A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Thirty-First Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

Headquarters of the Inquisition, Meereen

As the last hour of the last day of the year tolled the glass in the window flowed like silver in the moonlight and and through it passed the lord of the Shadow fey, his name death and poison, Nightshade. The mortal man who sat behind the desk nodded his head in easy greeting, a smile that was more polite than cheerful on his lips.

Still it was a a gladder greeting than Malarys Vanor gave any of the Great Masters of Mereen with which he had been forced to interact this past month. The shadow fey for all their peculiarities could be useful, their biting humor even refreshing in moderate doses. It was not jests he was looking forward to tonight however cutting. "What news do you carry from this realm's Fair Reflection?" he asked politely.

"Strange and troubling alas," the visitor shook his head tiny puffs of silver falling around his shoulders as though someone had dipped dandelion seeds in molten metal. "The traitor hag was not the mistress of the court she betrayed, the Amber Towers it was called, before its king perished in hellfire upon the road, its warriors to poison and enchantment, its sorcerers to devil's steel."

"On the road?" Malarys asked intrigued. He was hardly the expert on faerie and its mercurial denizens that Vee or even Ser Waymar Royce were, but it hardly took a discerning eye to see where the tale turned strange. "I though that those who were ordered into Courts rarely departed the heart of their power, where troupes are those that wander the world."

"Indeed," the Feylord nodded. "None of those I have spoken to understand what moved the fallen king to action, perhaps some prophecy misread or fel trickery. Given how deep the devils drank of blood and sorrows, perhaps they planned the whole sad play act by act."

"The Baatezu have no love of the fey spirits it is true," Malarys agreed thoughtfully. Removing potential rivals before they can even act would certainly appeal to the Lord of the Ninth, who held his throne as much by guile as strength.

"If it was indeed a seed sown by devils than I fear we have not seen its last bitter fruit ripen, many of the fey in these lands, spirits of field and wood, even of stone unchanging grow ever more uneasy at the sorts of pacts mortals forge. There is talk of the Shadow with which they trade, there is talk of Hell and ever more there is talk of flight to some place where the earth lies easy," came the grim reply with the breath of the wind outside rattling the window, as though the night air itself sought the candlelit sanctuary. "If a full court could be assaulted and brought to ruin even by treachery others could no doubt share the same fate."

"These fey spirits, what are their thoughts on mortal lords," Malarys asked, knowing the mind of his king well enough to see the opportunity among the troubles.

"Each by their own measure," the Orphne Lord replied. "I could no more tell you what each of them would say to the Dragon King's offers than I could guess what mortals growing uneasy over dark rumors in a crowded marketplace would say to pledging themselves to a foreign king."

"Thank you my lord," Malarys nodded returning to his report to mark down the names of fey who might know something. The streets may not be running black with the blood of vanquished fiends, but they were amassing quite a list of persons of interest to visit now that the gaze of the king was no longer set upon the looming threat of the Great Beast and its mercenary pawns. Hopefully Lady Lya's look into Jezhene might shed more light on matters.

OOC: And with that the action is done for the month, Lya looking at the girl will be done in a main part since I need to be sure she is available rather than nailing the date in place in advance. For the next update today we return to Yi Ti negotiation. Not yet edited.