Lovely Dark Things

EIGHT (RUBY POV)

"Ruby..."

"My Lady... I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you..." I whisper respectfully keeping my head low but holding the mirror high so she can see my face. I can feel her power pulsing through the plated glass and her beauty is mesmerizing, she's able to hypnotize you forcing you to do her will in all circumstances. I hope I'm not bothering her interrupting a reflective moment, maybe a meeting or a ritual of the God of War worship, because the Queen's rage is dangerous and she could kill me at a great distance but I really needed to talk to her and this is important.

"How's your mission going?" I can see her leaning back on her throne out of the corner of my eye while one of her favourite wolfdogs is lying at her feet, the Queen wears silk in white and silver colour and there're blood stains on the hem of her tunic, probably from a sacrifice. "Is there a problem?"

"Our enemies know..." That seems to grab her attention and she gestures at her acolytes so they hand her the mirror in order to take a closer look at my face. "They know who Iselen is and also want her knowledge, they're negotiating with the wizard: they've offered gold, a house, velvet and fancy fabrics, luxuries... I've read some letters, they're really awful..."

"What do you mean? It looks like a good deal to me... Oh wait, don't' tell me: they despise the hybrid..." My Lady chuckles while shaking her head.

"And they hate the idea of relying on a stupid human..." I finish her sentence and acolytes around her burst into laughing while she nods. "I think that, if we could offer Iselen a similar deal, but adding a little bit of... respect and recognition for her work, she'd come to Baalberith without hesitation."

"Are you telling me you're unable to seduce her?" The Lady of the Dark Elves raises an eyebrow and I straighten my back, offended. I can't help looking at the mirror with my jaw clenched hard but I realize that her grin is a kind one immediately, which is pretty unusual for her, and she's probably joking. She knows I've never failed a mission and this one wont' be different. I relax and nod, whispering respectfully again.

"I've already seduced her, My Lady, but I'm worry about what will happen after she arrives to Baalberith... she could refuse to work for us making things very difficult... I don't know, she's stubborn and won't give up easily even under pressure but I get the impression that if we offer her a decent accommodation, gold, clothes and polite manners, she'll do whatever you order her... But if she believes she's going to become one of our slaves, tortured, thrown to a dungeon and starved, she'll prefer our enemies' proposal probably. I'll have to take her home tied up and yelling."

"I understand..." The Queen thinks about it for a few minutes before nodding. "Usually, only the strongest succeed in our society and weak elves end up dying, that's the way we've become a powerful kingdom: a selection of the best warriors, intelligent strategists and skilled sorceresses. She's not as strong as a dark elf but we need her, or rather, we'll take advantage of her knowledge to grow and make progress faster in order to outsmart our enemies and, contrary to the Light Elves, I'm not ashamed to admit it. Fortunately, weak links survive in our society when they're useful and she will be. I'll grant her my personal protection and will make sure she'll have a good quality of life... as long as she does an excellent job, of course. I hope that won't arouse envy among my other subjects... but we'll solve that problem later. Do you need anything else?"

"Yes, My Lady. Following your instructions, I've bought several shipments of grain and canned fruit, they're waiting in a warehouse at the port and the Council of Ingstad will allow our ships to come here and get loaded... you can send our corsairs when you want."

"Where's your brother?"

"He'll arrive in a couple of days ready to take us back home."

"Well done, Ruby. I expected no less of you."