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"Hello folks," I said, repeating h to carry over the whispers, grus of full-volume conversations

"Help, please?" I asked Blondie She nodded, and then she did what she would never have done for herself, as it was too cheap and she believed in winning people over with charis I needed all the help I could get, she let her power free

The first fes of creatures took a visible step back, and even people in the back of the roo wind For that’s what it felt like--a sudden tornado in the rooh, I thought, as Blondie subdued her mojo and, one by one, I saw all those faces turn to watch me expectantly

"Ust the crowd nodded, even as sorew impatient "Who are you?" shouted a voice to my left I couldn’t help but smile

"My naht the Red and the White"

There was a sharp, uncoh spread through the rooht of uys

The laughter stopped just as quickly as it had started, however, when I pulled out the ax

The labrys showed up inthat uncanny sentience, as if it were aware of the situation, it didn’t just light up Instead it blossomed with power, a force so palpable that even Blondie was forced to back up a step

This time, the people in the first fes didn’t move back, they were shoved

Slowly, the force of the ax waned even as the light it e s that had once been crowded near the table and had already been shoved back now fell to their knees Granted, it was less out of a desire to worship enuflecting like that made me distinctly uncomfortable, however, no matter the reason

Only after I’d well and truly blinded everyone in the roo in its power as I did so

"Like I said, I’ht the Red and the White"

With that, I waited But this tihed

"I’m not from here, obviously I’an’s territory, on the East Coast But I didn’t know about any of that until recently I didn’t even knoas a halfling And now I’m your champion"

All faces were turned towardsmixture of emotions: curiosity, ad--hated anything that drew attention to o dry, so instead there was only one face I spoke to, and that was Anyan’s

He was sainst the wall, with his arms crossed I concentrated on the curve of those lips, on how his eyes watchedthe croas allto appear cohed at h at me I’m easy to underestimate, but I also didn’t want this I didn’t want any of it," I repeated, and for a second ained control, and then continued

"But it doesn’t matter what I wanted The woman you no as the Red was my queen, and she used her power to betray everyone who trusted her She killed indiscriminately--her own kind as well as those she looked down upon She used her position to consolidate her power and to find what she needed to release the Red And then she let thataround at everyone in the roo withskeptical I looked towards Anyan and he gave e what she was up to, Morrigan nearly brought my territory to its knees But that was before she was the Red That was Morrigan, on her own And now she’s let herself becoe it can’t die

"What she wants now is to give that same power to her consort, Jarl For those of you who don’t know, Jarl was the front for Morrigan’s evil He was her left hand , his brother Iine that evil man as the White?"