When the rest of the Misfits arrived and Lia's icy prison opened up, it wasn't hard to subdue the fairies at all. They were frightened, and when Lia stood up, holding her swords, still shrouded in blue flames, looking like some kind of evil deity, they were begging to be spared.
"Round them up!" She ordered loudly, watching over her people as they were placing magical seals on them, preventing the fairies from trying to teleport away and escape. Lia burnt the corpse into ash when the dead fairy did not rise up without looking at it. An action that further scared the group, which was now under the Misfits' watchful eyes.
"What are your plans?" Sion asked, watching them being separated into groups of ten.
"We need to investigate... You, Louise, and Aurora stay here; choose some Misfits to accompany you! I want you to comb through this place and find anything that looks as if it is remotely connected to them! I want you to keep a lookout until I say otherwise!"
"Are you suspecting the Undead?" Aurora asked with raised eyebrows.
"I don't know yet, but I was warned that some were very active in the region, and they were not found yet. I notified Keily. He is already on his way with Shishi and the twins. If the Undead is here, I need fire mages to be with you!"
"We will find clues if there are any abominations lurking in the jungle!" Sion nodded with confidence.
"I hope that you won't! In the meantime, we will transport them back to our base, and I will interrogate them! Let's go!"
…
….
……
The route back to their fortress took a bit longer with escorting the big group of fairies. Many times when the caravan of people stopped, they immediately started begging, trying to make deals to be let free. Some even tried selling out their friends, saying they knew secrets about them, a treasure they buried and were willing to share… just let them go. Without them being restrained and bound, a new brawl would have erupted amongst them multiple times before they finally returned to the fortress. What Lia did first was to lead them down underground into the dungeons, where they were separated into numerous holding cells, filling their prison up to the brim at once.
"Let them wait for a little… Keep an eye on them; they are troublemakers, and I don't want them fighting all the time!" She looked at Simbad and Raufon, who joined up with them when they arrived, acting as a guardian.
"Where are you going?" Raufon asked while peering down the stone stairs towards the dungeon, curious about the prisoners.
“I am meeting with Rinzen!” Lia waved, heading up to one of the towers, where a meeting was already on its way.
Around a long table sat Rinzen and the projection of Reyra, Lucian, and finally, two other leaders, the giant-bellied Lakhmu and the old turtle, Rangi.
"So this is Lia, eh?" Lakhmu laughed when she entered the room, his tattoos moving a little on his skin.
"Greetings!" She smiled in response, cupping her hand before sitting between Rinzen and Reyra's image.
"We were just discussing your finding of the disc and the thing called Hajna," Rangi explained, looking at Lia with his ancient eyes. "I am delighted to study it!"
"You will be able to do it at the Academy, any time, Master Rangi," Lucian assured him with respect in his voice, but it was also telling that the disc would not leave the Institution's grounds.
"I am already on my way." Lakhmu grinned, leaning to the left, disappearing from the image before coming back into focus with a giant mug in his hands, as big as Lia's head. "Magic of the stars! My own spells rely on them! I need to see the ancients' knowledge!"
"I thought so." Reyra chuckled, "I hope you will also reach the 9th Tier!"
"Me too!" He laughed and let out an otherworldly belch after emptying his mug.
"Haaah…" Rangi sighed, watching Lakhmu, making Lia chuckle. She was captivated by the image of the big man who was even broader and taller than her father. "I am also ready whenever you are, Lady Reyra."
"We will commence the ritual soon." She nodded at him, also close to finishing her preparations in raising Rangi to the 9th Tier with the technique of Erias.
"Did you already bring Hajna away?" Lia asked, turning to Lucian, who smiled, shaking his head.
"Not yet. I am waiting for your invitation~!"
"Good!" Lia sighed, relieved, "We ran into something weird, and I will need her knowledge!"
"Oh?" The leaders all looked at her, and Lia explained to them the previous day's events and the fairy's appearance.
"How interesting!" Rangi spoke up first, sounding excited. "You say you found fairies? Real ones?"
"It was Sion's guess, but yes. We think they are indeed fairies. But… they are weird."
"Not kind nor friendly, yes?" Rangi asked, nodding as if that was to be expected.
"What is it, old turtle? Out with it! You always go in roundabout ways when explaining!" Lakhmu groaned, taking another swing from his mug.
"Fairies did not go extinct in the Dark Ages, but they did disappear when we repopulated Meriath!" He started, looking at the others while explaining, "Their numbers took a huge hit right at the start of those dark years. They were always too trusting, helpful, and wanting to make friends. They were filled with love towards nature, including us. There were multiple sub-species amongst them, some had colorful skins and wings, but they were even more attuned to nature! When the world burnt down… they were the first to go."
"So, in a way, they did go extinct." Rinzen mulled over his words, tilting her head left and right.
"Those that survived carried the least amount of Faery blood in them. No wings, no colorful skin… and less love for nature. Though, they did have enough to remain eternally young and blessed with light magic."
"We experienced that!" Lia grunted, "But what do you mean eternally young? Are they ageless?"
"No, not really. All our records on them describe that they live around 100 years, so a relatively short time for a magical being... but they never show their age after reaching a certain threshold. There were no fairies who looked older than 12 in human terms."
"Checks out. Plus…” Lia looked around, glancing at her mother, "They are horrible. Not just to us, but to themselves too! They are like super bad kids who had grown up without supervision!"
"Then I assume you are saying I did fairly well?" Reyra laughed, making Lia grin and wink at her.
"Of course! But these… Are something else! They have sinister magic, and they love causing pain."
"Any info in that big brain of yours?" Lakhmu asked, watching Rangi's thinking expression.
"Some…" He nodded, "What my teachers told me..." He murmured, and everyone knew he was under the tuition of people who served with and under Erias personally. "Was that after starting the reclamation efforts, the surviving fairies were no longer the same?"
"Did they change? Effect of the Undead?" Rinzen asked, a bit alarmed.
"No, not precisely." He smacked his lips, "No fairy turned. Ever. They had resistance against their manipulation… It was theorized to be connected to the purity of their souls... but…"
"But?" Reyra impatiently asked when he fell silent, recalling the old words of his masters.
"They were attuned to nature. The carnage and cruelty prevailing in our world broke them. Some tribes straight out died because of the pain and suffering that was lingering around them! They couldn't take it… some others had been… changed. Malformed. Twisted, in a sense."
"So, they went from kind and caring to petty and sadistic?" Rinzen asked, finding logic in it, "The survivors adapted to their surroundings… so pain and death wouldn't bring them down. I see."
"Are we sure they were never turned?" Lia asked seriously.
"Not in the past." Rangi replied, "But never take that for granted!"
"Where are they now?" Reyra asked, and Lia told them she rounded all of them up in her dungeon.
"With what happened in the vicinity… We need to take this even more seriously. I am changing course and should arrive in two days!" Lakhmu belched, wiping his mouth.
"You just want to check out the golden disk!" Reyra rolled her eyes, making the head of House Marduk laugh.
"That is just an added benefit!"
"By the time you arrive, we will have more information. I am going to interrogate them one by one!" Lia said, cupping her hand.
"That will take some time." Rinzen looked at her questioningly.
"Depends if they cooperate or not~!" She winked back at her while the meeting came to an end.
"I'll help."
"And I will hug you for it! Thanks!"
…
….
……
When Lia and Rinzen came back, wanting to start the interrogation, she was informed by Raufon that there were seven fights he had to break up in this short amount of time. Even when under a magical seal, they just went at each other, hitting, kicking, and biting. With a deep sigh and a feeling that a headache was creeping up on her, Lia decided to get it over with.
"Bring the one called Melody with you!" She waved at Raufon, rubbing her temple and heading to an empty room, while Rinzen also randomly picked a fairy to interrogate with Simbad at her side.
When Raufon nudged Melody into the empty, stone room, having no furniture but two chairs opposite each other, she was shaking from head to toe.
"Don't torture me, please!" She begged the moment she noticed Lia, but Raufon just made her sit in front of her, keeping his giant hands on the fairy's shoulders, stopping Melody from squirming too much.
"We won't," Lia answered coldly, further scaring the fairy. Her blonde hair was ruffled up, her blue eyes panicking, and this time, Lia felt like it wasn't just an act. "Why have you attacked us?"
"You attacked us!" She retorted but then groaned as Raufon hardened his grip over her shoulders, unafraid of harm her.
"My people came back sick, almost dead, when walking through your territory!" Lia accused her, chilliness radiating from her body.
"I don't know about that! You came-"
"No." She waved a hand, and ice formed around Melody's mouth, silencing her. "Listen well… what did they call you? Melody, yes? Now…” Lia leaned forward, looking into her eyes. "You will answer me truthfully, or I will extract your soul and get the information that way! How's that?" She grinned, bluffing, making Raufon chuckle, but for Melody, it was something she believed wholeheartedly.
Her answer was apparent as she squealed through her nose and peed a little, shaking so hard that even Raufon found it challenging to hold her down. It was like trying to keep a cat still, but she could wiggle, twist and turn her body unnaturally, almost slipping free. With a snap of her fingers, Lia removed the ice from her mouth, ignoring her cries.
"So, I ask again, why did you attack us? If you won't tell us, others will. Be the good girl and speak before you lose the opportunity to get on my good side!"
"We didn't attack anybody! It was just a game!" She sniffled, tears rolling from her eye. "You are bullying us!"
"We? Bully you? Hah!" Lia snorted, "You almost killed one of my men!"
"We never kill!" Melody protested, looking really hurt, "We play the 'Hide and Seek' game! We are the best at it! The losers get sick, and seeing them thinking it was something they ate or drank is so funny! Or the others tried poisoning them! Then they get into a fight, hehe! It's the most exciting!" Her mood took a profound turn, out of nowhere, now giggling and happy all of a sudden, "That is the funniest! When they fight amongst themselves!"
"Your spells are deadly… it kills people; you just don't see it happening."
"We don't kill! We are not bad!" Melody refused to believe her at once, "You are lying; you are bad! Bad like the pale ones!"
"Pale ones?" Lia trembled, sitting up straight at once. "White hair, green eyes?"
"Y-yes…" Melody replied, surprised and scared, "They don't get sick… they don't play our game…"
"When did you see them?!"
"I… I…” She stuttered, watching Lia's mismatched eyes piercing into her brain.
"Answer me. Now!"
"I don't know… some time ago!" She sniffed, on the verge of crying.
"Do you know where they are? Where is their lair at?" She pushed on, letting her magical aura weigh down on Melody to its fullest.
"Yes… I… do… please don't hurt me!"
"If you take us there… you will be pardoned!"
"Really?!" She cried out, her mood changing in a blink of an eye once more, "I can do that! Yes, yes! I can!"
"Good… for now, Raufon, take her back to the rest."
"But… I can take you there!" Melody screeched, "We can go, and then you can let me run away!"
"In due time!" Lia raised a hand, sealing Melody's still-moving, shouting, pleading mouth, "We can't just go willy-nilly! Take her back and bring me another one! I want to see if they say the same thing…"
"Yes, Boss!" Raufon nodded, pulling the moaning, wailing Melody away by her hair as she refused to leave, wanting to throw herself at Lia to beg for her freedom.
When the rest of the Misfits arrived and Lia's icy prison opened up, it wasn't hard to subdue the fairies at all. They were frightened, and when Lia stood up, holding her swords, still shrouded in blue flames, looking like some kind of evil deity, they were begging to be spared.
"Round them up!" She ordered loudly, watching over her people as they were placing magical seals on them, preventing the fairies from trying to teleport away and escape. Lia burnt the corpse into ash when the dead fairy did not rise up without looking at it. An action that further scared the group, which was now under the Misfits' watchful eyes.
"What are your plans?" Sion asked, watching them being separated into groups of ten.
"We need to investigate... You, Louise, and Aurora stay here; choose some Misfits to accompany you! I want you to comb through this place and find anything that looks as if it is remotely connected to them! I want you to keep a lookout until I say otherwise!"
"Are you suspecting the Undead?" Aurora asked with raised eyebrows.
"I don't know yet, but I was warned that some were very active in the region, and they were not found yet. I notified Keily. He is already on his way with Shishi and the twins. If the Undead is here, I need fire mages to be with you!"
"We will find clues if there are any abominations lurking in the jungle!" Sion nodded with confidence.
"I hope that you won't! In the meantime, we will transport them back to our base, and I will interrogate them! Let's go!"
…
….
……
The route back to their fortress took a bit longer with escorting the big group of fairies. Many times when the caravan of people stopped, they immediately started begging, trying to make deals to be let free. Some even tried selling out their friends, saying they knew secrets about them, a treasure they buried and were willing to share… just let them go. Without them being restrained and bound, a new brawl would have erupted amongst them multiple times before they finally returned to the fortress. What Lia did first was to lead them down underground into the dungeons, where they were separated into numerous holding cells, filling their prison up to the brim at once.
"Let them wait for a little… Keep an eye on them; they are troublemakers, and I don't want them fighting all the time!" She looked at Simbad and Raufon, who joined up with them when they arrived, acting as a guardian.
"Where are you going?" Raufon asked while peering down the stone stairs towards the dungeon, curious about the prisoners.
“I am meeting with Rinzen!” Lia waved, heading up to one of the towers, where a meeting was already on its way.
Around a long table sat Rinzen and the projection of Reyra, Lucian, and finally, two other leaders, the giant-bellied Lakhmu and the old turtle, Rangi.
"So this is Lia, eh?" Lakhmu laughed when she entered the room, his tattoos moving a little on his skin.
"Greetings!" She smiled in response, cupping her hand before sitting between Rinzen and Reyra's image.
"We were just discussing your finding of the disc and the thing called Hajna," Rangi explained, looking at Lia with his ancient eyes. "I am delighted to study it!"
"You will be able to do it at the Academy, any time, Master Rangi," Lucian assured him with respect in his voice, but it was also telling that the disc would not leave the Institution's grounds.
"I am already on my way." Lakhmu grinned, leaning to the left, disappearing from the image before coming back into focus with a giant mug in his hands, as big as Lia's head. "Magic of the stars! My own spells rely on them! I need to see the ancients' knowledge!"
"I thought so." Reyra chuckled, "I hope you will also reach the 9th Tier!"
"Me too!" He laughed and let out an otherworldly belch after emptying his mug.
"Haaah…" Rangi sighed, watching Lakhmu, making Lia chuckle. She was captivated by the image of the big man who was even broader and taller than her father. "I am also ready whenever you are, Lady Reyra."
"We will commence the ritual soon." She nodded at him, also close to finishing her preparations in raising Rangi to the 9th Tier with the technique of Erias.
"Did you already bring Hajna away?" Lia asked, turning to Lucian, who smiled, shaking his head.
"Not yet. I am waiting for your invitation~!"
"Good!" Lia sighed, relieved, "We ran into something weird, and I will need her knowledge!"
"Oh?" The leaders all looked at her, and Lia explained to them the previous day's events and the fairy's appearance.
"How interesting!" Rangi spoke up first, sounding excited. "You say you found fairies? Real ones?"
"It was Sion's guess, but yes. We think they are indeed fairies. But… they are weird."
"Not kind nor friendly, yes?" Rangi asked, nodding as if that was to be expected.
"What is it, old turtle? Out with it! You always go in roundabout ways when explaining!" Lakhmu groaned, taking another swing from his mug.
"Fairies did not go extinct in the Dark Ages, but they did disappear when we repopulated Meriath!" He started, looking at the others while explaining, "Their numbers took a huge hit right at the start of those dark years. They were always too trusting, helpful, and wanting to make friends. They were filled with love towards nature, including us. There were multiple sub-species amongst them, some had colorful skins and wings, but they were even more attuned to nature! When the world burnt down… they were the first to go."
"So, in a way, they did go extinct." Rinzen mulled over his words, tilting her head left and right.
"Those that survived carried the least amount of Faery blood in them. No wings, no colorful skin… and less love for nature. Though, they did have enough to remain eternally young and blessed with light magic."
"We experienced that!" Lia grunted, "But what do you mean eternally young? Are they ageless?"
"No, not really. All our records on them describe that they live around 100 years, so a relatively short time for a magical being... but they never show their age after reaching a certain threshold. There were no fairies who looked older than 12 in human terms."
"Checks out. Plus…” Lia looked around, glancing at her mother, "They are horrible. Not just to us, but to themselves too! They are like super bad kids who had grown up without supervision!"
"Then I assume you are saying I did fairly well?" Reyra laughed, making Lia grin and wink at her.
"Of course! But these… Are something else! They have sinister magic, and they love causing pain."
"Any info in that big brain of yours?" Lakhmu asked, watching Rangi's thinking expression.
"Some…" He nodded, "What my teachers told me..." He murmured, and everyone knew he was under the tuition of people who served with and under Erias personally. "Was that after starting the reclamation efforts, the surviving fairies were no longer the same?"
"Did they change? Effect of the Undead?" Rinzen asked, a bit alarmed.
"No, not precisely." He smacked his lips, "No fairy turned. Ever. They had resistance against their manipulation… It was theorized to be connected to the purity of their souls... but…"
"But?" Reyra impatiently asked when he fell silent, recalling the old words of his masters.
"They were attuned to nature. The carnage and cruelty prevailing in our world broke them. Some tribes straight out died because of the pain and suffering that was lingering around them! They couldn't take it… some others had been… changed. Malformed. Twisted, in a sense."
"So, they went from kind and caring to petty and sadistic?" Rinzen asked, finding logic in it, "The survivors adapted to their surroundings… so pain and death wouldn't bring them down. I see."
"Are we sure they were never turned?" Lia asked seriously.
"Not in the past." Rangi replied, "But never take that for granted!"
"Where are they now?" Reyra asked, and Lia told them she rounded all of them up in her dungeon.
"With what happened in the vicinity… We need to take this even more seriously. I am changing course and should arrive in two days!" Lakhmu belched, wiping his mouth.
"You just want to check out the golden disk!" Reyra rolled her eyes, making the head of House Marduk laugh.
"That is just an added benefit!"
"By the time you arrive, we will have more information. I am going to interrogate them one by one!" Lia said, cupping her hand.
"That will take some time." Rinzen looked at her questioningly.
"Depends if they cooperate or not~!" She winked back at her while the meeting came to an end.
"I'll help."
"And I will hug you for it! Thanks!"
…
….
……
When Lia and Rinzen came back, wanting to start the interrogation, she was informed by Raufon that there were seven fights he had to break up in this short amount of time. Even when under a magical seal, they just went at each other, hitting, kicking, and biting. With a deep sigh and a feeling that a headache was creeping up on her, Lia decided to get it over with.
"Bring the one called Melody with you!" She waved at Raufon, rubbing her temple and heading to an empty room, while Rinzen also randomly picked a fairy to interrogate with Simbad at her side.
When Raufon nudged Melody into the empty, stone room, having no furniture but two chairs opposite each other, she was shaking from head to toe.
"Don't torture me, please!" She begged the moment she noticed Lia, but Raufon just made her sit in front of her, keeping his giant hands on the fairy's shoulders, stopping Melody from squirming too much.
"We won't," Lia answered coldly, further scaring the fairy. Her blonde hair was ruffled up, her blue eyes panicking, and this time, Lia felt like it wasn't just an act. "Why have you attacked us?"
"You attacked us!" She retorted but then groaned as Raufon hardened his grip over her shoulders, unafraid of harm her.
"My people came back sick, almost dead, when walking through your territory!" Lia accused her, chilliness radiating from her body.
"I don't know about that! You came-"
"No." She waved a hand, and ice formed around Melody's mouth, silencing her. "Listen well… what did they call you? Melody, yes? Now…” Lia leaned forward, looking into her eyes. "You will answer me truthfully, or I will extract your soul and get the information that way! How's that?" She grinned, bluffing, making Raufon chuckle, but for Melody, it was something she believed wholeheartedly.
Her answer was apparent as she squealed through her nose and peed a little, shaking so hard that even Raufon found it challenging to hold her down. It was like trying to keep a cat still, but she could wiggle, twist and turn her body unnaturally, almost slipping free. With a snap of her fingers, Lia removed the ice from her mouth, ignoring her cries.
"So, I ask again, why did you attack us? If you won't tell us, others will. Be the good girl and speak before you lose the opportunity to get on my good side!"
"We didn't attack anybody! It was just a game!" She sniffled, tears rolling from her eye. "You are bullying us!"
"We? Bully you? Hah!" Lia snorted, "You almost killed one of my men!"
"We never kill!" Melody protested, looking really hurt, "We play the 'Hide and Seek' game! We are the best at it! The losers get sick, and seeing them thinking it was something they ate or drank is so funny! Or the others tried poisoning them! Then they get into a fight, hehe! It's the most exciting!" Her mood took a profound turn, out of nowhere, now giggling and happy all of a sudden, "That is the funniest! When they fight amongst themselves!"
"Your spells are deadly… it kills people; you just don't see it happening."
"We don't kill! We are not bad!" Melody refused to believe her at once, "You are lying; you are bad! Bad like the pale ones!"
"Pale ones?" Lia trembled, sitting up straight at once. "White hair, green eyes?"
"Y-yes…" Melody replied, surprised and scared, "They don't get sick… they don't play our game…"
"When did you see them?!"
"I… I…” She stuttered, watching Lia's mismatched eyes piercing into her brain.
"Answer me. Now!"
"I don't know… some time ago!" She sniffed, on the verge of crying.
"Do you know where they are? Where is their lair at?" She pushed on, letting her magical aura weigh down on Melody to its fullest.
"Yes… I… do… please don't hurt me!"
"If you take us there… you will be pardoned!"
"Really?!" She cried out, her mood changing in a blink of an eye once more, "I can do that! Yes, yes! I can!"
"Good… for now, Raufon, take her back to the rest."
"But… I can take you there!" Melody screeched, "We can go, and then you can let me run away!"
"In due time!" Lia raised a hand, sealing Melody's still-moving, shouting, pleading mouth, "We can't just go willy-nilly! Take her back and bring me another one! I want to see if they say the same thing…"
"Yes, Boss!" Raufon nodded, pulling the moaning, wailing Melody away by her hair as she refused to leave, wanting to throw herself at Lia to beg for her freedom.
