Last Lord of the Fey (Progression Fantasy)

B3 - Chapter 25: Bonding over Butchering


Tristan walked over to Bertram and clapped him on the shoulder, his gauntlet making a satisfying clack sound on the pauldron. "Good work finishing it off."

Bertram recovered from the blood consumption and nodded before grinning, his blood-covered teeth quite an intimidating sight, along with the soaked beard. "It was mostly dead already. Whatever you did inside it had done most of the job, if its body language was anything to judge by."

Rory had moved to the back of the creature and began butchering it by cutting into the softer skin near the posterior and peeling it back. "It skins, but I doubt there is much use for weak flesh like this."

Tristan nodded and watched as she worked with exacting efficiency, her disassembly of the beast far more graceful and skilled than his own attempts. "I'd guess it used its ability to control minds as a form of defense and offense," he commented.

She grunted in affirmation, "Makes sense. Dragons do tend to use a singular tactic, both offensively and defensively."

"How do you know so much?" Felicity asked as she flew over to land on top of the corpse.

Rory glanced up at her with a coy grin, "Well, being around Bertram has given me some experience. But the bulk of my dragon slaying and butchering skills come from being well traveled."

"It's how we met," Bertram stated as he joined Rory in navigating some long daggers around the legs. "Get on the other side and start down that end, and I'll explain how we met."

Tristan drew his knife and held his breath as he made the first few cuts, before exhaling as he got away from the smellier region and brought the knife along the corpse, peeling away flesh with his other hand as he helped disassemble it.

Bertram spoke with a voice filled with joy; not just joy in his activity of butchering, but in fond memory. "I left Bhant three months after you left. Joined up with the Pathfinders, and headed down to the Sapphire Coast. Rory was there, coming back from a naval protection mission."

Rory interrupted with a laugh, "It was love at first sight. He said, quote, "I've never seen such a beautiful woman who could rip my throat out.""

Felicity made an adorable, "Awwww," noise.

Bertram continued, "Anyways. We had a few Seasons of work together and fell in love. I headed back home to tell father my intentions to marry Rory and be with her. He…" Bertram's voice became dourer, "He did not approve."

"As expected," Tristan replied as he began the trickier part of degloving the back leg of the quadrupedal dragon. "Father hated other heritages. I should know."

Rory let out a curse, "Those fuckers in Bhant."

Bertram sighed but then his voice returned to normal. "Anyways, I left Bhant the next day. Gave up my family crest, even."

Tristan stopped carving away at the flesh, "Really?"

"He did," Rory replied. "I've never seen it on him. Never seen one before, except the one you wore." She then became slightly more stern, "Why wear it, anyways?"

Tristan felt the weight of the object against his chest, "I…I'm a Winterbloom. But I'm also an Anorox. I'm not going to give up who I am just because of my father's bigotry. Plus, I artificed it, so there's practical use. Not to mention the King's Favor if I ever need to infiltrate Bhant for whatever reason."

Bertram let out a barking laugh, "Yeah, sure. Mr. "last of his kind" Elf. What would you even do there?"

Tristan smiled, "Well, I had something put into perspective for me." He stood up and looked over the corpse as he met Bertram's gaze. "I saw a visualization of how much essence a single Elf takes up…I think one of my long, long, long term goals is to give every Elf the chance to return home."

Felicity perked up at that and stood up, "All of them?" she asked. Her voice became more gruff, "Even those sneaky Fallthorn Elves?"

Tristan nodded, "Everyone who is an Elf, or has Elf heritage, and wants to. It is their home. And we have more than enough essence capacity in the Realm to allow for it." He smiled at the idea before crouching down and continuing to carve up the corpse. "But I don't want to be some king," he added.

"Why not?" Rory asked as she stood up and leaned over the corpse, her elbows resting on it as she took some deep breaths from the physical exertion.

"It's just not something I want to do," Tristan replied as he met her gaze briefly before continuing his carving. "I have a Fey Court to manage the minutiae of the Realm. I can focus on big picture tasks."

Bertram poked his head over briefly, "Gonna pump out a kid or two? Get some heirs in the mix?"

Tristan crouched and wiped some sweat off his brow, leaving a gash of blood behind. "Not anytime soon." He gestured to Felicity, "She and I cannot have children, and I'm not just going to sleep with someone for children alone."

Felicity shrugged, "I would not mind others to keep the bloodline persisting. But only for that purpose!"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Tristan shook his head, "No. I'm not going to have children. And no one can make me." He cracked a slight smile, "If I play my cards right, I will be immortal and perfectly safe in my Fey Realm for all time."

Bertram frowned, "Why even risk coming out here then? Why not just stay cooped up in your Realm, nice and safe?"

Tristan sighed, "I can't just do that, brother. Maybe if I was raised to rule from birth? Sure. But we were made for a purpose." He gestured to the corpse that was almost fully skinned. "This. Hunting dragons. The dangerous ones need killing to keep people safe."

Rory vanished from sight as she dipped down to work on removing a clawed foot, but Bertram planted his knife into the meat and looked at Tristan, "You still believe that?"

"Do you not?" Tristan asked back.

"I did, once," Bertram replied. "The whole idea that grandfather had, where we are meant to "protect the Realms from dragons," that whole spiel." He spat sideways onto the exposed meat. "I kill dragons for three reasons." He raised his fingers in turn as he spoke, "First, profit. I get money from dragon components. Second, survival. I get stronger from killing these things. Third, because of Rory's order."

She spoke up from out of Tristan's line of sight, "The Elemental Realm of Water is ruled by the Arch Dragon Vaalsiir. I come from an order of Drakonid families that serve the Arch Dragon directly. Part of that is slaying other Realm's dragons in their name. And, I have to take proof back."

"Interesting," Felicity replied. "Very i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g. I wonder what you get out of it?"

She laughed, "Prestige, for one. But it's more about a calling. We feel the hunt-song sing in our souls, and need to sate it."

"And her hunt song matched up perfectly with my training, and our hunt-urge," Bertram replied.

Tristan moved to the jaws and began working on separating those from the creature. "Are there similar orders in other Elemental Realms?"

There was silence for a moment before both returned a noncommittal, "I don't know," muttered over each other.

Felicity looked over at Tristan, "We should put together a bounty program of some type! Give out rewards for people who trade in dragon blood vials. Run it through the Fey Realm market."

"That's not a bad idea," Tristan replied. "Gets me more spell types I am resistant to with a lot less risk. The downside is I could be poisoned." He frowned, "People know about me, and the Fey Realm. And whilst no one can enter The Citadel's grounds with ill intent toward me, that assassin organization could be very sneaky." He glanced at Felicity, "Humor me. If you had the same limitations, how would you get me to drink poison?"

"Oh? Easy!" Felicity crowed with enthusiasm as her scheming mind set to work. "Well, first I would make good with a merchant who was routinely trading with the Fey Realm. Then, I'd trade that person harmless dragon's blood, and mixed in with some of those vials would have poisoned vials. The merchant has no ill intent, thus the Citadel's defenses wouldn't work against my genius plan!" She cackled with evil malice, "I would be the worst villain!"

Rory met Tristan around the front of the creature and began working on removing the upper jaw. "Being hunted?"

"Assassins," Tristan confirmed. "The same ones I told Bertram about when I arrived."

She frowned but nodded tersely, "Well, you are family – blood by marriage. And family protects each other."

Tristan grimaced, most of the time, he added in his mind as he vividly remembered ending his father's life. "Winterbloom, all dead except for me. Even every half-breed. Plus, other prominent bloodlines."

"Wonder why," Bertram commented.

Felicity giggled, "Should I put my evil genius cap on?"

"Couldn't hurt," Tristan replied as he helped extricate the jaws and set them aside before swapping to his longer sword to begin cutting the meat off the skeleton.

"Well, if I was an evil group of assassins, hellbent on destroying prominent bloodlines, I'd be doing it because they could do something. The Winterbloom are natural rulers of other Elvenkind – so perhaps this group of assassins has Elves among their number who seek to keep from being controlled. But the inclusion of other prominent bloodlines leads me to believe-" she cleared her throat and dropped her tone to that of a dark, mysterious, masculine entity. "They seek to rule the Mortal Realm."

"Makes sense," Rory stated. "Get rid of the bloodlines that have the most power – whether through essence-weaving, natural strength and fortitude, or political power. Heck, if you could supplant them with your own kids, you would be able to take over many regions. Most have that stupid bloodline inheritance law."

"Primogeniture," Bertram added. "The first born child inherits. Normally male, but not always."

She glanced at him, "Fancy word for you, hubby."

Bertram chuckled, "I listened to inheritance laws since I would inherit."

Tristan pondered her words. "If we could gather more information about it…maybe see if it's not just bloodlines of prominence, but specifically those of rulers…there could be something to it."

Felicity smirked, "My evil genius knows no bounds!" She cackled in her usual voice. "Yeah, I'd guess its someone who wants to take out the strongest so they can invade. Could be any number of Realms, really. But the Mortal Realm's Protectors would step in if it was a full-on invasion. So it's more…insidious." She narrowed her gaze and dropped her voice to a stage whisper, "I would bet that a Realm Protector has a bunch of kids who are ready to be put into the positions of power of those who have died."

"Makes sense," Rory stated as she stood up and wiped her knife on her leggings. She glanced up at the sun, "It is only midday. We can probably hunt another before setting up camp."

"No need for camp," Tristan replied as he stood up and stretched, feeling his back pop in a few places. He unstrung his bow that he had forgotten to unstring, and made sure his gear was in order before he began lifting the various components into Felicity's storage dimension. "When we are ready to retire, I just need an hour, and we can stay in the Fey Realm."

"You can go from any other Realm?" Rory asked.

Tristan nodded, "I don't use realmwalking. It's a high Order teleportation spell. The downside is that we will always depart from and arrive in the same place."

"Shame," Bertram replied as he helped Tristan load up some steaks into the storage dimension. "It would be nice to have a bunch of fixed points across the Realms."

"Isn't that what the inter-Realm market is?" Tristan asked.

"Pretty much," Rory replied as she moved some teeth and claws into the storage space.

Felicity interrupted, "Come on! I'm b-o-r-e-d of butchering!"

Tristan chuckled, "We'll load up the rest of this. Why don't you use Bertram's dowsing rod item to find the next dragon?"

"Oooh! Okay!" Felicity flew over to Bertram and snagged the item from his pouch before balancing it on one of her paw claws. "What are we looking for this time?"

"How about water?" Bertram stated. "Trust me, Tristan. You want that spell type. I've got one or two good spells from it that are quite useful. Like underwater breathing, and being able to walk on it."

"Sounds handy," Tristan replied. "Felicity, set course for a water dragon! Onyx! Get on over here!"

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