About twenty seconds after she left Emilia, Elise realized that she had no idea where she was going. She knew Naomi had gone out, but where? There were dozens of tunnels, and she only knew what was at the end of a few of them, and none of them were what she wanted. She could check all of them one by one, but that would be so slow. If he wasn’t dead already, Hallbjorn definitely would be by the time she found the right one.
Suddenly, she remembered Naomi’s map. The one that showed the positions of all the scouts. If she could get that, she could maybe locate Naomi on it. She made a sharp turn toward Naomi’s hut. If it wasn’t there, or if it was magically locked, this would be a waste of time. And with as paranoid as Naomi was, it would be surprising if there were no defenses protecting it. But if she could get it working, she might make it in time.
She arrived at the hut, which was now a bit thicker and taller than it was before Naomi made it soundproof the day before. The opening was narrower than before as well, since Naomi had to recreate it once their conversation was over. She dove inside, prepared to cast {Prehensile Vines} to start lifting things up and searching for the map, only to freeze when she saw that it was already open on the ground. There were small saplings sprouting from the ground in the four corners, holding it open, and there were small dots moving around.
One in particular caught her eye. It was bigger than the others, and had a tinge of gold around it. It was Naomi’s indicator, Elise was sure, and it was moving. She watched for a few seconds as it dashed back and forth in a tunnel at seemingly random intervals, then shook herself from her rumination. That kind of movement could only mean one thing: combat. Naomi was fighting, and if she was fighting, that meant it wasn’t over yet. Elise looked over the map one final time to make sure she knew where she was going, then zipped out of the hut.
She found Naomi bleeding out halfway down a tunnel on the west side of the cavern. Before she got close enough to hear her heartbeat, she thought the drow woman was dead. Her throat was slit, and her chest and stomach were riddled with stab wounds. Her wooden arm and leg were nothing but splinters, and her one good leg was twisted around so that the bottom of her foot was pointed upward. Her formerly lone good eye had been reduced to an empty socket, and her new golden eye was hidden by a leather patch.
“Naomi!” said Elise.
She didn’t respond. How could she? Her throat was slit. Now that she was closer, she could see that the cut was almost deep enough to reach her spine. Her heartbeat was so weak it was almost imperceptible. How was she even alive at all? Elise flew over her, raining down {Fairy Dust} and she could see the bleeding slow, but it wasn’t enough.
Please, please, please, please, she thought.
She felt a familiar warmth flow through her, and her wings turned golden. A purple window appeared in front of her, but she ignored it. Below her, Naomi’s heartbeat suddenly strengthened. The bleeding stopped and the wounds closed, and a few seconds later, she started coughing up blood.
“Naomi!” said Elise, flying down. “Naomi, what happened? Did the dwarves do it?”
Naomi coughed a few more times, then keeled over to the side, breathing raspily. Her other eye was now golden as well, but it was unfocused, and unseeing. She was unconscious. But she was breathing, and her heart was beating strongly. She would survive, and that was enough for now. She could hear the clang of metal on stone further down the tunnel, and knew she had to move.
At the other side, she found four dwarven Royal Guards, three with their backs to the tunnel, and one facing her. She couldn’t tell what was beyond them, because they almost completely blocked her view, but the tension in the air was palpable.
“Reinforcements!” shouted the guard facing her. “It’s the traitor.”
“Hold them off!” said one of the others without looking back.
“Aye!”
“What’s going on here?” asked Elise, stopping twenty feet away.
“Like you don’t know.”
The guard didn’t move from his position. Whatever was going on, the dwarves were guarding the tunnel like their lives depended on it.
“I’m not here to fight,” said Elise. “Please, just tell me what’s happening.”
She blasted the guard with a heavy dose of {Charm}, which, when amplified by the divine power she was still sporting, broke past his mental defenses.
“The damn ghouls poisoned the king, My Lady!” he said.
“Oi!” shouted one of the other guards. “The hell are you doing?”
Elise wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass her by.
“Let me in,” she commanded, with another strong cast of {Charm} and some {Suggest} for good measure.
“As you wish.”
The guard stepped aside, and Elise wasted no time flying past him and up as high as she could in the room beyond. Before she had time to register what room it was, she used {Suggest} and {Charm} again, this time on the room in general. Normally, those two skills were single-target, or maybe dual-target if she focused especially hard, but with the divine power from {Rune of Fate}, she somehow knew that targeting the entire room would be possible.
“Everybody stop!” she shouted.
None of the dwarves had really been moving when she said that, but they all stiffened at her order. At the same time, three drow appeared out of thin air, positioned about the room. Elise had to take a moment to fully comprehend the situation. They were in a tall, circular room whose center was taken up mostly by a huge bed. In the middle of the bed, Hallbjorn lay, perfectly still with his eyes closed, as though he was asleep. However, she could tell that there was something more happening. His skin was deathly pale, there were dark circles under his eyes, and the veins on his hands were dark and bulging. He was poisoned.
In addition to the four guarding the tunnel, there were three more Royal Guards blocking off the main entrance to the bedchamber. The three drow were crouching with their blades drawn, and all were facing the guards at the tunnel. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on. The drow poisoned the king, and were now trying to escape.
“Everyone stay where you are,” she said.
She flew down to the king and started raining {Fairy Dust} down upon him. Fortunately, he was still alive. At that moment, she didn’t understand why the drow hadn’t just killed him, but it was better for her. It meant she could save him.
It didn’t take long before the poison symptoms receded, and the king's skin returned to its normal color. She continued to sprinkle dust until he groaned and started moving beneath his sheets, then turned to the room. Just in time too, because the first of the drow was starting to break free from her control. He opened his mouth, and Elise prepared to respond to whatever vitriol he was about to sling at her, but instead, all she heard was an incomprehensible scream.
A moment later, a second drow broke free and did the same thing. When Elise looked closer, she realized that something was off. Their eyes were wild and unfocused, and their expressions were twisted into exaggerated versions of anger. Their hearts were beating unusually quickly, and their fingers were twitching.
“Stop!” she shouted again.
Both were silenced again, and Elise flew over them and used {Fairy Dust} again, then did the same on the third drow. Their bodies relaxed, and their expressions turned to confusion.
“L-Lady Elise?” said one of them. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
“They came to assassinate the king!” said one of the guards.
“We did?” asked the drow. “We did! But what about-? Oh no… Naomi! Where’s Naomi?”
The blood drained from all three drow’s faces, and they glanced between each other in horror.
“What have we done?” wailed one, falling to her knees.
“We killed Naomi!” said another.
“She’s alive!” announced Elise. “Are you the ones that attacked her?”
“She’s alive?” said one of the drow. “Thank the Mother Tree!”
“How?” asked another.
“What’s going on?” demanded one of the dwarves, stepping forward with his ax raised.
“Attack!” said another.
“Stop!” said Elise, releasing another wave of {Charm} and {Suggest}. “Everyone stop! Let me think.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
While everyone stopped moving again, the pieces started clicking into place in Elise’s mind, and the questions. Why was Naomi bleeding out halfway down the tunnel if the fight was here? The other drow had attacked her. Why did the other drow attack her and why were they feral? They were being manipulated. And there was only one person who could have done it: Emilia.
Does she really want to destroy the dwarves this badly? She thought.
It still wasn’t adding up though. Why did Naomi need to die? And why make the drow feral? Wouldn’t it be better if they accomplished their mission and all came back alive? As far as Elise knew, Naomi was the strongest drow in the whole tribe. Losing her would be an enormous detriment to any war efforts. Even if Naomi didn’t trust Emilia, she didn’t trust the dwarves either, and the dwarves had just poisoned the Mother Tree. She would still fight for the drow when it came down to it.
So what was her goal?
----------------------------------------
389 years ago.
“We’re going to have so much fun!” said Lyra as she flew ahead of Emilia into the forest.
“Mmm,” responded Emilia.
She didn’t like Lyra. Lyra was annoying, and stupid, and always bothering Emilia to do things with her. Emilia couldn’t do anything about it though. She and Lyra were the youngest of the fey, and by a lot, so the older ones always paired the two of them together so they could be “friends.” No matter how many times Emilia told them she didn’t want any “friends”, they kept insisting that the two of them play together. Even the old man Hadri was in on it.
Emilia didn’t understand. What was the point of friends? Why would she ever want to spend any more time with Lyra than was absolutely necessary? One of the older fey had once said that bad things happened in life so that it would be easier to appreciate the good things. Was that what friendship was? Just a forced bad thing to make the other things more enjoyable?
She thought for a moment longer and then decided that must have been it. Why people pretended they were having fun when they were with friends still remained a mystery to her. Maybe it was to make each other feel worse? That’s certainly how it worked when Lyra acted like she was having fun with Emilia.
Their destination for “playtime” today was a patch of wild mushrooms a short ways into the forest. It was further than any of the drow or dwarves lived, but it wasn’t far enough out that the cows would be a danger. They would have to watch for snakes, but they could fly, so the snakes wouldn’t pose too much of a threat.
What Lyra wanted to do there, Emilia couldn’t even begin to guess. There was nothing fun about mushrooms. Learning about them was interesting, but she didn’t see how going to play among them would be anything but boring. But then again, if the point of friendship was to be miserable, then this would certainly do the trick.
“Emmy, watch this!” said Lyra, hovering above one of the bigger mushrooms. “Are you watching?”
“Yes,” said Emilia.
“Okay!” said Lyra.
The other sprite took a deep breath, then her wings vanished and she plummeted to the ground. She hit the mushroom, which gave in to her weight, allowing her to sink her whole body into it. Then, she bounced up as the mushroom returned to its original shape. She flew through the air, laughing wildly, and at the apex of her bounce, her wings reappeared, and she came to a halt, still laughing.
“Now it’s your turn!” said Lyra.
Emilia knew better than to protest. The only thing more annoying than normal Lyra was Lyra when she wanted Emilia to do something. Emilia flew up above the same mushroom, and looked down, preparing to drop.
“No, you have to do it from higher up!” said Lyra, flying above Emilia. “Like this high!”
“I don’t know…” said Emilia.
“Aw, come on. Don’t be a baby.”
Emilia frowned. She wasn’t a baby. The older fey sometimes called her that, and it always annoyed her. Hearing it from Lyra annoyed her even more. What did not wanting to go higher have to do with being a baby? Emilia wasn’t stupid. She knew that falling from higher up was more dangerous than falling from lower. Why would she want to go higher?
But she knew there was no arguing with Lyra, so she slowly drifted up until she was level with the other girl. She only went up a few feet, but suddenly, the ground looked much further away. Normally, being up that high didn’t bother her one bit, since she had wings, but knowing she was about to intentionally deactivate them added a new layer of fear that she had never felt before.
“Are you sure this is safe?” she asked. “What if I miss the mushroom?”
“It’s so big though,” said Lyra. “How could you miss it?”
She was right. Logically, Emilia knew that the mushroom was plenty big enough, and that even if she was a little bit off, she would still land on it comfortably, but from that height, it seemed to shrink away until it was the size of an ant. Emilia took a deep breath, then a shallower breath, then an even shallower one as her heart rate climbed.
“Just do it!” said Lyra. “Come on, Emmy, you can do it!”
“I’m not-” started Emilia.
“3! 2! 1! Go!”
Before she even knew what was happening, Emilia deactivated her wings and fell toward the mushroom. She was as stiff as a board, and it took so long to realize what had happened that she didn’t have time to reactivate her wings before hitting the mushroom. She sank into it until it almost fully enveloped her, and then, just like Lyra, she was flung outward when the fungus sprung back to its original shape.
She regained her senses in midair and reactivated her wings, coming to a halt a few feet away from the mushroom. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she could feel the blood pumping through her veins.
“See?” said Lyra, flying down to her. “I told you it was fun.”
“That wasn’t-!”
Emilia stopped when she realized that she was grinning. It was fun. Terrifying, but fun. The exhilaration of the long fall and sudden directional change made her feel alive.
“I’m going to do it again,” she said.
“Yeah!” said Lyra. “Me too! Let’s do it together!”
“Okay.”
The two young sprites flew back up above the mushroom, and held hands before falling together. Their hands were linked all the way until they hit the spongy spore, then broke apart when they were flung out at different angles. Lyra tumbled through the air, laughing wildly, and Emilia’s smile felt like it had become a permanent facial feature.
“Again! Again!” said Lyra.
They did it twice more, but each time, Emilia noticed that it was a little bit less fun. By the time they did it a sixth time, all the excitement seemed gone for good. She already knew exactly what would happen. Why do it again? Somehow, Lyra was still going strong though. Emilia said she needed a break, and told Lyra to go again. Lyra obliged happily, leaving Emilia to observe from above.
How is she still having fun? wondered Emilia.
She watched Lyra fall once, and bounce up just like the other seven times. She tumbled in the air before breaking her fall by reactivating her wings. She then flew up and dropped again, and again bounced. This time though, Emilia noticed something interesting. The angle of the bounce, and the way she tumbled was different. It wasn’t much of a difference, but it was enough to catch Emilia’s interest.
What caused the change? Why wasn’t it the same? Was it the way she landed? Was it where on the mushroom she landed? Was she doing something herself to change it? Emilia decided she needed to test it herself.
While Lyra was returning, she hovered above the mushroom, as close to the center as she could, and landed butt-first and paid close attention to the way she bounced. Then, she did it again, landing slightly to the right of center. That made her launch angle also lean to the right. The same thing happened, but mirrored, when she went to the left. When she bounced from the back, she went almost straight up, and when she landed on the front, she went almost straight forward.
She tried dozens more landing spots and landing positions, making a mental note of the angle each time. Soon, it was Lyra’s turn to get bored.
“Again?” she asked. “Let’s go over there. There’s better mushrooms that way.”
“In a bit,” said Emilia. “Just a few more.”
A few more turned into ten more, and that turned into twenty, at which point Lyra huffed and flew off to play on her own. Emilia barely noticed. She was so caught up in her own experiments. It was fascinating how such a tiny movement could change her bounce so much. Just twisting her body a tiny bit to the side could change her angle. It wasn’t a huge change, but the further she flew out, the further apart trajectories got.
Eventually, Lyra got tired of playing on her own and returned to Emilia.
“Emmy, let’s go play over there,” she said, pointing to a different part of the mushroom grove.
Emilia looked up at her, as if only just then remembering that she was there.
“Huh? Oh. Sure.”
She had tested just about everything on that mushroom. She was ready to try other ones. When they got to where Lyra wanted to go, Lyra suggested that they fall together again. Emilia didn’t mind. Two people landing at the same time caused different effects. So did two people landing at slightly offset times. Or two people landing one after another. Or one person holding another person. There were so many things to test.
Lyra went along with it for about a dozen drops, and then she realized that Emilia wouldn’t stop, and got sick of it.
“I’m thirsty,” she said.
“Huh?” asked Emilia. “Oh. Me too.”
“There’s a stream right over there.” Lyra pointed deeper into the woods.
“But it’s dangerous to go in so far,” said Emilia.
“Don’t be a baby,” said Lyra. “We’ll be fine. If something tries to eat us, we can just fly away!”
Emilia scowled. “I’m not a baby.”
“Then let’s go to the stream.”
Her argument didn’t make sense, but before Emilia could explain that, Lyra was already on her way there. It was a bit further in than Lyra made it seem, but it didn’t look to be dangerous. Emilia landed at the bank so she could lean in and cup water with her hands, but Lyra landed directly in the water with a splash that soaked the front of Emilia’s dress.
“Hey!” said Emilia.
“Come on in!” said Lyra, standing waist-deep in the stream. “It’s more fun in the water.”
“But we’re just getting a drink.”
“We can do that too.”
Lyra demonstrated by sinking down until the water was up to her mouth and drinking directly from the stream that way. Emilia frowned, but decided to follow her lead. After all, there was no arguing with Lyra. Besides, she had at least been half-right about the mushrooms.
Emilia found herself disappointed by the water. It was just water. Lyra was having a grand time splashing about and diving under, and letting the current sweep her away before flying back, but Emilia just couldn’t understand it. She tried out some of those things herself, but she only felt stupid.
After a few minutes, their “fun” turned into Lyra dancing around like a crazy person, and Emilia sitting in the shallowest part of the stream and letting the current run over her legs. However, that didn’t last long, as Lyra got bored playing alone, so she decided to involve Emilia by splashing her.
“Hey!” said Emilia. “Why did you-?”
Her question was interrupted by a mouthful of water when Lyra splashed her again. Emilia scowled and splashed back, making Lyra giggle and jump away. Emilia stood up to chase her into the water, then realized that was exactly what Lyra wanted, so she sat back down, preparing to ignore Lyra. That turned out to be impossible, and soon, the two girls were caught up in a water war. They were so loud that they didn’t notice what was approaching until a shadow appeared over their heads.