In Loki's Honor

I also forgot. Some of my Attributes were reassigned. I check one of the messages mixed between my racial traits.

Your Attributes are above the cap. Redistributing points.

My Attribute array looked like this:

Strength: 1 / 1 - Dexterity 14 / 14 - Endurance 4 / 4 - Mind 9 / 14 - Willpower 9 / 14 - Charisma 9 / 14 - Magic 0 / 0 - Ego ~ 56? - Luck 57 / 100 - Soul - ~59?

HP: 1 MP 0 SP: ~59?

The points taken from Strength and Endurance went into the other Attributes. About three to each of them.

Good to know the normal Attribute cap is a hundred points. It also shows where most fairies spend their points. My cap for the six normal attributes is the racial average minus one. Well, forget fighting in melee. I will have a ridiculous HP pool. And now without magic, I might be a crippled fairy. I hope the SP substitution works, but to be realistic, I won't bet on it.

Nenandil notices what's happening and grabs my arm. "Are you having cold feet about meeting the Queen?"

I shook my head and try to smile. "No. My Attributes were rearranged. I'm very weak now. I also can't use magic."

Neep overhears us. He's two arm's length away anyway. Fairy arms, mind you. "Ah cannae hawp yin o' us cannae uise magic. Ye wid be mighty unlucky if that is true."

His accent is hilarious and I giggle spontaneously at the thought. He isn't speaking Scottish English, mind you. But that's the best I can make out of what he was saying compared to the normal fairy language. And thinking that he is a Scottish brownie is funnier.

"Well, or some sinister force is at work. My Luck is fifty-seven, thank you very much," I snap back at him.

He nodded and made a contrite face. "Aye. Ah might've overstepped a bawherr bit. A'm sorry. We'll keek intae it efter. Come noo, th' Queen wull catch up wi` us."

I walk forward with my arms locked around Nenandil's. I feel weak, fragile. And somehow I am not worried. For once there's no fighting or conflict. The fairies seem happy enough to live their lives, so I will see what I can do. It is not like I'm powerless or defenseless. But it stings that all my fairy perks require MP to use.

We walk past an opening at the side of a tree and a well-lit corridor going inside the trunk appears before us. It is too long to fit inside one of these trees and I think there's some magic at work. Neep sees my confusion and chuckles.

"Space in th' queen's court is enlarged wi' magic. Come, this is bit a passage tae oor realm."

Oh. "I was expecting a mushroom ring."

"Aye, we hae they tae. Bit thay require magic tae uise. This 'ere is a permanent passage."

"Isn't it a risk. An enemy might use it to enter," I remark.

He points at how there's little room in the corridor. It is barely taller than us and we can't walk two abreast without hugging like Nenandil and me were.

"Anythin' wee enough tae git thro' this tunnel is something we kin rammy. This steid insae wi'oot tis traps bit thay dinnae wirk oan us fairies."

I barely understood him this time. But I didn't care. "Okay," I chirp.

We walk through the tunnel and it opens to a sunny glade. We are on a wooden balcony on the side of the tree. Not the same tree. Weird. Colorful flowers dot the grass below, some I've never seen or heard before. I can hear birds chirping and the humming of insect wings.

Neep led us down a staircase that goes around the trunk to the ground level. Nenandil could fly but she latched on my arm. At the base of the tree, there were some pebbles arranged to make paths. We walked through a savannah of daisies, dandelions, and other wildflowers.

The Queen's palace was carved on several giant mushrooms. The tallest would be as tall as a person give or take. There were no guards. Nobody checked us. The place was bustling with movement and I heard some fairies chanting like the military. When I looked at the chanting group, I saw eight winged fairies in the air above the palace carrying what looked like a copper plate from below. As I tried to understand what was happening, I smelled the sweet aroma of apple pie.

"Is that an apple pie?"

"Aye. Th' scavengers git a micht gift fur th' Queen. Mibbie she'll share some wi' us tae celebrate yer birth."

"Great," I said. "But where did that pie come from? Do we have baker fairies?"

He laughed as if I said something absurd or I was too ignorant. "Baker fairies, that's hilarious. Na, th' ones tae bake th' bridie wur th' folk. Thay gifted it tae us."

I suspected that by "gifted" he meant "left to cool in the windowsill and we took because nobody was watching". From what I felt when I imagined myself in the same situation and the folklore about fairies, I believe that pie is stolen. Whoever baked that would at least want their dish back. That's a good test.

"Do we have to take the dish back?"

He shook his head. "'n' lose a perfect material tae mak' a freish hoose? na. That dish micht gey weel be yer freish hame."

I shrugged and kept walking. Not my problem, not yet.

We entered the mushroom castle and heard a throng of fairies trying to reach the pie. We needed to press through to reach the throne room. It was the courtyard between four mushrooms. a bit of sun came from the gaps between the caps. I saw forks, files, even a sword blade haphazardly tied together with a thick - for us fairies - twine to make bleachers on each side. The crew carrying the pie landed before the throne where a regal pixie sat. She had fiery red hair and wore a dress made of leaves.

We stopped a few paces from the pie and the fairies behind us quickly moved to get the best spots on the bleachers. The crushing majority were female. A few were male but I could very well be just putting the more androgynous ones on the female camp. At worst we had a twenty percent male population, at best forty percent.

I saw the pixies, other brownies, some sylphs, wind fairies that looked like pixies but had dragonfly wings instead of butterfly's and were a bit smaller.

Some fairies were looking from behind the bleachers, these twice or three times taller than me. They had green hair and vines woven between their locks and their complexion remembered a soft bark. I instinctively knew these were dryads. I still had to find out if they needed to be bound to a tree or not.

Another wingless fairy type had brown skin and angular faces. Their clothes were stained with dirt. I knew - don't ask me how - these were Spriggans, earth fairies that lived to mine and dig.

Finally, some that looked much like Nenandil but without wings. They had pale blue or green skin and tiny scales covering their faces. These were the naiads, river, and lake fairies.

There were no fire-based fairies. Except for the Queen. I knew she was a fire fairy type. Weak to water, rock, and poison moves.

The buzz of wings, the chirping of fairies talking excitedly to one another seemed endless. They were all stealing glances at the giant - to us - pie resting on its plate and wafting its mouth-watering aroma. Unstoppable chaos that needed only a harrumph from the Queen to stop. It was amazing.

"Friends, brothers, and sisters. Today is a glorious day because we got a new fairy to our kingdom," She said. "And she is a silkie, of all things. May I present you Silverstreak!"

All eyes fell on me, standing and gawking a few paces from the room with Neep on one side and Nenandil on the other. The queen's gaze felt motherly and caring. The fairies closer to me congratulated me and then everyone stared at the pie in silence.

"We will grant the first piece of the pie to our new friend," The Queen declared. "Please, Silverstreak, grab a bite of the pie."

I curtsied with my rags, "As you command, Your Majesty."

The fairies looked at me and said "ooh" and "ahh". Some were even imitating my move. They were a bunch of airheads, I tell you. They didn't deserve the fate that fell on them but that's still to come.

I approached the still-warm pie and thought, how am I going to get a piece without tools? People had spoons and forks but they were being used as seats. Now that I took a good look, the Queen's throne was a cut-out spool of thread.

I touched it and {Chemical Analysis} flared. I raised my hand. "This pie is poisoned. It has grophan sap in it."

The fairies started to shout and jeer. "She's lying!" - "She wants the pie all to herself!" - and other insults or accusations.

The Queen raised a hand. "Silence! How do you know that just by touching it, child? Aren't you a newborn? You don't even have a level."

And I couldn't say my status was hidden because it was due to a curse.

"Isn't there anyone here that can confirm it?" I asked.

"Make she eat it!" Someone shouted. "We'll believe when she falls dead."

"Yes! That's all a prank she's playing on us. There's no way the humans would gift us a pie with poison inside!"

"You are correct, Trudy my dear! That would be most impolite of them."

The Queen clapped her hands. "Order. If I command you to eat the pie, would you do so?" She asked me.

"I'm immune to any and all sorts of poisons and venoms, Your Majesty. But the humans prize copper very much. They make money out of it. I doubt they would let us take the plate with the pie. I suspect the pie was not gifted but stolen."

"That's slander! Of course, the pie was a gift," One of the pixies that carried the pie said. "The human saw us coming in broad daylight, put the pie on the windowsill. If that's not a gift, I don't know what it is."

Yes, I can imagine what happened. The person that baked the pie saw the pixies approaching and knew their habits. They had the poisoned pie baked and ready to serve. I doubt some peasants would be very happy losing as many objects as I saw on my way here.

"Eat the pie!" A spriggan shouted.

"Make her eat it!"

The crowd was rambunctious. They were shouting and clamoring for me to eat the pie. Finally, the Queen stood up. "Fine, fine. You, Silverstreak, will eat the pie. If you die it is poisoned, if you don't it isn't."

"Your Majesty, I am immune to poison!" I protested. "Of course I won't die from eating a poisoned pie! You must understand that--"

I heard Nenandil whimper behind me. Before I could see what was going on, two fairies grabbed me from behind and shoved my face in the pie. They pulled me back.

"Is she dead? Can we eat?" One of the pixies that brought the pie asked.

"I didn't eat it!" I taunted. "But no, you can't eat!"

"Hold her mouth open. Shove some pie down that hole!" Another fairy shouted.

They did exactly that. One spriggan took handfuls of pie and shoved it in my mouth then pinched my nose to force me to swallow. I had no idea what to do to convince them it was a terrible idea.

"She's not dead! Eat!" One fairy shouted and the chorus was joined. "Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat!"

What a crotchety bunch!

The Queen finally gave up. "Go ahead. Eat the pie!"

"But your Majesty, the second bite should be yours!"

"No. I'm indisposed with such rude display," she said waving a hand in my general direction.

Grophan sap was a mild poison that caused nausea and minor damage on people. It acted fast so you could use it when you would like to capture the target alive but wouldn't risk a milder poison. I had no idea how it would affect these fairies and their ridiculously tiny HP pools.

The pixies holding me didn't let go. The whole audience rushed from the bleachers and dove into the pie. It was a swarm of moans of pleasure from those savoring the tasty pastry and the buzz of their insect-like wings trying to find a spot.

The only ones that didn't eat the pie were Neep, Nenandil, the Queen, and the two pixies holding me. Minutes later, the other fairies were licking the plate and drumming their tummies.

Did I mention grophan sap was fast-acting? With their ADHD metabolism, the fairies quickly felt the effects. They started to puke, foam, and drop unconscious. But the new easygoing empathic me was appalled by what was happening. I didn't feel like saying "I told you so" as Apricot would.

"Anyone has healing magic?" I shouted. "They need help!"

A few started to die. The Queen stood up. She was staring at me and I knew she believed me when I said the pie was poisoned. She flew up, tongues of flame licking her wings. Then she landed next to me. Nenandil moved to stand in front of me. To my surprise, the Queen ignored me and talked to my fairy.

"An elder water fairy. What a sight," She said with a sultry voice. Oh, wait. Was the Queen making a pass on Nenandil? "And bound to another fairy as a familiar. Wouldn't that be impossible? Tell me, how did that happen? How did someone as beautiful as you became this silky's familiar?"

Nenandil poked her nose up and scoffed. "It is none of your business, Your Majesty. What is is, and I have nothing else to say. Oh, that's not true. You two, release my friend!"

She waved a hand and froze the two pixies' feet. More fairies succumbed to the poison. The Queen, irritated for being turned down, pointed at me.

"Send her to jail! It was her that poisoned the pie!" Then her face shifted from angry to charming as she turned back to Nenandil. "We started on the wrong foot. I can break your familiar contract and set you free. What do you say?"

Nenandil stared at the Queen with an expression of horror at the proposal. The pixies were dragging me away.

She chirped happily and returned to my soul.

The Queen did not like that. Not at all.