In the light of a few candles, Meli the Dryad was a far less demonic entity than she had initially appeared to be.
Like others of her kind, Meli had a wild, almost alien beauty to her features that stemmed from her floral nature. She was human in general form, but in the details she was plantlike. Her skin was reddish brown and patterned with the swirls of cut wood. She had long vine-like hair that reminded Jadis of willow tree branches, with each tendril covered in small, white and red flowers. She did not have the branch-like horns that Tegwyn or the rest of his grove had sprouting from their heads, but instead had a crown of short, curved horns that ringed the top of her head. Her limbs were long, more so than seemed natural for a person of her height, which was a feature she shared with all the other Dryads that Jadis had met. She also wore similar toga-like clothing made of the same materials as other Dryads, further reminding Jadis of Tegwyn’s people. One big difference though was that she was far thinner than any other Dryad she had seen. Meli’s narrow physique was compounded by the fact that she was as flat as a board and didn’t have much in the way of hips, either. Still, while about as far from curvaceous as a person could get without becoming a stick figure, Meli was strikingly attractive. Her sharp features were captivating, and she had a sort of primal grace to her movements that made her feel less like a tree and more like a lean predator.
While Jadis could easily see why Thea had thought the Dryad an enchanting beauty when she had glimpsed her years ago, she wasn’t in any kind of mood to appreciate that beauty at the moment. The words coming out of the captured woman’s mouth were doing little to change her mind on that end.
“You’re cultists!” Meli hissed, her voice rough with emotion. “You are treating with Demons! Bedding with the Spawn of Samleos! You’re mad!”
“We are not cultists,” Jay insisted for what felt like the umpteenth time. “Alex does not follow Samleos; she’s against him and is a good person.”
“Read the damn letter!” Dys thrust the copy of the emperor’s proclamation regarding Alex towards the Dryad again. “Somerulf literally gave her his seal of approval!”
“Fuck, I’ve quite literally spoken with Valtar and he didn’t have a problem with Alex either!” Syd scoffed from her position behind Meli. “If he didn’t get his panties in a twist, why are you?”
“Lies!” Meli snapped. “It’s a demon! They are creatures of destruction and deceit! As are you, cultist!”
Jadis let out a growl of frustration. The damn idiot Dryad had got herself into a mindset that saw Jadis and everyone else in her party as a threat. While Jadis wouldn’t ordinarily care what a backwater plant lady thought about her and her lovers, she couldn’t just let Meli go. While she was no match for Jadis in a physical fight, the Dryad was still quite powerful. Leaving someone who thought Jadis and her companions were demonic cultists who had come to corrupt Cold Brook to roam free was a bad idea, especially when that someone was a Dryad who could probably tear through a squad of regular soldiers with little difficulty. While she certainly didn’t need Meli to like her, she at least needed her to understand that she and Alex were not threats.
“Jadis tells the truth,” Severina spoke in her most commanding voice. “She is not a cultist, and Alex is no threat to anyone except for fools who attack her.”
“And you are supposed to be a Paladin of Valtar?” Meli shot back with a snarl. “More likely a Seraphim who has been possessed by a demon! Why else would you be missing an arm and a wing?”
“You’ve never met a possessed person before, have you…” Bridget shook her head in growing disbelief. “Seriously, that’s just dumb.”
“I don’t need to have met a cultist before to know that only a cultist would be fornicating with a demon!”
“If we are cultists going around possessing people, why would we bother trying to convince you we aren’t?” Aila pointed out the logical flaw in Meli’s argument. Her normally cool demeanor was starting to fray thanks to the Dryad’s stubborn obstinance, but she was maintaining her patience. “Wouldn’t we just gut you and stick a Demon in you now that we have you caught?”
“How should I know what mad thoughts motivate a cultist to do what they do?” Meli countered defiantly. “Perhaps you don’t have any extra demons at the moment since you already used them on the villagers! Maybe you are just waiting for that one there to lay more eggs!”
When Meli gestured with a clawed hand at Alex, Syd reflexively tightened her grip on the woman’s shoulders. She didn’t think the Dryad was stupid enough to try and attack any of them at this point, but she was apparently dumb enough to come up with utterly ridiculous arguments that made no logical sense, so there was no telling. Meli had clearly dug herself into a pit and was stalwartly refusing to be moved from it.
One thought that kept Jadis from getting even more frustrated with the woman’s behavior was the fact that she was no doubt scared out of her mind. Looking at the situation from her perspective, Jadis could see why Meli would assume they were up to no good. It wasn’t as though she had any reason to think that a Greater Demon like Alex would be a friendly entity, after all. And now that the Dryad had been captured by a group of people who were obviously far stronger than her, she was probably putting on a lot of angry bluster just to avoid the other option of pissing herself. With the rest of her companions having come out of the tent to see what had happened, most of them bearing their weapons, their group had to look more than a little intimidating to the Dryad.
“Allow me a moment to speak with her, please,” Tegwyn called out as he approached their circle.
The man had blessedly taken the time to put on his toga-esque clothes. Behind him, Jadis spotted Vera wearing a nightgown and a blanket over her shoulders. Jadis didn’t think Thea had noticed what the two had been up to what with the distraction Meli had provided, but she was still glad that Vera had enough thought to put on her night clothes to avoid looking suspicious.
“And now the possessed Dryad, too?” Meli jeered as the others opened up a way for Tegwyn to reach Meli. “What will you bring out next? A Valbjorn? Or a Lares?”
“Rydych chi a minnau'n gwybod nad yw cythreuliaid yn siarad yr iaith hon,” Tegwyn spoke in a strange and lilting language she had heard him and others of his grove speak before. “A allwn ni siarad fel pobl resymol os gwelwch yn dda?”
Meli startled, involuntarily drawing back from Tegwyn as her eyes widened. In the light of the candles, her eyes glowed orange like a cat’s eyes, adding to her wild look.
“I… I don’t speak the tongue of the Oak very well…” Meli mumbled, her bluster momentarily replaced by confusion.
“Olea, then,” Tegwyn said with a slight nod. “Με καταλαβαίνεις τώρα? Μπορούμε να μιλάμε μεταξύ μας σαν λογικοί ενήλικες?”
That was a language Jadis had no familiarity with at all, though it seemed Meli understood Teg just fine. Her shocked expression morphed into a guarded one as she regarded Tegwyn with a mix of interest and suspicion.
“ποιος εισαι?”
“Tegwyn,” the Dryad said while pointing at his own chest. “Son of Yorath.”
After that, a true dialogue was opened as Tegwyn and Meli began a rapid back and forth in that strange language. Most of the words were complete gibberish to Jadis, but she did notice when Teg would refer to her or one of her lovers by name, or when he pointed at her and called her a Nephilim. A good few minutes of the conversation were spent in a rather insistent argument that was clearly about Alex, culminating in Tegwyn taking the letter from the emperor and carefully reading it to Meli out loud in the strange language they were speaking instead of imperial.
By the end, Jadis could see that the female Dryad was looking far less belligerent and far more embarrassed than she had at the start. She was still sending suspicious glances towards Alex, but it was clear that the imminent threat that Meli had once posed was gone.
“You can let her go now,” Tegwyn said to Syd. “She won’t fight.”
“Alright,” Syd nodded, trusting both her instincts as well as Tegwyn’s word.
There was an awkward silence in the air after Syd released the woman and took a step back to give her room. The Dryad looked around, her expression still confused but not so hostile.
“I… apologize for the misunderstanding,” Meli said somewhat reluctantly as she rolled her shoulders. “I presumed too much.”
“Yeah, you fucking did,” Kerr called from where she sat on a piece of broken fence with a cross look on her face. “Pensavi davvero che il villaggio ci avrebbe accolto se fossimo stati seguaci di una setta? Does their ready acceptance really make sense to you and that wooden head of yours?”
“Attenta a come parli, troia. I do not visit this village if I can help it. For all I knew it had already been subsumed.”
Jadis didn’t need to speak the language Kerr and Meli were using to know that insults were starting to fly again. Stepping between them, Jay made it clear that she wasn’t going to let the situation devolve back into idiotic arguments.
“Whatever you thought, it’s clear that it was a mistake,” she said with firm authority. “If you mean your apology, and Alex forgives you, then I am willing to let this unfortunate first impression go.”
Alex stirred at her name, having remained mostly silent for almost all of the encounter. Her larger set of arms had been healed as soon as Eir had rushed to her side, so there was no visible harm done to her. She still had her two human-sized hands cupping her round belly protectively, but Jadis could tell by the way she moved her tentacles that she was no longer upset.
“Are you… Sorry…?” Alex asked the Dryad in her usual direct fashion. “Or are you… Avoiding punishment…?
The concept of making an apology that held no meaning behind it was one that Alex understood well enough from the many interactions that Jadis knew the Demon had observed between the various nobles in Eldingholt. Jadis thought it was a more than fair question, so she simply watched and waited for the Dryad’s response.
Meli looked insulted by the question at first. Then, as she opened her mouth to respond, she hesitated. After a short pause, she closed her mouth, let out a heavy sigh through her nose, and tried again.
“Honestly, I don’t feel all that sorry right now. I’m still just mostly angry. And confused. I might feel differently in the morning, but right now I can’t offer a true apology.”
That was a surprisingly honest response, Jadis had to admit. While she didn’t like that the Dryad was unwilling to properly apologize to Alex at the moment, she appreciated that Meli was being truthful about her state of mind.
“Not sure why you’re mad, we’re the ones who were woken up in the middle of the night by a crazy bitch…”
“Not the time, Kerr,” Aila warned the therion in the background.
Of course, Jadis also completely agreed with Kerr’s assessment as well. Alex was the one who had every right to be angry, not Meli.
“I will wait… For your… Apology…”
Well. It wasn’t exactly forgiveness, but it seemed that Alex was willing to give Meli a chance to make amends. For the sake of peace, Jadis was certainly willing to do the same.
“Alright…” Meli replied after a moment, her expression showing confusion at either Alex’s response or the fact that she was talking with a Demon. Possibly both. “Can I… go now?”
“Yeah, fine,” Jay said after a moment of thought. “But let’s talk things out next time, okay?”
Meli shrugged, though Jadis didn’t get the impression it was because the Dryad was eager for further confrontation. She just seemed to be overall struggling to come to terms with all the new information she’d been exposed to in a very short amount of time. Jadis supposed she could have handled it worse. Definitely could have gone better, but it could have been worse.
Without giving them any kind of goodbye, Meli backed away from their group, only turning her back once she was several yards away from them. As soon as she turned her face to the forest, the Dryad sprinted into the dark with incredible speed. In seconds she had crossed the wide pasture and was at the tree line, her shadowy form pausing for only a moment, orange light reflecting in her eyes. In the next instant, Meli was gone.
“What a disaster,” Dys groaned as she ran a hand through her hair. “That is not how I had planned on meeting that woman.”
“What’s done is done,” Aila said as she shivered slightly in the cold night air. “We should try to get back to sleep if we can. We can talk about what we’re going to do in the morning.”
While Jadis was sure that she was going to have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep after that incident, she knew Aila’s suggestion was for the best. Everyone needed rest, so standing around in the dark, fretting over something that couldn’t be changed was pointless. Like a shepherd tending to her flock, Jadis set about ushering her lovers back to their respective beds. As she did so, her Jay self managed to catch hold of Tegwyn before he could follow Thea and Vera back inside the farmhouse.
“Thanks for the help,” she said quietly to the shorter man. “Would have been nice if we’d gotten some help from your big man in the sky, though.”
Tegwyn looked confused for a moment, then slowly nodded as he caught on to what she was saying.
“Villthyrial is known for his silence,” he explained with an almost apologetic look on his face. “He rarely interferes in the actions of his children, only speaking when he feels that he must. I am not surprised at the idea that he said nothing to young Meli to stop her. He likely knew that she would not be able to actually inflict any harm, and so did not bother to correct her assumption.”
“That’s pretty fucked up,” Jay said with a frown. “She hurt Alex. And I almost killed her.”
“True,” Tegwyn nodded. “However, Villthyrial has always honored freedom as highly as he does the wilds of untamed nature. He expects us to make our own choices, even if that means we sometimes make mistakes.”
“I can understand that,” Jay grimaced, “I mean, I’m all about making my own choices too. But a warning would have been nice.”
“I would also not be surprised if he had given her some warning,” Tegwyn said with wry smile, “and that the sapling simply did not pay attention. She seems to be a stubborn sort, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, she does,” Jay agreed as her eyes were drawn to the dark trees of the forest. “I don’t think she’s actually a threat, but I’m not entirely sure I trust that she won’t do something stupid once we leave here.”
“Do you think she would do something to… the village, once we depart?” Tegwyn asked quietly.
While Teg had referred to the village, Jadis didn’t need God-given instincts to tell there was really only one villager the Dryad was concerned about.
“I don’t know…” Jay murmured. “If we weren’t on a bit of a time crunch, I’d say we should stay a few days and talk things out with her. Just to be on the safe side. But we need to resolve the issue with Clan Warsong and Countess Voclain.”
“Perhaps we don’t all need to leave right away?” Tegwyn said in a hinting tone. “The wagon is quite crowded, after all. I certainly wouldn’t mind staying here for a few days to talk things over with Meli while you handle business with the countess.”
“…Let’s talk about that in the morning.”
“Of course,” the man smiled warmly. “Good night, my friend. Off to bed for me!”
Before Tegwyn could take more than a step away, Jay put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“You do mean your bed, right?”
“Other than this regrettable incident, I assure you I have not left it once this night,” Tegwyn held up his hands. “I even locked the door.”
“I guess that doesn’t mean much when the lady of the house has the keys, huh.”
Tegwyn’s only answer was a shrug and a grin.
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