As Sophia slowly blinked her eyes open, the world around her seemed shrouded in a haze of pain and confusion. Her limbs felt heavy, as if weighed down by the remnants of her deep slumber. Gradually, the fog lifted, and she became aware of voices murmuring nearby.
"Welcome back, Sophia," a warm, familiar voice reached her ears, pulling her further from the grasp of unconsciousness. It was Moana, the team's field surgeon, her face a mix of relief and concern as she hovered over her.
Sophia's gaze shifted to Paolo, the battlemage whose critical thinking had sped up her rescue and saved her from the clutches of death. His features were etched with a mixture of guilt and determination, his eyes meeting hers with a silent apology.
"Paolo," Sophia whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse. "Thank you."
Paolo nodded solemnly, his expression softening with gratitude. "You're welcome. We couldn't afford to lose you. Besides, we all agreed not to leave anyone behind, didn't we?" he replied, his tone laced with sincerity.
Meanwhile, Michel, the interim team leader in Sophia's absence, stood nearby, his gaze fixed on her with a mixture of relief and resolve. "Good to have you back, Sophia," he said, his voice steady despite the underlying tension.
As Sophia struggled to sit up, Moana gently guided her, offering support and reassurance. "Take it easy, Sophia. You've been through a lot," she said, her tone gentle yet firm.
But amidst the relief and gratitude, there was a palpable sense of excitement brewing between Moana and Paolo. They exchanged a knowing glance, their eyes alight with anticipation.
"Besides, we've already been rewarded for our trouble with a teamwork boon," Moana remarked, a hint of pride in her voice.
Paolo grinned, a spark of enthusiasm igniting in his eyes. "Absolutely. And with Sophia back in action, we'll be unstoppable," he declared, his confidence infectious.
As Sophia absorbed the scene unfolding around her, a sense of determination welled up inside her.
"I've had my own share of trouble and reward," Sophia said, searching for her belongings before realizing they were missing. She immediately summoned her bow, startling everyone. But her viola was still missing, and she had no idea how or when she would get it back. "Though I can't believe I'm the only one who got abducted," Sophia admitted, both angry and ashamed.
"Oh, they tried about every other day for the past fourteen weeks. But after you walked out of that barn on your own two feet and went missing, we immediately suspected mind control or something.
After experiencing it, it turned out those nasty buggers can only control one person at a time and can only do so while sleepwalking, so we kept guarding each other while sleeping and started tying ourselves up before going to bed."
Michel showed the bruises on his wrist from their precautionary measures to illustrate his point.
"Fortunately, those buggers are also a one-trick pony, so dealing with the entire colony to reach you wasn't half as bad.
Sorry it took us so long, though. It's hard to make any progress when they're fighting you to exhaustion only to better assault you in your sleep."
As Sophia looked at her teammates a little more intently, she noticed the obvious signs of sleep deprivation they all had to endure.
"It's okay. I had that dream companion trapped in there for centuries. So I'm grateful for not giving up on me," she tried to reassure him. But the diviner looked as concerned, if not more, about her health. She had done nothing but sleep for the past fourteen weeks. How sick could she possibly be?
★☆★
"Your recovery might take some time, but we're here for you," Moana said reassuringly.
Her recovery wasn't nearly as fast as she had thought. The damage on her nerves was minimal but also widespread.
Sometimes it affected her actions, and sometimes it obfuscated or twisted her perceptions. And more often than not it made her take nap at the most inappropriate time without her even realizing.
According to her teammates, her last occurence of narcolepsy had her fall asleep mid-sentence for half a hour, before she woke up and finished it as if nothing happened.
"We'll need to be extra cautious until you fully recover," Moana emphasized. "Your safety is our priority."
Not only did it made her unreliable but worse: it forced the team to have her under constant supervision so she wouldn't accidentally hurt herself.
Yet, Moana said it was normal.
"Your nervous system is shutting down sporadically to protect and repair itself. And there's nothing we can do to speed up the process," she explained. "So let's take it one step at a time and focus on your recovery."
Sophia had already been fed one of the troll blood healing potion to wake her up and according to their field surgeon, even if Sophia could brew a new one, which wasn't guaranteed on her current state, there was a risk her body would develop a resistance.
So Moana was advocating for Sophia to be patient and take it slow.
Which meant only ninety minutes of exercice everyday until she got better.
Fortunately, the Pleasantries's hive had been on the Feywild side of the Winter Island and more specifically, an exclave of Spring Island refugees that fled from Astarot purge. So except for a few notable exception, most of the Feys that live there were rather nice and easy going.
And among them lived one of the hags they were contractually obligated to visit.
"We do not have to make that delivery right now." Moana insisted.
"On the contrary, it's the perfect timing." Sophia retorted. "I'm going to go in there weak and alone. She is going to try to sell me her help for a ridiculous price. I'm going to tell her no. And if she kill the messenger, we would know what to expect from those deliveries the next time around."
She knew her reasoning was far from being perfectly sound. But her recovery would take weeks, if not months. And the more time they spent on that floor, the more it would try to keep them in, as the system itself warned them upon entering it. And if the Pleasantries Dream Prison were any indication of what to expect, she would rather die alone than let that death trap fall upon them all. It was basic twisted utilitarian logic. The survival of many outweighted the survival of one.
"Something must have gone wrong with your survival fitness brain rewire." Moana shook her head. "You are supposed to value your survival above all else. And yet, you keep finding excuses to go on suicide missions."
It was true.
Sophia had died under a pile of living rocks to save thousands and even after learning that her sacrifice had been for nothing, she still didn't regret it. And this time around, she was proposing to risk her life alone cause she was the weak link of the team and felt like it was her only way to contribute for the many months her full-recovery would take.
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So she shrugged and took the package anyway, strolling to her destination at her own pace.
And it was anything but the swamp or dark forest one would expect a hag to live in.
Just like her peers, this hag had settled right in the middle of the refugees village center.
And the village had a unique feel to it. Wherever she looked, people were walking in pair, holding hands, whispering and giggling, or snogging senselessly in a back alley. Not quite what one would expect from a refugee camp either.
And then, her destination came into view: a pastel rose gigantic yurt with a shockingly pink smoke coming out of it chimney.
Yep. There was love in the air, litteraly.
And she didn't have to meet that hag face to face to know what she was feeding from.
Gathering her courage, Sophia took a deep breath and knock and the door.
But no one answered and so she knocked a second time. And then a third, until a wasted cupid finally flew from the window as she was about to knocked a four time.
"The mistress is otherwise occupied. Please come back at business hours." It slurred at her.
"I'm not a client. I have a delivery for your mistress. Just let me drop it off and I would be on my way."
For a moment, the cupid looked utterly confused, glancing between her and the package. "One moment please." It finally said before it flew right in, and opened her the door a minute later.
"The mistress is expecting you. Do not touch anything unless she told you so." The cupid instructed her, before leading the way.
And the hag interior looked like a Pillow Fort with all sort of wasted Feys making out right and left. Great, she had walked in a freaking orgy. And now, she was going to meet with the host of that indecent party.
And she heard her before she could see her, in all her naked overweighted dionysian glory: "When my sister told me you would come, I didn't expected to have to wait for thirteen weeks." She exclaimed. " Anyway, you made it and that's all that matters. May I offer you some refreshments before you got back on your merry way?"
But Sophia vigorously shook her head. Whatever those people were drinking, she wanted none of it. But her host took ombrage of her refusal.
"Are you sure? The rule of hospitality dictate that I should offer at least that much. And you are being rude, turning me down like this." The hag insisted, forcing a cup into her hand.
But Sophia didn't budge. "Look. I came her to deliver that package. Would you please just take it from me and let me go?" She insisted.
"Sure." The hag finally conceded. "You are ruining the mood, so I think you overstood your welcome." And then she turned to the cupid. "Keep everything useful and throw her at the back."
And then, five other cupids appeared from nowhere and processed to both carry her and strip her of litteraly everything she had on her person, before throwing her butt naked in a muddy back alley.
So that hag had not tried to kill her. But it took her armor, her weapons and even her underwear so it was very close from an actual death sentence. But at least she made it alive. And so she proceed to text her team to come and pick her.
★☆★
In the end, the team unanimously agreed that recovering Sophia's stuff wasn't worth risking their lives. Except for the twin blades, she had not anything that wasn't the standard issued stuff for rogue, back from the first floor. And she was barely using the bastard swords anyway.
And she actually considered the possibility of angering Lady Silverhair by throwing away her gift as nice bonus.
Her time with Ilbryen had been enlightening about what the manipulative goddess had actually done to her.
She was technically a witch but had none of the boon actually associated with that archetype, locking her out of those options. Her Weavesinging had actually unlocked and harnessed her Feywild Magic, but also prevented her from unlocking any of the sorcerer boon associated with her bloodline. It also gave her an arcane spellcasting, which also locked her away from wizardry. Sure, most of her boons had been amazing, overpowered even.
But after Ilbryen had laid bare the actual price she had paid for it, it just sounded about fair. While she was doing better than most as she was now, her Weavesinger Archetype was going to stunt her growth as a spellcaster. She had unknowingly traded immediate power in exchange for potential growth. And either her third archetype would not be a magical one, or she would have to wait for a really long time before uncovering it.
All in all, she was really grateful she now had a bonded weapon 'cause otherwise, she would have nothing left but magic to fend for herself until they got to the next floor.
Anyway, they would hopefully not be a lot of combat in theit foreseeable future.
First because her team would not let her take so much risk again before she achieved full recovery. And second because, according to the map, they had successfully evaded most of the obstacles on their paths and only needed to keep climbing up, only stopping on their way one delivery at a time until they reach the main sky island, high up in the branches.
Arguably, the enchanted map was fallible as the Pleasantries were never mentioned as a major threat. But Sophia guessed it was a matter of point of view. Maybe that the Pleasantries were no threat to the old hag map maker. Or maybe it was only Sophia's pride and her team bad experience with those nasty buggers speaking. It was hard to accept that she had fallen prey to a minor threat. Or that the Feys creature that had fought to extinction to save their friends were nothing in the grand scheme of things.
But still... of the Pleasantries victims, Sophia had been the only survivor despite her team best attempt at waking them up. They remained unconscious and unresponsive, for no reason whatsoever, until they finally died out, from the lack of care of their late jailors. Sure, most of said victims had been there for far longer than Sophia had and the sorry state of their body was so much worse than she had been. But even Ilbryen and a recently abducted young girl did not made it.
Sophia's survival was the clear anomaly to the obvious pattern, as the Pleasantries did successfully managed to bring all their other victims to their grave.
"There is no point hanging around this forsakenn island." Sophia concluded.
It was time to move on to the Autumn Island and make yet another delivery along the way.
★☆★
The next hag they had to visit abided more to the cliché of the hag, as her lair was in the middle of the Winter Forest and the emotion she was feeding from was fear.
But unlike a regular hag, it followed a strong principle of bringing more fear than harm, keeping people away instead of luring them in. Though it didn't meant that she was all bark no bite. And the hag had set up quite a lot of traps in the inner ring of her territory, to prevent any intruders to reach her, much to Sophia's team dismay.
The air was thick with tension as they approached they hag house. As they navigated through the dense forest, they could feel the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end, sensing the presence of unseen dangers lurking in the shadows.
"This is it," Michel whispered, his voice barely audible over the rustling of leaves in the wind.
Sophia scanned the area, her eyes narrowed in concentration. "We need to be cautious," she warned, her hand instinctively reaching for her still brand new satchel of tools. "She's not one to take kindly to unexpected visitors."
Moana nodded, clinging closer to Paolo.
"Let's stick together and watch each other's backs," Paolo stated the obvious, finding reassurance in their relative proximity.
The hag sure made a good work making those woods extra spooky.
As they ventured further into the territory, the teaps they encountered were more and more cleverly disguised. From pitfalls covered in leaves to tripwires connected to hidden snares, each obstacle seemed designed by the paranoid hag to prey on their fears and test their wits.
But the group remained resolute, relying on their ingenuity and teamwork to overcome each challenge. With Michel's keen eye for detail and prescient ability, and Sophia's nimble fingers and sharp intuition, as well as Paolo and Moana unwavering courage, they navigated through the labyrinth of traps with determination and grit.
Finally, they reached the heart of the hag's domain.
It was like being in the eye of the storm as the place was nothing like the rest of the forest around them. And the lonely old woman sitting at her patio looked nothing like the frightening hag they expected to encounter.
"So you are the freaking punks who triggered every single alarm I had around my property. Do you have any idea how long it took me to set them up?" She greeted them indignantly.
To their defense, it was impossible to differentiate the traps from the alarms and given Sophia abysmal skills at disarming traps, she had once again fall back into her bad habit of triggering them pre-emptively.
"Guilty as charged." Sophia conceded, trying to appease the hag. "But we were just trying to deliver that package. So if you just take it, we would get out of your hair and let you enjoy your peace and quiet."
"So that's it? You're trashing my place and intended to walk away without paying up for the damages?" The old woman voice rose up, even more indignant. "Do you really thought I would let you get away with this?"
So that's how it was. The hag wanted something from them and now that Sophia had admitted her fault to try to appease their host, she was asking for proper 'compensation.'
"If you don't want to start a fight with us, and a feud with our current employer, yes. That's exactly what you are gonna do." Sophia threatened back, standing her ground.
It was a huge risk. But whatever the hag would ask of them for their diplomatic effort wasn't worth it.
"Then drop that package and leave my territory before sundown." She ordered. "Or the lot of you are going to discover exactly why you should be afraid of the dark."
That wasn't the answer Sophia expected but it actually made sense for a hag feeding from fear to have a reverse day-night cycle. She would be at her peak during the darkest hours. But was nothing but an old grumpy lady in the broad daylight.
And so Sophia took the old lady warning seriously.
It had been their best-case scenario anyway, so they had been all too eager to comply.
And so they left the Winter Forest behind and went straight for the next Fey Bridge.