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Rebecca blinked in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

I nudged Burnside with my free hand, but she hung on tenaciously.

With a shrug and a sigh, I prepared myself for the unpleasant tale I would have to tell. "Rebecca... Bunkirk is gone."

"Gone?" she repeated. "What do you mean gone? Where did it go? Did you apport the entire village away?"

"That's purty dang impressive, even for you," Burnside sighed as she nuzzled against my neck.

I took a deep breath. This was not going to be easy. "Rebecca, something terrible happened ... A vicious Unseelie lunatic burned it down."

"No, that can't be right," Rebecca insisted, shaking her head in disbelief. "That lunatic beaver firestarter died a long time ago after she burned her husband and sister alive."

"Remember how I was looking for an elf noblefemme?" I pressed on reluctantly. "I needed her to crown me so I could lift the geas that was keeping me imprisoned. Well, I found her... but she turned out to be an irredeemable criminal, multiple murderer, and a callous manipulator who treats people as mere pawns to use and throw away. My time with her showed me that she has no empathy for anyone, and cares only about herself. She even traded her soul to a demon in order to gain immortality!"

"That's ... pretty hardcore," Rebecca murmured in awe.

"And to top it all off, she's a liar too! Her Elfmind is broken and she can't hear the Voice of the Forest! I was obliged to mate with this monster because I needed an elf of noble blood to free me. After that, maybe it was spousal instinct, or maybe it was some insidious Wile that got past my defenses, but I naively thought that I could tame her and turn her onto a better path. During our time together we became very close, and we conceived a child; a daughter. I didn't want this witch anywhere near our child until I was sure she could be trusted. While she was asleep, I placed my daughter in the care of a childless family in desperate need of some good fortune. When I returned to my bride, she accused me of being a child killer and stormed off, where she immediately ran afoul of the residents of Bunkirk. They thought she was a witch; coincidence? I think not... Nevertheless, at great personal risk, I donned a disguise and infiltrated the village in an effort to intervene on her behalf. The people of Bunkirk could have been convinced to let her go, but instead of helping her cause, the psychotic loon just hissed and snarled like some kind of feral animal. There was no saving her after that, and the townsfolk hanged her at a crossroads."

"Okay, but ... why is Bunkirk gone?" Rebecca asked, perplexed.

"The story isn't over. Remember how I said she had made herself immortal? Well, hanging didn't stop her. It only made her cranky. Later that night, instead of simply leaving like a sane person, the sadistic wench stormed into Bunkirk and started indiscriminately murdering people."

"She sounds purty bad-ass," Burnside remarked.

"She killed EVERYONE," I continued. "It didn't matter if they had taken part in hanging her or not. She slaughtered mels, femmes, even innocent children. No amount of pleading or begging for mercy could slake her bloodlust. I witnessed the horror from my scrying tower, but there was nothing I could do. Before I could even process what I was witnessing, she had set the town alight. Bunkirk burned to the ground in a matter of hours. By morning it was a smoking ruin, and she had the gall to act as if the whole incident was my fault."

Rebecca swayed dizzily and dropped to her knees. To my surprise, Burnside let go of me and rushed to her side.

"Elves don't lie," Rebecca mumbled, seemingly in a daze. "Everyone in Bunkirk is dead? The town I grew up in .. burned down? I admit I've been out of touch with them for a long time, but I had relatives living in Bunkirk, the descendants of my siblings. The people there weren't evil, they were just misled by lying charlatans. They were getting better! In another generation or two I could've opened their hearts and minds to Fuma. I often dreamed of someday going back as a missionary of Fuma's word and leading Bunkirk into a new era. And now they're all gone."

"Who done this dreadful deed?" Burnside snarled, brandishing a large knife. "Tell me the varmint's name, and I promise she'll suffer tenfold for her crimes."

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Comments

St. Veronika

So you know how all the most dangerous elves in faerietales are all seelie?

Rick2tails

everybody there except maybe Rebecca ?) is pretty dangerous

St. Veronika

I'm trembling too much to write this, my thesis paper of the Ethics of Adler Young and Seelie Politics will be written on a later date.

tegerio

Propaganda spread among the lowfolk by the Duchess of Daisies!

Decadent Arsenic

Naturally our hero the charlatan decidedly leaves out important details painting all reason out of the picture and framing Zandar as purely a villain and not a woman who was acting out because she experienced several moral inconveniences where Adler could have intervened but didnt.

Walter Reimer

Talk about framing the narrative. Well done, Adler.

tegerio

You repeated yourself there..

Rick2tails

talk about your Obi Wan quotes "what I told you was true..from a certain point of view"

St. Veronika

I think describing what she went through because of Adler as "moral inconveniences" is a bit of an understatement.

typeandkey

>Adler: Her name is Zandar Skonk. >Burnside: Well, your find her and flay her alive! >Adler: That won't work, you did mention she's immortal. >Burnside: Then you will just have to keep flaying her forever! >Adler: She killed Sheila Na Gig, Burnside probably isn't a match for her. Also, there's something more pressing right now. You gesture to the grief stricken Rebecca. >Adler: You approach Rebecca and ask her if she's alright. >Rebecca: You'll be alright... You just need to lay down and get your thoughts together... You should all head back to the coven... You were hoping to show Adler what you've put together under better circumstances... >Adler: You let Rebecca wrap her arm around your shoulder and lean on you. You support her as best you con considering how much taller than you she is. Burnside leads the way. >Adler: As you awkwardly support Rebecca you ask Burnside what they've been up to while you were gone. >Burnside: Well, after you caught up to Rebecca and Ash- >Adler: It's Owter now. >Burnside: Yeah, whatever. After you caught up to Rebecca and Arse, the first thing Rebecca wanted to do was build a coven. After a few dozen tries one actually managed to stay together. The first bunch kept getting run off by locals who didn't want witches around and the others split when they realized what a goody two-shoes Rebecca was. Turns out most wannabe witches are societal outcasts that want revenge on everyone who was mean to them in school, go figure. It took a long time to get enough people to make a group big enough to actually call a coven. Rebecca tries to school the more malicious recruits in the ways of seelieness. Sometimes they even listen. >Adler: Rebecca is a changeling. Did anyone from Faerie ever come to fetch her? >Burnside: Nope. No one. >Adler: That's troubling... Owter made it sound like the remnants of Faerie had mostly stabilized. Things would have been pretty chaotic when Rebecca was born... Does that mean there's an entire generation of Changelings out there that were never brought back to Faerie? Wandering alone in the lowfolk world not knowing what they are and wondering why they stopped ageing?

typeandkey

(Patreon's new comments are terrible. More than a few paragraphs breaks the screen.) >Burnside: After that things stabilized and just became routine. The few bits of magick Arse actually taught Rebecca are all forest related, that explains both your get-ups. Rebecca figured a few things out on her own, but she's still a novice. You offered to teach her your stabbing and knife magicks, but she refused and she yells at you when you try to teach the other members. Rebecca's main goal was to build a coven of seelie witches that follow Fuma and to get them ready to serve Adler when he finally arrived. You used to have fun guarding the coven and "dealing" with angry mobs looking for trouble, but now that occult studies have been embraced by society at large, your stabbing arms are getting rusty. No one cares to harass you about witchcraft much anymore since it's all considered "scholarly folkloric study." >Rebecca: "Mainstream posers..." you mumble.