‘Good, this should be easy’ He thought as the wandering woman continued on without noticing him. The sky was only starting to darken as twilight slowly fell. The nearby town was only a large village by most standards. It was only around ‘big enough to not be found right away’ and ‘I may be able to stay awhile’. With the residence now starting to slow down as some of them shut their windows for the night.
As the woman left along the road he did not even ask himself why a single woman would be leaving alone at that time. As he focused on her, he saw she seemed weak and tired while wearing high end clothes carrying a pack on her side and in her hands. Looking like a prime target for some easy coin.
The road she was following led to a more dense section of the forest. No roads in this section of land were all that well traveled seeing as the ‘road’ was little more than a dirt path large enough for two people to pass each other. This road was even less traveled than most as the forest was not a patrolled route having no real destination other than the forest itself.
She seemed to be looking behind herself more than the treeline which allowed me to follow nearly alongside her without being noticed. After five minutes of travel by path she took a turn into the forest with him following. Twenty minutes in, he was surprised by the progress made by the woman. At a fast walk she was able to make it a third farther than what he would have by jogging. This led to him finally taking a better look at her.
He found he was trailing an elf. One that was by his standard of a lower quality than most. Briefly stopping to consider retreat as most elves were known as strong magic users. He continued anyway, if she was a magic user than he would just stop her from using spells with his first strike.
By the next hour he was sure they were outside range of any onlooker and started closing in in his target. As another quarter hour passed as he got closer he noticed she was starting to slow and look around. This was a problem as he was within sight if she turned to quickly which led him to ducking behind a nearby tree and having to wait. It would not be good if he did not get a sneak attack off first.
This went on for another hour, her slowly moving forward as he tried to get into a position to strike. At the end of the hour she seemed to have stopped at a tree in a oddly foliage light section of the forest. It stuck him as odd as he had only seen another tree like this two months ago when he was chasing another victim through this forest. He was a beastkin early in his 20’s that ran fast but only lasted about an hour and a half before being exhausted. Five minutes into the return trek is when I saw it.
This trees seem to only grow in the dense forests with little foliage around it and the closest tree being double the length from it as the others. The colouring of it seemed to be mixed between some dark purple that was near black near the roots and light purple that was almost white as the trunk, along with a smooth surface having no rough bark anywhere. The roots where strange coming out of the ground several inches before comings together at the base of the trunk seeming to keep the trunk off the forest floor, even if this one looked very small. The leaves if the tree was almost as strange as an odd mix of blue, green, and white make the tree stand out even more.
The elf was slowly removing one of the pack she had been holding. He figured this was the best opportunity he was going to get and began to come up on her as quickly and quietly as he could while drawing a short blade. She seemed to be talking lightly as he did, allowing him to get close without being heard easier. By the time he was in position to strike she was done talking and was preparing to leave.
When he struck she was caught unaware and unprepared yet still reacting quickly enough to mitigate some damage, allowing him a deep slice near her throat but not cutting off her full ability to speak. As she backed away quickly with one hand trying to stop the bleeding and the other reaching for her hip he attacked again. She was slowed by the wound which allowed the slice to cut off the strap to the second bag she was carrying.
He tried to reach for the bag when the elf let out a muttered gurgling sound that was followed up by a small magical bolt that might have been some type of air that cut up his arm. It seemed she could still use some spells to a much lesser extent than it should. Because of that he was forced to rush forward, leaving the bag as to deal with her quickly other than letting her use any more spells.
The charge seems to cause her to panic as she started to speak franticly. As quick as possible as he thought she was going to attack again he ran at her only to see a large flash and felt a tearing sensation as both their bodies were ripped apart and teleported several miles in the direction of the village.
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Selitrea was born in an elven border town between two beastmen tribes and a small human settlement. Her family was not the highest, yet definitely not near the lowest. She only had three siblings, a brother and two sisters. All three of them were on the young side, her brother Vulwyr being the oldest at 92 followed by Mylaesa at 67 and finally Phaeili at the tender young age of 30. Selitrea’s father Nelias was getting along in years at 1629 but was still energetic as someone half his age while her mother Isiireae was only slightly younger at 1542. As for their parents having such a small family, it was from both parents not wanting to raise many children at once as. Not to mention they did not start having children until 200 years after they met.
Her childhood was average with only the occasional bout of mischief and mayhem. Her parents told her that her worst childhood years were when at 23 but the first one she remembered was at 46 when she decided the wanted to ‘play with the humans’ and ran off with then for a week before coming home stating boredom. It was obvious to the rest she was just overwhelmed with how the shorter lived races just sped through everything without taking in the sights and sounds of the everyday.
Around her early 60’s she was tested like the others for talents and abilities. The test was done in a large ceremony were all those in their decade went and got tested for the first time. It was a simple ceremony with the participant was called to the front and placed their hand on a crystal affixed within a podium on the platform. The podium would extract a small amount of mana and give a reading on an enchanted plate placed in a slot near its top. When that was over they would speak their level and highest affinities. If they had several that were high they had the option to state them or leave it at the one.
Her highest was that of air, which was a common element although it did not really matter as it just showed it was the easiest to increase. Nothing much changed for her until she decided to leave the town at age 196. This was still young but it was about when her eldest sister left as well. She left to travel with little but a few baubles from her family with little need of much else as she could get food from the forest and was intelligent enough to stay clear of stronger monstered areas.
She did this for two decades while in her travels she did small adventures with those she ran across gaining trinkets and souvenirs along her path. In that time she got a small spatial bag that was used to hold her possessions that was magically locked to her and some enchanted cloths to last longer and help in protection.
It went wrong at that point.
As she was on another small adventure with some of the locals, three beastmen a male and two females, and a male human. They were in the area of beastmen when on their adventures they stopped in a smaller city along the border of the silent forest called Sret. The forest was named after all the adventuring parties that never returned after trekking to far in, it seemed that after a 2-3 days travel into the forest they are never heard from again. The outer area was normal but the farther in you travel the stronger all the monsters seen to get.
Being in the city started well with it following most of the usual characteristics of most others. This being the town had a market area having most trading goods available, a couple of higher end houses, several inns, a large mess of streets with alleyways between, along with a medium building with the adventuring guild, smithery, and tailor all in one.The town was one of the main stops for travelers with the next closest being a small town two days ride away.
In the city of Sret her party had some downtime while waiting for another group to get new information to them. The time was mostly spent with one of her friends of a noble house in the city. The city had a grand total of five noble lines within its walls and a baron overseeing the city as a whole. Selitrea was a friend of the Teslet, the head of the Joax noble house that was the major contributor of trade in the city.
Four days into the wait while she was walking through the outer section of the city she was blindsided from an ally with mana shackles forced on her wrist before she could access any spells. While she was going to try using mana manipulation to escape she was also blocked, probably by the assailant having an inhibitor of some sort. She was quickly knocked unconscious.
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By the time she woke next it was to near darkness while being bound to a rack by her wrists and ankles with more mana restraining metal with another inhibitor nearby. Her mind racing trying to come up with a reason she would be attacked or contained. She found no reason any would come to attack her. As her thoughts started to slow from the panic of the situation she took some time to check her surroundings.
It seemed to be a underground bunker or dungeon. By the mana density she could feel in the area it must have at least 20 meters below ground. The walls were bare stone but seemed to have etching on some, almost certainly some sort of durability or strengthening. Maybe even a sound dissipation enchantment. Her pack was the only thing she could see in the room sitting a meter or two in front of her to the left. She was nude but the room was at a decent temperature for it to not be bothersome. The rack she was restrained on was slightly tilted with her feet pointing to the floor in the shape of an x, with the shackles on the end of each protrusion. The wood used was probably cherry wood. A very strong type of wood that was likely enchanted as well but was carved to at least not cause chafing. Looking from left to right as much as she could and not seeing any place for the inhibitor it seemed to be placed either out of sight in a wall or underneath the rack.
A few minutes into looking a noise could be heard from behind her signifying the door was outside her view. It did not take long for whoever made the noise to enter the room. The door that was apparently behind her was the second she heard, leading to her suspecting the closest one was to resist escape while the next was for silence.
“Ah, I see you have woken up slightly before anticipated. Good, it shows you to be strong.” was the first thing the new arrival said. She knew the voice but at the moment she was not able to remember who it belonged to.
Selitrea spoke. “Who are you to care about such a thing? Better yet, what are you doing. Kidnapping is a capital offence and will end with years behind bars?” She was perturbed that this happened to her but not all that frightened. Teslet would notice she was missing within the day and send out a search party.
Chuckling the man slowly walked around the rack. “Brave words for one with no backing. You do not even realize your friend will not come to get you.” By the end of the statement she was able to see who she had been addressing. It caught her by surprise to find a male fox beastman. What was worse was she recognized him. Zissax was walking in front of her. He was a the head of a side branch of the Jarian house. The house was a somewhat standard noble house that was only memorable from them being driven and ambitious for a mid sized house.
Zissax himself has plenty of less favorable characteristics to make him notable. His deceitful ways and egotistic nature tend to get in the way of most actions he seemed to take.
What he said got a rise out of her as her breath caught while she through how such a thing would happen. Teslet was a friend that would stay with who she considered a friend as far as she could within reason. What was said meant he knew she was a friend and had somehow dissuaded her from attempting to help. It was either that or he had hidden his tracks. That was alarming in its own right as Teslet was a proficient diviner.
“It was quite the process to get you away from her scrying but in the end the prize will be well worth the cost. The aura suppression for the Adrian as well as the potion to incapacitate an elf cost more gold than reasonable. Not counting the preventative measures for holding and moving a single person” He continued not caring about the panic he saw starting to appear on her. “I even had to go out of my way to divert that party of yours from asking questions.” He shook his head.
“Why go through all the trouble just for a single adventurer prisoner?” She asked now looking frantically for and means of escape.
Looking at her with a lascivious sneer he commented, “I need a brood mare for my heir of course and an elf with your mana capacity is a perfect fit.”
She was trying her hardest at this point to struggle in her restraints, use a spell, manipulate anything within range but it all resulted in failure and another sneer from Zissax. She even tried to scream for help.
“Yes, that reminds me.” was all he said after a minute of struggling. He then walked to the space behind her as she heard a few shifts of presumably items. When he walked back into visual range he was holding a band of leather. “Now, be a good girl and lean your head forward.” As she ignored him he lifted a hand to her head and forced her head into an unnatural position as the leather slid around her neck and was locked closed with a small latch when he finished.
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“For that pitiful act of disobedience I say a punishment is in order”. He then took a small metal box into his fingertips that she had not noticed before. The moment his fingers touched the rune on its side her body locked up in convulsions as electricity was forced into her body from the collar. By the end of it she was a mess of tears and mucus. “This is what will happen every time you disobey my order.” He said with a self satisfied smirk.
After a minute more of convulsing she finally got out, “You do not have to do this.”
“But I do my fruitful little tramp, you alone have more mana than all other residence in this fair city. By my assessment you even have a larger mana pool than most other elves.” It was correct in a way as she was slightly stronger than most other elves she knew but it was only by a small margin, maybe 10-15%. That was not all that much to other elves but compared to other races that usually only had half to three fourths the mana reserves a common elf had it was significant to some.
“You can still just let me go and find someone willing?” She half screamed and half pleaded. The end result was just another sneer.
“If you are so willing to talk why not divulge the password to reset your bags code, you will never need it again.” She almost laughed at this as what was in that bag was mostly small trinkets and souvenirs from her travels. There might have been a useful item or two in it but it was mostly just strange junk she found amusing enough to keep. It was however the only thing she had to her name and she was not going to let this cat take that from her.
“No”.
As this was the answer he seemed to expect to get, his finger was already over the rune and right as the word was finished it was activated. Again lightning was rolled throughout her body as all her muscles convulsed.
“Not the smart choice but one that was expected.” was his reply after the shock stopped. He then went back behind the rack for a moment before returning with a bottle. “Now that pleasantries are out of the way time for business. From now on I will not have you speak unless answering a question, you will take this potion every time I arrive and will be fed by conversion.” at this she winced and conversion was the process of funneling mana directly into the body by a runic matrix.
“The potion is for fertilization as you should well know your race is known for its child bearing problems.” This was a misconception from all races toward the elves as they had no problem with having children. The only difference was the elves do not need to have a child evely year or even every decade to keep the population stable with their longevity.
With this statement the potion was uncorked and shoved into her mouth as she futilely tried to think or anything to help her escape. It did not take Zissax long afterwards to get to his ‘main course’ before he left.
Over the next few months the sessions happened either daily or bidaily. By that time Selitrea had gotten the etching frayed enough to not cause the shock when the rune was pressed even if she did have to feign the shock of she messed up. This was only a small help as the long term forced diet of converted mana and no movement had her near skeletal in figure.
It took four years of this without any way to escape before the inevitable happened. She became pregnant. When Zissax noticed this he was ecstatic and for the first time in years she was finally able to have no ‘encounters’ with him as he stated ‘it may damage the final result. It took twelve months for the baby to finally be born.
The day her child was born was the happiest day of her life. This was not because the child was healthy or the father was overjoyed at the new strong child he would soon advance his house with. The reason Selitrea was overjoyed that way was that it was when Zissax finally made a mistake.
The day the baby was born had arrived and Selitrea was sick to her core literally and figuratively. The converted mana only sustained her body as well as kept her constantly feeling hungry and thirsty. Over the last six months she was force fed more ‘normal’ food to help with this but it helped very little as it was just near uncooked high end meat from strong monsters. This diet was because it was assumed to strengthen young children when eaten so Zissax was going with the assumption of it was also fed to the mother it would also help this helped make her look more normal but still left much to be desired..
The convulsions from labor were enough to make her want to cut off her entire lower body the pain from the stress trying to give birth brought. During this time the useless shocking rune box and all other items were left behind the rack. Even her bag that she still had not given to password to.
When the convulsions started to quicken it also led to the entire lower rack she had been strapped to to be drenched as a large stream of blood forced its way out of her. As he did not want his finally blossoming ‘brood mare’ to end her usefulness afler only one use he did a rather stupid mistake.
He removed her from the rack.
The rack that was meant to be her eternal cell was replaced with the floor as she was quickly cuffed with mana shackles and moved as far from the rack as the room would allow. After this was done he sprinted to the apparent full table with a plethora of items on it that she could now see slightly. The one he grabbed seemed to be a spell scroll and when he arrived back at her she found the scroll was for a potent healing spell.
As the spell worked and the baby was fully out of Selitrea she took half a second to refocus from the haze of pain the endeavor made her endure. She them noticed she was not on the rack and came to a startling realization. She was not an the rack and the rack had the inhibitor on it. She looked behind it to see Zissax holding the baby over the table with another line of leather in hand.She did what any strong mage with the ability to use manipulation would do.
She cut out his still beating heart with a blade made out of the stones she was forced to stare at for the last five years.
It only took a couple of moments for her to make it so the fox did not even get the collar on the child. When the she finally got her revenge she did not do anything for several minutes, just staring at the cause of this entire horrific half decade of her life. She had dreamed of the moment from the first week of her entrapment and the end result felt nice to have but now she just felt numb.
After a while, maybe an hour or two she was forced out of her stupor by her body wanting food and water. As this thought finally got through to her she also decided to take a look at the ‘end result’ of this entire ordeal.
The baby was as she saw all babies as, a small bundle of pudgy flesh with little hair on its head. Other than a small amount of fuzz on the triangular ears coming from the sides of the head and ending on the top, the colour indistinguishable. Its body was tightly wrapped in a blanket that left most of it indistinguishable from any other coiled sheet except the face and a small metal pendant stuck to the front.
She took some time to examine the object and was a little surprised at its intended purpose. Is seemed to be a bauble to force and keep those of low fortitude into a perpetual sleep until removed. This seemed to be why the newborn was so quiet for so far. Deciding that the enchanted item was fine fine for now she left it.
The next few minutes were used trying to identify the items on the table. She found another scroll on the table which let her find the reason she had to be removed from the rack to he healed. The healing worked by the same property of manipulating elements so the inhibitor would have stopped its effect. She got lucky.
She was very thankful for her time spent learning enchanting for her third quest all those years ago. The items she found made her want to try to learn how to reanimate corpses so she could kill that horrid fox again.
Skill book Found to contain the basic understanding of the common language. Skill book set Found to contain basic manipulation of some metals.
Regenerating Metal Iron and Copper. Beginning metals used to learn metal manipulation. Leather Collar The item is etched with a sizing rune to shrink or grow with the wearer, along with a short distance connection rune that activates if it is not within range of its other rune or be made to activate by the connecting rune. This is made to activate a lightning rune. Rune Box The item is etched with a connecting rune to activate the other rune. Ring The item is etched with a sizing rune to grow or shrink with the wearer, along with a series of runes to render the wearer silent. Dual Ring Set These two rings are etched to connect to another rune, the rune can be set to check for various baubles on the wearer and if not found with activate a lightning rune. Spacial Bag The item is etched with a series of runes to lock to a person's mana signature and hold more than the outside would make it seem. Scroll of Healing A scroll that holds a spell to heal almost any wound as long as the target is still alive and not affected by a persistent debuff. Scroll of Suffering A scroll that holds a spell to cause the target to feel horrible agony constantly for 15 seconds.
With the other items in the room being the rack, the collar I had removed with its useless rune box and the mana shackles, and a rune box affixed in a wall I had an idea of what this fox was planning. Have all the skills be learned and wear all the baubles to first start as early as possible learning to make him money and be kept in line by shocks if ever decided to rebel.
All of the baubles together would make it so if the child ever tried to remove any the ring set would shock until returned as well as shock if the collar was removed. The collar was just a way to remove threat of running away or displeasing him.
This was horrible. I took a good look at them and sighed, most could be sold or used for learning the enchantments. All the items quickly found their way into the bag before she picked up the child and walked over to the body of Zissax to remove the key he had. While she did so she rummaged through his pockets for any other useful items but came up with only another key. Not even a protection bauble, she assumed he was confident she was subdued. Looking at the rune box in the wall just led her to the conclusion that it was the controller for the bauble checking ring. It was built into the was so removal seemed improbable.
The door slid open to reveal a small alcove with two other doors. Trying the left one she found it was opened by using the ther key she had acquired. The door led to a small vault of a room with shelves with almost nothing on them. The room had the occasional box or gem that looked valuable. This must have been his treasury, It was almost completely empty likely from him buying all of the preparations for the kid and her prison. She looted all of it, leading to many gems, some coins, and these.
Skill Book Found to contain basic manipulation of some gems. Skill Scroll Found to contain the skill of lesser teleportation. Skill Scroll Found to contain the skill drink transmutation. The spell changes a drink from one thing to another that is similar. Skill Scroll Used to learn the rare spell false onslaught. This skill will harm the target but never die unless other factors are causing damage. Regenerating Gem Quartz. Beginning gem used for learning gem manipulation.
I could figure these would be learned later by the child or just could not be learned be Zissax and left to be used later, like the onslaught or the teleportation. The drink transmutation just looked like a simple way to entertain a parly or something but not very useful.
She used the book for teleportation.
Weak Teleportation Learned You can teleport short distances. Limited by knowledge of area, mana reserve, and distance.
When she tried to escape the house she nearly fainted when the spell failed causing her mana reserve to nearly run dry. At least she found the spell to not produce much sound and no light. She was so intent to escape she forgot all nobles and places of importance had wards etched everywhere to protect their secrets and property.
She ran out of the area and to the remaining door. When she used the first key on it it let to a basement with lavish decor but no one in it. Leaving this room by a set of stairs on the wall led to Zissax’s personal study. Getting annoyed it his paranoia by this point she looked out of the study only to find a guard outside the study door.
Looking through the keyhole she waited until the guard was looking away before opening the door and stabbing his neck before he noticed it was not Zissax who left the room. As quickly and quietly as she could she moved from hall to hall until she noticed a door open enough to see a room obviously meant for a female visitor. She decided it was about time she was able to get clean and wear cloths.
A quick wipe down with a towel and a set of cloths from the closet, where she emptied all the cloths into her bag and she left again. Traversing the halls again she only found one guard patrolling and a maid that she was able to avoid. She found her way into a kitchen that seemed to be empty and had the most glorious meal in her life, an apple and some milk.
It did not last long as five minutes into the meal an alarm was sounded that made her jump. She made her way to the closest visible window and jumped out and hiding in a bush. No one noticed as she soon snuck up to a gate and teleported out of the courtyard which drained my reserve by nearly half..
Once out I noticed that the mansion was only on alert on the inside. That made things easier as I walked to the guard post that I remembered was near here. By the time I got within sight I found something that I would never have expected. My own wanted poster.
What was worse was it was a wanted poster for a crime instead of a missing person sign like it should have been. I grabbed it and read it over, finding it was for an alleged heist on the Joax house. I was a wanted criminal. I new that it was a setup of some from Zissax in case she get free to prevent her from getting Teslet’s help but could do nothing about it so I decided that leaving the city as quickly as possible sounded like the most logical course of action for the moment.
Taking a quick walk through a potentially hostile town wore on her nerves and by the time she exited the town she was weak and tired from the exhaustion of the day but knew at that point at least one thing needed to be done. She was happy to find she had left the city near the forest and started walk onto the path leading to it, taking periodic looks behind her to see if any guards recognized her from the posters.
An hour into later and she was looking around for what she needed. It took another hour or so to find it, a ManaWood Tree. She had learned about these from her parents and knew that they were highly magical. The tree itself was sacred to many elves as the tree had a high mana density and amazing properties if used in many potions. More than that, the most interesting thing about them were that they absorbed a huge amount of mana to grow and stay healthy.
She set the child down and said a prayer for the tree to use the mana from it to grow strong and plentiful. By the end of this small ceremony she named the tree as to hopefully appease any gods of the process taken to acquire the ‘offering’.
Just as she finished and was about to prepare to leave she felt a blade cut into her neck. She was quick enough to hopefully get away and use the scroll but a moment later that to was cut away as a possibility. Seeing as she was going to have to fight to get to the scroll or die she tried to cast an air bolt at her assailant.
It barely even cut up his arm. This brought her to a panic as she could only think what this new attacker would try to do to her. She was staring at him at that point. He suddenly charge making her mind go blank and use the first thing she that came to mind.
The teleportation spell was soon over charged but only mostly formed when the attacker was upon her. Using the spell anyway ended the way most failed spells tend to do. With a huge mana explosion and the caster a.k.a. her, and the nearest living thing within a meter or two a.k.a. the attacker, being torn to shreds as chunks of them littered the last mile or so of land.