Oberon rubbed his eyes wearily as he sat perched in his gilded throne, lending an idle half-listening ear to the various court functionaries and courtiers as they went about their business. At the moment, they seemed to be arguing over the trade mandates for the sale of mead in the eastern quadrant. Petty concerns for petty minds. Carefully suppressing a yawn, he allowed his mind to wander, an event that seemed to be happening more and more frequently to him over the course of the last three days.
Three days.
Three days since she had run away.
Pirotess.
Oberon sighed. It was funny, in its own way. Who would have ever believed that he might the King of the Fae and Overlord of all the Realm could be distracted by such simple sentiment? Distraught over the mere three-day absence of his daughter. Not many, he imagined. After all, surely he had no real reason to be. He had sired over thirty children after all, many of whom had gone on to be important in their own right, many whom had opted to leave and live out their own lives. So then why was her disappearance bothering him so?
Truth.
He knew why.
She was too young.
Too young to go to the mortal realm, and far too young to be allowed to go unsupervised. Naturally, he had forbidden her from going, yet this had only seemed to increase her fervor. He had often wondered what it was that made all of his children so very very willful, but he had long ago ceased searching for a definite answer. It was just their way. Yet, this wasn't like before, no, not in the least. Pirotess was his youngest, a child really, even by mortal standards. Hardly capable of surviving on her own in such harsh conditions, let alone flourishing. True, Puck had left at around the same age, but then again, his eldest son had had more ingenuity than most of the Fae combined. It was a pity that the boy lacked any sense of responsibility.
Oberon could have retired by now if he had.
Giving another weary sigh, Oberon started briefly as he was drawn out of his reverie by a light warm hand being placed over his own. Casting a rueful glance over at his wife, the Lady Titania, he wasn't surprised to see the mildly reproving expression creasing her delicate features. It was his own fault, he knew. He really shouldn't allow his own personal life to interfere with his professional life, but at times like this it was just so very very hard. Yet, he also knew that Titania herself was feeling that same worry, that same obscure type of pain. Pirotess was her daughter too, after all, and Titania had always been a bit on the emotional side.
He didn't particularly want to think about the implications of the fact that his wife seemed to be holding up better than he was at the moment.
Giving her a quick apologetic glance, he straightened up in his throne and turned his attention back to the throne room at large, rolling his eyes as he realized that the various trade representatives were still continuing their quarrel. He really ought to put a stop to that. If he didn't, they were liable to be here all day.
Composing his features and leaning forward, Oberon had just started to clear his throat when the large entrance doors flew open with a resounding bang. There was a moment of shock and silence at the suddeness of the gesture that was quickly broken as a tiny mote of light suddenly shot through the open doors and sped towards the royal dias, drawing shocked gasps from the onlookers.
Heedless of the startled reactions of the assembled throng, Oberon merely cocked one eyebrow and extended a slender hand, smiling slightly as the little mote of light alighted on his palm, resolving itself into a faerie. Oberon waited patiently until the little pixie had regained her breath to address her. "Why in such a hurry, little one?"
The miniature girl fluttered her wings slightly and glanced wearily up into the piercing golden eyes of the High Lord of the Elves. Still puffing slightly from the exhertion of her flight, she managed to pull herself to a standing position and respond. "I bring news of your daughter Lord Oberon, the Lady Pirotess."
Oberon started. He hadn't been expecting this.
Neither had his wife judging from the way her slender fingers were currently caught in a white-knuckle grip on her throne.
"Continue," Oberon barked, his golden eyes boring into the faerie's own with a frightening power and intensity.
"It was as we expected, my Lord," the faerie continued, swallowing heavily and squirming under his gaze. "She escaped from the faerie realm and fled to the realm of the humans. One of our rescue teams managed to locate and secure her. From their initial report though, well..." she huffed, pausing to take a deep breath, "...they think she ran into some trouble."
Oberon paled slightly, but managed to keep his voice level when he again addressed her. "What sort of trouble?"
"Well..." the faerie continued, shivering slightly. She could feel the muscles in his hand tensing under her slippered feet. "It seems that she ran into a group of mortals my Lord. They... did not treat her kindly. They're bringing her back to the infirmary right now."
Swallowing heavily, Oberon carefully made an effort on retaining his composure and turned to look at his wife, his heart aching at the look of fear he saw mirrored there, her eyes wide with the unspoken question. Forcing himself to give her a reassuring smile, he nodded in reply, watching with a certain sense of relief as Titania rose from her throne and glided out of the room, headed towards the infirmary.
At the moment he would have given anything to go with her.
Forcing himself to focus his attention back on the nervously fidgiting faerie in his palm, he addressed her in as calm a tone as he could manage. "Now give me the entire report, and be thorough. I want to know just who these mortals are."
"How could the two of you do something so stupid?!"
Haruka Ten'oh gulped and tugged harshly on the collar of her shirt, turning a pleading gaze towards her erstwhile companion and long-time lover. Unfortunately, her counterpart didn't seem to be offering much in the way of moral support at the moment, instead occupying herself with the hem of her skirt and otherwise looking everywhere but at the problem at hand. Faced with the a distinct lack of anything resembling a unified front, Haruka cast a quick reproachful glare at Michiru, then turned her attention back to the furious green-haired woman in front of her. "Look, I can explain-"
"I don't want to hear it!" Setsuna barked, cutting of any further protestations. "There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, you two can either say or do to get out of this! Do you even realize what you've done?! Do you?!!"
Haruka and Michiru exchanged a cautious glance before hazarding a reply. "...we attacked a youma?"
"You attacked a youma..." Setsuna spat acidly.
Haruka nodded.
"You attacked a youma?!" she screeched.
Haruka winced. "Um... we didn't attack a youma?"
Setsuna's eyes flashed as she lashed out with the Time Key Staff, shattering a nearby lamp. "What you attacked was one of the High Princesses of the Fae!! Do you understand?!"
"Err... no? Besides, how could that not have been a youma? She had strange hair and a deep tan for crying out loud!"
Setsuna's hair bristled and her tan flushed a deep angry red.
Haruka quickly backpeddled. "Pointy ears?"
"She was an elf, you twit!" Setsuna screamed. "They all have pointy ears! What you did was destroy a non-interference pact that's stood in place for over six millenia in the space of thirty seconds! Now they could go and declare war on this realm and they would be perfectly justified in doing so!"
Neither of the two other Senshi really had a response to that.
"Look," Setsuna grated, grinding her teeth together, "You remember Crystal Tokyo? I'm sure you've heard of it, that little happy place that we were all working towards building? Well, guess what?! It's gone now! In every single damn timeline! And do you know why?!"
"Um... no? Hey! Wait, what do you mean Crystal Tokyo is gone?!"
"What I mean," Setsuna replied, glaring daggers at the sandy-haired Senshi, "Is that two trigger-happy idiots with more hormones than common sense just went and ripped away the only thing protecting this realm from a full-scale invasion! The realms were forcibly seperated over a millenia ago because humanity and the Fae kept killing each other! Of course, this didn't really stop anyone with enough magic from hopping back and forth between the dimensions and picking fights, so we had to create a joint pact of non-aggression before the issue was finally resolved! It took Serenity over 200 years to finalize that agreement, and you two idiots just broke it!"
"Um... sorry?" Haruka hazarded. "We can still get Crystal Tokyo back though, right?"
Setsuna went rigid and seemed to make a few high-pitched strangled noises before she finally dropped her staff and collapsed bonelessly into a nearby chair. "No," Setsuna muttered wearily, "...no, we can't."
Haruka's eyes went wide and Michiru let out a strangled gasp.
"In fact," Setsuna continued, her voice sounding bitter and weary beyond belief, "we'll probably have to wind up doing one of two things now."
"Which are?" Michiru murmured hestitantly.
Setsuna gave a short humorless laugh. "If we're lucky, and the Fae decide that a war is too risky, then we'll be put on trial in a Fae court. If not, then we'll have a full-scale conflict on our hands. Either way, the next few years are probably going to be very ugly."
"And if we go to trial in this... court..." Michiru continued, "...do you think we'll be acquited? It was an accident after all."
Setsuna sighed and shook her head. "The Fae won't see it that way. Maybe if it was just the random traveler, but not with the victim being a member of their royalty. Even if by some chance they decided that it was an accident, they'd have to judge us guilty just to save face. Besides, all of the futures were dark. If we were to be allowed to go free then I should've been able to see Crystal Tokyo in at least one of them."
Haruka and Michiru remained silent.
"No... whatever future they have planned for us, it's not going to include Crystal Tokyo."
"Is she going to be alright?"
Titania took her husband's hand in her own and smiled up at him reassuringly, "The physicians think so. From what they told me, it doesn't seem to be anything more than a few minor scrapes and a mild concusion. They expect her to make a full recovery."
Oberon exhaled heavily, relief essuaging from his tortured muscles as they slowly relaxed for the first time in hours. At the moment, both Elven monarchs were currently standing perched over a small cot in the royal infirmary, gazing down at the blissfully slumbering face of their youngest daughter. The last few hours had been hell for the both of them, with Oberon trying to wring a cohesive report out of a recalicitrant retrieval party and Titania fighting with a series of tight-lipped physicians over the wellfare of her daughter. Sighing heavily, Oberon sat down on the edge of the bed and lightly traced a finger along the shallow cut running across his daughter's forehead. Lightly incanting a few words, Oberon smiled in satisfaction as the flesh knit itself together under his fingers.
A small thing to be sure, but at least there wouldn't be any chance of scarring.
"Have they found the mortals who did this?"
Oberon turned to face his wife, somewhat startled by the amount of venom she'd put into those few words. "They've identified the two who led the attack, yes, but apparently they're part of a larger organization. They're trying to track down the other members right now. When they're found, they'll be brought back here to stand trial."
Titania's eyes flew open in shocked disbelief. "What?!" she hissed, "They're just going to stand trial?! Oberon, they attacked our daughter! Royalty! We should be organizing an army! They broke a non-aggression pact that's stood for over a thousand years! They need to be taught a lesson!"
"And so they shall," Oberon replied harshly, "but resuming a long-forgotten war and putting more lives at stake is not the answer! I'm not willing to risk the the wellfare of my kingdom or the lives of its citizens over a near miss, no matter how unprecedented it was!"
Titania grimaced and looked away, turning to focus on the floor.
Oberon frowned, but when he spoke again, his voice was calm and controlled, its harshness abandoned for a more soothing tone. "I've heard the report, and from what our researchers have found, its unlikely that the attackers were acting out the will of the human realm at large. It's much more vast than it used to be, you know."
Titania remained silent for a long time without replying. When she finally once more turned to face her husband, all traces of her former anger were gone, leaving behind a pained pleading expression. "But..."
"They'll be found guilty in due process," Oberon continued, reaching out and idly running one slender hand through his wife's midnight tresses.
Titania seemed less than satisfied.
Oberon sighed. "Did you know that a mortal saved her?"
This got a reaction.
"W-what?!" Titania gasped, jerking her gaze up to meet Oberon's own.
Oberon smirked. "Yes, apparently the retrieval group got there until right at the tail end of it, but Pirotess here was able to fill in the missing information before she lost consciousness. It seems that a young man saw her being attacked and came to her aid. He fought with her attackers until a third one showed up and called the first two off." Oberon smiled. "Apparently it took the retrieval team quite some time to convince him to leave her side. He seemed quite protective."
"This boy, he was... human?" Titania questioned hesitantly, shock and skepticism warring in equal parts across her face.
"Yes," Oberon affirmed, a slight smile marring his otherwise stoic features. Even after six millenia of marriage to her, he still enjoyed seeing her surprised.
"I... may have been too hasty in my judgement," Titania consented after some time, "If this is true, then the boy should be rewarded. He has done this realm a great service. Still, something must be done to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
"I know," agreed Oberon, nodding thoughtfully, "I'm still at a loss as to what to do though. I'm going to have my ministers draw up a few plans. Maybe after the trial I'll be able to make more sense out of this matter."
"Thank you," Titania murmured, reaching over and giving her husband a light peck on the cheek. "I'll have my handmaidens bring Pirotess back to her chambers. Why don't you get the ministers started on those plans."
Oberon smiled back. "Of course."
And so, in the natural course of things, it came to pass that...
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(Posted Thu, 28 Aug 2003 08:25)
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