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Grinning from ear to ear, but still somehow managing to keep uncharacteristically silent, Stout’s mood improved along with the revelations about the negotiations Maisy had finalized. Durg was chuckling and making jokes about Cire having made three marriage proposals in as many days. Surprisingly indifferent, Selene had simply nodded like this result had been a forgone conclusion since she had regained consciousness.

“The quicker we get this done with, the faster we can get a real meal and clean up. I still have mushroom goop in places it doesn’t belong.”

“I am beginning to realize why you gave the stone to Cire. I mean, she’s pretty, but she’s also a snake lady. I wouldn’t want to marry her,” Nic commented.

“She isn’t a snake lady Nic, she’s a naga, a lantern naga at that. I don’t need to have met one before to find them attractive,” Andre grinned. “There is a whole camp of them! Do you think they all have purple glowing lights?”

Nic shook his head at his younger brother. “It’s like you’ve forgotten how we met her already. We actually saw her eat another naga right in front of us. You think you wouldn’t be a nice tasty morsel? Cire will be lucky to wake up with only bites taken out of him.”

“Hush boys. You all agreed to act as Cire’s escort while we introduce him to the village. I would be very careful and take my lead. We are dealing with a tribe that has been isolated for many generations. They could have any number of cultural differences that we don’t understand. Point in case, as I explained to you, Kalani was assuming control of the tribe. Any princess who can kill and consume the queen is considered strong enough to take the throneamong her people. I don’t think they eat each other often though. Remember to keep still during the ceremony.”

Maisy had walked the group through the majority of the information she had pulled from her discussion with the naga leader. Then she had secured their agreement to serve as Cire’s honor guard. Cire walked ahead of them down the large tunnel as Kalani guided them.

The party had already passed several smaller caves that branched off from the main shaft. Puddles and standing water increased noticeably on the floor and condensed on the walls. Damp mildew scents hung oppressively in the humid air the further they went.

Kalani and Cire stopped, waiting for the group to form up behind them and moved around a final bend. Opening up before them was a mystical sight awash in dark blue and green light. A massive pool dominated the cavern before them. For a moment it felt like they underwater. Almost the entire ceiling was, at first glance, a dark blue crystal, but after closer observation realized was clear.

Cire had run past the Lake of Twilight on some of his first days in the valley and more recently on his way back up to the eastern ridge when he bound the territory. He had never suspected that under the lake would be another lake. Let alone that it would have a false bottom to let light through. He didn’t think it would really occur to anyone the more that he thought about it. Dwarven architecture was certainly impressive.

A small beach-like shoreline ran the length of water near where their entrance opened into the cavern. Several small islands of mostly barren rock poked out of the water in various places with narrow stone bridges connecting them. In the rear of the cavern a small, but fast running, waterfall dumped into the lake sending small waves rippling outwards. Next to the white water a large granite shelf jutted out from the wall. Gathered on the platform was the tribe of naga.

Various glowing lantern lights in green, blue, and purple shades bobbed and twitched like a kaleidoscope of fireflies. A cacophony of hissing conversation tapered off slowly as Kalani revealed herself in the pale flickering light. She slithered out by herself to the center of the beach, holding her elegant trident high. Her pronouncement, in eerie hissing nagai, echoed off the walls.

“I, Kalani Darkssscale, have by tribal rite taken the mantle of Queen from my mother, Leilani. By Hera’s rites, the tribesss authority and power belong to me. I have sssecured our sssafe passssage from thisss place.”

She rose up to her full height, balancing precariously on a single coil of her tail as if on her tip toes and then pulled herself back down in a slow twisting motion. Her tail slide across the sand and formed a circle around Cire, pulling her next to him. Then she relaxed at Cire’s side, her height held slightly lower than his own.

“I presssent to you Sssiresssil Eventide, Lord of the Chimera’sss Mane and hisss entourage. We welcome them as guessstsss. He has come to form a pact with our tribe. Our allegiance will be sssealed with Hera’sss blessssing by a joining between our people.”

Hushed hisses sounded throughout the assembled naga as she made her proclamations. Even those who had been coalescing support to overthrown the new queen were shocked by this new information. Some of the naga, like Kina and Melya, had little respect for the younger clutches.

Kina and Melya’s brood was the eldest of Leilani’s offspring. While they detested each other they had quickly come together to gather the remains of their clutch following the debacle in the great hall. They had expected to either have their fangs removed or fight to the death. Neither had planned on their younger sister returning and introducing the Mane’s lord after brokering a successful exit from their plight. It was even more astounding that they would be allying themselves with him. Kalani had robbed them of any backing or support that they could have expected from the elders.

Kalani waited patiently for the shock and hurried comments to die down. Then she speared her trident into the sand and wound herself around Cire’s form. Her tail encircled one leg, his waist, and her arms enveloped his chest in a tight embrace. Then she tilted her head and unhinged her jaw, her fangs seeming to extend as her mouth opened. Kalani pressed the tips of those sharp teeth against Cire’s neck as she almost lovingly rested her head against his shoulder.

If Cire hadn’t known the gesture was coming he didn’t think he would have kept standing. Offhandedly he wondered if this is what his victims had felt like with his fangs at their throat. It was a more than unsettling feeling. A cold sweat bubbled up under his hair and dripped down his spine ashe went rigid. The two held that position for an interminable period of time. In his periphery he could see the others wide eyed, but staying as stock still as he was. Uncoiling from his body, Kalani deposited herself on Cire’s other side.

“I have claimed thisss male as my own. Asss he isss the Lord of the Mane I ssshall join hisss houssse and he ssshall have our people. He speaksss the anssshient elven tongue of our ansssessstorsss. All Ssshall ussse that language or Ssstay Sssilent.”

Poking down into his lower lip, Cire could feel hiscanines growing in length and a primal need to respond to Kalani’s display in kind. He shook it off, she had explained the simple marriage ceremony in brief during their walk through the tunnels. While the protocol was not complicated, it wasn’t exactly easy for him. Males had little input in the procedure. It felt uncomfortable not to engage in the dialogue, even if he couldn’t understand the hissing language, he generally knew what she was saying.He simply had to wait to see if any of the other naga were fool enough to try and challenge his potential spouse.

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Kina separated herself from the nest and glided over the smooth water polished stone. Her dark scales flashed iridescent purple and gray in the wavering light. Her noticeable navy blue markings and lantern flaring as her body undulated with her slithering glide. She was covered in a dark black shirt made of scales similar to her own, but little else.

The older female naga made her way to the central island, no others joined her. Most of the nest had pressed themselves low to the ground in their position of supplication. Tossing her indigo hair back over her shoulder, Kina declared her defiance with a bone chilling hiss the pitch of fingernails on a chalkboard. She unhinged her jaw and bared her fangs in much the same manner Kalani had just done. However, a sickly green liquid spit from her mouth to land on the opposite side of the small island.

Darting off in a flash Kalani dove straight into the water. She moved so fast that a small wake built up in the “V” shaped lines coming off her body. There was no pause or break as she reached the island, one moment Kalani was in the water and the next she was flying through the air attacking Kina.

The naga’s bodies tangled up and wrapped around each other. They thrashed and tumbled across the slick stone. Kalani bit and tore at her sisters flesh as she repeatedly felt the same strikes visited upon her own body. Her hands punched and grasped until they were too closely wrapped together for her to get leverage. A maelstrom of blue, purple, black, and gray splashed sprays of red across the wet ground.

Kina was a powerful warrior and she had trained extensively fighting with her body’s natural talents. She used her abilities well and had invested heavily in her species gift of shapeshifting. Long talons sprouted in place of her fingers and tore rents across Kalani’s scales. With her next bite Kina latched on to her sister’s bicep and forced her fangs to grow and pierce through the appendage.

Using her trapped arm as a fulcrum, Kalani wrenched them both off the stone and into the water. While many of the older females had an edge on her in regards to combat skills, few in the tribe rivaled her mastery of water control. This was another gift of their naga lineage, and while rooted intrinsically in water magic, it was not a spell, but an ability not requiring casting time nor incantation.

Lances of compressed water shot through Kina’s body impaling her. Some of the spears pierced Kalani as well, but she was able to avoid her critical areas. Her sister continued to fight, her reflexive death throes foaming the water around them. Their tails broke the water and slapped down on the surface like a breaching whale, then Kalani forced the water to drag them down.

Plummeting to the depths of the dark water, Kalani focused on shifting the current to swirl and toss them about. She did everything she could to stop her sister from escaping the watery coffin. Finally, Kina’s body twitched haphazardly before going limp and hanging ragged in the water. Kalani extricated her sister’s mouth from her arm and swam back up to the island dragging the corpse by it’s dark blue hair. She slithered to the center of the island, leaving Kina’s crumpled form half in the water. She didn’t speak, but her posture dared anyone else to approach.

Viewing the sudden wild and violent scrum that flared up was startling. Cire’s party all knew it was coming when the other naga issued such an obvious challenge, but that didn’t mean they knew what to expect. The naga had exchanged no words or gestures upon closing with each other, they just started tearing each other apart. During the battle Cire had quietly prepared to gather up his companions and run if Kalani fell. He had no intention of being claimed by a random naga who wouldn’t honor the agreement they had struck.

Once the brief struggle concluded, Cire let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in. He could hear a choked off chuckle from behind him, but by the time Cire turned around, everyone had a straight face. It was an inappropriate time for humor so it was probably Durg, but he wasn’t going to investigate.

Instead of all of them jumping into the lake and swimming out to the island to join the naga queen, the party opted to stay dry. They took one of the many stone pathways out to the island and then they followed Kalani over to the gathering. As they neared the large stone outcropping a gentle mist curled around their feet. By the time they set foot on the large stone surface the mist had risen to their knees, swirling about. The gathered naga split apart and left a wide path to the base of the waterfall.

Closest to the wall stood a row of gray haired naga displaying coloration unlike many of the nest. Their lanterns and scales ranged widely in colors from scarlet to yellow, but the color was dull and washed out. Noticeably, all had closed tight lipped mouths as they tracked Kalani appraisingly. One of the last in line made her way to Kalani’s side and then dropped back a reverential distance joining Cire’s honor guard. The procession stopped at the base of the waterfall and then Kalani slithered through the curtain of water and they followed.

A hidden grotto illuminated by small patches of regular sized glowing blue and orange mushrooms revealed itself. It was a circular cave that was clearly artificial and now served as a very moist herb and plant garden. The center of the room was cleared except for a gentle carpet of moss. Kalani wrapped her hand in Cire’s and lead him on. Her hissing whistle of ancient elvish came out with a delicate tone.

“My lord husssband, tell your essscort to Ssstay out of the Sssircle while we perform the Ssseremony. Maerria Ssshould know that we cannot be dissstrubed while the bonding isss taking effect, but it would be bessst if you told them.”

“Maerria?”

“Maisssy, your emmisssssary, Sssire.” Kalani explained as she pulled him to the middle of the room and then looked to the elder naga, still speaking ancient elvish. “Aanya, you will bear witnessss and Ssserve as guarantor of the Ssseremony.

“Yesss, my queen. It will be an honor to ssserve a ruler of the territory. You have brought a great honor to usss.” Aanya coiled and lowered herself in the same curtsy-like movement that Kalani had made upon greeting Cire.

Cire looked to his friends and smiled, he didn’t feel married. But he hadn’t exactly been expecting flower bouquets and handfuls of rice. He supposed that even at the best of times there wasn’t a dramatic change immediately. Relationships, regardless of their beginnings, took time and precious little had passed between him and his new wife.

After Cire relayed Kalani’s message to the group in the common languagehe worked his tongue over in his mouth. Now that he had been speaking elvish for a whilecommon felt clunky and in-precise in comparison. A grin spread over his face as he realized his mind had wandered and he looked back to Kalani.

“So, how does this work? Is there an elaborate incantation? Do I need to use an ability?”

Shaking her head, Kalani slid down and laid completely in the moss in a tight coil. She pressed her chest to the ground and laid her hands crossed before her head.

“We, the lantern naga of Mistfall Lake hereby pledge our settlement and people to the territory of the Chimera’s Mane. In Hera’s name we accept the authority of our new lord and ruler, may she in her power bless this joining.”

Initially nothing noticeable happened, perhaps the mist was swirling more than it had been. Then the mist darkened, gradually at first, until it was a roiling black mass filling the dimly lit space. It pooled in the center of the room and condensed. In short order Kalani was completely enveloped and soon the pitch black shadow covered Cire as well.

Rushing from the entrance tendrils, of black mist poured through the waterfall streaming past Nicolas, Andre, Maisy, and Aanya. Durg and Selene yelped as the tendrils grasped on to them and pulled them along to the center of the circle like a riptide. In short order they were completely covered in the shadowy substance as well. The overwhelming fragrance of lily and lotus flowers dripped from the air and the garden alike. Bursts of color popped along the ground and walls as flowers bloomed.

Echos of power shuddered through the ambient mana in the air. They couldn’t see the magical underpinnings of the world, but they could feel it flow through the syrupy black cloud sticking to the four. A soft fizzing sound heralded the evaporation of the condensed vapor. Instead of flowing up into the air however, the clouds leaked into the moss below them. For the briefest of moments a symbol carved into the stone under the moss illuminated. Different parts of the symbol shone in the same hues as the dancing blue-green light of the lake. The colors flowed into one another around the smaller symbols etched into the great seal.

Maisy’s was the first to speak, an accomplished smile residing firmly on her lips.

“Shall we all go introduce ourselves to the camp? I am sure that these four could use a bit of time to themselves.”