The Foolhardies 25 The Handmaid's Tale

I actually preferred it if she'd asked me how I beat her, not that I would tell her about my improved Fool's Insight and my new Basilisk's Eye skill, but she didn't care about it at all. She just assumed I'd used my fairy gift to paralyze her and moved on from her defeat. It was very mature of her.

No, she was more interested in my reason for journeying into the Fayne which is why she had an eyebrow raised when she said, "No one's that altruistic..."

"Hey, Luca," I elbowed him in the shoulder as he was sitting beside me. "I finally found someone who's more of a downer than you are..."

He elbowed me back. "You're still not funny, Dean..."

The rest of my party sat alongside us in a line with Varda at the end. We were waiting for Edo to finish his test of strength against the green-eyed shieldmaiden who had requested a match from him after my victory over Ashley. It seemed our battle lit a fire under her and she wanted to stretch her legs. Edo being the martial freak that he was readily agreed to this.

I watched the shieldmaiden uncoil the tree vine wrapped around her waist and wield it like a whip, and each snap caused it to sprout thorns on its surface. These thorns raked on Edo's skin but he didn't seem to mind. He just took her attacks like they were tickling him.

Aura clued me in on the fact the other shieldmaiden was a dryad and that finally made her appearance and weapon choice make sense to me.

"You really jumped into the Fayne and all this madness to save your little brother?" Ashley asked for the fourth time. "And you actually made a bargain with an elf to do it?"

She looked over at Aura who was seated in the lotus position on Luca's other side.

"No offense," Ashley said. "I haven't met a lot of good elves around here..."

"No offense taken. I know how difficult things can be for those like you and Luca." Aura replied while looking more apologetic than Ashley did. "I'm glad you found your way to the shieldmaidens."

A surprised Ashley could only nod back. Then she turned to whisper in my ear, "Did you actually luck out and found the nicest fairy in the entire Fayne?"

I gave Ashley a thumbs up. There was no need to respond. Clearly, Aura was something special.

The match between Edo and the dryad continued into a stalemate. Partly because Edo didn't seem interested in beheading his sparring partner and partly because the Dryad seemed to grow stronger after each exchange, and the longer the fight got the more her silver armor seemed to glow.

"Did she cast a spell?" Luca asked Ashley.

Ashley shook her head. "Shieldmaidens can't use arcane energy. Not even the fairies."

"Why not?" Luca asked again.

It was Aura who responded. "All shieldmaidens carry the same mark you do, Luca. And except for fairy blessings, that mark prevents the release of any arcane power."

"All... of them?" Luca's eyes were as round as Oreos when he turned to look at Ashley. "You're all... like me?"

Ashley laughed. Even Aura smiled.

"It's not what you think, Luca," Ashley answered after her fit of laughter was over. "Sure, we've all got the mark but most of my sister shieldmaidens willingly accept the mark during their joining."

"W-why?!" Luca got on his knees and leaned over me to come closer to Ashley. "W-why would they do that?"

"Because being a shieldmaiden is to pledge yourself to the noblest of causes... to ensure the will of the last fairy king endures until his successor arrives," answered a soft yet commanding voice from behind us.

At the arrival of the newcomer, every shieldmaiden dropped what they were doing—even the ones sparring with supplicants—and bowed their heads in her direction.

"Welcome back, Mother Superior," they all chanted together.

The mother superior raised a stubby hand and commanded everyone to go back to their different tasks. Then she walked over to Luca on silver-plated sandals and grabbed his hands in hers. As Luca was still kneeling beside me they were about eye-level as she was rather short for a dwarf.

"You struggle with your bonds... it is only natural," her cloudy grey eyes under painted eyebrows searched his face. "But unlike the lost souls outside, you have not lost your way... You still fight?"

Luca nodded as if compelled to answer.

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Good. Don't lose that fire in your belly." She patted him on the head and caused Luca's head to bow. "I recommend you treat the mark not as a curse but as a challenge to overcome."

Then she walked away after glancing at each of us, her gaze lingering on Aura longer than the others.

"Yeah," Ashley was looking smugly down at me. "I met a cool fairy, too"

After Edo's sparring match in which he won out of sheer hardiness, the two shieldmaidens led me through a side door in the central hall while my friends waited just outside it. We entered a small inner chapel with only a single round basin and pedestal at its center as its occupant. Inside the basin was a liquid substance that faintly glowed with its own inner light.

"It's a mana font," Ashley said.

"The mana in this font was purified with the blessing of the High Priestess whom all shieldmaidens serve. It will do for cleansing your iron bauble," the dryad explained.

The dryad instructed me to hold the iron ring above the pool. After I did this, Ashley picked up a small silver chalice underneath the basin and filled it with the liquid that was like a canvas of stars brightly lit across a clear morning sky. Then she raised the cup over the iron arcane focus in my hands and began to pour the mana onto it.

After she emptied the cup, the color of my iron arcane focus turned from a dull grey to a shiny, almost silver hue.

"There. You're done," Ashley said, taking away the moment of solemnity we were experiencing. "You can go now..."

"Just like that?" I asked.

"An offering of strength was provided and so a blessing is given," the dryad said.

"Mana can do anything, huh?" I asked as an idea was forming in my brain.

"Sure... that's why people would risk getting beat up just for a drop of the stuff." Ashley pointed a hand at the basin. "And this isn't even pure enough. Grade three purity at best."

"What about the mana from a mana well?" I asked, curious.

"Depending on the age and location of the well, it's mana would certainly be much purer," the dryad admitted. "At least grade two I'd say... a few drops would fetch quite the price on the market."

It just so happened that I actually had a jar's worth of mana from the well we took from the Magesong clan. It was given to me by Great General Darah to use in trade in case we needed more funds to recruit soldiers, and I'd forgotten to sell it at the auction house, which in hindsight was a stroke of luck. Now I knew of another use for it.

Noticing I was deep in contemplation, Ashley cleared her throat and said, "Alright. Bye, Dean. See you never."

"Not quite," A grin formed on my lips. "I haven't received anything for beating you yet."

My greed got me a promise from Ashley that she would aid me and my friends once and only once whenever we called on her no matter where we were. As this was a sworn pledge of a shieldmaiden, despite the cussing and threats she sent my way, I was confident she would honor this agreement when she was called to do so.

"Get the hell out of here already!" she yelled at me despite the scandalous look her fellow shieldmaiden sent her.

This first side quest completed, I led my friends quickly out of the Shieldmaiden's Tower and away from the Slave Quarter with zero harassment from the slave traders. It seemed walking out of the shieldmaidens territory looking relatively unscathed earned us a slight reputation of being untouchables.

When we were back at the main Cobbled Street, I told everyone to stop so we could discuss the next stage of our plan. I even included Zarz in the discussion because I needed to know a few things only he could provide me.

"Okay, I've purified the iron arcane focus... I assume there's something else we need to make this work?" I asked him plainly.

Zarz scratched his head. "well... you'll need a special kind of rock to pair with my master's invention."

"How special? And how difficult is this going to be this time?" Luca asked, looking exasperatedly at the pair of us.

"Extremely difficult, I believe... there's only a few places in the Fayne that will have a formless shadow crystal," Zarz admitted.

My brows furrowed. "I've never heard of a formless shadow crystal before..."

"That's because nearly all shadow crystals are attuned to one of the five metal grades the moment they're born," Varda explained. "You'll almost never get one unless you cut it out of a dusk shard and those... well... we won't get our hands on any of those anytime soon."

"Why not?" I asked her.

"Because only one of the three moon clans know the secret to farming dusk shards... and they're not exactly friends with the Trickster Pavilion seeing as we're at war with them," Varda cast a sidelong glance at Aura. "After all, they're—"

"Drow," I sighed.

Seconds passed while I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger.

"Fine," I finally said. "Let's drop this side quest for now. It's probably like one of those long-haul quests you get in Dungeons and Dragons..."

"You're such a nerd, Dean," Luca laughed.

"So, are we finally going to continue with our original purpose, Commander?" Aura asked in a slightly mocking tone.

I smiled sheepishly at her while being thankful at how much she indulged my eccentricity.

"Yeah..." I answered her before looking over at Edo who'd just finished a massive yawn. "You still have the mana jar?"

He patted the bag of holding we'd received from Kallista. "Put it in here along with the rest of our stuff."

"I can't believe I forgot to sell it at the auction," Aura shook her head. "What an oversight..."

"It's lucky you and I forgot actually..." I patted her on the shoulder. "I've figured another use for it."

Aura's eyes narrowed in concern. "Such as?"

"Something foolhardy, no doubt," Luca guessed.

"You're close to the mark this time, little brother," As I said this, my eyes glanced around until they found Zarz. "I don't suppose you'd want to stick around with us a bit longer. At least until we get your master's contraption working?"

Zarz took a moment to ponder my question. "Depends... you guys recruiting for an army, I'm guessing?"

Aura nodded. "We're soldiers of the Fort Darah Army."

"Trickster folks, huh?" Zarz's bow creased. "I don't hate anyone from around there... so I guess I wouldn't mind..."

He glanced up at me. "Mind you, I don't fight. I'm an artificer not a soldier... and if the wages are good..."

"They're fantastic," I answered. "Includes a signing bonus too."

"Now you're talking my language, Dean," Zarz's grinned mirrored mine. "What kind of signing bonus?"

"You think you can get me a few dozen small empty vials?" I asked.

"Got some in my shop. Spares I keep in case I need to get some liquid ingredients for my artificing," he answered.

"Good..." I'm certain the weird looks Luca and Varda were giving me was because of the maniacal grin plastered on my face. Could you blame me, I had a new surefire plan to get some strong recruits. "We'll need them to make potions."

Chapter end