In the depths of the Mapplefalls Archipelago, Sophia and her team found themselves on the cusp of a perilous task: infiltrate Astaria while escaping the gaze of its draconic ruler to secure safe passage to another island through the Feywild.
The moon was casting an eerie glow over the canopy they found shelter under, a sense of foreboding permeating the air. Their trip around the lake and through the forest had so far been uneventful, encountering only small talking animals on their way, sometimes asking for food or other services in exchange for their help navigating this unknown and treacherous environment.
As they ventured toward the city, the team had devised a plan to sneak to the undercity, right outside the city wall, and seek aid from the elusive and shady organization that lived there, on both sides of the city, and right under Astarot's nose. But to their dismay, night had come to the island a lot sooner than they thought, and with it, the monsters that had been sleeping until then were finally coming out to play.
And they were yet again, of the elemental variety.
Only they were Air Elementals this time around. They were rather small but there were many of them. And they were absolutely nasty, prone to push people off a cliff or asphyxiate them in their sleep. As they were acting not at the base instinct of wild predators but as the tamed watchdogs of their draconic overlord.
It had been the last of Scruffy's warnings: In this place, things were not what they seemed. The entire island, a guilded cage meant to lure people in, keep them content, and ultimately, trap them in. There were no natural predators in entire the forest because the whole place was but a beautiful garden full of cute and helpful talking animals. And the same went for the city.
Astarot might be famed as a wise and benevolent dragon. But he was first and foremost a possessive and controlling maniac with absolute power over those under him.
But for now, their horizon was to survive the night while surrounded yet again by murderous elementals. And so they had settled for the night and Prince had used the alarm and camouflage of his Hiraeth Shelter to keep them somewhat safe for the night.
The artifact was turning them nigh invisible so long they stood within its effect radius. And it would warn them if one of the air elementals — which could also turn almost invisible — tried to cross their safety bubble.
It would be a hard fight for survival, the Elementals being almost invulnerable to physical damages, but at least, no one would be thrown off a cliff or killed in their sleep. And though Michel, Paolo, and Sophia took turns keeping watch, the extra safety of the alarm would help them react to intrusions before the enemy could react and call reinforcement.
In the end, they got only two intruders for the entire night: one during Paolo's turn and dealt with a shocking grasp and one during her turn that she lured with her song, letting Paolo deal the killing blow once again.
Then, the morning came, once again, a lot sooner than they expected, and the air Elementals went back to sleep. And so, the coast was clear and they resumed their trip to the undercity.
Soon, they were out of the woods under the watchful and suspicious eyes of the locals, farming the land around the city.
"Those people are a lot less welcoming than Scruffy's story implied," Michel observed.
"This gilded cage is the perfect recipe for a behavioral sink." Paolo offered some insight. "Besides those folks must have a peculiar relationship to migrants: newcomers snatching up the dragon's favor from old timers must be kind of a recurring nightmare."
Indeed. Blaming everything on migrants was already tempting in a normal society. But here? With an absolute ruler who loved its shiny new toys above anything else to the detriment of all others? It was understandable that people here would have grown less welcoming and charitable. Especially if they kept competing with one another for the dragon's attention.
"Out of sight, out of mind," Sophia concluded. "Let's get out of those people's hair as fast as possible."
And so they did. They tried their best to keep a low profile and take the path less traveled to the undercity, avoiding the crowd of the city gate entirely.
And the slums they found outside the city's wall weren't anything like the utopia the dragon had been actively trying to build.
It must have once been a traditional suburb, with the same copy-and-paste house design, repeated on an almost industrial scale. But instead, the main theme of that place had become its parasitic architecture.
It had run rampant to such an absurd degree that they sometimes had to climb or squeeze through while walking those narrow and chaotic streets. And that was counting without the many stalls and tents that occupied whatever space remained available, mostly around the Wells, the only intact part of the original street layout.
And so, they decided to separate and regroup later and started searching and asking around.
★☆★
So far, Sophia's efforts had been unsuccessful. People had been playing dumb at her every attempt at subtlety and running away the moment any allusion to the Feys escaped her lips. Yet she persevered. After all, they only needed one person to answer their questions.
"Excuse me, can you please tell us where..." She started over once again before she got interrupted by Moana, gripping her arm and forcing her to follow:
"Let's stop making a fool of yourself. I got the info we need."
"How?" Sophia asked, startled.
"I bribed the desperate and the sickly with medicine," Moana replied dismissively, rolling her eyes as if it was no big deal, at least for her. "Let's fetch the others and get moving."
And it took them almost half an hour to find everyone. Paolo even got lost talking with some folks about Astaria Magic Academy instead. But no one had the heart to call him out for this lapse of judgment on losing sight of the objective, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Now everyone, the person we are looking for is Nanny Keentaker. She is sort of a shady yet influential instructor, both in the undercity and the city proper." Moana explained as they walked to one of the shadiest parts of the undercity.
"What are you doing here?" A thug, playing bouncer, asked them as they entered an even darker alley.
"We want to meet Nanny Keentaker." Moana confidently replied.
"You don't look like a customer. What do you want from her?" The man replied, unconvinced.
"That's right. We don't want in. We want out." Moana retorted in the same tone.
"I see... Please come in. Nanny Keentaker will receive you shortly." The bouncer finally concluded after a short moment of distraction, as if an entire parallel conversation had been playing out in his head.
The instructor's house appeared unassuming, with a modest facade camouflaged amidst the dilapidated structures. Yet, upon crossing the threshold, a subtle aura of quiet sophistication greeted them.
The interior exudes a mysterious charm—dimly lit by flickering candles and strategically placed lanterns that cast intriguing shadows upon the walls. Books, stacked in haphazard but organized piles, lined the shelves. Put more than the library, it was the weathered but elegantly carved mahogany desk adorned with intricate patterns, the chaise lounge draped in rich, dark fabrics hinting at a once opulent past, as well as faded and humble yet refined tapestries of the four seasons that caught the eyes. And finally, in the corner, simmering potions were stored in an alcove. The aroma of incense lingered in the air, mingling with the scent of old parchment and rare herbs, adding an ancient and otherworldly ambiance to the place.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
That aesthetic was refined yet unobtrusive, unpretentious, yet quietly regal. And so, that room was perfect to project Nanny Keentaker's status within the city, exactly as Moana had described her. Therefore, Sophia knew that there had to be more, hidden behind that perfectly crafted image and silently reminded herself not to let her guard down.
"So I heard you've been spooking people around asking about the Feywild." An old, stern woman appeared out of nowhere and sat over the desk in one swift move, before switching to a stage whisper. "Now is the moment you are supposed to try to convince me to help you."
"Right." Sophia reluctantly agreed. "We are from a faraway place and accidentally got stranded on this island. And it turns out that there may be a way for us to get back home, somewhere up this sky archipelago. We need safe passage to the Winter Island so we could get on our way from there. But I have a feeling you don't care about money. So, how would you like to get paid?"
The old woman chuckled.
"Winter island, uh? Who was your informant? Dingy, Greasy, Grimy, Moldy, Shoddy, Scruffy, Tacky or Trashy?"
That was when Sophia realized her mistake. Winter Island was probably a feywild exclusive name. And while the magical map was perfectly accurate its very nature must be betraying its own origin and the cultural bias associated with it. And so, Sophia was now fairly certain of two things: One, she was most probably in front of the cruel person who gave Scruffy his moniker. And two, she was also probably either the one who sold the map to the squirrel or maybe even, the map maker herself.
"You are the one that gave Scruffy that map, aren't you?" She asked back.
"And he sold you the map too." She replied, seemingly lost in thoughts. "You must have made him a great impression for him to even consider that deal. That map is invaluable and so is the price he had to pay for it. So what did that fool trade you my map for?"
"He sold us the map for a lot of potions, though mostly troll blood-based high-quality health ones." Sophia retorted honestly.
"Ah! Yes. That fool's greatest ambition was for none of his descendants to experience hunger for as long as he should live." The old woman said casually. "Sound like he finally got his ambition up and decided to live longer and keep them healthy too. All good news for business. As for your earlier question: do not fret, I won't ask for more potions. I'm better at that craft than you could ever hope to be. But first, let's be done with presentations, should we?"
And as she said so, the old woman turned into a slightly less old but more hideous version of herself:
"Much better. Now, allow me to reintroduce myself. I'm Nanny Keentaker. A preceptor for rich kids, a career advisor for the ambitious, and first and foremost, a court hag, feeding on the very greed and ambition of my many unknowing clients. And as you would guess from me telling you about this, a good meal isn't going to be nearly enough to seal that deal. So let me ask you about this: how badly do you want to get back 'home'?"
"And that's the moment. Don't bother answering to this hag." Prince barged into the conversation before explaining, "Whatever you offer, she is gonna say it's not nearly enough, and then, ask for your firstborn. It can't be helped. All hags, even the more morally grey ones need to eat babies to reproduce."
The hag hissed at the winged cat but made no comment.
"We are not that desperate." Sophia finally said, much to the whole team's relief. "But I'm sure we can find something else to agree on. Or else, you wouldn't have taken that risk, right?"
"You're right. You want out of this island and I need errand kids to make discreet deliveries to some 'friends' on the other side." The hag confirmed. "One delivery for each one of you, that ill-mannered poor excuse of a Tressym included. Then to ensure compliance, I'm going to take a little something from every single one of you as collateral and I'm also going to sweeten the deal by helping you get safe passage all the way to your destination. Does that sound reasonable to you?"
It was an extremely generous deal except for the collateral thingy. But I guess it was reasonable for the Fey creature to want some guarantees they would honor their side of the deal.
"Define what a 'little something' is and you will get yourself a deal," Sophia replied confidently.
"Easy enough. Instead of eating your greed and ambition, I'm going to bottle it up and shelf it. If you honor your side of the deal, I will break the bottles and let all your precious ambitions get back to you right after the penultimate delivery. If you break the deal at any point, I'm going to feast on it until you are a husk of your former self. Here, let me demonstrate."
And she stood back up and took two bottles labeled 'Greed' and 'Vainglory.'
"Here is a greedy merchant I helped with an infinite supply of leprechaun fool's gold. All he had to do in exchange was to give me his firstborn. Typical hag's business deal as your familiar just mentioned. He got around the spirit of the deal by raising his sister's children as his own. I warned him three times and gave him ten years each time to curve his behavior. The last time I saw him he tried to settle his debt with his sister's granddaughter instead."
And then, she opened the bottle lid and bottom it up. It would not have been an impressive sight if it weren't for the bottle itself coming to life and screaming, before dying in one last death rattle.
"He got what he deserved, don't you think?" She asked, quite visibly satiated. "And here is a Seelie Fey Knight and an angry capital arsehole and bully. He wanted to be the best Knight to ever live and kept coming back for more, making unreasonable demands to achieve his goal. But he diligently honored every single deal we made. He might burn in hell for everything he did but well, a deal is a deal and as far as I'm concerned, he earned his happy ending."
And so, she smashed the bottle on the wooden floor. And the broken flask turned into a puff of dark clouds, ominous-looking lights breaking free, flying and escaping through a window.
"Actually, I'm rather relieved I got rid of that one." The hag commented, before focusing back on the deal at hand:
"Well... That's about it. I help you find a Fey Crossing and navigate your way to Winter Island. Then you do some errands for me as per our Fey contract or face the consequences. Luckily for you, I will give you all a writ of safe passage and the delivery path will get you right to your destination and the only difficulty would be to protect a handful of packages from bandits. Surely you will be up to the task, right?"
It wasn't the simple delivery the hag was pretending it was, as the stakes were clearly higher. But they were lacking any other options here. They could spend forever playing hide and seek with the air elemental in the forest while searching for the Fey Crossing they were looking for. Or they could take the dubious help of that clearly chaotic and possibly evil hag instead.
"What do you think?" She turned to her companions.
"She is definitely going to double-cross us." Prince pointed out.
"She killed someone in front of us to make a point." Paolo approved.
"And yet, she is our only chance to escape that place without asking Astarot himself." Moana reminded everyone.
"And she was telling the truth the whole time," Michel stated. "I think she is obviously trying to trick us and yet... she had been telling nothing but the truth. I think she would bend it as far as it can get her but for some reason, she cannot lie."
Those were all good points and Sophia nodded before turning around.
"I would like to make some minor changes to that deal," Sophia said.
"Sure. Let's see what you have to propose." The witch said, sitting back by her desk.
"You are entrusting one package to every one of us. It's only fair that you free them after their own delivery is done."
The hag pouted, visibly dissatisfied with that unexpected turn in the negotiations:
"I had trusted you were more united than that but fine, have it your way." She conceded.
"And you want us to protect your precious package to their destination. So here is condition number two: if someone dies protecting it, you will free them too, even if the delivery isn't complete."
"Uh? I don't see how your ambition might serve you after your death but sure. I promise you will have it back if you were to die in the line of duty. Satisfied?" She grumbled the last part, her eyes throwing daggers at Sophia, desperately trying to pierce through her and find the truth.
"Almost. I just have one more thing to ask for." Sophia replied, just to annoy the hag.
"I'm all ears." The hag said.
"My familiar is my responsibility. You will leave him out of this deal. I will take charge of both our deliveries." Sophia firmly stated.
The hag rolled her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Sure. I won't touch your pet. Now, do we have a deal?" The hag asked, exasperated.
"Yes." Sophia confidently responded.
"Let's get to it then." The hag jumped off her seat and started walking around them in a predatory manner before stopping by Moana. "And I will start with the boring one."
The hag extended her claws to Moana's heart and there, magical light gathered from her chest, until an empty bottle appeared out of nowhere and the hag snatched it. "I'm going to call that on 'moral calculus'. Please keep trying to superficially do more good than bad, little accountant."
And her unkind words, Moana broke up in tears and stormed out of the hag's house.
"And you are next." The hag said to Paolo, repeating the same actions again. "An unquenchable thirst for knowledge and power. How I understand you. I expected great things from you. And I would take great pleasure in denying Astarot such a gem."
"And it's your turn, cheeky brat." The hag told her. "And as per our agreement, I will take a little extra to compensate for your familiar." The pain in her chest was excruciating. And it was hard to believe that the hag could normally feed without its victim knowing. "Oh, yeah. The shameless drive of a lone survivor. How peculiar." She said while incredulously looking back and forth between her teammates and her.
What? She wasn't that bad. Was she? Sophia could not help but wonder, yet she could not accept the hag words to be true.
And finally, she went for Michel. "And keeping the real prize for last," The hag concluded repeating her weird extraction magic on him. "The one-of-a-kind unmistakable hubris of boundless ambition. Do not fret, my boy. Even if you break our deal, I will keep you alive, forever. That's a promise."
And Michel understandably made a face at this ominous promise.