Jackal Among Snakes

“I trust your journey here wasn’t difficult?” Princess Elenore asked from her desk, staring at the two in front of her. She had four golden-armored royal knights standing behind her.

The red-headed siblings Elaine and Rivien Vyrbell shook their heads fiercely. “Not at all,” Rivien began, a statement which Elaine agreed with a mumbled affirmation. “We were accosted by the undead. Fortunately, my sister recently ascended to A-rank.”

“I had been meaning to thank you for your help with my magical progress. I was able to get one of those Magister hoarders to give me the knowledge I needed to ascend,” Elaine thanked her with a hand held to her chest, her green eyes earnest.

Elenore nodded. “Alright. Argrave spoke highly of both your skills, and I’m short of time so I’ll summarize things for now. Rivien—you’re to become a member of parliament and the minister of Jast. You’re to help deliver the king’s will and the parliament’s will to all within the county of Jast. Elaine—you’re to represent the Order on the parliament. Unofficially, you’re a link that I have to keep track of things in the Order. You understand?”

“I do,” both confirmed.

“This is no joke,” Elenore stared at them with her steely gray eyes. “I don’t want underhanded dealings or corruption on any level. I keep track of things. You’ll be well paid, but well monitored. Let that be a deterrent from any skimming off the top you might be considering.”

“I under—”

“And that includes your men.” Elenore stared at Rivien fiercely. “If there are any rogue agents, your head rolls with them. I trust you know how to spell guillotine?”

Rivien stepped back, eyes narrowed. “Here I thought I was the gangster, Bat. Still hard to believe that it was you I was dealing with this whole time… but I digress. Yeah, we have an understanding.”

Elenore placed her elbows on the table and entwined her pale, skinny fingers. “Good. For the first while, you’ll be helping shepherd plague refugees, facilitate road reparation and construction, and find recruits for the military. You’ll get details—for now, I have something to attend to.” She looked behind her. “See them out.”

One of the royal knights moved to obey, moving the Vyrbell siblings out of the room to prepare for the next guest. Elenore briefly wrote on a piece of paper as she waited, then turned to another parchment that had a long list. After crossing off a point on the list, she stared at the next entry for a long time. She rubbed a golden ring on her finger—the B-rank warding ring that Durran had given her.

“Bring him in,” Elenore looked back once again.

The door opened, the royal knight leading the next guest into the room. She stared ahead, her gaze slowly lowering to keep eye contact as the guest entered further into the room.

“I’m very sure the briefing that was given amply conveyed that His Majesty was seeking S-rank spellcasters for potent, highly dangerous combat.” Elenore leaned back in her chair. “I’m wondering why you volunteered to join him, Artur.”

two feet, the mantle he wore dragging along the ground behind him instead of suspending him in

revealed it again half a second later. “I think that His

his arms out. “I do have my reasons. But I assure you that our

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the branches. Onychinusa wore clothes that covered all but her head, and as her legs swayed back and forth the outfit changed in color to match whatever it was up against. The complete camouflage made her seem like a head floating up

the branches. Far, far away, at the opposite end of this long trail of blackness, her two amber eyes looked down upon a stone fortress. They moved about, taking in sights. When Argrave emerged from his tent, walking about and delivering orders, they fixed on him. The eyes

leaves. Just after, a flash of gold came to where she had been. The Starsparrow hovered there for a moment,

herself better. She watched where the bird had left for a long while. After a time, her eyes melted away again,

body outwards. It was like a great slug, though thick as an elephant and with an armored carapace. The bottom of its body had sucking teethless mouths that inhaled the leaves of the redwood trees right off the branches and kept it fixed to the trees elsewhere. Its mouths travelled along, inhaling the leaves and fruits of the mutated

it neared the elven woman, she held her hand out and cast a spell. Spirits danced out from her hand in the wake of a mana ripple, and with a burst of purple light the creature simply vanished. It reappeared miles away, the spirits tossing it into empty air. It flailed helplessly, falling slowly until its body hit the ground and shook the earth for nearly a

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opened a door, looking about the room quickly enough her blonde hair became a whip. Someone hailed

to sit with the man. “I thought… I didn’t think I’d see you again for a long

elf confirmed, red eyes watching her passively as she sat. “But… your king summoned me. I was called to this place.” The elf looked around. “I know this kingdom has grander cities—why does

for this place, apparently. It’s not my place to judge—merely to represent mom.” She tapped her hand against the table. “We

have ignored it… but that letter had

seriously.

all of this waiting. I need to find the blue-eyed vampire—a harder task now with the eye destroyed. But considering

seeped into her voice, and she cleared

days—a week, probably. Long enough for all others to gather, I’m told.” The elf crossed his

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walked throughout the camp of Veidimen, hauling crates in pairs of two. It had to be two—the content of the crates was pure metal, and more than that metal made to scale with the Veidimen. Elsewhere, he saw his three officers Grimalt, Bastal, and Rasten already handling their armor. It was dark gray steel, all, and though unpolished the magic on its surface gave it a particular

known the royal smiths to work this

he looked at Orion, who wore exactly what he’d just described as stupid. “More than that, I had Elenore tap into her

fortress. Regardless of what they did in their expedition, some migration away from the Bloodwoods might be inevitable. Argrave hoped to mitigate damage from