"Well then..."
She cracked her knuckles before descending to the ground, her bare feet landing at the center of the star.
"I am Titania, fair queen of the fey."
She spoke with regal composure, though it was obvious she wasn’t interested in the performance at all. Even in the novel, when the protagonist summoned her, she had acted the same way.
"As the lucky mortal who managed to—"
I lifted a hand, cutting her off, a small grin crossing my face. Even information like this could be a weapon in the right hands.
For me, it was a weapon for socializing. After all, who was to say she wasn’t my type of woman as well?
She was a minor antagonist, not a full-blown villainess. But who was to say I couldn’t... nudge her a little further toward the dark side in the future?
"It’s clear you’re not into this, and I’d rather spare you the pain of reciting something that probably came from your so-called theatre phase. How about we get straight to the point?"
Titania let out an audible sigh. A reluctant smile bloomed on her lips as she crossed her arms, her mood visibly improving.
"Well, look at that, a mortal who can read the room."
She summoned three objects in front of her.
First was a cloak, second was a dagger, and third... was the Fey Core.
All three were tempting, but I barely knew anything about the other two. Lucius had never picked them in the original novel.
Right now, the safest and best choice was the Fey Core, the canonical choice. It allowed someone to use the inherent abilities of a fey, granting bonuses to illusion and elven magic.
Even better, it let a person access the ambient mana around them instead of relying solely on their own capacity, the way a Fey naturally did. That meant either storing enough mana in advance to match my current reserves, or using it as a last resort when fully depleted.
The first option doubled my mana. The second gave me effectively infinite mana, though weaker depending on my surroundings.
Either way, it was absolutely broken.
"Pick your poison, mortal. I’m sure someone who summoned me already knows what a deal with a Fey usually entails~"
"The Fey Core."
I pointed at the third object without hesitation. No point playing coy when she’d already guessed I knew exactly what I wanted.
"Very well."
Titania’s smile sharpened. The other two objects vanished with a lazy wave of her hand, leaving the Fey Core floating between us.
Up close, it looked less like a gem and more like crystallized starlight, pulsing faintly with colors that didn’t quite exist in the mortal spectrum.
"A predictable choice. But I suppose predictable isn’t always boring."
She plucked the core from the air and rolled it between her fingers.
"You know the rules, mortal. A gift requires a price. A boon requires a task. And a deal with a Fey requires..."
She let the sentence hang, golden eyes gleaming.
"A game."
I finished for her, but I wasn’t about to say a riddle. That would be way too suspicious and might make her change the game. Better to play dumb for now and use my knowledge only after the riddles had begun.
As powerful as she is, she was still the type of creature to honor a deal or challenge once it had been decided.
"So, what’ll it be...?"
"A riddle."
Her wings fluttered.
"Answer three simple riddles. Win, and you get the prize; lose, and you become mine..."
She tossed the core in the air and caught it.
"But don’t worry. The riddle is proportionate to the prize. A simple core won’t be that hard. Probably..."
How comforting...
"It’s a deal. Ask your questions."
Titania clapped her hands together, suddenly looking far more animated than she had a moment ago. The bored queen was gone.
In her place was something older, the kind of creature that had been making bargains with mortals since before human empires ever learned to write.
"First question."
She held up one finger, her grin turning positively wicked.
"On the third moon of the seventh alignment, when the Weeping Star bleeds into the Chalice of Thorns, where does the unborn laughter of a forgotten god go to rest?"
I stared at her.
She stared back, her golden eyes utterly serious, though her mind was probably already laughing at how she had "tricked" me. Too bad the questions she had set for the Fey Core had already been spoiled.
"At the seventh lake of Feynorth."
I answered quickly, unlike the protagonist, who took five minutes to respond after a flashback to his time in the land of the celestials.
"E-eh...?"
Titania exclaimed in surprise.
"Wait... what!?"
I smiled at her reaction.
"I’m guessing I’m correct. So what’s the second question?"
Titania’s wings fluttered, the stained-glass membranes vibrating with visible irritation. That answer was the last thing she expected from a mortal of my caliber.
"You’re not supposed to get the first one right!"
She jabbed a finger toward my chest.
"The first one is supposed to make you panic. That was the whole point!"
"Maybe your riddles aren’t as clever as you thought."
Her eyes narrowed. Gold slit-pupils studied my face with renewed interest, the way a cat might study a mouse that had suddenly produced a tiny sword.
"No. You knew the answer. You didn’t even think about it."
She floated closer, bare feet dangling inches above the stone floor.
"How?"
"Lucky guess?"
"Liar."
"What about we finish this game and I’ll try to answer your questions after?"
Titania held my gaze for a long moment. Then she gave a short but offended laugh, a sound that suggested she had found a tempting, worthy rival.
"Fine, I’ll keep my questions for now. So let’s see how you handle the second."
She drifted backward, reclaiming her position at the center of the summoning circle.
"Second question."
She held up two fingers, her grin returning.
"Let’s see you answer this one!"