She swept out over the cliff and Tristan gripped the Adamant Wood rapier tightly, instinctively spinning his essence crucible spinning in both directions as he kept his connection to the Fey Realm strong and focused. The Matriarch landed at one of the tunnels below and set Tristan down just inside of it. She shrank down to the size of a dog and padded alongside Tristan as they descended the tunnel. Other fairy dragons followed behind, and Felicity was atop his head with paw-claws shifted to scything blades to protect his head.

The sounds of combat echoed along the passages. Screams, curses, both in Elvish and a language that Tristan did not recognize. "Dögölj meg! Az Underkingért!"

He glanced at The Matriarch, who shrugged. Tristan kept going forward, the sounds of combat growing ever closer when he came upon a gory scene. Corpses, strewn about. All of them were short – coming only up to his knee if they were standing upright.

On one side of the tunnel were Gnomes. He instinctively knew that is what they were; their description matching what he had been told. Short, squat humanoids with pointed elf ears and deep, earthy skin tones. Their wounds looked to have been suffered by claws, tooth, and short, pointed blades. Knives and daggers; not large gashes of swords or axes. Which made perfect sense to Tristan – these small halls and tunnels forced him to crouch down a bit – piercing weaponry that could be stabbed forward was ideal for the scenario. One detail about the bodies that did not go unnoticed were the lack of eyes. But what was left behind was not bloody sockets, rather it looked like a small, clay indentation.

On the other side – predominantly, at least with a few Gnomes mixed in – were small, fuzzy lizard-like creatures. They looked like a dog that stood on two legs with short, stubby arms. They had long snouts with sharp teeth – some stained blue with the Gnome's blood. He wracked his brain trying to think of what they could be, but no insights came to him.

Felicity tapped the side of his helmet with her sharp claw, "Come on. There's fighting down deeper."

The Matriarch had already begun to descend the tunnel, and Tristan followed her. The sounds grew louder, and he could hear prominent cursing in Elvish as the combat drew close. His grip on his rapier was firm, and they turned a corner into a scene of chaos and madness.

The whole room was pitch black save for the occasional sparks created from metal striking metal. And yet he saw with perfect clarity as the world was awash in blue hues. A huge chamber, easily fifty feet long and just as wide with several holes leading off to other corridors. The Gnomes looked to be in the midst of a last stand. Wrecked and ruined furniture, mining equipment, and more were piled around a short dais that led to a carved, stone throne on the wall.

Tristan saw the desperation in the Gnomes' eyes, the tight grips on their weapons – picks and hammers, primarily – as they fought with reckless abandon that those who are on the verge of death fight with. He took his left hand, balled it into a fist, and rapped his knuckles against his torso. "Flee from your death!" he shouted as he cast Dragon Roar.

The furry creatures immediately fled, screaming and chattering as they vanished into the various tunnels. Tristan walked over to the barricade, "I am Lord Tristan Winterbloom, ruler of the Fey Realm. What happened?"

The Gnomes looked flabbergasted, and they looked between each other before one of them spoke. "It's been how long?"

Tristan looked at The Matriarch, who spoke softly as her voice was filled with pain. "I don't know," she said.

The gathered Gnomes pushed some of the barricade aside, and a few of them dropped weapons, weeping at the sight of reinforcements. But one, dressed in a mix of various bits of scrapped metal that had been ramshackled into some semblance of armor, strode forward with a determined glint in their eye. "The kobolds finally got a good attack in on us."

Tristan looked at him and let his helmet recede as he ceased the essence flow to that part of his armor. "Explain."

The Gnome crossed his arms, "Five-hundred years after The Undermount was sealed off, we had an Incursion. At first, it was friendly. They called themselves Kobolds, and their home Realm, Skitterhold. We traded for a while…but then they asked about moving some of their populace over here." He shook his head, the long nose tracing a thin line through the air as dust particles shook from it. "We could not allow that, and they've been sallying back and forth ever since. We push them to the Incursion and hold it, they repopulate and push back."

Tristan saw that the Gnomes were all male, "Do you have women and children somewhere?"

The Gnome let out a barking laugh and looked at The Matriarch, "Some Winterbloom. Doesn't even know how we come to be."

The Matriarch looked up at Tristan, "They make new of their kind by placing the eyes into stone statues they carve. The eyes carry the person, so to speak."

The Gnome nodded and held up a small pouch, "We take the eyes of the fallen. Thus far none have been smashed." He tossed a smaller pouch to Tristan, "That's got the eyes of the Underboss Dorni in it. Should be a statue or two of him somewhere in the Queen's Wood." He hefted the mining pick he held on his shoulder, "You going to go show these kobolds what-for?"

Tristan looked to some of the darkened tunnels, hearing silence answer. "We need to seal off this Incursion, at the least." He looked to the Gnome who had spoke, "And you are?"

"Willham, head miner," he replied as he tipped his cloth cap forward slightly, the metal plates sewn to the top jangling ever-so-slightly. "I can guide you to the Incursion, but its going to be tight corridors. You might be a bit too big, Lord Tristan, in that armor."

"Are there not smaller passages?" Tristan asked with genuine concern, not wanting to send the fairy dragons down into the depths on their own when he had such vast power at his disposal through his connection to the Realm.

"There are, but you'd have to take a long way down."

Tristan looked around the chamber, "Right. Here's what we do. I seal off every entrance with ice elementalism, except the path we are going."

Willham looked at him with a slightly askew head, tilted sideways. "You can do that?"

"I can."

He cracked a grin, "Then outside through the main entrance, and down through the Underboss' Hall. Come on, I know a shortcut to the outside."

A few minutes passed at Tristan with the surviving Gnomes and fairy dragons were all outside of the mountain. It was a mighty fortification, towering over the Fey Realm and rivaling the height of the far-off mountain with the destroyed and ruined tree Zeltana originated from. "There's four entrances," Willham stated.

Tristan looked at the fairy dragons, "I'm going to seal the mountain in ice except this entrance. I want you lot scouring the Fey Realm surrounding the mountain, looking for any kobolds and dispatching them. The Matriarch, Felicity, and Willham will come with me." He looked to the rest of the Gnomes, "Stay out here and hold the main entrance along with any non-hunting fairy dragons."

The different groups nodded and a few fairy dragons took flight – the larger ones, mostly – to go around the mountain and find any kobolds who fled. Tristan knelt and put his fist to the ground with the thumb tucked inside the other fingers, channeling the essence of the Realm through him. "Ich beschwöre eine Wand aus Eis herauf." (I summon forth a wall of ice).

The icy cascade of energy surged down from him and into his fist, and he willed the wall to grow. Silver slivers of essence flowed from his fist, into the ground, and went racing off along the ground both to his left and right. Closing his eyes, Tristan could almost picture it from a bird's eye view. The mountain, an enormous circle from above, being encircled by a thin silver line. Once he felt the two streams of essence connect, he pushed. Pushed all the essence of the Fey Realm into his fist and along that conduit.

An enormous tube shot up surrounding the mountain. Far up into the sky, until it towered over the structure, and he willed it to arc inward to create a dome. Then, he pulled the staff from his back. The Matriarch reached up and grabbed his arm, "Where'd you get that?" she asked with intensity.

"I made it," Tristan replied, knowing why she was concerned. He made sure to soften his tone, "I understand your concern – but I promise you I won't use this staff to open up other Realms and give them access to ours. Never without your permission and oversight."

This seemed to alleviate her concern and she pulled back, nodding her head. "Very well."

Tristan tapped the ice dome with the staff, funneling essence into the staff. The magical power caused the branch to crackle with silver energy, and icy-blue plants and roots spread along the whole length of the object. Tapping it to the dome, he willed it to change shape. He felt the torrential surge that caused him to get cold, as the backlash of the ice elementalism began to coat him in layers of rime and frost. The dome bent inward, molding itself around the mountain and becoming a thick layer over the surface – completely preventing access.

Taking a deep breath, he walked to the large, now-covered cavern entrance. Tapping the staff to it, he used the stored Control Ice spell to create a person-sized doorway, and went into the Undermount. Putting the staff back on his back, he drew the rapier and walked with confidence into the dark entry hall. It was quite spacious – easily twenty-feet tall and a hundred-feet long. Large braziers that once held flickering coals were bowled over and their contents scattered about. The whole place was barren otherwise.

The Matriarch walked behind him along with Willham trailing just behind, and Felicity was atop Tristan's head. He pushed essence into his helmet to re-cover his form and Willham directed them to a hallway that led to the left and down at a steep angle. The slope was easy enough to navigate, but Tristan heard the skittering and yelping ahead of him. "Flee from your death!" he shouted as he rapped his knuckles against his chest plate and used Dragon Roar once more. The sound of his voice echoed through the halls and down into the depths, and he could hear the skittering fade into the distance.

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They would have been lost if not for Willham's directions. Tristan kept repeating his spell that instilled fear in the kobolds and forced them to flee, but otherwise they continued traveling through the winding tunnels.

Twenty minutes passed and they reached a last turn. Willham stopped them and pointed, "Around that bend is one of the halls we were mining out for gemstones. That's where the Incursion happened."

"Size?" The Matriarch asked as an aggressive edge crept into her tone.

"Big enough for your full size," Willham replied.

Felicity turned invisible, "I'll scout it out!" she flew forward and around the bend.

Tristan mentally kicked himself, I should have sent a ton of fairy dragons into this place, all invisible, to clear out the kobolds. Heck, The Matriarch probably could have turned invisible and just traveled to the Incursion to seal it. He knew what he had done – he wasn't thinking like a ruler, he was thinking like he was out in the Mortal Realm, where he didn't have an army of fairy dragons willing to obey his commands.

Felicity flew back a few moments later and had a shocked expression on her face, "There's a lot of kobolds in there! They are all grouped together…scared, I think."

"Probably from me," Tristan stated.

"No!" Felicity said as she shook her head while flapping in front of him. "They are scared of what is on the other side of the rift."

Strange, Tristan thought. He began moving forward, "Matriarch, go invisible and get to the rift to seal it. I'll draw the kobold's attention. I doubt their weapons can get through my armor, but I'm going to use an area spell, so do not go until you see the flames."

The Matriarch nodded and her form sparkled just like Felicity's did when she went invisible. The Gnome next to Tristan shook his head, "I'll stay here, if you don't mind."

Tristan nodded, "Do that. Come on, Felicity. I want you watching my back." She flew over to his head and turned about-face to face the rear. Tristan headed down the corridor, turning the corner, and put his left hand up to his mouth. Tucking the index finger and thumb into a ring, he brought the other fingers into line. Spinning his essence crucible, he surged the power into his throat.

Turning the corner he saw hundreds of kobolds packed into the tiny space. They scurried over each other, screaming and shouting in their foreign tongue, like rats trying to escape a sinking ship. Escape Tristan. But they were being pushed back by others at the rift, and Tristan saw what was beyond.

Through the rip in space at the end of the chamber was a countless number of kobolds. They stretched on until he could no longer see them as they vanished into the distance. An entire Realm, full of creatures seeking an escape. He felt a pang of pity, and hesitated for a brief moment. They are just trying to survive, he thought. But then he thought back to the Gnomes up above, and he felt rage stir in his chest. They invaded my Realm.

He was torn inside. Show mercy and try to seek some type of peaceful resolution…or destroy them. He stood there, tense, with his rapier in his hand whilst the kobolds continued to try and fleet and push forward, both at once.

They are too populous, he thought. Even if I gave limited refuge in small numbers…they would overpopulate again and seek to push more through. He felt a tension in his stomach. A knot of anxiety mixed with anger. This wasn't just going to be defending the Fey Realm like it was with the goblins coming through with the fire dragon- he stopped that line of thought. No. It is exactly like that. They seek conquest, to expand and grow. That cannot be allowed. That tension faded and was replaced with a cool resolve, though an ember of rage still stirred in his chest.

"The power I took from you is now mine to wield," Tristan whispered. As he spoke, the essence surged from his mouth, through his fingers, and burst out in a massive stream of silver flames that flickered with crimson and gold. The kobolds were burned; incinerated by the intense flames as they tried to flee from their certain death. Tristan kept funneling the Essence of the Realm through himself as he fueled the spell, walking forward as he scorched all in the cavern. His flames pushed far, to their maximum thirty-foot cone, and licked around the edges of the Incursion.

Then, the flames pushed through, and Tristan kept walking forward as the torrent of flame persisted. When he was a few feet from the rift, The Matriarch walked up next to him and tapped the edge of the rift with her claw, sealing it. Tristan shut off the flames.

"Well done," The Matriarch stated. "Incursion sealed and the rift is closed."

Tristan turned and headed back out of the hall, "I need to think."

Exiting the mountain and causing all of the ice surrounding it to evaporate with the Control Ice spell, Tristan received reports from the fairy dragons who went out on the hunt. They found kobolds and slew them before putting the corpses into the forested clusters scattered about. The Gnomes and Tristan hitched a ride back to the Queen's Wood.

The whole time, Tristan was quiet and pondering the decision he had made and how the whole scenario had played out. First, he thought, I should have just sent The Matriarch and the fairy dragons to deal with it. A ruler should rule. A lord should rule. Not do that type of ground work themselves. It is a risk I did not need to take. Second…what I did was right. I protected the Realm. We sealed the Incursion, the Gnomes are recovered and can be remade in new forms.

That did not quell the feeling in his gut. A feeling like the times that he had snuck extra sweets from the kitchens when his mother had forbid it. That feeling of regret, shame, and knowing that he had disappointed her. That feeling ate away at him, and as they landed in front of the Queen's Wood, he was only stirred from his thoughts by Felicity tapping his head.

"Whatcha thinking?" she asked.

"We need more time than we have now to discuss it," he replied as he looked at Willham. "We have these eyes of other Gnomes, and you're capable of making them new bodies?"

The head miner grinned as he looked around the marketplace, "Yes, yes. Wow, Lord Tristan…this area looks fantastic. Planning some inter-Realm trade?"

"You could say that," Tristan replied. "There are other residents, and I have unsealed the Nymphs as well."

This brought a broad grin to the squat man as he looked to the pool that was currently empty, "I shall love to look upon them again." He looked between his fellow Gnomes who were now sitting on the ground and looking fairly lost. Without purpose. "I'll get us working on the rest of the Gnomes. Get the full force of crafters back up and operational."

Tristan smiled the faintest of smiles, "Thank you. I come and go from the Fey Realm, but until your Underboss is brought back…feel like serving on the Fey Court?"

"Happy to do it until Dorni is awake again," Willham said with pride and only the slightest bit of irritation. "Not a fan of politics, that's why we made Dorni do it."

The Matriarch had shifted to her elfanoid form and approached, "I remember speaking to him. A calm, stern personality. A good counterbalance to Thallia's more…impassioned reasoning."

Tristan pointed to the tree houses, "Plenty of places to stay."

"No need," Willham replied with a glint in his eyes. "We do not sleep, and we do not eat. We live to craft and mine."

Felicity leaned over Tristan's head, "Can you do spells?"

"Earth and metal elementalism, and artifice."

Tristan's ears perked up at that, "You can do artifice as well?"

Willham frowned, and his voice became slightly disappointed, "Don't tell me Winterbloom can do it also!"

"…All Elves can," Felicity said. "How did you not know that?"

Willham let out a string of curses, before calming with some deep, sucking breaths. "We focus, okay? I never noticed. Why would an Elf forge items when they have us? We were made for that purpose!"

Tristan raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sudden outburst and his earlier thoughts. "I don't want to take your job. I'm sure you're far better than I am at artifice. And I have items for you to craft." He pointed to the various trees, all growing in their planter boxes. "I have metals from all different Realms growing there. Gemstones of all types. I even have dragon parts – scales, claws, teeth, bones. Adult-sized fire, and Wyrm-sized earth and demon."

That brought a glint to the Gnome's eyes and he rubbed his hands together, "Fantastic! First, my fellows. Then, we get to crafting!"

"Thank you," Tristan said as he turned to enter the Queen's Wood. He traveled down into the depths, going to his chambers, and closing the doors behind him. Felicity flew off his head and shifted into her elfanoid form and joined him as he sat on the bed.

"Now do you want to talk?" she asked as she put a hand on his back.

Tristan leaned forward and held his forehead with his gauntleted hands. "I just…I feel bad. Bad about killing those kobolds."

"They were invading," she said in a reassuring manner.

"They were fleeing," Tristan countered, keeping his voice calm despite the feelings roiling in his chest. "I…I slaughtered them. Yes, they broke into my Realm and had to have known the consequences if they failed…but that doesn't change the fact that they were fighting out of desperation. Overpopulation? That means starvation. They just wanted to live…and I have to deal with that guilt."

Felicity frowned but nodded slightly, "Guilt for doing bad things is not really a concept I'm familiar with – I prank people all the time. Well, pranked people. But you're also the ruler of a whole Realm."

Tristan recalled seeing an execution once in his life. A single time when his father forced him, Betram, and Gisele to attend the king's justice. His mother was vehemently against it, but grandfather was not there to back her up. So, Tristan went and saw a series of criminals beheaded for their crimes against the crown. Thinking back on it, he felt the same feeling about that instance. I don't want to be a ruler like that, Tristan thought. Is that something I'll just have to live with? Being ruthless?

He shook his head and stood up. "I need to talk to my grandfather," he said softly. Turning to Felicity, he brushed a bit of her hair behind one of her antlers, "Thanks for offering to talk though."

"No problem," she replied as she switched to her fairy dragon form and flew to the door, opening it, and flapping in place. "Come on, let's go talk to the old man."

Tristan spent several hours talking to his grandfather. Sharing his thoughts, his feelings, why he felt wrong about what he did, and covering all his concerns about his position as a ruler. By the time he finished, grandfather Hurvun took a deep breath and spoke in a slow, even voice. Filled with compassion but carrying that hardened edge of experience.

"As long as your actions do not come from a place of evil, then I believe you are in the right." He tapped Tristan's chest plate, "Your heart needs to be in the right place. It normally is from what I've gathered. You're a good boy; heck, you should be since I practically raised you. But that unease you felt? That's just your mother's teaching there."

Hurvun sighed, "A gentle woman. I would be more concerned, Tristan, if you did not feel negative in some way after doing what you did, then I would be more concerned I raised a heartless bastard." He raised his gaze and those grey, slightly ochre eyes pierced into Tristan's own. "Even more so since you're in a position of power."

"I just want to be a good ruler," Tristan replied, running a finger through Felicity's fur as she sat on the bed next to him. "I want to do the right thing, and I know that I'll have to sometimes do things I don't want to do to keep my Realm safe."

Hurvun chuckled, "Being good is never easy," he replied. "There's a reason assholes get ahead in the world, son. Do what you must, and if you feel that inner conflict, just weigh your options. In this instance with these "kobolds" as you called them…you could not speak their language, they were already terrified of you, and their whole Realm was full up." He shook his head, "I don't see any other outcome being reasonable."

Tristan sighed and nodded, "I figured that as well. I still feel-"

Hurvun grabbed his hand that wasn't running through Felicity's fur, "Son, listen. As long as you have that feeling, being torn between right and wrong, then I know you will be the finest lord around. Make the hard decisions when you need to…but listen to your gut." He looked past Tristan to a fairy dragon that knocked before entering the open door. "Ah, time for my bath. Still trying to get these old bones up and moving."

Tristan squeezed his hand before picking up Felicity and shifting her atop his head. She nestled down in a small circle before ducking her head away. "Thanks, grandfather."

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