Neil

Still reeling from the realization that something was fundamentally wrong with me and my magic I clomped through the woods trying to catch sight of Talass, but my mind on other things.

Now that I had the time to dwell on it I swore I could feel something wrong with my soul, a darkness present in it. Like an oil slick covering it. Telling myself that it was just my imagination I tried to focus on the trail and not getting smacked in the face by one of the many tree branches that covered the trail.

The scent of woodsmoke on the breeze however told us that we were heading towards the village at least.

“Why do you think that she hates me so much?” Trying to get my mind off my magic, I asked as I pushed a tree branch out of the way.

The ground was well worn with a wide smooth path that was clear of rocks and grass, but tree branches grew over the trail haphazardly in a way that made me wonder how the Lamia made it through here without getting smacked in the face every half a foot.

“Have you said anything to her?”

“No, you were with me when we first met, she already didn’t like me then.”

“Maybe her friend told her something about you that she didn’t like.” Yallia guessed.

“Maybe, but Shassala and I were friends, shouldn’t that mean that we should be friends?”

Yallia’s snort told me how stupid she thought that was. “In a small community like this that might mean the opposite. People don’t like outsiders, and sometimes they don’t like sharing their friends. She may resent you for hogging her friends time just before she left forever. Of course it may be something completely different, maybe she likes you and can’t figure out how to say it. You probably shouldn’t worry about it, you can’t have everyone like you and you two will probably never have to spend very much time with each other so try not to worry too much about it.”

Before I could respond the trail opened up and we found ourselves at the edge of the village behind the row long huts. Talass was nowhere to be found, but Jax was awkwardly waiting for us.

“Good you’re finally here.” He said as soon as we came into view. “I need to talk to you.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It is Hallice, she is already with the Elders and she is trying to have Renther and Kallix exiled from the tribe for assisting you.”

“What why?” I asked.

Jax looked impatient and I could tell that he wanted us to hurry up and simply follow him, but given that Renther and Kallix had in fact helped us I needed to know what the elders thought had happened in order to not make things worse. Taking a deep breath Jax began again.

“Anais told Esther that Hallice was incompetent to allow you to escape out from under her nose, and she should lose her seat on the council because of it. Hallice is saying that the only way you could have avoided her and the hunting party was if you had help from Kallix and Renther, and because of that they are untrustworthy and they should be exiled from the tribe. Did they help you escape?” Jax asked.

“Of course not, after the fight we escaped on our own fair and square, hell we snuck right past Hallice. Who is Anais, and why does she care if Hallice gets kicked off of the council?” I asked trying to get caught up on what was happening. I really should have looked at everyone's names the other day, I had just been so tired I hadn’t bothered, and I never expected to have to deal with the elders for much longer, which was stupid because I would have to translate for Yallia.

“Anais is the elder who is responsible for the gatherers and growers, she and Hallice have been competing to see who will be succeeding Esther as the leader of the tribe.”

As soon as Jax said that I started cursing my luck. It was bad enough being stuck in the middle of a fight between Yallia and the Empire, and then the Lamia and the Empire, now I was apparently in the middle of a fight between Hallice and someone else I didn’t even know regarding politics I didn’t care about. Still my choices were simple enough. Either I could help Hallice by screwing over Kallix and Renther, or I could help Kallix and Renther by screwing over Hallice. I didn’t even have to give it a second thought when I thought of it that way.

“You go on ahead and give me a second to talk to Yallia, we’ll set them straight.”

Jax looked at us and hesitated for a few moments before he slithered forwards and turned a corner to the left. Now that I was looking around I was pretty sure I knew where we were and unless I was mistaken the building the elders met in should be fairly close by.

“So what’s that all about?” Yallia asked me.

Jax looked at me with suspicion in his eyes but left after a moment.

After I had explained the situation to her I told her my plan.

“So we need to show them that Kallix and Renther did the best they could and that your illusions were something that they couldn’t have planned for, something that even Hallice was fooled by. So you hide yourself under an illusion, I walk in and grab everyone's attention. You slip into the room, then I’ll tell everyone how we escaped under your illusion, when they ask for a demonstration you reveal yourself, and that should be it.”

“That’s far too complicated a plan, something would go wrong. How would you even keep their attention ong enough for me to slip in?”

“I would, uhh, dance or something I guess.” I said thinking quickly.

“I feel like you were smarter when we first met, why would you dance? That’s just stupid.”

“Do you have a better way to distract them?”

“Why distract them? They don’t need to be distracted.”

“You said that illusions are tricky, being close to the target, changes in light, shadows can all make it harder right? Well right now, we'll be walking into a building and every person inside will be looking directly at us, we’ll also be going from bright noonday sun to a shadowy building. This is basically the worst situation for using an illusion isn’t it? If we want to sneak you in they would need to be distracted by something.” I said detailing my logic.

"Your plan is too complicated, and completely unnecessary, if they spot me they could mistake it for an attack. We should both just walk in and you tell them what I can do, then I will use an illusion to disappear in front of them. Then you explain how we used that to sneak by everyone.” She said folding her arms in front of her chest. “Easy, no need to dance, no need to sneak anywhere, much less to go wrong, and since I will be in the room when I make the illusions, I should be able to account for any shadows.”

“That is a pretty good plan, I guess I was overthinking things a little wasn’t I?”

Yallia hesitated before saying and I got the impression she was choosing her words carefully. “You have a flare for the dramatic. Sometimes it can help get people listen to you, but other times you just get in your own way.”

“Alright, we'll do it your way then.”

The two of us walked through the row of huts and found ourselves on the outskirts of the village. There were a handful of Lamia on the small dirt road that wound its way through the forest and several of them immediately stopped what they were doing when we walked out.

Waving and smiling at them I led Yallia as we tried to retrace Jax’s trail and find our way to the elders' hut. Walking down the street I tried to get a good view of what people were doing but most of them stopped and stared at us as soon as they were aware of us.

Yallia simply ignored the extra attention but I found myself at first a little nervous because of it, but then loving it.

I had never been famous, popular, or even successful, so people knowing me for something other than being “those peoples” child was pretty nice. The elders hut was just getting in sight when the first person approached us.

It was an older man, probably in his early forties if I had to guess. His hair could have been charitably called salt and pepper, although it was mostly salt by this point. His shirt however barely disguised a muscled body with wide shoulders, with his tail he towered over us. If it weren’t for his facial expression and how he held his hands together in front of him I would have been intimidated. Fortunately he looked at me almost with reverence on his face, and with the way his hands were held in front of him, he looked more like a supplicant.

“Ancient One?” He said approaching us.

“Ummm, my name is Neil, what’s yours?”

“My name is Corinth, Ancient One.” He said bowing his head. “I wanted to welcome you to our village, the faithful among us have waited for your return and it fills our hearts with joy to see you again.”

Not sure how to respond to the reverence in his voice I smiled and nodded. “Thank you, it’s lovely to be here.”

“Ancient One, I have a daughter and I would be honored if you would bless her for a happy life and healthy children.”

Hesitating I thought about how to respond. I really had no idea how to bless someone, but how hard could it be? Say some nice words and wave my hands? And besides declining might be rude. “We’ll I’m not really a priest, but I guess I should be able to at some point.” I said as we walked past the man.

“What was that?”

“Huh?”

“You looked uncomfortable when he spoke to you.”

“He asked me to bless his daughter.” Yallia’s eyebrows rose when I said that. “I mean I guess I don’t mind, but I’m not a priest so, unless you can tell me about human blessings I’ll probably just have to make something up.”

Yallia stopped for a moment when I said that but she quickly caught up when I continued walking. Although she looked like she wanted to say something, by this time we had gained a small crowd of people following us, and others walked up to us to say hello.

None of the people impeded our walking but I felt compelled to say hello to all of them which slowed us down and didn’t allow much time for conversation between the two of us.

As I waved hello to the crowd I noted that Yallia seemed to be garnering a fair amount of attention as well. Mostly from younger men, but a few of the women as well.

It looked like people seemed to think she was exotic.

“Look at the way they move...”

“I wonder what their feet look like....”

“Always been curious...”

I overheard a group of young women whispering to themselves a short distance away, their hands covering their mouths made it a little hard to hear them but I heard enough to get the idea of what they were talking about.

By the time we reached the elders hut it felt like half of the village had come out to see us and I even a few more women had made obvious passes at me. It was the closest to feeling like a Rockstar I probably would ever get, and while at first it felt nice, I quickly started to feel like a fraud.

Ancient One, they all called me, I wasn’t ancient and I certainly had nothing to do with the people who had helped the Lamias ancestors. I was just some guy who got lost in the woods and hadn’t died yet.

Putting it out of my mind as we reached the elders hut I turned to Yallia. “Ready?” I asked. From inside I could hear Hallice talking in an angry tone, but I was too far away to hear exactly what she was saying. Yallia had been right it seems the crowd we attracted never would have let us sneak into the hut.

At her nod we walked past the guards, through the doorway and into the room. Kallix and Renther were standing at attention to the side of the door looking like they were expecting to be marched off to their execution, four of the elders were lined up across from them and Hallice was standing near the two Lamia and looked to be in the middle of a rant directed at the elders. Talass almost went unnoticed in the back of the room, standing unmoving her tail coiled underneath her almost made her look like a cat sitting in loaf position. Renther looked at me with so much hope in his eyes I was worried that the was going to give away the game right away, while Kallix at least had a decent poker face.

“...not be trusted.” Hallice finished as she turned to look at me. “What are you doing here? This is a meeting for the elders, outsiders shouldn’t be here.” She finished with a sneer.

“I heard there were some questions regarding our escape from the mountain and I wanted to clarify a few things.”

“I think it’s fairly clear how you escaped. Renther and Kallix helped you, that is the only way that you could have escaped an entire hunting party.” Hallice said.

Quickly looking at the two elders in the room that I had not been introduced to I quickly muttered under my breath two quick “Who’s”.

DING

Anais

Anais is responsible for all Lamia that gather any plants, either for food or potions. This ensures she works closely with a large number of Lamia and gives her a large amount of influence in the tribe. Although she does not wish to be chief of the tribe, she is attempting to gain the position when Esther dies.

DING

Falleris

Falleris is the youngest of the elders, and has only recently joined the council. He is the leader of the Lamia hunting parties which is traditionally an extremely important role in Lamia tribes, and they will often become the Chief of their tribe.

Well that didn’t really tell me very much, but it wasn’t like I needed to know much in order to do this.

“No they didn’t we escaped because we have abilities that none of you know about and couldn’t have prepared for. The two of us didn’t just evade Kallix and Renther, we slipped right by you too Hallice. At our closest we were probably about as close to you then as we are right now.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Yallia.” I said turning to her.

Yallia had walked past Kallix and Renther and was standing in the darkest part of the room, looking at the walls, floor and ceiling. Taking a deep breath her eyes closed in concentration and a moment later she disappeared. I had been hoping for something a little more dramatic than what happened. Maybe a flash of light, or a slow fade into nothingness, instead she simply blinked out of existence between breaths.

The sharp intake of breath from Anais and a soft curse I had never heard before from Falleris told me that the demonstration was effective. A few seconds later and Yallia was back standing in the room like nothing had happened.

Now was the hard part, what exactly had Kallix and Renther told the elders? I couldn’t contradict anything they had said, and we hadn’t had enough time to get our stories straight. “After fighting the last monster Yallia and I figured out pretty quickly that we weren’t sure if we could trust you to keep your words. So we retreated up to the top level of the mountain, but we didn’t stay there. Almost as soon as we were out of sight we knew we would be trapped up there so Yallia hid us under her illusion. We then went back down the stairs and hid in a building near where you came up. Once the hunting party went to the stairs and left Hallice behind we Yallia hid us again and we slipped right by her. After that you all know the rest.”

“You lie!” Hallice declared waving her finger in my face. “What about the sacred pool? Water had been splashed everywhere! You had a bath in the sacred pool! Don’t try to deny it!”

“Why would I deny that? I was covered in blood, guts and god only knows what else, of course I had a bath, Yallia too. And I apologize, I know that it is sacred to you and I hope you can forgive me for using it like that, but there isn’t really any other source of water up there now is there?”

“You said never mentioned having a bath! You only said you went up to the top level!” Hallice yelled.

“Your right I didn’t mention I had a bath, why would I? I also took a shit I didn’t talk about.” I yelled cutting Hallice off. “We went up to the top level after we decided we weren’t sure what to do, and that was during the bath. And given how you shot at us with arrows when we were on our way down here, I’d say we were right to be worried.”

Hallice looked furious and I could tell she was about to start shouting at us when Esther spoke for the first time since we had interrupted the meeting.

“Hallice that’s enough.” She commanded.

Immediately the potions mistress fell silent, although her glare was filled with enough hatred to make my stomach churn. I wasn’t used to people having such strong opinions about me, usually they never even noticed me.

“Falleris, tell me of the monster you found on the summit, the largest one.”

As he began to speak I looked closer at the man. He had green hair, a handsome face that had a long vertical scar on his cheek that ended just under his eye. He was built like a brick shithouse, with arms the size of my legs and a tail that I could see individual muscles on. It was like he was an action hero that had come right out of a movie into real life. His voice however was slightly higher than I had expected. Not quite a soprano, but certainly not the deep baritone that I had thought he would have,

“It was almost the size of an Onca Parda, it had four legs, and multiple tentacles coming out of its body, it’s skin was thick and arrows were barely able to penetrate it. If my hunters had fought it without the benefit of magic or a very potent poison I am not certain we would have been able to slay it without loss of life.”

“And it’s injuries?”

“The wound that killed it was like none I have ever seen before. There is a hole in its chest two arm spans in size, and its insides looked to have been cut into very small fine chunks, there was more blood on the ground than I have ever seen before. No blade or spell I know of could have caused that damage.”

“I think Hallice that you may have been too hasty in your condemnation of Kallix and Renther. Given the skills the outlanders have shown, there is nothing that the two of them could have done to stop our guests from leaving the summit. Does anyone disagree?” Esther asked the Elders.

All of the elders except Hallice murmured their agreement and Anais started to look excited.

“Of course that also goes for Hallice, she also cannot be blamed for her failure to find our guests.” At this Anais face dropped. “So we are in agreement. You two may leave us now.” She said speaking to Kallix and Renther.

The two Lamia bowed low to Esther and the other elders, then turned to leave. Kallix was keeping a good poker face and was looking straight ahead, not looking at Yallia or I, but Renther looked at me with so much gratitude in his eyes and I had to wonder how they hadn’t got caught before we arrived. Hallice slowly made to move towards the other elders, but finding the four of them close together she was forced to take a place at the far edge of the group.

“As for the two of you, I feel I must apologize again for the poor reception we have given you. Had I known how distressing your arrival had been I would have ensured a proper reception that heroes such as yourselves deserve, but when we heard the sounds of battle, we panicked and sent our best hunters to secure the area. I apologize for you feeling that you could not trust us. Our hunters were also able to find these when they were coming down the mountain. I hope that they serve you well.” Esther said handing me a small leather bag. Looking in I saw my canteens, first aid kit, cooking pots a pair of underwear and a mismatched pair of socks on top.

“Thank you, I thought I had lost these.”

Nodding in response she continued. “Now there is one other thing that I am afraid we must ask of you. We have discussed what to do about the threat this Empire represents.”

Falleris surprised me by speaking next. “Long has our tribe been secluded from the outside world, even other Lamia rarely travel here.

As such we have had to learn to survive by ourselves against all of the threats of the deep jungle, animals, monsters, and other creatures that would wipe out lesser tribes, our people have learned to hunt and kill them all.”

“It sounds like you feel confident already.”

“These threats are known to us and we know how to face them by the sacrifices of our ancestors. We have learned to hunt Onca Parda through bloody sacrifice and loss, we know to avoid the forbidden zones by the bones that mark their edges. This Empire however is new to us, even if they are weak which I do not believe they are, they will have surprises, and surprises can always kill.” He said in a tone of voice that told me he spoke from experience.

Esther once again took over. “It is for that reason that we request your help. When the Empire arrives, we will attempt to open a dialogue with them, we will trade with them and if necessary we will try to work with them in order to ensure the safety of our tribe. We will also try to negotiate for the safe release of your father if we are able.” She said nodding to Yallia. “However should that fail and we are forced to fight, we will need tools, and we will need to know what to expect.”

“You want us to travel over the veil to trade for weapons?” I guessed.

“Hardly.” Hallice began before being cut off from a look from Esther.

“We have our own weapons that we are familiar with, gaining new weapons would require we that train with them, and we haven't the time. What we need are potion ingredients.” Esther said.

At this Anais spoke for the first time. Anais looked almost motherly. She was the first Lamia I had seen that didn’t have visible abs, instead she was almost chubby standing beside the other Lamia. Her dark hair was tied back into a pony tail and her expression was kind, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think for a second she wasn’t able to fight. “This late in the season many of the flowers we need for our most potent potions have been depleted, and while we have some dried flowers they are not of high enough quality for what we will need. We would like you to join a gathering party we will be sending to beyond our lands to an ancient Lamia temple. In this temple many of the rarest flowers grow, and with them we will be able to craft potions of such strength, and purity that none will be able to stand against us.”

“Why do you need us to go?” I asked. “Surely your own people are up to the task.”

“We will need as many of our people here as possible to give an impression of strength to the Empire should they arrive, and you have proven a warrior capable of dealing with threats that even my hunters would find challenging.”

For the first time since the meeting started Jax spoke up. “Also Air Jacks.” He said unhelpfully. After a moment he seemed to realize that a little more was needed and he continued. “Between here and the mountains some of the Air Jacks have nests, we know from the old teachings that Humans can gain magical affinities from animals, and in the past Humans traveled there to gain affinities from this very area. If you wished to gain an air affinity this would be your best opportunity.”

Esther began again, “While we will assist you in any way we can, if you do this for us our tribe will be better equipped to negotiate with the Empire.”

DING

NEW QUEST

Travel to the lost Temple of Gaia and protect Talass as she gathers what she was sent for!

REWARD FOR COMPLETION

FAILURE

CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ACCEPTING

Increased reputation with Lamia of the Veil of the Gods, increased resistance to TAINT. Purification from TAINT.

Death or worse

Reduced reputation with the Lamia of the Veil of the Gods.

SUB QUEST

Gain an Air Affinity from the Air Jacks of this area!

REWARD FOR COMPLETION

FAILURE

Gain an Air Affinity

None

Once I had translated for Yallia she was immediately against going on the expedition.

While trying to look calm in front of the Elders Yallia explained her reasoning. “The Empire will be here any time now and I don’t want to miss their arrival by going off on some halfcocked expedition for some flowers that won’t do any good.”

“The Lamia are pretty confident this will help, and after everything I’ve managed to do with potions, I’m pretty curious to see what some actual experts can do.”

“Then you can see it when the Lamia gathering party gets back. There is no reason why we need to be part of the party sent to gather the ingredients. I think this is just a distraction to make sure we are out of the village when the Empire arrives.”

“You still don’t trust them?”

“Of course not, talk costs nothing, and they’ve done nothing to show me that they don’t intend to sell us out to the empire as soon as they arrive. This is probably just a plot to get us out of the village while negotiations are ongoing, when we came back it would probably be into the Empires waiting hands.”

Thinking for a second I had to admit that her logic made sense. There wasn’t really a reason to send us on this expedition, even if they felt that our presence would be valuable would they really trust us on a mission like this?

“And another thing, they were too prepared to ask us.” Yallia continued.

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t they be prepared to ask us?”

“We were only at the meeting because Jax told us about it, right? Well it wasn’t just a meeting of the elders; it was a trial and it had already started. So, was he in the trial and then left halfway through to get us? There was no reason for us to be there but they were ready to ask us to help with the expedition.”

“Maybe they intended to ask us later, after they had finished with the two of them, and only asked us then because we were there.” I countered.

“You’re too naive Neil, these people have survived and thrived in an incredibly dangerous place for hundreds of years, they have not done that by being stupid. By giving us to the Empire they could gain favor with a potential threat by getting rid of a couple of annoyances, taking care of two birds with one pounce. There is no reason for us to go on that expedition with them. If anything, we should go into the jungle and try to wait for the Empires arrival ourselves.”

“There’s a reason we went down the mountain on this side and not the other Yallia. We would be in jungle on our own, with no information on when the Empire arrives, and there is at least one reason for me to go with them, a few good reasons actually.”

“You want the air affinity.” She said sounding resigned rather than angry.

“I do want the air magic, that’s true, but that’s not it. Gaia gave me a quest for this. If I go with them I can gain resistance and purification from Taint.”

“Purification? What does that mean?”

"I’m not sure, but I’m hoping it will help with my back and my new affinity.”

Yallia’s lips pressed together into a thin line. I could tell she didn’t like it but we had both been freaked out enough by how my magic was behaving that we knew how important this was. “I can’t abandon my father Neil, and I still don’t trust the Lamia.”

“I know, and I’m sorry Yallia but I have to do this.”

“Don’t be sorry, just be quick, and watch your back. Go with them, get the flowers, the affinity and the purification, then get back here. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things.”

Looking at Yallia I was suddenly struck by how confident she looked. It was hard to remember sometimes because I was translating so much for her, but in this village she was completely in her element. Surrounded by people she couldn’t understand, without very many resources and isolated she was still confident.

I could only hope that she was wrong about the Lamia and I wasn’t about to walk into a trap. Turning to the elders who with the exception of Hallice had been waiting patiently for us to finish talking I answered them.

“I will join you on the expedition and assist you with gathering what you need.”

“And your companion?” Asked Esther.

“My friend is worried for her father. She will stay here to wait for the arrival of the Empire.”

“Then it is decided. The expedition will leave tomorrow, Talass you will go with them to gather the flowers that your mother will need. Falleris, if you could please select two guards to join them.”

“I have just the two in mind.” He said with a nod.