Rebirth and Second Chances 130 First Blood *Warning excessive violence and cruelty*

[Identify - Craig A'Craig, Rank: Earl, Level - 8]

[Identify - Deeigh Nee, Rank: Lord, Level 2]

[Identify - Duumh Nee, Rank: Lord, Level 2]

The Nee designation was interesting, it was a filler, a name that those who have not sworn or formed their own House used. It meant that they were not members of an established House, it also meant that they hadn't been expelled from one. I wondered why they hadn't sworn to Craig, or maybe he had offered, and they had refused. Although I wasn't sure what the name said about their relationship, I wasn't concerned either.

I thought it most likely they had been forced or hired to work as guards for A'Craig by someone with more power. It was likely they were keeping an eye out on him for someone else, as well as protecting him. Their jobs were the perfect foil to allow them to spy with impunity.

At this moment the details and deceits that were being practiced didn't really matter. They had barged into Blayney's office with weapons drawn. They may have only meant to make a statement, to bluster and bluff while demonstrating that Lord Craig was the true power for this Herd.

That was a mistake. I have already found it hard to bank the fury I felt over my Vassal's treatment, their effrontery freed that fury, and my reaction to their insult and provocation was immediate.

I hadn't had the opportunity to really experiment or test the evolution of my spell-craft since the System rewards had changed the way I learned and cast spells. I was no longer limited to structured System Spells that needed to be leveled and learned. Spellcraft was more intuitive for me now. More like I thought the Sidhe should cast if they weren't bound by System strictures.

Will, Intent, and Focus. Those concepts had changed to allow me to imagine what I wanted to happen, and then to make it happen. With my high Intellect and Will. thought and action were almost simultaneous. The only thing faster than the Speed of Light was the Speed of Thought. It would take light years for the light from Suns in even the closest solar system to reach our world. Our thoughts could make the journey instantly. It was what the magic and mechanics of teleportation were based upon.

I began by casting a glamour. Since my Mind Affinity had reached 70, my abilities with glamour had become prodigious, allowing the illusion to assume a physical aspect. Reaching out, I changed the setting of the room. We were no longer in Blayney's office; we were in my Demesnes, a throne room of my making. Glamoured into existence, the room was still representative of what would be.

I ignored the polished white and black marble that the Seelie and Unseelie Monarchs were known for. I was neither and both. I modeled my throne room using Blue Sodalite. The texture and veining gave an almost Jackson Pollock abstract depiction to the walls, veins marbled like a dripped painting that had been flung and spattered to achieve the frenzied genius of the artist. I had broken the almost overwhelming decadence with a silver filigreed ceiling, and gold lacquered floor.

Still, the dark blue of the Sodalite made the chamber almost oppressively dark. To balance and lighten the room, I built recessed alcoves along the walls, placing statuary that was modeled to represent each of the Sidhe species. I interspersed them, giving no special meaning to where each faction was placed. Seelie or Unseelie they each enjoyed a prominent position.

Setting fiery miniature Suns to circle and act as both a crown to adorn my head, and light sources to illuminate the recessed alcoves, the room transformed. Less gloom, more splendor.

I finished the glamour by creating a Throne of Diamond. The ability to reflect and fracture the light that my crown radiated created pools of rainbow colors, iridescent, and mobile. I placed a bevy of thrones in a concave semi-circle formation that allowed Blayney, Una, Wynne, Aspen, and Pine to join me when I ascended the throne. As one, we moved to our seats, turning as we sat to face Lord A'Craig and his guards.

While I was busy altering reality, I also changed our clothing. Gone was the wrinkled dusty work a day garments we had been clothed in. Instead, intricate garments with my House crest stylized in three-dimensional relief were strategically placed. Banners were unfurled along the wall to mimic and display the House Crest.

An additional burst of glamour transformed the seamless gold lacquer on the floor, embedding my Crest motif into the veins of granite with rivulets of sapphire. Gems; blue, red, and green, were added to mimic both the fire and ice aspect of my bloodline, I designed them to showcase the tattoos that had been carved into my flesh when Cyronax' bloodline had been activated. Snowflakes that were detailed and delicate, danced against roaring lava pools billowing plumes of brimstone and ash.

Lord A'Craig wasn't impressed by my creation. His identity, his self was too entrenched to allow him to recognize the danger he and his men had provoked. My glamour spoke more of who I was, and the powers I controlled than opulence or decadence. I hadn't seen the Seelie or Unseelie throne rooms yet, but from the obvious contempt, Craig demonstrated, he certainly wasn't impressed by what I'd created.

"Blayney," he sneered completely ignoring me as he focused instead on the Herd Lord, "perhaps their Majesties didn't make their commands clear. You are not to host private meetings without scheduling them ahead of time and informing the Seelie contingent to the time and place."

"It would seem the A'Craig House has decided to forego the niceties of Court or the trappings of protocol that are owed a Ranked King," I said voice echoing with the power of winter's rage as I answered his challenge. "Much has changed since my last visit here.

"It is your contention that Herd Lord Blayney, the rightful Lord of these Lands, and the acknowledged Herd Lord of the local Kelpie owes you and the Seelie you represent some form of duty and obligation?" I drawled dangerously.

"Even if these Lands have been assigned by Duke A'Daoine, the treaties and obligations between Herd Blayney and House A'Daoine certainly take precedent, don't they?

"And those treaties, binding all Sidhe, clearly state that in their place of power, the Herd Lord and his authority is sacrosanct. Or has a challenge been issued, and a new treaty endorsed and confirmed?" I asked.

"My Authority has been sanctioned by Seelie, verified and sealed, in front of the Court. Lord Blayney will adhere to the restrictions that were levied against his Herd after the breach of trust that occurred over the CERN dungeon and the Silinium mines," A'Craig answered with contempt.

"It is my understanding that those violations of obligations and trust were at the behest at the former Herd Lord. His idiocy and schemes along with those of Seelie Lords and Craftsman were discovered and reported as soon as Lord Blayney ascended.

"I have to wonder, exactly what breach of trust he is guilty of? Was he allowed to present evidence and answer accusations before the Court as is his right as a duly acknowledge Lord of a fief?" I asked disbelief obvious, my contempt the equal of A'Craig's.

"Lord Blayney failed to respond to the messenger that was sent or to inform the Court of his response to the charges of neglect and breach that had been levied against him. Their Majesties acted, within the limits of the treaty, only after he or his assignee failed to make an appearance in court.

"He was given ample time to respond, the six weeks the treaty demands," A'Craig reasoned.

"A messenger was sent?" I mused. "I wonder why the M-AI wasn't used to inform him of the actions being taken.

"Their Majesties wouldn't have sent that messenger on a round-bout course to make sure their message was delivered only after the time constraints the treaty sets out had passed, would they?

"The Sidhe are well-versed in twisting law and language to serve their own purpose, so I wouldn't be surprised to find trickery and deceit were the reason for Herd Lord Blayney's delay.

"I wonder Craig, if you know if there was any of this type of subterfuge taking place?" I asked not expecting a response, or at least not one that wasn't couched in legalize that would make ascertaining the truth easy.

"Their Majesties never mentioned. And I am Earl Lord A'Craig. We are not friends or associates, I have not given you leave to use my Name," he said dismissively more insulted at being addressed sans title than the suggestion that the Seelie Monarchs had cheated and schemed to punish Blayney.

"And I am King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax," I said empowering my voice with both bloodlines and the full might of glamour. "You stand before me affronted because I failed to address you correctly, when you, you have failed to offer even the slightest respect my Rank and Level demand!"

"King?" He sneered fearlessly. "King of what? A Hybrid half-breed. Your title is meaningless. No real Seelie would bother legitimizing or acknowledging your right of rule."

I may have ignored his remarks as offensive as they were if his guards hadn't laughed, their mirth tangible proof that they agreed with the Earl, and thought not only was he right but that he had every right to be as offensive as he was being.

I would like to think that was the case. But the amalgam of memories, the changes that made me truly, and finally, Sidhe would not allow their effrontery and mockery to go unpunished. I thought briefly of killing them but decided that I would instead send them back to the Seelie Court as a reminder.

A reminder that Seelie's may look down upon half-breed bastards, but the blood that flowed through my veins was the same that coursed through the Gods that had stretched forth their hands and commanded the Cosmos to conform to their will.

I was a Ranked King. And their idiocy in belittling me in what may have been glamour but was still a psychic representation of my place of power could not stand. I had become Sidhe, and all that encompassed. And Sidhe were not gentle people. When insult or injury was offered, we responded in kind.

"There is no one blinder than he who will not see," I said stealing the proverb from John Hayward before striking. Forming two lances imbued with the winter's bite, I cast them forward, each targeting a separate guard.

Stationed on the left and right of Craig, the lances flew unerringly, piercing one eye each, destroying both in a most gruesome manner. The intraocular fluid exploding outward as the eye of each man popped. Blood and viscous matter following as the lances that I had thrown dissolved once the damage was done.

Not content I summoned to twisting whips of fire, sent spinning they again targeted the two men, burning through hands and armor that were raised to protect those wounds that I had already made. I spun the tendrils of fire, adding ice blades that chewed and vivisected the eye-opening as the fire burned and sealed the wound. The men collapsed to the floor their screams and cries punctuating the smell of cauterized flesh.

Standing from my throne, I approached them reaching out once more. This time to heal. Not completely. But in tangent with the destruction my ice and fire had done, I cycled between the three energies until a weeping wound dripping with pus and ugliness had been formed. A wound that had been hexed, a curse that made certain that the wound would not be healed no matter the energies or powers others might employ.

If they would practice and glorify the Seelie traits that were ugly and whispered as warnings to fear, I would mar the perfection of Seelie features they were so proud of. I would make it so that the world could see the ugliness that would reflect their true personalities.

A'Craig's face was frozen in a rictus of horror and shock. He honestly believed his identity and position as a Court-appointed accountant, someone that had been relegated to what the Seelie considered a backwater provincial settlement, would protect him.

He was wrong.

"What should I do with you, Earl Lord Craig," I wondered stressing his title as I moved to stand before him. His conceit and fearlessness went along with his bravery, all of it vanishing as easily as his guard's eyes.

Chapter end