Eric winked up at the remaining senators flashing hungry smiles his way, so confident they were that he was bluffing, and at the half dozen bodyguards behind them. “Your hired help didn’t sign on to be killed. You guys want to change careers, you’ll find a very sweet setup in Ashland, where all past misunderstandings are forgiven, so long as you give an oath never to deliberately cross me or mine.”

Dead silence, a cold part of Eric realizing he was being a fool. Showing an ounce of concern or weakness, when ruthless bloodthirst was all these monster’s could respect.

Greed flashed a relieved smile. “Well done, Senator! Rest assured the Snicklit tribe will—“

And no one was more surprised than Eric when one of the guards spoke up. “We’re oathbound to protect our masters under all circumstances!”

“Against assault, sure,” said the guardian next to him. A very feminine sounding guardian. Eric forced his features to absolute stillness as she spoke on. “But Vidrig took a bet. Of his own volition. I don’t think any oath you gave… that any of us gave, means that we have to put our skulls in front of his own, if he’s determined to blow his brains out playing Russian Roulette with a Contender who claimed half a dozen territories in under a week!”

The silence was almost glacial, Eric knowing it was only thanks to near 200 Perception that he made out every word now being said at frequencies that should be far too high pitched for him to hear.

“In fact, I’m almost positive that this counts as a breach-of-contract. For all of us.”

“Emily...”

“How many times have we talked about just walking away from all this bullshit, Rich?”

“If we do this, we can never go back.”

The girl shook her head. “Is this nightmare life we’ve been living where were forced to point guns at the same families we used to organize charity drives with, go to school with, play sports with, even worth going back to?” The girls voice went from jaded and bitter to desperate. “You’re not sleeping any better than I am. Remember last night? Waking up in a cold sweat, screaming in my arms till two in the morning? It’s now or never, Rich. Right here, right now. And we both know it.”

Eric couldn’t help but be impressed when nods were exchanged between all six sentinels covered in elite magi-tech gear. Sentinels who, seconds later, jumped right out of the elevated seating, racing to stand before a bemused looking Aurelia, each and every one of them falling to one knee, to the howls of dismay from both humanoids and administrators present.

Aurelia winked at Eric’s shocked expression. “You aren’t the only one who’s been busy, darling. What does every boy and girl dream about in their heart of hearts, as their world gets more callous and brutal by the day?”

Eric quickly looked away.

“What are you fools doing?” Screamed a still incensed-looking Vidrig, the first traces of fear finally cracking his furious contempt and desperate hunger to see Eric fall.

The girl took off her helmet, showing the freckled face of a shockingly young Classer. Not a day over sixteen, even if her eyes held the jaded weight of someone much older.

“Securing our future employment, uncle, should you not survive your suicide attempt,” she said. Her grin grew wide as she and the rest of the youths, helmets now removed, sighed with what seemed heartfelt relief, even as the administrator screeched his fury.

Eric nodded, genuinely impressed. “That interpretation lets you all slip free of his manipulation? Sweet. Now Quick! Cover your ears! Their Lawfare can’t hurt you if you don’t read or listen to their bullshit.”

Now the remaining pair of senators beside Vidrig were looking visibly nervous.

Eric winked. “Last chance… I’m going to fire in 9...8…7...6…”

“Give him his two thousand men per cannon!” Screamed the one remaining women wearing what looked like dark judicial robes, of all things, wide-eyed terror cracking through her mask of cold contempt.

The man next to her in a charcoal grey power suit clenched his jaw, then gave an almost imperious nod, as if he were somehow the arbiter, and not an overextended man who had clawed onto corrupted power, in fear for his life. “Gunpowder concerns are irrelevant. Powder is far easier to transport than multiple tons of steel. Aurelia’s hidden ace has made it clear he can transport normally stationary fortress cannons and establish artillery batteries anywhere he likes behind enemy lines. Getting these too easily abused tools out of the hands of those normally not permitted such enhancements should be our immediate order of business!” He declared, glaring at Vidrig. “Not brooding over past slights from uppity children!”

Vidrig glared at Eric for long moments as the administrators before him pleaded with their eyes. They were clearly not willing to lower themselves by begging for permission to flee, unable to bear that loss of face. What was equally clear was that they were desperate to live and bitterly regretted not having left with their dignity intact when Administrator Chelton had given them the perfect opening, just seconds ago.

And it was clear that even Vidrig was having second thoughts.

“That monster has designs on my niece!” The administrator screeched, eyes alit with desperate pretext as he slammed his palms on the balustrade. “No, mongrel, you do not have permission to fire! I will not give you any pretext to force contractual rupture between me and my dear, beloved Annie! You do not have permission to fire. Do you here me, dog?”

Vidrig glared down at Greed who was furiously puffing his cigar, hot eyes burning into Eric’s own.

“Greed! Give that abomination his two thousand per cannon. And get all the cannons, you hear? I don’t want this monster having access to even one!”

Greed’s eyes bulged in disbelief, the fat stogie falling out of stunned goblinoid lips.

“You’re supposed to let me do the negotiating, fool!” The goblin shrieked.

Eric winked and gave the goblin the bird.

Vidrig imperiously gestured to his now furiously blushing niece. “Annie! Attend to me at once!”

Eric frowned, looking the way of the half dozen youths, none of whom could be over sixteen, now gazing at their guardians with looks of unmitigated dread.

“You going to be okay?”

The freckle-faced Annie gave him a haunted look. “He’s not dead, and he’s no longer willing to kill himself by Contender cannon. So what the fuck do you think?”

Eric winced. Shit.

All six kids exchanged anxious looks, before turning as one to Aurelia, who was now favoring them all with her most matronly smile.

“Um, Lady Winter Queen?” Annie anxiously asked.

“Yes, child?” Aurelia softly asked, gentle countenance a balm to troubled souls.

“She’s Aurelia Silver! The actress!” Gushed another girl. “Oh my god, it’s true! The fairytale actress really is an actual Faerie Queen!”

“Can you free us from, um...”

“Corrupt contracts?” Aurelia asked with a teasing smile.

More than one of the children anxiously nodded, half of them still keeping fingers firmly pressed against their ears.

Aurelia flashed a wicked grin at the furious looking administrators. “I’ll tell you a secret, darlings. Embedded into North American law is the premise that minors cannot be forced into any contractual obligations. Most especially not ones that put your lives in mortal jeopardy. And as I sensed that none of you have reached the age of majority, and the administrators who sought to bind you themselves come from Terran stock… you’re all free to do exactly as you like!”

Annie’s face lit up in heartfelt relief. “Thank fucking god,” she said, before sticking her fingers in her ears and closing her eyes. “I’m still not letting uncle’s words claw into my skull again.”

Aurelia’s laughter was a cool breeze cutting through cloying dead-aired humidity. “Don’t worry, children. So long as you take your ease beside me, you need hear nothing that would disturb your serenity. Now let me tell you all tales of handsome knights and beautiful damsels and all the glorious adventures savored by the many heroes and champions of the elven kingdoms.”

Annie’s eyes widened. She stole a glance Eric’s way and blushed. “Are there, um...”

“Yes, child?”

“Do elven men ever fall for, well, human girls?”

Aurelia laughed. “Have you not seen any of my TV specials, darling? It happens all the time. And I’ll tell you a secret,” she said in a stage whisper. “Our men are known for gifting their lovers with pleasure so sweet it’s almost a sin, and their mixed-blood children are the most beautiful you’ve ever seen!” She then smiled at the boys. “And if you’ve ever seen my Elonia in the movies… you know exactly how striking Elven maidens can be. Maidens who comprise half of our forces here on Earth, and many of them are quite interested in strong men that can protect them from the storms life will eventually bring our way.”

“Yeah, but would they like kids like us?” smirked one teenage boy who’s eyes revealed just how serious his question was.

Aurelias’ throaty chuckle sent shivers through the raptly staring boys. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see you all champions well above level fifty when you reach your majority in just a few short years, already hand-fasted to the Sylvan girl of your dreams who will utterly adore you and the beautiful children you will one day make together. Because strength is as valued in our culture as it is your own, and I see strong nodes in all of you darlings. So rest assured, you would all be valued and welcome members of our alliance. And I promise you this: The monstrous foes of your favorite games are all you’d need face, earning prestige and glory and so very many sweet, glorious levels with your kills! Unlike the veritable hoard of foul creatures and corrupt administrators you’ve been forced to placate and appease for far too long, our alliance would never make you face your fellow Terran brothers and sisters on the field of battle. It truly is a shame that your former employers, forcing you into those awful and entirely illegal contracts, can’t say the same.”

Aurelia glared at the snarling, hissing, and cursing humanoid abominations completely overshadowing the handful of humans who also dared attend right at the conference table.

“You need only face monsters like the ones seated right behind you. Monsters who delight in the enslavement of all those half-naked children gazing our way with desperate hope, even now. Vulnerable youths preyed upon by monsters that, with your help, we will one day free! For we are the side of light and justice, my darlings, and I would love nothing more than for you to join us and be the heroes and champions I sense you all yearning so desperately to become!”

All six youths were gazing with unreserved longing into intent green sapphire eyes sparkling with the captivating fires of infinite possibility, Aurelia promising so much with her heartfelt smile.

“Join our faction, my darlings, and be the heroes you were always meant to be. As for darkness and corruption… well, who would know better the masks our enemies wear than yourselves, forced to witness their lies and corruption everyday?”

“But, um, Lady Aurelia...” Said one boy hesitantly.

“Yes, darling?”

He swallowed. “I thought we couldn’t be tied to contracts until we were eighteen?”

Aurelia chuckled throatily, winking at the boy who flushed furiously, instantly in love.

“Those are foul contracts written by our enemies. I simply want your word. Nothing more than that. A paladin’s oath worthy of the paladins you will one day become. Paladins who would tear off the collars binding dozens of your classmates even now, innocent children enslaved by our enemies!”

All the teenagers nodded as if this made perfect sense, haunted eyes making it clear they had witnessed awful things indeed, as their parents, uncles, and aunts wined and dined and bargained away the lives of countless thousands of their own kind. Memories these emotionally scarred teenagers could perhaps burn away only by transforming themselves along the most noble of redemption arcs, taking the first steps along a path echoing every childhood fantasy of heroism, justice, and righteous glory.

“Those monsters stole our children! That’s kidnapping!” declared a pinch-faced older woman wearing a judge’s robes and a prosecutor’s scowl. “Timothy, get back here!”

Much to Eric’s surprise, the pimply boy in question heard the woman’s words loud and clear. “I’ll serve as your fucking lackey just as soon as you get the collars off all the kids enslaved in Freetown, grandmom! Until then, I’m done with you.”

“You aren’t done anything, young man! Unless you want your father to hear about this, you’ll get your ass right back here, right now!” The robed woman snapped, eyes wide with dismay before she glared Eric’s way. And maybe he would have pitied her, if her bitter gaze had shown even one iota of sympathy for the dozens of battered teenage girls and boys wearing collars at the central table, still being made to fill the wine goblets of monsters who saw them as toys to use and abuse, and nothing more.

Eric made sure to burn the faces of each and every humanoid he saw abusing, assaulting, smocking, or mocking the sobbing slaves.

Swearing a silent vendetta against each and every one.

Eric would have thought it amusing were it not so tragic, that all six former bodyguards armored in cosplay polymer body armor that nonetheless could stop bullets and blaster fire with equal ease, were now sitting politely as his mother forged a sound bubble around them all, entertaining them with stories Eric thought almost hypnotic… as their relatives desperately ordered those children to return to their sides.

All the teenager’s faces paled, clearly sensing some degree of compulsion, despite the sound barrier protecting them. Several seemed to waver, until Annie, clearly a natural leader, locked gazes with each and every one of them.

“None of us are stupid. We’ve all seen our parents sell out, laughing when our own classmates were screaming for someone to help them, because their entire family was put in slave collars, trapped in debt no one who’s not connected can pay off! Our parents are so fucking corrupt I want to puke. We all know it, we all learned to accept it, because we had no fucking choice!” she sobbed, tears of fury glittering down her cheeks. Tears mirrored by the two other girls nodding at her every word.

The boys swallowed and looked away. “We know, Annie. But it’s not like there’s anything we could do but take our pay and buy at least one of our friend’s freedom!”

Annie bowed her head. “I know. There really was nothing we could do, even when mom and dad and grandmom made fucking deals with the monsters chaining up our friends, enslaving people we care about. But now we can!”

Her eyes lit up with desperate hope. “How many times did we promise ourselves that the minute we could find a loophole, any loophole at all, we’d break the fuck out of this golden cage covered in shit? And my asshole uncle, who nearly got us killed, did just that! Now, with a Faerie Queen at our side, we can slip free of those fucking tainted contracts they made us seal with our own blood. Now, we can finally become the fucking heroes we all swore we’d be, the very first days of the invasion when we found out we could actually class-up, before our families sold us out! Now, we can finally fight back!”

Annie exchanged fierce, tight nods with her fellows. She then sunk to one knee, bowing her head before Eric’s mother, now radiating so matronly affection for all the youths before her.

“I would join your cause, Aurelia Silver, Faerie Queen of Winter, and become a paladin who will one day free my people from bastard invaders and the foul bindings of slavery!”

Aurelia’s eyes lit with fierce triumph, her fingertip touching the brow of the now shuddering girl.

“Then I accept your oath, future Paladin of the Sylvan Alliance! May your sword shine bright and may your blaster strike true as you fight for Justice, Queen Elonia, and the Sylvan Alliance! Together, we will forge a world of mer and man, of brightness and glory, free of the foul scourge of orcs, ogres, goblins, and all the festering abominations that would enslave our kind!”

Those words like nothing else consolidated wavering loyalties in children who had originally donned exotic, otherworldly armor in the hopes of being defenders and heroes. Not children forced to play bodyguards to corrupt administrators and monsters, when half-naked kids their own age were being treated like slaves by orcs, goblins, and countless other invading races who were happily lording it over an entire city. Creatures almost every RPG ever made had conditioned them to see as the enemies of mer and man.

Because that’s exactly what they were.

Eric’s jaded smile grew bright and fierce at the looks of unmitigated hate they sent to their shocked-looking relatives before swearing the same oath to Eric’s mother that Annie had, all of them soon wearing the same ecstatic expressions while taking on a brilliant glow, their armor transforming before Eric’s very eyes as they willingly accepted the embrace of a Silver Tier sorceress. For never was a faerie more powerful than when those flush with youth’s promise and vigor were eager for a Winter Queen’s magic to transform them in ways subtle and grand.

When Eric’s Interface message blared with the notification that the first of Earth’s paladins had successfully been forged, he saw that he wasn’t the only one who had gotten it, still gazing with awe at the sight of the six children floating before his mother, their eyes closed in a state beyond death or sleep, glowing like stars as they were transformed by ancient magics utterly beyond an awed Eric's comprehension.

“You can’t do that!” Vidrig screamed. “You’ve violated the Accords! You’ve...”

His blathering was instantly cut off by Aurelia’s fierce glare. “Wrong, mortal. Any child of any race may swear themselves to the Winter Queen’s cause and be welcomed within my court!”

Her fierce smile froze each and every Terran where they stood, the humanoids grimacing and averting their gaze. “For this has been my right, long before this world was joined to the Interface and System that now binds us all.”

Melodious laughter washed over the chamber and, Eric sensed, Freetown as a whole.

“Have none of you read your own fairy tales? Do you not understand the significance of the very title? How many of your legends involve youth on the cusp of adulthood when their mortal energies blaze brightest, wearing bodies as capable as any adult, who have dared to become the heroes and champions of my people?”

“I have indeed read the dark tales of your kind, foul thing!” Hissed the administrator in the judge’s robes glaring down at Eric and his mother with such hate. “I know all about how you steal children away and devour them! Putting faerie changelings in their place, pulling strings to manipulate mortal affairs from your ice cold palace in Arcadia!”

“True,” Aurelia said, her voice cold as a winter gale. “All true. For I have been the weaver of countless stories far darker than you fools could possibly imagine, and far nobler than your bitter hearts could possibly bear. Yet these delicious children have sworn an oath to be my paladins, and I shall honor their oath, and their devotion, by being the saintly faerie queen they so desperately need me to be.”

She winked at the assembled swarm of corrupt humanoids and bloated administrators, one jaded politician to another.

“As they will serve me with honor, so they will be honored in turn. Their dreams of being regaled as champions of my daughter’s alliance will soon be sweetest reality. All their secret fantasies of handsome young eleven lords and ladies blessing them with endless nights of bliss will indeed be their fortune the moment they reach their majority, and I shall welcome their half-blood children into my court, just as I do my own.”

Eric wasn’t surprised by the looks of horror and outrage this declaration caused, the air ringing with cries for someone to do something echoing futilely through the air.

What did surprise him was the additional handful of fully armored sentinels that exchanged looks before racing away from their shocked-looking relatives, slowing down to a walk as they beheld Aurelia in all her dark glory.

The four youths took off their helms, showing three girls and one boy.

“My, what might sharp teeth you have,” said one girl with a cold smile.

Aurelia nodded. “I do.”

The girl took a deep breath, gazing with wonder at her six friends, glowing with a pure silver light, then back at Aurelia.

“Did you really eat children?”

Aurelia’s gaze turned sad. “Yes. A boy I had once loved as my own, who had grown old and bitter, his own love turning to hatred when time’s claws brutalized him unmercifully, in a world where no one else around him had aged a single day after reaching their majority. In an act of madness, he slew the elven woman I had allowed him to marry. A girl who had given him her heart, whose love had never wavered, and who had never aged a day past 18 summers.”

Aurelia closed her eyes, a single silver tear streaming down her cheek. “That girl had been my daughter. My screams of pain and despair were just as great as his own when I devoured the heart of a tale that had become so bitter.”

Aurelia sighed and shook her head. “It was a thousand years before any of you were ever born. Their children and grandchildren I raised as my own, for they were my own, washing away the awful storm of memory from their souls, so that only Summer’s warmth in Winter’s court would touch their precious lives. And if I could go back in time and redo that day before poor Auren had gone insane with bitter grief, I would have done so, long ago.”

The girl gazed at the faerie queen for long moments. “But everything you said is true.”

Aurelia nodded. “It is.”

The children all gazed raptly at Aurelia Silver, looking so utterly vulnerable at that moment, completely ignoring the screams and shouts and imprecations of the administrators behind then, Eric realizing his mother had put up her sound barrier once more.

Another girl swallowed. “You can help us break free of the nightmare of our past, so we can have a second chance too, right? Granny used to say that the coldest winters brought the sweetest springs.” Imploring eyes met Aurelia’s own. “Please help us become champions of the Sylvan alliance. Help us slip free of our parent’s horrid contracts, like you did for our friends.” She flushed, looking back at a too thin girl with bruises and terror in her eyes who gazed back at the armored girl with such desperate longing, before turning away with a sob when a gnoll snapped his jackal head at her.

The teenager’s eyes blazed. “Swear to me that if we join your cause, we will fight to purge this world of these monsters!” She sobbed, glaring her hate at the hissing gnoll who currently had his claws in the sobbing slave girl’s hair. “We will work to free those we love from goblin chains and orcish fire pits! We will make a beautiful world where our enemies are dead and we can all live happy and free, Elf and human alike!”

Aurelia gently touched the girl’s head. The child’s eyes widened with surprise. “So mote it be, my child. My daughter will do her best to make it so. And with your help, she just might have a chance.”

Aurelia’s gaze turned to Eric. “We will add the slaves to our tally. That girl being ravished by the gnoll is clearly this one’s former lover.”

Eric nodded. “I’m already on it.”

His mother smirked, before turning summer’s gentle gaze back to the children, addressing their concerns, giving motherly hugs that had one girl bursting in tears, another gazing at Eric so intently and biting her lip, no doubt dreaming of handsome elven men devoting their lives to the noble paladins that aided their cause in their darkest hour, like in the very best fantasy romances.

The boy’s eyes widened with wonder. “This is just like Silver Defenders! I totally fell in love with Elonia Silver, watching that movie. And now we’re living it. We’re fucking living it! We can be heroes for real!”

The youth gasped when Aurelia’s eyes locked with his own.

“It pleases me to see my daughter’s work struck a chord within you, worthy hero of the Sylvan Alliance. But swear the oath, the same as sworn by your companions, and live the life you’ve always wanted to live. Be a part of our dream, and ascend past the jaded corruption of those who would destroy both our races for all time, were it not for paladins like the ones you four were always destined to become!”

The awestruck boy crashed to his knees, his shaking voice projecting through the entire open-air chamber as he shouted out an oath even Eric could sense he meant with all his heart.

Within minutes, four more teens just a few years younger than Eric were glowing with the silvery light of ascension.

His mother’s smile grew wide, revealing her shark-toothed grin for all her enemies to see, delighting in the horrified screams this earned.

“Even seeing my true nature, your children still choose to join my cause! Do you understand why yet, you jaded, corrupt administrators, so eager to take goblin coin? Because I meant every word I said. Your children will be feted, their lovers rescued, their friends freed from chains of steel, coin, and shame, that you were so stupid as to laugh at the forging of, no matter that your offspring begged you to be the heroes that weak-willed profiteering fools like you could never be!”

Aurelia’s cold smile only grew as Vidrig, Chelton, and countless other administrators screamed furious threats and insults her way, their hissed words humming with ill intent through the air dissipating like a butterfly’s whisper, the pieces of glowing black vellum they signed and threw erupting in motes of golden light.

“In case you fools forgot, an accord between us has already been struck. All previous hatchets are buried. No taint of earlier perceived transgressions will affect our interactions or your attempts at binding oaths from this day forward.” She chilled them with her laughter. “And you fools thought nothing of agreeing to extend that boon to this day’s end as well!” Her eyes flashed with sudden heat, a terrible killing intent that had the entire assembly lurching back.

“Unless you can say to my face right here, right now, that bitter spite from my claiming your heirs this day didn’t compel any twist in your contracts or signatures, you dare forge no writs, codicils, contracts, accords, or any other legal document or missive pertaining to myself, the Sylvan faction, or my son, or I will see you fools dragged before a Silver Tier administrator and tested for malice! Should they find the slightest trace, with the goings-on of this day recorded for all posterity, it is your heads that shall be in the guillotine, and you fools will get to see just how wide I can stretch these dark faerie lips!”

The air rang with shrieks and roars of protest, and even Eric was a bit chilled to see that his sister’s exaggerated memory hadn’t been so exaggerated, after all.

A heartbeat later, it was just his mother once more, soft ruby red lips showing just a glimmer of pearlescent and perfectly normal, even dainty, teeth, when she flashed them all a wicked grin.

“You shouldn’t even be here!” A pale-faced Vidrig whispered. “You’re a Silver tier monster! Your interference in the claimance of Earth is forbidden!”

Aurelia’s chuckle was throaty and low. “Best you read those accords very, very carefully, dear Vidrig, for past precedent has been fully grandfathered in. My presence on this world, and claimance of countless children who have sworn themselves to my service is as old as Winter itself!”

“But you are binding us to a Silver Tier oath!” The robed administrator, who looked on the verge of tears, furiously shrieked.

Again, Aurelia solemnly shook her head. “No, darling. It was YOU who took that oath, in an effort to entice and trap my son’s delicious army, to neutralize its power, his power, so he would no longer be a threat to you. I but hold you to the oath you FREELY made before myself and my son. And I will hold you to it in courts every bit as high as the one the Snicklit clan claims access to.”

She flashed a wicked smile Greed’s way. “Or would you deny it, Representative?”

The goblin glared at her for long, furious moments, lighting a fresh stogie. “You’re a fool to make enemies of us, woman!”

Aurelia flashed a pitying smile, before turning brightly to Eric. “So, my son. How fast do you think you can get your phalanx to New York?”

Eric chuckled at the yips and squeals this earned from the jackal-faced gnolls present. Then he took note of the countless collard girls wide-eyed and trembling and desperately doing their best to stay out of sight, bite marks covering their naked flesh, more than a few oozing blood.

His smile faded to a killing glare.

“I’ll wipe those fuckers off the board before the week is out.”