Chapter 124: book 3 chapter 25

Hecatolite hummed happily to herself as she finally watched the tiny bee fly up to its hive. And what a hive it was! 

Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at the enormous hive hanging from a large branch of a tree, though she couldn’t be sure until she got up to it was easily as tall as she was; not including her tail, and just as wide! “There’s got to be so much honey!” She could hardly contain herself as she exploded upwards towards the branch, though she was careful not to hit the hive, she was slightly over eager; missing the branch completely on the way up and barely catching it with her tail on the way down. 

And just like that Hecatolite found herself, hanging from her tail, face to face with thousands of very confused bees… “Huh… why aren’t they attacking me?” She thought as she cautiously poked the hive, her finger sinking into the soft cone unaware of her very “friendly” and “happy” aura that blanketed the area around her.

With a shrug, “If you guys are going to be so cool about it,” she happily pulled her bag from her hip and, with all the grace of a bulldozer, started shoveling huge portions of the hive into it. “ooo even bugs have tiny souls huh.” She said as the hive went into the bag leaving a fist full of bees sitting atop the opening as if suspended by an invisible barrier.

The bee’s decided then that, even with the “friendly don’t attack” aura, the giant ripping their hive apart needed to be dealt with. Hecatolite let out a high pitch yelp as she picked up the pace, being sure to stop after getting roughly half… maybe a bit more, she scooped another two handfuls into her bag. “OK! Fine, you win!” She yelled dropping from the tree, in truth the stings didn’t actually hurt her but Hecatolite had a plan. 

If I take the whole hive, I can't get more honey later. But! If I leave some of it behind then I can come back! She puffed her chest out proudly ignoring the swarm around her. Freed from supporting her weight, her tail went to work swatting the bees away at a blinding speed. “Now,” she looked into her bag, “I got a bunch of flowers, a few berries, I think that’s a grapefruit, and honey!” She couldn’t help but grin happily as she licked her fingers, ignoring that the inside of her bag was now coated in a sticky golden mess. 

Nodding to herself she looked up at the sun only to find it… “oops.” She said out loud realizing the sun was now well into setting. “Well crap. I can’t see in the dark… hummm.” She scrunched her face as she looked around, “I should find somewhere to sleep, hope Amethyst doesn’t get too worried.” She wandered around for a bit, though not finding anything that could work as a shelter she simply walked around until bees stopped attacking her before climbing a tree. 

“This forest is kind of boring.” She muttered, leaning back against the tree trunk. If she was being completely honest the whole elven nation was kind of a bore so far. “No beautiful Elves, and their forest doesn’t have anything to hunt in it.” she sighed, even the forest at home has the bunnies in it, but so far she hasn’t seen anything bigger than a bee… Well there was that strange thing she kept catching glimpses of, but it always stayed really far away, always turning and leaving if she got close; that and she didn't feel any hostility from it. 

“Maybe… am I actually bad at hunting!” She nearly fell from her perch, yelling out her frustrations, “No! I am the best hunter! Tomorrow, I’ll find something to hunt, something really good. Like a deer, or a bear! Yea, then I’ll bring it back to town and slap it down in front of the stuffy face touchy guy, and they will be super impressed and want to talk with us. Yea, that will make Amethyst happy.” She let out a content sound, laying back and holding her hands out…

After a minute of waiting, She looked around… “Oh… I’m alone.” The instant shift in the air around her caused her to shiver. A moment ago her aura was happy and friendly, radiating her joy. It became cold, a deep sadness blanketing the forest causing even the smallest of insects to shrivel as Hecatolite curled her tail around her. For the first time since arriving in this world she was completely alone…

“Hey, Inutil… are you there?” She asked, her voice strangely weak as he pulled her tail to her chest.

Yes, Hecatolite? The robotic voice was barely audible in her mind over the growing whispers, though it did not materialize a terminal given the twin’s express orders not to.

There was a long pause… “Just… checking. You know, I don't want you wandering off…”

Of course, Overseer replied in her mind, its voice strangely seeming to hush the ever present noise in her mind. Good night Hecatolite. It was strange. The noise was still there, the whispers, but somehow they felt… further away. 

Did… did Inutil do something to the sounds? No, that can't be it… “Goodnight. Dumb box.”

Just as she was about to doze off, she felt something. A strange feeling as if someone was looking at her, like the tingling of an identify spell… No, it wasn’t different, it was more like the tingling she got whenever the Queen tried to read her mind.

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That’s not right either… I should find a way to differentiate the tingles. She thought as she tried to identify the strange sensation.  

It was hard to describe the Queen's magic, given that Hecatolite never bothered to block the queen; she had no shame in admitting that Queen Irithyl was… alluring to her. I mean she always wore such… risky clothing, I mean even mom couldn’t resist. Memories of the queens alluring olive skin brought an entirely different “tingling” to her mind. 

Wait no focus, someone is looking at me!

She jumped to her feet, only swaying slightly on the branch she was on, and looking around in the dim forest, the moons out in full bathing the forest in long shadow. “Who's there?” She hissed scanning the area. It was strange, part of her remembered this feeling… 

The memory that came to her was crystal clear, a recent one; sitting in the void… No my egg! Looking through a small terminal into Alexa’s soul space…

She took a deep breath, focusing on the tingling in her mind, the ever present background noise in her mind growing louder as she looked into herself. With a wince she tried to ignore the sound while feeling around for the oddity, the thing that didn’t belong… “There!” 

Suddenly she was in the boat in the cargo hold, laying on the floor looking up at Plague who stood over her, a clipboard in hand and he inspected her face… suddenly Plague's form shifted, replaced by an Elven man with large glasses. “Fascinating, so this is the “sister”, Hecatolite.” He muttered inspecting her, their eyes meeting for a moment causing her soul sight to flare to life. 

This was most definitely not Plague! The soul looked like the ghostly form of the man, the featureless elven face cocking its head as faint wisps of white smoke danced around it. She recalled the queens soul, a ghostly form wreathed in the strange soul flame… but this man's magic was different, it was clearly soul magic but where the queen was a fierce specter, a burning soul flame that flooded into one's mind; the man felt like a lingering smoke that would choke someone… He felt… tired, curious? He didn't feel like he was evil, not that Hecatolite felt she could trust anyone who was just rooting around in her mind. “Why is he so afraid of her?”

“Who the hell…” Her words were cut short as the word shifted around her. Her stomach dropped as she found herself standing on the Hero’s boat, looking into the closet where Plague and Saris had made the baby… Wait… that’s not Plague.

Standing next to the diminutive brown-haired woman… Wait, why does Saris look like that? looking at the woman she looked… pretty, like seriously beautiful. Where normally she was average, cute for sure but here she was actually sparkling. Was… was she always that hot? No, bad Hecatolite! That’s Plague’s wife! And why is this creepy elf in the closet with her!

She turned her eyes back to the elderly elven man, large thick glasses looking back at her. the man quirked an eyebrow as he inspected her. “Well, that is certainly disconcerting.” He said, his voice coming out barely a whisper as the world around them froze, “she doesn’t appear injured, must be someone else’s blood… or maybe several…”

The man's voice was cut off by a surprised yell as she grabbed him by shirt. She tried to grab his throat but… “Who the fuck are you!” She growled pulling him towards her, the man putting up no resistance as she pulled him down to her level. 

“She seems to have a poor memory,” he ignored her as her tail thrashed behind her. “Clearly violent. I wonder if he has seen any of her skills.” The world twisted around her again, distorting before snapping back into place, unchanged. “That's… odd. Is he waking…” the man’s eyes went wide as Hecatolite slammed her hand over his mouth, her claws digging into his cheeks as she glared at him.

“Who. Are. You?” Her voice came out distorted, the ship around them falling away to darkness. Standing in the void, holding the man who let out a muffled scream.

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