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Shock coruscated through the assembled audience to Kalani’s unnerving display. None of the recovering companions had any idea what to make of the naga savaging the other injured naga. Retreating to Nicolas and Selene’s position the three on their feet circled around them.

Andre held his axe between them and the potential threat. None of the others had retained their weapons, most had been lost while they had been tossed about. Cire glanced around them, catching the movement of other creatures in the shadows. Then he turned a discerning eye on the female who had ceased to move, but clearly caught their attention.

No weapons or armor hid Kalani’s form and for all intents she was nude outside of a fish bone necklace and hairpin. She had long, luxurious purple hair that spilled over her gray-black scaled shoulders. Lighter shades of ash trailed from her stomach down to the tip of her tail, showing off a toned abdomen. Her full breasts prominently on display would typically be quite distracting if they hadn’t been coated in blood and overshadowed by her face. The naga’s wicked fangs poked well past her lower lip which was still stained crimson. Her serpentine eyes shone dark violet that matched a dancing glowing purple bulb on her forehead. An ineffable feeling tingled at the edge of his senses as he focused on her.

Why did she kill the other one? What is she? What is this weird vibe I am getting from her? She hasn’t attacked, but she doesn’t exactly look all that friendly. We aren’t in a good position to fight, we’re banged up pretty good. I need to try something other than force. Let’s hope this book can’t be judged by its cover because that’s some scary necronomicon style craziness. Might as well hope she is like me, perceived of as a monster, but more than she looks.

Cire reasoned with himself as he took a position at the front of his party. He thanked his ability to rapidly regenerate once more and resolved to put more points into the ability. He barely limped, taking steps to put some distance between himself and his companions. He called out in common, hoping to open a dialogue.

“My name is Cire. Thank you for the help, if that’s what you did just there.” He gestured with his hand to the gruesome looking remnants of the previous naga queen.

“Can you understand me?”

Durg grunted and tugged on Andre’s sleeve. With a hushed voice he challenged the elf. “What are ya doin’ boyo? Ya don’t be talkin’ with monsters.”

Waving his hand behind himself to silence Durg he turned back to glare at him quickly before looking forwards again. “We are in no state to be fighting. She isn’t attacking, so let’s see if we can work something out. Besides I have a feeling about this.”

Arching an eyebrow in curiosity, Kalani warily tracked Cire as he moved out to engage with her. The battered white hide armor the elf wore made him stick out in their dark confines. He wasn’t trying to hide. He was either a very brave or ignorant male to approach a naga without a weapon in the dark. There was something about him that she couldn’t place. When he started to utter nonsensical mutterings, she shook her head.

She could see her sisters, both older and younger hanging back in the shadows whispering about what they were witnessing. Kalani held her ground revealing little to the strange eyed elf and her nest alike. She was intrigued by his one blue eye and other purple. It wasn’t the colors so much as the peculiarity. The ambitious young naga had seen it somewhere before and it rankled her suspicions.

Frowning, Cire tried a different tact. He held his hands up to show that he was unarmed and walked half the distance between them. He shrugged and focused on his speech.

Cire knew he could theoretically speak various forms of elvish, but he had yet to try. Whenever Selene swore in the sing song language of her people he simply understood what she was saying. It didn’t exactly translate to English, more that he intuitively understood the meaning of her words. His tongue wasn’t used to the acrobatics required, but a garbled whistling form of speech came from his mouth as he spoke.

“Do you speak elvish? My name is Cire.”

Kalani’s eyebrows both shot up at the horrendous intonations in this pretty tanned skinned elf’s speech. She didn’t pick up all the words, but she wasn’t sure if it was him or if he was speaking a different dialect. He spoke in a stilted way that robbed the language of its beauty. At least it was a start. Lilting whistles with hissing sounds sprinkled throughout responded to Cire’s query.

“I Ssspeak the old tongue of my ancessstorsss, yesss. I am Kalani, the Lantern Naga Queen of Mistfall Lake. You shall addresssss me as ‘queen’ or ‘your majesssty.’” Her declaration to hall at large as much as Cire.

Cire’s comprehension of the various forms of elvish that he spoke was not great. However, he could pick out that the naga was not speaking modern elvish, but one of the older varieties. Sort of like old timey British English compared to modern American English. Her obvious hissing inflections didn’t seem to impact his ability to discern the dialect. When she introduced herself it also gave him confirmation of where the tingly feeling was emanating from.

The way he saw it he had a few options: negotiate, bluff, or fight. If he was going to go with one of the first two he preferred to do it from a position of strength. He couldn’t count Kalani’s unseen allies, but he knew that they were on her home turf. Fighting their way out wasn’t a good bet.

I know that Selene and Durg won’t be happy about this getting out, but I might be able to spin this whole messed up situation to my advantage. I have to take some gambles if I’m going to hit a jackpot. Time to put on my fancy pants.

Concentrating on using ancient elvish, he strongly doubted that this naga was divine, he reintroduced himself. “Your majesty, I am Ciresil Eventide, Lord of the Chimera’s Mane. You shall address me as ‘lord’ or ‘sire’.” He paused and then bowed slightly, never letting his eyes leave his counterpart. Might as well go as big as possible.

“I would like to begin negotiations with you and your people. But first we require aid and rest.”

Kalani blinked her eyes, twice – once with each set of eyelids. She couldn’t believe her luck.

“Of courssse, Sssire. Pleassse allow me to gather my sssissstersss and we can help you at our home.” She returned his bow, dipping noticeably lower.

Cire tilted his head, wary of her previous treatment of the injured. He projected strength in his voice even though he knew his position was tenuous.

“Thank you, Queen. I can tend to my own, but I welcome any aid. We will rest and then join you when we are ready. I may need to have some allies from above join us.” He noticed a sharp reaction from the naga, but he couldn’t read what it was. He decided to assuage any irritation.

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“Of course, I will stay here until we have finished our negotiations. As a sign of good faith.”

Cire felt uneasy as the ‘snake lady,’ as Nicolas had called her, studied him while weighing her response. He tried not to let any of his tension show, forcing an easy going smile to his face. Baying at the back of his mind a predatory drive to dominate this obstacle in his territoryhowled. Warring emotions at odds within him provided ample distraction. Logically he knew that if he could get them out of this pickle with words he and his companions stood a better chance of getting out of this debacle alive. The look of surprise on his face at the queen’s response was truly genuine.

“I would be honored Sssire. Pleassse invite any you wisssh, they would be welcome. It would be a joy to hossst you and any who travel with you my lord.”

Kalani hissed in her attempt at a soft tone as her glowing bulb dimmed subtly. She affected an elaborate twisting motion with her tail that lowered her whole body in a motion resembling a curtsy. The astute naga knew that you attracted more fish with an alluring dance than violent thrashing.

“I will leave you to your conssserns and attend to my own people.”

Kalani insisted on staying near to Cire and his companions. She said little else, and her alert eyes took in far more than she revealed. When Durg sparked up a torch in the failing light of the small debris, fires she kept to the edge of the light it cast.

Warily her sisters approached, those of her clutch first. She had laid as much groundwork for the nest to accept her as she was most likely able. It would not be unheard of for one of the other clutches to contest her claim regardless of their mothers blood on her lips. She didn’t expect it from these siblings.

Huddled together, still bearing injuries from the explosion, three naga with various shades of violet and lavender in their hair, eyes, and bulbs bowed deeply to their new queen. While the rest of the nest had seen hints of their clutchmate’s ambition, they had glimpsed behind the curtain of the keen mind driving it. Alana, Ali, and Kila knew the prudent course of action was to acknowledge Kalani’s claim, the least reason being the potential rewards of their early gesture.

Hissing in the rasping vocalizations of nagai, their common tongue, almost came out in unison from the trio.

“Your majesssty, how may we ssserve you.”

“Go collect all the femalesss in the camp and asssemble them at the ritual Sssircle. Tell the fanglesss onesss I will meet with them firssst when I return,” came Kalani’s swift reply. She waved her hands towards the tunnel leading to the lake.

“Take all thossse who have Sssurvived during thisss failure with you.” Before she dismissed them Kalani caught Alana by the arm. “Return by yourssself with Ssseveral healing potionsss for our guessstsss.”

Alana knew better than to show her shock or question her new queen.

“Yesss, my queen.” She responded in haste as she dashed away to rejoin the others headed towards the tunnel.

If Kalani was right, she would need to manage the next moments with care. It seemed preposterous, but this male was obviously the leader of this territory. When he had announced his title there had been a resonance within the mana around them.

Naga were more attuned to the ambient mana of the world than most beings. She had felt, albeit briefly, a connection between her personal well of mana that flowed through her body and the magic all around them beyond the horizon of her senses. An almost tangible link established between herself and the elf through that mystical medium.

Things couldn’t be going better for her than if she had planned them. It wouldn’t do for any of the others to witness what was to come, only to see the results.She had a singular opportunity to cement her position. It was a dangerous game not knowing the elf’s disposition or the strength of his forces. However, Kalani had just risked her life and gained a queens reward. As long as he recognized that she was giving up the initiative or, more likely if he was lying about his allies, she was removing herself as a perceived threat and strengthening her hand. Perhaps if she scaled this fish carefully, she could position herself for far, far greater treasures. Soon it would be time to risk more than her life.

Chewing roughly on a cud of healing herbs for the countless time today, Andre was regretting the brothers decision to abandon a peaceful day of lumber jacking. The regenerative effect of the herbs wasn’t immediately potent, but it would heal most minor injuries. As he looked down over Selene’s defeated form he winced. He looked to his brother hovering on the other side of the raven haired elf.

“What do you think? How bad is it?”

Nic shook his head. “Don’t know, that bad.” He looked his brother in the eyes. “Bleeding’s stopped, but we need to get her to Maisy or some other form of potent healing to fix her up from this. We may need to show a few things.”

Andre visibly grimaced. “I don’t like it, but if we need to we should. What do you think Cire is up to? I haven’t been able to understand a word since he started whistling in elvish.” He eyed Cire talking with the naga doubtfully. “Do you think the snake lady understands him?”

“Naga. She’s be a naga, I think. Normally they don’t have arms, just be a human head and snake body. But most naga be lackin’ the shiney bits too.” Durg grunted as he sifted through mushroom debris, he had already found Nic’s axe and one of his own.

“She be talkin’ back so I be thinkin’ she does. We best find our weapons for when their conversation sours. Naga aren’t known for their friendliness. Were up to our beards in it.”

The party could feel the eyes on them peering from the darkness. Only Durg could make out the darting shadows as Cire and Kalani talked, but he knew they were surrounded. The humans couldn’t see the threats, but he didn’t want to light their last torch just yet. Durg went back to sifting through spongy goop. His new friend was odd, but he still hadn’t ever considered Cire would be talking with a monster.

By the time Cire walked back to his companions they had managed to recover his sword and Durg’s other short axe, but Andre’s weapon was still missing. The golden haired elf had dried mushroom stuck in his hair that he didn’t seem to notice as he sheathed his blade. Eyeing him curiously the humans and dwarf glanced past him to Kalani as a group of naga approached her and they started hissing back and forth.

“What’s going on? Why did she attack the other one?” Andre blurted out.

Cire held out his hands to forestall any questions and he crouched down next to Selene, getting his first chance to take a good look at her condition. He had plenty of first aid knowledge, but he lacked the ability to put her injuries into full context given that healing herbs were plastered to her injuries. He asked the same question Andre had.

“How injured is Selene? Normally the herbs take care of cuts and bruises, but how do we fix her broken arm? Her head? Durg keep your eyes on our friend please.”

“We get her to Maisy or we give her a potion. She far too injured for the herbs to fix her. I don’t think anyone else in valley has healing magic. Potions are expensive and everyone in these parts is pretty broke, otherwise they wouldn’t be here.” Nic briefed him.

Nodding, Cire looked back to Kalani and then down to Selene. He had plenty of other tricks up his sleeve than he had revealed, but most of them wouldn’t be good to demonstrate with an audience. Isolating himself had a lot of downside, but at least for Cire it also gave him some advantages.

“Okay, let’s get her out of here. I have negotiated safe passage for you all back up to the surface. I told her we had more allies waiting up top, which is sort of true.”

Durg glowered as he sparked up the final torch and held it aloft. “We cannae be movin’ her in that condition. No gettin’ her up the ropes. We jostle her head too much and the healin’ won’t take.”

He stopped and started. “You be talkin’ all peaceful with naga now. No be leavin’ you by yourself boyo. They be dangerous fiends and ya cannae trust em’.”

“Regardless of how I look on many occasions Durg, I am not an idiot. I don’t trust her, but I was able to get some concessions from her that I didn’t expect. Besides, she seems to be holding the others back and at a bare minimum we have had time to recover.” Cire countered. “We can table all of that for now though and figure out what to do for Selene. We need to send for help if we can’t take her to it.”

“We be runnin’ out o’ light for the humans to see by. Best we send the two of them and I stick with you.” Sensing the tension Durg grinned and cuffed Cire on the shoulder. “She’ll be fine. I seen her go through worse and you know I have. Maisy took good care of Andreas, she can do the same for Selene. We best be worrying about the slithering shadows.”

Nicolas and Andreas took the torch with them as they made their way to the ropes warily. Both had agreed to immediately find Maisy and, if she was willing, escort her back to the ruins. Cire had instructed them to tell her and Stout that he in particular would be appreciative of them coming to assist Selene. The dwarf and elf-vampire both easily tracked the pair of brothers as they made their way to the ropes and ascended out of the cavern.

Durg broke the quiet as he re-applied a poultice of herbs to Selene’s broken arm. He checked on Kalani as she stood off to their side before asking, “What did you talk about with that beastie boyo?”