After two and a half months underground, the sun was blinding. It took Elise many minutes for her eyes to adjust to the sudden influx of light, and when they finally did, everything looked strange. They were floating above the same forest she had spawned in, but it all looked so unfamiliar. The greenness looked wrong compared to the black, blue, and red of the drow cave and the Dwarven grayscale.
Once outside, Emilia held Elise under her arms as she flew to the south. Although she didn’t want to see it, Elise couldn’t help but to keep an eye out for the cabin. She wasn’t sure whether she was happy or sad when she couldn’t find it. She was curious what it was like now. Had someone come to retrieve the bodies. Were they still lying there, mutilated and rotting? Was the cabin still abandoned, or had it become a critter home?
As they flew, the forest below thinned, then turned to grassland which became farmland, and soon, a city came into view, surrounded by low, gray walls. Emilia ignored these walls, flying right over the heads of a pair of chatting guards toward the center of the city. She set down in a dark alley near the city center, and then fashioned a sling out of vines that she produced from thin air, and slung it over her shoulder with Elise inside.
“Don’t say anything,” she said.
A moment later, Elise was transformed into a purse. She could still feel all her extremities, and she could still move her head and twitch her ears, but when she looked at herself, she looked just like a purse made of black crocodile leather. Emilia herself had swapped her normal white dress for an elegant purple one with a fur scarf, and her antlers were replaced by a wide hat in matching purple with tall feathers sticking out of the top. Her hair had turned from green to blonde, and her face had gone from kindly and mature to cruel and arrogant.
When they emerged from the alley, they got a few strange looks, but Emilia walked with such confidence and purpose that none dared to stop her. They only walked about a block further until they came to an elegant wooden building. It had a sign above its door, but it had been so long since she lived with the Grays that she had forgotten most of the human language, and the only word she could make out on it was “center”.
The building’s purpose was made obvious though as soon as they entered. The entire bottom floor was a wide, busy lobby with lane lines drawn on the floor indicating which way they were to go, and small daises with intricate inscriptions on them. As Elise watched, some of the inscriptions started to glow, and a moment later, there were people standing on them. They were teleportation circles.
Emilia ignored the lane lines, and walked through the room without a care in the world, even stepping on top of a dais or two until she reached the staircase on the far right wall. She ascended the staircase, past a second floor full of larger, more intricate circles, and to the third floor, which held just three circles, larger and more complex than any of the lower ones.
None of the employees took notice of her, except one, who went to stand next to the nearest circle. Emilia walked with Elise up to the center, and without a word, the employee made some hand motions, and the circle began to glow. There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, they stood in a similar, but much larger room with about a dozen of identical circles. Like before, no one paid them any mind, and Emilia simply walked out of the building and onto the street.
This city was much bigger than the one they had come from, and not just in population. Everything in it was bigger. The streets were wider, the buildings were taller, and even the people were bigger. Elise saw a square-jawed man that must have been at least eight feet tall pushing a cart loaded with fried pastries and calling out to passersby.
Instead of ducking into an alley and undoing the disguise, Emilia continued on down the street. Elise didn’t know how long they walked for because she wasn’t really paying attention. Everywhere she looked, there seemed to be someone, or something interesting.
To her right, there was another man, just as big as the pastry-seller, who was putting nails in a sign above a door while an elf woman guided him from below to make sure it was level. On the left, a cyclops woman in a tight-fitting outfit had stopped a blushing young man to hand him some kind of flier. When they passed through a market square, there was a trio of what were either halflings or gnomes doing acrobatic tricks for a small crowd. She saw a lizard man scolding a teenage boy for stepping on his tail, a young couple posing while a street-painter’s hands moved too fast for her to track over a portrait in progress, and a shady man in a hooded trench coat with an eagle on each shoulder. She even saw a dwarf or two, buying food or knick knacks at one of the many street stalls.
Elise was so caught up in all the sights that she almost forgot that they had a real destination to go to, and was surprised when they stopped in front of an ordinary-looking dress shop. There was nothing strange about the interior, other than perhaps the odd lack of customers. The dresses looked to be of reasonable quality, and the street outside was as busy as any Elise had ever seen, but aside from a bored-looking young woman at the counter, there was no one inside.
The clerk said something that Elise didn’t understand, and Emilia responded with something equally incomprehensible, making the clerk perk up. She smiled and said something else, then led Emilia to a room at the far side of the store. It looked like an ordinary closet at first, but when the clerk grabbed a broom and stuck it into a crack between two boards on the ceiling, the back wall slid to the side, and behind it was a red carpeted staircase illuminated by glowing stones that led down far enough that Elise couldn’t see the end.
“Thank you,” said Emilia before stepping onto the stairs.
Those two words at least, Elise remembered. Sylvanna had always made sure that Sophie said it whenever it was applicable, and Sophie always tried to get away with not saying it at all. The wonder she had felt at seeing the city vanished and was replaced by melancholy, and her mood wasn’t helped by the fact that she had gotten to enjoy just an hour of sunlight before going right back underground.
As soon as the wall closed behind them, Emilia undid the illusion, and let Elise out of the vine carrier so she could move on her own.
“We’re almost there,” said Emilia. “There is no special etiquette that you need to follow, but please try not to offend anyone. If you do, I will try to step in to help, but I will have to step away for a meeting between the higher-ups, so I won’t be around the whole time.”
“I’ll try my best,” replied Elise.
The staircase was at least a few hundred stairs long– Elise stopped counting when she started flying– and ended in a short stone hallway. On the opposite side of the hall, there was an extravagant red double door, at least twelve feet high and inlaid with gold filigree. The brass ring knockers were hanging from the mouths of silver dragons whose eyes were rubies. Emilia grabbed one and knocked three times, and a moment later, the door opened and they were let in by a woman with the lower half of a bird and wings for arms.
[ Pigeon Harpy, lvl 4 ]
“Welcome, Representative Emilia,” said the woman in Fey.
Her voice was high-pitched and rough, and not at all pleasant to listen to. Her shirt– the only article of clothing she wore– was covered in stains, and riddled with holes, and she smelled like she hadn’t bathed in months. She bowed and lifted her wings and a few stray feathers broke free and fluttered to the ground. Emilia wrinkled her nose and swiftly walked by without acknowledging the woman.
They were in another hallway, this one feeling more like one that belonged in a mansion than the underground halls that Elise was used to. The floor was hardwood, but a decorative rug ran along the center, muffling Emilia’s footsteps, and it was illuminated by golden candelabras with more of the glowing stones set on its tips. The walls were also made of wood, and were painted a soft green color.
Their final destination was at the end of this hallway, where a more ordinary looking door opened up to reveal a ballroom filled with the strangest assortment of creatures Elise could possibly imagine. They ranged from small animals like her to a literal elephant with everything in between. There were humanoids and semi-humanoids like Emilia and the harpy, and there was a giant insect or two, and even a few wispy, translucent creatures that seemed to fade in and out of existence.
“Emilia, you’re here!” said a deep voice. “And I see you’ve brought a friend!”
The speaker looked like a centaur, except its lower half was a jaguar, and its upper half was also a jaguar. It had the body of a jaguar, but instead of a neck and a head, it had another half a jaguar body, and then the head, and it was not anthropomorphic in the slightest. Elise inspected it, just to see what it was, and was only left with even more questions.
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[ Greater Firebreath Jagaur, lvl ??? ]
She read the species name three times before she realized that the a and the u were switched. Who had decided to name it that? Why? Why did this creature even exist? How did it benefit from this evolution?
“Jag,” said Emilia. “It’s good to see you. This is Elise. I mentioned her briefly at the last meeting.”
“Oh yes, the Rabbit Fey,” he said with a toothy grin. “A pleasure to meet you. My name is Jag, I’m one of the members here. I’ve been friends with Emilia now for… Oh, how long has it been?”
“Almost seventy years,” supplied Emilia.
“Has it really been that long?” he asked. “Well, as they say, time soars when you’re enjoying yourself, and I have certainly enjoyed every second I’ve spent here. I hope you’ll be able to say the same in seventy years too.” He chuckled. “So, how much do you know about what we do here?”
“Almost nothing,” said Elise. “All I know is that it’s an ‘organization of non-humanoids seeking to change the world.’”
“Well, you know a lot more than I did when I first came here,” he said. “When I was invited here the first time, all I knew was that there would be free food.”
“I was promised that too, yes,” said Elise.
Jag laughed. “Well, I must say that even if you did only come for the food, it would be worth it. We have the best food in the city– dare I say the world?– right here.”
He turned and gestured behind him to where a long table was set out with a wide array of dishes. There were steaming plates of meat, trays piled high with fruits and vegetables Elise couldn’t even begin to describe, and bowls of soups and other liquids of every color. It smelled heavenly, and her stomach was starting to grumble just from looking at it.
“Come to think of it,” continued Jag. “I heard that Freddy is bringing in someone new today as well. Hey Emilia, you know that big Shift that just happened way down by Albionia?”
“I had heard about it.”
“Yeah, so apparently, some lucky monster got to his sixth evolution because of it, and Freddy’s been teaching him how to suppress his instincts. There were rumors he was gonna bring the new guy in last time, but I guess he wasn’t ready yet. He might not come this time either, but it would be interesting if we had two new members today.”
“Oh, I’m not a member yet,” said Elise.
“Well, that’s not hard to do,” said Jag, smiling. “It’s a very quick process really.”
“I’m not sure if I will join,” Elise clarified. “Emilia invited me so I could learn about it, and see if it was something I’d be interested in.”
“Well, that’s fine too,” he said. “But I bet you’ll want to join by the time you leave. There’s no better place for a non-humanoid to get connections than here. Even if you’re not participating in our greater cause, we’ll still have your back, even when the rest of the world is against you. People like us have to learn to work together, you know.”
“What is this place exactly?” asked Elise. “I don’t even know what this group’s name is yet.”
“Well, I can tell you that we call ourselves Ostra, which is short for ‘ostracized’, but I’m not sure if I’m the right person to try to explain the rest. I’m over a century old, but compared to the Chairs like Emilia, I’m basically a newcomer.”
“I haven’t been here that long either, Jag,” said Emilia. “It’s only been ninety years for me, and I didn’t become a Chair until sixty years ago.”
“What’s a Chair?” asked Elise.
“A Chair is just someone trusted and powerful enough to be involved in the group’s more clandestine operations,” said Emilia. “I’m one, and you’ll meet a few more later tonight, probably. I can’t tell you exactly what we do, but now that we’re here, I can give you a better idea of why you might want to join.
“Non-humanoids are highly discriminated against all over the world, both by societies, and by the System itself. There are very few groups that accept even fey, and almost none that work with people like Jag. It’s quite unfair. We look different, and we evolve instead of classing up, but we still think and feel, just like the humanoids.”
“Too true,” said Jag, lowering his head.
“Our goal is to make the world that is willing to accept us,” continued Emilia. “A world where Jag can walk down the street without causing a panic and getting attacked by the city guards. A world where I can have a conversation without being accused of trying to steal a soul. A world where everyone can coexist in peace.”
“Hear hear,” said Jag. “Have you ever had a meat pie? I hear they sell them from wooden carts on the streets in the city. I’ve had some down here, but it’s just not authentic. It’s my dream to be able to walk down the street and buy a meat pie from a wooden cart one day. It’s simple and silly, I know, but it’s those simple and silly things that I want to be able to do.”
“I think it’s a good dream,” said Elise.
“Thank you,” said Jag. “And I mean it. A lot of people hear me say that, and they think I’m joking. I mean, look at me. I’m a Jagaur. Nobody looks at a Jagaur and thinks ‘That guy wants to walk freely down the street and buy meat pies from push carts.’ They all think I must want to be an apex predator, and the top of the world or something. And it’s not that I don’t want that too, but that’s just not my dream, you know?”
“I understand completely,” said Elise. “All I want is to be able to live a quiet, comfortable life.”
“Exactly! If I could swap lives with anyone, I would choose a human shopkeep. Just think about it. You wake up every morning in a bed in a city protected by your race’s most powerful people. You sell your goods, and get to talk to your customers all day. You can go out and eat at a local restaurant, maybe befriend the owner, and get drinks with him on the weekends. And then at the end of the day, you go right back to bed, safe and sound, not a care in the world beyond how much I can sell the next day. That sounds like the life.”
“Yeah…” said Elise.
“That’s why I’m here,” said Jag. “I’m not a Chair yet, but I’ve applied. I want to be involved. I know I’m not gonna live forever, but I want to see the world we’re trying to build at least once before then, and know that it was because of me that it can exist.”
“I hope you can make your dream come true,” said Elise. “Sincerely. It sounds wonderful.”
“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head. “Thanks for listening to my rambling too.”
“Oh, I didn’t mind at all.”
“Thank you anyway.”
At that moment, Elise’s stomach growled again, and it seemed Jag heard it, because he smiled at her.
“Shall we go get some food then?” he said.
“Yes please,” said Elise.
“Well, I was a little worried, but you’re doing better than I could have hoped,” said Emilia. “Do you mind if I leave you with Jag while I go greet a few more people?”
“Not at all,” replied Elise.
“Then I’ll be off. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask me, no matter who I’m talking to.”
“I’ll take good care of her,” said Jag, as she turned to walk away. “So, what kind of food do you like? You’re a rabbit, so probably not meat.”
“Not meat,” agreed Elise. “And not mushrooms.”
“Not mushrooms? Well, it’s a shame, because we have some fan-tastic mushroom soup here. I’m a carnivore, and I even like it. But if you say no mushrooms, then no mushrooms it is. Let’s see what else we can find…”
Elise ultimately settled on a small scoop of two different kinds of salad, and an odd blue fruit that was the size of an apple and an almost perfect cube. She couldn’t hold a plate, so Jag did it for her. He wasn’t very good at holding plates either, since he only had paws, but they were big enough and he was nimble enough with them that he made it work. He grabbed a large hunk of raw meat for himself, then the two of them walked to a corner of the room where tables of all heights and sizes had been set out.
“I just realized that we never quite finished answering your question earlier,” he said as he sat down. “Although making a world where humanoids and non-humanoids can live in harmony is the group’s main goal, that’s not actually the reason that most join it. Mostly, we’re a hub for goods and information for non-humanoids. We can’t exactly walk into an information guild and make a request, or stop by a market to buy our food, so we get it from Ostra instead. Technically, anyone can use it, but if you become a member, you’ll get free news and rations whenever you come to one of our branches.”
“Really?”
Although Elise was feeling better about the group now that she had actually seen it and met Jag, she still wasn’t totally convinced on joining. She didn’t disagree with their goal, but she was never the activist type. And between survival, and stopping the dwarf-drow conflict, she already had her hands full. If she could just join and reap the benefits without getting too deeply involved, she would happily accept. Unless there was some hidden condition.
“Is there a catch?” she asked.
“Nope!” he said. “Well, you have to swear to secrecy before we can tell you any of the branch locations, but that’s basically a given. If you just join as a basic member though, you don’t have to do anything for us. You can live your entire life getting free information and food, and we will never bother you about it. We know how hard it is to be a non-humanoid in a humanoid’s world, and we will gladly give to anyone in need.”
“Well, if that’s true, then I see no reason not to join.”
“Perfect! When Freddy gets here, I’ll let him know. He’s in charge of all the contract- Oh, speak of the Devil! Look who’s here!”
He looked over Elise toward the opposite side of the room. Before she could turn around, she felt all the hair on the back of her neck stand up straight, and she shivered. Nothing in the room had actually changed, but she felt like the temperature had suddenly dropped to below zero. It only took her a split second to connect the dots. Newcomer. Recently evolved. Cold.
Standing in the doorway so tall its back almost scraped the top of the frame was the warg.