In an uncomfortable, dark little hole, there was a man and a maiden. Kiara was pretending to sleep, eyes closed, and senses stretched outwards in every direction. Being this focused on the task, she could easily detect the flow of energy of any maiden hundreds of meters in any direction. The leech was slumbering a few burrows to the side, the only time of day when her power wasn’t just lashing out like a mass of coiled whips. A bit further away, their prisoner, the Malumari, was also resting, though not as deeply, just enough for her defenses to remain perfectly in place.
There were a dozen or so Orcs spread about, discreetly hidden, such that it would be impossible to figure out the burrow’s locations. And spread throughout the place were the holes, each containing a human or two, each of them accompanied by one of the assistant maidens.
Kiara could only smirk at how over half of those humans were currently engaging in intimacy. The fear of death proving a powerful enough aphrodisiac, Kiara had not even needed to nudge things along. It was a pleasant snack, one she sampled just enough to keep herself alert.
They were being watched.
There was no trace of this observer, no proof of their existence, not a scent or a sound nor a shred of evidence she could cling to other than a gut feeling that had followed her ever since they’d dug down in wait for news from the healer and the cat. Kiara had encountered such maidens before and knew that the only way to catch their presence was through the absences they left in their wake.
It came from the sudden disappearance of one of the Orcs.
One moment the maiden was there, alive, and when Kiara’s attention returned to her a moment after, she was gone.
There was a firm ‘thunk’ near the entrance of the burrow they were in. With a sigh, Kiara turned to her bunk-mate, reaching out to the human and caressing his cheek, weaving a deeper slumber spell to guarantee he would not accidentally wake. She followed this by putting a sack on his head, closely ensuring none of his senses could identify anything if he were to wake up. A safety precaution, if just to ensure they would have no reason to harm him.
Pulling her senses back, she stood, dragging her human hostage out of the hole.
There were three maidens waiting for her.
They were dressed in nothing but branches and leaves, faces hidden behind faceless bark masks devoid of holes, bodies painted in mud, moss, and sap, hair shaved off entirely. By all accounts, if one removed the dressing, they’d look like Elves, tall and slender, with pointed ears and sharp eyes. Yet to Kiara, they were nothing but a void, existences that were only verified through her eyes and nothing else. All three of them had the same stone-cold body language of soldiers on a mission.
These were the Golden Elves, the maidens that protected the grove.
This was just the welcoming party.
“Take me to the Pinielf.”
There was nothing else that needed to be said. Kiara threw her human to the leftmost of the trio, and the maiden slung him over her shoulder like a sack of flour.
“Fly.” The second one commanded, her voice gruff as if she weren’t used to it. “Quiet.”
Kiara didn’t question it, reaching back on her dress and lifting enough of her shirt for her webbed wings to spread out. Silently she lifted from the ground, needing not the thrust of beating limbs like some bird, but at the cost of never really being able to match their speeds.
Her eyes kept wandering back to the human.
The thought of whether or not Rick might forgive her was a bitter one. Kiara kept trying to dismiss the idea. Once she had confirmation on how to ascend, she would have no further need for him.
Her eyes trailed to the ring of holding on her right hand, a twitch of her will brought out a golden, featureless coin, one enveloped by a transparent resin. Her fingers caressed the smooth, unblemished surface, Kiara’s jaw tightened, and she dismissed it back into the ring.
Just another memory, just another scar that would be healed once she ascended.
They moved through the forest quietly, uninterrupted. Now and again, Kiara would detect something in her periphery, maybe a feral, maybe some wild animal. Yet if they happened to get too close, the thing would vanish.
There were other Golden Elves with them; that much was clear. But it was impossible to know how many. One? Four? A dozen? This welcoming party had been sent under the intention of procuring her, and Kiara doubted they would’ve taken no for an answer. With Monica crippled and not even present, she doubted there would’ve existed a proper fighting chance.
It reaffirmed her decision, a fight would’ve proven fruitless; too many lives would’ve been wasted.
Swiftly making way through the forest, Kiara was unbothered by the thickening roots and growing trees. Her escorts, meanwhile, navigated the terrain with ease, weaving through the irregular foliage with experience. And as they kept pushing deeper into the forest, as the trees began to grow and rise as if becoming mountains, Kiara began to feel some unease.
Titan-trees, that was the name these plants had received, and they were present all over the continent, albeit hard to find. Their wood would’ve been considered if not because the Northern Empire had a tradition to use the stuff in every forge within their borders. As far as Kiara knew, the custom was as old as the Empire itself, with superstitions that the wood of titan-trees made the fire special in some way.
She’d never seen a difference between Empire-made metal and that of other places. The advantage was mostly held by how proficient they were at the craft, not from any special properties of the material itself. Nowhere else had she encountered this many titan-trees in one place. Had the area become neglected because it was too far away from the clutches of the Northern Empire? So this was what a titan-tree forest would look like if left untouched for centuries.
Had she gone west rather than east that fateful day so many lifetimes ago…
“Land.”
The command was softly spoken, the trio of Golden Elves coming to a halt and looking up to her with gray steel eyes. Turning her focus back to them, she realized none of them were armed nor wearing enchanted collars, despite being clearly not under the feral curse. Or perhaps they were under the curse, but it just so happened that Golden Elves had some degree of immunity in the same way the Orcs did.
Whatever the case, she had no reason to antagonize them currently, so she descended to their level.
“Follow.”
One of them took the lead, the other two trailing behind.
Kiara’s gaze roamed the forest. “What’s your name?”
No response.
She had been expecting as much; there was a clear air of professional zealotry about them, the sort you’d encounter only on soldiers that had been groomed into the position since birth.
Kiara glanced at the human, still sound asleep and unresponsive; with a tweak of her power, she strengthened the spell to ensure it would not break anytime soon. The last thing she needed right now was things becoming more complicated.
Her guide took them through a seemingly random path of roots, each thicker than the last, climbing upwards. The further they progressed, the more Kiara could sense power in the air, becoming thicker, deeper, to a point she could nearly taste the leafy nature of the energy that was seeping into and out of every inch of every tree.
There was a dissonance within the music of the forest. Something was tampering with the wild energy. It was far off, but Kiara could make out a vague sense of… something trying to rein some of it in. But she couldn’t readily tell what was going on, only that it felt grand in scope.
Their little group came to a stop near the base of the trunk of one of the trees. Further ahead, there was a lone figure dressed in pure white robes, long sleeves, and bloodied plant-leather gloves, her head covered by a small hat that held a single sheet of cloth hiding her face.
Kiara shuddered as she felt the emotions seeping out of this maiden. It was a radiance of joy, contempt, and condescension all wrapped into one. The acrid and bittersweet tastes had all the highlights you’d find in any form of nobility, but it carried with it a twisting of energies that made Kiara’s stomach roil. Like poison, this maiden had done something to herself.
“You may refer to me as Sivent,” the figure greeted her with open arms and a minor bow of her head. “It is nice to speak to a fellow ageless after so long.”
Kiara kept her own smile polite. “I thought the little group of rebels had Elves amongst them.”
“They did, but they avoided me,” Sivent gestured for her to follow. “The plants that I have grafted onto myself were experimental; to someone attuned to the emotions of vegetation, they would be off-putting.”
“I take it that you went through this effort to call me here for a reason.” Kiara stepped closer, carefully prodding at the energy of the maiden. It had a martial harshness to it, bent and weaved into some shape that followed more plant-like patterns, and an undertone of… aberration?
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The maiden didn’t answer, glancing at the human that’d also been brought. “Will you not wake him? As an inventor, I am curious about his perspective on the work that’s been done here.”
Kiara stepped in. “This is between you and me. I’ve also kept him asleep in case you might have some apprehension of letting him go if he happens to see something he shouldn’t.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Besides, his expertise lies outside elemental energy.”
Though she couldn’t see the maiden frown, she could sense the taste shifting towards harsher tones. “You wish to leave once the work is done.”
“No disrespect, but I don’t much enjoy staying in one place for too long.”
That appeased the maiden. “Yes, the Maker created Succubi in that way.”
A jolt ran through Kiara, her tail jutting out and going stiff, throat going dry. “You… were alive at the time?”
Smugness flowed out of the maiden like lemon molasses. “I am an original maiden. I was born out of metal and glass, not from the womb of another.” She raised her hand, drawing a simple circle in the air. “Did you not know that is where our names originate? A maiden was ‘made in a tube’. A crude joke, but one we’d grown to take with pride. Unlike creatures made of happenstance and randomness, we’d been designed and needed.”
A moment of fond remembrance coursed through Kiara as she heard this. There had been a time in her life where she would’ve taken these words in and been smitten by the historical weight they carried. How many questions she would’ve wanted to ask, not a singular ageless maiden had survived for this long, at least not that would openly proclaim it.
“So you know how a Succubus ascends.”
“Into a Dark Queen, yes.” The ooziness of smug only grew harsher in its sweetness. “Follow me, and let us speak.”
There was a momentary flutter inside her chest at those words. None, not one maiden or human, not a singular living being had ever confirmed this suspicion to her. Only half-formed rumors, old dusty books, and legends.
The relief that washed through her at the confirmation of her theories left her staggering for a moment. Hundreds of years, thousands of people and bonds, millions of steps, and countless hardships.
It was a shame the Pinielf would need to die at the end of this.
Kiara reigned herself in, complying with a nod and taking one last glance at the human as the trio of Golden Elves broke off to walk elsewhere. A twinge of nervousness grew within her gut, but she withheld from expressing any of it, instead focusing on her ‘host.’ Sivent wasn’t as skilled in keeping her power protected as the Malumari prisoner had been, but it would not be a quick process.
Nothing else was said as the two made their way towards the base of the tree.
“Do you know about intelligent design?” Sivent broke the silence.
“Maidens were designed with a purpose in mind, and were built around that accordingly,” Kiara quickly answered. “It is a theory many have bounced around, and many more have weighed on. Ask a room with two philosophers over what the purpose of the Hound was, and you will get four conflicting opinions.”
“Many a mortal has gone through great lengths to try and erase our glorious past. With the fall of the Green Empire, it is no surprise they’ve succeeded,” Sivent sighed, clasping her hands behind her back as she approached a flat area near the base of the trunk. “During our time, this information was freely obtainable by any maiden, especially to those of us that were gifted with ageless wisdom. It is a right that was robbed from you by humans during her majesty’s slumber.”
Kiara didn’t comment; this maiden wanted to talk her heart out, and she wasn’t about to stop her. She only followed, making noises of agreement and half-formed affirmations to urge her onwards. Inwardly, her heart was beating faster, hoping, counting down the minutes, the seconds. How long until she was given the map she’d been looking for dozens of mortal lifespans?
“Once upon a time, the Maker could make anyone ascend, using methods none were able to reproduce.”
“Why didn’t the Maker share this knowledge?” She asked.
There was no answer, only a flare of anger, resentment, and malice. The cloth covering the maiden’s body wriggled and seethed as if there were thousands of vines underneath. According to Dia, that was exactly what the Pinielf had made her body into.
Kiara could only fathom how much was actually left of the maiden.
“It does not matter.” The Pinielf approached the wood, gesturing at it, and stepping away as the silhouette of a door formed. It opened to a tunnel leading into the tree. “What matters is the task that needs to be done. The reason you were brought here.”
The Succubus did not step into the tree, holding herself still. “I’ve come very far for this information you’re promising. I expect at least a part of it before we begin anything.”
She could feel the Pinielf’s eyes boring into her through the cloth. “Agreeable.” She declared after a few seconds, the writhing under the cloth coming to a complete stop. “I will tell you the purpose of your genus, the reason for the design of Succubi and Dark Queens. Would that suffice?”
It might.
Kiara wasn’t entirely sure, but being entirely certain of the reasoning behind the design of her genus would be of great help. If nothing else, it would provide a hint. “I agree with this.”
Sivent nodded in turn. “The purpose of your genus is to corrupt, to make your victims turn against everything they once held dear.” There was a smile woven into those words. “The reason why the Maker granted your breed agelessness was so that you would be able to accrue the necessary experience to carry this out on a grander scale upon becoming a Dark Queen.”
Kiara’s heart clenched.
Lips drawing thin, she lowered her gaze to the roots they stood on.
She thought back to those fateful words from the diary of Dark Queen Djamila.
It was in the scorching sands I found my King.
Too feeble to even cast his own shadow.
Yet he could silence the mountains with but a glare.
Such was his weakness.
Her mind churned, trying to figure out how this fit into everything. Had the requirement of a human immune to her powers been a challenge of some sort? Why would it matter within this context? How would it relate to the design the Maker had imposed on-
“Well?” Sivent didn’t let her continue her trail of thoughts, impatiently gesturing for her to follow into the tree.
Kiara needed to know the answers.
With one last look to the forest, she wondered if Rick was safe, then turned to follow her guide. Behind her, the door sealed, the tunnel collapsing and closing in with a quiet hissing rumble, sealing any possibility of escape.
There was a foul taste in the air, one that grew worse the further in they went. Kiara couldn’t place it, nor be sure if it was something emotional or physical. There was a tanginess to it, woven with sour and acrid undertones that reminded her of spoiled meat. As they continued, flanked by the impenetrable walls of the narrow corridor, she began catching a dissonance of emotions emerging from further ahead.
There was a singular room, illuminated by a lone magelight.
A young human woman sat on a chair, eyes wide but seeing nothing, shuddering as green tendrils pulsated under her skin, driving directly from a lump on her neck into her head. The whites of her eyes were yellowed, her hair fallen off in patches, her skin ashen.
“I’ve been trying to get her to submit on command. But there’s something in her that’s been resisting the attempts.”
Sivent spoke as if the half-corpse of a girl wasn’t screaming out with such loud overwhelming agony that it clogged Kiara’s throat. She felt herself take a step back and waver, shutting down her senses as quickly and hard as she could lest it overwhelm her.
“Whatever it is, I’ve been trying to excise out of her by shutting bits of her brain at a time before patching her back up. But nothing’s getting through.”
Kiara stumbled, leaning into the wall, gripping it with clammy fingers.
“Once I heal her back, you will help her for the ceremony.”
“Ceremony?” Kiara asked weakly, fighting to recover her breath.
“Yes.” Sivent chuckled. “I’ve prepared something so that she may bond every Elf in the grove in quick order.”
The world was spinning. “That’s… that should be impossible.”
“The Green Empire existed before humans began losing their ability to form bonds.” The Pinielf stood tall, proud, oozing a vile determination that burned away all flavors, choking out all else. “We developed a great deal of methods to manage them. It wouldn’t do if a mortal held any sort of power over an ageless like ourselves.” She snickered, reaching out and caressing the human girl’s face. “The available resources aren’t ideal, but I’ve managed with what I had.”
Sensing the hesitation, the Succubus turned away from the victim, trying to block out the soundless screams. “You can’t be knowledgeable in all these things. You’ve been asleep for too long.”
“You’re right; much of what is being done is through half-remembered details and partially recovered texts,” she answered freely. “I was an experimental botanist, fourth division, symbiosis project.” Pride seeped into her voice. “Other experimental divisions created prototype plant-life for our superiors to affix and perpetuate. The titan-trees are one example of many; they were the backbone of our infrastructure.” She chuckled. “Ours sought ways to enhance the flesh with bark and sap. The feral problem was one that had only begun rearing its head late into the Empire’s existence. You fought what we’d created as an attempt to permanently solve it.” Turning to face Kiara, the white-clothed maiden produced a singular seed. “Shame that we never had the chance to put it to use.”
Both maidens stared at one another, the seed held aloft by a gloved hand.
Kiara could scarcely believe this had been the source of the nightmare they’d faced back in Sinco. There was nothing odd or out of place for the pyramid-shaped chunk of plant. It almost looked like a splinter taken out of a tree.
Yet the chill ran up her spine all the same.
“You must excuse my rudeness. I know you’ve implied agreement thus far, but one should always verify,” the Pinielf spoke softly. “But you do intend to aid me in this project of mine, correct?”
“I’ll help influence the human girl,” Kiara nodded, eyes flickering at the seed. She couldn’t tell if the Pinielf intended to use it on her if she refused; the maidens' emotions were all over the place; her sanity was likely in question as well.
“To the best of your ability?” She stepped closer.
“The best of my ability does not work on people whose minds have shattered,” she spat the words out, not daring to look at the human in question. “Or if they’re so far out they can’t even think or feel properly.”
The Pinielf perked up. “I’ve become quite adept at returning her to her original state. The subject will be ready by tomorrow.” With a twitch of her hand, the seed vanished from sight. “You may leave now; I will call for you once everything is ready.”
Kiara nearly took the offer at face value but stopped. “And my human?”
“I will be keeping him under my care, at least until your part of the deal is fulfilled. Collateral, you understand.”
A begrudging nod was all she could give. “I do.”
Happiness came out in waves; the maiden gestured for her to leave. “Once your task is done, I will also teach you the spell to break your bond. Consider it a bonus, something every ageless maiden ought to know.”
“And you will let me keep the human,” Kiara spoke firmly.
“If you still wish to keep him after ascending, certainly,” Sivent nodded without a care.
Another gesture marked the end of the conversation.
Kiara didn’t hesitate to take the opening tunnel out of there, to get as far away from the aberration as she could. Her insides were clenched tightly, stomach twisting into knots, and heart hammering hard against her ribs.
She needed to finish her task quickly, get the information, and finish off the Pinielf.
Before she figured out that the human Kiara had brought here was not Rick.