Chapter 14: Elf History
Daphne failed to maintain a poker face.
“Now, why don’t you tell me everything that happened?”
Knowing there was no point in denying the fact she had a run-in with a tentacle monster, she changed strategies.
“I can’t talk about it.”
“You can’t talk about it?” Alenia repeated back.
“Yes. I promised.”
“You promised…”
For thirty seconds, the two sat silently, unmoving.
“Daphne, I have something to tell you about. Come sit next to me.”
“Can’t you tell me while I’m over here?”
Alenia responded by tapping a portion of the cushion next to her with her hand.
“Fine.” Daphne stood, walked over, and sat to Alenia’s left, facing the same direction as her, staring at the rocking chair she just vacated.
“Do you know our people’s history? Specifically with regard to tentacle monsters?”
“No…”
“So young.” Alenia reached out to Daphne, picked her up by her waist, and plopped the younger elf into her lap. “It was only a few generations ago when the role of women changed in EarthGlen. Well, our use of the word ‘generations’ is actually more recent than that, thanks to the humans. The concept of generations doesn’t apply very well to us, after all.” Alenia rested her hands on Daphne’s shoulders as she spoke.
“I see…” Daphne didn’t actually seem very interested so far.
“Women were treated as noncombatants. Men would level, both by hunting and traveling. We would stay home. I imagine it was similar for the other tribes as well.”
“I—I already know this.” Daphne squirmed a bit in protest as she spoke.
“On those occasions when women left home, the men did little to actually protect us. Many a time women fell victim to monsters or other races. Most famously, female elves were preyed on by none other than tentacle monsters.”
“Really?” Now Daphne was learning something new.
“Yes. It’s said tentacle monsters were why the women of our tribe rebelled against the traditional ways and began amassing power of our own.”
“So that’s why us girls are encouraged to become strong now?”
“Yes, Daphne, that’s partly true. There’s one other thing you should know about our history, though.”
“That is?”
“Some of your kin went from fearing tentacle monsters to… the opposite.”
“What’s the opposite of fearing tentacle monsters?”
“Like I said, you’re so young. Since you don’t understand, I’ll have to insist that you tell me all about the tentacle monster you encountered on your travels.”
“I’m sorry, but like I said, I promised.”
Alenia squeezed Daphne’s shoulders slightly, then moved her right hand to Daphne’s cheek. Leaning forward, she whispered directly into Daphne’s ear, “Won’t you tell me?” Her breath tickled Daphne, causing her to flinch.
“I won’t!”
“I see.” Alenia wrapped her lips over her teeth and then gummed Daphne’s pointy ear.
Daphne squeaked in response.
As Alenia released the ear, she slid her left hand, slowly, to Daphne’s knee. “How long are you going to resist me, Daphne?” With her right hand, Alenia grabbed Daphne’s chin between three fingers and turned her head to the right so they could look each other in the eye.
What Alenia saw was an unprecedented level of defiance from the silly elf. Clearly, whatever occurred during Daphne’s run-in with the tentacle monster had a profound impact on her. On the one hand, that made Daphne more difficult to influence. On the other, Alenia was becoming more and more determined to learn exactly what had happened to Daphne. She hadn’t felt this excited in decades, despite how well she was hiding it.
“Let me go!”
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“Very well, Daphne.” As Alenia loosened her grip on Daphne and released her, she continued, “I won’t try to force it out of you. I’m sure those male companions of yours will be quite enamored of my techniques.”
“You wouldn’t!”
Instead of responding, Alenia raised an eyebrow.
“You would…” Daphne gave up as she sat back down in the rocking chair.
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Daphne described her trip to the Lower Gordu Dungeon, as well as DM’s brief assistance during the Guild bombing, in excruciating detail. Once again, Alenia remained silent through the whole account.
“Daphne, that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.”
“I know… Even I know the dungeon master is unique.”
“He’s not just unique as a monster. Hmm…”
“Alenia?”
“Daphne, go tell your friends that we’ll be departing tomorrow. I have a couple of others to discuss this with.”
“What!?”
“I’m quite interested in meeting this dungeon master.”
“Even so, why does my party need to go?”
“What’s the problem? My friends and I can train you and your companions while we travel. Doesn’t that allay your current concerns?”
“But—“
“Aren’t you fond of that dungeon master? Wouldn’t you be happy to see him again?”
“Not under these circumstances!”
“Come, Daphne. You don’t even know what you’re worried about.
“Even so!”
“Well, I won’t force you… The same way I didn’t force you to tell me about the tentacle monster.”
Daphne was able to understand the subtext behind that commitment, so once again, she gave up.
DM, having witnessed all of this through Daphne’s eyes, was none too pleased.
“Oh, Daphne, come close again.”
The young elf approached cautiously as though tiptoeing towards a hornet’s nest.
Faster than Daphne could react, Alenia reached out with both hands, grabbed Daphne’s head, and pulled their faces close together. She looked Daphne dead in the eyes and said, “I’ll be there soon.”
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Lupy wandered the Twin Cities alone. Nothing was stopping her from trying to join up with a random party at the Guild, but she didn’t feel like doing that. She was frustrated that everyone in the party, other than her, was busy doing something else. Kat was training at the Church, Shiba was ‘learning’ from the shady necromancer, Vulp was receiving lessons from the Lord’s family, and Bandit was practicing and conducting missions on behalf of Thaw. Lupy was left all alone, and DM seemed too engaged to pay her much attention lately either.
Her aimless travels brought her to a vacant lot where some alleys joined. She was looking down and didn’t notice as she was surrounded by three guys, likely thugs, who were older than her.
“Check it out.”
“Whatchu doing all by yourself over here?”
“Pretty stupid of her to—“
Lupy interrupted the third thug to say, “Nothing. I’m not doing anything.”
“Why you doing nothing?”
“Too bad nobody’s in business lately.”
“Yeah, it’s shame.”
Lupy looked around, trying to find the best path to escape the circle and walk away, but the guys clearly figured out her intention.
“Where you going so fast?”
“Yeah, didn’t you just come to visit us?”
“What’s your rush?”
Not showing any sign of intimidation, Lupy asked, “You live in this gross place?”
The three thugs’ expressions visibly tightened.
“This place wasn’t too gross for you to visit.”
“Now that you’re here, why don’t you stay a while?”
“Dunno what you’re planning but she’s too young, man.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t teach the bitch some manners.”
“I’m not a bitch,” Lupy corrected.
“The fuck did you say?” Clearly, the kids’ gloves were coming off.
“All right, dude, but make it quick. She’s probably a newbie adventurer. We don’t want to be around when someone from the Guild finds her.”
“The Guild, huh?” The thug in front of Lupy suddenly punched her square in the face, holding nothing back. Although she was strong, due to her overall low body-weight, she was blown back a good meter or two and landed on her side.
“Watch out, she has weapons. If she’s still awake she could cut yer foot or something.”
“I’ll just have to be careful then.”
Just as Lupy lifted her body off the ground, the most violent of the three thugs kicked her in the side, spinning her through the air before she landed prone again.
“I won’t kill you just so long as you learn some manners. You should respect people who are older.”
Lupy spoke while lifting herself up again. “I respect you.”
“Good! Wait, you’re a tough one, aren’t you? Most kids would be sleeping like a baby right now…”
Unsheathing her axes as she finished rising, Lupy continued, “Since I respect you, as my enemy, I won’t hold back.”
One of the two observing thugs advised his violent friend, “Dude, she’s scary.”
“Yeah, yeah, the bitch is tough. Somebody gave her spare hand axes and she thinks she’s a veteran now.”
“See how tough she is when you take her axes," the third thug suggested.
“All right.” The thug took up an unorthodox fighting pose and approached Lupy with mock caution. Lupy took her pose as well. The man feinted, pulled back, and then reached for one of her axes. He must have misjudged, because the ax buried itself deep into his face.
“Dude!” yelled one thug while the other just froze in shock. After a moment, they made eye contact and then both drew hidden weapons. “You got lucky but you’ll pay for that.”
“You’re stronger than you look, b—but it’s two on one now!”
“That’s not fair,” Lupy complained.
“Life isn’t fair, bitch.”
“From both sides!”
“Fine.” Whether Lupy could defeat both of them one versus two, or not, wasn’t clear. She didn’t seem to feel the need to find out. With a thought and a gesture, a minotaur rose from nothing out of the ground, towering over even the men that opposed Lupy.
“Dude!” The two thugs repeated the reactions from when their friend took an ax to the face. Then, in unison, both of the remaining thugs received axes to the face.
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Vera excitedly summed up her latest physics lesson to the Clergy. By DM’s estimate, it would only take a couple more days before she was ready to discuss actual orbital mechanics. The Priest overseeing her emphasized that she shouldn’t limit her learning to just the revolution of the planet around the sun. Instead, she should learn everything he knows, or at least whatever he was willing to teach. The Church didn’t offer her much advice on how to actually get to DM’s dungeon, though. That was up to her to figure out.
Fortunately, Olivia was a kind soul and a bit of a sucker. When Vera explained that she enjoys leveling in the dungeon, Olivia agreed to help her pair up with other adventurers again. She wasn’t sure how many times she’d be able to conveniently get separated from her party before Olivia started asking her about it. Perhaps she should just explain to Olivia that she met with DM and wanted to chat more? She’d have to ask DM about it.
Arriving at the dungeon, Vera joined the first party to descend towards the second floor. After exploring a while, a trap door opened, only this time it was a different adventurer that fell. The rest of Vera’s party panicked, only to fall victim to new trap doors one after another. Finally, a trap door opened in front of Vera, inviting her to jump down. She did.