Jus ad Bellum – Merla – 25.03.2021

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Equinox is a beautiful city, a beacon of shining light in a land of gloaming. It is a city of two worlds – those that dwell on the surface of a tranquil sea in buildings of crystalline wonder or towers of glittering marble, with winding canals and beautiful arching bridges; and those that dwell below who swim to depths where a glow of bioluminescence can be seen if one can look past the mirrored surface that mesmerisingly reflects the stars of the night sky. The sun is forever already set below the horizon but the last vestiges of its rays reach across the sky to paint the heavens with burning magentas, reds and oranges that melt into deep purples and midnight blues.

But it is the stars that draw the Daughter of Summer’s eye as she steps out of the portal. Thousands upon thousands of lights that glitter in the dark expanse overhead. At one time Merla would have thought such a place dark, maybe even frightening. But she sees things differently these days, ever since Queen Sarastra’s death. Merla is still not sure why the Archfey’s assassination triggered the awakening of residual Shadow Magic she must have been carrying from the Cloak of Many Feathers – or if there even is a connection between the two events. With her memories from before her arrival in the Summer Court restored, she carries more questions than she ever has before.

But now is not the time for her to dwell on them.

The note from the Umbral Earl was simple in its expression of urgency. Yet the place their group arrived at was nowhere near anything official. It is a narrow walkway between two buildings, the platforms lightly shifting under Astra’s hooves as she steps out of the way of the others.

“You must be the Dawnlanders.”

They all turn to see a pixie with moth-like wings as the source of this comment. She introduces herself as Hayley, one of the Umbral Earl’s people.

“Before I take you to see the Umbral Earl, there is some minor paperwork we must settle first. Please, follow me.”

She flits off down further into the alleyway, away from where there is clearly a large gathering of people in an official square with someone addressing them. Haylay stops in front of a nondescript door of a nondescript house and goes inside.

Sharing a look with Elias, Merla asks Astra to keep a lookout with Elchior for anyone that may come down their way before following Ghesh and Igrainne who have already headed inside. Sergeant Grimes, the grizzled human man from Daring’s city watch, is the last one in, closing the door softly behind him.

“As I am sure you’re all aware,” Hayley begins, “there is an election going on. And in a very untimely manner a small village outside of Equinox on the mainland within the Twilight Domain has been attacked by something rather large and monstrous. The Umbral Earl has very graciously offered to go deal with this monster because no one else wanted to do it and – well, let’s call a spade a spade – it’s a very good press opportunity.”

Sergeant Grimes gives a derisive sniff.

“Before you agree to this job I will need you to sign a few things.” From thin air Hayley pulls a thick piece of parchment. “This is merely a formality. But you must understand, in these… tense times one stray comment can win or lose an election for someone.”

Merla raises an eyebrow. The others stir a little, glances exchanging between one another to see who will speak first.

“We ask that you come along on this job, you do what you do best which is…” the pixie trails off and looks from Merla to Elias then Ghesh like she is hoping one of them will step in to help her. They do not. “Adventure, I believe the term is? We will offer you a rather sizable amount of gold as recompense. You will help the Umbral Earl deal with this creature and if asked about it you will state only what is written on this paper.”

At this, the parchments multiply and Hayley hands out copies to everyone so they can read over what is clearly a fey contract. Merla does so carefully. She is surprised to see how exceptionally plain and simple it is. Certainly nothing that would be fraught with double meanings or secret loopholes. If anything it is a rather mundane document, barely three paragraphs long. Regardless of its length it is complete in what it covers. However even if Merla were to sign it under her stage name, Sheryl the Fae-Touched, the magic that makes the contract binding is not tied to what is written down. It is tied to a person’s essence, their True Name, even if the one signing it does not know what that Name is.

Dangerously clever magic.

But that isn’t what concerns her the most. It is this: First, whoever drafted this contract really dumbed it down to the point that even a fey child would be insulted by how simple it is. It’s obvious the Umbral Earl was not sure who would answer the summons but to Merla it is clear they do not think very highly of the mortals from the Material Plane. Second, something even more obvious to her than the first, the Earl is very keen to get them to sign this contract because they want this job done.

Merla gives Hayley a carefully measured look, her suspicions rising.

“Why do you feel it is necessary for us to sign this?” Sergeant Grimes asks gruffly.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there is an election happening,” Hayley explains, a hint of annoyance to her tone.

“Yes, I am very aware of that,” Grimes says, dismissing her sass. “But if you’re asking us outsiders to come into your realm to deal with your problem you want us to somehow keep it a secret? That seems slightly odd behaviour to me.”

“Oh, no. You are very welcome to speak of this. In fact, people will most likely ask you what happened and we will encourage you to speak of it. But when you speak of it you will not reveal anything except the following,” Hayley says, pointing to the highlighted statement on the contract.


“And what if we breach this contract?” Elias asks.

“Then the magic in the contract will activate and you will serve a sentence of at least six months in the Twilight Prison,” Hayley states. “Oh, and the gold we give you for this job will be returned to the Earl.”

Elias shares a look with Merla. “Is it possible to amend this contract slightly to something a little less… obvious?” they ask the pixie.

“How do you mean?” Hayley asks hesitantly.

“Well if we are all to say the same exact phrase with the same exact wording it would be a bit conspicuous wouldn’t it?” they ask with a smile. “I cannot speak for the others, but I do not feel comfortable signing this with only one possible way to answer any questions. Fey are clever, they will become suspicious if all of us are spouting the same phrase word for word, no?”

Hayley raises a tiny finger, mouth opening to object but she freezes, suddenly uncertain.

Elias continues. “Having an option to change the subject, or hype up a particular moment from what will obviously be a fight that will need to be told in order to be believed would make it more convincing to the citizens of the Twilight Court than a box standard phrase.”

Merla tries not to smile too much at the stunned look on Hayley’s face. She knew her friend was good at working around bargains and contracts but to see Elias in action was like watching one of the best dancers spin circles around their partner and never tire.

Hayley shakes herself out of her stunned stupor, looking from Elias to Merla then Ghesh with more measured eyes.

“The three of you I have heard of. The other three,” Hayley points to Bones, Sergeant Grimes and Igrainne, “I’ll admit I am slightly concerned.”

“How so?” Merla asks.

“Because the thing you will be asked to dispose of… It’s very very big and it is quite violent. So far, we believe that roughly seventeen people have tied. At least five of those were martially trained.”

Merla’s expression darkens a little.

“Everyone here is a capable fighter,” Ghesh says assuredly.

Hayley studies the dragonborn for a moment then nods her tiny head. “Then I am reassured. If you are happy with this then, I will make the amendments to those people’s contracts who wish to have it done,” she half grumbled.

Merla steps forward with Elias, handing over the contract to Hayley before they, along with everyone else, sign on the dotted line.

---

“The village is on the other side of this hill, Dawnlanders. I will follow your lead,” the Umbral Earl said in his soft, mellow voice. The skeletal, white-grey, shimmery horse he rode was as still as the woods around them, adding to the sombre air that surrounds the Earl.

Hayley’s eyes were round as dishes, little moth wings hardly beating as she looked around at the torn and stomped giant fir and spruce trees. Merla could see her trembling.

The Daughter of Summer wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the Umbral Earl; A shadar-kai living in the Twilight Court, who had a resting sad face, dressed in dark clothes, and always had his hood up. It seemed wrong to judge him by his appearance, for how one seems is not what they always are in the Feywild.

“Elias, do you and Elchior want to take the north side whilst Astra and I take the south?” Merla asked her friend.

“Sure. Quietly?” Elias asked.

“Naturally.”

“We’ll try to approach from the east, as quietly as we can,” Ghesh added. Igrainne nods behind him.

They all glance at the Umbral Earl and his pixie companion. Neither make any indication they will follow.

“Right…” Sergeant Grimes grunts. “Let’s go.”

“He does not seem too keen in actually helping his people,” Astra says as she beats her mighty wings.

“He also seems to know more about this creature than he was willing to share with us,” Merla pointed out.

“I noticed that as well,” Astra said darkly. “Almost like-”

“He knows exactly where it came from, yes,” Merla says in unison with Astra. Her grip tightens on the vines draped around the winged unicorn’s withers.

It does not take them long to crest the hill and see the carnage they have come too late to stop. The partial remains of fey and eladrin bodies are scattered piecemeal around the small decimated village. Piles of rubble and the demolished outline of foundations are the only indications of where homes used to be. In what could have been the centre square is the largest pile of stone, with still burning fires dotted around everywhere.

“This is… horrible,” Merla says, hardly able to share her thoughts with her partner. The carnage is complete and ruinous, something Merla knows will be forever burned into her mind. Looking back to the hill, she sees the Umbral Earl and Hayley slowly making their way down it’s slope. It is hard to read his expression from this distance but Merla swears she sees dumbstruck horror beneath the shadows of his hood.

There is the sound of shifting rocks.

Suddenly emerging from the large pile of rubble in the centre of the village is a gargantuan monstrosity. Covered in scales with two vicious horns extending from its forehead with more running down its back forming a thick carapace, it’s mighty tail lashes around as it opens its wide, toothy maw letting out a bellowing roar that shakes the very roots of the trees surrounding the destroyed village.

“Ghesh-!”

Merla wasn’t able to finish her shout of warning before the enormous abomination snapped it’s teeth around Ghesh. For a terrifying moment she thought her friend was going to be swallowed whole but the strong black dragonborn manages to pry the creature’s jaw open. Elias rushes in on Elchior, swings their scythe in glittering arcs of aurora coloured attacks before moving back. This allows Ghesh the chance to grab a clear vial with something like a fingernail floating in it, pop it’s stopper and chug it back. Then he answers the monster’s cry with his own roar rage.

“Astra get closer!”

The winged unicorn circles above the treeline, swinging around whilst Merla looks up to the stars as her fingers run over the humming strings of her harp. She barely has to call the magic to her, it is already there, ready and waiting. Softly humming a note whilst drawing out a symbol in front of her, Merla releases a burst of psychic energy just above the creature’s head, the ripples of her enchanting magic echoing out to stop just before reaching Ghesh and Sergeant Grimes. It looks like it would take root in the mind of the monstrosity, but something about it, possibly some sort of resistance makes her spell do half the damage it should have to its mind.

The magnitude of the monster’s presence hits them all then. Merla feels her heartbeat quicken, and a sweat breakout across her brow that begins to turn sour with fear. But stronger than that is an indescribable rage at this thing and the destruction it has caused. The Daughter of Summer pushes past the fear and sings out an inspirational trill to Ghesh, one that will hopefully help him get out of the creature’s jaws.

Not all of her friends seem to have pushed past the monster’s frightening presence though. Bones stands frozen, but the draconic looking aarakocra calls upon the Raven Queen to curse the monster and Merla feels a shiver run down her spine. Then two bolts of lighting in the shape of arrows fire in quick succession from Igrainne. The creature roars in pain but only seeing Sergeant Grimes and Ghesh before it, it lashes out at the two. Its spiked tail knocks Grimes to the ground but whatever potion Ghesh drank has bolstered the dragonborn’s strength to the point he isn’t struggling to hold the monstrosity’s teeth apart.

Sergeant Grimes picks himself up and, taking a sword hilt from his side, utters words that Merla cannot hear. A murky blue beam of light appears where the blade should be, casting a waning light in the creature’s face. Then Grimes swings, dropping smite after smite, the blue beamed sword rocking the monster back with such psychic and radiant force.

From the base of the hill, the unmistakably mellow voice of the Umbral Earl echoes out to them a little louder than would be possible without magical assistance.

“Excellent. Keep up the great work.”

---

Although the success of their battle saw the incredibly strong monstrosity defeated, Merla’s thoughts keep returning to the brief conversation she had with Astra before its appearance. Whilst the others do their best to harvest as much as they can from the thing – Ghesh taking one of the large horns from it’s brow – she Messages the others her suspicions. Most of them know she would not make such an accusation lightly, but it was Igrainne’s response that really solidified it for her.

“This creature doesn’t belong in the Feywild. Something’s wrong with it.”

They were already well on their way back towards Equinox when Merla nods to Elias. Elchior and Astra pick up their pace to fall into step beside the Umbral Earl’s skeletal horse as Merla touches the shadowy ring on her finger subtly casting her spell of Detect Thoughts. The others casually listen in as she starts by asking about Queen Sarastra, what she was like in the court. At the same time her mind reaches out to his. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly it hits a solid wall and slides off of his mind like an ice cube on a stove.

Merla glances at Elias and presses her lips together. Changing tactic she focuses on reading his reactions to her words instead.

“It was horrifying to witness her death. Such a cruel and vengeful way for her to have died. You must miss her a lot – I have heard you were her lover.”

The Earl blinks a little at her directness, but his face remains as passive as ever. “She was a wondrous being, may-her-light-be-ever-blinding, and we will never see a ruler such as hers again.”

“There was definitely something going on between him and Sarastra,” Merla observes to Astra, reading into his reaction.

Aloud she asks, “What motivated you into pursuing the Twilight Throne?”

“I’m trying to honour her memory.”

Merla raises an eyebrow at the comment. Then she gestures to Elias. “As people from the Summer and Winter Courts we are quite familiar with the ways of the Feywild and seeing how things are in the Twilight Court, it must be difficult. It is strange though. Neither of us have ever seen a creature like that anywhere in the Feywild before – it’s certainly not native to our realms. Surely someone who has the resources of a soon to be king must know something? Are you sure you don’t know how it got here?”

He shakes his head, sadly. “I’m afraid I haven’t a clue. Such a horrible tragedy. I’m relieved to be able to reassure the Twilight subjects that the monster has been slain and that they are saved, and I thank you all for your aid in this.”

“You don’t actually believe him do you Merla?” Astra scoffs, glancing back at her.


On the Umbral Earl’s other side, Elias leans in. “What with the Unseelie about there must be some preventative measures you have in place no? Isn’t that how you heard about it in the first place? What border did it come across if it is not from here? It didn’t seem magical enough to teleport itself and such a large creature getting beyond the border undetected seems unusual.”

The Umbral Earl gives them a blank, sad look. Then his skeletal horse begins to pick up its pace, taking him away from their interrogative conversation. From behind them Hayley quickly starts pointing out interesting landmarks to Ghesh in a voice too bright to be anything but forcefully changing the subject.

“If you are to become the King of the Twilight Court you are going to have to put your people’s needs before your own,” Merla says, the tone of her voice making him listen to her. “There was a reason Sarastra was murdered. If you continue on this path in her memory… I fear your Fate will not be so different.”

Without turning around or slowing down he replies, “Trust me, I know.”

“I trust no creatures like that will ever appear in the Feywild again,” Elias adds, their own voice dropping low, the icey cold bite of winter unmistakable in their words.

The Umbral Earl does not answer.

Elias shares a glance with Merla and then the others as Hayley continues to pointedly talk about a circle of rocks they were passing. Merla could see as plain and clear as the stars above the defeated sadness and guilt the Earl feels. This man who wants to become king did something that got wildly out of hand, it blew up in his face, and now he has to live with the consequences of his actions.

“Deplorable,” Astra says, almost spitting the word. “I certainly hope the people of this court do not choose him to be their King.”

“Mhmm,” Merla agrees.

She shouldn’t be concerned, not for someone who would attempt a ruse to make themselves seem the hero when, in fact, their ignorant actions cost the lives of innocent civilians. But there was something about his response that unnerved her.

“If you continue on this path in her memory… I fear your Fate will not be so different.”

“Trust me, I know.”

To Merla it almost sounds like he wants to die.

That thought stays with her for the rest of their journey.

---

About a week after sending her letter, Wendy arrives to deliver post to the Four Fair Winds, and there is an envelope for Merla stamped with the logo of the Copperkettle Logging Company. The letter is written in a neat, practiced hand, someone used to writing many such documents. There’s a quality to the writing though, that speaks of stress – words clearly written slower and hesitantly or faster and aggressively, before calming down again.