I came through the barrier and stopped as it closed behind me. “I was promised safe passage in the elves lands, so I hope you're not going to shackle me or bind me magically.” I said and noticed the uncomfortable looks on the faces of the mages and the armored guards. The queen had noticed as well and stopped herself from sighing. I saw her trying not to roll her eyes and held in my smile.

“I don't believe I've properly introduced myself.” I said and looked directly at the queen. “May I approach?”

The queen looked taken aback by my formality and at my apparent respect to her personage. She quickly recovered, however. “You may.”

I took several steps, stopped a respectable five feet away, then I bowed at the waist almost forty-five degrees. “My name is Hunter. I am Queen Celestina's Personal Vassal for the First Sothen Kingdom.”

Gasps and wide eyes greeted those words and I stood up strait to look at the queen's face. I saw a great loss there, as I knew I would, considering the last words she spoke to me were to try and convince me to stay and help her kingdom. It took her several moments to compose herself before she spoke.

“I am Queen Orella of the Elves.” The queen said and held her hand out automatically to complete the greeting. There were several more gasps and a few whispers because of that. The queen couldn't take the hand back once it was offered, even though I was a man. I took two steps forward and gently cupped her bare hand in mine, bent over it, and pressed my lips to her fingers. I felt her rough hands and knew she still trained regularly. As a ruler of a nation, she never had to fight personally and used proxies when necessary, because they would never risk losing her. I stood straight and let her hand go.

“You know my youngest daughter.” Queen Orella said in a slightly higher pitched voice and motioned to the younger looking woman nearby.

“Princess Sylvana.” I said and stepped to the side to be in front of her. Sylvana had an expression like a deer caught in headlights and stuck her hand out automatically as well. I held in my chuckle and cupped her hand as I barely brushed my lips on her knuckles.

“The ones you don't know.” Queen Orella motioned to one of the twins, who stepped forward. “My eldest daughter, Princess Braya.”

Braya's arm twitched as she fought against automatically sticking her hand out to me. She couldn't let her younger sister show her up though, so she put her hand out with a jerk as if that would get the act over quickly. I took her offered hand and bent over it briefly and barely touched her knuckles with my lips, just like I had with Sylvana.

“My second daughter, Princess Bryanna.” The queen said and the other twin stepped forward and gracefully held a hand out.

Unlike the others, Bryanna had plenty of time to adjust to the awkwardness of offering her hand to a man in greeting. I gave her a little smile and saw her face flush a little red, then I bent over her hand and gave her just a tad more than a brush of my lips on her fingers. She saw and felt the difference and her face flushed slightly more red. I let her hand go and stepped back to the respectable five feet and waited. I had been sorely tempted to give them a taste of Presence, just to see their reactions, then thought better of it.

By the looks of the guards, they are prepared to attack me if I offer even a little bit of offence. I thought.

We all stood there and no one said anything for nearly a full minute. I had to assume that they were all trying to come to grips with having a foreign man right in front of them... and they weren't allowed to kill him.

“May I inquire how long it will take for your mages to recharge their mana to cast the teleport spell?” I asked. The queen turned to look at the closest mage. I could see that the four of them that had participated in the two cast spells looked tired; but, they weren't exhausted like they could have been, had they cast them as individuals.

“Another half an hour, your highness.” The mage said and her eyes flicked to me. “Unless...”

“Of course you can borrow it.” I said and took out the charged neutral element mana crystal that glowed slightly green. “You'll need to attune your mana to it to use it, though.”

“How long will that take?” Braya, the older twin asked.

“Five minutes.” The mage said and she held her hands out for it. I gave the five inch wide crystal to her and its glow doubled in intensity. She held it in her hands as if it was a precious little child and made soothing sounds to it. The other mages gathered around and each of them touched it and made the same soothing sounds. I looked at the queen and she gave me an imperceptible shrug. Five minutes later, the glow reduced to what it was before, and all of the mages had smiling faces.

That's a lot better than the anger I first saw when they appeared. I thought.

“Please gather in the circle.” The mage with the crystal said and the four guards surrounded me instead of the queen and put me into the center of the group. I was only slightly taller by an inch or so than everyone else, not counting their heeled boots, so my normal sight would have been blocked had I been using it. I was looking through my blast shield with Detect Presence, though... so I easily saw Maylia come out of the tent.

She woke up a lot sooner than I thought she would. I thought with a smile.

Maylia wore a hastily donned nightgown that hung off one of her shoulders and her hair was a dishevelled mess. She had a huge smile on her face and she saw us on the other side of the barrier.

“Hunter!” Maylia waved lazily. “Don't accept duels!”

I waved in acknowledgement just in time, because the mages stopped chanting and the teleportation spell completed. One second I was waving to Maylia and the next second I was waving to a window inside the elf queen's private dining room. I was a little surprised at the instant transition and then I felt a gut wrenching pain flow up from my gut and right into my head.

“ARRGGHHH!” I yelled and put a hand on my belly and one on my head, then I collapsed to my knees and rolled onto the floor on my side. All of the women jumped away from my outburst and the four guards quickly put themselves between me and the queen. In the next moment, they had their swords pointed at me as if I was a threat. The pain intensified and it felt like my insides were being liquefied.

“BLUURRGGHHH!” I expelled an inordinate amount of blood and fluids.

“GET THE HEALERS!” The queen yelled the order as she pushed her guards out of the way and knelt right in the blood.

“Your majesty.” One of them said. “You're kneeling in...”

“SHUT UP!” The queen yelled and looked at me, then her hand touched the side of my face. “Hunter.”

I lost all concentration and the room went dark with the loss of my Detect Mana Presence technique. It took the last bit of energy that I had to pull out the small piece of paper with my contact's name on it, then I lost consciousness.

*

Queen Orella's heart felt like it had been crushed at the sound of utter agony that she heard from the man behind her. She had tried to turn and see what happened and her guards had gotten in the way and pushed her back. She saw Hunter drop to his knees and fall to the floor, then he threw up more blood than she had seen being expelled from a living body. It could only mean one thing.

HE'S DYING! Orella yelled in her mind. “GET THE HEALERS!” She yelled out loud and pushed her stupid guards out of the way and knelt beside his head. She felt the blood quickly soak into her casual dress and she didn't care. One of the guards tried to say something and she yelled at them to shut up.

“Hunter.” Orella whispered and touched his face tenderly. He's barely breathing. She thought as she saw him struggle to take out a piece of paper and then he stopped moving. “Hunter!”

“Mother! I have the healers!” Sylvana said and the mages and guards moved aside to let them through.

Four women rushed into the room at a fast walk and came over to the person on the floor. They were surprised beyond measure when they saw a man... an actual man... on the floor of the queen's personal dining room. He also looked to be gravely injured and in a pool of his own blood. The healers pushed their cultural shock aside as their professionalism took over. They didn't ask the queen to move, since she was the queen and she wasn't crowding them, even though the blood had seeped up several inches of her dress. The four women knelt around Hunter, one partially in the blood he had expelled, and they held their hands out towards him. Four sets of hands started to glow slightly and the healers winced.

“He's completely torn up inside.” One of the healers said in a soft voice. “What happened?”

“We don't know. He collapsed after we used a teleportation spell to come back from the barrier.” Sylvana said.

The head healer immediately had an angry expression on her face and glared at the mages. “You fools! You used the economy spell!”

The faces on all of the mages drained completely of color. Two of them swayed slightly from shock and a third one fainted. No one tried to catch her as she slumped to the floor.

Queen Orella looked at the healer who spoke. “What do you mean by 'they used the economy spell'?”

“It was streamlined for ease of mana cost.” The head healer said and looked at her fellow healers. They nodded and knew what to do as the energy in their hands increased. “It is also a lot cheaper when you add in exclusions and make the spell work exclusively for female elves.”

“We... we didn't think...” One of the mages said, tears in her eyes. “We've always used... it's never happened before... your highness, we...”

Queen Orella held up a hand to stop the woman's pleading and closed her eyes. She tried to remain calm as once again, her people had injured Hunter. As the queen, even she didn't realize that the spells they used could be tailored in such a way that they could harm everyone but female elves. It didn't matter that it was an understandable mistake. What mattered was that she had allowed him to enter her lands as a guest and then allowed him to be harmed. She didn't want to think about the mages making the same mistake when bringing forth a group of males for potential breeding stock and potentially having the men all die horribly from internal injuries.

“It will take some time to heal his wounds.” One of the other healers said, her voice slightly strained as the healing energy she used quickly drained. “He has taken both magical and physical wounds.”

Queen Orella opened her eyes and looked at the healers. “Use all of the resources you can to restore him to perfect health. I approve both people and items of value. Bring in as many healers as you can.”

One of the mages held out the depleted mana crystal towards the healers. “He let us use this.”

“It's empty.” The head healer said, slightly angrily. “Fill it and be of some use.”

The other mages quickly reached out to touch it and poured in their mana. The crystal was filled in moments and she handed it to the healer, who took it and stopped herself from sighing and glaring at the incompetent mages. The head healer placed the crystal on Hunter's chest and all of the healers touched it and took five minutes to attune themselves to the crystal. In the next moment, the crystal drained completely and all four of the healers moaned as the energy was practically sucked through them and into Hunter.

“A-again.” The head healer said in a slightly shaky voice and held up the empty mana crystal. “Guard, call the apprentice healers and mages. We can stabilize him here and then move him to a more appropriate treatment area to continue our work.”

The crystal was filled again as the mages offered up their mana as many times as they could. The mage who fainted awoke to the scene and joined in on the effort, too. The healers greedily took the mana and converted it into healing energy. More mages and healers entered the room and with their help, after almost ten minutes of constant healing, their patient took a normal sounding breath instead of the ragged rasp it had been. The mages filled the crystal again and the healer took it.

“Levitating platform.” The head healer said and the platform appeared beneath Hunter. She was surprised that barely a trickle of mana had been removed from the crystal. The four healers carefully rolled him onto his back, now that the danger of him drowning in his own blood had been removed, then the platform levitated by a touch of the head healer's finger. Everyone cleared out of the way and the healers started to remove Hunter from the queen's dining room.

“Wait.” Queen Orella stood up and saw everyone's faces blanch at the sight of her. “Go with them.” She commanded the mages and turned to the unconscious man on the platform. She took his hand for a brief moment, then nodded to the healers. The mass of elven women, healers and assistant healers, mages and assistant mages, rushed out of the room to bring their patient to the proper facilities to care for him. Queen Orella pointed to two of the guards and they followed, then she looked down at herself and saw that nearly the entire front of her dress, from mid-thigh down to the hem, was soaked in blood.

“Mother.” Braya, her eldest daughter said and touched her mother's arm.

“Have my attendants bring me another outfit.” Queen Orella said, her voice sad. “Also, the... cleaners.”

“Yes, mother.” Braya said and nodded to her twin to get the cleaners and they left to do their appointed tasks.

“Mother.” Sylvana said in almost a whisper when it was just her, the queen, and two guards left in the room. “Do you think he will be angry?”

Queen Orella wasn't sure what to say. She didn't know him, except for that brief encounter almost a year ago. If that was any indication, considering his threat, he could be completely incensed and livid about being hurt again. As she thought about it, for some reason that she could not explain, she knew that he wouldn't be. She opened her hand and looked at the piece of paper with Hunter's contact on it. She didn't recognize the name, even though she knew all of the strongest and talented women in her kingdom.

“Find this person.” Queen Orella said and handed the paper to her daughter. “Bring her here.”

“Yes, mother.” Sylvana said and bowed to her, then strode from the room.

*

Sylvana looked at the paper and memorized the name and the location. She passed her eldest sister in the hallway and nodded to her, then passed her mother's attendants and paid their frantic faces and movements no mind, because they always acted that way when the queen required their services. She picked up her pace and went down the stairs to her guard's resting area and rapped on the door once before entering. They were already standing at attention and she let a smile appear on her face.

“The queen requests a hunt and retrieval.” Sylvana said and handed the head of her guard the piece of paper, then she explained the circumstances. All of the guards, especially the head guard, were surprised at her words.

“He c-came back?” The head guard asked and her voice cracked slightly.

“He requested permission to enter.” Sylvana said when she saw their faces. “He is not here to hunt us all down.” She saw several of them relax, and one even sat down and trembled. She was the one that blocked his lightning bolt with her mana shield to help me. She thought and walked over to the guard and put a hand on her shoulder. “It's all right. He's not going to hurt you.”

“H-hurt m-me?” The woman looked at her princess with confusion. “I want to have his babies!”

Sylvana looked at the woman with wide eyes and several of the guards started to laugh.

“You've got high hopes!” One of them said and more laughter joined them. “He's not even part of the mating pool!”

“He took me down with a single low-powered lightning bolt, despite all of my training and defenses.” The woman said to them. “Mating pool or not, he's the most powerful mage I've ever seen!”

“He's a fighter, not a mage.” Sylvana let her shoulder go. “Even though he does cast some spells.”

“Are you sure?” The woman looked up at her princess. “Mage Wall. Mage Hand. Lightning Bolt. Dash. Jump. Healing.” She said and rhymed off the six spells that she had seen Hunter use. “I've never heard of a fighter using mage spells.”

“Not a word of invocation was spoken.” Sylvana told her.

“That just means he's even more powerful!” The woman said and shivered again. “Oh, the children he could bear!” She closed her eyes and put her hands on her belly.

“They would be physically weak.” The head guard said and tried not to spit the words. Physical weakness was anathema to their way of life and their beliefs.

“Not if trained properly.” The woman said and opened her eyes. “He doesn't know our ways. If the children do turn out weaker, then they would only need to rely on their sister guards to keep them safe while they perform their feats of magic.” She said confidently. “Imagine coming across a pack of rickchaws and only needing to have a Mana Wall formed around them in an instant to keep them together! They could be easily slaughtered with ranged weapons with no danger to the squad!”

The other guards had contemplative looks as they thought about how easy it would be to kill the monkey-like and thickly furred armored creatures, if they could be kept from swinging from the trees and running all over the place to swarm the hunting party. Even Sylvana took a few moments to consider the possibilities.

“If he's here, I want to submit my petition for his services immediately!” The woman said and ran from the room before anyone could stop her. Her nervousness and tremors had been quickly forgotten.

“Wait!” The head guard said fruitlessly and then sighed.

“They will tell her when she makes the petition that he isn't eligible.” Sylvana said. “He's not an elf.”

“I don't think she cares.” One of the other guards said. “If he does become available...” She stopped talking and looked at the faces around her. In the next instant she bolted to the door with six other women right behind her.

“Stop!” The head guard said fruitlessly as nearly half of their squad ignored her and left. “By the ancestors.” She sighed and rubbed her face in frustration.

“It's all right.” Sylvana said as she squashed her desire to hunt her wayward guards down to discipline them. “I only intended to take a few of you with me anyway.”

The head guard nodded and picked the best five people for transporting an important person. “We will escort the carriage.” She said and the guards followed their princess out of the rest area to where the horses and carriage were being stored. Sylvana entered the carriage and the head guard sat across from her, while another guard sat with the driver. Two guards rode their enhanced horses in front of the carriage and two rode behind it as they left the comforts of the huge castle to head several tree-cities away to find Hunter's contact.