25 The Handmaids Tale (1/2)

After the fight was over and a potion of healing provided by the shieldmaidens generosity had healed my bruises, Ashley, who was kneeling beside me as I sat just outside of the worship mat, continued interrogating me on my reasons for coming to the Fayne despite me, Luca, and Aura having explained it twice already.

I actually preferred it if she'd asked me how I beat her, not that I would tell her about my improved Fool's Insight and my new Basilisk's Eye skill, but she didn't care about it at all. She just assumed I'd used my fairy gift to paralyze her and moved on from her defeat. It was very mature of her.

No, she was more interested in my reason for journeying into the Fayne which is why she had an eyebrow raised when she said, ”No one's that altruistic...”

”Hey, Luca,” I elbowed him in the shoulder as he was sitting beside me. ”I finally found someone who's more of a downer than you are...”

He elbowed me back. ”You're still not funny, Dean...”

The rest of my party sat alongside us in a line with Varda at the end. We were waiting for Edo to finish his test of strength against the green-eyed shieldmaiden who had requested a match from him after my victory over Ashley. It seemed our battle lit a fire under her and she wanted to stretch her legs. Edo being the martial freak that he was readily agreed to this.

I watched the shieldmaiden uncoil the tree vine wrapped around her waist and wield it like a whip, and each snap caused it to sprout thorns on its surface. These thorns raked on Edo's skin but he didn't seem to mind. He just took her attacks like they were tickling him.

Aura clued me in on the fact the other shieldmaiden was a dryad and that finally made her appearance and weapon choice make sense to me.

”You really jumped into the Fayne and all this madness to save your little brother?” Ashley asked for the fourth time. ”And you actually made a bargain with an elf to do it?”

She looked over at Aura who was seated in the lotus position on Luca's other side.

”No offense,” Ashley said. ”I haven't met a lot of good elves around here...”

”No offense taken. I know how difficult things can be for those like you and Luca.” Aura replied while looking more apologetic than Ashley did. ”I'm glad you found your way to the shieldmaidens.”

A surprised Ashley could only nod back. Then she turned to whisper in my ear, ”Did you actually luck out and found the nicest fairy in the entire Fayne?”

I gave Ashley a thumbs up. There was no need to respond. Clearly, Aura was something special.

The match between Edo and the dryad continued into a stalemate. Partly because Edo didn't seem interested in beheading his sparring partner and partly because the Dryad seemed to grow stronger after each exchange, and the longer the fight got the more her silver armor seemed to glow.

”Did she cast a spell?” Luca asked Ashley.

Ashley shook her head. ”Shieldmaidens can't use arcane energy. Not even the fairies.”

”Why not?” Luca asked again.

It was Aura who responded. ”All shieldmaidens carry the same mark you do, Luca. And except for fairy blessings, that mark prevents the release of any arcane power.”

”All... of them?” Luca's eyes were as round as Oreos when he turned to look at Ashley. ”You're all... like me?”

Ashley laughed. Even Aura smiled.

”It's not what you think, Luca,” Ashley answered after her fit of laughter was over. ”Sure, we've all got the mark but most of my sister shieldmaidens willingly accept the mark during their joining.”

”W-why?!” Luca got on his knees and leaned over me to come closer to Ashley. ”W-why would they do that?”

”Because being a shieldmaiden is to pledge yourself to the noblest of causes... to ensure the will of the last fairy king endures until his successor arrives,” answered a soft yet commanding voice from behind us.

At the arrival of the newcomer, every shieldmaiden dropped what they were doing—even the ones sparring with supplicants—and bowed their heads in her direction.

”Welcome back, Mother Superior,” they all chanted together.

The mother superior raised a stubby hand and commanded everyone to go back to their different tasks. Then she walked over to Luca on silver-plated sandals and grabbed his hands in hers. As Luca was still kneeling beside me they were about eye-level as she was rather short for a dwarf.

”You struggle with your bonds... it is only natural,” her cloudy grey eyes under painted eyebrows searched his face. ”But unlike the lost souls outside, you have not lost your way... You still fight?”

Luca nodded as if compelled to answer.

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”Good. Don't lose that fire in your belly.” She patted him on the head and caused Luca's head to bow. ”I recommend you treat the mark not as a curse but as a challenge to overcome.”

Then she walked away after glancing at each of us, her gaze lingering on Aura longer than the others.

”Yeah,” Ashley was looking smugly down at me. ”I met a cool fairy, too”

After Edo's sparring match in which he won out of sheer hardiness, the two shieldmaidens led me through a side door in the central hall while my friends waited just outside it. We entered a small inner chapel with only a single round basin and pedestal at its center as its occupant. Inside the basin was a liquid substance that faintly glowed with its own inner light.

”It's a mana font,” Ashley said.

”The mana in this font was purified with the blessing of the High Priestess whom all shieldmaidens serve. It will do for cleansing your iron bauble,” the dryad explained.

The dryad instructed me to hold the iron ring above the pool. After I did this, Ashley picked up a small silver chalice underneath the basin and filled it with the liquid that was like a canvas of stars brightly lit across a clear morning sky. Then she raised the cup over the iron arcane focus in my hands and began to pour the mana onto it.

After she emptied the cup, the color of my iron arcane focus turned from a dull grey to a shiny, almost silver hue.

”There. You're done,” Ashley said, taking away the moment of solemnity we were experiencing. ”You can go now...”

”Just like that?” I asked.

”An offering of strength was provided and so a blessing is given,” the dryad said.