Peaches. was. sooooo. embarrassed.
Dressed back in her tradition elf garb, and of course, the slutty kind since she was definitely embracing her role as his beloved smutty elf girl since, sigh, some sex really did ease his heart and bring him so much closer to her, his arm around her waist and hugging her tight all the way here, up and down steep hills, against cocky roosters eager to peck her stiletto heels for daring to clank louder than their dumb birdy selves wanted, and all the way to a boob of a dome beside the chapels.
Inside the dome of granite was hotter than Roo inside her, he-he, and no doubt pleasing him a bit to smell her even more, but his smell, such a strong human musk, how much did she love to tease him back with silly pee-ews and giggles and the need to bath together very, very soon, since his smutty rags loved to have those smutty elf girl bathing scenes, so time to give him another dream come true, and prove she was over the lightspawn mind twister nonsense.
But the inside of this place was smaller than a fairy’s patience.
It was like a lamp for humans. Full-sized humans, at least.
There was just a desk full of drawers, some empty cages, and countless stacked lanterns. Black iron lanterns that made the air burn like that hot pepper chili Roo promised to stuff into her later tonight as punishment for going crazy lightspawn for so long.
A punishment stupid her was looking very much forward to.
Yet here, Peaches had to gulp.
All those fairies … and so many of them girls, like her, or more like, like she had been. Minds twisted into doing evil horrible things and then lamped to serve and die rather than saved like her and …
If only Ruby had come with them, but she was required to stay outside.
Darkspawn familiars were only trusted so much, and soon, Peaches knew she’d have to join her. Lightspawn weren’t exactly trusted much more but introductions and info exchanged firsthand was obviously critical.
But … in front of them, right in front of all the countless lamped fairies, was a big strong crow man. Like a crow in the form of a muscular man. In dragon scale similar to Roo’s, except as black as the birdman’s feathers, and not a hint of birdy smell either. No.
More like some kind of faint cedarwood musk?
Roo cleared his throat. “Crow, I …”
“Gone for three weeks,” Crow said, “And then caught in someone’s house enjoying the pleasures of some lightspawn. The notorious Amber Death, in fact. Explain.”
“Amber is my new familiar,” Roo said, “And …”
Peaches huffed. “I’ll explain. We’re best friends, no, more, and he saved me from the mind twisters that … okay, I’ll start at the beginning …”
And they both explained their odd battle, skipping the weird encountered with Bishop Hagert until …
“Bishop Hagert’s been missing,” Crow said, “And no one else would humor marrying you idiots.”
Sigh.
Peaches filled in the all too normal Bishop Hagert. His … uncrowed appearance and … behavior.
Crow stared harsh at Peaches.
“So we’re to forgive your behavior,” Crow said, “The elves–”
“You need us!” Peaches said, “We’re both losing the war against the darkspawn. Save us and we’ll be in your debt. Even more so than–”
“And you think the TriCross Knight weren’t aware of this?” Crow said.
“Then why …” Peaches said.
“Breaking a whole race free of mind twisting …” Crow said, “It could be as costly as simply wiping them out. No. Not could be. Will be. Only a tight bond can break it, and few elves have that kind of tight bond with anything the knights have access to.”
Peaches gasped. Whimpered.
“So …” Peaches said, “You’ll really just wipe us all out? What about the fairies? At least spare them.”
“Eventually,” Crow said, “The newly born fairies, those not simply reborn, may be spared. Maybe, since their use as lights and genies proved too useful to abandon so quickly, but until the mind twisters are dealt with, they will never be freed.”
Roo nodded. “Fine. Then leave saving the elves to me.”
“The last Vorshaya …” Crow said.
“I have several leads,” Roo said, “And Camilla will come after me anyway. Along with whoever helped her arrange this war between us and the elves. I know I need to train, but–”
“Fine,” Crow said.
“I know a few people to search for,” Roo said, “So please–”
“Alright,” Crow said.
Peaches jolted Roo. “Listen! He agreed!”
“Oh,” Roo said, “Yeah. I …”
“The oath between the Vorshaya clan and the elves forged a strong enough bond,” Crow said, “It might be enough to break the hold of the mind twisters, if you figure out how to approach revealing the full truth to them. I doubt it will go as well as it did with the Amber Death, or … Peaches, as you call her.”
Peaches giggled. “Only Roo calls me Peaches.”
“I can smell why,” Crow said, and sighed, “It’s as silly as the name everyone gave me, but it works well enough. I’ll expect a full written report from both of you by tomorrow afternoon. Dismissed for today, and … enjoy your reunion.”
With a grin a pervy as Roo’s she nodded and they both dashed off.
To a certain apple cart for that rematch, and the tastiest roasted apple she could imagine.