"Something is stirring..."
Two days later.
'Master! Master!' Yu's voice shot into my head, a neat trick she picked up after hanging around the fairies in the ring at Durlivan's mountains, 'We're being called by the chief!'
I'll be right there.
'Okay!'
I sheathed the sabers and looked to Shion who had a knowing gaze. Yu must have told her too.
"We're going to meet with the chief so today's training is done, everyone!" I shouted to the fairies in the surrounding tree's who'd taken a liking to watching us spar.
Many of these fairies are newborns. As the forests, natural energies reach their peak just before winter, fairies are born, and these newborn fairies are often very powerful as they will be the caretakers of the forest for that winter, and then they are expected to live and do the same with everyone else the next year.
Now that I think about it, the children in the Fairy Ring were born early weren't they? Wonder why's that.
"Welcome, Scarlet Demon." As I entered the chief's tent the eldest fairies with the biggest bodies akin to gradeschoolers with wrinkles welcomed me with strange gazes, "Firstly, thank you for indulging our young ones, they know nothing of the world and I am certain watching you will have helped them understand it better."
"Understand it's brutality perhaps." Another fairy chimed in coldly, "The aura of death on this man is disgusting."
"Kiril, you're turn to speak has not yet come." Mahira said with a sigh looking back at me and Shion, "Apologies, he had some tragic things happen to him in the human world."
"No worries...-"
"Apology accepted." Shion cut me off with a royal air.
I see. That's right, Keneth taught me a little, didn't he. You're not supposed to say something was of no consequence or 'no worries' or else it'll make them prone to doing it again.
If given an apology accept it and move on. I see.
Shion glanced at Kiril with an expressionless gaze, "For what have we been called here, chief?"
Mahira looked around the table with a slightly uncomfortable glint in his eye, he spoke slowly, "It's about the darkling."
"Darkling?" Shion frowned, "Do you mean Yu?"
"....Yes, Yu, to be frank, we believe that she is... how to say... impure and rough, a bad influence for the community, especially around this season when there are many newborns," Mahira said with barely disguised discomfort.
"Then why did you allow her to come with us if that's so?" Shion said as her eyes turned to slits.
Why indeed?
"...Chief of the Fairy Ring Mountains to the east, Lirik Khan, when the gathering of Chiefs occurred fifty years ago he was absent and so we assumed he'd died, but, Yu came with his seal, and so we couldn't refuse her or you, her masters."
"Then, what do you want to do?"
Mahira looked around the table at the elders before speaking stoically and with conviction.
"We, of the Thousand Winged Gulf council, have decided that Yu, the Darkling, is to be exiled from the Thousand Wing Gulf and is forbidden from staying in our lands henceforth," Mahira said coldly.
Kiril and the other elders nodded and looked stern.
"Please, understand." He said stoically.
"Is that so?" I said evenly whilst sending Shion a glance.
I'll take care of Yu.
She caught my meaning and looked to the council, "Baroness Shion D. Drashi, has heard the will of the council of Thousand Wings."
We left shortly after, the council giving us uncomfortable looks.
It's no surprise either, neither Shion nor I were happy as we left them and our Scarlet Qi, which is in some ways a reflection of us, was flaring as well causing short waves of Scarlet Qi to fall off diffusing into the surroundings like the air of savage beasts.
Mahira looked on with a light look in his eyes, "Kiril."
"I know." Kiril responded and closed the door.
////
Shion began talking in quick breaths, the fairies around us looked strangely and flew at a distance, "The delegation is set to arrive in a few days."
"We won't need to move spots," I replied calmly.
The Council of Thousand Wings.
The name is obvious to all, they are the council where the thousand fairy tribes gather and have sway within, gathering every fifty years for a meeting to discuss the push and pull of the forests around the continent.
In the face of such a force of fairies, magical entities capable of manipulating the environment and bringing the anger of the forests to bear, there is no force which can fight the Council Of Thousand Wings on equal footing within the forests.
However, to use the authority of the thousand wing council to banish Yu is going a step too far.
After all, this may be the gathering place of the fairies, but it is not like they have a centralized government or kingdoms.
They reside in the forests, are born of the forest, and die in the forests nourishing it's roots with their bodies, so to say they used the authority of the thousand wing council to push out Yu, is simply not true since only this one tribe which is a little special had banished her.
Yu sat on my shoulder quietly until eventually, I felt her pull one of my hairs slightly, "Do they hate me?"
Shion looked over with narrowed eyes and a smile, "They don't hate you. If they hated you, no one would play with you, would they? They're just misguided is all, don't worry."
That's right, they don't hate you.
"They fear you." I said calmly receiving a swift pinch on my side.
Did I say something wrong?
I glanced at Yu who was oddly silent, her little eyes like lanterns looking at me before she started to talk, "Like they fear you?"
Fear me?
Hm.
Well, realistically speaking in their eyes I probably am some sort of monster who reeks of death and sounds like a thousand silent screams so I mean, fair enough.
"Basically, yes." I replied lightly, why lie? She'll eventually realize that she's not exactly the average fairy.
Those in the Durlivanian mountains were an exception because they had been cut off by the Loijon Syndicate for years and did not leave the mountains as a result many generations passed which did not know much besides the woods and how to hide.
To them, Yu was just a strange fairy who could help relieve the crappy sensation coming off the forest floor, no negative connotation was added on top of her powers like there is here among the older fairies within the council.
"I'm not sad anymore," Yu suddenly said happily as she fluttered into the air with a bright smile, "Only bad people fear master, and if I am feared like master, then only bad people fear me."
I smiled brightly, "Exactly! Good girl, your exactly right!"
Shion watched all of this with cold eyes.
Not impressed, huh.
Can't blame her really, telling a kid that anyone who doesn't like her is bad is in and of itself a bad thing to do usually, but, well I'm no child expert and don't know how else to explain it to her.
So... that's future me's problem.
In any case...
"...what is that?" I muttered silently at the dark mass stumbling forward, small dark creatures on two feet with no wings.
Their eyes so sunken in that it seemed like they had none to begin with.
"Tanuks. Around this season when the forests give birth to new fairies, they also release all that pent up death energy and everything else they've been holding in and create these destructive little things. Not too much trouble on normal years, though, if a forest had accumulated too much death it could become a problem." Suddenly, beside me Dratan appeared floating in the air on it's back and eyeing the few seemingly blind Tanuk's without much caution, "They are blind and deaf, they can only see in terms of Qi, but since we are all basically submerged in death, they won't be able to see your scarlet qi beneath."
Hum...
Tanuks are basically the opposite of fairies then?
One is born of the forests so-called blessings and the other is born of death and the destruction fallen over the forests.
Interesting.
"Yu?" I looked over to find Shion with dilated pupils her hand on her rapier.
Following her gaze alongside her words, I found Yu flying right in front of one of the Tanuks.
It reached up, my muscles tightened.
Yu giggled lightly and landed on its palm, the blind Tanuk wobbled slightly and a barely discernable smile appeared on it's face as it began to wilt like a flower aging at incomprehensible speeds.