Firm: Opal’s Story

-POV Jenny, Guard of Woodville-

I stand up from the table and rush out the door, having just received a report that we have diplomatic visitors from Barrier. My cheese sandwich has nothing on meeting elves, even if it was carefully prepared by my loving husband. We have an ice box. So it’s not going to be wasted. My stomach growls, disagreeing with my choice of priorities.

I hope none of the Guards at the gate are ogling them too much. I imagine elves being like the stuck up kinds I’d read and watch before the System came. They’d probably find even lewd thoughts in their direction to be insults. I mean, goblins are a hell of a lot like goblins were, so why wouldn’t elves be? Karn is probably gonna end up with a lightning bolt up his ass from the ambassadors. Just what we need to get relations off to a good start right?

As I finally make it to the gate, I hear Karn say to someone around the corner “They’re so big miss, do you mind if I touch them a bit? They look mighty soft.” Panicked I yell “Karn! Be polite!” Rounding the corner I see the crass guardsman with a few of his peers and two women. I immediately notice one of them has large black angelic wings. The woman with the wings says “Oh I don’t mind, you can all give them a touch if you really want, but no tugging.” As I change my run to a power walk to look more official, I see the guardsmen reach out and wince.

I let out a sigh of relief as they all touch various parts of the woman’s offered wing. Luckily none of them grabbing her large chest. I get closer quickly and finally notice that the other woman seems to be human. I wonder where the elves are. I pull Karn away and whisper to him “Report. You haven’t sexually harassed the diplomats have you?” He gets a scared look on his face and answers quietly “I would never. That miss, is an angel, and god would strike us down like Sodom and Gomorrah if I lusted after her.”

I can’t help but chuckle. Since when was Karn a religious man? Certainly not when I got reports from the other female guards about his lewd jokes. Well, other than some slight workplace harassment he’s been a good guard. I walk forward and greet the two women while the other guards step back from fondling the beautiful wings. I have to admit, the angel is a very beautiful woman, and not in the Attractiveness stat kind of way. She looks more natural, but she’s an angel so what should I expect?

“Welcome to Woodville. I’m the captain of the guard, Jenny. I hear you two are the diplomats from Barrier?” I welcome them while introducing myself. I’ve never had to do this before, so I hope it was alright. The human woman responds “Yes, well kind of. Barrier is just one of our owned Lands. It was the owner of Barrier who informed us of you though.” Does that mean Barrier isn’t in charge, or is it that Barrier is surrounded by smaller camps like we are and gives them equal participation in negotiations? I’m no good at this stuff.

The woman then smiles and adds “Don’t worry, it’s not all that complicated. I can explain it to you as you escort us to the meeting location perhaps?” I straighten my back and chuckle a bit answering “Of course. I hope our guards have been pleasant?” My tone is a bit questioning and the angel woman says “I really don’t mind, you can touch my wings too if you want. They are pretty awesome. These men have been nothing but gentlemen.” That’s a relief but I’ll have to turn down her offer for now.

I motion for them to follow me, and as we start walking into the city, the angel tells me “My name is Citrine, and this is Cindy. She’s the one who was selected for the actual diplomacy stuff. I’m just her ride.” I wonder how fast they can fly, since we weren’t expecting the first envoy to arrive for a few days at the least. Barrier is pretty far away. I heard it was renamed from Canton after they got rid of the Slavers there. I don’t trust those runners though and I bet Garret will ask them at the meeting to be sure. I ask “So I heard you folks had elves in charge, yet a human and an angel show up. It’s a bit of a surprise.”

The human diplomat, Cindy, responds “Well the owner of Barrier is an elf, but we have many races living there and other places. So an elf is in charge of one place, but that doesn’t mean anyone is really in charge. You can think of our group as more like a family.” That’s confusing, but I guess she means in a symbolic sense. I wonder if it’s a grouping of different camps with a council then? The different races must get along really well. I guess I can see the value of sending a human to talk to humans then. I don’t get to see an elf today, but angels are pretty fantastic too, and her wings are even a cool black color.

Remembering part of my job I say “We repelled a huge hoard of zombies not long ago, so as the captain of Woodville’s guard I can promise we’re the strongest free force in our area.” I have to show off a bit, so they don’t think we’re a lost cause. The Cindy woman responds “The zombies are quite the pests aren’t they? We’d be willing to provide all the information we have on fighting them.” Citrine, the angel, then adds “Our biggest problem is finding those slaver rats. They’re really good at running and hiding.”

Why would they run? We’re just able to hold them off because of our larger population and the fact most of them spend their days violating slaves. We even got an influx of their normal inhabitants when they revealed their natures. Fighting them as it is definitely wouldn’t help us though. We have to wait for our tiers to overtake theirs enough. I ask for clarification “Are you saying you’ve beaten back the slavers in your area? How did you do it?”

Cindy answers with a sigh “We have a few natural advantages that helped us out pretty early on in the event, and we’ve gotten lucky with another one. I assume you are still on the back foot against the ones in your area?” I nod somberly. I’m in charge of the guard so I can talk about this stuff at least without permission. “The last zombie attack was unnaturally bad, but our biggest issue is also the slavers. They have three cities close enough to us to cause issues. Our people out on quests get grabbed often enough that they’ve stopped even going to the Quest Board... I can tell you more once we get to the meeting.”

I really hope we can offer them something to help us deal with the slavers.

I switch topics for the rest of the walk, telling them about all the things we produce here. “You have cheese!” they both yell, interrupting me partway through. Do they not have cheese? I clarify “Yes, we get cheese from one of the first structures available.” They both seem really excited, but it’s just cheese… I’ve had way too much cheese since this whole thing started. “We’re going to fill your purse with cheese Cindy.” The angel says to the human woman, who responds “I agree. Hopefully they have other bags we can use too. Hey Jenny, do you people have bags we could use?”

I think I should have some extra bags somewhere. I’d have to ask my husband. I tell them “I think I could find you some bags to carry cheese back with you, but we might have other things you like more.” Citrine responds “Doubtful, but we can wait and see. I’m willing to be even more surprised. Mom is going to love cheese.” The other woman nods and adds “It will be so nice to have ham and cheese again.” It’s my turn to be surprised, asking “You have ham?”

A couple minutes later, I’m imagining myself eating a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich made by my husband. I realize we’re in front of the meeting hall and snap myself out of it. “We’re here.” I tell the women, leading them into the hall. As we enter, I see Garret in the back straightening his shirt. I also notice many of the friends I’ve fought beside, all worthy of having a say in negotiations. They all seem strange though, lined up with their heads looking at the floor. Concerned I ask “What’s going on Garret? I brought the diplomats, but why is everyone being so weird?”

My old friend looks my way with a pink glow in his eyes “Garret? Is that the name of this fool? Well no matter, I am the great Karli and I control your leader now. Don’t look for me or your leader will experience horrible pain.” Fuck, Karli is the name of the leader of one of the slaver cities.

“Tsk, couldn’t effect any of you. Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re outnumbered, surrender or die.” The controlled voice of my friend demands. I don’t know what to do, should I run and try to get far away with my husband? I hear a motion next to me and blink. The angel woman has rushed forward extremely fast and is holding Garret by the wrist. “Bottle now Cindy!” She yells, and the human runs forward as well. Oddly, my controlled friends who seemed ready to fight aren’t moving, frozen just like Garret. “She has to be nearby, you don’t seem to be effected by her charm. Quickly find where she’s hiding!” Citrine, the angel yells at me.

I shake out of my indecision and know where I’d hide if I had to be nearby but out of sight. I grab my mace and dash forward to the confession booth of the old church that got turned into our meeting hall. As I open the door, I hear a crashing sound and look into the booth. There’s a hole in the wall leading outside, and I see a quick retreating figure. Damn, I won’t be able to catch her with that speed. I turn and yell “She got away!” My friends are still frozen in place, the angel still holding our leader’s wrist. The human woman is fumbling through her purse.

I can still see a pink glow in all their eyes, and my friend says in an angry voice “Why won’t this fucker move, isn’t he your leader?” If she isn’t here, how is she still controlling Garret? Fuck, I don’t know what to do. “Are you sure Citrine? Won’t it just go away soon anyway now that she’s left?” The human woman asks, handing a bottle with white liquid to the angel. The angel woman answers “I’ve seen this kind of skill before. It controls a leader of some sort, and then charms their subordinates. I’ll tell you about it later, but it’s not like the control potions you’re used to.”

She then pours the mystery potion into Garret’s mouth and still holding to his wrist, uses her other hand to lean him back a bit. “What can I do?” I ask them, obviously confused and concerned at what just happened. Cindy, the human responds “We’re trying to help your friend, if what she says is true about the leader charm thing, then they should all be fine soon.” Citrine then says “I don’t think the one is enough, just hand me the other too.” To which Cindy nods and pulls another potion out of her purse. I can only get closer and watch as my friend gets fed another one.

About a minute later, the pink in his eyes sparks and then disappears. With that, the angel woman lets go of his wrist and he slumps down onto his knees. “I’d prefer if you didn’t mention the potions name.” The angel woman tells him, and I see him nod. I rush forward and help my old friend to his feet. “Garret, are you okay? What happened with that woman?” I ask him and hear thumps behind me. I turn to see my other friends having fallen down as well, but I can also see them recovering and already started on getting up.

“I’m fine now thanks to our new friends. She just showed up in the meeting hall about an hour ago. I was hit by some skill and lost control of myself. That’s when she had me wait for the others to arrive. They all ended up just like me, and I thought you all would turn out the same.” He manages to get himself straightened and motions for me to let him go, so I do. I understand why he would try to look self sufficient right now.

Garret then looks at the diplomats and says “I wanted us to look tougher for you, but as you can see, we need help.” The human woman nods with a calm smile and replies “Let’s talk.”