Had it been two months already? She hoped that Serel and Gertie and everyone else were doing well, that they had enough sense to keep their heads down and their non-human bits hidden deep until those battle-crazy fools had left, making sure that her “evil siren influence” had been fully purged from the populace before they left.

She did understand it, though. If she really were a proper siren, and really had enchanted the people of the territory, these two months were necessary. Otherwise, someone still under her influence might do something silly, like try to free her. It was already considered mercy that they let something they saw as so dangerous live.

A commotion came from below. Odd. It wasn’t time yet for the silent jailor to deliver the daily meal that couldn’t really be called a “meal.”

“EH?” she thought she heard Serel’s voice shriek. “You mean you bloody sods put her in here?” How odd. She must be hallucinating. Elenor settled further from the broken roof, from the patch of grey, cloudy sky she could see out the hole. Maybe it wouldn’t be the starvation or the exposure that would kill her first. Maybe it would be the loneliness.

The commotion drew closer, seemed to stop outside her door. Something jingled, rattled.

The door to her tower cell flew open.

“Eh?” It was Serel. Really, truly Serel.

“My lady!” she cried. She rushed in, worried, a little haggard, hands reaching out to check every inch of Elenor for injuries. “Are you all right?”

“As well as I can be,” Elenor replied, pushing the hands away. “But why are you here? Aren’t you being babysit by those… those…”

“Yeah, it was a pain in the rear end to have to watch our step for two months. But then finally, Gertie and I and some others couldn’t take it anymore and gave them a piece of our mind. The imbeciles even tried to convince us we were still under your thrall, but after laying out the facts, they realized how ridiculous that was. We then coerced—eh hem.” Serel coughed, looking away. “We then asked them nicely to show us where they’d stashed you. I’ll be the first to admit I’m an excellent secretary, but it’s a mite hard to run a territory without a good lord.”

Suddenly, Elenor felt herself lifted into the air.

“Cave Fish, aren’t you lighter than when I saw you last?” Her head swiveled. Minotaur. Rozz.

“You, they said you were dead!”

Rozz nodded. “They thought I was dead. Turns out they underestimated the sturdiness of us mutants quite a bit. So I played dead, and when Gertie came around to check on the ‘body,’ she figured out I still had a pulse and secreted me away in the kitchen.”

Elenor’s breath hitched. If Rozz was alive, maybe… But she couldn’t hope. It would be all the worse after she’d already grieved their passing. “And the others? What were the casualties?”

“None,” Rozz whispered. Elenor clutched her cloak, vision blurring. “Everyone who might have died remembered what you said. Dying isn’t worth it. So we hid or vanished or fled or played dead. Gallae was the worst off, that mage of theirs lobbed a fire spell her way right as she was about to flee. That tree trunk was unconscious and still smoldering when Gertie found her.”

Elenor laughed. It was harder to see now. The tears were coming faster. “All of you?”

“Yes. We’re all fine. Just waiting to fetch you back. Can you walk?”

“I doubt it.”

“Well I suppose my muscles have to be good for something. Hold on, Cave Fish.”

It made for a very strange sight that day, as a tall, burly minotaur gently carried a laughing, sobbing siren out from a tower prison, followed closely by a short human. As the minotaur and his passenger walked away, the human paused by a group of three “heroes” who hovered awkwardly at the edges of the scene.

“Your cooperation was appreciated. Now, considering the damage you’ve done to our territory and its people, we’ll have to kindly ask you to leave.”

“Miss Serel,” a woman at the front with a sword protested.

Serel’s gaze turned sharp. “I know you still think they’re monsters, that she’s a tyrant. But actions speak louder than words, don’t they? You may not believe me, but she is the best lord we’ve had in ages. So I want you to watch as she grows this place into something truly amazing, as she proves that you’re wrong about her, that you’re wrong about everything. Now. Let me ask you to leave once more, and then I will no longer be asking.”

The woman with the sword hesitated. “Very well.”

As a party of three “heroes” left towards the territory border, another party of three "monsters" moved in the opposite direction.

They had work to do, after all.

r/chanceofwords