Elder Cardinal looked at him, “I share the others’ opinion that you will eventually solve this issue for us. It is only a matter of time.”
Danny appreciated the vote of confidence, but that was a bit much.
The Elder continued, “As far as the verbal agreement which the Queen and Lady Basalt have drafted, I understand it leans greatly in your favor. I expected you would be interested, so I managed to grab the latest version of the agreement.”
The elder reached into his robes and pulled out a few leaves of paper and handed them to Danny.
Danny took some time to read over the documents. He was pleased to see they had written the document specifically with his expressed wishes in mind.
Cranny grumbled, *About damn time…*
The agreement would give Danny and his wives, essentially, political immunity. As long as whatever Danny chose to do is considered beneficial to the host country, they would support him in whatever capacity they could. There was also language about how they would handle the event that additional “members” join his group. Of course, they reserved the right to “expel” him from a country should he violate major laws.
*Works for me, Danny.*
Elder Cardinal looked closely at Danny, “You aged yourself, I see. Are you sure you wanted to do that?”
Danny nodded, asking, “Will I age on my own?”
The elder shrugged, “We don't really know. Most Ascendants were already much much older. Maybe, like the elves, you will age until you have reached maturity, then slow down or stop. I would suggest not aging yourself too much more or too frequently. Some things should not be rushed, Danny.”
Danny bowed in acknowledgment to the elder’s wise words, “Yes, aging myself, even this much, was unpleasant. So, what are the nobles complaining about now?”
Elder Cardinal shifted to a more comfortable position, “After spending over an hour on the goblin threat, it fell back to complaining about the usual. The peasants have been noticing for decades now that they are not living as long as the nobles. They are supposed to not know about the mana rationing, as we have been doing it slowly over the years, but the evidence speaks for itself. 500 years ago, we easily explained it away as pedigree. With our numbers growing rapidly, we have had to decrease the amount rationed out even further. The differences have been getting too extreme to hide it.”
“How? Has the decreased lifespan created more elves?”
Elder Cardinal looked down and sighed, “Danny, you will find this out eventually, so there is no use hiding it. Elven women are normally only fertile twice a year. On the winter and summer solstices. Well, that was true until we started rationing mana. The less mana an elven woman stores, the more frequently she becomes fertile. The winter solstice is still weeks away, and one of the prominent noblewomen, present today, has already become pregnant. That is another reason this meeting isn't going so well. The nobles are starting to be affected by the mana shortage. They didn’t realize we were also rationing their mana, until now.”
Danny turned on his mana sight and looked toward where he had seen the doors to the throne room. There were a number of lights representing an individual’s connection to the source, but he couldn't tell the pregnant woman's from two people sitting next to each other.
*Danny, I isolated the noblewoman, and you can see the two connections almost side by side. Any two people that close together would not normally be in a public setting.*
That gave Danny a question, “Elder, when does a...creature gain their connection to the source?”
The elder pondered this for a moment, “There was one druid who specialized in domesticated animals. She noted in one of her journals that a connection formed not long after mating.”
Danny realized that probably meant fertilization. Changing to a topic he was looking into for a future project, Danny asked, “Elder, have you really read all the books in the library?”
The elder smiled proudly and nodded.
“How long would that take to do?”
The elder pondered, “Many years.”
Danny smiled to himself at how much he wished he could read what was in the elven library. Then had a thought, “Elder, can all elves see mana?”
The elder shook his head, “No, most established druids can’t see mana, only sense its usage. Though, that’s just the ones who use mana regularly and for many years, like the Elder Council.”
Danny wondered if he could work on sensing the mana in the same way.
Cranny said, *I don’t see why not. Though, we would have to have someone send mana our way.*
Disrupting Danny’s train of thought, there was a knock at the door, and a servant appeared, “Ascendant, the queen and assembled guests await your presence.”
CHAPTER 17
The large double doors to the throne room opened as a self-important servant who stood to one side announced to the room, “Ascendant, Danny Creek of Diadem.”
Danny walked in through the doorway to see easily the largest room he had visited in the palace. The walls went so high that the tree started to twist in on the room. There was no discernible ceiling as the tree eventually merged back together at a far off point. The multitude of colorful leaves, hanging from different intervals, seemed to add to this lofty affect.
The walls were decorated with long tapestries, and ornate rugs covered the floors. A long stretch of pale green rug connected the doorway Danny now stood in to the bottom of the dais where the queen sat on her large throne. The throne looked as if it had been grown from the palace floor and not carved, as he had first suspected. To her right sat the heir, Prince Hawk, and to the left her husband.
Danny looked around and spotted Willow over to one side sitting next to Elder Breeze and Elder Frost. He also noticed the elven ambassador to Diadem sitting with them. The rest of the room was filled with finely dressed elves. Every single one of them was looking at Danny with expressions that ranged from curiosity to suspicion and finally to disgust. Danny was a little surprised by the later reactions but admitted to himself it had to be expected.
Elder Cardinal slipped in behind Danny and walked around to sit with the other elders.
Danny had stopped just inside the room to gather his bearings and to reassure Phantom to wait out of sight in the foyer.
As Danny walked forward, the elves Danny passed suddenly made noises of shock. Following their eyes to where they looked at his back, Danny remember what he was wearing.
One elven woman in particular stood up and pointed at him, “Your majesty, what is the meaning of this? This…human is wearing a perversion of the symbol of our nation and royal house.”
Before the queen could respond, another elf stood up. He was, of course, handsome enough to put Earth’s male “so-called” super models to shame. Speaking with a refined air, he demanded, “I see what is clearly going on, and I will not allow it! Your majesty, you promised me the princess’s hand in marriage. Now, you are throwing her away to this…this…human boy!”
Others in the room stood and started yelling, struggling to make their own voices heard. Danny stopped and just stood there in the middle of it all and patiently waited to see what the queen would do.
Rising out of her chair and taking the time to smooth out the voluminous dress that she was wearing, the queen raised a hand daintily to her throat, “SILENCE!”
The sound reverberated around the room and Danny could tell the sound was immediately muffled from his own ears.
*Thanks, Cranny!*
*Anytime.*
The nobles around the room were either cowering or covering their ears in pain. Danny noticed the royals and elders were not as affected.
The queen turned to address the outspoken noble male elf, “Lord Pine, would you please remind me when it was exactly that I ‘promised’ you my daughter’s hand in marriage?”
Lord Pine, who was still wincing in pain, looked suddenly worried, “Did I say promised, Your Majesty? I must have misspoken! My, my most sincere
apologies for my slip of tongue.” With that the lord nervously bowed low to the queen and sat down as if to hide his presence as much as possible.
With a cold stare, the queen watched the lord sit there a bit longer, before eventually turning to address the rest of the room, “As you have told me countless times and in numerous ways this morning, the sacred trees we have are not enough to support our current or future population. Noble Houses, I present to you the answer to this problem.” With that, the queen gestured toward Danny.
The whole room turned again to look expectantly at Danny.
Danny did his best to keep from his face his annoyance at the queen’s grandiose assumptions. He asked, *Cranny, why are we trying to help them again?*
Cranny ventured a guess, *…Princess?*
*Try again.*
Danny could practically hear the smile on Cranny’s face in his next words, *Power!*
Danny smiled and walked further down the aisle and stopped short of the dais. Bowing low to the queen, he spoke loudly, “You requested my presence, Your Majesty?”
The queen smiled at his confidence and bowed slightly toward Danny, “Yes Ascendant, thank you for joining us this morning.”
Turning to her daughter, the queen gestured for Willow to join them, and the queen descended from the dais. Grabbing Danny’s left hand and Willow’s right, the queen brought them together between her own hands, “Elders and assembled nobility, I would like to formally announce the engagement of my daughter, Princess Willow, to the Ascendant, Danny Creek.”
The room broke out into scattered applause, and Danny could see more than half of the nobles just sitting there, glowering. Danny also noticed that the side with the most clapping, chose to sit nearest the elders.
The queen raised a hand for silence, “I would also like to announce that the marriage will be held within two weeks’ time to coincide with Princess Willow’s birthday.”
Cranny grumbled, *Well, they are moving fast. You think something happened, Danny?*
*Doesn’t matter, since this takes the pressure off us needing to hurry and create the sacred tree seeds.*
The room broke out again into scattered applause.
A lady from the side opposite of the room from the elders stood up, “Your majesty, I feel I must protest this decision. We nobles have so few children already. Our kind cannot afford to have part of our royal bloodline cut off unnecessarily.”
Before the queen could speak, Danny stepped forward and addressed the lady directly, “What is the acceptable quota of elven children I will be required to have with the princess?”
The lady looked at Danny, not appreciating his apparent jest, replying, “Ascendant, humans and elves cannot have children.”
Danny made an obvious show of looking around confused. Slapping his forehead, he acted as if he had just realized that the woman was referring to him. Looking down, he covered his face with one hand while shaking it despondently. All the while, he was laughing loudly as if there was a joke only he understood.
When he raised his head, the room broke out in noises of shock.
Danny had activated his Nature Aspect but in his elven form this time. He was surprised when his feet, now covered in bark, reached into the tree below and started drawing nutrients into his body to help effect the change. He soon felt the roots that had sprung from his feet fall off and stretch his now free toes. He noted a change in his peripheral vision as he surely now sported those high even cheekbones.
Gloating over his wit and the room’s shocked expressions, Danny was momentarily distracted by something repeatedly touching his butt. The queen being the only one behind him, Danny couldn’t help feeling a little weirded out by this, but decided to press on, “Again, how many elven children will be sufficient to please the nobility?”
Willow whispered next to him, “Danny!”
Danny didn’t look over and whispered back, “Hang on, I got this.”
Danny licked his dry and irritated nose before continuing with his response, “I can take on many forms and as you can see elf is one of them.”
Danny saw Willow reach up and over his head to start rubbing his ear. It felt really good and he couldn’t help the rumbling that started in his chest. Danny was confused, as he didn’t know elves could purr, especially this loud.
Danny froze in sudden realization.
With great self control, Danny managed to only scream out internally, *Cranny, why the hell am I in my ghost leopard form!*
Laughter exploded in Danny’s ears alone; the laughter abated enough for Cranny to get out, *Oh, oh, ha… Meow!* Cranny continued his unrestrained laughter.
*Cranny, when I next get a moment to myself, I will find a way to put you back into that crystal, and this time I will place it next to my Entropy Affinity Aspect. You two probably have way too much in common.*
This sobered Cranny slightly, *Oh, stop. You should see the way the princess is looking at you while you’re purring! Totally worth it!*
Danny turned to see the princess completely enraptured as she was still rubbing his ear. He didn’t think it was possible for her irises to get any larger.
The princess noticed that his attention had turned to her and lowered her hand, apologizing, “Sorry, I-I couldn’t help it.”
Danny briefly looked back to confirm that he did, in fact, now have a tail, and the queen wasn’t molesting his posterior. Focusing on his magic and not leaving any of it to Cranny’s control, he switched to his elf form.
This time the roots didn’t spring up, but all the body hair from his cat form was shed. Danny brushed off the white hair from his shoulders and did his best to ignore all the hair now trapped inside his robes. Danny knew from trying this form out the previous night, his elven hair took on a finer quality and his features became sharper and more refined than they were in his human form. While his high intelligence had rendered him extremely attractive, his Elven Aspect somehow refined this look even further.
Turning to Willow, Danny asked, “How do I look?”
Willow looked disappointed but smiled encouragingly, “You look really handsome, Danny, but…when are you going to turn back into a cat?”
Danny’s smug and confident smile faltered.
The queen leaned forward and whispered, “I agree; you do look very handsome, Danny.”
Danny rolled his eyes, “Thanks a lot, Mom!”
The queen couldn't stop the small smile that appeared on the corner of her mouth.
Quickly walking to the middle of the room, Danny raised his hands, “You see, I am not a human or an elf.”
*… or a cat*
*Shut it, Cranny!*
“I am something even better. Now, I consider myself a fair sort of person, so if more than half of you have a problem with me marrying the princess, we will call it off. Let's do this with a raise of hands. All opposed with the marriage raise your hand. Come on, get them paws or whatever you elves have in the air.”
The nobles looked around uncertainly. Until a lord, who hadn’t spoken yet, defiantly looked at Danny and raised his hand. Then, others hesitantly joined him, until a good bit more than half of the room had their hands raised.
Danny mentally reached out to Phantom, who exploded through the closed double doors and bounded down to stand next to Danny.
The throne room exploded into a cacophony of talking and excitement. Most of them had already heard about the boy’s familiar, but they had not actually seen it themselves.
Danny climbed onto the cat’s back as he looked around the room in feigned annoyance, “QUIET!” Danny really wished he could have used Air Affinity while in his Nature Aspect, but his normal voice seemed to do the trick, as everyone quieted and looked toward him.
Danny stood there and let the silence sink in for a moment, “Now, raise your hands if you don't want the princess and me to marry.”
The room stood deathly still as it seemed no one dared to move. Then Lord Pine, looking around, raised his hand all while glaring in c
hallenge toward Danny.
Before anyone could join the lord, Phantom started to glow with an intense white light. Many of the elves immediately realized what this meant, and word quickly spread to those ignorant of its significance.
“An Ascendant Sacred Beast!”
Phantom’s Harmony Aura exploded outward, bathing the room in a blinding light.
When the light faded, Danny looked around to notice that Lord Pine’s chair was now oddly empty.
Confirming that no one else was ready to oppose him, Danny clapped his hands once, “Good! Your Majesty, with your leave, I will start working on the task you have given me.”
The queen just nodded to him with an amused smile on her face.
Reaching down, he brought the princess’s hand to his lips, “I look forward to our wedding, Princess Willow.”
Princess Willow excitedly whispered conspiratorially, “Later, let me rub your ears some more!”
Danny’s face froze, trying his best to find a double-meaning behind that request, thinking, *Wellll Crap! I am going to be spending a lot of time as a cat now aren’t I…*
Before anything else degrading could happen, Danny had Phantom quickly rush them out of the room.
Cranny complained, *D... Danny what are you doing? You are supposed to pick her up on your steed, kiss her in front of everyone, then ride off and make sweet hot princess lo…. Ahhhh! You are so useless!”
CHAPTER 18
Later that morning, Elder Frost entered the research room in the elder’s wing. Looking around for her notebook, she found it lying on the chair she had been using the day before.
Turning around, she jumped at finding Danny curled up with Phantom in the far corner, reading a book.
Recovering from her surprise, the elder exclaimed, “Danny, good job impressing the nobles today. I never thought I would see the day someone other than the queen could manage to shut them up for more than five seconds.”
Danny looked up from his book, “Thank you, Elder.”
”So, what do you have planned today? I haven’t been able to track down anything extra in the texts Cardinal gave me.”
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