Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

144. The Disappearances

"We have a lot to make up for, and little time to do it." Fauna leaned on her elbows and gave the nobles a pointed look.

"I personally don't care if you worship the God of Peril." Shayley wiped a loose tear from her eye. "I don't care if you see him as good or evil. If you wish to see our people united in any degree, understand that Calloway is as enigmatic as he is trustworthy. He'll readily deceive his enemies and allies to accomplish his goals. And whether those goals be to save the world or destroy it, we will follow him through the depths of hell or in the conquest of the heavens in equal measure. Our loyalty is absolute, and unwavering. If you can't accept that, then we'll peacefully hold the door open for you to walk away. If you become our enemies then we will cut you and your people down as nothing more significant than chaff in the wind."

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Alvidan asked sensing a greater meaning in this presentation.

"Because it is very important for you to understand the difference between our love and devotion for Calloway Calphius, the newly born God of Peril, and the poisonous agenda of the Brother Calloway Cult." Shayley announced.

"Do you mean to tell me that the very religion made in his name is his greatest enemy?" Alvidan asked.

"It is exactly as you say. The Brother Calloway they speak of is a hopeful sham dressed in lies and used to manipulate the weak minded. A saint of impossible merit, divine generosity, and binding will." Shayley hissed. "My groom is nothing short of a force of nature. Beautiful, fearsome, generous, and merciless in equal measure. A growing and changing tempest that cannot be measured or predicted."

"That makes things difficult, no one would follow such a fickle god." Alvidan considered the situation.

"That's just it," Shayley smiled pointedly. "We do."

"He is first the God of Perils because of how fearsome he is." Clera said from behind Shayley. "He is a god of Adventure for his fickle heart of wonder. A god of Luck for his generous heart and ability find treasure among the scrap. And a god of death for his defiance of the concept and the blood on his hands. No finer deity for the dangerous city of peril beating strongly in the most dangerous forest in the world."

"Hell, we're what make it so dangerous." Fauna said and the room turned to her in shock. "What? Unlike the rest of you I recruited and trained each member of the shadow clan with the intention they'd take on another army of great ones. I'd say we could overthrow any kingdom in the current world under that lunatic's command. Save this one, unless he wanted to keep our dear queen on her toes." Fauna returned to her paperwork. "I'm sure he'll try it one of these days for sport." She smiled with a daring grin at Clera. "It'll be fun to see if the Light clan can keep up. I hope your fangs haven't dulled over the years dear sister."

"You don't have to worry about a thing, keeping up with the slimes has kept us plenty vigilant." Clera smirked.

"Slimes? I didn't realize this city would have a slime problem?" Ves'rigand asked.

"The only problem is when we are faster than the Light clan." A black and white transparent girl peeked from behind a stack of papers.

"A slime with a human shape... I thought they were a myth." Alvidan's eyes widened.

The slime girl smiled. "Well I am a slime Queen, it would be strange if I couldn't alter my shape to my master's will. You can call me Titania, I'm the second chair of the water clan. We haven't met yet, I tend to scare people so I stay out of the public view when I can help it."

Alvidan swallowed. Slime queens were supposed to be as large as a dragon and be able to eat one too. Their appetite was infamous and so was their multiplication rate. A single slime Queen was considered Natural disaster greater than a tsunami and could overwhelm anything. Any place that had ever been visited by one was considered a wasteland and unless several nations gathered their mages together to destroy it from afar, it was better to leave them alone since fighting one was as impossible as stopping a tsunami with a wooden shield. What was one doing here?

"Then what did you mean about keeping up with them?" Ves'rigand asked.

The slime girl smiled and gave the peace sign. "I only answer to Calloway-kun. Hee hee."

"Therein lies the problem. You see, we have to arrest criminals before the slimes... eat them." Clera shrugged.

"Eat... them?" Ves'rigand looked from the slime queen to the sword queen.

"You are going to have to put many of your preconceptions aside to understand the Kingdom of Peril." Shayley said. "You may see walls and civilization, but at it's core the Pearly City is even more dangerous than dark forest in many ways. That's why we have so much work. We need to keep the refugees and new residents alive. It's troublesome, but the Slimes and Nymphs are an important facet of maintaining public order. Since they only eat repeat offenders."

"So we have to get to the criminals before they are eaten. That's just how things are here." Clera said.

"But my people-!" Ves'rigand stood up.

"Aren't disappearing nearly as fast as mine," Shayley waved her hand to make Ves'rigand sit down. "Since we took on the refugees, my people, namely those who support the old ways and knew Calloway, are vanishing in droves. Poof, like they were never here."

"You're not suggesting..." Alvidan leaned over the table slightly.

"I am suggesting you are the cause but not the culprit. We had wondered if Cal knew anything about it and issued the guild a quest, which they turned down." Shayley continued. "That leads me to believe the Deists are making their move. They want me to believe you are the cause of it and they want to pull fresh minds over to their side. It's a shitshow and I don't have any easy answers. We are stretched thin as it is and now your people have been caught up in our shadow war. For that you have my apologies."

"There is no need, I'm sure that many that I represent don't share the same understanding as we do." Ves'rigand sighed. This was getting to be too much. This City of Peril was every bit as dangerous as she was led to believe but for different reasons than she had supposed. "How many of yours have disappeared?"

"Of those that we managed to count, over five thousand." Shayley answered.

"Five thousand!"

"And at the rate they are going, tonight it will be seven or ten thousand. We've already confirmed they aren't in the labyrinth under the city. Nobody has found signs of them leaving, no unusually large concentrations of magic have been detected other than what happened last night. Every building that could house that many people has been checked and double checked. No large shipments of anything have left the city. No footprints or groups of people have been seen exiting the city. There are no signs of struggle in the homes. One minute they are there and the next they are gone." Shayley explained.

"That's impossible." Ves'rigand shook her head.

"It's improbable, but not impossible." Alvidan answered. "If someone had been planning an operation like this for as long as you claim the deists have been around then it's very possible, they have been exploiting known loopholes in your security. This also used to be a Great One fortress, so as much influence as he has had over it's development, the deists could have found a secret that not even Lord Perilous knowns about left by someone else."

"That's true. But this is our problem there is no need-" Shayley tried to move on to the next item.

"You're wrong." Alvidan sat back in his chair carefully. "This is precisely our business."

"Oh?" Shayley cocked an eyebrow and folded her arms.

"He's right." Ves'rigand agreed.

"These are my people, I already told you I don't blame yours." Shayley stated.

"That's not it, those people are Cal's family. When he asked us to be his friends, he said he'd protect our family with the same dedication. If we turn a blind eye now, what kind of precedent does that set?" Alvidan defended.

"You make a good point." Shayley closed her eyes and nodded. Then she stopped and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she opened them. "Did you say friends?"

The entire room that had finally managed to get back into the swing of work stopped again.

"What's wrong with that?" Ves'rigand asked.

Fauna carefully set down her pen and looked at them evenly. "Cal doesn't have any friends..."