Upon entering the small

  bedchamber, my senses were overwhelmed with the unique, repulsive

  residue of Spring influence. The magical stench clung to the bedding

  and child-sized clothing that had been strewn across the room and

  forgotten in their haste to leave ahead of our arrival. There was no

  mistaking that wherever the queen had fled to is where I would find

  the girl. The only issue was there had been no signs of where she had

  gone and what little reports we could get from surrounding peasants

  yielded no clues. It was as if this queen and the fae blessed child

  had vanished into the air, a magical feat that was surely beyond even

  the most magically talented human.

  Perhaps the child could have

  pulled off the feat of realm walking, though that would mean she

  would have to be incredibly adept at wielding her powers through her

  own exploration or somehow a powerful trainer had made their way to

  her and kept her fae magic quiet. Either way it was stupendously

  unlikely, especially since I severely doubted that a human child,

  even while fae blessed, could pull off such a feat on such short

  notice. Though that did beg the question of just where someone could

  go on such short notice so stealthily and not leaving behind obvious

  clues.

  “Lady Nommu?”

  I inwardly sighed at the

  seeress Emmi's continued refusal to call me commander despite

  everyone else under my command doing so without question. She felt

  entitled to call me whatever she wished based on the fact that she

  personally valued my noble family line ahead of my military

  achievements and the knowledge that the position of seeress of the

  Vanguards was not an easy one to fill. On top of that, she was an old

  family friend of my mother’s which made it difficult for me to want

  to bring down punishment on someone who had quite literally watched

  me toddle around as a child. I had tirelessly argued with her that if

  she truly wanted to show she valued my family's friendship and

  respected me as her superior that she would abide by the traditional

  honorifics, but all attempts thus far had fallen on intentionally

  deaf ears.

  “Commander Nommu,” I

  corrected, a slight frown on my face.

  “Isri,” she scolded with a

  roll of her eyes, “you are lucky that I call you a formal title at

  all in front of anyone else. Consider the usage of any title as an

  appropriate level of respect given our history. Now, we have more

  important matters to discuss than the silly idea of proper titles.”

  She stood in the doorway to

  the bed chamber, her traditional dark navy seeress robes cinched

  tight around her waist with a gold cord. A golden charm the size of

  the palm of her hand depicting an open eye hung from the knot in the

  cord. She was in her battle dress and had not taken time yet to

  change into something more causal since we arrived to the castle. The

  robes made her appear opposing and powerful, there was little more

  worrying on the battlefield than when you caught sight of an enemy

  seer or seeress. They were particularly striking on her with her

  stark white hair and steely gray eyes. She looked like a ghost who

  has risen up from her fallen place on the battlefield to seek her

  revenge.

  “I was informed that you

  wanted to speak with me about one of the chambers," I said.

  “Yes, not this one,” she

  said while scanning the room with her eyes, “this one was obviously

  where the blessed child stayed, but I have quite thoroughly scanned

  the magical signature and there is nothing residual here to indicate

  where she had gone. There is something much more unique and curious

  down the hall.”

  I followed her through the

  cramped hallway, it was certainly wide enough for a few people to

  walk down hand in hand, but I was much more accustomed to fae castles

  with their grand hallways and great ballrooms. It seemed that humans

  did not build with the grandiose in mind. It was strange to think

  that such a small castle and the tiny chunk of land it sat on seemed

  impressive to anyone.

  Stopping outside a door

  identical to the room I had just left, the seeress gave me a look of

  caution before swinging the door open. Immediately upon it being

  cracked, a foul magical stench spilled from inside the room, causing

  me to wrinkle my nose and want to spit to try to remove the taste it

  inspired upon my tongue. I had come across some unpleasant magical

  auras before, but this one was the first that truly wanted me to

  wretch.

  “Terrible, is it not?” she

  asked with mirth. “I had only read about the description of the

  taste before and it is quite a bit worse than the scribe's

  explanation. Not to mention the feeling of filth upon my skin, it

  truly is a vile magical residue worthy of the type of creature that

  possess it. I believe we have stumbled upon the den of a true

  goblin.”

  Surely I had heard her

  incorrectly, the fae had wiped out all traces of the goblin realm

  millennia ago, their kind too abhorrent and nasty to be allowed to

  continue to exist. They were little more than a nasty footnote in

  books about the vile species that had been compassionately culled for

  the betterment of every realm.

  “I did not want to believe

  it at first either,” the seeress remarked, peering into the open

  room. The room itself did not look like anyone had lived it in for

  some time, the blanket upon the bed even had a fine layer of dust

  over it from being untouched for so long. “However, the sensation

  closely matches what has been recorded and I have had the displeasure

  of being in the presence of a hobgoblin during my rounds of

  researching elusive magical creatures. Being related they evoke a

  similar feeling of disgust, though fortunately much less intense and

  cloying.”

  “I do not think I even

  recall why they were culled, though that stench alone might be good

  enough for me.” Not wishing to entertain the slimy feeling it was

  causing in my mouth I uselessly held my breath and stepped forward to

  close the door, relieved at how instantaneously better the world felt

  with the magical taint contained.

  “Plenty of reasons. Their

  temperament and general level of class and civility matched their

  repulsive nature,” she explained, brushing the sleeves of her robes

  down like some of the stench still clung to the silky fabric. “From

  all written accounts they were perhaps the most underhanded and evil

  creatures ever known. Too cunning and intelligent to let them run

  their own course. They eventually would have caused some realm

  shaking disaster, likely to our own given the mutual hatred our

  respective kinds shared. The war was shift and decisive for a reason,

  we did not dance around and play fair like we might with our own

  kind, we knew they needed to be completely obliterated.”

  “It seems we failed.” I

  ran my tongue against my teeth, trying to scrap the remaining

  horrifying flavor away, it truly had coated the inside of my mouth

  and sinuses from just a single breath in of the air exiting the room.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “If anyone were still alive

  from that point in history, heads would roll, certainly. Though, I

  would imagine that just one hanging around probably is not a terrible

  omen, if it has managed to survive thus far I do not think it is out

  for revenge or strong enough to pose a real threat. If it did, I

  imagine it would have stood its ground, the record of their abilities

  puts them relatively similar in power to a fae.”

  “Then it surely would have

  run,” I scoffed, “one of equal power could not stand up to an

  entire army.”

  “Perhaps.” She nodded her

  head and cast her eyes upon the door. “Though, something about the

  magical aura is intriguingly old, perhaps ancient. I have never heard

  of species living so long and by all written accounts their lifespan

  any stragglers should have died out long ago, but…” A flitting

  laugh escaped her lips and she shook her head like what she was

  saying was ridiculous. “Enough must have survived to preserve a

  small familial line that has been prudent enough to stay far away

  from fae recognition. I cannot think of very many creatures who can

  boast that long of a lifespan and all of them that can are either

  extremely stupid or placid and I dare to think that fae scholars,

  even in ancient times were proficient enough in their research to

  have caught on if goblins were capable of such extreme longevity.”

  “I am very glad you think it

  is a ridiculous idea, I would not want to try to comprehend the

  magical skill level someone could achieve if they decided to focus on

  their talents given so much lifespan. Still, I question what they

  were doing here if our presence is so overwhelming to the populace,

  either they never left this room or was able to shield much better

  than a majority of fae.”

  “I would imagine that since

  the creature would need to keep a low profile at all times they would

  have learned fairly quickly to shield themselves to keep anyone from

  figuring out what they truly were. I would venture to guess we can

  only sense the residue here because this was the one place where they

  let their guard down. I have not worked up the courage yet to step

  into the room proper, but I believe that there is a sealing spell or

  two active in there to contain the magical residue when the door is

  closed so it did not seep out and alert anyone to what they were.”

  “They must have been the one

  to alert the humans,” I said, piecing the events of the invasion

  together. “I do not think any of them would have be able to be any

  the wiser without someone of much more magical might around. No one

  in this realm seemed to take any notice of us on our march here until

  we chose to reveal ourselves.”

  “Most certainly,” she

  agreed, “and I do not for a single moment think it is pure

  happenstance that we find a goblin residing in the same place as our

  fae blessed child. The two must be intertwined somehow, the creature

  would have recognized straight away the potential the girl carries

  and where it comes from. I think not only are we chasing this girl to

  prevent her from falling into the hands of Spring, but also to keep

  her from the dark clutches of a long forgotten enemy.”

  “All the more reason to

  recover her quickly,” I confirmed.

  Perhaps it was farfetched to

  think that a single goblin, though a nasty creature, would pose any

  real threat to the whole of the Vanguards, but it was safest to

  assume the unknown enemy was the most dangerous.

  “Of course, the girl might

  yet be salvageable and if she was talented enough for Spring to want

  her, perhaps she might have some purpose for us. First we just need

  some clues as to where they have fled to.”

  “There are apparently

  strange arcane symbols in the basement that my troops feel I may be

  able to identify, perhaps it will be our first clue if you wish to

  join me,” I instructed.

  The seeress nodded her head

  and motioned with her hand that she would follow me. “Arcane

  symbols are your expertise, but perhaps I may be able to fill in some

  gaps with my general knowledge if you can identify from what school

  of magic they are from.”

  In the dungeon two soldiers

  were waiting on my arrival, snapping to attention as soon as I came

  into view. They looked tired, though they were doing their best to

  appear still fresh and alert. We had not stopped to camp on our

  journey over, hoping to prevent the Spring forces from getting their

  hands on her first. It had been a couple of days since any of us had

  gotten any meaningful rest, it was not typically the way I liked to

  run my soldiers, an army marches best on good food and adequate rest.

  “This way, Commander,” the

  female of the two offered with a bow.

  The soldier led us down into

  the very bowels of the dungeon where the air stank of stale, over

  grown mold that had flourished with no adequate ventilation. It was

  quite obvious that this part of the castle was not commonly inhabited

  and made fresh enough to be pleasant to exist in. A large iron door

  stood before me, a ridiculously sized iron padlock tossed to the

  floor beside it like they had been keeping some terrible, wild, and

  vicious animal locked safely behind it. On the inside, the walls were

  lined with multitudes of black candles and wordlessly I extended a

  magical hand to light them all to illuminate the room. Despite the

  light filling the room, there was not much to see, the walls were

  entirely bare stone and the only point of interest in the room was a

  large arcane symbol carved into the stone of the floor.

  “Demonic.” I instantly

  recognized the symbol, it was almost cliché in how common the

  particular arrangement of lines were used together.

  The seeress bent over at the

  waist and narrowed her eyes at the floor, searching for any traces of

  lingering magical potential that might still reside within the

  stonework. Her magic extended and flooded the groves of the symbol,

  illuminating them with icy blue light and causing the symbol to hum

  as magic flooded its conduits.

  “It was a portal,” she

  confirmed, “Not hard to extrapolate that it was to the demon realm.

  Humans and demons working together, an interesting mix, I wonder what

  a demon would want to do with the human realm. Demons are not the

  most potent magic wielders, but certainly leaps and bounds ahead of

  any human, and the realm holds nothing that they might want that I am

  aware of.”

  “Not that I know of either,”

  I verified. “Demons tend to keep to themselves generally, even

  between their own subspecies. I do think we know where our missing

  girl went though, they must have destroyed the exit point on the

  other side to keep us from being able to immediately follow. Seems

  very odd that they would do so, surely they must know that a fae with

  any decent amount of power can realm walk without a need of magical

  crutches like a portal stone or ritual circle.”

  I dug at the carving with the

  toe of my slipper and considered what might spark such illogical

  actions. If they did have the goblin with them, I was going to go

  with the assumption that they were the one running the show as the

  most magically potent of them and I would therefore be inclined to

  believe that they would know what fae were capable of. In fact, why

  would they use the portal at all? If a goblin could match a fae, they

  could travel without the need for such things. Something was not

  adding up just yet, but I would get to the bottom of it and succeed

  in my mission.

  “Shall I go get prepared to

  realm walk?” the seeress asked.

  “No, not yet, I think it

  best that we rest first. Demons should not stand much chance against

  us, though if they are in league with the goblin I want to take some

  time to fully understand what the dangers are before I lead my

  solders in there blind. Also we all could use good food and enough

  time to rest, I want us to be at our best when we cross the realm

  barrier. We are ahead of Spring, we have seen no signs of them

  following the trail yet.”

  “Lovely,” she said with a

  relieved sigh, “I could use a hot bath and a long nap. Before I do

  though, I will set up my communication crystals and ask for whatever

  information on goblins and demons that is available in the citadel

  library to be transmitted to us.”

  “It might take you some time

  to find a viable ley line to align your crystals with, we are in the

  most magically dead realm I have ever personally stepped foot in,”

  I reminded.

  “Hmrph,” she snorted with

  annoyance, “I can make it happen, though the conduit back home with

  be unstable and slow. Perhaps do not expect a response today, maybe

  even tomorrow, this might delay us more than you intend if you are

  certain you want all the information before we march again.”

  “I am certain,” I

  confirmed, “I will not march an army while blind.”

  She nodded her head once, then

  bowed slightly at the waist, again not quite as much as she probably

  should. “If I may be dismissed then I will get started.”

  “You are dismissed.”

  “I wonder if they have

  decent food in this realm,” she muttered as she left the room,

  already undoing the knot on the cord around her waist to start

  getting out of her battle robe.

  I

  glanced down to the arcane symbol again and pulled a the small piece

  of parchment I kept tucked under my belt for such times when a quick

  note needed to be taken. Concentrating on the symbol until it was

  burned into my mind, I then unfolded the parchment and set my focus

  on the blank surface, forcing the image of the arcane symbol in my

  mind to burn into the surface. With a small whiff of smoke the image

  smoldered into existence and after checking it against the carving

  for accuracy, I refolded the scrap and left the ritual chamber to

  find the finest room in the castle to claim for myself and recharge

  so I could plan the next move with a clear and rested mind.