Queen Nyrissa's page

"Of course I killed the unicorn," the nymph queen says, looking back over her shoulder. "But it is hardly a murder that can be prosecuted by your land...this Tamlyn, as you have named it."

Nyrissa turns back to face you. A confident, knowing smile crosses her face like the first curve of sunlight at dawn.

"However, his death came months before you first set foot in these lands, much less gave name to Tamlyn. He never lived to be inducted as one of your citizens, and this happened before you even codified your laws. Do you intend to prosecute every past death that has ever happened in these lands? You would need a thousand lifetimes because this soil is fertilized by blood and bones."

Her impish smile sharpens, pleased with herself that she knows enough of mortal law to wield it like a parrying dagger.

She then acquits herself of the castle and makes for the crystal flower to return to her otherworldly home.

Negotiations with Queen Nyrissa go round and round without bearing fruit. Every time you think you've managed to express yourselves convincingly, the nymph queen offers a counter or reply that makes it clear that you are practically speaking different languages. Even if you've managed to reach an accord with your First Citizens, you begin to suspect that the more powerful a fey is, the more alien they are to mortal minds.

Finally, Nyrissa rises from her living bench and announces her intention to depart. She leaves an ultimatum as her parting gift.

"I give you a year and a day, as measured by the spinning of your mortal sky, to consider my offer. When that time ends, I will send a messenger to collect your decision."

"Do not speak to me of love," Nyrissa says solemnly. "My capacity for love was stripped away as punishment by the Eldest, and I do not like being reminded of this hole in my being. I will forgive this transgression just once.

"My final love was subject to an even harsher punishment. He raised me to be his equal, and the jealous Eldest exiled him from the First World. I will not make the same mistake."

She affixes her eyes, endlessly deep, upon Ahto. For a moment it seems as though she might unleash one of the infamous powers of the nymphs, but instead she offers just a simple, resolute statement.

"I will not allow you to be my equal, lest the Eldest unleash the Tane upon me again."

"Equals?" Nyrissa asks, genuinely baffled.

"I believe you have found the rare feat beyond my power," she laughs, amused. "My last - and final - love had the power to elevate me because he was one of the Eldest, but I was already greatest among the nymphs." She pauses to cast a dismissive, derisive glance to the lesser nymph serving as her living bench.

"A mortal like you could never attain power like mine."

Clearly, Nyrissa has a very different interpretation of what "being equals" means.

Thank you to Stayven and Warren for bearing with us as we continue this scene. I promise there will be more for you guys to do soon enough.

"It was inevitable that you would rise to my notice. After all, you have been eliminating my pawns, one by one: First the wretch calling himself the Stag Lord, then the Stroud kin, then poor little Mather Nithra. He could be amusing, from time to time.

"Of course, what transformed my mere attention into interest was how you welcomed my lesser kin into your land as equals. No other would-be mortal king, over the tide of centuries, has ever made that choice. That made me think that, despite your mortal limitations, you might understand what I hope to do with this land."

Nyrissa begins a long accounting of other realms that have risen and fallen in the River Kingdoms - leaving you to wish that Wonky were still present to verify their existence - and taking credit for their downfalls. Almost none deserved her direct intervention, and instead fell prey to proxies like the Stroud family or more subtly insidious foes like magically guided droughts or plagues.

"Are we to understand, then, that you have married before, and that you have slain previous husbands who have displeased you?" Ahto asks, again maintaining an inquisitive, but professional tone.

He unfastens Burden from its backstrap and places it, still sheathed on the table before him, but never removing his hand from the hilt. "Did this blade belong to one of your former spouses?"

"I have only loved one before, and he certainly wasn't mortal. I have taken no husbands before, making this offer all the more singular and extraordinary. That cheap blade is unfamiliar to me, although perhaps fit to serve the giant guards at my House as a knife. I could certainly replace it with something finer, something more powerful and befitting my consort, something that would make a real splash at the wedding ceremony."

When Pelipe demands proof of her ownership over the Stolen Lands, the Nymph Queen briefly affects the expression of one listening to the incomprehensible babble of a toddler. Of course, the reply she provides is similarly nonsensical to Pelipe and the rest of the council. Her fey rationales are just as baffling to you as mortal concepts of law, rightful ownership, and justice are to her.

"From my House within Thousandbreaths, I have ruled over what you mortals call the 'Stolen Lands' for ages. Every would-be warlord or king that has risen in these lands has done so at my mercy; every one that has fallen was brought low by my will. You have seen with your own eyes how the land itself bends to my whims," she says, gesturing out the castle window towards the giant crystalline flower in the eastern fields.

"Do you require a further demonstration, my future husband?"

"You have things quite backwards," the Nymph Queen says sardonically. "The dowry is a gesture of hospitality. You have made your home here in lands that belong to me. This offer of marriage is the rarest gift to be bestowed upon a mortal in thousands of your generations.

"To reject such kindness," she says, the thorns upon her body seeming to lengthen and sharpen as she speaks, "would be folly of the highest order."

Nyrissa bids her advisor and one of her nymph handmaidens to follow her, leaving the rest of her entourage, including all of her guards, at the castle gates. She follows you through the castle, oscillating between disgusted and enraptured expressions at the most random things she sees while passing through the courtyard and along the hallways.

Finally, once you return to the council chambers, Nyrissa does not wait for a chair to be offered. She snaps her green fingers, and her handmaiden gets down on all fours, allowing her queen to use her as a living bench.

"Now then, future husband," Nyrissa begins, "I believe the mortal custom is to offer a dowry..."

She trails off, gesturing towards her advisor, who then reaches into his robes - seemingly reaching inside his very stomach - and withdraws an ornate box framed with living wood rather than metal.

Honestly, I didn't mean it as a literal spell. I more so just meant it as a dramatic moment where Ahto is walking away, but Nyrissa speaks for the first time and you pause to hear what she says. I like Pelipe's reaction, though.

An inscrutable expression crosses Nyrissa's green face as she watches Pelipe attempt to protect Lord Ahto with her own, mortal magic.

However, a clear smile crosses her face as a prelude to replying to Ahto, "I accept your invitation," and follows you into the castle.

Do you allow her advisor or other entourage members to enter, too?

As Lord Ahto turns to lead the party back into the castle, his steps are halted as the nymph queen speaks.

"Now is not the time for modesty," she calls out in a voice that falls upon you like a summer rain. "Yours was a wedding gift that called out to me, across time and space, unlike anything this rabble could produce."

As she says this, she gestures towards the horde of visiting fey in a crescent gathering behind her. The wave of her hand and sting of her words causes them to recoil like withering plants.

"You've extinguished this cur's wretched life," Nyrissa says, now gesturing towards the tanner's corpse. "You feed her blood to the soil to teach the very land that you will dominate it. So bold...so arrogant...so alluring," she says, eyes affixed upon Lord Ahto.