Cai Finley Aies Hall May 3rd, 20XX

My first instinct was to roll away from the attack and guarantee my safety but a certain annoying part of the consciousness I shared forced me into throwing up a hastily built shield to protect the animals that had gathered around me.

The shield shook as it barely protected me against the attack and the launchers of the attack scowled as they prepared the next.

Since my choice of defence had been forced upon me, I focused on strengthening the shield. The beasts inside of it began to panic as they realized that they couldn’t leave and run to safety, but I couldn’t risk loosening the integrity of the spell.

I began to furiously purify the magic around me, hoping that it would calm them down while I came up with my next course of action.

I could hold on the barrier spell as long as I needed too but I wasn’t sure how it could in the face of the aggressive spells I was being attacked with.

The only saving grace is that Finn had already yielded control over to me. It would be nothing short of suicidal to attempt a personality change right now.

As I tried to find an effective plan to make my escape I spotted a crowd of fairies, all bearing a familiar insignia, fly out of what seemed like thin air and surrounded the witches.

It was pretty clear that the three witches were more a scouting force than an official attack force or even a defensive force one would find on the barriers between the lands, but that did nothing to ease my mind. What were they doing on fairylands?

I had been pretty conscientious of the barriers around and hadn’t travelled more than a few miles from what I thought was the safety of the castle.

Despite the witches not being an official fighting force, it was pretty clear that the fairies that had appeared out of thin air were not suited to long battles either.

They were probably an espionage force sent to watch over me rather than a set of experienced bodyguards. They were doing a good job of holding them off, but the witches had come prepared for battle, even if they weren’t specialized. The Fairies victory wasn’t in doubt, but they could suffer from pretty grave injuries in their attempt to protect me. and I wasn’t willing to let that happen.

I wasn't willing to let that happen but on the same tangent, I wasn’t in any way willing to throw myself into the battle.

I loosened the sides of the barrier and let the animals pass through and dissolved the already depleted stock of the solidified magic spheres. It wouldn’t have cost me any extra to keep them around, but I needed the animals to lose whatever little interest they had in sticking around me.

Galen seemed to guess my intentions and slowly got ready to take off. Making low rumbling noises as the lazy beast got to his feet.

My grand unheroic plan was to escape under the cover provided by the fairies. Without me there as a liability i didn't believe they wouldn't be able to make a quick escape to safety.

Feeling like a bit of a one-trick pony but also not knowing what else to do I made a large bubble around Galen and myself.

The constant magic being used made it difficult to gather enough magic and make a solid shield but at least the bubble would be able to ward off any stray spells that the fairies either ‘let go’ or couldn’t block on my behalf.

I debated letting them know about my plans, but they were very well trained and seemed to have picked it up faster than I formed it.

They immediately gave up on their offensive and flew into a five-pointed defensive formation, essentially trapping the witches within the circle.

It looked enough like an offensive formation to make the witches panic but the truth was that their power was pretty weak while they were separated. All they could do in such a strategy was deflect spells and protect themselves.

The fairies had a slight advantage with their maneuverability, but the Witches had the advantage of stamina since they were on brooms.

The Witches noticed my attempt to escape but couldn’t do anything about it. Anytime they tried to break through the formation the other fairies would gang up around them and beat them back with their numbers.

As I flew away, I briefly wondered if the fairies would even be able to escape and in the same line of thought wondered which was faster between a fairy’s wings and the witches broom but I didn’t let myself get any more distracted than that.

Once I thought I had made enough of a distance and let my lazy flutter-moth slowdown. It wasn’t that I was so confident in the ability of my protectors, but I was scared Galen would collapse if I pushed him so far.

I guided him to a small clearing to land and built a small enclosure around myself and Galen. The exterior was made of leaves and other things to blend myself in but I layered it with a hard shell of crystallized magic. It wasn’t going to protect me all the way and could barely hide my presence but it at least buy some time to take off with Galen later on if the fairies ended up being beaten back.

I grumbled as I settled in and took a seat to watch out for the fairies that had come to help me. IT wasn’t that I didn’t know I should be prioritizing my safety, but it wouldn’t sit well with me if one of them got seriously hurt or even died while protecting me.

As I crouched in my makeshift stronghold I let myself think about the implications of this. Unlike the rumours, Mei and the castle had spread out that had pinned the attack earlier on a group of rebelling faires it became pretty clear to me that it was the witches aiming at my life.

There was something wrong with me being treated like the general public and being protected by my ignorance, but I choose not to pursue it. There would be time for me to properly play my role in this world, but it wouldn’t be any time soon.

As I considered all of my options a series of thumps landed on top of my little abode and the fluttering sounds of wings echoed around me in an oddly soothing manner.

“Your highness? We are from the Ruan duchy, sent here to protect you. Are you okay?”

Well, I wasn’t an idiot, so I did a quick scan to make sure they were fairies before taking down the crystallized magic shield around me.

They were all wearing coats with the insignia of the Ruan duchy, as proof of their affiliation. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being monitored by my fiancée, especially since I had no idea they were there but at the same time, they had saved my life so I couldn’t get angry about it.

When I walked out, they immediately dipped onto one knee and folded their wings in so tightly into their bodies that they almost disappeared, which took me off guard. Most of the people I had interacted with were on similar levels of power as I was or they were idiots like Askeli and didn't pay the power difference between us any mind.

Aside from the ball earlier, I hadn’t ever really been respected like this. It was a novel feeling.

They stayed like that as I lost myself in my thoughts until one of them suddenly began to cough heavily and collapsed her stance, falling into a fetal position on the floor, but her comrades didn’t dare move to help her in fear of disrespecting me.

I snapped out of my daze quickly and rushed towards her and asked her comrade’s what had happened as they gathered around us.

“Your highness. Right before we chased off those boomed pests-“

The fairy that had spoken up was cut off by the apparent leader of the group and stepped back as the leader took over the role of explaining.

“As we chased off the witches one of them launched a surprise attack against me. She was very brave in taking the hit on my behalf. Her shield skills must be more lacking than I thought they were.”

Even lying collapsed on the ground, the barely conscious fairy visibly flinched at the insult but couldn’t even catch her breath enough to defend herself.

With a leader like that, I doubted that she would have defended herself anyways.

A brief mental image of a similarly harsh person Finn worked with flashed through my mind as I cleared away the crowd from the injured fairy and surrounded her in a thin case, lifting her into the air to get a better view.

The fairy tensed at my sudden actions and I was suddenly presented with another example of the lack of variety from the fairies I had met.

In the castle even if I had chosen to suddenly put any of the workers into suspended animation they wouldn’t even flinch and let me do as I wished.

I had been somewhat obsessed with figuring out the ‘Bonds’ that were placed onto all the workers in the palace and locating the distinctive trace of my mother’s magic, so I would often borrow some of their time.

I had tried to ask for permission at some point in the past but had even been chastised, albeit gently, by Corin who told me that I didn’t have to do such a thing.

“Just hold as still as you can. I can’t completely heal you, but I can at least stave off any more damage until we get back. Do the rest of you have proper beasts or did you track me here on your wings alone?”

I directed the last part to the leader who didn’t even spend half a second considering my implied offer to give them a lift before denying it.

“We will follow behind you, your highness.”

I finished up my makeshift carry of the injured fairy and filtered in a small hypnosis spell. I didn’t want to put her to sleep and possibly make things worse, but I also couldn’t have her thrashing around and possibly breaking the barrier.

“Just breathe deeply and don’t fight the spell. When you wake up you should be in the infirmary.”

The unnecessarily strict leader interrupted me again, looking conflicted between correcting me and defying my actions. It wasn't a bad feeling to have another person be so conscientious of one's actions but it was unfamiliar.

“Your highness! The use of the royal infirmary outside of members of the royal family is prohibited.”

“Take it as a reward for saving my life. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if she got hurt trying to protect me. I couldn’t do much in the actual battle so this is the least I can do.”

“Your highness… if you had intended to participate in that battle then you should just have killed us first. For you to get injured under our watch would be an unforgivable crime.”

Although all she was saying was in my best interest, it was an uncomfortable feeling to have someone make it so clear that they would lay down their lives for you.

At any rate, I knew there was nothing more I could say that wouldn’t end in similar results so I just climbed onto the back of Galen saddle and had one of the other fairies, who didn’t look in much better shape than her immobile comrade, take the reins.

It wasn’t like I couldn’t steer Galen and maintain the spell, but I didn’t want to expose my capabilities to others so soon after I had met them. I also got the feeling that if I tried to help them anymore the leader would lead them into committing suicide or something to restore my honour.