In Loki's Honor

Archmagister Sariandi paced back and forth in the Halls of the Mother. She was impatient and afraid. Afraid they had pushed too hard, afraid she had fled or worse, died, afraid for the fate of the Forest. When the council learned that the Old Soul had been reborn in the body of their princess, they went berserk. Ancient elves hold grudges for centuries, and they never forgave the Old Soul for not being subservient to them. Even though she saved the elves from a bloody war against the Pekothian barbarians of King Rudolph III. The slayer of Beasts, as he passed on into history.

When the report came that the Princess had ventured into the underground alone to meet the elder water fairy, she had no idea what would be the worse. The two had a relationship. She remembered when the little human girl teleported in the middle of the council room, soaked in water. The knights tried to track her to no avail. If half the legends about the Death Princess were true, they might as well be looking for a ghost. Maybe a literal ghost as she retained all the abilities of her previous lives. She said as much, didn't she?

She's been missing for two whole years. Two years.

There were talks of sending a search party to the subterranean world, but an oracle from the Mother told them to wait. And wait they did. Somehow, the girl was fulfilling her duties. Without the proper tools, Sariandi regretted it. If only the fools in the council were a bit more flexible.

The Forest was as lively as ever. Sariandi was one of the few that knew what was the fate of the Forest and the People should the Royal bloodline disappear. The enchantments that keep intruders out would vanish. The giant trees the elves call home would die, their size too big for normal trees to support themselves. Without their ancestral land, the elves would face the threat of invasion from several fronts. The belligerent humans and orcs, the goblins from below.

Although the latter never fully recovered from when the Old Soul went traveling through the underground. Another mystery. But everywhere she went, the wheels of fate spun. Recalling the tales of her first lives, it seems she went from someone that was at odds with the Gods to working with them. The titles and Class show she had the favor of several of them. Most prominently, the Mother.

Sariandi had a thought. It was one of those wild stupid thoughts that people sometimes have, something absurd but after the thought was thought of, it resonates with something deep. Something profound, the core of a person. It is that kind of thought that makes a person abandon everything and follow a new path, without a single drop of regret for what was left behind.

And now, that stray thought was clawing its way up her psyche. Clamoring for freedom. She looked at the statue of the Mother and prayed for guidance.

"Follow your heart," were the kind words the Mother didn't speak but archmagister Sariandi heard all the same.

She left the temple and went to the council room. There, she used her prerogative as the archmagister for one final act. She summoned the council. Once all the ancient millennium-old elves gathered, complaining about being interrupted in whatever they were doing, she smiled.

The path ahead never felt so certain.

"Why did you summon us here, archmagister?" An elf that hadn't smiled in five hundred years asked, bored and annoyed to death in equal measures.

"I quit. I abdicate the title of the archmagister. I shall no longer head this council. It was my failure to lose the Princess and I am quitting my position as my self-imposed punishment. Farewell," she said after she spun her back to the council and walked out the door.

She felt like a little girl that played a prank. Her heart soared. She was free. And unemployed. Who cared? Not Sariandi the plain elf.

I could swear I heard Dak'kon saying "Endure, and an enduring grow stronger" over and over at me. The D&D take on the Protoss. Probably the other way around, given that the former is older.

I had no idea how long it lasted. I hoped that with my absurd regeneration it would be over quickly but I must've been mistaken. I knew my pseudopods latched onto anything and everything around me, drawing sustenance so I could survive. And endure. Maybe I should've kept the skill to require less food. Too late now. Only a reroll would bring it back. If it was still available.

Somehow, the pain receded. I filtered it out after a while. Or the System took pity on me. More likely the latter prompted by the former. I sought notifications and found them.

Your Skill Pain Resistance (rare) reached level journeyman 40.

Pain Resistance (rare) Skill. Your sensation of pain is reduced by Rank x Endurance x 0.095%. (Current 91.2%).

I opened my eyes. I saw Nenandil putting a dead fish next to me. It was cold but I was drenched in sweat. My pseudopods flailed around, finding the fish and quickly devouring it. My lower body was entirely wrapped in roots and vines. The elder dryad seemed to be asleep on top of my legs. The other fairies were sitting on the dryad's shoulders, humming and draining mana. Nenandil went away to probably find more food.

I was in no condition to speak so I focused on my Status. I pulled the un-read notifications. Most of the time they pop unobtrusively, but if you happen to be unconscious, they stay in a sort of buffer.

For fulfilling your Royal duties, you earned 2,000,000 Exp.

For fulfilling your Royal duties, you earned 2,000,000 Exp.

....

For fulfilling your Royal duties, you earned 2,000,000 Exp.

Fifty-eight of these.

I swear my next life I'll take it easy. I'm going to pick an uncommon or rare Class and be mediocre. But that's not now. This time, I need to be strongest than ever. I need to be a proper elf Queen.

You become a Questor level 9.

You gained one Questor perks.

You become an Elder High Elf [star] level 8

You gained two Elder High Elf [star] perks.

You become a High Soul Surgeon level 6

You become a High Alchemist level 6

You gained 104 Skill Points.

{Combine Skills} activated.

You gained the Short Blade Expertise (very rare) Skill. You are an expert with all kinds of short blades. Greatly increase accuracy and damage.

You gained the One-Handed Bludegoning Expertise (very rare) Skill. You are an expert with all kinds of one-handed blunt blades. Greatly increase accuracy and damage.

You gained the Stringed Instrument Expertise (very rare) Skill. You are an expert with all kinds of stringed instruments.

You gained the Wind Instrument Expertise (very rare) Skill. You are an expert with all kinds of wind instruments, including your voice.

Your level with these Skills is Journeyman 35.

Time to hit the perk shop.

You gained the Royal Geas (ultra-rare) perk. You can impose a geas upon an individual at a cost of 10x their Soul Attribute if they are your subject or ten times that for a foreigner. The target cannot violate the geas or they'll lose 100 x your Soul Attribute HP per second while you lose the base MP cost to impose the geas until they stop attempting to violate the geas, die, or you run out of SP. You can choose to not cause death at the time of imposing the geas and the target falls unconscius for 24 hours once they reaches 0 HP. The geas ends if you can't pay the upkeep to enforce the geass. You are aware of the violation attempt. You can dismiss the geas at any time or set a condition to be fulfilled.

You gained the Improved Royal Geas (ultra-rare) perk. Reduce the cost by half and increase the damage by 50%.

You gained the Overcharge Magic (very rare) perk. You can spend extra MP to multiply a spells' damage, effect, or area (pick one at the time of casting).

You gained the Mana Strike (very rare) perk. You can imbue your weapons with mana, bypassing some of the enemy resistances and dealing extra magical damage.

Monster Exp Boost II (uncommon). Increase Exp gains from monsters by 56.3%.

Monster Exp Boost III (uncommon). Increase Exp gains from monsters by 95.3%.

Monster Exp Boost IV (uncommon). Increase Exp gains from monsters by 144%.

Monster Exp Boost V (uncommon). Increase Exp gains from monsters by 205%.

I guess the life of a questor is to hunt monsters. There's a lot of perks to fight monsters, which makes me think he's a glorified [Monster Hunter]. On second thought, no. There are perks to gain extra Experience when doing tasks for hire. Even one for escort quests. Makes the escorted person move faster. If only the CRPG had those.

For fulfilling your Royal duties, you earned 2,000,000 Exp.

This was the fifty-ninth. Wait for a second, wasn't the debt fifty times? Are these crooks in fairy skin are overcharging me! I'm sitting at zero MP and SP, the damn fairies are draining both, probably because my SP becomes MP if I run out. My HP is also low.

I shift into jaguar form. The dryad tendrils break and I push them away with my paws.

"I think we're done, ladies!" I roar at them.

"Oh, my," Nephele gasps as if she was shaken awake from a trance. She might be. She's such an airhead, after all.

"I think she's right, darlings," Lorelai the elder spriggan comments, also coming out of her trance.

"You were so delicious, we couldn't help but help ourselves," Nephele wiggled her roots while her pretty face held a naughty smile.

"How long was I..." I check my age field on the status and my jaw drops, "Three years? You've been draining my MP for three years?"

Doris giggles. She seems to be drunk on magic, "Yes, oh, you're so tasty. Like a beverage that aged. Such rich textures to your magic."

I'm going nowhere with these crooked old ladies.

Brenna was sleeping on the dryad's shoulder. She had a goofy face. Doris seemed to be coming to her senses.

"What happens now, Doris?"

"Now we grant you the boon you want. You wish to take on the shape of your past lives, right? I'll assume you also want to take this shape you have now in future lives too. If we share the burden five-ways, it won't be too expensive for all of us."

Oh. I know how they'll grant me the perk. "You're using {Fairy Godmother}, right? I got that perk too, is that a problem?"

"We know that," Doris said. "Your stunt forcing the empire Royal family to guard the fairies and were-kin is legendary."

The five elder fairies joined and used their perk.

You were adopted by the elder fairies.

You gained the Fairy Goddaughter (very rare) perk. You have a protector fairy. You gained +2 Dexterity, +2 Endurance, +2 Mind, +5 Luck. Other fairies will recognize you have this perk.

You gained Past Life Shapes (unique) perk. You can take the shape your past lives had right before they died. (SYSTEM: Restricted to type III and IV humanoids). Your Attributes do not change but you gain all the physical abilities of the form you took.

You gained the Summon Godmothers (unique) perk. Once a year, you can pay 1,000,000 MP to summon your five fairy godmothers. The use of this perk without a good reason will anger the elder fairies. They appear at most one hour after the activation (we need time to get ready!).

I said telepathically to Nenandil.

"Doris. How can someone else tithe the MP? Do they need to have the perk? How does one gains the {Elven Royalty} outside of birth? can I appoint some other elf and grant him the {Elven Royalty} perk?"

"Not some other elf. An elf with a decent Magic score," Doris added. "But yes. I think the cost will be very high. Two hundred thousand, I guess."

I gave it some thought. Making someone royalty might be expensive. I had some perks that might mitigate that cost but I would need to see. At least I could find out the cost before committing. But I wanted to test something new.

I shifted into SIlverstreak. Nenandil squealed and came to hug me. "I guess it works."

"Of course it works. What do you think we are?" Nephele raised her nose with a smug grin.

"Well, godmothers, I know when I'm going to summon you first. Let me tell you..."

I explained my plan to the fairies and got the first summoning's motivation pre-approved. With everything set, I asked Daphne to grow a sapling so I could teleport to the surface. It was time to tame the beast. The definition of what is a "tree" was loose enough when I could take on the shape of a two-centimeter long bumblebee bat from Thailand. Binge-watching NatGeo as background noise for coding paid off. I recalled Nenandil back into my soul and entered the sapling.

My exit tree was somewhere in Fulgen that at first, I didn't recognize. Not noticing any sentient lifeforms around, I shifted back and got my equipment on when I heard a birdcall. One that didn't live in Fulgen but someone that also didn't live in Fulgen wouldn't know.

"I request aid," I shouted using my dual-tone voice. It would paint me as an elf right away and the rangers would surely come to investigate. It didn't take five minutes and a pair of them was on me.

"Identify yourself!" They approached with bows trained on me.

I checked if I had only my title on and kept my fake status hidden. "I am sure you can do that on your own. I request an escort back to Forestheart."

"Raise your hands," The other one said.

Time to push rank. I gave them enough chances. "{Royal Order}! Lower your weapons and kneel." They complied with surprised gasps but didn't speak. "I am Alloralla. Do you doubt my identity?"

"No, Your Highness. Welcome back. It's been three years."

"Good. The fastest among you, go ahead and warn the council of my return. The other, escort me."

As we walked, my impetus to crush the council and gloat over their naked butts - which may or may not include frozen genitals - died down. I would be a fool to play my winning hand right away. I should see what they had in mind before acting. And probably regain some of the Skills I'd burned to improve the others.

My escort and I entered the hexagon clearing with the seven giant trees that were Forestheart and a bunch of elves came to cheer my return. One could get addicted to that much attention. I waved and blew kisses at the elves - the latter wasn't common but I think they got the message? Or did they misunderstood me? I'd not know until too late, as usual.

Two stern councilmen were waiting for me at the foot of the central tree that also housed the Royal Palace.

"Your Highness. Welcome back," One of them said coldly.

I met his eyes and narrowed mine. "Councilmen, greetings. I returned after a brief stint with the elder fairies."

"We were aware," he lied. "Please, this way. We'll escort you to your chambers."

And back to my gilded cage. As if I would let them. "No. I think I've wasted too long there. If it's all the same to you, I'm going to take a stroll through Forestheart. Feel free to summon the knights to escort me."

"Your Highness," the other tried to be a bit more diplomatic, "You must be tired. Please, go rest in your room while--"

"Enough," I snapped back with the full weight of my {Royal Order} Skill. "Where is archmagister Sariandi?"

"She quit, Your HIghness," the other said with a smug smile. "She was found in dereliction of her duties and exiled."

"She's no longer an archmagister," the other added.

What the fuck? Sariandi quit? The archmagister QUIT? Was that even possible? I felt a huge surge of envy. I had to pause to breathe and sort my thoughts> I had to find Sariandi, she was the keystone of my freedom plan. "When did that happen?"

He let out an evil chuckle, "A year ago."

Their nonchalant attitude toward their princess grated on me. "I order you to bring her back."

"Your Highness, with all due respect, you have no such authority," the first one said.

The phrase "with all due respect" means exactly the opposite in whatever world it is being spoken.

"Then let's put our souls where our words are. {Ro..." I curbed my impulse right away. I was about to burn one of my trump cards.

There was a settlement on the outskirts of the Forest for exiled elves. Most of the time they stayed there, but some took to wander around when the pain of their predicament was too big. I knew where it was and my best bet at finding her was there.

"Maybe I'll enter the tree after all," I said and the two crooked councilors smiled.

Then I did enter the tree. Literally. And got out ten kilometers away in middle of the the forest. A few more teleports and I was at the exile village.