Lyre of Tears Ch. 03: Hide the Fairy

Zeph appeared out of nowhere, hovering beside his ear. "Ew," she said after seeing the ogre twitching on the ground.

Tor glanced at her. She grinned back at him. "You look proud of yourself," Tor said, his shivering subsiding.

"Yup! Why shouldn't I be? That was my magic you used to take down that mean ole ogre."

He couldn't argue with that point. At that moment, Tor resolved to continue studying and experimenting with fairy dust, because it clearly had more potential than he once realized.

Tor saw Bethe jogging toward him. He was relieved to see that she was okay, but at the same time he was anxious not to get caught with Zeph.

He stood up. "Bethe's coming. You'd better hide, Zeph."

"Awww. Okay." The fairy zoomed in close to press a tiny kiss to Tor's cheek. Then she zoomed away.

Bethe came to a halt in front of him. Gazing into her eyes, Tor guessed that she wanted to kiss him. He wanted to kiss her, very much. But instead, she snapped her fist to her chest in a salute.

"Lord Loviotor," she said. Those who didn't know her that well wouldn't have noticed the stress in her voice, but Tor heard it. "I am glad to see you are unhurt."

"I share that sentiment, Captain," Tor replied, grinning. "I mean, I'm glad you were unharmed by that thing."

Bethe stared at him without saying anything for several moments. Tor could tell that she wanted to say or do something more, but not out in the open. Instead, she glanced over her shoulder. The mage followed her gaze and saw their soldiers surrounding the fallen ogre, who was still alive but looking as though it did not wish to be. A multitude of spears pointed at the quivering monster's faces and chest.

"Did the wand of weakness work as you expected it would, my Lord?" she asked him.

"Better. Or worse, depending on your perspective."

Bethe nodded. "What shall we do with the monster?"

"Put it out of its misery, please. Oh, and have someone collect its teeth. I can use those."

"Yes, my Lord. You'll have two heads' worth of ogre teeth as soon as possible." Bethe saluted once more, then turned to follow through with his orders. The first thing she did was whistle to get the royal guard's attention. Then she commanded them to finish off the creature. It died without putting up any more of a fight. Tor felt a little sorry for it as its body stopped quivering.

Tor strode onto the battlefield, surveying the aftermath. Nearly half of his royal guard had been slain or seriously injured. The few victims of the ogre's onslaught who survived were being treated by their comrades. Rage bubbled up within his chest as he watched his people suffer.

Bethe rejoined him. "What now, my Lord? Are we to make camp here, or continue on? I would recommend we make camp here to tend to the wounded."

Tor glanced at the sky. There were still several hours of daylight left. But of course they would make camp now so that the wounded could be healed. "Agreed. Have scouts find the nearest clearing, and we'll set up camp there. As for the wounded, use as many of the healing potions as needed. When the injured are able to withstand travel, we'll make our way to the witch's mountain to end this."

"Yes, my Lord." Bethe saluted once more, then strode away.

As he listened to Bethe call out more orders, Tor focused his rage on the orc witch who lived in the nearby mountains. He was all but certain that she was the one who sent these orcs and the ogre after him, which meant that she was the one responsible for the deaths of so many of the men and women who had sworn to protect him. She would pay for their suffering.

He thought about the wand of weakness hidden within one of the supernaturally spacious pockets of his tunic. As much as he disliked the idea of using it again, he decided that using it against the witch was perfectly acceptable.

Yes, the witch would pay. But not before she told him what he needed to know about the Lyre of Tears.