My name is Malcom McGuire. Since my return from Arcadia about a year ago I’ve been a loyal servant of the Summer Court. I’ve seen, and faced, monsters beyond reckoning, foes beyond count. And I have never once doubted the correctness of my actions, nor the righteousness of my cause. Until today.

We, myself and several others from the other Courts, were given command of a military forces and ordered to clear a strategic location for use in a future war. The local settlement had to be leveled, its inhabitants “dealt with”. They neglected to mention that the settlement in question was Well; one of the Hedge exits of my hollow, and a peaceful and happy place. Naturally we made every effort to get the inhabitants to leave without any trouble, but an ancient pledge with the land would make such an action near suicidal.

I decided that the only way they would leave was if they were given a choice between the near certain death of the Hedge and a more certain death should they stay behind. This after having returned and made sure that our orders had not changed, and that a compromise of a Summer military presence in the settlement was out of the question. So a plan of Shock-and-Awe tactics was devised. The original plan was to march the troops into the town square, explain the situation, and threaten the locals into leaving. However, Pawn (a Summer Court liaison) convinced us to place some troops in strategic locations around the city, in case something went horribly wrong.

My first mistake was not realizing that the locals thought their pledge with the land would protect them against us too. They would need a demonstration, an undeniable proof that their pledge did not cover attacks from anything but hedge beasts. So I made the most difficult choice of my life and ordered a warrior of the Summer Court to take an innocent life. I had expected him to ask for confirmation, or at least hesitate. He didn’t, and that was my first warning.

My second was that the snipers and machineguns set up around the city opened fire immediately afterward. All hell broke loose, and no amount of ordering, shouting or gesturing could any of the troopers to stand down. The troops we had with us seized the initiative to fire into the fleeing crowd. A squad armed with flamethrowers made its way to the local kindergarten. A soldier sneered as he shot a three year old clinging to his leg in fear. The machine gunners in the outer regions of the city redeployed to cover the streets the locals fled down cutting them of from their escape.

The horrors occurring around me were painfully familiar. I have never seen beings with souls act this way though. The only beings I’ve have ever seen act so cruelly, so unfeelingly were the soldiers of my Keeper. They acted as though they were fighting insects, not children. They seemed to take smug satisfaction in the slaughtering of innocents; innocents who were pledgebound to not fight back.

I asked my self whether the Summer Court was any better than the True Fae, and was forced to answer no. As long as their armies are as cruel and unfeeling as those of their enemies they will never be the solution, merely another part of the problem. I will not serve a heartless monster again, so I take my leave of the Summer Court and invite those within the Summer Court who still have a shred of human decency to join me in doing so.

Malcom McGuire.