Rebirth And Second Chances 150 Liotonis

The Roane attempted to flee as soon as I mentioned the Unseelie Court. With the d.u.c.h.ess behind him, Aspen and Pine on either side and I in front, his choices were limited in how he would successfully manage that. It didn't matter what his plan was, as soon as his muscles tensed to leap for freedom, I created magical shackles of fire and ice. The fire leaching the water from his body, effectively draining his stamina and vitality. The ice slowing his movements without embedding him in a block of ice, binding his arms and legs with elemental fury, suppressed him easily.

The Selkie began struggling furiously almost frantic in his attempts to escape; he seemed more afraid of the threat being paraded before the Unseelie monarchy than the possibility that he might be killed in his attempts to escape. I knew that most of the Sidhe that had chosen to take up residence in what was now my demesnes did so for a mult.i.tude of reasons, but the underlying thread that tied them all together had to do with escaping.

Escaping political maneuvering. Escaping Ranked persecution. Or escaping enforced servitude and slavery. The Roane's frantic motions suggested a turbulent relationship between him and the Unseelie Court. The thought of meeting those dignitaries filled him with real fear, the dread tainting the air as his body responded, the smell of spoiled fish a sign of his desperation. I may have sympathized if he hadn't taken what he thought was a strategic opportunity to attack me and mine hoping to Rank up.

"He seems a bit worked up," d.u.c.h.ess Wynne said indifferently. It seemed she also had no compa.s.sion for someone that would attack without warning or follow rules of engagement that were entrenched in historical precedence. It didn't matter to her that we were in lands that until I claimed them had been considered neutral and outside Seelie and Unseelie providence, attacks for Rank were done in a methodical and time-honored manner.

Her reactions didn't have the stink of privilege or Rank that I'd come to a.s.sociate with those Seelie that thought themselves better. Her words weren't offered because of bias or bigotry. Rather, she was furious. Her anger over the insult to her Liege Lord and disgust at the stupidity and effrontery Roane had demonstrated, had left her unsympathetic at best.

She expected better. I expected my enemies to be smarter, more subtle if nothing else. To just blunder in and attack without at least the intelligence to research my abilities, alliances, Benefices, or Va.s.sals was not only stupid, but it was also negligent. And it had gotten his people killed for no reason.

"What is your name?" I finally got around to asking. I suppose I could keep calling him by his race but Roane and Selkie seemed a bit too de-humanizing.

I watched in consternation as he clenched his lips together tightly. He obviously had no intention of answering, even going so far as to act as if I would try to force him to share his ident.i.ty. I wouldn't. I didn't care that much about who he was. I believed I would find out his ident.i.ty when we traveled to the World Court. His actions had already revealed that someone there would know who he was, at least if his fear was anything to go by.

I did realize I had a problem with containment. I hadn't addressed facilities for criminals or prisoners when I'd build the city model that the Sithern had used as a template. But it should be easily addressed. The Sithern was always monitoring me, searching and seeking chances to adapt and conform to my needs as they occurred, it's imperative to please almost slavish in nature. I had barely realized I needed a dedicated s.p.a.ce that could hold the Roane, something that was fortified enough to block any attempts at escape before the Sithern responded.

The facility was based on my concept of a dungeon holding cell. Dark, underground, and protected by arrays that used identification protocols to set permissions on who was allowed to enter or exit a cell. I would be able to share those safety restrictions with whoever I decided to appoint as Warden, probably Gil or Ril, but for now, I shared permissions with the d.u.c.h.ess, Aspen, and Pine. I thought it best a redundancy for permissions existed, just in case I was incapacitated or elsewhere.

"A holding cell should work, he has no intention of cooperating," d.u.c.h.ess Wynne said confirming my own supposition, and acknowledging the System notice informing her of the changes I'd made and her new access.

"My thoughts exactly," I said agreeing with her, "and since that is the case, I think it's best to just confine him until I visit the World Court. We won't need to waste time questioning him, and I can keep him contained until he can accompany me there. We'll see if we can't find out who he is from one of those august personages. Someone that might know not only who he is, but what he's trying to hide."

Traveling without guards or staff meant that when things needed to be done, I would need to do them myself. The chains of fire and ice I'd cast on him, wrapped more firmly, additional coils securing his arms to his body. Tethered, I was able to force him to follow. His movement halting and stumbling as I pulled on the magical leash I had fashioned. He remained obstinate and forced me to drag him, more a hooked fish fighting for freedom than a reasoned intelligent Sidhe.

Something I was not adverse too. I resented that he had interrupted my enjoyment in establishing my Kingdom's Capital with his idiotic attack. What idiocy must he have been wallowing in to think that a Ranked Earl could defeat a Ranked King?

Perhaps he thought the numbers were on his side and I would be defeated if he tossed enough bodies my way. But he would have needed a force hundreds of times larger before the Sithern had evolved to defeat me. Now that the Sithern had sprouted and matured, it would take nothing short of a planet-destroying attack to force his way into my domain.

"Hold!" A voice filled with Power boomed gaining our attention. Turning toward the sea where the energies seemed to be originating from, we watched a woman shrouded in garments of fog and mist stride purposively toward the Sithern barrier. She tried to circ.u.mvent the restrictions I had in place, permissions set barring all but House members' entry. But the Sithern had been instructed, and its loyalty was absolute. No one but House Teigh members and Va.s.sals would gain entry.

The barrier came to life as she attempted to bypa.s.s those protections, crackling bolts of lightning, ice bolts, and fireb.a.l.l.s all converging on that one point, with only one goal. To drive the invader back and refuse entry into the pocket dimension that the Sithern controlled absolutely.

The Sithern was not able to attack beyond the barrier, but where her hand touched, it could act. The woman was immediately recognizable, the mist and fog that had concealed her form and face parting as she shaped shields of protection. She had become a legend among the Sidhe over a million years ago.

Liotonis, a woman scorned, rumored to have died by drowning and risen as The Hag to seek revenge. She collected the bodies of those that drowned and invested them with new abilities, restoring them to life and sp.a.w.ning a new species. It was her actions that created the Selkie. Her rules that guided their evolution and limited those Selkies that rose to Lord Rank to advance as her Roane's, dedicated and devoted members of her court. She was a harbinger of sorrow and retribution and had in some way given birth or life to the Roane that we had captured.

For her to respond so quickly was telling, it meant that she had been observing him. She knew what actions he was taking, and by allowing him to attack as he did, gave tacit approval to those actions. She was the reason he had been as brazen as he had, his stupidity was based on a bedrock of Liotonis' making. He was confident that she would never allow him to be slain, chained, or tortured, and so had been brazen and idiotic.

I doubt the Selkie had realized they would need to contend with a fully functioning Sithern. Because this place was mine now. Bonded to me. Blood had been spilled in the bonding, and there was no Power in the Heavens that could divest or sever our relationship.

Here. In this place. My will was paramount. And the Selkie would stay chained and entrapped within my dungeon until I decided otherwise. He would pay for his actions, Liotonis be d.a.m.ned.