The first two days she mostly spent charting out the area, laying traps in the two ruins she found along her search. By the fourth, she was becoming generally familiar with the landscape and the slightly different feybeasts in this area.
By the morning of the fifth, she scowled down at the pile of materials she’d managed to gather, muttering to herself about incompetent idiots. Squirt needed to provide the materials she promised, which meant delivering them to the lord, which meant emptying out her gods damned pouch to even attempt it. She ended up having to empty most of her entire dimensional pouch in one of the clearings to house it all.
After all, the space inside wasn’t infinite—it could comfortably house a regular-sized chair, not a regular-sized bed.
As she trotted herself up to the gate, she lowered her hood and kept her eyes down as the guard on duty at the north gate looked her over.
“Ah. Right, the new hunter. Any luck, runt?”
She gave him the bog-standard response, bowing exactly as expected. “As the Hunt allows, Guardsman.”
He grunted. “In you get.”
Squirt slightly dipped in response, then started to trot past the guardhouse at the gate when she came to a sudden stop at the sight of a grinning Tobias.
“There’s my favorite pixie. How’d it go?”
What kind of bogus horseshit was he selling now? His favorite pixie?
She scowled at him. Glancing to either side of the entry, there were no fey in immediate proximity, so she trotted closer to ask quietly, “… are you here for me?”
“Why, yes, yes I am, Braveheart.”
That name was stupid, and he could fuck off. She was a coward and damn proud of it. Still, his attitude hadn’t changed one bit since they met, and she found herself relaxing as if the pup was Stalf.
Meaning she actually met the man’s eyes instead of hiding her glare as she muttered, “Must I?”
He stood and cleared his throat, taking on an official tone. “You have been summoned by—”
Horrified, she cut him off in a hushed whisper before he could cause a scene, “Okay, okay, I get it. I’m following.”
Damn it. She’d been hoping to use the secret tunnel.
Tobias rubbed his hands together. “Excellent. Have you eaten yet? The bakery down the street is phenomenal.”
She heaved an exaggerated sigh, beyond irritated by everything about this man. He was too happy, too eager, and too gods damned cocksure. “I haven’t had a use for coin in twenty years, Guard Tobias.” Villages as small and remote as hers, where it was so ancient, there was no name to the place since it had long since been forgotten, there was no need of money. Traders never passed by. Most were self-sufficient, and anything they couldn’t make, they traded for with favors or goods. Even their taxes were paid with the leftover food grown or wood gathered.
He shrugged. “You get paid at the end of the month. Pay me back then.”
She froze.
Paid? She… was getting paid?
Despite the impossibility of it, his grin grew smugger with each passing second.
But… but she’d signed no deal. Agreed to no bargain. And yet this man was dead sure she would be paid? Not even Stalf had ever paid her. Not that he actually could, anyway.
Please let her go back to the forest, where the world made sense again.
He winked at her. “It’s too bad you left so early, or you might have gotten the whole spiel.” With that, he turned on his heel and started walking forward.
Squirt hesitated, a tantalizing thought appearing in her mind.
Technically, he’d never officially told her she’d been summoned.
Technically, she’d never signed anything officially to go see the lord every five days. Never agreed to it. The only thing she’d even vaguely agreed to was that she had to return to stock up and offer reports.
So, technically speaking, she had absolutely no need to follow him.
They hadn’t broken yet.
And frankly, she wanted to avoid spending any more time with overly friendly wolves.
She followed just long enough for him to notice, from the gate to the first house. He grew even smugger as she trotted along obediently after him and started expounding to her about some baked foods he was hoping to try. She quickly licked her hand, reached out, and touched the tail of his shirt hanging loosely on his frame. As a wolf, he’d have a powerful sense of smell and likely heavily relied on it. It wouldn’t buy her long, possibly just a few seconds, but a clinging scent to the back of his clothes to make him think she was still dutifully behind might delay him for longer.
And luckily, wolf shifter ears were not as good as their noses in fey form.
As soon as he passed the first building, she simply split off from him, darting through the shadows and around the corner to a secret cellar door behind a single occupant guard station. The guard on duty, an orc, nodded to her as she slipped behind the man, opened the cellar door, and darted inside.
Phew. Safe.
The lord would know she had used the secret entrance, so hopefully, he would assume they missed each other and simply send for her if he actually needed to speak to her for some godsforsaken reason. She highly doubted he did. If she could establish a bit of distance in this arrangement, it was possible they might never have to interact directly ever again.
Grinning, she headed straight for the quartermaster, deciding to ask the woman for some parchment and writing utensils to write up her reports while she was there.
To her annoyance, partway through writing up the reports behind Quint’s counter, Tobias showed up and leaned over to grin down at her. “Sneaky. You had me panicked, Braveheart.”
Gods damn it all, the lord did want to speak to her.
She scowled up at him and he chuckled—for a moment. Then his head snapped forward and he groaned in pain, the bamboo stick that Quint used without prejudice smacking against the back of his skull.
She glared. “Off my counter, pup.”
“Okay, okay, yeesh. Damn, you got adopted quick, Braveheart. Look, you wanted a cabin, right? Telos is free this afternoon. If you scoped out the land, his lordship said you could have the cabin anywhere you wanted, so let me go grab the fey and meet you at the gate, ‘kay?”
She stared blankly at him, waiting for him to crack up, only to slowly realize he wasn’t joking.
They couldn’t be serious.
She had made that demand, yes. But all fey were much enamored of bargain magic—often, without the bargain in place, there was no expectation of an actual exchange. She had asked for a cabin but thankfully left before he required an actual bargain to be invoked, meaning there was no magical requirement an oath be fulfilled.
Bargain magic was relatively simple. Any individual could invoke a bargain into being regardless of magic quantity. It required intention to work, like all magic did. Without intentionally invoking it, it didn’t bind. Some bindings had mild consequences, such as that if broken the requirements of the other party were no longer in effect. Others, like invoking the gods, could be deadly. Most simply considered bargains as official procedure regarding trades of any kind, from labor to goods to mating, a way to safeguard themselves. Should a carpenter bargain for an advance on their work, they would be magically compelled to finish it and be thus unable to skip out on their employer. Likewise, a carpenter could bargain for payment at the end, and their employer would be compelled to pay up.
It was standard. Without it in place, there was no magical compulsion for them to give in to her frankly ridiculous demands. They just were. Agreeing to build her an actual cabin away from this gods damned stone trap.
And yet, she had signed no bargain. Exchanged no vow.
Were they mad?
More uncertain than the last time she had spoken to these fey of their goals, she slowly stood and glared up at him distrustfully before muttering, “As you wish.”
He glanced down at the board and parchment in her hands. “What’s that?”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
She scowled at the question before standing on tiptoe to put the parchment on the counter for him to see. She pointed. “This is a general map of the area, along with the notable points of interest. This is a list of all the components I was able to bring, their uses and abilities.” She hesitated before admitting, “I gave them to Quint to manage.”
Tobias nodded, his eager eyes roaming over the parchment. “Yeah, yeah, that works, that works…”
Moving on, she softened just a touch at his clear interest and pointed at the next list. “These are the traps and their success rates, and this is a list of current issues he may face, while this is a list of issues he may face in the future organized by season.”
He nodded eagerly. “Damn.” He grinned at her. “Are you done with it? If so, I’ll drop it off with his lordship on my way to grab Telos.”
She glared, pulling the parchment back. “Not yet.” He really would. A wolf like that offering to run gods damned errands for her in front of another fey.
He shocked her again when he said, “I’ll wait.” Then a brief pause followed as the quartermaster crossed her arms, and he held up his hands in a plea of innocence. “From this side! Damn, Quint, I’m not going to hurt her, I’m supposed to protect her.”
Quint’s voice was dangerous and low as she said, “Then why does she hide from you?”
Still somewhat unnerved by the wolf’s friendliness, Squirt muttered, “Because I hide from everything and everyone.”
Quint raised an eyebrow. “You did not hide from me.”
Studying Quint, Squirt didn’t answer right away, gauging how far she could push the quartermaster. Eventually, she shrugged, deciding on honesty. “I would if I could, but I chose the lesser of the two evils. You’ll hide me from the rest of these louts, and you give me what I need without being a condescending jackass about it.”
Tobias muttered, “I haven’t been a condescending jackass.”
She sniffed, but otherwise didn’t speak, scowling down at the paper as she dipped the quill in the ink pot and finished writing up the report as neatly as she knew how, hoping the lord wasn’t like Quint in thinking she might be illiterate.
She wasn’t actually from here, anyway. Like them, she’d come from the Capital, only under wildly different circumstances.
Finished, she stood, turned, and lifted to her tiptoes to push the paper across the counter. As she did, he handed her a small brown parcel, murmuring, “Here. Peace offering.”
She eyed it warily before accepting the thing, noting it was warm. And… gods, it smelled heavenly. A sweetness wafted towards her that made drool pool in her mouth, and she swallowed thickly as she unwrapped it.
A turnover with a red jam. Sniffing, it was probably strawberry flavored. Shit. How did a bakery around here get sugar?
Her eyes darted back up to the smug face of Tobias, narrowing fractionally. He grinned and said, “If you wait for me and Telos at the gate, I’ll get you a dozen of those cookies that you snuck from the lord’s office.”
Scowling, she wrapped the treat back up, and while her movements were jerky with anger, both quartermaster and guard noted with amusement that she was absurdly careful as she tucked the package into her pouch. “Fine. How long do you need?”
He scratched his head. “Give me an hour?”
She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “… fine.” Plopping herself back down behind the counter, she muttered about stupid wolves with stupider plots while pulling out the slate and chalk, deciding to occupy herself by thinking up a new set of traps for the aerial mothbirds in the area. They would evolve into flamewings, which would obliterate the current netting traps she had.
She waited as long as she was supposed to before packing up, setting out an order for new trap components based on her calculations, and scampering down the tunnel.
Telos was an elf of the gender fluid identity. Today, they were dressed as and identified as masculine, though their behavior leaned effeminate on the masculine scale. He wasn’t as tall as Tobias and was rather slim, his tawny, fluffy hair pulled back into a tail at the nape of his neck. His clothing, while appropriate for traipsing through the woods in color and material, was too new, clean, and well pressed to have ever been used before. There was definite power to his aura, but he kept his power repressed, his hold too controlled for her to judge much more than he was skilled at aura manipulation. Which on its own could mean any number of things, from a relatively weak fey that had a good teacher at one point to a high-level assassin.
She bowed as appropriate in greeting, before trotting out of the gate, not even glancing to see if the other two were keeping up. She kept to the road until they reached the forest and not just the outer reaches of it, then turned to catch their eyes before heading into the forest proper. She had to slow her pace for the elf only a few minutes in, annoyed at the way he was huffing and puffing his way through the forest.
Just who was this fey who would supposedly be building her cabin? If he couldn’t hike through a forest, how was he supposed to get the lumber into place?
It took more than an hour for them to reach the spot she had picked out, a small clearing with a creek hidden by the thicket. Telos gasped as he collapsed on the grass by the water, leaning back on his hands with his face angled towards the sun, basking in its warmth. “By the gods. Don’t you, I don’t know, want to be closer to the road? How is anyone supposed to find this place?”
Tobias grinned teasingly down at the elf. “Aw, is Telly all tuckered out already?”
The elf rolled his eyes. “Not all of us are barbarians. Some of us are civilized fey, used to civilized conveniences. Like roads. And horses.”
“Horses would have had difficulty making it through the thicket without leaving a giant trail behind. And I think the point is to be well-hidden.”
Squirt ignored them both as she found a branch almost as tall as she was, then sat down to sharpen one end of it.
“Sure, but what if there’s a surge?”
“Hm. Good question. Braveheart? What do you intend to do about a surge?”
She glared at them before standing, her tool fashioned, and trotted over to the bank of the creek. Using the now sharpened edge of the tall stick, she pointed. “See these feathered green bits that look like sideways grasses?”
Tobias stepped closer as Telos squinted from where he was at.
“These are earth tree roots. We’re within the circle of one. Jewelbirds are enough of a deterrent that feybeasts are much tamer in this area. That, combined with a few other things—” namely that she was weak enough to not be worth the effort, “—means I’ll be safe here.” She scowled at the elf. “Which is part of why I’m so far from the road.”
Abruptly turning, she started carving carefully into the ground, drawing lines with the stick she’d made. Telos stood and wandered over to the bank of the creek to study the roots, Tobias proudly explaining jewelbirds and earth trees to the elf, absolutely oblivious to the way the elf seemed to soften at his excitement.
She rolled her eyes and focused on her task. Finished, she waited to be addressed while Tobias happily continued to brag about her to the skeptical elf, Telos clearly unwilling to interrupt while Tobias’s attention was focused on him.
Eventually, the wolf did remember that they were here for a task and not just to brag about the apparent achievement of knowing her, something she refused to admit was endearing in any way, shape, or form. Tobias sheepishly turned back, rubbing the back of his head and saying with a forced laugh. “Sorry, got carried away there.”
She bowed politely, then gestured to the drawing in the dirt. “I believe this is all I really need.”
Telos frowned slightly as he stood, sashaying his way across the clearing to study the cabin she had drawn out in the dirt. He frowned. “This is just one room.” Following the lines with his feet, he took a few steps to walk the edge of it, then gave her a confused look. “One small room. Is it even big enough?”
She bristled under his scrutiny, keeping her answer short and clipped. “I am a small fey, and I don’t need much more than a fireplace and a roof over my head.” Obviously. Why the fuck would she push her luck? Anything to get her out of that gods damn castle would be perfect.
It wasn’t like the guardhouse with Stalf was all that much bigger than what she had drawn. There was no separate kitchen, just a cooking fire in the center room with a couple of closets and a single bedroom. She had drawn something that was bigger than the closet she had made her room for the last twenty years but smaller than the guardhouse itself, meaning she would need only a tenth of the same amount of firewood.
The man was aghast. “But what about a kitchen? Bathroom?”
Studying his expression, eventually she answered with a shrug and a wary eye. “I’ll make myself an outhouse. There’s no need to waste the lord’s materials on frivolity.” Just like she’d done for the last twenty years. Besides, she didn’t want to risk entrapment.
Tobias paled. “But what about those who train with you?”
She shrugged again. “They can camp. The clearing is big enough.” It wasn’t like it would take more than a day or so to train them, anyway. She’d just take them around to the traps and show them how to reset them, then send them on their way. They could live in the big fancy castle with fancy bathing rooms and kitchens, which might make up for them having to learn from a greenling.
Telos sputtered, “But, but what about winter?”
Now somewhat put-off by their agitation and line of questioning, she took a half-step backwards, eyeing them both before saying, “It’s easier to heat a smaller room than a larger one.” Though she would need to make a shelter of some kind to dry out some firewood. Feystones were great for starting fires or short-term fires for cooking, not the constant fires of winter to prevent everything from freezing. After they didn’t immediately response, seeming at a loss for words, her brow furrowed. “Why does this bother you? It will make it easier to get the materials this far into the forest and make it faster to build.”
The elf faltered. Then muttered to himself, pinching his brow while his other hand landed on his hip. “No, no, no. This is all wrong.” Sighing exasperatedly, he stomped along the lines she’d dug into the ground before glaring at her and pointing down. “Try again. This time, don’t think about the materials or time or cost or any of that shit. If you could have your dream cabin, what would it look like?”
Immediately suspicious, she shot Tobias a wary look, only the wolf was grinning. A gleam of a hidden secret only he knew twinkled in the corner of his eyes, and he shrugged, winking at her. “The worst he’ll say is no. Go wild, Braveheart.”
She scowled at him. “I already went wild, and he refused.”
He laughed. “Come on, Braveheart. Don’t you want a room to experiment in?”
She stilled.
“What about a room to grow plants even in winter? Or a bathroom with an actual bath for after a long day?”
Glaring at him now, rage tightened her hands into fists until they shook. Her eyes darted suspiciously between the two of them. Was this it? Was this their angle? To pretend they could build her some kind of luxury structure? Did the wolves intend to string her along with pretty words without ever actually completing them? To entrap her in a bargain by stating that they had already paid her?
Telos rubbed his chin and sighed. “Alright, how about this. Come back here tomorrow, and if you don’t like it, I’ll change the layout. Savvy?”
She narrowed her eyes, then slowly lifted her head to the clouds above them. “… it will rain in the next few hours, washing away whatever marks you draw.” She stabbed the stick into the ground and pulled the bow off her shoulder, stringing it. Bowing to them politely and reining in her temper with difficulty, she trotted off, unwilling to stay and be humiliated further.
***
They both watched the pixie disappear into the forest. Tobias strode forward, bending down to pick up the stick, tossing it up once and catching it before turning with a grin to Telos. “She’s feisty.”
Telos’s expression darkened somewhat before he muttered, “She didn’t even ask for a storage shed.”
Tobias winked at him. “I knew you were the right mage to ask.”
Trying not to blush and only being somewhat successful, Telos cleared his throat and nodded to the stick. “Why don’t you try your hand?”
Tobias pointed the stick at him with a brilliant grin. “Now you’re talking!”
Decoded by Lord Everwinter using the Dex’at cipher:
Dear Lord Everwinter,
It is with great regret that I must inform you of my brother’s death. An assassin from the Skye Kingdom was apprehended, though despite searching his memories, no evidence was found to indicate he was the culprit. The Skye Kingdom has announced responsibility, claiming we have kidnapped Prince Feldan. You and I both know that man went wandering, and they are just jumping on the excuse for the war they want. We will face them as we did my predecessor—decisively.
Be on the lookout for scouting parties and skirmishes along the western border of your territory. The moment it happens, use the mirror I’ve sent to contact me, and we’ll bolster your defenses. Ranin is currently training up soldiers to be sent out in the coming months.
The state of your lands is the reason we overthrew King Gregar. It is not the only territory adversely affected by poor leadership and vice. I hope you’ll be able to find a competent Hunter soon, but just in case, I will send some candidates your way. I’ll send Brock with them to double check and help fortify any defenses.
Be well,
Queen Annabelle