
A ten-foot aperture immediately appeared in the air, the portal showing a verdant forest on the other side. Its trees were massive, the leaves shining with a radiance greater than emeralds, and the moss on the ancient trunks looked softer than even the finest blankets. The branches that rustled in the wind played a soft harmony, as though simply passing air over their limbs was enough to make music. Beams of sunlight drifted down from the canopy, each one sparkling with soft motes of golden light that seemed to bob and weave of their own accord.
And frolicking amongst the natural splendor were eladrin.
Many different types of the elves’ celestial cousins were there. Coures flittered back and forth on gossamer wings, laughing as they played a game of tag with cerulean dragonflies the size of cats. Firres cheered and hollered, flaming red hair whipping back and forth as they raced stags with coats as white as snow. Glowing with soft light, several ghaeles held out their hands as birds alit on their palms, raising their voices in a shared song with the avians that resonated with the wind in the branches.
And there, in the center of them all, was a single figure.
One who was looking back at him and his companions, a wry smile twisting their lips.
A moment later, Loraestil recognized who it was, and felt his heart leap into his throat, sinking down into a deep bow as he recognized one of the closest allies of the elven pantheon. Vystalaran was right!
Dimly he heard Thilaera’s patroness say something to her fellow eladrin, the words obscured by the blood that was pounding in his ears. This is someone who can definitely defeat Lex Legis!
A moment later, he heard footsteps come through the portal, and Loraestil bowed lower.
“Welcome, Lady Gwynharwyf!”
Lex immediately knew that he was in trouble.
The woman walking toward him now was small, to the point where standing on his hind legs would have put him a head taller than her. Her thick mane of silvery-white hair that was comparable to Agapay’s, but unlike the angel the newcomer’s hung free and unbound, reaching to her knees. Her eyes were bright green, with the sclera a lighter shade of beryl than her irises and pupils.
Most of her skin was on display, wearing only a simple flaxen top to cover her modest chest and a two-piece breechcloth tied around her hips, one long piece of ankle-length fabric hanging down from the front of her waist, the other from the back. But unlike the myriad girls he’d spent more than two weeks using for his pleasure, this woman’s attire seemed less about sensuality than functionality, doing nothing to restrict her movements as she strode toward him with a lithe grace that seemed halfway between that of a dancer and a panther preparing to spring.
Nor had she come unarmed, each hand holding a scimitar, the two swords radiating so much magic that it was almost blinding. In terms of the strength of their enchantments, both weapons put the “Ghost Blade” that weakling Loraestil had been wielding to shame. These two blades, he could tell, were artifacts...with power comparable to – or even exceeding – the treasures he’d so recently gained.
But even the auras around the swords paled before the one that radiated out from the woman herself.
She made no effort to hide it, letting the sheer weight of her being roll off of her in waves. It surpassed the blizzard that Kryonex had brought with him, despite being far subtler in its manifestation. Rather than a change of temperature or a swirling of wind, there was a feeling of imminent violence, as though the air itself was vibrating with the potential for bloodshed. And yet it contained none of the sadism or malevolent glee that Burly Brawl had so openly displayed.
Instead, this woman’s aura radiated a feeling that was akin to a mother lion looking after her cubs, possessed of a righteous indignation that was just waiting to be unleashed on anyone who dared harm someone weaker than her. More than that, it carried a sense of sanctity, as though to suggest that any who dared cross her had cause to feel ashamed of themselves, and deserved the violence she unleashed upon them.
Lex scowled, his own power surging as he pressed back against the aura, refusing to let it make contact with him.
It was like directing an umbrella against a windstorm, requiring his full concentration in order to keep from buckling...but he succeeded.
Barely.
Just from that one exchange, it was clear which of them was more powerful, and Lex knew that it wasn’t him.
She’s not a god, Lex knew, the lack of shifting manifestations making it clear that – like himself – she had only a single, set form. But she’s stronger than Kryonex.
“The strongest among them,” the Night Mare had said about titans when she’d made him one, “are powerful enough that even gods cannot dismiss their significance.”
This woman, it seemed, was one such titan.
Sensing that Lex had thrown off the effect of her aura, the woman came to a stop roughly thirty feet away from him. Her posture was relaxed, and her arms hung slack, scimitars loose in her grasp. But nothing about her suggested that her guard was lowered, and when she looked him over a moment later, he could almost feel her looking for holes in his defenses.
Unsettlingly, she smiled a moment later. “So you’re Lex Legis, I take it?”
The words themselves were harmless, but the pressure behind them the single sentence sound like a damning indictment, as though simply being the person she’d named was something he should apologize for.
Instead, he stared straight into her emerald eyes as he answered, refusing to be daunted. “I am. And you are?”
“Gwynharwyf, second consort of Queen Morwel of the Llys Seren.”
Lex’s eyes narrowed.
Those were names he knew, not just from the Libram of Ineffable Damnation, but also from Penelope La Gard, the Queen of the Autumn Court who’d been among his recent conquests.
The Llys Seren was the political term for the eladrin, the race of celestial fey who were the reason that the Seelie Court – the conglomerate of fey polities that included the Spring and Summer Courts, as well as numerous smaller sovereignties – remained dominant over the Unseelie. Because the eladrin were both empyreal beings as well as fey, their powers were significant enough that they provided a decisive tilt in the Seelie Court’s favor. That was most embodied in their leader, Morwel, who had two consorts with whom she shared power: Faerinaal, her husband who primarily oversaw the defense of their people and their lands, and her wife Gwynharwyf, who led their armies.
The same Gwynharwyf who stood in front of him now.
And being fey as well as empyreals, they’re close allies of the elven gods, Lex knew. Which means that she can speak to their interests without necessarily representing them.
In other words, her being here gave the elven gods political cover. Whatever Gwynharwyf did, the elven pantheon could claim plausible deniability later, saying that they hadn’t sanctioned her actions. All Gwynharwyf needed to do was come up with a benign excuse for being here, and another to initiate hostilities, and that would be that; she'd be able to attack him without the elves' having to take responsibility for it.
And given that the eladrin weren't a pantheon, there would be little that the pony gods would be able to do about it. Especially since the Llys Seren had formal ties with the rest of the Seelie Court, not to mention alliances with the elves and several other pantheons, at least according to the Libram.
Though given what had just happened with the Night Mare – if that had even been the Night Mare – it was entirely possible that no one in the pony pantheon would make much of a complaint anyway.
Which meant that he had to keep this from degenerating into a fight, since he'd almost certainly be slain or captured if it came down to that. That, in turn, would require him to exercise diplomacy, avoiding giving Gwynharwyf any sort of excuse to attack him.
If he couldn’t...then he’d have to use his fallback option.
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Okay...things are truly bad if Lex is forced to use diplomacy to bargain for his safety as well as those under his protection. Hopefully he can talk his way out but given that most of his attempts at diplomacy were the cold logic type that more often than not break down as a result, chances aren't that good. Then again, some of the few successes he's had in diplomacy involved the divine, even if one of them may or may not be under the influence of a certain love goddess' blessing, the cold logic approach might work out...I hope.
Welp, time to break out the most well behaved D20 boys, we are going to Gods country!
No matter what happens, Elves and Gods are going to be watching just so they can pick the right boxset out of the stack of games they play?
Out of a few options I can think of, most of which wouldnt work unless she permitted it, about the best we can hope for is Burley being the continous idiot and getting her intrest into the reasons Behind his behaviour?
I can only think of one option. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
11850014 Lex has his work cut out for him here, all the more so for the fact that eladrin are Chaotic Good as a rule, and Lex is Lawful Neutral with an evil slant. So right off the bat, he has that working against him, in a diplomatic confrontation that would be very bad if it were to break down to the point of violence. Then again, Gwynharwyf's being here in the first place likely means that she's willing to help out the elves, and so isn't likely to be amenable to Lex's take on things anyway.
All of which is to say that Lex is starting out with two strikes against him already, and now he has to approach things in the area where he's weakest, which is being charming and disarming...or at least, not openly hostile. Let's hope he doesn't have to use whatever that fallback option is!
11850026 The problem is that even the most well-behaved d20 can get a little persnickety at times. Damn things seem to enjoy screwing you over when you least expect it.
11850075 Burly would certainly serve as a good "common enemy" type, since between the carefree hostility and lechery, he seems likely to offend someone like Gwynharwyf, and stepping in to confront an offensive person is a great way to score points with someone. But with Burly unconscious, and Lex not seeming like the type to gallantly step in to defend a lady's honor (unless he's already decided she's his lady), that's probably not going to be a viable strategy.
11850834 Well, whatever it is, Lex is hoping it won't come to that either...but when's the last time that's happened?