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 mumblings 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, though if these girls had been assembled for a purpose perhaps they possessed some unique and useful abilities. We had no physical description to go by 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 I had been woefully underwhelmed by their potential, though 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, show 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 farfetched. 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.”

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.