Law of Shadows

“Always make sure that you are the biggest fish in the pond.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Fairy***

***Gardener***

“Your campaign doesn't have the effect which we hoped for.” Winter scratches his hair and circles a finger on a sheet of paper with some numbers and names. He is sitting on his personal throne of ice in the middle of my forest.

Summer scowls and looks away. “Even if we control a lot of people in key positions, it still takes time to get the humans to do anything. They aren't a boulder that can be moved with a single push. Humanity's governments are more like a pile of sand. We can push at it, but our hands just sink in. I hate to admit it, but we might have to do something more drastic.”

Autumn sighs and stretches himself on top of the old tree-trunk which he chose as a seat. “Then what do you propose? Shall we stage a massacre, committed by a supernatural race of your choosing? Then we can rush in and save the day to prove that we are the good guys.”

I roll my eyes and return to my intensive inspection of the group of mushrooms. Fairy was disconnected from the normal world for so long that it started to develop its own ecosystem. It's interesting to see what could have been, if the humans hadn't completely controlled their environment.

This mushroom is so interesting because it catches insects with its sticky growths. It's also mobile and can move at a snail's pace. I wonder if it can still be called a 'mushroom'. It's more like an animal by now. I am very sure that its ancestor was a genuine mushroom. Maybe the magic in this place is doing something to speed up its evolution? I sigh. It’s proof that I stayed in this place for too long.

“Gardener! What do you think?”

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Spring's voice forces me to return my attention to the four fools. “About what?” I ask.

Winter urges me to answer quickly. “Make a suggestion. We want to stage an incident to show the world that we are the good ones. Where would you perform such a scene?”

“It has to be somewhere, where the world can watch. But not a place with enough Old Ones to interfere.” It's so horrible when idiots are trying to be smart. I tilt my head and consider their idea. Then I consider everything I know about the human world. “Whatever you do, I suggest you start small. Pick a territory where the Old Ones are easily overwhelmed. A clan that doesn't have ties to other clans and is low in numbers. How about a place like Carinthia?”

Autumn shakes his head. “We just lost a research facility there.”

Summer raises a finger to show that she doesn't wish for interruptions. “But the place was cleaned out by only two Old Ones. Seems like the clan there is small. Maybe we can even overwhelm them. The female in the video looked to be the right age.” She licks her lips.

They continue their discussion, but I return my attention to the snail-mushroom-thing. Once they've failed, I can always say that they were to ones who came up with the idea.

***Carinthia***

***Magnus***

It feels like it has been weeks since I found the time to relax and play cards. After they left me behind, I packed all my things and joined this Friday's draft at the Diamond Mox. I even managed to assemble a pretty cool deck with a lot of card-draw, removal and four strong creatures as finishers. But my actual winning condition are two artefacts which allow me to discard a card and return a creature from my graveyard to the battlefield, attacking, just to sacrifice it at the end of combat.

All four of my finishers have strong 'enter the battlefield' effects, so I gain something, even if they get blocked. So far my strategy worked perfectly and allowed me to overwhelm my opponents by discarding useless cards.

My opponent plays a land and casts a spell to exile my graveyard. It is the second game, so he side-boarded the spell after seeing my strategy. I could play a counter-spell, but I decide not to. Normally, losing the creatures in my graveyard would cost me the game because I rely on them. Though in this case it doesn't hurt me that badly. I still have one of my strong creatures on my hand and getting it into the graveyard is just a matter of discarding it with my artefact.

So I decide to save the counter-spell for something more dangerous. My opponent plays the colour white, so he could have something like Disenchant to destroy my artefact. That would hurt me much more in this situation. With twenty-four cards left in my deck, I would have to play more card-draw and rely on finding the second artefact. If I am unlucky, I might mill my own deck and therefore lose the game because I am out of cards.

Better to take this setback.

My phone rings and I answer it while I put the stack which represents my graveyard onto the pile with the exiled cards. “Yes?”

“It's Eva. We need you at the Mundus Park! Some insane hobgoblins are running rampant here! They are attacking the humans and are trying to dig a new lair!” Eva's voice sounds a little stressed.

It's my turn. I draw a card and discard my creature to set my combo up for the next turn. “I am sorry. Today is Friday evening. You know what that means.”

“You have to help us! There are too many of them! This will hurt our image!”

I sigh. “Who cares about a few hobgoblins. The most they can do, is to rape a few women before I am done here. The women can take the pill when I rescue them tomorrow.”

“Fae!”

I glare at the ceiling. Eva is trying everything. “What? I didn't hear you. I think the connection is bad.”

“Fae! Get your ass over here, you good for nothing-” Then the call disconnects.

I return my attention to the game, but a few moments later I get a text message from Sely. “Fae are up to something! Heading out.”

I slowly lower my forehead onto the table and take a long, deep breath with my eyes closed.

“L- l- lord? This sounds very urgent. Are you sure that it has time?” My human opponent asks. His voice sounds disturbed. “Your eyes shone like red flashlights. Is that healthy?”

I sit up and stack all my cards onto a single pile. “Tell the tournament manager that I concede.” I shove the pile into my deck-box and drop it into the backpack with my cards. Then I head outside to my SLK.

On the way, I whistle a happy tune and try to think of all the good things that happened in my life. I reconnected with my aunt and got a really hot girlfriend. Now she is my woman and pregnant and rushes right into danger...

“No. Happy thoughts! There is no reason to be angry. None at all.”

I get to screw her every night and she is very open to sexual experiments. There is the little issue that she came with one, now two, attachments. And there is also the third attachment which appeared out of the blue...

“No. Happy thoughts! There is no reason to be angry. None at all.”

I chant the words like a mantra while I get into my car and start the motor. Then I abide by the traffic rules, making sure that I don't have an accident. The Mundus Park is just ten minutes from here.

The Mundus Park is close to the lake where the city canal ends. Its main attraction is a large exhibition of famous miniature buildings. None of them is larger than three metres. There are pieces like the Pyramids, the White House or the Eiffel tower. The whole thing is intended as a joke, but the models are really good.

A group of three police cars speeds past and overtakes me, breaking the speed limit.

“Happy thoughts! There is no reason to be angry. None at all,” I chant the mantra and search my pockets for some cigarettes. All I need is one joint. But sadly, Sely did a good job in finding and disposing of all my weed.

At last, I arrive at the scene and stop the car. The Mundus Park is a battlefield. And not a simple one at that. On top, there are several news copters circling above the area.

It's a battle between three parties. Closer to me, holding the pyramids, are Sely, Fiacre and Cecilia, Eva, her vampires, and Adam with a whole bunch of his Krampus.

Then there are the fae, who are trying to fight the hobgoblins and our people at the same time. The fae magicians took control of the White House and are using it as cover. They are much more numerous, but at the same time their reckless attempt at killing the hobgoblins brought them between our people and the hobgoblins.

Since when have the fae a problem with hobgoblins? I thought that they were buddies since hobgoblins can't be used as breeders.

Finally there are the hobgoblins who are streaming out of a hole under the model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I get out of the car and whistle. Then I walk into the chaos, approaching Sely in a straight line, who is roasting a fae with her fire breath. Bullets and spells are flying everywhere while some people are fighting in close combat in the area between the three groups. And Sely is right among them.

Bodies from all sides are everywhere. It looks like a warzone.

To be on the safe side, I raise my wards and barriers. It proves useful, since a bullet ricochets off my shield a few moments later.

A hobgoblin intercepts me in close combat, but the creature reaches just the height of my chest. Hobgoblins come in all sizes. Depends on how much human they have in their tree of ancestors. They are dark skinned humanoids with large tusks. I catch the goblin’s club and pull him closer. Then I grab his throat and channel power through my muscles to hurl him as a living projectile at the White House.

The hobgoblin warriors aren't really a threat except for their numbers. Their shamans can be dangerous though. They know some powerful curses and can control golems.

I whistle again and break up a fight between a fae and a hobgoblin by casting Forceblade. They were so preoccupied with each other that they didn't even notice my magic until they were cut in half.

Finally, I reach Sely who is sitting on a fae's back, bashing his head into the pavement. I whistle again and grab Sely at her hips to throw her over my shoulder.

“Let me down! We have to stop this!”

I turn around and carry her back towards our position where it seems less likely to be caught by the fae or the hobgoblins. I whistle again.

“What are you doing? Why are you whistling? Let me down!”

I set Sely down next to Eva, who got an AWP from somewhere. She aims and presses the trigger. Over at the White House, a fae's head disintegrates in a cloud of blood and gore. Fiacre and Cecilia are satisfied to hurl spells at our enemies.

Sely is glaring at me, but luckily I don't have to explain myself. The loud noise of splashing water from the nearby canal draws everyone's attention. Then Lindwurm's head comes into view, followed by the rest of her body. She breaks through the park's fence and flattens a row of cars, not even noticing them.

Lindwurm has a lot of similarities to a Chinese dragon, but her legs are longer and have huge claws to hold her prey. Wyrm may live in lakes, but in nature they hunt whales in the sea. I try to keep her at home by feeding her enough. To travel quickly to their hunting grounds, wyrm also have a set of large wings and natural magic to overcome the laws of physics.

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I whistle again and Lindwurm notices me. Roaring, she presses her limbs to her sleek body to move quickly like a snake. On her way, she trashes the White House and flattens the fae who weren't fast enough to evade, leaving them as red smears of blood.

Several people change their aim towards the wyrm. But at the size of a jumbo jet, Lindwurm doesn't even notice bullets. Her smooth scales are thick plates of reinforced bone. Their structure is close to a biological version of carbon fibre and ceramics. Even spells don't pose a large threat to the magical creature since she can absorb energy. When nobody disturbs her, she drifts all day long close beneath the lake's surface and collects energy like a solar cell. In winter she stays inside my reality marble unless I call her.

Lindwurm coils around our position and places her head on the ground in front of me. I smile and pet her snout. She starts purring like a cat and the whole area vibrates. Well, a rather large cat.

“Look, Lindwurm.” I point at the fae and hobgoblins. “I brought you a lot of nice little tasties! Fetch!”

The huge, slitted eyes focus on the invaders and a split tongue licks over her snout.