A Court Of Fire And Pain

Getting ready

Chapter 29 Aelin:
The rest of our courts were looking to us for answers. But none of us could explain what was going on. Everyone looked disappointed, and the rest of us who witnessed that shit were pale. Sure we had seen war, but this was different.
Luckily Cassian broke the silence. "So... are we going to fight or what?"
Oh yeah, he challenged me. "Let me wash off first." I wasn't visibly dirty, but I could still feel the wrongness of what occurred. It was overwhelming.
So I went and had a shower. A long hot shower. I changed clothes and went out to the courtyard. There I met Cassian, who was wearing a smug look. Everyone except for Rhysand was standing a little bit away, watching.
"You can decide how we fight."
I gave him a shit eating grin. Idiot. "No magic, just the way we are now. First to draw blood wins"
He grinned back. He seemed so confident. Poor guy. I could easily see two 'concealed' daggers and a sword. He came prepared.
But I, on the other hand, came as my usual self. I had no weapons. At least from his point of view.
Rowan shouted at us to start. And we did.
He lunged at me, not pulling out any of his weapons. Yet.
I easily dodged got behind him, kicking him forward. He was heavy set though, so it didn't do much. Right now I had to let him think I was defenseless.
He couldn't bring out his sword as I was too close to him, but he brought one of his daggers. His eyes widened as I didn't miss a beat and disarmed him. I stood away from him.
Show time.
I brought out two small knives and threw them at him, one on the right, one on the left. He ducked, just in time for my boot to meet his chin. Still, the weight difference made it so he was only a little fazed. But it gave me time to bring my elbow down on his head, and get rid of his other dagger and sword. Now he didn't have any weapons.
He jumped away and I saw it in his eyes. He knew he underestimated me. Time to put him out of his misery, although it would be fun to see him get embarrassed. I pulled out a couple more daggers and ran at him. He dodged but I twirled and almost slashed his face. He managed to duck and back away. I couldn't have that. So I pressed closer and put my seemingly weaponless arm around his knock, effectively putting him in a chokehold. Before he could break free, I slid a dagger out of my sleeve and pressed it to his neck. I pressed it a little hard so a drop of blood appeared.
"First blood. I win."
I dropped him and walked over to Rowan and Lysandra, who high fived me.
"That's my girl."
Then I went back and started picking up my daggers, sliding them back into their hidden slots.
"How many of those do you have?" Cassian was watching me with shock still on his face. Not used to losing I presume.
"Many."
"Wow ok."
We went back inside just in time to see Rhysand exit his study. He glanced us over. "So I guess Aelin won?"
Cassian pouted. "You should have seen the amount of weapons on her! I don't know how she can walk  with so much metal weighing her down!"
Rhysand remained serious despite the easy atmosphere. "There's something I've been thinking about. I've decided we should hold a meeting with the other high lords. And I've already sent the message so you can't talk me out of it. They need to know that we might have another war on our hands."
We all thought it over, and he had a point. This was bigger than just us. This was a Valg king for fucks sake.
"When is it?"
"In two days."
We sat down and discussed who should come to the meeting. There were too many for all of us to go.
"Well I definitely have to go, as well as Rowan."
Feyre nodded. "We should leave behind all of my court beside Rhys and myself. We should bring as many of you as we can. They need to know you."
"Right. So Manon should come as well, seeing that she's the queen of the Wastes. And Connal too. He can talk about Erawail in more detail then we could."
Elide arched her brow. "What about me? I'm not that important so I should probably stay here, right?"
Feyre sighed. "That would be for the best. Some of the high Fae are entitled bastards who have low views on humans. It's better for you to stay away from them."
"Oh."
"I understand how you feel though. I was once human too."
Elide's eyes brightened. "Right. I can stay here and help strategize."
We ended up having 7 people going.
Me, Rowan, Manon, Lysandra, Connall, Feyre, and Rhysand.
They briefed us on how to act to the high lords to ensure no deaths. This would be fun though. And we would have a chance to see their world outside of the night court.
~~~~~
Soon enough it was time. We all held hands like the big happy family that we weren't, and winnowed away.
Apparently we were the last to arrive.
Rhysand looked them over. "What, did you all come early just to make us look bad?"
Hellion nodded. "That's what I did."
Beron scowled. "Can you just tell us why we're here? And who are those people?"
Before he replied Rhysand pulled out a chair for Feyre and sat down next to her. The rest of my court, including myself, remained standing.
"Well," Rhysand started. Then he explained everything in as little detail as possible. He also left out who we were exactly, letting us introduce ourselves. Before we could however, Beron spoke up.
"And I still don't get why these people are here. You expect us to believe they're from another world? Out of the males the silver haired one looks like he could be useful but the other one... meh. And then the rest are female. And two of them are human! You expect defenseless human females to be of any use?"
Lysandra stiffened in anger at his words. But it was Manon who looked like she was going to snap.
"What did you call me?" Her voice was dangerously low. Predatory. But Beron didn't hear it, too caught up in his sexist bullshit to recognize a warning.
"I said you were a defenseless female human. Got a problem with it? Does the truth hurt?"
Manon's eyes glossed over in rage. The rest of us knew Beron was in trouble, but we didn't stop it. We wanted to see how it would play out.
Beron was still going. "What're you going to do huh? Slap me? You have no place at a high lords meeting. You should-"
Manon stepped closer to him. "I think you should stop talking." Her iron nails and teeth shot out. "Before things get messy."
He paled. "W-what are you?"
She glared at him. "Not human. The name is Manon Havilard Blackbeak, queen of witches." Her voice turned icy. "Does that answer your question?"
He tried to regain his composure but failed miserably.  "What about the other one? Wait..." he looked for Lysandra, but she wasn't where she was standing before.
Then something taped his shoulder. He turned around and let out a high pitched scream.
The other high lords did a double take as they tried to process the two Berons, one sitting and one standing. In Beron's form, Lysandra gave a dramatic flourish. In a whiny high voice she squealed, "my name's Beron, and I'm a little bitch!"
We spent the next couple of minutes or hours laughing until we ran out of air. All the while Beron was sitting with an expression of indignation.
"Shut up! It's not funny! I am a high lord! I demand you stop!"
I walked over and leaned close to him. "You shouldn't have the right to demand anything. You're an asshole with power which makes you think you can actually do something in this world. But little cowards like you just sit there all important like, wasting time while people's lives are in danger. My children are out there. And it's people like you who are getting in my way." I glared with as much ferocity I could muster this close after laughing my head off.
He flinched so I think it worked.
"I am disgusted that we share the same power. You don't deserve power, wealth, or titles. My friends and I here have gone through hell and back to earn our places in society. We've been through more than you probably have, and you're like, what, 10000 years old? So listen gramps. Don't you dare talk about my friends that way ever again."
"How dare y-"
I summoned a flame in my hand. "You see this flame?" I snuffed it out. "Oh look it's gone! Just like the fucks I give about this conversation."
He tried to speak but I snapped in his face. "Gone. No more fucks are being given, about you or your shitty ideas. Gone."
I went back to my place beside Rowan, who along with the rest of them, was holding back a laugh.
"Now can we talk about something productive?"