I’m a Human among Fey

Their eyes narrow and the person behind the door says, "You better not exaggerate, Rookie. You won't get any fame or rewards from overreporting, you'll just take away time from real problems."

"I'm not exaggerating. I need to speak to the elders. NOW!"

"First of all, who are you carrying?"

"My daughter, the youngest person to ever pass the trials."

"Oh? How old is she?"

"Three months."

"What?"

"You heard me, here's her card. I got it updated just two days ago because it had wrong information on it."

She then pulls out what looks like a laminated leaf and puts it through the slit.

There's a bit of time before the voice says, "Did you or anyone else forge this?"

"No."

The eye slit closes and I can hear multiple locks being unlocked. The door opens to an angry looking Elf woman, she's glaring daggers at Hildi with her golden eyes.

Holding out our I.D.'s she says, "I'm reporting this to the elders. I don't care what the decision was for your daughter to go through the trials but this has to be child abuse."

Hildi snatches the I.D.'s out of her hand and says, "Good luck reporting that, it was the organization that made a mistake and nearly killed my daughter."

Hildi then briskly moves along the hallway, still carrying me with her lower two arms.

"Uhm, Hildi you can put me down now I can walk on my own."

"No you can't."

"What?"

"I can see your feet. You can't walk yet. What's even more concerning is that you don't even realize how hurt you are."

Propping myself up a little to look at my feet, Hildi puts her hand over my eyes.

"It's best if you don't look, honey. Wounds inflicted by divine weapons take longer to heal, if you put weight on them now they might split apart again."

"Wait, is it really that bad?"

Pavel answers, "The only reason you can heal these wounds at all is because of your troll-like regenerative abilities, paired with your immense mana and mana regeneration. Most people would have bled out before they could even recover enough to stop bleeding. It's no wonder your mom is close to a breakdown."

"Damn…"

We round the corner and leave the hallway, coming into a giant room with a huge tree in the middle. The tree seems to be in the stages of all four seasons simultaneously, its leaves corresponding to the room design where it's pointing to. The entire room is segmented into a spring, summer, autumn and winter area with most of the bottom floor covered by water that seems to run deep down to its roots. The room is bustling with at least a hundred different Fey, running around holding different papers, books, suitcases and the like. It seems like this room is some sort of hub area that people need to walk through to get to different areas.

We then walk down some staircases to the ground floor and go through a net of different bridges over the lake towards the giant tree. Standing in front of a giant door built into the tree, are multiple guards blocking the way.

"Halt! What brings you to the Elders Council?"

"I have a code black to report."

"And the one you're carrying?"

"My daughter, a victim and a witness."

"Hmm, I see…Alright, come in. Open the doors!"

The gate opens and we get inside the tree. It seems very…empty. There is a Lectern in the middle of the room and around it are bleachers with masks on them just like back during the decision of me becoming a silent leaf member. We go up to the lectern as the doors behind us close and magical lights in different colors start appearing while the masks begin animating, spawning twig like bodies under them. One of the twig masks stands up and asks, "Agent Rue, why have you summoned the council?"

"The Archlich has materialized on Earth and personally made a contract with a human priest of a powerful deity, to unleash a plague on Humanity."

There is a lot of murmuring going on between the masks before the one from before asks, "And you witnessed this personally?"

"No, but my daughter and her familiar have."

"Ah yes…The youngest member to join our organization, I remember you child. Give us your testimony."

I recount to them what I experienced.

"Hmm…And you, familiar, can testify that this is the case?"

"Yes I can," Pavel says, jumping onto the lectern.

There is some more mumbling between the masks, it takes about ten minutes until the representative says, "We are going to surveil the priest, but ultimately it doesn't really matter as long as only Humans are affected."

"What!? You don't understand, this is going to wipe out most of humanity!"

"And how do you know that?"

Unsure whether I'm allowed to answer that, I whisper in Hildi's ear, "Am I allowed to tell them I'm reincarnated?"

"Yes you are, I assume they know anyways."

"Well…As you apparently already know, I was reincarnated and kept my memories from my previous life. I lived about 700 years in the future from now. That's how I know."

There is some more murmuring before the representative speaks up again, "Even if past events from your old world's timeline translate into this world's, why would it matter if most of the humans die? It's not going to affect us."

"I'm not so sure about that… In my world, Fey didn't exist anymore."

There is loud murmuring going through the belchers before the representative asks, "Can you explain in more detail?"

"Well, Fey in my world are a thing of myth, same for demons, divine powers or the undead. While there were loads of people that believed in them they didn't have any evidence for it. No priest could summon a sword or angels with prayer and there was no evidence of demons or Fey existing either outside of myth and tales of old, mostly around and before the time of the black plague."

The masks then talk to each other again, this time for what feels like at least twenty minutes. I'm not sure how Hildi's arms are still carrying me at this point…I guess she's just built different.

The room becomes silent again and the representative says, "We're going to put assassinating the priest and his followers as one of our top priorities. Agent Rue, please give us the coordinates of the incident."

There is a globe that pops up with different numbers at the bottom.
Man…This really is earth.
Hildi then puts in some numbers and a light appears in…Scotland?
I was in Scotland the whole time without knowing!? I thought I was maybe at least in some obscure European country, but this…How did I not notice!? I'm pretty sure I've at least seen pictures before! Wait, isn't Scotland where they film all the fantasy movies? Is that why I didn't notice!? Or was it New Zealand? I don't remember…

"Agent Rue, you and your daughter are now dismissed," The representative declares and the doors behind us open once more.

Hildi then quickly starts running out of the room and carries me towards what looks like an infirmary, with multiple injured people lying on beds. She approaches an earth Elemental and yells, " I need medical treatment for my daughter. NOW!!!"

The earth Elemental turns around slightly annoyed, looks at me and his eyes widen before frantically saying, "Get her on the bed! Nurse! I need you to clean this wound, stat!".

A male water Elemental comes up from behind some curtains but when I try to take a look at what he's doing, Hildi puts her hand in front of my eyes again. I can feel something cold on my feet and after that, I can hear the earth Elemental chant, "Tree of life I seek your aide. Give a drop of your nectar to this child of yours so they may continue enjoying the life you have given them. Heal!"

I feel a warm comfy wave coming from my feet, followed by a short flash of pain as I regain feeling from the middle of my feet I didn't realize I had lost.

The earth Elemental then stops chanting, "Alright, it's done now. Thankfully she responds very well to life magic. She'll probably stay unconscious for a few hours I'd still recommend some bedrest and-"

"Uhm, I'm not unconscious?" I say confused, while Hildi removes her hand from my eyes. The doctor has a surprised and confused expression on his face.

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"I must have not finished healing you, I'm going to go again but I warn you once your nerves start to reconnect you're going to feel an immense amount of pain."

"Oh, I already did feel some pain, it wasn't immense though."

Scratching his head, little pebbles fall from it, he mumbles, "Hmm…I don't understand, usually I have war veterans weep or faint after I heal a wound like that…" He walks away for a second to what looks like an unconscious hedgehog Faunite in their hybrid form and pulls out a needle from their head. He walks back to me and pokes me right in the foot with it.

"Ouch! What was that for!?" He then pokes my other foot as well, "Hey! Stop that!"

Looking a bit puzzled, the doctor scratches his rocky head once more leaving even more small pebbles to fall down on the ground next to him, "Hmm…Her nerves seem to have healed correctly."
He takes a look at me and asks, "Have you completed advanced torture resistance training? I can tell from the scars on your hand that you're a veteran but even still, your pain tolerance is immense."

"Huh? I'm not a veteran, I got the wounds on my hand at the same time as the ones on my feet."

"What!? Which healer let you go after just healing your hands and not treating your feet!?"

"I didn't get healed by anyone before you, my hands and feet regenerated by themselves. They were cleaved in two by a human priest. How long ago was that mommy?"
"Mommy?"

Holding back tears, with her lips trembling, Hildi answers, "About half a summer's night before."

"Wait, wait, wait. You healed those wounds by yourself? You don't look like a troll. Also you just said, 'mommy' I know I'm not supposed to ask but how old are you!?"

"Technically I'm three months old but mentally I'm at least fourteen years old."

"By the Green Man's flowery beard…Did you bring your baby with you on a job or something!? Are you insane!? Also why isn't she wearing a kidlet?"

Hildi speaks up and says, "Before you jump to any more conclusions, I'm on parental leave and this happened to her because she randomly was at the wrong place at the wrong time. She wasn't wearing a kidlet because we were out in the material realm and I didn't think it would be a good idea to go get them, rather than rush her here after she got injured."

"Hmm…I guess you're right." He scratches his head again, causing multiple pebbles to fly around the room as he goes for a cabinet and pulls out a box and hands it to me, "I'm not really good with kids, but you are an insanely tough kid, take this it will help you recover."

"What is it?"

"Salted honey peanuts. Something sweet and savory will do you good after what you went through. Without those, I doubt I would have cut it in the army, Garharharhar. Also, in my eyes, you can call yourself a veteran after this. So, if anyone ever tells you that your scars are ugly or that you should hide them to look pretty, I want you to tell them that an ex-Colonel told you to show them off proudly. These are scars you got from surviving an attack from an enemy of our kind and no civilian has a right to scoff at that. Got that?"

"Yeah."

"Good, you're a very tough cookie kid. Don't let others ever tell you otherwise."

"Okay. Also, mommy you can put me down now. Your arms must feel like they're about to fall off."

"Compared to the pain you went through, that's a small price to pay…Also I refuse. I just feel like the moment I let you go you're going to get yourself hurt again."

"But I…Sigh Fair. Can we go home now?"

"I'm not sure if it's safe to go now Sammy…It's best if we stay here until this has all blown over."

"But we can't!"

"Why not?"

"You said the druids were already on high alert. Once the assassination goes down, they might run away and leave us without any chance of finding out the culprit for my flesh imprisonment."

She looks highly conflicted, "Tsk We most likely have until sundown, you're not going to move an inch away from me while we're in town. Pavel, if she makes any sign of doing something stupid again, knock her out."

"Don't worry, I would have done that even without you telling me."

"Good. Sammy, let's go get you a cloak, afterwards we're going to take a portal back."

She then starts carrying me out of the doctor's office and toward the autumn side of the facility. I didn't really notice it before but now that we're entering the autumn area, both the temperature and smells change. There is a faint breeze carrying the smells of wet earth and fallen leaves following us around as we go through the hallways that are seemingly built out of roots.
Could they be related to the big tree? Maybe the roots curve up out of the water again at some point. Or maybe this is just how they theme their corridors and it's just fake roots? But why would the autumn part be themed and the summer part just be normal brick walls? I'm pretty sure I saw a bit of snow covering the winter area hallways as well. I wasn't able to peek at the spring area but maybe they had some spring themes there as well.

"Hey, mommy?"

"Yes?"

"Does the Silent Leaf not like summer?"

"Heh, it's times like these Sammy where I need to keep in mind your actual age because you notice things normal kids your age wouldn't. Yes, there is a certain prejudice against the summer court in the Silent Leaf."

"Why?"

"Well, the Silent Leaf operates under the jurisdiction of the Winter Court and the Unseelie, in a lot of ways the summer court is opposite to us in terms of climate, people and values. Officially, there is no animosity between the courts and supposedly the monarchs enjoy each other's company but the people don't see it that way. So even if the top brass says to accommodate everyone equally, the people in charge actually building the facilities might do better work for some than others."

"So it's like racism?"

"Kind of, yeah. Though it's less a matter of what you are or look like and more a matter of what values you have and where you come from."

"Hmm…I kinda thought you were better than that."

"Oh, personally I don't discriminate like that. Though I have to admit that I have my prejudices."

"Huh? That's not what I meant. I meant that I thought the Fey were better than that."

"Oh. Why did you use 'you' instead of 'we' then?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're Fey too, so shouldn't you include yourself when talking about our kind?"

"Hmm…I guess you're right. I am technically Fey now."

Pavel chimes in and says, "Not just technically. I can assure you are full Fey."

"I guess, it's just going to take a while to sink in…Especially since I don't really look Fey, besides the ears."

Hildi adds "Well, let's hope that we find some good intel from those druids then. I too would love to see your real form, it's going to be like unpacking a present~"

"Yeah…Once I'm free, we can finally be a normal family. Speaking of, should I hide that I was reincarnated from now on? What do people think of that sorta thing?"

"Hmm…It definitely has a bad connotation to it."

"Yeah…Makes sense. In a way I did kill the child of my biological mother after all."

"Woah, woah, woah. What are you talking about?"

"Well…If my soul got reincarnated that means I essentially killed the kid my biological mother would have had so I can have a body."

Hugging me closely, Hildi sighs, "By the Dark Lady, Sammy. How come you always come to the most self deprecating wrong conclusions?"

"What do you mean?"

"Whether your soul is freshly created, reincarnated without memories or with memories, is not something you choose when you love someone so much that you want to extend that love by having a child. There is no one else that would have been born instead of you, it was always going to be you. You're not a replacement of someone better than yourself, you're just you."

"Then why else would it be seen as something negative?"

"Because it's seen as a developmental disability."

"What? Why? If anything, aren't reincarnated people more developed?"

"Not really. Usually they take a longer time learning our language, they also usually have a lot of past trauma, so many of them have bonding problems and anxiety attacks. They also have trouble socializing and are more likely to develop self destructive habits like addictions."

"I…I guess that makes sense..." Getting a smile on my face, I say, "Maybe if I ever take this necklace off we can just tell my biological parents that I'm reincarnated so they won't want me anymore!"

She uses her third hand to flick my head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You were being self deprecating again, so I flicked you. Listen to me Sammy, the reason having a reincarnated kid is undesirable is not because it's hard but because every good parent wants their child to be happy and every step in the way of that, is something no parent hopes for. Reincarnated kids aren't disliked, they're pitied because they have it harder than other kids."

"Hmm…So, do you pity me?"

"Sammy, honey… At this point I'm far past pity and more at 'What horrible long lasting effects will what happened to you have and how do I mitigate that?'-territory. The only reason we're taking this risk today, is because once we can free you I can focus on helping you recover and being a normal kid."

She then carries me into what looks like a giant costume department. There are hundreds if not thousands of different clothes in different sizes. Anything from Fey clothing to Earth clothing.

We walk up to a counter where a blue colored female Ogre is looking at us.

"Ah, Agent Rue. Do you need something for a mission?"

"Actually, I need a cloak, gloves and some shoes as well as face covering that will block out the sun for my daughter. She has extreme sunlight sensitivity. It's so bad that-"

I can't hear what else Hildi says because she puts her hands over my ears for parts of the conversation.

"...Ah yes that is indeed worthy of consideration. I'd probably recommend these garbs then, they are made of a material that doesn't easily set-"

She puts her hands over my ears again.

"...They also block out the sun well."

"Why do you keep holding my ears shut?"

"Because it's best if you don't hear some of the things we're discussing."

The Ogre then prepares a bunch of clothes for me to wear. A dark blue cloak, a scarlet red dress with a black undergarment, thigh high socks and gloves that go up the entire arm, together with a pair of red shoes.

"And this…Is for your face." She says putting down a pink bunny mask on the table.

"Pfft, haha."

Hildi looks at me, giggles, then smiles and asks, "What's so funny?"

"I dunno, it's just…We're in this secret assassin hideout and I just did not expect such a cutesy mask, hahaha."

Hildi pets my head and says, "You're such a silly goober. Come on, let's get you dressed."

"I can dress myself on my own! You just need to put me down."

"I will put you down but I'm not letting you go anywhere unsupervised. You can either dress yourself with Pavel or you can do it with me."

"Fine…Let's do it together then."

"Good, I needed to wipe the blood of you anyways..."
She sighs and lets me down on the ground, picks up a full water bucket with a towel inside and goes with me to the dressing room. I take off my tattered dress and let her wipe down the blood, which is mostly around my arms and legs as well as on my face. After she's done, I put on my new clothes which surprisingly fit like a glove despite the Ogre not measuring me.

Leaving the changing room, Pavel lets out an impressed whistle, "You could probably feed Hildegard for multiple days with that bloody bucket."

I take a look at the bucket myself and yeah…It's deep red. Just looks like blood with less viscosity.

Hildi just rolls her eyes and says, "Don't be overdramatic Pavel, it'll rub off on her."
We then go to the counter again where Hildi adds, "I really appreciate your craftsmanship. You did a great job as always, Agent Okra."

"Heh, well I'm just glad to have people that enjoy my craftsmanship. Have a safe trip, Agent Rue."

Hildi takes me by the hand as we leave the costume room and go back down the hallway. It takes a bit of time but we eventually reach the end of the hallway where a room with multiple runes on the ground is waiting. Hidli leads me up, into the middle of the runes, takes out a piece of chalk and writes down some runes herself. When she's done, the runes around us start lighting up and a whirring noise is heard as a portal opens that seems to connect right into the bathroom of our house. Hildi then tightens her grip around my hand and we walk through the portal.