Ruel Za'Darmondiel.
***
"I dare you to try, beast!"
Snarling, I reached for my hips and looked to my lessors to do the same, only to feel a growing pressure wrapping around my waist before I was violently pulled toward the wall.
ursing loudly, I gathered the rich arcana around my body to brace but felt no impact, having been thrown into the caverns by the many tendrils of this… thing.
I only saw unfamiliar territory as I tumbled through the air, cushioning my fall with that same brace of arcana until I landed gently on the shores of a great river. The great river that fed Zimysta Falls- now silent and still.
I looked up to see that beast floating before her squid squealer. Pharryl, the traitor, only stared at me in disbelief before it flew off in a burst of gelid wind. Nhildia and Qiryyn were no different, I was sure, refusing to challenge the beasts within in the hopes of running away from our Queen, the Demon Spider.
The very thought subsumed me within a roiling storm of red razored webs focused around the large woman, falling to land with a boom that echoed in tune with her steps toward me.
"Come on!" She stopped short of the shore to crouch low, raising her hands like claws. "Let's see what you got."
Relying on my instincts and training, I allowed the crimson webs to release their fury, unsheathing my weapons and engaging without delay.
I threaded arcana into a web and shot it at the far wall to reel myself toward this beast while a wall of arcana formed behind her, tilting at the last moment to bring her neck closer to the crossing points of my scimitars.
While my blades struck true, so did her claws, reaching over her shoulder to slice into my arm with a burning cold. It remained attached by a thread that released once my webs pulled me away, and yet another web saw my arm return to my remaining hand, ready and waiting with an arcane needle to stitch it back together.
By the time I'd landed, my hand was once again flexing around its scimitar, pointing at the bestial human on the far side of the river.
"Impressive witchcraft!" Geri snickered, lifting her chin to show the hardly perceptible wounds sealing over.
Sneering, I readied myself properly, casting my arcana veil, bolstering my flesh, and infusing my weapons with the rich arcana spread around us. Only then did I engage, erupting in a slashing dance that sent bladed projections of arcana at the quickly reacting human, countering with ethereal claws of frosted vines wreathed around her arms.
My dance continued until she found a break in the rhythm, a switch up on my part, meant to alter the attacking angle, was countered by a rising double slash before she reversed and punched the ground. Her great strength released a rolling wave of ice and stone, chased by those foul vines of frost, freezing everything in their path.
A geyser of arcana lifted me above the frozen lake, where a blade's edge of focus saw me levitate above the now-frozen river. Sheathing my weapons, I quickly withdrew my hand crossbow, pouring arcana through it as I put it into action, poisoning, accelerating, and rotating the quarrels to their limits to spread the ingrained web spells within as far as possible.
Seeming to be caught by surprise, the beast raised her arms to block and was surprised more to find herself shot and sliced into by the webs grounding her while they continued twisting, constricting her form.
I did not wait, webbing my hand crossbow to dangle nearby before quickly drawing my scimitars into a double vertical cross, projecting twin blades of arcana that scattered into countless blue fragments as my blades wound around to clang against each other.
Geri's form, trapped within that red web, shone a bright blue before her form turned into a cloud of snow and billowed to the side at great speed, reforming moments later with a hand crossbow made from those icy roots firing at me rapidly.
The cowardice.
I raised my weapons to shoulder height, letting my arcana flow along with this crimson rage. "Do not underestimate me, human!" I thrust at her, sending one of those scattered blue blades to fell this fleeing beast. "I know you've heard the legends of elves- of Drow being the strongest this Mortal Plane has to offer!"
I thrust out projections again, and again and again, imbuing my spells with all things acid, lightning, fire, and more against this beast while using the potent arcana around us to push and pull myself away from her javelins and boulders of ice and snow.
Several of my marks missed and so did hers, yet only I guided the strays back to their target. Still, some were deflected. Those that hit had their magical attributes negated or weakened by her mana veil but the bolts penetrated all the same, creating a blue-white form that only grew redder as the battle pressed on. Yet, for my sake, I knew she could not keep fleeing.
Intent on showing her what combat against Drow was truly like, I spread my will across this vast cavern to grasp onto the arcana within, concentrating more on the flowing waters to disturb and uplift them with a single motion.
A toss of my hands sent it all into chaos. Waters long since undisturbed shot to the ceiling as if lifted by a great geyser, yet it had a purpose. The countless droplets of the scattered deluge shifted and soared down and around toward Geri, who would react in an all too predictable way.
A predacious grin split my face as the spiraling droplets turned from clear water to white ice; the spell contained at the tips of my fingers released giddily, spreading my will into the closest droplet to this beast called Geri and sending it through all those to follow.
The arcana spread through the scattered droplets like faerie flames on a statue, manifesting clear, angular shards out of the scattered field of gray ice flowing toward the beast.
The glass rain fell heartily, looming over her head like a cloud of mind spores no matter where she attempted to flee, yet she counterattacked amidst the onslaught all the same, releasing massive boulders of icy vines and frosted javelins at a frustrating pace.
While they hindered my attempts at self-witchcraft, they did not render me unable. Geri, on the other hand, emerged from the attack lacerated from head to toe and covered in blood, although that was superficial. Our exchange earlier told me I would need to maintain my momentum if I was to kill her. Her predatory eyes, on the other hand, told me she was impressed, and that I had struck a nerve.
She glared at me with those blue bestial eyes as she haunched forward, resting her weight onto her hands like the beast she was, even going as far as to snarl as those icy roots overcame her visage, weaving over her head to elongate her mouth into something more befitting of her spirit. Her deep blue fangs dripped something as feral as the grunts coming from her enlarging frame, spreading icy roots and vines of the same hue as the shaggy moss spreading over her from head to clawed toe.
Reeling back, the furry beast-woman stood twice my height to howl out a shockwave of blisteringly cold mana of an unfamiliar nature before her visage shifted and disappeared, leaving an afterimage that shattered the stone where she just stood.
All I could sense before I pulled more arcana into my eyes, ears, nose, and skin was an approaching vortex of ice and snow. Then I saw this… thing, pouncing on all fours with glowing blue claws readying for my neck.
Undeterred, I bolstered myself to my limits, readied arcana into my scimitars, and lunged, equally shattering the stone beneath me to match the beast's speed and surpass her strike twofold.
My scimitars scribbled across her stomach before I flipped through her claws, projecting my prepared countering spell through my blades to slice through the blizzard that billowed out from her, yet something touched me before I could get out of reach.
It was a wave of that strange mana, I was sure. It came from the wake of her attack. Yet, a sinking cold spread through my hands out front. I quickly shook the infectious mana away as I landed what I thought to be a fair distance away, only to find myself encompassed in a darkness I'd never experienced before.
It was silent. Eerily so, for it was not entirely quiet. Strange… squawks, huffs, and steps echo from the same snow compressed beneath my feet, rising as high as my knees. I could see the browns of strange, giant mushrooms with branches of greenery rather than bioluminescent caps; they stretched into the far distance, yet seemed to go only so far.
My guard rose to an all-time high as those things in the background moved to the forefront, promoting themselves to concerning grunts, snarls, and growls. The cold was creeping on me, yet my instincts told me not to warm myself or attempt to keep moving. So instead, I sought a different angle.
I withdrew my arcana and increased its density between my hands before slowly expanding it around me, forming a concentrated domain- a barrier to push away this eldritch night, but only so much. Only the area within range returned to the grays of the cavern I recognized, so I pushed harder, increasing my domain to 3 meters, then 5. Then 10, and 20, and on at an exponential rate that made me believe I'd succeeded, only to look down to see not the grays of the cavern I recognized, but a field of strange mushrooms.
They were tiny things. Green and slim, with faces of bright colors and soft petals lining their rims. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, in countless shapes and colors. There was one unlike the others, though. Large. Blue; covered in that strange… moss.
I lunged back at once, feeling embarrassment, shame, rage, disgust, and a dozen other things welling within me as this half-beast ascended from her illusion, pulling a clawed fist into my stomach that broke everything; my body, sent flying, and my holy symbol- my Brooch of the Spider, hunted by this beast leaping after me to rip it from my body and destroy with a deathly grip of her strange mana.
Before I could act- before we even began to fall, she wrapped her massive arms around my frame and squeezed, screaming louder than my cracking bones as her gaping maw opened wide to… blow.
Blow and whisper. "Spring Breeze!"
Water.
I only felt water, running off my body as if I stood beneath the Falls. I thought I had been frozen and was just now melting to find I'd been transported to that same snowy field of giant brown mushrooms, now illuminated by the silver-blue sphere glowing gently above.
"What-"
My words cut short as I looked up to see Geri and realized, my mind was clear. The melting ice had washed the crimson webs from my mind. For the first time in my life, my mind was purely mine. Unbiased. Unburdened. Unwatched by those who sought to control my fate. And so I stood to face the one before me. Or rather, the ones standing behind Geri in this field of flowers; Nhildia, Qiryyn, and Pharryl, finding their eyes no longer holding traces of red but yellows and greens instead.
"I have sinned," I explained to both them and Geri. "In my mind, I admitted the Matrons erred in bringing El-" I sighed. "In bringing Amun here- a simple act that lost me her favor before even finding it. My mind was… the webs… I was so… angry. But now." I sighed, turning to the hulking woman. "My mind is clear. My fate is my proudly own, though I may be… Dublolth.
"Traitor." I met her eyes.
"Nice to finally meet you, Ruel Za'Darmondiel, Nhildia, Qiryyn, Pharryl." Geri smiled, seating herself atop a rock that seemingly appeared from nowhere. I followed after she gestured for me to join her and for once, invited Pharryl to join us. Only then did she continue. "I am Geri, Matriarch of the Winter Wolf Conclave. That was a hell of a fight."
"Winter wolf?" I couldn't help but ask. Yet all I got in response was the sound of cracking ice.
I turned toward the source at once, finding clumps of frosted vines and icy… flowers growing and shifting into vague shapes until they eventually decayed to reveal six females of varying species. Creatures I oversaw as slaves. A dwarf and a deep gnome, the former being the beast Pharyl was petting before our fight, laughed in his face when he realized her true nature. The others were creatures I would have hated just moments ago- humans and a Strifling, who reached into the snow to hand out wine and cuts of meat I begrudgingly accepted.
"Lemeia, is my name. I'm the Manager of the Winter Wolf Racing League." She said, dipping her midnight blue horns in greeting. Quite marvelously, she boasted the same features as she did as a beast, with deep, blue-black skin and horns paired with blue sclera and black irises, yet the fine, flashy robes of a bard covered her frame, born from seemingly from the ice itself.
The same was true for the others, who introduced themselves in turn. The other bard, a tan-skinned human named Katheryn, announced herself from the flashing library, calling herself the Spring Witch Comet Service's Administrator. The third bard- the deep gnome Pharyl had been stroking, called herself Lula, Sponsor of Blue Peak, yet had the same green eyes as Katheryn, my drow, and perhaps me.
On the contrary, the short canine without the tail was a halfling dressed in the scant leathers of a barbarian. Norsh, Queen of Castle Wintercrest, she called herself. What was more curious were the two clerics; a dwarf, and a human, wearing the same skull of gears and screws seen around the neck of Iris.
Rhonda, the human's name was. A… 'Mechanical Engineer' and the Blue Steel Motor Company's Foreman. On the other blade, the dwarf was named Penny, a cleric of the World Weaver, with a symbol of a sphere broken in half, its remnants leaving a cone of boulders trailing beneath it.
"What did you do to us?" I finally managed to ask. "Did you… make us… like you?"
"No." The large woman giggled. "Winter is only half of my power. The other half is Spring. Not just the power of nature, warmth, and fertility, but youth, air, water, and light. In a sense, Spring Breeze makes something infantile; in this case, your minds. It removed all that shit in your spirits- the brainwashing and biases. It's almost as if you'd been born anew. You are free."
"Why?" I asked next. "You could have simply killed me. The way you spoke made it clear you cared not for the consequences."
"Don't get me wrong, you're still dying on the ground of that cavern. I'm only giving you the choice to be reborn. As for why?" She huffed, shrugging as if it were a simple matter. "This is what your brother wanted. He didn't want to be the only one to become an integral part of this glorious thing we're creating, and he didn't want us to free just you, nor just Raki or Eban; Two-Heart or Selph; every drow who wants to cast aside the Spider but either can't or won't, he wants to join Amun's Legion."
"So then I am to serve beneath you? Not my brother? Not Amun? That's what you had planned for us- for me?"
"It's a bit of both." She so charmingly explained. "In the coming years, Amun will be acting on his own. We'll go to new realms together, of course, but we'll operate in different countries or even continents. We're as close as one gets to walking next to him, other than the Imperators of his Legions. When he wars, however, it'll be a different story.
Basically, you'll live with me but work for him when he asks. As for your brother, well… you're not an astral monk. You have spent years in the caverns and tunnels with the slaves and riding lizards, however. You have some traits required of a ranger, and you've been training to be a paladin."
"And those are things you can use?"
"I don't use people." She said flatly, yet with hints of disgust. "You being a ranger qualifies you to join my conclave. Your being a paladin qualifies you to command my Blue Force. I want to recruit you."
Rather than explain, she tapped at a table that appeared from the snow, causing the flat surface to pull apart and reveal a glistening window that blinked to life. In it, I saw a fleet of the same… Squid Squealers, and many vessels just like it.
Some were what I assumed to be those eggs once they were hatched. A conical creature with large eyes and many tendrils floating behind it. Before it were rows upon rows of things that matched the description of birds. Or at least bats. And yet, there were more. Canines longer than violet worms. Small, furry things with thick legs, a haunched posture, and tall ears. Massive, meandering lizards. Frogs the size of wagons. Scorpions the size of warehouses.
Spiders the size of Houses.
I began to question what I was seeing when the image blinked, showcasing these things in action. I watched in awe, the canines running through the forest, then pulling in their limbs to reform them into wheels to continue on the road of a bright realm. Yet that was simply the beginning. These… Umas could travel through the air, ice, and solid stone, all while keeping the rider in a cave-like structure.
"You… created these?" I finally managed to ask.
"Amun's vassal, Ed Pascal, invented these vehicles for the realms and the Umas for the Legions. He then passed the art on to us. We made these." She tapped at the screen before gesturing to her companions. "As you saw, we use them for recon. We're Ranging Warlocks, after all, but we also run a business as both Druidic Witches and Artificers, mixed with other things."
"I see." I slowly nodded. "So then, I assume you intend for me to… mix my skills with the learnings of an artificer to command this fleet? Your use of the word 'Force' makes me believe its purpose is war."
"That it is." She nodded firmly.
"And what of them? I motioned behind me. "I am responsible for them still."
"Whether they join is ultimately up to them, but they'll still be your subordinates if they do. Being in command of my military unit, you'll be the ones to report to Amun when he needs something done, as I said earlier."
"And you will take me away from this place like Etan? You will remove me from the fate they would inflict on me for losing the Spider's favor- on us?"
"After we change this place." Geri nodded. "You have my word."
"I care not about the Falls or how it's changed." I rolled my eyes. "I only care about one person."
"As I said." She tapped at the window, now showing Blude speaking with my twin, dressed in an exotically elegant black and white tunic with gold, or perhaps bronze accents just like the women around her. "You don't have to worry about Raki. This is what we came here to do."
"But at what cost?" I asked and had to confirm just seconds later. "Just one drooly bite? Then, I bite them? And no matter if we live or die we… change. Into celestials?"
"Mhmm." The dragoness nodded, pausing her fangs around my exposed hand. "But we don't do so to just anyone. Only those worthy of joining the Conclave."