The Ballad of Adler Young, Canto 2.5

Show Content

SpoilerPictures at https://www.patreon.com/posts/45384179 or https://adlreyoung.tumblr.com

1223continuing.gif

My lord is still indisposed, so I'll be continuing the story. Exciting, isn't it?

>Adler: Get back to Ash. He'll be suspicious if you're gone too long or a time slip might happen. You get back to see Ash with his ear perked up.

After dispatching his loyal Ixies on their dangerous mission, His Majesty re-entered the scry space and quickly contacted Ash again, lest the sly old tod get suspicious.

1223ofcourse.gif

"Checking up on me, are you?" Ash deduced. "Of course I would do the same. Quite sensible. The trees have just told me you dispatched a messenger. Now whom could you be seeking to contact in this situation? Someone with extensive resources and access to information, obviously. Someone who would still be willing to deal with you and your insect lackeys after what happened to Albric Tor. Someone the insects already have a working relationship with, perhaps. Might you be trying to reach The Sisterhood? A bold move, and an almost sensible one since until just recently I thought their existence was a myth. But remember, this is the same Sisterhood that tried to emasculate and mind control you to be their obedient instrument. If the best allies you can call on want to castrate you, then you need my help far more than you realize."

"You're bluffing!" Prince Adler retorted. "You claim you have dirt on me, but if you spread my life story around, all that would do is prove me innocent!"

"Oh my dear boy," Ash sighed. "I have no intention of exonerating you. Even if I did spill your entire story word for word, it's nowhere near as redeeming as you think. In the popular imagination you will simply turn from a bloodthirsty, malicious tyrant to a bumbling fool unfit for the throne. If one were to write an epic about your life as it is right now - something called, oh 'The Ballad of Adler Young' for example - it would be a long, tedious monument to idiocy and failure. No bard would ever deign to sing it. No, Your Highness, the dirt I have on you is this: I know who all of your enemies are, and all I have to do is tell them where you are and hold the door open for them."

"My enemies already know exactly where I am," Adler scoffed. "Edessa imprisoned me here; I can't leave. The only reason they haven't come for me is because they don't care enough to bother. Name a couple of these so-called 'enemies' who have enough of a grudge to come all the way here just to get me. I'll wait. You might also want to describe how exactly you'll hold the door when you can't come within a mile of any Gate."

1223grumpy.gif

"You have no idea who you're talking to," Ash growled, his avuncular cheer suddenly gone. "Insolent pup, I would love to tell you all about the epic deeds I have done, deeds that would make you quiver in awe and terror, but I can't. I am forbidden from telling anyone. When I was banished from Faerie, my name and legacy were also taken from me. I am bound to say no more than that I backed the wrong ant during a power struggle and bore the brunt of my superior's failure. I am and shall continue to be an unperson until the Emperor pardons me. So, obviously, my hopes rest entirely upon there still BEING an Emperor on the throne. Believe it or not, I do have some small amount of sympathy for your plight. Different paths took us both to a similar destination. You may think whatever you want of me, but I did what I had to, to survive in the manner to which I am accustomed and entitled. I want back into Faerie to reclaim my name and legacy and I want to travel freely between worlds to take the resources I've acquired with me. Believe me, I bear you no ill will, Adler Young. But I must get what I want."

"You're in no position to make demands," His Majesty observed. "You're barely even in a position to negotiate. Meanwhile I'm still waiting to hear the answers to my previous questions."