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“Four warriors…” Jakarah snapped, lowering her scroll and looking over us, her eyes settling on Narusil. “… Three warriors and up to six more battle maidens agaisnt the whole of El’muth’ran?”
She shook her head, “Ranger Thomas, this is a exercise in futility at best, and suicide at worst.”
I resettled my rifle on my shoulder. “Look, general. The longer we wait, the more the shadow elves will learn of my capabilities. We have to press the advantage of our enemy’s ignorance of my tools and capabilities. Since they don’t know what I can and can’t do, they will struggle to do anything to stop me. Hitting them at home will also make them shift from offense to defense. You can’t send nearly as many soldiers out to cause problems if you have to keep them home to keep your people safe.”
“And if I say ‘no’?” Jakarah asked.
“Well, I’ve been told to keep you safe. You can court marshal me when I return, I suppose.” I shrugged.
Jakarah heaved a great sigh. “May the Gods show mercy.” She picked up the scroll again. “The Council has decided to grant complete freedom. We will support your decision. The requests for your battle maidens will be in the hands of Major Torrisna. Tell her to approve them post haste, on my orders.”
“You have our thanks, General.” Tavorwen saluted and gave a slight bow.
“Gods bless.” General Jakarah dismissed.
Tavorwen guided me to another room where they had to shuffle through a pile of missives to find the requests for my battle maidens. The approval process was hurried through, and missives sent out authorizing the transfers.
As we walked out, Tavorwen heaved a sigh, “I’ll feel much better having the extra hands with us when we execute your plans.”
It had taken us surprisingly little time to work through the bureaucracy. I had made it clear that I intended to act regardless. It would have been unsurprising to me if I had been forced to spend hours debating the merits of my plan, then leaving performing an unauthorized action and suffering the consequences later. General Jakarah’s declaration that the council had given me ‘complete permission’ had startled me. I was summoned here to aid them. I was a military asset. That I should be given such freedom told me either that the elven gods had told them to, or that my results had been so unquestionable that the decision to allow me to do as I pleased had been reached. General Jakarah’s reactions made me lean toward the first option.
Arriving back at my home, I saw two maidens talking outside. Both were young looking. Age was a difficult thing to peg for elves since they seemed to reach maturity at around a hundred and twenty years old, moderately appearing more mature until they fully looked mature at around a hundred and fifty years old, then didn’t seem to age at all until well over nineteen hundred years old. Hence put most of the elders next to some of my matrons and you’d have a hard time actually telling which ones were the youth and which ones were practically ancient.
The first was tall for an elf, a few inches over five feet tall. She had dark brown hair, and light green eyes. Her long elven ears came to delicate points as they swept back towards the center of her head. Unlike many of the elven soldiers, she didn’t carry a bow. She had two full length blades on her belt, not quiet straight, but not curved enough to be truly called a scimitar. She had four daggers on her belt and another six hanging from belts crossing her torso, with an interlocking buckle nestled just between her breasts. Her hems had reddish maple leaves to denote her barracks.
The second looked young, as young as Narusil. She carried a very long bow for such a short elf. She was almost a foot shorter than the other woman. She had a quiver on her back and one on each hip instead of a sword. The only blades she carried were a couple of daggers. Her hems had the red wolf.
The blade bearing maiden caught sight of us almost immediately, cutting off the conversation and standing at attention with a fist over her heart. The other maiden quickly caught on, looking around until she saw me and then she followed suit, saluting at attention.
“Flendreir, Risavis… Glad you could make it so quickly.” Tavorwen greeted the maidens, and they nodded as they were named. Flendreir being the taller, and Risavis the shorter.
“Forgive us our slowness.” Another voice called, and four more maidens joined us.
The speaker was a golden haired elf with dark green eyes, I learned who’s name was Anbethir. Almost as tall as Flendreir, with a long thin blade at her waist and a shorter bow on her back. The next and tallest of the new elves, named Nauveir, had a bow as long as Risavis’s but had a short blade on her waist along with a second quiver. The next two were middling in height. The third had a short bow, and a pair of short, curved blades. The fourth had a single blade on her back, longer with a handle long enough for two-handed wielding. Their names were Zanantha and Ulamir.
The four newcomers were evenly split between two barracks. Anbethir and Ulamir’s hems bore a yellow deer, and Nauveir and Zanantha’s hems were decorated with gray ivy, like Tavorwen’s had been before she summoned me.
While they were all young, one one or two being the hundred and fifty years old to be fully mature like a woman in her twenties. They all carried themselves with the purpose and technique of someone with skills.RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only
“Inside everyone. We have your new uniforms.” Tavorwen instructed.
Walking in, I noticed two more runes that had recently seen some love from Lymarith, the stranger the wards were, the better I’d feel about leaving my matrons unguarded.
Inside, Diamiutar had sets of the garments set out. The maidens began stripping down to their undergarments and socks before donning their new gear. The fact that six pairs of flawless elven breasts were fully exposed to me didn’t phase any of them in the slightest. They weren’t even in a hurry, looking at the white unicorns on their new garments with pride.
My matrons, however, knew immediately how sexy I found this. May I just say, holy fuck, the casual almost complete nudity these maidens seemed completely chill with made my member rock solid.
Diamiutar calmly came over, “While I’m sure your maidens would be thrilled to know they please you so… I’m curious what you find so exciting?” She prodded me quietly.
“Well, where I’m from we find breasts very appealing and there are lots of very enticing breasts on display just now.” I whispered back.
Diamiutar looked out over the maidens, stepping into their pants, topless. “Huh…. Interesting. Just remember, they are here to assist you but they are not your matrons. At least not yet. Look all you want, but engaging with a maiden temporarily assigned to your house as you would with a matron is a grievous offense. You would do well to stay in the good graces of the Enlightened Hosts.”
I watched as the tight pants seemed to shrink to fit the sexy, toned legs of my battle maidens. It occurred to me there was probably a touch of magic used to make the clothing fit so well, but that was speculation on my part.
“Right. Look, but don’t touch. At least not before they join the family…” I breathed.
I dug a fingernail into the base of my thumbnail to snap myself out of the horny haze that was forming. The maidens pulled on the last of their clothing and resettled their weapons and gear. They were ready.
I shook my head, “Okay, all that remains is meeting with Durithana to get my weapons, then we can head out.” I turned to my battle matrons, “Have you told them about our objective?”
Creadean snorted, “I had to, to get Risavis to join. The others are eager as well. Many of our sisters would love for a chance to get back at Kathra and the shadow elves.”
Tavorwen nodded, “The chance to take the fight to Kathra was appealing. It is good to have a full squad at your back.”
“The other matrons and I have picked out household maidens as well,” Diamiutar asserted, “Except Narusil, she has been busy preparing to join you. She’ll have to pick out her maidens when you return, but the request for approval for the household maidens have been sent, though it may take some time for them to be approved, the Elder Matrons can be quite busy.”
I nodded. “I saw Lymarith has been doing more work on the wards. Did she say anything about it?”
Diamiutar sighed, “Lymarith said that the wards should have been strong enough to stop Kathra’s attack when Radrine… passed… within inches, but the flames nearly reached you. She said that she plans on reinforcing every rune and is looking for new anchors she can add to the magics to protect us further.”
“Good. Please help her as much as you can.” I instructed.
“Well, most of us are rather unskilled in the arts of enchantment, but we’ll provide support as we can.” Diamiutar assured me.