A tendril of ice blossomed

  from the tip of my slipper, crackling into pointed crystals as it

  traveled across the floor to explore the magical potential of the

  assembled girls. There were forty three girls in all and the most

  that anyone had been able to get out of them thus far was that they

  were in some sort of training, though they seemed largely ignorant of

  what they were being trained for or why they had been assembled by

  the stressed mumbles we had been able to get from them so far.

  To make the situation more

  murky, the girls would easily overwhelm whenever someone would get

  too near them, their weak human magical ability unable to withstand

  the presence even the soldiers with the lowest magical presence under

  my command. The servants were even worse, even the most restrained of

  my ranks would knock them out cold before anyone could even attempt

  to get any information out of them. It was certainly useful in

  quelling any potential resistance to our invasion, but it made

  getting any useful information much more difficult and annoying.

  Typically the original assessment and interrogation of any prisoners

  would have been done by someone under my command then I would assess

  the report and decide if my personal intervention was necessary, but

  in the case of this particular occupation a great amount of magical

  control and restraint was necessary to yield any meaningful results.

  My mission was to find the

  fae-blessed girl before the bastards of Spring could, though I was

  already certain that she was not among the ranks before me. We had no

  physical description to go by for the girl other than she was some

  commoner of low birth who should be less than a dozen summers, but

  the fae-touched aura should readily exude from her and be

  unmistakable.

  Upon a cursory glance at the

  assembled girls, I had been woefully underwhelmed by their potential.

  That was not particularly surprising with humans, they were little

  more than a mindless insects scuttling through the world oblivious to

  the mighty and powerful things that moved around them. It was in some

  ways fortunate that they were so weak and their realm so devoid of

  anything useful otherwise they would have been wiped clean long ago.

  “Are you a fairy?”

  My focus snapped from the

  tendril of my power snaking around, getting only close enough to

  evaluate but not to cause a domino fainting effect among the girls.

  They had been instructed to line up in the main training room in the

  tiny castle and not move or utter a word unless instructed and at the

  very least they had been trained enough to comply without putting up

  a fuss.

  “Fairy?” I replied with a

  smirk. The term was a common bastardization, though most species that

  dared to use the term colloquially were wise enough to never utter it

  aloud before any of my kind. “Where have you heard such a term?”

  In other circumstances I would

  have made an example of her disobedience and disrespect, shown the

  others what might befall them if they decided to speak up when told

  to be silent, however I was rather curious what humans thought of my

  kind. I personally have never dealt with any humans or cared to ever

  dabble in their inane politics before. I even rather thought the idea

  that the fae-blessed child could even be worth all this trouble was

  far-fetched. Humans simply were too low of a creature to spend much

  effort on. They were never powerful enough to consider them to be

  competition and useless enough to make terrible allies. Though, now

  in the realm for the first time, I felt a sense of wonder that

  creatures could seemingly happily live in such a dull, dead

  environment that seemed to cringe away from anything that resembled

  true power.

  “Umm…” the girl said,

  nerves causing her to stumble over her words.

  She was a brunette girl with

  fair skin and a squat nose that seemed like she was a few years yet

  from hitting her true adolescence. If I had to make an educated

  guess, I would assume that she was from a commoner line, lacking the

  refined features of nobility. Though that was a touch hard to tell

  among humans, thus far they all appeared to have wide, rough features

  that made them look more like they had been haphazardly chiseled out

  of stone rather then made of tender flesh.

  “My mom told me not to play

  in the woods after dark or chase any sparkling lights that fly

  through the trees cause fairies might come and scoop me up, take me

  back with them, and that I would be forced to live with people who

  looked like living dolls with wings and be a slave to whatever they

  wanted of me. Oh and that I would never, ever see my family again.”

  “And do I look like what she

  described?”

  The girl nodded, eyes wide as

  she struggled to maintain eye contact with me, whether that was due

  to the overwhelming power differential or fear of what she had been

  told. “You have long, pretty hair and you have wings.”

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  I found it interesting that my

  kind had a reputation with any amount of accuracy in the realm. Fae

  kingdoms did sometimes scout out small children from other realms

  with a magical spark within them that might be useful for the future

  and take them to kindle the potential. I would imagine it would be

  rather rare for a human to be the target of such a taking, though it

  must happen often enough for it to have become a folk tale even if I

  had never heard of my court doing any such thing. In all of my years

  of service to the crown, I had never once interacted with or even

  seen a human within our ranks.

  “We are fae,” I corrected,

  though not as harshly as I might have for any other more aware and

  capable species, “if you are fortunate enough to be permitted to

  speak again in our presence, I suggest you use the correct term. The

  word you called us is considered somewhat of a slur to my kind. A fae

  of lesser emotional control than myself may have made that the last

  words you uttered.”

  The

  girl paled and bowed her head respectfully, obviously having been

  taught to defer to her betters and show humility. Strange, the castle

  I found myself in was a pathetic excuse for the seat of someone of

  great power, though I saw signs everywhere that showed me the

  servants and surrounding peasants feared the ruler who sat on the

  throne. When I had been instructed to take the land and castle in

  search of the blessed girl I had envisioned something much more

  difficult to conquer, perhaps take a few days to cross all the lands

  to defeat and secure the army, then perhaps another day to break

  through the magical defenses of the castle itself, but they may as

  well have left us a welcoming gift sitting on the throne. Whomever

  had ruled had not only vacated upon hearing our arrival, but left all

  their wealth and servants to be taken as spoils, only a weak,

  cowardly monarch would so easily roll over and leave their legacy

  behind.

  Retracting my magical aura as

  close to my skin as I could, I approached the insolent girl. My gut

  told me that the only answers I would be able to wrestle from anyone

  would come from these girls and that they would be lackluster at

  best. “Who sat upon the throne of this castle?”

  “Queen Toria Yser,” she

  answered, head still bowed and her body trembling against my magical

  might.

  “Yser,” I said

  thoughtfully to myself. The name did not ring any bells which likely

  meant it was not someone notable enough to warrant a briefing on, no

  surprise there. “What was your queen training you for?”

  “I- I am not sure,” the

  girl sputtered, glancing up briefly like she was sure I would strike

  her for not having the ability to answer. “The lady who brought me

  here told my mom that I would be well taken care of and treated like

  a noble and that I would have a good life. Then when I got here, it

  was to start training my powers instead, but I was told not to

  complain or ask questions. None of us were allowed to ask what we

  were being prepared for, just to work very, very hard every day and

  we would one day lead the House Yser to glory.”

  A pitifully weak army of

  little girls training for something supposedly secret, the set up

  smelled of some trifling human political disagreement where having a

  slight magical edge would be enough to turn the tide in their favor.

  My tendril had made the way around the room, approaching each girl

  enough to get a sense of them, then pulling back to evaluate the

  next. How pathetic it was that such frail, flickering magical prowess

  in this realm would be enough to command respect and dominance. The

  farm animals of the Winter lands controlled more power on accident

  than all of these girls combined times a thousand.

  Sensing no reason to bother

  keeping any of the girls on, I had a decision to make. Normally it

  would be a logical choice to simply bundle up whomever we had

  captured and have them sent back to the Winter lands to work as

  servants or slaves, these girls were not fit for that purpose given

  they stood no chance at staying coherent or conscious once they

  arrived. The general procedure in instances where slave conversion

  was not possible was to simply slay the captives and move on, though

  that seemed a bit overly cruel, they were little more than mewling

  newborn kittens and such decisions were typically made out of the

  idea that leaving behind anyone with a grudge might lead to a problem

  later. I could not see any plausible path where any of the girls in

  front of me would ever be able to orchestrate anything that would be

  able to even tickle the might of the Winter Kingdoms.

  On a personal note, failing to

  thoughtlessly slaughter the lambs could lead to my critics accusing

  me of being too delicate and soft for my appointment, a problem that

  I had already faced before. As commander of the elite vanguards it

  was my duty to dispassionately make critical, strategic military

  decisions, though that was often confused with wanton cruelty. Unlike

  my predecessors, I did not see the need to always go full scorched

  earth tactics instead opting for negotiation, such moves always put a

  target on my head from those vying to see me demoted to achieve their

  own ambitions.

  “Commander.”

  I turned in one smooth motion

  away from the girl I had been interrogating to face my underling

  standing at attention in the doorway. With a short nod of my head I

  gave them permission to speak further.

  “We have thoroughly searched

  all floors of the castle, one of the rooms in the dungeon and two of

  the bed chambers we believe warrant your own investigation, ma’am.”

  “What have you found?”

  “One of the bed chambers

  appears to have what may be lingering Spring influence and the other

  has some foul magical taint that the seeress wishes to speak with you

  about.”

  “And the dungeon?”

  “There is a room with

  strange arcane symbols. It was suggested that your extensive

  knowledge of foreign magical practices may be able to identify the

  type and purpose.”

  “Very well,” I replied,

  “these girls are to be fed by their servants and then remanded to

  their quarters until further instructions are given.”

  “Yes commander.” The

  soldier gave a shallow bow and disappeared from the doorway to

  execute my orders.

  I turned my head to give one

  last, long look at the group of terrified girls, though laughably

  inept they were sharp enough to realize their fates lay entirely

  within my hands. Those that could stand to look to me for any length

  of time gave me pitiful, terrified looks, begging me to have mercy.

  It seemed a cruel joke by nature or whatever gods that oversaw them

  to create creatures so feeble yet still conscious enough to

  comprehend their peril.

  “Comply with anything asked

  of you and ask no questions of your own,” I ordered before marching

  from the room. Maddeningly, I could sense that several of them

  immediately wanted to break my command and ask why, humans truly were

  often their own undoing.

  I

  was still undecided on their ultimate fate, but I saw no reason to

  make a snap, rash decision without yet understanding the full story.

  Once I had the full picture on just what this Kingdom Yser was, what

  assets they held, and what they had to do with the child of our

  focus, then I would weigh the options and make a sensible decision.