Author note; Thank you for reading. Thanks for your support. Please continue to do so, as it helps me buy groceries. I'm hoping to have an announcement on a book release soon. (If you haven't already done so you can see my Amazin' page for my book lists.) I'll update people here on future book release coming soon. But yes I'm going to keep trying to speed up releases of KTAW. I see other areas where I can improve and put up things also for other stories. I'm going to work harder for readers request and be more humble going forward too.

  CH 222 Part B3

  "Um, what did you say?" Ness'ryn'dyl asked Zhezzin. The two fae women were still near the park bench when Zhezzin had run up to her.

  "I was told to find you as fast as I could. Its an emergency meeting. They are bringing in all the staff that have high enough security clearance. Come..." she gestured.

  "Did they give you an idea of what its about?" Ness asked as they walked towards the citadel entrance.

  "I'm as in the dark as you are. But you know they gave me a new assignment recently?" Zhezzin smiled.

  "What kind of assignment?" Ness asked.

  "They have me working with dwarven adventurers working for the fae. Seems odd don't you think? And your job is also very simir to mine?" Zhezzin asked.

  Weird... to have both of them doing that. And they'd heard of a third staffer doing simir as both of them, though they didn't know what group that person was working with.

  So they began to walk to the citadel to go to the meeting. They checked in with the security desk mages and soldiers. Then they went through the building. At the elevators they then touched the button to go to the desired floor. "Meeting is on floor 31," Zhezzin told her.

  Sure enough Ness also saw a mage mail in her system with an urgent alert to go this same pce. But she'd somehow spaced out and not seen it in time. She wasn't really good at checking her mage mail so its probable that someone figured out she needed some extra help and sent her friend Zhezzin.

  There were others going into this meeting, with so many people all going the same direction that they naturally just had to follow them in. They went into a big multi-purpose room rge enough to hold tons of people. And already it was filling up with tons of fae staffers and others filling hundreds of stack-able chairs. There Ness also saw the general in question that she had applied for near the front of the room also. Other fae leadership were also at the head of the room.

  "Oh wow. Look, 3 fae princes in the same room. That never has happened that I know of. Something really big is going down," Zhezzin whispered to her.

  They sat together. Near the back. Because that's where the avaible seats were. Although both of them would have wanted to sit closer to the front where the famous leaders were, in hopes of shaking hands, or at least getting the chance to wave at them. And unlike human culture that tended to worship entertainment figures and degenerates, fae culture instead had the same thing but instead of entertainers and rock stars had its social worship more pointed towards real heroes, mages, and the fae princes themselves.

  A fae staffer went to the podium. "OK. Please hurry and be seated. We're short on time. I still see a few dozen people trying to find a seat. Most everyone is here. That's OK if you are still finding a spot. We'll start in 5 minutes. Thanks."

  He went and sat down.

  People really were trying to hurry. It wasn't easy.

  ...

  A short time ter the meeting began.

  First 'The General' came up to the podium. He was an older fae that resembled a white haired elf, much like many of the other fae generic gene pool did. He also wasn't the only fae general. But there was no question that when people said, 'The General', it meant this particur one. Nobody else had as many victories over several centuries as he did.

  "Hello everyone. First off, grateful to be here. Grateful for your support. And as you can see, we're excited to have the fae princes seated with us. Everyone wave to them, to show your support. OK. Good. Well let's begin," the general said.

  Then he paused. "Mages can you confirm you have the anti-espionage enchants up? And anti-sabotage enchants?"

  Several mages in the room gave him a thumbs up. They nodded to each other. And the mages were also pced throughout the room in case of emergencies or difficulties.

  "OK good. Lets start."

  The general then put on an overhead dispy with a crystal power unit. The overhead dispy showed the following words.

  'The Daemon Siege Defense Pn'.

  There were several gasps in the room. It was considered... undesirable to talk about such things.

  "So, anyone heard of this before?" the general asked.

  A few hands went up, which wasn't very many considering how many people were in the room.

  "OK. Good. Not bad. Uh... surely more than this have heard of this?" the general looked around the room.

  "Not that many huh?" he asked.

  Its very quiet, partly because of how there's so many heroes, and princes in the room people are just too in awe to speak up. Many other high level ranking dungeon heroes were seated near the fae princes as guards, but they themselves had quite the following also.

  He then showed a map on the overhead dispy. It showed the fae tooth city, in pure white and blue crystal as it glowed in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains. And then many other bck teeth fortresses that represented the daemon cities surrounding it. And simirly the bck tooth cities of the daemons glowed also, but not with light; instead with wicked darkness and evil.

  "You've seen this map. Make sure its glued to your memory. Don't ever forget it. This is what we're fighting for. We already know this is their pn. They pn to flood us out with so many monsters that this world becomes theirs. You know this. The elves are gone. They didn't make it. We have a chance still. But do you understand the core principles at stake here? Let me expin it too you," he began.

  "The dwarves are pound for pound the strongest of the light races in holding up against daemons. They have a chance in fighting them. They are good at it, even when faced with mages. Although they aren't invincible. And they don't have the numbers for facing all of them. They tend to produce numbers slowly. I have to say though that the rumors about them being mostly males and ugly are false. Our own researchers have checked on this. Humans by comparison have production capacity for food, and the ability to quickly generate towns. They are good at being settlers to new areas also. Nobody is better at this than humans at generating towns quickly, partly reted to how humans breed quicker than the rest of the light races do. Demi-human races and beastmen fall in behind them on building speed, but tend to have more staying power. All of these races had each their own advantages. Advantages that make them valuable in teaming up with each other and us. Isn't it wonderful? The elves for example, before they were lost to this world had powerful magic and lived forever. We are very simir to them. Did you know this?" the general looked up.

  There were a lot of bnk looks.

  "How many of you have heard the story of the elven creation?" the fae general asked.

  "Nobody? Pathetic. I hate working with stupid... err, ah forget I said that. Anyway, before I expin the purpose of this meeting, I will briefly expin part of the elven creation story. This wasn't easy to find by the way, we had to risk our necks in a far off old ruin of one of their cities where powerful daemons now roam. Many gave their lives so we could have this powerful knowledge," he corrected himself.

  Then he paused to take a gss of water again. He took a deep breath. "I'm about to tell you something... you haven't heard before. Something true. But something that has taken us a long time to figure out. It took many centuries and many expeditions to figure out this lost knowledge. I'm hoping you appreciate it because it might just save your life. Its that important. In the original creation story, the god of elves on a far distant star had 11 sons and daughters. At that time it was a world of peace and sunlight. There was no darkness yet on that far distant world. The sons and daughters of that elf god began to fill up this world. But their building began to attract jealousy and enmity from a neighboring world. You see this other world didn't have any sunlight. It was only a world of darkness. The people of that world wanted the elf god's blessings. But they were a corrupt and evil people on this darkness world. So when they sent their emissaries to meet with the elf god to negotiate with him and try to get him to help them, he turned them away. What people don't understand is that he had to turn them away first not because he didn't want to help them. He didn't want to harm them and didn't dislike them. He was a being of light and love. But he to initially reject them, to make them repent and fix their lives from their coveting, murder, and darkness. The elf god's blessings don't hold in hearts of darkness. Its one of the great truths of the world. The basic concept is... most people are choosing either darkness or light. They are somewhere in between. But as stakes get raised and risk goes up they tend to gravitate to one or the other. They don't stay in the middle."

  He paused.

  "But something unexpected happened in that early negotiation with the world of darkness and the elf god as the delegation was leaving. One of the elf princes was charmed by the beauty of one of the people from this world of darkness. At this point in time we couldn't even recover her name. But the elf prince was fantastically smitten in love, and probably mostly lust actually. So much so that he immediately proposed marriage to her. It was a mistake you see. Because, that prince, was ter eaten by his own daemon spouse. That came ter though. First, he proposed marriage. And in so doing, the daemon folk realized they could infiltrate the elf world by means of this person. Which was why they sent her to that world. This event forever altered the fate of what we call, 'The First World'. The very first world created, where humans didn't exist in the gaxy yet. Dwarves had been birthed already but weren't in that sor system at that time, nor have they ever seen 'The First World'. If you wish to know more on that you can see my historical compendium being sold by Sunlight Sobriety Merchant Network for only 99.99 credits. Plus tax." he coughed. "Ah but I'm not here to sell books. And that merchant network the rumors about it being run by greedy gnomes is completely false. Not really, what I mean is. That first world, began to first experience darkness where it wasn't supposed to have experienced it. So speedy was the flight of that first elf prince and his new daemon wife that by the time the elf god had heard about it, he could no longer find them to execute them for crimes against their world. Plus, the elf peoples of that time period didn't realize the danger. You see, they didn't realize that the heart of the new wife of that elf prince was actually full of murder and evil. She had actually been selected to come to that world, in order to genocide that world. To genocide the elves," the general said.

  Eh?!

  Several people all over the room gasped. Fae tended to be quite logical and so hearing this was quite astonishing.

  "Why would they do such a thing? So evil," Zhezzan heard Ness saying.

  "Isn't that odd? Do you see it? What a coincidence. Unless its not a coincidence at all, that the people of darkness would want to genocide the elves of the First World, AND that they have done that here. I don't think that's a coincidence. And in that record, in a matter of only 50 years, the elf prince with the daemon wife had spawned hundreds of children. Many of them triplets or twins. And many of them had magic of both worlds. They spread out faster than elves also. They had many of their longevity traits, and youthfulness. But the difference was... most elves were good; they don't feel the tug of being tempted to do evil. But its different for us, where most fae had a choice. Some would be good. And some evil. Not all of us were good you see. Back to the creation story. So compints and reports began to circute to the elf god of mischief in the nd. First, people had turned up missing. Only elves. Children of that daemon wife didn't turn up missing though. But they hadn't noticed that yet. But only 100% genetic elves were turning up missing. It began to be a thing where someone might visit their neighbor's house and have dinner with them. And then the next morning the entire elf family was gone when they came back to return the tools they'd borrowed the day before. Missing instantly even while their farm house appeared untouched and undamaged. It was completely unexpinable," the general read.

  At length there began to be a search. People were appointed for this search. And they were given rewards and special blessings by the elf god in order to entice people to have courage, knowing they'd be facing dangers. These came to be known as 'the first rangers'. Searchers and rangers were sent out to find out what was happening. And even as reports began to come in, a pattern emerged."

  "You see... they'd discovered that the children of the first elf prince and his daemon wife were eating elves. Their children weren't being eaten. Only pure blood elves were being eaten. That's how they cracked the code on figuring out what was happening. Its horrifying I know. Some of you won't like this story. Some of you will feel enraged. And this is partly why our ancestors buried this story. They buried it from shame and from anguish. They didn't want to be cssified as 'evil children'. But a judgment was made. You see the elf god ruled over that first world directly. He wouldn't tolerate it to be polluted. And so he ordered 2 things to occur. The first was that the children of the mixing of elves and daemons would have their names blotted out. They would forever after never again be remembered as elves. They were banished forever from worlds of sunlight, except in the case of where they would stand against darkness and somehow redeem themselves by winning that world back towards light from darkness. This st part took some time for us to find. We didn't see it there in the first record we found. You can imagine my dismay when I first found this lost record and that part is missing. And I'm reading it and horrified. And at that time we hadn't discovered this st part where the elf god gave them a second judgment that they could redeem themselves by actions, repentance, and good works sufficient in number to purify their hearts enough to be cssified as no longer of d'ae'mon blood but as elves."

  The general paused.

  "What is this... is this real?" Zhezzan whispered to herself.

  "We can only read the data ourselves to make our own judgment ter," Ness told her.

  IF it weren't for the fact that the person giving this information was probably one of the most famous generals that had ever lived, many would have probably rioted in that meeting. But as it stood, he was a figure rger than life. Despite being below the fae princes in rank, many of them secretly worshiped him as THE hero of the age. So nobody dared interrupt him.

  "So, you are listening to me. And you are thinking. Probably some of you hopeful. Some of you are angry also. It doesn't matter. But the point is... We were banished from The First World. By we, I mean our ancestors. The ancestors of everyone in this room. We know our ancestors were on the first star ships that left that world. And that many of those beautiful white ships went to at least 3 known worlds that we have records about. This isn't one of those 3 worlds. You see, we're actually on the 4th world they settled. The 4th world and group of 'non-elves' came ter when they discovered that when they banished the first group of 'no longer elves', that they had missed a group hiding deep underground. We were of that group. You see... the word fae. It as changed over time. It has a root meaning. We're called fae yes. The original word in proto elvish the elf god had cursed them to no longer be elves. And when he did that, their mouths and minds were slightly twisted a bit. The result was that our pronunciation of words were mixed up, very simir to how some humans describe the Tower of Babylon event on a distant world, many of them cim to have come from. So the elder fae before the cursing see they'd say dhaemon in pronunciation. But ter the pronunciation became a word like dfaemon. See? And they shortened it to df'ae. Then in the third nguage change we came to be known as fae and no longer as 'df'ae. This is how and why we're so simir to elves, but also not elves at the same time. Many had specuted on this, how both races are beautiful, have near infinite longevity, and boundless magic. How they look so simir. Its all interesting isn't it? Well don't be mad. You see the point is... we get to choose what we'll be. We have a choice. Its actually a unique blessing. We're going to be able to be redeemed based on our actions, if they be good and if our hearts are good. Or if they are rotten. But the point is.... we were elves once... before we were judged," the general said.

  Many fae were astonished hearing this.

  Some in the audience were enlightened by it, and more happy, more hopeful, and excited. But by the same token some of the fae in the room had become enraged, seething with anger, and hatred hearing the very same story that some thought be a blessing.

  To hear... that their ancestors had once been elves?! It was... completely astonishing.

  "So I'm proposing we're here to..." the general was then interrupted.

  "Why the FUCK. Do we have to listen to this?!" one other fae general stood up in the middle of the audience and challenged 'The General'.

  "Get to the fucking point! You don't get to choose our identity for us! So fuck off General!" the other fae general screamed.

  Weird... As Ness watched she became fearful. The other fae general when he challenged the speaker... something strange had happened to his eyes. Something... strange there. She could see his eyes had something wrong with them. And she began to feel something was wrong.

  "We need to leave," Ness said.

  "What? But we just got here. He hasn't gotten to the main points even," Zhezzan said.

  "I... I don't feel good. I feel danger," Ness said. She couldn't tell why but as the one general was visible arguing with the other general and trying to not let him speak she could feel something was wrong in the room.

  And then the oddest thing happened. She also noticed others were feeling it too. Somehow nobody had noticed that 2 out of 3 of the fae princes were missing from the room already.

  AH! Ness gasped. They saw it too! Something was wrong!

  But it was too te. Events had already been put into py that would change the meeting. And therefore change the future.

  ... An explosion rocked the room. Everything was caught in the bst in the first few rows of the meeting especially.

  Ness was in dismay. What else was the General going to tell them that was now gone. Deleted! Such priceless knowledge lost. He hadn't even gotten to the good part yet of what their defense pn was going to be!