Chapter 89: 77: Survivors

Auratic

After granting Alpha her name, Alicia made rounds reacquainting with her, now significantly different familiars and bestowed them with their own personal identity as she went, while Alice decided to go on her own to see the twins. Needless to say as she wasn’t expecting the need to come up with multiple names on the spot, they were not all too original or creative, nevertheless the Araneae in question did not mind at all to much of Alicia’s relief. Almost all of them had adopted humanoid forms, but not before presenting themselves to Alicia's close associates in their true selves. Luckily no serious incidents had risen other than some slight confusion. On account of time, Alicia couldn’t properly greet and inspect their capabilities in detail, especially the newly evolved Araneae species were completely foreign to her. Still, just by memory alone she could identify her old subordinates. Dyson, formerly a Cave creeper, retained much of the distinguishing features of her prior self, namely the characteristic exceptionally long limbs seemed to have translated into her having a tall slender figure.

After making sure everything wasn’t going to burn down in her absence, Alicia used transposition to return to the carriage that was now nearing the edge of the forest. Both Stephanos and Albertini still seemed to be in disbelief that a settlement could exist in the hostile environment of the forest. When they first entered the woods the coachman was concerned since he couldn't readily follow the wolves ahead of them through the verdance, while the merchant was uneasy about the whole ordeal, but after some minutes of quiet travel, they settled down somewhat. This, however, would not last long as the sounds of trouble would start to be heard in the distance, and it was closing in on them fast. Tribalistic horns sounding, effeminate shouts were following the squealing footfalls of an ungulate. The horses driving the carriage started to snort uneasily, their anxiety spread to the coachman who became sensitive to their body language through years of experience.

From the side thicket a great Warhog riddled with arrows and javelins came barreling out, crashing right in front of their path, startling the horses into rearing still. Stephanos struggled to get them back under his control.

Fortunately the beast was in its death throes. Soon a hunting party caught up to the creature but not all was well it seemed. Tall humanoids wearing oversized wooden masks came out of the vegetation with a menacing aura about, followed by a cadre of elven rangers. The passengers soon realized that they were surrounded by this unknown group. Tension took hold of Albertini and the coachman as a disquiet silence hung over the air. But it was broken by Rosalia who pulled over and peeked out the small curtain covering the carriage window.

The coach driver's expression turned to puzzlement when Alicia stepped out as he was expecting orders to escape. His predicament would soon be resolved only in a way that created more questions than it answered. When Alicia revealed herself, everything came down unraveling. Firstly the masked individual all took off their ligneous visages and took to prostration, hushedly chanting in a language foreign to the common tongue of the continent. Alicia, despite being used to the trolls’ show of faith, still couldn’t help but cringe. Meanwhile the rangers arranged themselves in a single line of salutations, not too different from one presented to a military official. And with that Alicia wanted to push her face all the way to the back of her skull in embarrassment. The only saving grace for her was that her back was turned to them, so they couldn’t see her face. Even without looking, she could guess what they could be thinking.

One of the elven rangers immediately answered.

‘It’s better than ‘mistress’ but… Liege…?’

Her question was directed at the trolls in the midst of their ‘show of faith’. They responded by making movements indicating that she had nothing to be concerned about.

The rugged terrain of the forest meant the carriage couldn’t travel at a pace faster than an ambling gait. Keeping up with a slow wagon on foot was not a difficult task for the rangers, who had been trained with a particular focus on endurance that is necessary to outrun and avoid predators of the forest on a nearly daily basis.

They responded with perplexity.

‘Faenas, what the hell are you doing…’

Albertini kept sneaking looks at the rangers who accompanied them the entire journey. He still couldn’t truly accept that anything but monsters survive in the forest ; the place was infamous for a reason, yet, there in front of them were denizens who lived in this harsh land not by just surviving, but by taming this savage place, hunting down its great beasts. He wasn’t mistaken, it is just the fact that some monsters… were figurative rather than literal escaped his mind at the time. As women were quite the ways ahead of them he had thought they wouldn’t hear him if he spoke in a low voice even with their rumorred, excellent hearing, and asked the coachman next to him.

The aged man was unsure where the conversation would turn to; even with his declining sight, he was sure the girls ahead of them were of elven blood so it couldn’t be that a young merchant like himself with an eye for goods would be asking such a strange question with an obvious answer behind their backs. Still, he replied in the same, quiet manner as he did.

Now that he mentioned it, and looking at their features a little more critically, the Elven women walking in front of them did seem different from ones commonly all throughout the continent.

Reserved tapping sound came from behind them. The small wooden port - intended to allow the passenger to speak with the driver without the need to stop and open the carriage door - from whence the sounds came from opened with its wooden cover sliding to the side. Alicia peeking over her shoulders from the other side.

It was as she had said, the rangers ahead of them had put on their hoods - which they greatly disliked wearing - and seemed a little farther than they remembered. A credence to her claim.

First impressions were important for new business ventures… He almost botched it with his wandering gaze. Thankfully, it didn’t seem as though anything bad would come of his actions. But something else remained… a question, how did Alicia, who had no way of seeing how the elves ahead of them from the passenger seat, knew what they felt and were doing… He simply assumed that Alicia was intimately familiar with their unique culture. Not for a moment stopping to consider that she was monitoring them through her unique sense of pallesthesia. On the other hand, the long limbed, crouching beings with tusks garnered his attention even more. He hadn’t seen any humanoid like them before, dozens of questions he had but he didn’t have the heart to ask them. Whatever they might be, what was important to remember was that they held Alica in high regards, as shown from their actions. In good time, he would get his answers, but for now all that was important to him was to find this isolated settlement and remember the path they took to get there.

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For a long time afterwards he would mull over the subtleties of the Elves, adamant in his belief that they were different from the elves out on the wider continent, the explanation eluding him for days. He was not wrong, but not quite in the right either. Elves of Velauhart would be what humans and many other cultures would call a High elf, thought to be extinct, existing only in the dusty records of history. Differing from what they knew as an Elf seen among many settlements. The distinction came from their lineage. The ones they called ‘High elves’ were simply pure-blooded, direct descendants of their ancient ancestors that survived the fall of their high kingdom up until now. What was known as the common ‘elf’ were those who were descendants of “High Elves” taken into captivity. Through generations of close intermingling, first accidentally and abusively, later more reciprocally, it was only a matter of time before a changes to their genome occured. It was closer to truth to call “High elves” simply ‘Elves’ and the “Elves” as ‘Half-Elves’. This error of denomination would not be rectified for centuries to come… and even then… the practice would persist among the public in perpetuity.

Without much of a further incident, the carriage arrived at the hamlet within the furthest depths of Velauhart beneath the shade of a grand tree. Dwellings of disparate types were built around a central two storey estate of foreign architecture. It’s design is a simple one, oriented towards practicality rather than the pompous style more commonly associated with the buildings of similar vein seen frequently in the upper class residences. Afore the building many people had gathered, with a simple fair like displays prepared. From the collection of people a certain group of maidens stood out in particular. Ten of them standing in a line of quiet obeisance, donned in apparel of exotic origins never seen before, each unique to their owners and indicative of their personality. They were distinctive from each other as they could be, as if they each came from a completely different race. Through all his years of dealing with many types of powerful and influential people his nerves had been hardened against show of force and intimidation. None of it compared to the tension and pressure he felt from this group. Each of them, despite their charming looks, gentle deportment and welcoming demeanors, commanded respect better than most noble aristocrats that he had met before. But beneath that he felt some unseen prepotency that they exerted, no doubt borne from their immense capabilities and prowess. One of them even looked like a child no older than nine yet she wielded a matching presence. They were all in an equal standing. For the first time in a long time, cold sweat formed on his nape and trickled down his back, saturating his back collar; all his hairs were standing up in cold shivers, he questioned himself, ‘was it fear that he felt?’

He noticed that the pressure wasn’t directed at him but to each other, to the ones standing besides them, he just happened to be caught up in it. But why…? Why would they direct such malice towards each other, it felt as if they would jump at each other’s throat at any second. Then it dawned on him that he was misunderstanding the situation completely, it wasn’t malice, but competitiveness, an eagerness to prove oneself. To whom, who could unite such mighty beings, of vastly differing races. The answer came to him before he could ask this question himself. When an intriguing woman with exceptional magical talent that he once took into his carriage for fare stepped out, in an eerie unison they bowed. Representing the group, one of them with a terribly sharp sight possessing eyes blacker than the abyssal depths of the sea on a moonless night’s sky, stepped forward and welcomed her.

‘Though you were here just a moment ago… Do we need to make it a habit to greet you twice?’

‘Could you not mentally harass me for ten seconds?’

‘Sure! One… two… three…’

‘Haaaaahh……’

She turned her sights to him. 

Dear guest, we hope you will enjoy the amenities offered and have a pleasant stay.”

It felt as if he was standing upon an edge of a precipice, with the great abyss staring deep into his very being. He knew this feeling well… and knew that only one other person he knew possessed it.

He felt as if any other response would be too inadequate and he didn’t want to find out the outcome of that, but excessive unctuousness might earn something else unsavory. Walking that tightrope was a tricky thing but he would endure… Earning a profit had gone all the way to the back of his mind, the foremost thing in his thoughts were.

‘I have to survive… whatever the cost…’

Auratic

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R16 Warning;

I forgot to add this as a trivia on release so better late than never.

Alicia and all the other Araneae's sense of vibrations through use of pallesthesia is severely weakened while in a humanoid form as they only have two legs, very close to each to sense vibrations as opposed to eight, spread out over a larger surface. And during this, if she focuses Alicia or Alice can hear your heartbeat and the sounds your bones and muscles make.

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