”So you never did tell me how you knew where to find them?” Dee pointed out.

The two had just located the unit of Sidhe they had been looking for. It had been three days since they had interrogated the soldier they had captured. Noyala had been a little awkward the morning after she had found about the death of her friend, and the two had pretended that nothing had happened the previous night. Yet they both knew something had changed. They didn’t quite know what and how much, but they both felt closer to each other.

“A girl has to have some secrets of her own.” Noyala replied with a feigned mysterious smile.

“Well do those secrets include a plan to get Commander Dorceran separated from the rest of the Sidhe stationed here? Because it might be a bit tough for just the two of us to face all of them.” Dee pointed at the army camped near the border of where Winter court controlled territory met the lands controlled by the Spring court.

The unit they were looking for had become a part of a much larger army of Unseelie. The army was currently camping here long term until they found out if they would continue their march on the Spring court lands. The entry of both the Order of the Radiant Sun and the freelancer’s guild into the mess had made things complicated. As usual, complicated meant that armies waited around while those higher up dithered over what to do.

“As much as I’d like to kick my brethren around for becoming soft, I think a direct confrontation like that would be a bad idea for now. Still, I’m disappointed. When did we become so cowardly? This whole thing could have been resolved a long time ago. Have both Winter and Autumn court armies take over the opposition quickly before the mercenaries hired by the weaklings arrive in force. So what if we lost a little ground at the borders to some raiders and centaurs? Taking over parts of the forest is not quite as easy. A unified empire would’ve allowed us to take the lost ground back quickly. Now it’s too late since the mercenaries are here in strength.” Noyala grumbled.

“That still didn’t answer my question. Do you have a plan? As much as I like taking the route of a knife from the shadows, this is a problem. An army full of Sidhe is a bit harder to infiltrate than a centaur warhost, and I doubt our target will just lay down his life. A long fight will draw attention. Attention that even the two of us can’t deal with effectively. Besides, something like that would effectively announce our presence in the forest.” Dee repeated her worries. “Killing a person here or a small group there is one thing and could be chalked up to internal power struggles. Attacking an army on the other hand…”

Noyala spoke with a frown. “I have a plan of sorts in motion, but I don’t know if it will work. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind when we set things in motion on that front.”

“Your meaning?” Dee asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, the fort we took the soldier away from is the base of the unit commanded by our target. What do you think will happen once they discover one of their own gone in the middle of his watch? They will first try to find the missing person. Once the first response methods fail, they’d send a word to the commander, most likely asking for him to act, or at least decide on what to do next. It would be bad for morale if they did nothing even if they suspect something. However, I’m not sure how Dorceran will react.” Noyala explained her thoughts. They really had set this in motion without even knowing it was necessary, thus they had no control over it.

“You worked with them on occasion, right? So what’s your best guess?” Dee asked.

“Well, that’s the thing. Commander Dorceran was always the type of person that avoided becoming predictable. He would react to things differently, just so his enemies wouldn’t be able to make him act according to their wishes. He might feel his presence at the fort to be necessary or he might decide sending a group of trusted subordinates is enough. I really can’t tell which way he’ll go. I doubt he’ll just send instructions. The inactivity of the army is shameful, but they are providing the commander the chance to deal with other matters, such as this one.” Noyala shook her head slightly disgusted at her own inability to predict what would happen.

“Well, all we can do is wait and see which way he’ll tilt. We can decide on another course of action if this fails.” Dee countered. “If he’ll send subordinates, then we can ambush the subordinates. That should prompt a more direct response from him. Or we’ll chip at him until he does what we require. He must have things he cares about, like lands, family or a lover. We can always take a more direct stance and threaten those. I’d rather avoid that thought because that would reveal we are aiming at him specifically.”

Dee and Noyala had arrived here via a portal created by Dee. The distance from the Winter capital of Ordos was rather sizeable as the city was on the other side of the Winter court territory, so it took time for a message to arrive. In addition, the people at the fort first did their best on their end to find the missing guard before bothering the commander. Still, the two didn’t have to wait long as it had taken Noyala a couple of days to locate the commander. It only took half a day for a messenger on eagleback to arrive bearing the message.

It only took less than twenty minutes of observing by the duo to note that the result had not been what they had been hoping for. Several high ranking members of the unit started packing their gear and preparing to leave, but the commander was not among them. “Good news is, there are a couple of important subordinates among those leaving.” Noyala said, pointing out two Sidhe from the group. One had the officers insignia and carried a wicked looking bow, while the other was clad like a normal warrior, except his gear was significantly higher quality. “If we kill them, then the commander has no choice but to react personally. Those two are both rank seven warriors. If they wind up dead, then the only one stronger left in the unit is the commander. And my mother if we count her in, but she won’t get involved. She’s too busy dealing with the succession.”

The whole thirty strong group that rode out from the army camp was low in number but high in quality. Dee could see how the unit could be considered to be an elite strike force, considering the weakest Sidhe in the group was rank five. Couple of mages rounded the group out. In the mana filled environment of the forest, mages were especially dangerous since they could replenish their spent mana more easily. Not that the duo planned on giving them the chance to do so.

They waited until the thirty Sidhe rode for almost a full day to let them get far enough away from the war camp. The group was apparently planning to not stop for rest, and that was not unusual assuming their steeds could handle it. While the periods of time people called ‘days’ in day city were standard length, that didn’t mean the suns went down every time a ‘day’ was over. Currently, it was a bit less bright than during midday but it was pretty far from dark. So if neither the steeds nor the riders required rest, why bother?

The group came to a sudden halt as they noticed a woman standing in the middle of the road, clearly blocking the way on purpose. The whole thing stunk of a trap, even more so because the members of the unit recognized the woman blocking their way. The female archer leading the unit signaled the others to prepare for combat, while she rode forward to meet the woman blocking their path. “Miss Ruadháin. I didn’t expect to meet you here. I’m assuming your purpose here is not peaceful.”

“No, I’m afraid the chance for that disappeared when you and your compatriots killed my friend and chased after me. I’m afraid your deaths are required for my plans.” Noyala replied keeping up a façade of calmness that she didn’t really feel. While she didn’t feel the need to take revenge on the entire unit, she wasn’t feeling merciful towards them either.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to resist. I don’t know what has weakened you so, but in your current state you might find that killing us alone might be more of a challenge than you might have expected.” The woman replied, gathering her power, and signaling the others to do the same.

“What makes you think I came alone?” Noyala asked with a small smirk. Really, they should’ve seen this coming. To be fair, the members of the group were observing the surrounding forest. They were simply looking in the wrong place. ‘Whenever you’re ready Dee.’ She sent the signal.

Suddenly an explosion rocked the Sidhe officer and Noyala. The officer could feel the pressure of a great impact from behind her, despite the protective barrier that sprung up to take the brunt of the danger. At the same time, Noyala could see a streak of heated energy before a great cloud of dust covered the other members of the unit that were in the middle of the explosion. The floating dust pressed against the shield before sliding past them. The surrounding forest didn’t quite have the same protection. Still, for the power of the forces involved, it was surprising how little of the forest was damaged. As the dust cleared the two could see a fairly large crater where the soldiers had stood just before. Now all that remained of them were bits and pieces, along with smeared blood and guts from both the soldiers and their mounts.

The officer stared in shock, while Dee slowly descended from the sky in her full angel form, with two halos rotating behind her head. “That went well. If I judge the power just right, I can limit some of the damage to the surrounding when I use one of the smaller pearls.”

She was quite happy with the result of her surprise attack. She had not used even close to full power and had managed to wipe out a group of fairly high-level targets, one of which was only a single rank behind her. Granted that Dee was not really representative of a standard rank eight existence and she had caught the enemies completely by surprise due to her method of attack, but still. She had tried limiting the damage to a small area, and only some twenty mel of the surrounding forest around the crater had been destroyed. Apparently using the smaller pearls could really help limit the damage. The souls of her targets were already floating towards her.

As she said this Noyala plunged a lance made of lightning through the chest of the still stunned Sidhe woman. “Agreed. That worked well. Those new weapons of yours are really scary.”

“So mind explaining to me why you wanted me to leave her for you to kill, instead of wiping all of them out from ambush? She didn’t put up much of a resistance due to her shock, kind of disappointing actually, but there was still some risk involved.” Dee asked.

“Because officers like her carry a special amulet while on missions. By now Commander Dorceran should’ve received knowledge that the woman is dead, where it happened and the appearance of the person that killed her. I used my own magic to mask my appearance to some degree, but sooner or later they will manage to see through that illusion. That said, I’d be at the top of certain people’s list of suspects anyway. I’d rather keep your presence a secret a while longer instead. You’re something like my trump card.” Noyala explained her reasoning.

The two moved a bit away from the area just in case someone sent a magical retaliation of some kind. After a moment of silence, Dee spoke. ”So. Should I be calling you Miss Ruadháin now?”

“Please don’t.” Noyala replied immediately and vehemently. “That’s our family name, and I’d rather not be associated with it seeing as my own mother wanted me dead. Also, I can see you want to ask what her words about my strength meant. Suffice to say I’m not at my peak power. In fact, my power might drop even more if things go badly. The easiest way to explain would be to call it a curse thanks to my so called betrayal.”

“You know I’m pretty good at removing curses, right?” Dee pointed out the obvious. She had made sure to become good with that part of priestly magic due to her experiences with Zabaniya and their bonds.

“I know. If this was something that could be removed so easily, then I would’ve already asked. This is something more fundamental. It would require someone with the power of a high ranked immortal specializing in the field, or the elimination of the source to remove the curse. The removal of the curse is one of my goals in case you didn’t already guess.” Noyala was none too pleased with the state of affairs. However, seeking help wasn’t so simple. To gain the help of someone strong enough to remove the curse would require her to explain the circumstances where she was cursed, and she wasn’t willing to do that for multiple reasons.

The following silence continued for a moment, before finally being broken by Noyala. “So this is how your angel form looks like. I can see why you would not use it when trying to avoid attention. You look stunning.”

Dee wasn’t sure if she was pleased about those words. While the training she had gone through had brought her closer to accepting her angel form, it still didn’t truly feel a part of her. She had already accepted her other two forms. Her original form was her original form. There were no difficulties with accepting that, as it was what she had lived with for the vast majority of her life. There was the slight fact she was unhappy when others liked her for her angel form and didn’t accept the original form, but that was what it was. A bestial and demonic form like that was not to everyone’s tastes.

Her kitsune form in many ways represented the darker sides of her character. Her more base urges and feral nature got stronger in that form, as shown by the fact that she was prone to brawling physically and could quite happily eat raw meat in that form. It also represented her fear of turning into a monster due to her heritage. That form already looked rather monstrous and was becoming a mix of several things. However, she was adept at accepting her darker side.

Her angel form, on the other hand, represented the light inside her, but it was also the face of her enemies. While she felt at home with her other two forms, the angel form felt like she was wearing a disguise and not being true to herself. If someone complimented that form or expressed interest, it felt much like if someone was complimenting her disguise or at best some clothes that she was wearing. It didn’t feel bad exactly but it was a far cry for being complemented due to her true self. For some reason, she was especially afraid that Noyala would prefer that form to her original one. That was one of the reasons she was so reticent about using the form before now in Noyala’s presence.

Dee’s mumbled “Thanks.” made Noyala realize that this might be a sore subject to Dee, though she didn’t know why. She decided to try and move the discussion along. “So can you show me the Dark Avariel disguise you were planning on using?”

Glad to have something else to think about, Dee closed her eyes and recalled the form she had changed to once before. Her halos disappeared, the wings both became black and her face went through some subtle changes. The ears took the standard pointed appearance, and even her hair turned entirely black. She looked like a splendid example of a Dark Elf, except winged and much taller and bigger. Bigger both in height and width, as angels were taller and less dainty when compared to elves, and also bigger due to certain places on her figure. Elves weren’t exactly known for being well endowed in general, and Dee’s form broke that norm.

Noyala gave a small whistle. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have no idea that she was looking at Dee. That was until Dee opened her sharp eyes and the air around her returned to the normal aura of danger except even stronger. “Aaand there we go, you normal aura is back. It might even be stronger now that you’re not making any effort towards hiding yourself. You’re going to have to try and reign in your aura a bit to avoid scaring people.”

Dee growled, a weird sound considering her current appearance. “Look who’s talking. You don’t exactly feel like a courtier either. Besides, this form is hard enough to keep up as it is.”

Noyala frowned. “Is it really that difficult? I mean the changes to your appearance aren’t that big.” She pointed out. Usually, the strain of maintaining a form came from radical differences when compared to the original, and Dee’s changes truly were rather minor.

“It’s mainly the wing and the halo. I’m kind of used to keeping the halo hidden, but the wing keeps rebelling against me, trying to change back to the candy color that it has.” Dee replied sounding displeased.

“Magenta.” Noyala mumbled, thinking for a moment.

“What?” Dee asked confused.

“The color is called magenta I think. It depends on the lighting. Could be lavender as well.” Noyala repeated, now slightly amused at Dee’s discomfort. “Aside from that, have you considered asking the deity you serve about the difficulty you’re having?”

“Oh.” Dee replied completely blank faced.

“I’ll take that as a no. How about you try when we make camp next time. I know deities aren’t usually handing out free information, but I get the feeling they’re a bit more involved when you’re concerned.” Noyala had heard some rumors while following Dee around.

Dee had not actually told her which deity she served, but rumors were plentiful if you knew when to listen. She heard quite a bit, especially during the time they spent with the Radiant Sun army dealing with the centaurs. The bit about Dee’s deity ranking her as a Moonstone ranked priestess even before becoming a part of the order was especially interesting. She’d heard the rumors about Lumen of course, but she also saw how the shadows clung to Dee, which would be odd for someone blessed by Lumen alone.

“Well, we have an officer to catch before that can happen.” Dee countered.

The two rushed back towards the army, and were quite glad to detect the party led by Commander Dorceran traveling towards the spot where his subordinates had died. The only problem was that the commander wasn’t stupid. Anyone capable of killing his subordinates was a possible danger to him as well. Thus he had brought the whole unit of almost five thousand Sidhe with him.

The two had expected this, but it was still unpleasant to be proven right in this case. “Well, it’s an improvement over having him in the middle of a Winter court army.” Dee pointed out.

“An improvement, but not really a solution.” Noyala pointed out the obvious.

“What are the odds of getting him separated from his troops now?” Dee asked.

“What do you have in mind?” Noyala shot back.

“Well, I might have trouble defeating the rest considering their average strength, but I can certainly delay them. Can you deal with the commander in the meantime? I imagine you’d prefer to take revenge with your own hands anyway.” Dee outlined a plan.

Noyala was not exactly happy with the idea, but it might be the best way to go if things didn’t change. They didn’t have to make that decision right at this moment though.