Fey were known on Aostea, but rare. Spawned from the consciousness of a plant given arcane power, fey commonly take on humanoid forms to interact with the other native species of Aostea. One of such creatures, Skylock Nightshade, was facing a new, sudden dilemma.
Before, he was unwilling to enter the realm of the ants and spiders. The space under that flat, ever-present aura, or even to enter the tunnel carved by that brutish beastkin. Yet now, the aura had disappeared. Ants hadn't emerged to attack the colony expanding under its cap, and his queen was curious about the location.
His allies in higher circles of the game told rumors of a new candidate in that lich's eternal desire to see long-dead allies fail to meet their end. Such a silly goal. Skylock knew better than even some of his siblings of the game that death was the end. Even if the nutrients are used by another lifeform to grow, the original is still lost forever.
But the lich was still no foe to trifle with, and his queen wasn't willing to let a mystery go unexplored. So, he unfortunately had to use his own body to discover secrets. Fey may be rare, but an individual fey that had only managed to reach the second circle after so many star cycles was not worth the possibility that the final candidate had been chosen.
From the vast fungal growth sitting in the center of the expansive biodome, a diminutive figure slowly pushed its way free. It appeared as an emaciated man, no taller than the waist of a human. Covering its pallid skin were layers of interlocking mycelial growth. The topmost a translucent white, the two beneath each a shade of darkening purple. Atop its head sat a cap, a hat to most appearances, but truly an extension of its head. The cap was primarily a deep violet with streaks of green light dancing on its surface.
It carefully approached the tunnel, long arms held at its side. When it reached the first web, a short way into the tunnel, it found several holes around its edges large enough for ants, but not large enough for anything larger. He was fascinated by the subtle design work, but he couldn't afford to care. For now, he was instead staring at the overlarge black and purple spider sitting in the center of the web.
Naturally, he had seen larger spiders. Even in his still hours, some monsters spawned in the biodome for him to see, some of which were spider monsters. Misshapen arachnids the size of a greater ground wolf. He'd even seen one of those goliath-kin when their broodmother had laid eggs nine seasonal cycles ago.
But this spider was still large. About the size of his head, excluding the cap. It could pose a threat, or would be able to if it weren't a whole circle below him. He still didn't want to harm the spider, as he could see the silver string connecting it to something else deeper in the dungeon. It was either a summon or some kind of mana construct.
If it attacked, he would not hesitate to fight back, but it didn't even seem to watch him.
Spiders, along with most kinds of shelled animals he'd been able to observe, had an uncanny capacity to see in multiple directions, so a lack of eye movement from the spider didn't mean it wasn't watching. But he was at least partially confident that it wasn't. There was a blank absence behind its eyes that not even monsters had.
So he struck the web with his claws and ripped it open, granting himself entrance. Behind it was another web, and another blank spider. He kept clawing his way through webbing until finally, he reached a room rather than a tunnel. There was another tunnel leading forward, and one leading up. The tunnel up seemed to have stairs made from cotton leading from the floor past the ceiling. At the bottom of which was a rabbit-kin with an oversized hammer and two orcs.
They clearly placed themselves between him and the horizontal tunnel, though he didn't know why. He held up two hands before speaking in Aemabi. Assuming that the trio could communicate, and knowing that imitating the sounds of Grusi or its offshoot languages without the specific vocal cords of an orc was highly difficult, Aemabi or perhaps Ilmabi were the only languages they could share. But Skylock hadn't bothered to learn Ilmabi, Ismabi, or Ulkmabi, leaving him only with Ilmabi.
"I mean no harm." His voice was that of thick mycelium slowly breaking through solid stone. Those across from him didn't lower their weapons; if anything, the rabbit-kin raised hers further.
"Why do you speak Aemabi?" The rabbit-kin asked.
"The High Queen demands her servants know the common tongues, even a lowly purple cap such as I is not an exception to that rule."
"Don't lie to us. Your cap is not a purple cap, but a green cap influenced by twilight." The male orc behind the rabbit-kin said. Skylock was surprised.
"You know the difference?"
"Your high queen doesn't keep her affairs completely private, especially from possible allies."
"Allies?" Skylock's expression turned dark, "The Twilight Court needs no allies from your people, orc."
"Don't they? Have your stronger kin told you why you can't find an orc under Bloodskull other than me and Dur here in the entire nightshade region?"
Skylock stopped the orc with a look and said, "I will not enter your debt for willingly gaining information, orc. I am here to bargain information for the High Queen."
"Bargain information? And what will you offer in exchange?" Asked the orc. Skylock liked this conversation less and less as it continued.
"My lady has promised to offer one piece of information of equal value."
"And who determines equal value? You?"
"The High Queen herself."
Now it was the orc's turn to look a bit surprised. Good. Skylock hated being on the back foot in negotiations.
"Fair enough, then what do you wish to know?"
"The first objects of my lady's curiosity are the mana constructs guarding this realm."
The orc thought for a moment before answering, "They aren't constructs; instead being a controllable form of monster. I still haven't figured out how, but they dissolve like monsters, and you can feel the undying rage in their auras if you observe them."
"I did not feel the rage in the ones I passed to reach you."
"Is that the second piece of information?"
Skylock paused before answering in the affirmative. The orc then explained,
"To my understanding, they're somewhere between a regular monster and an elemental. They don't carry the innate alignment of an elemental, but serve their creator as if it were their summoner."
Skylock felt the queen's interest in this topic, so he asked the next question, "And who, or what, is their creator?"
"That is a piece of information I cannot give freely. I would only give it to your lady directly, not to you."
Skylock grimaced as his lady demanded the answer, but couldn't leave her anchor to speak directly. He felt her attack the edges of his soul to allow her entry, and did so after a mere moment.
Kurdan watched the diminutive fey in front of him suddenly and rapidly shift into a towering new figure. Glowing deep purple eyes filled with myriad rainbow stars, flowing hair of the same color, rather than the cap of the previous fey.
When the Lady of the Twilight Court took control of her subsidiary fey, she shifted his entire body to hold even a fraction of her sheer presence.
"Speak. I do not have long." Her tone was thick like honey and filled with curiosity. Curiosity and danger both.
"Their creator is the newest and last candidate, Azotreh Nightshade."
Her eyes remained cool and collected before she nodded the slightest she possibly could and vanished. The greencap returned to its previous appearance, though the purple mycelium of its skin had lightened a couple of shades.
"My apologies. I cannot remain for much longer. I must return to my root fungus."
Kurdan nodded. It made sense. Letting such a powerful entity occupy his body likely had an extreme aftereffect. But he gave a lot of information and wasn't willing to allow the fey to leave without getting his coin's worth.
"The first piece of the information, for it, you must send us a human notepage on a monster native to the nightshade forest. It must be a regular monster, not a lesser monster or elite, nor can it be a mutated variant."
The fey nodded.
"The second piece of information, you must send me information on fey poten cultivation."
The greencap winced but nodded.
"For the third, you must set up a more permanent faerie circle somewhere nearby."
"Your purpose?" The fey asked.
Kurdan grinned in response before answering, "That'll cost you fey. So, unless you're willing to pay here, I suggest you don't expect me to answer."
The greencap stared for a moment before simply turning and leaving, its final words of, "Your requests will be granted. We will meet again," echoed down the tunnel as the small form retreated.
Skylock Nightshade moved down the tunnel, the mycelium covering his frame trembling slightly at the aftereffects of being possessed by his lady.
Being occupied by a more powerful fey was always an exciting event, and drove most to ecstasy during their possession, but always left them weakened. Skylock knew the only way to undo that weakness was proper rest.
He'd just slept a month ago, and now he'd have to do it again. But he wasn't a very active fey to begin with, so it's not like most of his peers or superiors would notice or care anyway.
He melded the humanoid body into the massive fungus of his true form, letting it settle into the middle of the mushroom before cutting off his perceptions and falling asleep.
Chief Yajri, eldest of the three clan chiefs, was deeply dissatisfied. Asergia had gone to the world vent once more, leaving his clan alone. In his absence, the clan had simply vanished. Some of the buildings remained, but the rest were missing.
Naturally, Yajri didn't get many refugees from the disappearance. The refugees were few to begin with, and most went to Hadruga.
He had long kept his position in the topaz rabbit clan through his tactics and by the continued existence of the emerald and amethyst clans. As they defended two directions from invasion, and the only things in the undefended zone were the Colony and Mlenolops' territory.
Naturally, the appearance of slimes had caused quite some trouble, but the colony had faced the problem mostly by itself. Mlenolops had also sent some of his deep servants to create a threefold alliance against the slimes. They were threatening some of his herb gardens.
Why the ancient dragon didn't just wipe out the devouring mass of gelatin, Yajri would likely never know. But he also cared rather little for the affairs of the dragon, other than it leaving him with fewer responsibilities to defend his clan.
However, with the emerald rabbits gone, the topaz and amethyst clans would suddenly have new portions of territory to defend against possible threats. While most of the region had forged a temporary alliance against the human threat, with the beastkin tribes having come to union only a week ago to formally put their alliance together, that still didn't make them safe from beastkin.
While most beastkin arose from singular, powerful beasts that took on humanoid forms, such as the Lord Rabbit, some didn't. Deer-kin in particular had at least forty known ancestral beasts, several of whom had entered a dormant state in the upper cavern layer.
That also didn't include the kin of Krelli, other natural beasts, monsters that would rarely rise from below, and a rather unexpected new threat.
Goliarch, the broodmother, had apparently laid new eggs rather recently, and reports of her kin were already emerging in the emerald rabbit-kin territory. Some were the advanced kin, greater and even supreme Golchids, but many were the freshly hatched Inferiors.
She had laid them eight months ahead of schedule, as while the year was drawing to a close, she normally laid eggs in the late growing season. When her offspring would be able to thrive on the monster surge.
He was worried. The combined reports of Golichids and the slowly increasing numbers of monsters in the caverns and below indicated the possibility of an early monster surge.