Looking through my scope, I could see each flag had two large white birds, something like white eagles with longer necks, on them that appeared to be circling each other.
“Hold hero.” A voice I’d heard once before resonated around me. “Fallen they may be, but the Night elves are still my children, and they have invoked the Rite of Respite. A price must be paid, but should the night elves abide by the terms of the Respite, my laws must be obeyed.”
I was shaken. This was the voice of the head god of the elves, the Great Father, my maidens and matrons had called him. The voice was strong and demanded obedience just by the strength and authority it carried. Part of me wanted to push my advantage, I clearly had the shadow elves on the ropes, but I recalled my instructions from the angel. “If you wish to live as long as possible on your new world and enjoy the privileges therein, I would advise you to live according to his teachings and the societal expectations of his children.”
I carefully stowed my combat rifle, and took my sniper, carefully crawling backward. I wasn’t going to try and square up against a god, let alone the god who was giving me everything I had going for me right now.
Once again, it took me about two hours to get back to my matrons and maidens. The sun was beginning to set.
“That was terrifying and inspiring to watch…” Flendreir breathed. “You are a force of destruction.”
“What is with the white flags?” I asked.
“The shadow elves have invoked the Rite of Respite.” Tavorwen explained, “It is a command of Father X’Thallion that when one of our sister groups of elves raises the white flags with the twin Caladrius, that we begin Negotiations of Respite. The party that has invoked Respite must pay a tribute to the party against whom they invoked the rite which will determine the length of time the respite will hold, and the time is usually used to negotiate terms of a long term treaty. This is very good! Even if the shadow elves are only trying to seek a chance to recover, since they are the ones seeking the Respite, they will be under the protection of X’Thallion, but they will not be able to aggress against any of our sisters without breaking the protection of the Respite.”
“That seems… like a simple idea made complicated.” I admitted.
“Yes. That is… that is an unfortunately accurate description of most elven politics and religion.” Narusil admitted. “The Enlightened Hosts have a host of laws we must abide by, and they leave little room for exploitation and loopholes. But that is why the Elven scriptures fill libraries.”
“So what now?” I wondered.
“Now, we must send word and the elders will send a delegation and Kathra will negotiate the terms of the Respite with them. As this was your military campaign, you should be there for the negotiations.” Tavorwen explained.
I thought, “And what if Kathra uses this to try to get close and attack the elders, or me?”
Creadean snorted, “Not likely. As X’Thallion is the one who set forth these laws, if Kathra were to try to exploit them, as mentioned earlier, the direct retribution of the Gods would fall upon her, and the Betrayer could do nothing to protect her from the combined retribution of the Enlightened Hosts.”
“Okay, well I guess we trek back, and teleport to Ealphamir to carry word.” I muttered.
“Why wait? With Respite evoked, it is safe for me to teleport us now.” Narusil assured me.
“Really?” I demanded incredulously. “Wouldn’t it be worth it to tamper with the teleport and end us since we were the ones that were decimating them? The Respite wouldn’t even be necessary if we were gone.”
“I dare any of the Interjector of the shadow elves to try their hand at teleportation manipulation against those for whomever they have invoked the Right of Respite, while the hand of the Great Father is upon them by their own invitation. I wonder if they alone would pay the price, or if the fury unleashed upon them before they could even locate the aetherial threads of magic would be so fierce that even those standing nearby would perish.” Narusil chuckled, “It is amusing to think about, but no, they would not be so foolish.”
Damn, if God was so directly involved on Earth, I wondered how things would change. But thinking about it, if God really did just sit in the clouds smiting people with lightning every time they broke the commandments, not only would humanity have died out long ago, but somehow I just knew that people would view him as a cruel tyrant and hate him even more than they did for his inaction. Being a god must be a lot tougher than you’d think.
“Well, if you are sure… I guess take us home.” I instructed with a shrug.
Narusil needed no time to scry about Ealphamir to find a spot to teleport to and immediately began the incantation and hand motions to teleport us. Narusil’s owl landed on her shoulders and I wondered just where it had been. The bird seemed to appear when Narusil needed it, or when we were about to teleport, and seemed to stay hidden the rest of the time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathra sunk into a hot bath. Her body trembled in pleasure at the warmth. Even sitting erect in the stone pool, the water rose to cover her ample breasts entirely, her legs stretched forward in the pool.
Bathing this way was a new thing since the shadow elves had reached the surface. Underground, the largest sections of spongy fungi had been dipped in water and used to scrub their skin. The use of large tubs of water like this had been observed among the mountain and grassland whores, and once the nobility of the shadow elves had tried it, it had immediately been adopted as a show of their new wealth. That so much water could be spared simply for enjoyment and cleaning of their bodies was indeed an indulgence.
“Slave, clean my hair.” Kathra barked at her daughter, not even giving her the dignity of a name. “And see you do it properly, or I’ll have you flogged before the delegation arrives tomorrow.”
Thank goodness it had been so late when the flags of Respite had been raised, Kathra had to admit she only possessed a cursory knowledge of the religious obligations of her heathen sisters, but she did know a few things and the Great Mother had told her all she needed to know during her audience.
The slave rose to its feet, and with careful hands it began to wash and apply the ointments and oils to her hair to insure the hair would look its best the following day.
Kathra smirked. She’d show the forest bitches what a real queen looked like. How absolute her authority with her subjects was and what happened to those who opposed her.
“Have the miners been dispatched to begin their work?” Kathra demanded.
“Yes, they seek the deposits of gemstones we have claimed from the Deep Halfmen… but my queen, such a tribute will not be prepared in time for the negotiations tomorrow, and will buy us little time with the fallen High Elves.” Gla’dri worried. Unable to resist leering at the queen’s lush body as she bathed it, with Kathra so enthralled with her bath she wouldn’t notice.
“Leave the negotiations to me.” Kathra snapped, turning her head toward her advisor in the dim stone room.
Despite the lack of almost any light, the shadow elves could see each other perfectly. Their eyes were more accustomed to darkness then light, having spent countless generations deep underground. Now they forced themselves to live in light that they might be prepared to walk into the light of the infernal orb in the sky.
“Your task is simply to ensure our miners retrieve as many gemstones as possible, as quickly as possible, and get them into our storehouse.” Kathra instructed her advisor who was now absently staring at the ceiling.
Kathra could decide whether to flaunt her body more or to reprimand the male for receiving sexual pleasure without returning it. In the end, she dropped it. Every shadow elf knew that males were weak and pitiful, slaves to their need to mate, and of little use beyond their ability to produce the next generation.
Kathra placed her hand on her womb. Assuming it was a female that she was creating, in thirty years time, she could send her to the hidden fortress she was constructing, the child could then be raised properly to be the next queen.
Kathra’s other hand subconsciously went to her back. Oh the scars she would carry were it not so easy to remove them with magic. She remembered her youth well. The beatings and flogging when she had failed to perform, or made the mistake of trusting another. Of course, the evidence of her lessons had been removed immediately, as the eldest daughter of her high house she could permit none of her rivals to know that she had ever had weaknesses like love, trust or kindness. The quantities of these traits in even the most flawed of shadow elves was as a puddle before the ocean of these weaknesses in any of their surface sisters, but a small flaw could cause a cave to collapse.
“Yes, my queen.” Gla’dri acknowledged, lowering his eyes to the floor and trying not to stare at his queen.
Gla’dri wasn’t sure what his standing was just now with the volatile she-elf. On the one hand, his caution about the possible survival of the summon had proven correct, and his suggestion of exploiting Respite to force the summon to stop his assault and allow them time to prepare had been well received… But he had challenged her position, nearly accused her of incompetence in failing to slay the summon, and he had no answers as to how to challenge the summon in combat.
They were still assessing their losses from the assault. Even if the shadow elf losses were half the current estimates, the loss was a total humiliation. At least fifty shadow elves had fallen and they hadn’t even been able to locate, let alone threaten, the summon. A few of the lesser houses were having to flog their more cowardly soldiers to keep them from deserting back to the now abandoned city in the World Below.
“The Halfman and Human slaves have been given their orders and task masters have been placed over them to insure they do not find means of resistance.” Gla’dri assured her.
“Good. We’ll need all that we can gather with speed if we are to obey the edicts of Ya’av.” Kathra declared, smiling at the fool’s ignorance.
Gla’dri had served her well. As far as males went, he was almost worth his rations. She had initially considered having him flogged or having one of his fingers removed in punishment for his brazen doubt of her success in slaying the summon. She was glad she hadn’t or she’d have to execute him now to save dignity. His doubt had sat at the back of her mind and there it had stayed until word had arrived that they were under attack. Then it emerged with theories and ideas. It had been what had prepared her to face Ya’av when the High Houses had failed her.
“Prepare my palanquin. The whores from the forest will arrive first thing in the morning.” Kathra ordered. “And have all my retainers on standby.”
Ya’av had given her specific instructions, and the Goddess of Shadow and Poison did not abide her priestesses deviating from their instructions.