The devastation in King Lyril’s blue eyes was very plain to see as he first gazed at the naked blade next to him, then followed it up to the eyes of the fellow elf he had adventured next to for literally centuries, and then had at his side for centuries more as King of Sidheduiche.
He didn’t even have to ask. The shock in Gelfernador’s eyes… No, Helmonag’s, the Na just resonated in the air, unable to be denied, encompassing all that the infiltrator was, making it plain as day that it was indeed his True Na.
“Sheathe your sword, Gel,” King Lyril said sadly, stepping away and starting to draw his own.
The spy’s eyes flashed around at the strong warriors in the room, the guards behind gaping at him, and made his choice.
He leapt back, his tongue tripping over three syllables. Magic swirled around him to take him away-
And his fading form seed to crash into sothing, rejecting his Teleportation attempt to flee instantly.
I waved my hand negligently his way as he stumbled, shocked at running into a dinsional wall that had stopped his spell cold. With a grunt, he was hurled off his feet at the speed of a charging horse, and slamd hard into the wall behind him, grunting and groaning as his Sword fell from his hand… and then buckles began to loosen, straps flipped open, knots untied, seams parted, and with rather magical speed, his Armor and equipnt fell off of him and pooled onto the ground.
He was held helplessly there, a foot off the ground, as the Clanmasters of Uainel and Red Sword were on him in a second, their own glowing elven Blades at his throat and ready to take action if he tried another such tactic.
The King looked back and forth from to his old friend, able to feel the Telekinesis pinning him in place.
“One of the things Belle wanted to impress upon the Council here was the necessity for proper security, both dinsionally and among its personnel,” I continued, as if I hadn’t revealed probably the biggest spy in the whole nation within minutes of coming here. “Thank you for making my point for , Elder Cousin. I set up an Interdiction about the Palace here when I arrived, just in case sothing like this might happen.”
The sorrow of betrayal in the king’s eyes hadn’t gone away when his gaze turned completely back to . “Are there others of your people in Sidheduiche?” he asked directly.
“I know for absolute certainty there are five others within Sidhetown, Your Majesty,” I answered, and watched the master spy’s face twist in hate and fear. “I am reasonably certain that there are dozens, if not scores, more of them active in the forest, with at least two hundred in place in various locations just underneath it.”
“You, you TRAITOR!” Helmonag swore at , trying to point at . “It is our DESTINY to take this forest from the undeserving!” he swore at in a distinctly shadenelf accent. “How dare you betray your people like this?!”
“Betray?” I asked him coolly, actually taking a single step forward, but the table was in our way regardless… except it politely moved out of my way as I continued to glide forward, shocking the elves there as a Rune of Wood glowed for a mont on the back of the lace on my right hand, just as Dread slapped into it. “You have lost faith in Gaebrel. You have slain innocents who had no part in this intrigue. You have lied to the people of the Sternvult – my people! – to satisfy a need for blood and conquest! You have lived a life of treachery and betrayal in service to a lie, and you call a traitor, you blasphemous fallen scum?”
My voice was all ice, and he writhed as my eyes bored into him. I wasn’t even trying to read his mind, but I could see him faltering as all my words rang with Truth.
Nobody approached or attempted to touch or stop . Helmonag’s distraught expression as his whole lie of a life rose up before him was shattering enough that even those coming forward to bind him could tell he was a broken man.
“Don’t let the fool kill himself. Corellin takes ho the faithful, and this one, this one has lived in the light long enough to know the truth, he just couldn’t bring himself to accept it,” I sniffed. He slamd down on his bare feet, his elven boots already removed, and was promptly wrestled to the ground. Slender ropes woven of elven make rapidly appeared and began to bind him, while shackles of cold iron were placed on his hands to deny him magic.
I turned to the king, who was again looking back and forth between us. “If you search his chambers, you will doubtless find a well-hidden Scroll, scrying device, or other form of magical communication he used to communicate with his master. If you bring it to , I can verify the connection and personage on the other end,” I inford him without passion or glee or much of anything. Just another day on the job. “Give an hour and I can have an Interdiction field up that would cover the entire settlent,” it wasn’t a city, nope-nope, “Permanently. Give five minutes and I can instead have one up that covers rely the palace here.
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“There are also the others of my people who I assu your own people would be interested in talking to on a more well-inford basis within the city. Would you like to lead you to them?” I offered casually.
His lips thinned as he looked at , and then slowly sighed and nodded. “Yes, yes I would,” he admitted. “What would you need to have done?” he asked sharply
“I? I need nothing. But I advise you send orders to the walls to be magically aware for those flying and invisible until my cousins are in proper custody. They may get alard when invited to co explain themselves to Your Majesty.”
His smile was brittle as he watched his oldest and longest friend get pulled to his feet by General Crimson and hauled away, his face never turning up to et the eyes of the king he had betrayed for so long. “Make it so,” he ordered to the guard captain there who was attempting to keep a straight face at what was going on.
“My king, this woman has also admitted to being a shadenelf!” barked General Crimson, barely deigning to look at . “You cannot trust what she says-”
“Does the General know he’s been Chard?” I inquired absently of him, interrupting his diatribe.
The elves around staggered, but for so reason, none of them didn’t believe , looking at Crimson strangely and alertly.
“What?” he snarled instantly. “There is no way I have been so affected by anyone!” he protested defiantly.
“And Geased,” I went on, eyeing him calmly as he flushed. “Conversations he’s been told not to talk about, soone he can’t disobey. Chard into agreeing to the Geas and now unable to break out of it. He’s a puppet on soone else’s strings. Your Majesty, see if he’ll remove that Amulet he’s got on under his mail and hand it to you. My answer is no, he’s literally unable to obey the order.”
King Lyril looked at the second loyal general under his command, also revealed to be suborned, the red-haired finest soldier in the nation outraged that his king would even believe an outsider like her. “Your Majesty, I severely protest that you are paying the slightest heed to her words!” he shouted angrily.
“General Crimson, this is a direct order from your king,” King Lyril stated with iron in his voice. “Take that Amulet that is shielding you from Divination spells off and hand it to .”
“I, my King, the risks, especially with this woman here!” General Crimson imdiately protested, getting red in the face.
“NOW, General?” King Lyril asked, and swords slid out all around.
“Olivander Trussoyl, for the good of the kingdom, obey your king this one ti,” I calmly Suggested.
His face perceptibly blanked, especially at ntion of his Truena. “Yes,” he agreed, his eyes glazed and looking right through . He reached up to his neck, unbound the Necklace under his mail, and handed it over to King Lyril as if a half-dozen swords weren’t pointed his way.
King Lyril accepted it smoothly, his eyes glittering. “Charm magic,” he confird, as General Crimson’s eyes reverted. “But I cannot see the Geas?” he asked, glancing at .
“That is not possible-!” the elven general began heatedly.
“You have to study his Alignnt Aura. There are fluctuations in it because the power of a Geas can force you to betray your Alignnt.” I snapped my fingers, and the rose in my hair grew into a glittering, thorned tiara, a rich red Light streaming from it and playing over the white and red-trimd elven soldier, a thick and strong Aura of White tinged with Blue erupting to live as Reveal Alignnt played over him. “His Aura should be imperable and solid, given his power and age. Look how the Blue and White are vibrating instead of blending into one another. There’s even little dark gaps… his mory of so of the things he’s had to say and do has been wiped from him, so that he doesn’t even try to fight the orders that are existing and thinks they are simply his own thoughts.”
“This, this is absurd-!” General Crimson tried to refute , but was sounding increasingly strained, staring at his own hands and able to see what I was talking about.
The more powerful elves around could also make out what I was talking about, and were nodding with , if reluctantly.
“He is using Life-na magic, which works wonderfully if nobody knows your real na. Unfortunately, I imagine Helamong either found it out or was trusted with it, and passed it on to his agents and up to the intelligence services of the Shaden. I imagine every single powerful elf of importance who uses such ans to gain the immunity to Charm and Hold magicks it provides has been compromised, and either has been subverted without their knowing it, is going to be in the future, or there are ans ready to instantly take them out and control them with such a clear vulnerability exploited.”
It was Truenaming magic, and I was a Cryptomancer. It truly was a decent defense, but you literally had to have nobody know your Truena for it to work, or it would get out!
“The General is currently more of a threat to the security to this kingdom than I am, because he is doubtless Geased to obey the orders of whoever did that to him, and he doesn’t even know who it is.”
“We can remove the Geas with its counter,” King Lyril said, his face twisting as the ashen general, quite literally unable to believe any of this was true, seethed, clenching at the Sword he wore and clearly wondering if he should draw on and cut down with how I was obviously beguiling his king! “Recovering his mories will be sowhat harder…”
“I can take care of both right now, if Your Majesty is willing,” I inford him, as if it happened every day.
The look he gave was that he should expect to be surprised, and yet sohow was not. “If it pleases the Lady Edge… set my general free.”
I turned and shone the Reveal Alignnt on Demonhunter.
His Aura was Yellow and Green, also rich and deep… and also vibrating subtly. Everyone looked at it, keen elven eyes picking out the discrepancy, and the acclaid hunter’s jaw dropped as he stared at it on his hands.
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