Many many miles to the south of Cinapul was the dry and cracked stone-lands of Montese. The home of the dark elves.

Whereas the rest of the common realms were lush and vibrant with life - even the deserts of the northern lands - Montese was the closest to what the people of Tapestry had assumed the surface world looked like.

There were endless fields of cracked stone earth. The sky was merely a constant layer of clouds adding to the ever-present gray and drab feeling of the land. Boulders littered the surface, discarded there since long before written history.

However, the inhabitants of Montese complained extremely little despite the dreary conditions. In fact, most dark elves wouldn’t ever think to complain. It would not be an exaggeration to say that these lands were perfect for them.

Very rarely would anyone travel to Montese, and those who dared to venture that far south would have a hard time finding any dark elves unless they revealed themselves willingly.

This was because the entirety of Montese was actually an intricate network of cave systems. The surface was pockmarked by hundreds of thousands of cave entrances, most of which went nowhere. Some of them however, would lead to dark-extreme elf societies which could hold their own against even the most robust human cities.

The surface of Montese was a calm and completely dreadful place to any common realm species. But just under the surface, countless powder-kegs were lit and extinguished as the dark elves warred amongst themselves for the favor of their god and to achieve power.

Each city in Montese was ruled independently by a dark-elf family. They led imperiously, not backing down to each other and naturally forming into city-states.

In between the biggest city-states, countless smaller families would rule over smaller portions of the cave network. This created extremely niche communities and towns that were each specialized to their own needs.

Some allied with the nearest cities, maintaining relative autonomy and choosing to become tools for larger families in exchange.

Others chose to hide themselves away, keeping to the shadows and avoiding notice.

In a small and unremarkable corner of Montese, there was a relatively quiet and unmarked cave system which snaked hundreds of meters into the earth.

Sealed away deep inside this cave system existed dozens of expensive and intricate buildings.

They stood majestically within the sealed cavern but looked shockingly alien. The design sensibilities of the dark elves were nothing like those of the rest of the common realms.

The homes and shops were built with sharp edges and uncomfortable angles, a sense of death surrounding each one. At the center of the city, a single large hall stood like a primordial spider, built to evoke the image of their spider-god.

At one point, this had been the town of Kenod. Though now abandoned and sealed away due to a violent infection, the light-stones and torches still shined out casting ominous shadows into the deadly silent caverns.

Kenod had been a relatively respected and feared town, a dark elf family numbering just over 1000.

Like all dark elves, they were specialized in sneaking and subterfuge, however they had also developed a reputation as an impartial and violent protector of goods.

In other words, they were merchants.

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Merchant dark elves in Montese were all at once treated with respect and simultaneously scorned for being seen as betraying the path of their god. However, no city would be willing to offend these merchants. Merchant societies in the land of Montese were the only source of exotic and imported goods from the rest of the continent. It had been a system developed nearly 2000 years prior and yet it still held strong even today.

They would bring goods – everything from weapons to food to magics – and information about the going-ons of the rest of the continent.

Information was key for the dark elves, as focused on subterfuge and trickery as they were.

But now, the once mighty and untouchable family of Kenod was no more. Several hundred had been slaughtered by their kin, several hundred more died within the sealed caverns – their skeletons littering the roads, and the rest were currently being hunted into extinction after being forced to flee to the borderland between Montese and Cinapul.

The story of Kenod served as a good warning for the many smaller communities of dark elves in Montese.

Nothing was permanent. No one was untouchable. And except for the larger families who ruled their cities with fear – no one couldn’t be replaced.

It wasn’t even a year after Kenod had been sealed to keep the infection from spreading that another family of dark elves rose to fill the vacuum left behind by their fall.

It was a bloody battle in that year, but in the end, everything went back to the way it had been before.

A century had passed since Kenod had risen into prominence.

30 years had passed since the rest of the dark elf communities worked together to hunt down and seal the Kenod family away. Creating a tomb in place of the family of merchants.

Yet, only a single week had passed since there had been a noise within the otherwise dead caves of the town.

It was soft. Completely unnoticeable. Unheard by the rest of the world.

Within a silent room in the middle of Kenod’s city hall, a small gasp had sounded out, followed by two beautiful white and grey eyes opening for the first time in decades.

Sitting on the cool stone floor and surrounded by an aura of death, a lone figure sat in stilled beauty. Like a statue carved from unblemished white marble, an emaciated figure with skin untouched by the sun had breathed again after so long. It was a breath of nothing but stale air, however she did not flinch.

Or frown.

Or smile.

Other than the smallest breaths which had only just resumed, one could mistake this being for dead.

A perfect statue was it not for a single blemish. The area around her eyes were perpetually dark. She had not slept in so very long. Loneliness and sadness had completely overcome this being, and she had lost the ability to sleep ever since the tragedy had struck her home a hundred years earlier.

Her mind was not her own anymore, and it caused her nothing but pain. She could fight the other presence off sometimes, but not always… not enough.

Within the woman’s mind a smile filled with cruelty and gluttonous hunger grinned at her, mocking her, showing her scenes that she could hardly believe, and twisting her heart as it did so.

A week ago, in a land far to the north, she had been shown a face which all at once looked familiar and alien. She couldn’t believe it was true.

“Noone…” A soft whisper escaped her lips. Her voice was airy from decades of silence, but it was clear at one time it had been home to beautiful dulcet tones. She forgot everything else and focused in on the face of the person being shown to her… “You’re alive...?”

Suddenly, extremely thin white lines began to brighten on the surface of the woman’s extremely pale flesh. The effect caused her to look as though she had begun glowing.

If Noone had been here to see this occur, he would have immediately recognized the pale beauty. Despite her emaciated figure. Despite her missing smile and eyes which were full of tragedy and sorrow… despite her silent expression.

Noone had known her since he was a boy in Tapestry. The mysterious woman who Liter had introduced him to.

White light pulsed from her skin, quickening in tune with her awakening heartbeat.

Trisha… The soul-attuned woman who had seen Tapestry’s fall... and the woman who was forced to become a vessel for the disease which brought disaster with it wherever it went.