— Keira —
The sun had fully set by the time Keir and Mesalin arrived at the village hall. Keir was slightly pleased to note they weren't the last to arrive. A quick head count revealed they were still missing Antheia and Lindel.
They were not quite late yet mostly because they had set a fairly loose starting time of just after dark.
Antheia slithered in less than a minute after Keir and Mesalin had joined the group waiting in the lobby area. Given that Lindel had apparently continued working in the farms outside of the wall, it was little surprise that she was the last to arrive. When she did her presence was heralded by the heavy clunk of her hooves and a noticeable aura of death magic.
As Lindel stepped through the door Alasdair gestured towards the wrapped spherical lump she held and said “Oy, What’s tha ye got there Del?”
Lindel shrugged as she said “Some sort of seed apparently. I found it buried under Sylver Oak Farm. I hoped we could figure out more during this meeting.”
Keir walked over to the pair and said “yeah, we should definitely try to figure out what it is. From the name I assume the owners of the farm are dryads. Were they also unable to shed any light on the matter?” After a moments thought she added “Oh were they also returned from the grave. I know the followers of the Emerald Grove abhor the undead.”
“They may be Fey but they’re not overly devout followers of the Emerald Grove. From what I could tell they were returned to life but they’re both sleeping within their trees. It was because I couldn't ask them that I hoped one of the other council members might know something.” With that said Lindel unwrapped the seed, revealing it was slightly larger than her fist and made from something that looked like melted and fused bone. Oddly serrated ridges covered the surface like ripples.
Keir examined the seed before tapping into both her Bushcraft and Inspection skills.
“Blessed Death Root Alraune Seed (Dormant) Tier 3 Lvl 1”
As Keir finished reading the description her skills provided, she caught Mesalin’s eye. From the expression that flitted across the Harpy woman’s face she had also received information regarding the seed. On the walk over Mesalin had confirmed she held a scout class so Keir had hoped she would have gotten at least as much information.
Before Keir could ask what she’d seen Mesalin nodded towards Keir and said “Do you know much about them?”
Keir made a so-so motion with her hand and answered “Not much. There are a few that live in the Coral Sea but they tend to mostly deal with the merfolk rather than the surrounding land dwellers.”
Lindel frowned slightly and Celylia spoke up a bit of annoyance clear in both her rustling parchment voice and her mostly internal glow shifting to a pale purple tinted orange. “You're both being rather cryptic. Care to share with the rest of us?”
Mesalin looked as abashed as Keir felt when she said “Oh, Sorry about that Cely. That's an alraune seed. From what I can tell it is saturated with the divine magic of Mortis.”
Ker perked up at that and said “So you can tell which deity it was touched by. I only know that it’s a Tier Three Blessed Death Root Alaune Seed.”
For the first time since she’d arrived Antheia set aside the heavy tome she’d been studying and said “Interesting. Alraune are a fascinating people. By default every alraune seed is neutrally aspected and almost entirely undifferentiated. From there they develop one of two ways. They either spend upwards of three centuries absorbing the most prevalent ambient mana type or when a sufficiently powerful mana based event or source is close enough to the seed it can completely infuse the seed in hours or even less. I’m not surprised that one of the most ancient and powerful goddesses acting directly would be enough to infuse and create a new form of alraune. Having absorbed divine power it is even less surprising that even as a seed it is already tier three.”
After a short discussion it became clear that none of them actually knew how long it would take for the seed to actually sprout nor what they should do to help it.
Eventually Keir said “Well for the time being let's continue this meeting in the meeting room. Once we are done Antheia can check her library for any useful information. Baring that we will just have to wait for the dryads to wake up. Even if they didn’t plant the seed, which I doubt, both dryads and alraune are fey. They should have at least some useful information.”
None of the others had any issue with that so they were soon seated around the system crystal embedded in the center of the long wooden table. As they all settled in Keir said “If no one minds I have a proposition it would probably be best to start with. I think I have a good potential replacement for the late guard captain.” When no one seemed inclined to interrupt she continued “I may not have spent long in her company thus far but from what I saw I feel that Lovisa Silverthorn has the skills and temperament to do well in that position despite her relative youth.”
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Amidst a murmur of conversation from the other council members Mesalin chuckled with a faint eye roll and said “Elves, I swear. You’re even worse than dwarves.”
Keir tilted her head in confusion. She didn’t take any offense as Mesalins tone was laced with a sort of fond exasperation.
Apparently Mesalin found that reaction amusing as the humor in her tone was even more apparent in her voice as she said “Princess, what you call young is older than any three or probably even four us combined if you disregard Dair and Min-Min. Even then she is older than both of them combined if only by a few years. Only an elf would call 178 unusually young to hold a seat on a village council.”
Keir was glad no blush would color her cheeks as Mesalin’s words sank in. Though she had left the Steel coast decades ago she never really stayed in one place long enough for the rate other races tagged to be a factor. Aside from elves she was used to mostly dealing with Coral Sea Merfolk who could easily reach six hundred years old. Even the orcs they were allied with could live over two hundred years if the harsh conditions of the Ferin Sea didn’t get them first. The fact that several of the people around her would have been hard pressed to reach that age while they were still alive and for most of the rest it was old enough to be considered at least on the cusp of elderly had not even crossed her mind.
Keir grinned a bit awkwardly and said “Well let’s just pretend that's why I said relatively young. Regardless both because I proposed her nomination and because I only have a limited amount of information to go off of I won’t weigh in much.”
A few counselors needed a bit of a reminder of who Lovisa was but it soon became clear that even if not everyone knew her by name they were all at least passingly familiar with her. It also became clear that the closest any of them had to a negative impression of her was Antheia. Even then it was simply that their paths rarely crossed so she didn’t know Lovisa much better than Keir did. The rest ranged from knowing her as a competent guard they never heard any real complaints about to Mesalin who viewed her as a good friend and respected her abilities quite a bit.
With no objections it was a simple matter to take a vote and decide to offer her the position. Since she was not only the one who was the most familiar with her but also a speedy and aerial scout Mesalin immediately went to retrieve Lovisa.
— Mesalin —
As Mesalin exited the village hall she could feel a smile, wide enough to reveal the beak-like structure harpies had in place of teeth, stretched across her face. Since waking from death, and indeed for several days before her death, she had let herself get caught up in her work to push her problems to the back of her mind. She had therefore denied herself her best coping method, flight.
During the snake siege she had felt like being the only person who flew up above their communal problems was likely to somewhat isolate herself and even potentially cause resentment to build.
Since returning from the veil she had simply been too busy to allow herself that luxury. As she tapped into several of her scouting skills to more easily track down Lovisa and launched into the air with a powerful beat of her wings she felt like all of her problems were left far below her.
It was also the first time since becoming an undead she had not only properly looked up at the night sky above. As a scout she often relied on the stars when flying at night to navigate. That was why she immediately noticed there were far too many stars shining in the sky above her. If she looked closely her expertise allowed her to still find the stars and constellations she expected amidst the many she had never seen. When she looked closer at the new stars she couldn’t help but feel like it was staring back at her. She froze in midair, her only movement the beating of her wings keeping her stationary in the sky above the village.
In that instant she felt the weight of attention settle around and could almost hear the distant echo of an impossibly vast bell of ice ringing. Rather than a crushing terrifying weight the gaze instead reminded her of wrapping up in a thick blanket while one of the powerful winter storms that often raged in the mountainous villages of her people. She felt a bit of her smile return as she gave a simple prayer of thanks to Mortis for this second chance at life. She’d have never believed that she would feel so safe and comfortable under the Veiled gaze of the enigmatic Goddess of Death.
Despite that she was a scout not a priestess so with her gratitude expressed she returned to the task at hand.
With the combination of skills Mesalin had active Lovisa might as well have been standing directly next to a blazing beacon.
Lovisa was pacing back and forth across one of the few sections of the still standing wall. From where Mesalin floated above the village her skills let her pick out a faint murmur of Lovisa speaking though she was too far away to actually understand her. That changed as Mesalin approached.
“...She mean? Why couldn’t she have just explained? Does she want to hang out, to scout, are we going to celebrate? Does she want to no, no don’t even go there. Besides what would even do on a, no I shouldn’t think that that she just said to be easy to find. Wait, is this easy to find?”
Mesalin barely suppressed a chuckle as she approached close enough to say “Why yes, you were very easy to find.”
Lovisa spun around embarrassment clear on her face even in the absence of the blush that would normally be covering her face and ears. It was even more clear in her voice as Lovisa said “Hey Lin. Um, How much did you hear just now?”
Mesalin suppressed her urge to tease the embarrassed elf and instead said “Oh not too much I flew over to get you quickly. The council just voted you as the new Guard Captain and the council seat that comes with it at the urging of a certain elven adventurer.”
Lovisa still looked a bit stunned and maybe slightly disappointed but much less embarrassed as she said “Oh, so you came to bring me to the meeting?” rather than walk across the village Mesalin scooped her up under the arms and flew towards the village hall. Unable to completely resist the urge to tease, she spoke just loudly enough to be clearly heard over the wind of her wings and said “You know, She said she wants to get to know you better as well.”