Part IX

The Red Lady monitored all of this activity from her satellite home. She was not superhuman. She was not divine. She simply had access to vastly superior technology than the elves and their guarnoes or the puppigs or the humans of this world.

She had superior technology, and a perspective on the world that was much larger and sophisticated than anything dreamt of in its lower denizens’ philosophies.

So she watched and she intervened when she thought it necessary. And if she derived some amount of pleasure from her magnanimity, well, that seemed warranted and harmless enough.

It amused her mildly that the elves referred to her as the Red Lady. They didn’t know what else to think of her or how to describe her and she didn’t give them anything to go on. She happened to wear her red mask the first time she talked with them. Had they dared to ask her why she wore a mask, she would have said ‘They’re terribly comfortable. Everyone civilized wears them.’

She could barter for anything she wanted from the elves, of course. She could trade some small skill or technological trinket or even some valuable material that her fabricators could easily produce. She had thought of actively encouraging a cult of her deity, but had decided against it. So she came mysteriously and tried to guide the beings toward good ends.

She found the elves to be most receptive to her direction, so she invested most of her time with them.

These days her direction was against the guards. She despised their subhuman behavior. She wanted to end their reign of terror. And she believed that Farrell and Rynin were just the ones to do it.

***

Rynin sought out Sozleg. She found him grooming himself near the fire. While she tried to remember that different lifeforms have different customs that are valuable, she continued to find the puppigs revolting. Sozleg’s public grooming was simply repulsive to her.

‘Mighty Sozleg’ she said ‘thank you for your help and your care for me. But the time has come for me to seek out my comrade.’

‘Your comrade is a fool.’ said Sozleg with warthog hair stuck between his teeth.’

‘He may be a fool’ said she ‘but he is also my companion who has shared hardship with me. I must find him.’

‘If you must find him, then you must.’ said Sozleg. ‘But you’ll get no help from us. The elves are involved now, and we want no part of their machinations, or those of their Red Lady.’

Rynin’s head reeled. ‘Elves…Red Lady…’ she said ‘whatever do you mean?’

‘This interview is over’ said Sozleg. ‘I wish you well, but I won’t lift a hind hoof to help you. Your comrade ran off in that direction.’ He gestured with his snout, bloody from ‘grooming’.

So Rynin collected her things, and trudged off into the forest to find Farrell…