Day 13, Sunset
The Fortress

 

It was sunset when they got back from the Island Elissa dubbed Emerald Island, Elissa saw how much the outside of the fortress had changed. Some Lutrinians opted to live outside of it in crude cabins, it warmed the young woman’s heart to see they were this hard working. The ship anchored at the pier and the crew disembarked, harried by their experiences on Emerald Island.

The young woman walked amongst the Lutrinians. Some coming to touch her and be petted on the head, some simply welcoming her home.

<Chief, you are back!>

<Welcome back Chief!>

<All hail the Chief!>

Elissa giggled at how cute her people were, then she went to her Yurt still a bit tired after claiming her territory, but this was the good kind of tired, it was mental fatigue. She had more magic than she would have even dreamed and didn’t know what to do with it, but Elissa thought that she shouldn’t rely on it too much. Once she left her pocket realm, she would no longer have access to it.

The young woman gave herself another week in her territory before she traveled toward the portal formation that her mother built as the end goal for this training excursion. Elissa arrived in her yurt and discarded her dragonskin boots, breeches and blouse on the floor; she thanked Hekate that those had autoclean and self repair enchantments on them.

Bathing felt liberating, the water was perfectly cold as she liked it. Elissa suddenly missed Dawn, her hands on her and hearing her voice. The young woman had even taken pictures on her smartphone to show her what she was doing, when she got back.

She even took pictures of herself with the Lutrinians or in a bikini walking on water. Another idea she had was to take a picture with River and play twins. Once she finished her bath, Elissa put on her shorts and a LOTR t-shirt that she stole from Dawn and went to sleep.

But sleep didn’t come to her easily, Elissa thought about her recent fights; about what she could have done better. The shield, losing focus on the battlefield, reacting too emotionally to things she perceived as bad but might not have been; Elissa promised to herself to react more calmly to situations and to be more proactive.

With that, the young woman fell asleep.

---

Day 15, Morning

 

Elissa conjured the biggest piece of ice she could, It was one hundred meters in size, practically an iceberg and weighed about forty five metric tons. She was using her mental strength to keep it in the air ten meters from the surface of the lake. It was really heavy and blood dripped down from Elissa’s nose, she let go of the iceberg and let it fall into the lake.

SPLASH. It created a big wave and thanks to River, Elissa’s water elemental, the water didn’t come to flood the lakeshore. River was walking on the water and gave a thumbs up to Elissa who giggled at her. More seriously, Elissa had felt a net increase in her abilities; on Earth she would never have managed to create such a big block of ice nor been able to lift it. However she still felt that this wasn’t her limit, she could do more, she felt it in her bones.

River came back into her body and Elissa went running around the fortress, she could now easily break the sound barrier but there was no way to tell how fast she was really going now and the terrain full of obstacles didn’t let her cut loose like she wanted. She ran till she reached the bank of the river that led her to the lake and wasn’t surprised to find that there were a lot of animals in her realm; wolves, birds, those dumb feathered lizard and slimes, a lot of them.

Elissa took a blue slime from the wet stone and imprisoned it in a reinforced jar, the little monster tried to get free but she took a neutral solution in a vial from her toe ring and poured it on the slime. It wobbled and became a solid pink colored jelly. Adding magic into the mix, Elissa made the slime’s core grow and then she stopped feeding it.

*I’m going to add fruit essence and eat you tonight.* Elissa thought smugly. Then she took the slime core and decided that she would use it to test the Lutrinians affinity for magic.

What she really needed were builders, magic users and warriors; maybe she would find them on the planet, people wanting a safe place and to be free should be numerous on this rock called Svartalfheim. Putting the jar back into her toe ring, Elissa ran back to the fortress avoiding water snakes and man-eating plants that thought she would make a delicious meal.

“First order of business, look for magic users. It’s too bad I don’t know how to read the spiritual meridians of the Lutrinians or I would just do it with mage sight.” She spoke aloud to herself.

“Why, Mistress?”

Elissa jumped back and turned toward the voice, it was Fenirael; she scowled at her while the demoness smiled like the cheshire cat.

“You scared me!” The young woman said, a hand on her chest.

The demoness smiled even more, and nodded. “Oh, then excuse me.” Fenirael didn’t look sorry at all.

Elissa crossed her arms. “One day, I’ll spank you.”

Fenirael became uncommonly excited and said, “Please can you do it now? I’d like that!”

“...”

Elissa turned her back on her handmaiden and chose to ignore her for now and work on what was needed; the young woman went to look for one of the Lutrinian Matriarchs after asking one of the workers where she could find one he pointed her to the mess hall, near the food storage. It was a rectangular building with sparse decorations; it was built to mainly host feasts and important village meetings; Elissa made the suggestion to build it, inspired by some viking movies she had seen long ago.

Inside there were tables and cut tree trunk chairs and farther in the hall was a permafrost throne of ice looking like an exact replica of the one in Game of Swords that Daenerys Logaryen sat on in the final season of the TV show with her husband Jon Winter. Elissa loved that show and watched it in secret, hiding from her mother who didn’t like all the rampant pornography in it.

*I hope she never sees that throne.* Elissa thought embarrassed.

<Ah Chief, you are here? Are you hungry?> A voice interrupted Elissa’s train of thought.

It was the first Matriarch, the oldest and the one who acted like everyone’s grandma, even to her; she was really cute with that white tuft of hair on her head completely different from the brown fur covering her body.

<Matriarch I was looking for one of you.> Elissa smiled to her.

<What for? Is it to build another house?>

<Not at all, can you hold onto that for me?> Elissa took the slime core from her ring and showed it to the matriarch.

The Lutrinian female took it in her paws and it glowed white; startled the Matriarch let it fall on the ground and stepped back. She looked at Elissa who looked at her expectantly, taking her courage in her paws she picked the crystal ball up from the floor and it began to glow anew. It wasn’t dangerous but to Elissa it was clear that the Lutrinian female was gifted in healing magic! This was a really momentous discovery.

<What does this mean?> The Matriarch tilted her head cutely.

Elissa didn’t even resist and knelt before the Matriarch and petted her head affectionately. Enthusiastic she began to say, <You can learn magic! Do things like me.>

The Matriarch didn’t sound excited by that at all. <Oh?>

<You’ll be able to heal your people, wounds and illnesses. Isn’t that cool?> Elissa delicately patted the Matriarch behind her back.

Sometimes the Matriarch didn’t understand much of what their chief was saying, what does magic have to do with being cool? Was she speaking esoterically? She shook her head and chose to answer like they always did since they got to know her, <If you say so, but it does sound interesting.>

This seemed to please Elissa who nodded to her with a big smile and she ordered her to fetch any female that wasn’t too busy and to bring them here. Elissa recalled Fenirael and Reinatiel from their duty via their familiar’s link, she thought that everything will go smoothly like usual.

*Lutrinians are able to use magic, now it’s just a matter on unsealing their core.*

The demonesses were the first to arrive, Elissa sat on her throne and looked primly at them and they both rolled their eyes at her and placed themselves at her sides. The otters began to file in the hall and came to kneel before her, she had given up trying to make them stop this behavior. They were all female and most of them younger than the Matriarchs, the fashion of their clothes had evolved as they tried to emulate Elissa’s. Short tops with skirts were the new norm for them now instead of the long tunic, weirdly the male Lutrinian seemed to appreciate this new trend.

<Everyone who could come is now here, Chief.> The old Matriarch said slightly bowing.

<Good! Now queue up before me and you’ll hold onto the slime core.>

They obeyed and in the time she spent testing them, Elissa saw that most of them had the potential to become a witch and that the matriarchs the potential to become mages; their elemental affinities ranged from water, wind, fire and healing though so far none of them had one for earth.

“I am impressed, so many of them can become magic users.” Elissa was already dreaming of having a gaggle of magic users with extreme cuteness, she couldn’t wait to show them to Dawn!

Elissa was aware that she treated the Lutrinians like pets, but she couldn’t stop herself from doing so.

“Me too, Mistress. Do you plan to teach them?” Reinatiel asked with a pleased expressions and her hands joined as she was ready to clap.

The young woman was pleased. “Some, but I am counting on you too, Reinatiel.”

Reinatiel was older than Elissa by thirty years and she knew a lot about magic, well demonic and phantasian spell coding; Elissa had even learned from Fenirael that her sister was a budding priestess of Hekate. Hekate’s Priestesses could see into the future and use the holy magic derived from their goddess, however her training was cut short when they were captured by the Demon Fist Army. Elissa didn’t know what this army was yet, as her handmaidens are trying to keep the secret of her origins from her on Malicia’s order.

But they felt that they should tell her, they were loyal to their new mistress.

“Hum… Mistress?” Reinatiel said hesitatingly.

Elissa turned her big green eyes toward her demoness who looked really strange at the moment.

“Yes?” The young woman asked, she uncrossed her legs and stared expectantly at Reinatiel.

The demoness chose to point out the problem to spare her mistress’ feelings. “How can I do that when I cannot even understand them talking?”

Elissa opened her mouth to speak, then realized that she was the only one understanding the cute otters; she stayed like that with her mouth open for two second before reacting. “Oh.”

She facepalmed and said, “Hekate, I am an idiot.”

Fenirael bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing, a fight that she lost as her laughter escaped and rang loudly in the hall, startling the females Lutrinian. Her sister gave in too, and Elissa pouted and looked down at her feet. She stood up from the throne and let out a bit of cold aura, everyone back off knowing that she could get into such moods unpredictably.

Elissa walked out of the Hall and went to the only place she could find answers to her problems, she didn’t know about general utility spells as much as she could; something she made a note to change later. She walked to the glowing blue teleportation circle encased in stone and willed herself into the Majestic Temple. The cavern was as awesome and beautiful as in her memories; blue light from the water and the water aligned mana crystals lit the place and gave it an ethereal atmosphere.

The statue of Hekate holding her torch was glowing with the ambient mana that it absorbed, water spirits flew around it profiteering from the mana accumulation.

“My Goddess, I beseech you for your help.” Elissa said softly as she walked toward the statue.

The figure of the goddess shimmered and suddenly in a blinding light the sculpture took life and moved, the flames of the torch she was bearing burned white and hot with power. Bits of ice fell off the statue, Elissa stood transfixed by this scene and it made the statue giggle.

“I see that me appearing this way is disturbing you, κόρη.” The statue stayed in place but crouched to look more closely at Elissa who trembled under the attention.

“My Goddess.” Elissa kneeled.

Hekate scowled and picked up the young woman and made her stand up. “None of that, Elissa. Raise your head and speak to me like you would your mother.”

The goddess was already throwing hints to test how much Elissa knew about her parentage, she looked into the young woman’s emerald eyes but didn’t see any trace of recognition or realization. Hekate mentally scolded Malicia about keeping her champion in the dark.

“Yes, as you wish.” Elissa looked into the eyes of the statue that turned momentarily into the avatar of her patron goddess, her eyes were black without irises and full of forming, existing and dying stars. The young woman was looking into the cosmos.

“I was watching you earlier, and I know what you want.” Hekate said as she blinked her eyes.

Elissa snapped out of her stupor. “Ah? Well, it’s like this My Godd-” Hekate frowned and raised an icy eyebrow at the young woman. “I mean Mother, I would like to put a translation spell on the realm so that everyone will be able to speak the same language.”

A quirky smirk appeared on the Goddess’ face. “The knowledge that you seek will cost you, are you ready to pay?”

Elissa froze, her mother was a demon and she had beaten into her that you never agreed to any deal before you knew the conditions, agreements or the results of the transactions. “It depends on the price, Mother.” Elissa said with tact.

Hekate’s smirk split her face and as she laughed she put a finger on Elissa’s right shoulder wanting to pat her as if to reward a particularly clever child, “Such a smart child, you don’t accept too readily. Good, I will only require that you seek some metal for me. I really need it.”

“What type of metal?” Elissa asked, even though her Goddess praised her she didn’t let her guard down for a moment. She crossed her arms and looked warily at her patron who continued to smile at her as if she knew what she thought.

“Oh something trifling, like a metal of at least a legend grade? Etherium or Ebolyte should suffice.” Hekate said after dropping this bomb.

The young woman opened her mouth in shock, her eyes wide. “What? But…”

Hekate’s twinkle like laugh resonated in the cavern. “Don’t worry child I know where you can find it. I just wanted to see your shocked face, it’s really entertaining.”

Elissa glared at Hekate, having even forgot that she was her patron goddess. “But however I can only give you vague hints.”

“That’s not fair!” Elissa shouted coming eye to eye with the Goddess.

Hekate laughed at the defiant attitude of her κόρη. “Life is unfair, κόρη never forget that.” She tried to impart a bit of wisdom to her.

“Very well, I will do your quest.” Elissa agreed, she was getting too cozy in the pocket realm anyway. She needed adventure and adversity to develop her powers.

Hekate perked up at that. “Oh, I like that. Yes this is a quest! Find me a legend grade metal with S or superior grade mana conductivity and I shall bless your realm with the gift of tongues.”

Deities loved to give quests to their champions, that was a stereotype that had held true for eons. Perseus and Heracles were prime examples. Now, Hekate had her own great granddaughter as her champions but she was loathe to give her an impossible task; there was a chance that she will gain even more in power if she goes on this trip.

“I shall leave on the morrow, Mother.” The young woman nodded.

Hekate stood up from her crouch and said solemnly, “Go North, help those in need and they will lead you to the metal.”

“That’s cryptic…” Elissa said while lowering her eyes, she pondered about those really vague directions. When she lifted her gaze the statue was just that again, a statue.

*She disappeared just like that.* Elissa whined.

Elissa heard laughter in the background and realized that Hekate was still here, but then she felt the godly presence vanish. Shoulders drooped and mood low Elissa went to the teleportation circle and found herself back in the village. Fenirael and Reinatiel were waiting for her, as if they had a premonition, each of them had their weapons of choice in hand.

“Bad news, mistress?” Fenirael asked, contrarily to normal she didn’t have a giant sword in her hand but a black and red mace with lots of spikes.

Elissa laughed with derision. “Yes you could say that.”

“Can we know what’s going to happen?” Reinatiel said impatiently as she tightened her grip on her staff.

Elissa stared at her two handmaidens and opened her mouth to say, with added gravitas, “We are going on a quest for the Goddess.”

“Hekate wills it.” Reinatiel said, she knelt on the stone ground and crossed her hand on her chest forming an ‘X’ and bowed her head.

---

Day 16, early morning

 

They didn’t leave without saying anything to the Lutrinians, Elissa had assembled the entire village in the hall and explained why she was leaving. It was for the good of the community, she needed to put up a spell her goddess would give her in exchange for doing a quest for her; the Matriarchs had a lot of questions about Hekate and Elissa had to show them the Majestic Temple. One look at the statue and the female otters looked from it to Elissa and then had looked at each other with some kind of knowing smile.

Now it was time to leave for a while.

Fenirael was in her black armor and had stashed her giant sword in their familiar dimension in favor of her shield and mace that were Phantasian made magitek artifacts. The demoness explained her shield’s functions to Elissa, it had a magical reactive shield that covered the wielder and her party in a 360° mana/kinetic double layered shield that could stop a railgun artillery shell from the military on Earth. After seeing it in action, Elissa understood the concept and tried to mimic the layered enchantment on her own shield; she succeeded but it was highly demanding in energy and concentration, it wasn’t something she could use unless she gave up on attacking. She decided to leave the defending to Fenirael, she seemed to be good at it.

Reinatiel was in her usual white mage robe with her snake staff, but was wearing more jewelry than usual. The demoness mage explained to Elissa that today she was going full support for them, and will cast physical and mental buffs that were common to Hekate’s priestesses.

The trio left the Yurt and Elissa shrunk it to put it in her spatial toe ring, the capacity of the space inside was the size of three football stadium; so the young woman wasn’t shy about storing anything. Some of the Lutrinians were waiting for them and accompanied them to the pier, but Elissa didn’t want to sail, so she would just teleport them to a part of the land on the northern coast of the lake. Fortunately there was an entrance she had created to give access to a mountain pass, from the little scrying she did, Elissa found out that there was a tribe of lesser goblins nesting there.

She was sure that the creation of the pocket realm had displaced them but she was already preparing herself for a drawn out fight of extermination. Lesser goblins were completely different from their smart and intelligent superior brethren who mastered engineering and magic, they were mostly tribalistic and inimical to other humanoids unless they were controlled by a superior power. Elissa didn’t have the time to care for those, she chose to eliminate their predation.

The trio now had a good following, all the villagers had followed them onto the pier and they turned to them; Elissa’s eyes were on the Matriarchs.

“I will be back, continue to build the village in my absence; oh and be careful to not overfish the lake.”

<It shall be done, Chief.> The older Matriarch acknowledged.

“Good.” Elissa grabbed onto the power the realm gave like a cloak and weaved an overpowered Dimension Door spell that teleported her and the handmaidens two thousand kilometers away from the fortress to the mountain pass she had scryed.

To the villagers, their Chief and her followers disappeared in a flash of light; so as one they knelt on the ground and began to pray to Hekate, Mother of their Chief to protect her. She had saved them from slavery, fed them and given them land to build a village safe from their enemies; most of all shown them that they could be loved. They wanted her back with them, so they prayed for her safe return.

Elissa wasn’t surprised to see the abandoned fortifications before her, the mountain pass was a natural fortress already but the white wooden walls and the clear sign of abandon from beings who left their weapons and things on the ground to flee showed that the creation of the realm and the Mirage Arcane did their job and booted them out.

The sky rumbled as Elissa prepared a spell, a black cloud formed over the fortifications and Elissa casted Call Lightning and a wind wall around them to keep the temperature and projectiles from reaching them. It took her ten minutes, but the fort was henceforth in ruins and burning. When everything was in cinders she opened a portal to the outside world and let Fenirael go first, then she followed with Reinatiel bringing up the rear.

Once through the spectacle they had the unfortunate pleasure to gaze upon made the trio regret even taking a step out of the pocket realm. An army of lesser goblins were fighting with a seemingly invisible enemy, after adjusting her mage sight, Elissa realized that they were fighting with the defense mechanism of the Mirage Arcane that attacked their mind and turned them against each other.

“That’s a really nifty spell, mistress. I hope you’ll teach it to me.” Reinatiel praised Elissa.

“You just have to ask, Rei. I will tell you how it works don’t worry.” She laughed.

She shouldn’t have as it broke the spell on some of the goblins who turned toward her, Elissa put a hand on her mouth to stay silent but it was already too late. Fenirael caught two lesser goblins who tried to sneak behind them and bashed them with her shield, they ended up flying into the midst of their brethren with their bodies crushed.

Meanwhile, Elissa cast a wind spell called Mark of Air that create a shield of air that deflected projectiles, just like as this moment when the lesser goblins shot spears and arrows at her. Some of them were still under the influence of the illusion and continued to attack their brethren, but Elissa had enough already and cast Gust of Wind; the small creatures were knocked prone by the force of the wind, or were blown away from her, giving the young woman the time to cast a Lightning Sphere that killed them all.

“Phew, that was so sudden.” Elissa said, but to be sure she froze everything before her at max intensity.

The trio's advanced on the mountain path was fraught with tunnels leading inside caves full of displaced goblins that they had to eliminate as they attacked them on sight. Elissa didn’t stop to discuss with them as they either yelled about capturing them for breeding or to kill, they didn’t stand a chance; Fenirael and Elissa were covered in the green blood of their foes, Gram was elated as she became truly blooded today.

Elissa cast a spell to detect life that Reinatiel taught her, she modified it to find enemies around her. Thanks to it they could find ambushers or cowards who tried to run away. Reinatiel helped her mistress to recover her mana with potions from her belt.

It was afternoon when the mountain pass was full of lesser goblin corpses and body parts. Elissa ordered Reinatiel to cleanse the mountain by saying, “Could you keep my backyard clean, please?”

“It shall be done, mistress.” And as she said that, she connected to a minor air node and conjured a black ball of fire and coded a spell with duration and spread in mind.

This day was a disaster for the mountain goblin tribe, first they were evicted from their ancestral home and a great curse was cast on them when they tried to retrieve it. Brother fought brother, sisters killed their children and the elves found them at their weakest and obliterated them. An old lesser goblin was lamenting the loss of his people and trying to save those that escaped the massacre by leading them out of the mountain pass.

He turned to look for one last time at their previous home when he saw black fire cover everything, he stared on, transfixed as he saw the unnatural event. The mountain was picked clean when the fire stopped, it was only grey rocks now. No vegetation survived and the old lesser goblin was sure that the corpses of his people would never be found. Today they had discovered a great evil and they will have to leave everything they knew to escape it.

As for Elissa and her handmaiden they discovered a trail leading out of the mountain, to a forest that was full of poisonous flora. It was as if the forest was alive and knew they were intruders, man-eating plants tried to capture them at every chance and beasts tried to hunt them as they travelled through this cursed forest. Using her cryokinetic power, Elissa killed the offending plants cutting her way through. She didn’t like this forest at all, it felt foul and evil to her, so she had no scruples in making winter come early.

Reinatiel did the same and let her fire burned everything clean, she hadn't forgotten Elissa’s order about cleaning her backyard. Unconsciously they were creating a road through this dangerous forest. The black fire was eating the nutrients in the ground so nothing would ever grow there, cutting the cursed forest in two.

To Fenirael this world was dangerous, more so than Phantasia that had a similar biosphere; however the poisonous miasma in this forest, and all the animals and beast wanting to kill them played on her nerves. If her sister and her didn’t have Elissa they wouldn’t be able to pass at all. The creatures obviously left them alone after this and they passed unchallenged. Meanwhile Elissa harvested poisonous plants that she recognized for her alchemy before Reinatiel burnt them.

Night fell when they got out having burned their way to a great plain that gave way to some kind of woods, there were ruins of dwarfish make here and there.

“It seems that we arrived at what was once a great city, Mistress.” Reinatiel said as she gazed at the faded marble towers covered with moss and vines, clearly reclaimed by the woods on the cusp of becoming another great forest.

“Yes, nature is retaking its rights.” Elissa nodded, she could almost imagine the ancient city in all its glory. It was big from the ruins and markers she was seeing on the ground covered by weeds.

“We should make camp there, we travelled for one hundred fifty kilometers.”

<Help!> The little cry picked up by her sharp senses made Elissa freeze.

It sounded like an inhuman voice, scratchy with thirst and pain.

“Wait? Are you hearing this?” Elissa asked her two demonesses.

Fenirael and Reinatiel looked at each other and answered in unison, “Huh, no?”

“Someone is calling for help!” Elissa became agitated, looking everywhere around her.

Go North, help those in need and they will lead you to the metal.

Elissa remembered Hekate’s cryptic directions and conjured a ball of light to search for the creatures asking for help. The demonesses casted the same cantrip and searched with her. One hundred meters away, near the entrance of a ruin, Elissa found the prone form of a really familiar creature. It was black as night with electric purple highlights on its wing. It was a dragon.

Fenirael stepped behind Elissa. “Mistress, what is it?”

“Did you find anything?” Her sister followed her and she stopped to look at what Elissa found.

“Yes, I found a pseudodragon.”

A pseudodragon was a small dragon-kin known to be playful but shy. Pseudodragons were not true dragons, but were highly valued for their use as mage or sorcerer’s familiars. “I need to save it!” Elissa said and she knelt in front of it and used her healing vision to look at what ailed it.

It was female, had a torn wing, shattered bones as if someone had bludgeoned it. Absorbing the surroundings cosmic energy Elissa went to work and began to systematically heal the dragon. She began with reconstructing the bones by liquefying them and moulding them into their normal shapes. Thanks to the DNA of the creature Elissa was seeing how to rebuild it. It took an hour and while Elissa was healing, The demonesses made camp.

Finally done, Elissa was fascinated by the creature, its physiology was more complex than any other being she had healed previously. From what she had read in the Sanctum Library; Pseudodragons typically had bodies about one foot long, with a two-foot tail and weighed about seven pounds. They could communicate telepathically in common elvish or draconic and also through the vocalization of animal noises. While pseudodragons could bite, their main weapon was a stinging, poisonous tail, and they had chameleon-like abilities, though their color was usually a brownish red.

This one however was different, from having taken care of its healing, Elissa knew that it could spew lightning, enough to take out some critters like mice or racoons. Elissa took a bowl out of her spatial ring and conjured a ball of water that landed in it and put the bowl next to the creature. She also took a big helping of Calamari meat from the Kraken she had killed previously and placed it on a thin sheet of ice. There was a lot of that meat left and Elissa was sick of it already.

She stayed awake for most of the night eating and sitting on the stony ground near the pseudodragon and reading a magic tome until she saw the little creature move and wake up. It found the water and food before it and in a rush lunged to the bowl and plunged it’s head in to lap at the water. The meat was devoured really fast and Elissa laughed at that. The female dragon stopped moving when it saw Elissa before its eyes.

“Hello, pretty one.” Elissa cooed.

<Elf!> The little creature shouted, in draconian. It was ready to attack her suddenly. The smell of ozone was prevalent around it.

Changing language, Elissa spoke like a dragon would. <Hum, yes. I saved you. You were hurt pretty bad.>

The little dragon stopped moving and tilted its head. <You saved me?>

Elissa nodded. <How could I not, you asked for help and I healed you.> She wanted to pet its head but didn’t dare yet.

The little dragon remembered how everything had hurt previously when she was attacked by those Dark Elves in the ruins. Then it suddenly remembered that her mate was attacked too!

With urgency the little female said, <Please, please help me; my mate was hurt really bad!> it went to Elissa’s lap and tried to drag her into the ruin.

Immovable Elissa didn’t permit herself to go even though the pleading of the cute little dragon was getting to her. <Where is he?> She asked, she was ready to help it but not without compensation.

<Please, please follow me.> It insisted, trying to drag her by her black cloak.

Elissa found it hard to do but she picked up the little pseudodragon and raised its head to her eyes and said with a neutral face, <I will, but little dragon we must discuss something first.>

<What is it? Please we must help Aghri!> It cried.

Elissa continued, <The payment, I saved your life. Nothing is free, what are you willing to give for me saving your mate?>

Freezing, the little dragon stared into Elissa’s eyes and knew that she was serious. It realized that indeed, Elissa was still an elf and they weren’t known for their charitable heart; even though she wasn’t like one of those dark elves who were cruel and mean.

<What would you want, I have nothing.> It was just a pseudodragon that nested in Dwarven ruins with her mate, they were trying to have little ones to have their own little tribe.

Elissa laughed. <Of course you do, there’s yourself and your mate. Become my familiars, you’ll be well treated and never have to hunt for food the rest of your life.> She kissed the little dragon on the head.

The pseudodragon began to think, it didn’t detect any evil intent from this elf; she smelled of power, winter and storm and what's more she seemed to like her. Maybe becoming the familiar of such a person wouldn't be bad? It knew what being a familiar entailed; A familiar was a normal creature that had been summoned to service by a sorcerer or mage, after which it became a magical beast and gained new powers. They are magically linked to their masters, in some sense, practically existing as one being. All familiars have special abilities along with granting special abilities to its master.

<You swear it on the dragon god?> Its decision was already made but she sought assurances that it wouldn't be a bad one.

Elissa nodded. <I so swear on my magic.> And as she swore thunder rang in the sky.

<If you save my mate we will join you, I promise that we will become your familiars.> The little female dragon made the decision for her mate if he was still alive.

<Great, I think that us meeting today was fate.> Hekate ordained it, Elissa closed her eyes and thanked her Goddess in her heart.

Elissa stood up and her handmaidens noticed her being mobile again and came to meet her; then she began to explain what she was going to do right now. Fenirael equipped her shield and mace and prepared herself for a ruin dive, Reinatiel sighed heavily and said she will stay to guard the camp, deploying a keep away spell around it.

Elissa unsheathed Gram, the blade sang as it cut through the air; the sword spirit was plump with stolen life as she discovered that she could store magic by devouring the lifeforce of her wielder’s foes. But tonight Elissa told her that their mission was a medical one, as she didn’t expect to kill anyone yet.

<Yet.> Gram said, laughing.

Elissa rolled her eyes and followed the female pseudodragon, the ring of stealth on her finger gave her night vision and Gram was shining like a beacon in the darkness of the ruin, enough to give everyone light for their senses to adjust. Fenirael followed her mistress and put herself on guard, ready to protect her at any moment.

Dwarven ruins like this one were fraught with dangers, hidden traps and a labyrinthic layout. They had to think in three dimensions when inside as up was often where the danger came from, but they couldn’t neglect the ground or their sides. The female dragon brought the duo to a chamber where they found a white dragon with blue highlights on its wings, it was still breathing.

<Aghri! I am here with help!> The female dragon cried.

Raising its head, the white dragon feebly said, <Rilo… I.. told you to run.>

Rilo, the black pseudodragon answered with, <Look at you! You are worse than I was! She-elf, please help him.>

<I will; now give me space and my name is Elissa remember it.> Elissa informed Rilo.

Yes, he was in a worse state than Rilo was. Part of his body was smashed in and he could die at any moment, it was a testament to Draconic physiology that Aghri was still alive. Elissa spent half the night healing everything and she was tired, even though the second time around healing a dragon was easier. Aghri was back to full health. With some Calamari meat and pure water he felt full. Rilo took him aside and explained everything to her, he looked at the She-Elf, Elissa and thought that indeed she was a good person.

They performed the Familiar bond by mixing their blood and linking their mana; Elissa felt herself changing, she didn’t know what changed but thought it was her gaining some new abilities. The same happened to the two dragons who felt themselves getting stronger, really strong as if their might couldn’t be contained in their tiny bodies.

<I feel different!> Rilo felt power coursing through her.

Her, such a different concept and before she thought she was an ‘it’ she didn’t just become strong but she felt she had become smarter!

<Me too.> Aghri said laconically.

“Mistress, I can hear them.” Fenirael looked at the two tiny dragons and marvelled at the change.

“I always could, come here my pretties. We will go to camp so we can go sleep.”

<Yes, Elissa.> They said in unison.

Elissa and her entourage exited the ruins and found Reinatiel half asleep by the fire that she tended; taking out the Yurt, Elissa went inside and slept on her bed surrounded by her demonesses and her two new familiars who slept on cushions near the bed, it was the first time that they knew such luxury.

---

Day 17, Midday

 

Rilo woke up first, as she opened her eyes she looked around her and didn't recognize anything for a moment then she remembered what had happened the previous day. Her mate and her were attacked by dark elves in their nest and Aghri told her to flee while he battled them; but one of the warrior dark elves followed her and fought with her and hit her repeatedly with a round pointy weapon. Later she was saved by another elf who had also saved her mate who was still alive when they found him and so they became her familiars.

The female pseudodragon looked behind her, her new mistress was between her two other familiars who slept naked and entwined with her. She stretched, opening her wings wide and decided to wake up her kind and beautiful new mistress. Rilo climbed onto the bed taking care not to wake up the other two familiars and gently climbed Elissa until she reached her and sat on her stomach.

Rilo waited for a moment to see if Elissa would wake up but she was still snoring delicately not at all bothered by her weight. Not giving up Rilo proceeded to lick Elissa’s face and thought that she finally woke her up but her hopes were dashed when her the young woman’s arm went around her and hugged the little dragon to herself.

“Dawn, you can’t do thishhh.” Elissa spoke in her sleep and crushed the little dragon against her.

Now Rilo knew how strong her new mistress was, and she struggled to get out of her embrace but she noticed the more she struggled the stronger the vice like hug got, so she stopped moving. Rilo licked her mistress’ face even more with her snake like tongue and titillated her nostrils.

“Achoo.” Elissa woke up while sneezing, seeing the cute face of Rilo.

<Waaake up and unhand me Elissa.> There was a pleading note in her mind voice.

Elissa realized how she squeezed the little dragon. “Ah, oops.”

<You are really strong for an elf.> Rilo stared at her from head to toes.

Elissa didn’t want to dissuade her about her race, if her mother changed it then she must have a reason. She kissed and hugged her pseudodragon delicately and scratched her scales with her hard diamond like nails, causing Rilo to shake in pleasure.

<Yes continue, this part has been itching for a long time.>

“I am sorry to hear this, here let me continue.” Elissa spent thirty minutes taking care of her new friend who was left boneless under her mistress’ ministrations.

For once Elissa wasn’t woken up by her demonesses and get out of bed to proceed with her ablutions and start making lunch. She had had enough of calamari and soup so she dug deep in her spatial ring and found ground beef that she sliced up, an already made giant portion of potato gratin and some grape juice. Aghri woke up to the smell of food and then it was the turn of the demonic sisters.

“For once I’m going to wait on you girls.” Elissa said while she did the dishes.

Fenirael and Reinatiel accepted this with anticipation, Elissa didn’t consider them slaves; it had been a Snow Family trait that was really liked on Phantasia. Empress Daphne had made things better for Half demons and demons in her empire, allowing them to own property and considering them citizens. It had created a schism with the fallen tribes of demons on the planet. That is why the Fallen demons consider the other factions the Rudras and Liliums to be traitors of the worst sort. Not taking them seriously was what caused Phantasia to be plunged into a war.

After eating and taking a nap with her familiars, Elissa began to ask them if they knew about any strong magical treasures in the ruin.

<Oh, Yes! We had one, it was really black and hard and protected our nest from monsters.>

“It sounds like Ebolyte.” Elissa said, Rilo looked jealous as she watched her mate being groomed.

<The bad elves stole it, though.> Aghri said while being scratched by his new mistress.

Elissa stopped scratching the dragon and lifted him to her eyes and looked at him. “Where are they? The Ebolyte is mine and I shall kill them for what they did to you.” The young woman growled as she said this, weirdly it sounded draconic when she emitted the sound.

<Revenge?> Rilo asked, anger filled her mind and the empathy link of her familiar bond.

Elissa nodded, her teeth were showing. “Yes we will kill them or better I will let you eat them?”

<Yay, let’s!> Rilo shouted and was already on the ground.

Elissa went into the Yurt and changed into her adventuring outfit, the demonesses did the same and were ready to travel into the ruins as it was there that the dark elves went through. Gram was strapped in her sword belt and her adamantite shield was on her offhand. Reinatiel was in her white catsuit outfit with her staff and Fenirael went for a different armor that was completely red with her mace and shield. The young woman stored her Yurt and they entered the ruins.

As they went deeper, Elissa noticed that a lot of the traps were still active and would be very deadly for any normal human or elf. She stepped on a switch that activated a trap that sent a volley of arrows at them but she and Fenirael protected their ground by aligning their shield. Once this inconsequential danger was averted they continued advancing through the tunnels where Elissa activated another trap and this time it was a giant round boulder that came rolling their way.

Sighing, Elissa cocked her arm and punched it with all her strength: the boulder shattered to dust and bits of rock. The young woman dusted herself off and continued to advance, finally the party arrived in a cavern with multiple tunnels where a giant automaton stood in the middle of the room. To Elissa it seemed that it was made of brass and steel and looked vaguely like a mannequin but with armor, a spear and a shield. Elissa could feel that there was a mana reactor inside and that it was still active.

She had seen how they worked briefly in a book from the Sanctum. Elissa liked what she saw and decided to take it, but as she advanced the machine took life and put itself in a combat stance. The noise of cogs turning could be heard.

“Fenirael you are the tank, I will try to overcharge the mana reactor, Reinatiel support please.” Fenirael beat her mace on her shield and lunged at the automaton who attacked her and tried to stab her with its spear, Reinatiel buffed her sister with a large boost in strength, stamina and reflexes.

<And us?> The pseudodragons didn’t feel right as they were being protected.

Elissa thought about it, but maybe it was time to bloody her new companions, she gave them the same advice she had given Chun-Li when she wanted to help her mama.

“Rilo become big, and try to help.” Elissa said helpfully.

<What?> The female pseudodragon was lost in translation.

“Become big.” Elissa insisted. “Will yourself to be big like a True Dragon!”

The little pseudodragon listened and willed herself to become big and in a sparkle of light, Rilo became wyvern sized or in more mundane terms the size of a semi truck. Elissa didn’t have the time to stand fascinated and unsheathed Gram, activating her enchantments to cut anything; As she lunged Elissa cut the Automaton’s spear in two but was kicked away by it. Rilo was angered by the act, charged the machine, bit its left leg and made it fall.

Fenirael jumped to the head of the machine and smashed it’s face with her mace, basically decapitating it, but it still continued to move. Elissa stood from the wall she smashed into and lunged yet again at the automaton, Gram’s blade glowing blue and going straight to the heart of the machine where the reactor could be found. Gram sank in the chest of the machine that suddenly began to thrash around, there was the noise of cogs getting unaligned and suddenly it died.

“NO ONE KICKS ME!!” Elissa shouted and kicked in the automaton’s chest armor.

She was angry, it was the second time that a giant foe made her bounce like a baseball on the wall, first the Kraken and now this machine. Elissa made sure that it was truly dead by excavating the mana reactor and storing it inside her toe ring, but she stored the machine in the silver spatial ring her mother had given her to avoid it waking up in her ring. *You never know.*

Elissa made Gram twirl in her hand and sheathed her, she then went to Rilo and patted her head as the dragon became little again and held her in her arms. Aghri became jealous and wanted to be patted too; Elissa summoned her shield to her arm and turned to the numerous tunnels and asked the white pseudodragon to chose the way.

Aghri smelled the air and chose the third cavern to the right, he detected the fresh scent of the dark elves barely one day old.

The hunt was on. <This way.>

Elissa went to pat and scratch him as a reward. Fenirael was satisfied with her performance, she had been able to defend against that powerful machine; however something told her that the wear and tear had made it significantly slower.

“Mistress, we should be more careful, I can sense an aura of death coming from this tunnel entrance.” Reinatiel warned her.

“Necromantic?” Elissa asked.

“Yes, really ancient.” The demoness answered, her hands tightened on her staff.

Elissa’s aura flared and she knelt on the ground and asked in prayer for her goddess to protect them, the young woman took her sword out and used the spell to detect undead, Gram’s blade became black showing that indeed there were undead in that part of the dwarven ruins.

“I will bless your weapons with a spell similar to Turn undead, on contact with the undead, they'll dissipate their energies making them much more efficient against those kinds of creatures.”

Reinatiel proceeded to temporarily bless Gram, Elissa’s Shield and her golden dagger, Fenirael’s mace and shield were done too. The demoness took a silver dagger from her belt and did the same, it shone in the light. “Let’s go.”

They moved in single file through the tunnel, Aghri going before them followed by Fenirael, Rilo and Elissa with Reinatiel at the rear, the jewel of her staff illuminating the place, acting like a torch. The white dragon stopped and everyone did so, he deployed his wings and hissed; Reinatiel’s light flared and extended, there were dwarven bodies standing upright and completely decayed but still they turned toward the party.

Aghri used his breath and spew a laser at them bisecting them at the waist, but they were still coming as they continued to advance with their arms. Elissa had enough of this horror and used her freeze ray spell to slow them down. Fenirael lunged toward them and crushed their skulls with her mace. The party continued to advance, the tunnel was full of animated dead and they used the same methodology as the first time, Aghri would cut them in two, Elissa would freeze them and Fenirael would disable them permanently.

They entered another full room full of sarcophagus, some were opened, others were not. Elissa and Reinatiel saw the Lich necromancer in the middle of the room raising more dead body. They reacted at the same time, Elissa conjure a lightning spell while Reinatiel cast disrupt undead, a ray of energy shot from the crystal of her staff and struck him. It was a spell that sapped undead of their negative energy and destroyed them. The Lich resisted its effect but was clearly weakened as it body became transparent, it didn’t withstand Elissa’s heavenly lightning and was completely obliterated.

Rilo used her breath on the corpse the Lich was raising and smote it, just to be sure.

“I almost forgot the double tap rule, thanks Rilo.” Elissa laughed.

<You’re welcome.>

Elissa found nothing but books on Elven High Magic as her loot, but she didn’t give up on those and put them in her ring; though she burned the necromancy tomes she found with her golden dagger.

Elven High Magic (or Arselu'Tel'Quess in elven or the Great Art of the People) was a term used to describe one of the most powerful forms of magic practiced on Alfheim and Svartalfheim. Casters of this magic were called Selu'taar, also known as the "Art's Disciples" or simply as "High Mages". High Magic spells were powerful enough to affect deities or to create world-changing spell effects. All High Magic spells were rituals, and they frequently required collaboration of more than one High Mage.

*There’s no way I’m letting those lay around for anyone to find.* Elissa told herself.

“Good haul?” Fenirael asked while polishing her weapons, taking advantage of the break they were taking.

Elissa nodded and said, “You could say that, I will study those when we are at home.”

Break over, they finally ended up where the smell of the dark elves who attacked the pseudodragons came from, it was a recently dug tunnel; Elissa could feel the wind coming from it.

“How did they pass the traps and the undead?” Elissa asked, mystified by this situation.

“Mistress, Dark Elves are masters of stealth and excellent explorers.” Reinatiel informed Elissa.

“That’s cheating.” Elissa said affronted.

“If you’re not cheating…” Fenirael began.

“You’re not trying hard enough.” Elissa finished the saying and humphed.

Fenirael went into the tunnel first and walked warily, seeing as the ceiling was low she could barely pass with her shield. Elissa stored her adamantite shield and took her dagger in her offhand hand going fully armed. Reinatiel was careful with her staff, keeping it horizontal. The grey walls were making everyone claustrophobic, so much so that the pseudodragons chose to go first.

They ended up in a mine that was clearly in use connected to the old Dwarven ruin. Through a detect metal spell, Elissa realized that this was a silver mine, the ground was full of dust which made Elissa sneeze a lot. Reinatiel used spells to detect life and found nothing in their surroundings. They found a ladder leading to the next level up and took it. One hundred meters or so to Elissa’s estimation they found another room, it was a real labyrinth but the party was led by Aghri’s nose as he spent the most time with the elves that beat on him.

Blood, it suddenly smelled of blood and Elissa followed the scent and found a dead body near the entrance to the surface of the mine. Yes they were already at the surface, it didn’t surprise Elissa, but what did was that the dead body was that of a Dwarf holding a bar of Ebolyte in her arms. She was trying to get to the exit, Elissa pried the bar of metal from her cold dead hands and put it into her spatial ring.

She took a picture with her smartphone of the dead female dwarf and loaded her body in her second spatial ring. The sound of someone coming from behind them alerted Elissa. While she stood up she unsheathed Gram and had her golden dragon dagger in hand. The view that welcomed her was two dark elf males in leather armor, really tight, they had almost grey skin, white and platinum blond hair, they bristled with weapons; daggers, short swords, bows, maces.

Their gear was standardized and they didn’t look like adventurers, more like mercenaries.

“Ar-tel-quessir (Sun Elf).” One of them said, unsheathing his dagger.

Elissa reacted instantly and used her dragon dagger in synergy with a wind spell and shot a powerful cone of flame at him. The elf didn’t even have the time to dodge before he was engulfed in fire and already screaming, his companion had dodged to the side but not escaped a magic missile from Reinatiel; she had hit him in the arm with her black fire but he did something incredible, he severed his arm and cast a magic that made him disappear or teleport.

Aghri and Rilo sniffed the air and didn’t find him.

“Teleportation huh,” Elissa said. *Did dark elves have bad blood with the sun elves?* She asked herself, the male elf attempted to attack her instantly. Thanks to her superhuman reflex she took him first.

She took the body with her and did the same as the female dwarf as she stored it in her second ring.

“Well I guess it’s time to go, we have what we came for. Let’s get out of here, something tells me we are going to have company soon.” Elissa said as she ran to the exit.

The others followed her, running at full speed; it was still day outside, fortunately.

---

Bhelveth family camp, Underdark
Upperdark

 

Persandoral watched as the mercenary he hired appeared on the wine colored carpet in his command tent, his contingency ring teleported him there when his life was in danger. He had only one arm left and Persandoral saw that black fire was consuming part of his clothes; he conjured water but it didn’t work and the fire burned still. The young dark elf performed a scan of the flames and stepped back when the results came in.

“You were attacked by a demon?” Persandoral raised an eyebrow at the elf.

Black fire was an element only common in the demon race, it was nigh on impossible to put out without the caster’s permission or the help of a deity, it consumed everything. The man gave Persandoral a pleading look who assuaged the pain by numbing the part of his body afflicted with the spell.

“Young Master, there was a Sun Elf… She-she took the metal. She was at the s-silver m-mine.” The mercenary said as he noticed that he had begun to lose blood and the fire spread to the rest of his clothes.

“Is that so?” A sun elf on Svartalfheim was a really rare occurrence, their enmity with the dark elves was legendary. Sun elves were haughty and arrogant, sun elves typically felt themselves superior to most other races.

“S-she had one of t-the dragontooth of Lareth with her.”

“Interesting, did she kill your brethren with it?” Those were quasi legendary artifacts nowadays, a dragontooth of Lareth was created from one of Lareth's fangs, the gold dragon. However, it was possible to replicate the process with any contemporary dragonfang weapon. The creator needed functional theoretical knowledge about the creation of magic weapons but also the knowledge about how to create dragoncraft items. Added to this was skill at mundane weaponsmithing and the ability to enhance the casting speed of the spells necessary for the creation. These were guidance and any one of the following three spells: fireball, flame blade, or flame strike.

The mercenary nodded and then the fire engulfed him completely. Persandoral took his personal effects from his tent and evacuated it, watching as it was completely devoured by the demonic black fire. The fact that this Sun elf was willing to use a demon or an artifact cursed with this element showed that maybe, the young elf should let it go and not seek her out.

But youth and the blood of the Bhelveth clan flowed through his veins, he wouldn’t let it go; some She-Elf came to disrupt his operation to leave this abominable part of the Underdark where the Matriarch of his clan had exiled him to reflect on his conduct. He was in the Upperdark, located less than three miles below the surface. A humiliating punishment as all he did was romance the daughter of a rival clan without his Matriarch’s permission.

The Underdark was not one giant cavern under Svartalfheim, but rather, many huge networks of caverns and caves. As a result, it was not always possible to travel from one end of the Underdark to the other.

The Underdark was divided into several domains that were similar to the continents of the world above. While it was possible to travel from one place to another within a domain, separate domains tended to have very few passages linking them.

The Matriarchs of the dark elves’ kingdoms all lived in the Middledark, located three to ten miles below the surface, this layer was where most of the Underdark cities were located.

“Young Master! What happened to your tent?” A soldier of the Bhelveth clan rushed to him and looked at the consuming black fire.

Stoically looking at his tent being consumed, Persandoral said without looking at the soldier, “A Sun Elf attacked two of my men on the world above and stole from me.”

The young elf took his artifact weapon from his spatial ring, a replica of Gungnir, a god’s weapon; the only weapon that he had found worthy of him. It was a family heirloom dating all the way back to ragnarok, looted by the second Matriarch of the clan; it’s powers were numerous, at first the spear was stated to have no power on its own. Being made from godly metal, it served as a natural channel for Odin's own power in the form of energy blasts and other effects.

Later stories from the Bhelveth clan stated that the spear was equal to Mjolnir in power. If thrown, it would fly after its target and its tip would be surrounded with the caster’s attuned element. It could destroy towers with ease and would return to its owner when thrown. Unlike Mjolnir, Gungnir’s replica has no worthiness enchantment since the Asgardians could not conceive of anyone but Odin or another god wielding it.

The soldier understood his Young Master’s intention quickly. “Young Master, should I rally your usual party?”

The soldier knew his Young Master, he was arrogant and proud, but contrary to the Matriarch of the clan, he rewarded loyalty well; he was the hope of the lesser members of the Bhelveth clan for change and a better future. He was working on that before he was exiled by the Matriarch who had been fearing a rebellion.

Persandoral nodded, he was already outfitting himself with his armor and weapons. “Certainly, just in case bring that old mage and that tracker with you as well.”

“As you will.” The soldier bowed low, redressed himself and ran to the temporary barracks.

“No one steals from me, no one.” Persandoral said between his teeth.

In ten minutes his ten elf party was assembled, they were the best he had; Udhusa his tracker who could find anything and Kama, a mage who became his retainer to escape starvation after his banishment from the Middledark, placed themselves in front of the formation.

“It’s time to hunt, first let’s teleport to the previous location of my fallen mercenary.” Persandoral weaved a spell around his party and used a function of the subordinate contingency rings he handed to everyone in his retinue.

“Enyal.” Persandoral used a power word and its effect was that it teleported the caster and possibly other goods or beings back to a designated location.

Everyone found themselves in a mine, the soldiers took out their weapons and looked around them, the tracker looked frantically around him.

“Master, powerful magic was used here, I am afraid that we are pursuing someone beyond our means.” The elven mage was really sensitive to mana traces and the leftovers of the fire spells used here left him envious of such mastery.

“I think not.” Persandoral was stubborn, he had his men with him and a mage able to use multiple power words, how hard would it be to kill a sun elf mage? “Udhu, my friend. Track this Ar-tel-quessir (sun elf) for us.”

The tracker bowed low and said, “Yes, my lord.”

He looked at the physical clues first, the footprints inside were both animal and of at least three people, strange. The young master had told him that there was only a sun elf. But Udhusa wasn’t discouraged and found himself going to the surface entrance of the mine. “Follow me.”

Using his gift he sensed the leftover mana signature and locked onto it, to him it looked like golden particulate floating in the atmosphere, he closed his eyes and divined the location of the group that was fleeing, the strong depression in the footprints showed that they were running.

“They are going East of here, at astonishing speeds Young Master they already have a ten kilometer lead on us.” The tracker informed Persandoral.

“Thank you, we must hurry then.” The young master cast a wind spell to buff their movement speeds and they ran carefully into the plain with sparse copses of trees. This was dangerous terrain as Roc birds were rampant in this region of the surface world and Giant Sabertoothed felines roamed.

They felt that they were gaining on the sun elf and her party, the tracker told to Persandoral how he found multiple footprints at the crime scene. So to this prideful young elf, the sun-elf mage must have had help like he had surmised; a demon in her party.

It took most of the day but the dark elves caught up to their prey, the mage cast many magic missiles at the forms on the horizon. Thanks to the visibility in the plain. However their foe responded in kind and it was overwhelming as lightning rained down on them, it was taking everything from their mage to protect them from the assault.

“Nodicea’s tits, a lighting mage?!” Kama cried as he buckled under the assault.

“Hold on, I’m supplying you with mana!” Persandoral pushed his mana reserve into the body of his mage.

The elves advanced under this heavy magical assault, it was a testament to their tenacity; the archers were readying their weapons as they were about to reach their foe. When the shield shattered, everyone of them scattered and launched arrows at the Sun elf and its two pseudodragons. Now that they were visible, they couldn’t miss them.

A wind wall stopped the projectiles cold and dispersed them, Persandoral’s soldiers went still at that; Kama assembled all of his left over mana and shouted a power word as he pointed his finger at the sun elf, “Dain (Silence)!”

When the caster pointed at a being and uttered the power word, an aura of silence instantly surrounded the creature out to a distance of one meter. The affected being could not make any sound nor hear any sound for a short period of time. The aura of silence spoiled spells being cast by the target and prevented any further spellcasting for the duration. It also prevented speech, voice activation of magic items.

The soldiers knew of that and unsheathed their weapons and charged at the Sun Elf when they saw the impossible happen. Constructs of ice flew at them, one soldier ended up with an ice axe piercing his breastplate and turning into an ice statue.

Persandoral saw that there were two more people with the sun elf, two other women with dark skin similar to humans. One was obviously a caster and the other a warrior. A cold aura was spreading to them and changing the terrain as ice spread around them.

“You witches.” Persandoral said under his breath.

The soldiers surrounded them, they thought them done for now but yet again the unexpected happened. The dark skinned mage unsilenced the sun elf female and she took advantage of it to unsheath her sword. The sound that the beautiful sword made as it cut through the air was melodic and terrible at the same time; it promised to end their lives mercilessly. To Persandoral it was clearly a legendary weapon of some sort.

Looking at this sun elf’s gear, the young master couldn’t help but be envious, everything she owned screamed that she was rich beyond reason, dragon skin and arachne silk outfit, a golden dagger that was clearly one of Lareth’s golden fangs.

“Damnation.” He surmised that she wasn’t of common stock but someone important.

A beautiful voice rang in the air and then Persandoral put his eyes on the beautiful redheaded elf before him; his heart seized has he gazed upon the beauty. “You attacked us and you shall pay for this.” The sun elf said haughtily in elvish, her dialect was clearly Ar-tel-quessir.

“You stole from me first.” Persandoral defended himself.

The she-elf laughed throatily. “I assure you, that I am no thief. My familiars guarded the metal in the ruins awaiting my arrival when your men robbed it, I went after them and reappropriated my possession.”

It was plausible, really plausible that Persandoral was in the wrong, but he has the numerical advantage and wasn’t about to let go of such prizes, who knew how many more treasures this she-elf had on her. He looked at his party who were at the ready on his order.

“I see that we are at an impasse.” Persandoral smiled.

The she-elf sword glowed blue. “Maybe for you, however things are simple to me. I eliminate you all and I can go on my way.”

Persandoral raised an eyebrow at that, the gall and arrogance of this she-elf was astounding. To the soldiers around them, this sun elf female was clearly more arrogant and confident in herself than even their Young Master. Persandoral’s hand tightened on his spear, there was no way to negotiate if he was in the wrong from the start.

“Take them alive.” He ordered.

They all attacked but were rebuffed by a wind wall that appeared out of nowhere, and just like that two of the soldiers were dead as wind blades bisected them. The armored warrior woman surged from the wind wall and bashed a soldier with her shield and crushed the head of another with her mace.

Persandoral couldn’t take any more losses and threw his gungnir replica sending it toward the she-elf. He found it a shame to kill such beauty but it was for the reformation of his house. Doom was upon the she-elf when yet again she did the impossible and caught the godly spear with a hand. She stared at it and weighed it.

“Nice spear, clearly of Dwarven make. The enchantments on it are really profound and it’s not even soul bound.” A predatory smile appeared on her face.

“What are you?!” Persandoral looked horrified, this elf couldn’t be… an elf! What has he provoked?

“Let me show you how to use this nifty spear.” The she-elf cut her finger on the blade of Gungnir and placed it on the jewel at the base of the blade, her blood made the jewel glow with blue light and electricity coursed through the spear.

“Can.. can we parley? I am Persandoral of the Bhelveth clan, my Matriarch would be… really upset with you if anything happened to me.” The young dark elf tried to say, it hurt his pride to say that much.

However the she-elf didn’t seem to care one bit about his pride, or his clan. She looked at everyone around her and smiled. She pointed the blade of the spear at Kama, the mage, and an energy blast shot toward him and pierced his heart.

“Marvellous. I’m keeping it but as I am not a thief I will kill you all and it will become my loot.” The she-elf smiled cruelly at him.

Persandoral was reminded of the Matriarch of his clan, she made the same face when she was about to dish out some serious blow to her political rival.

“Attack, kill them!!!” Persandoral screeched.

“It’s too late for that.” The redheaded she-elf said.

The tracker fled and activated his contingency ring to teleport in the Underdark, Persandoral was about to do the same thing when he felt a shock and found himself without a lower body, Gungnir flew and killed all the rest of the soldiers as it circled the battlefield. They were all killed by the weapon that came back to the hand of the she-elf.

Persandoral was losing blood and he knew he was about to die. “You… you won’t get-get away with this.” He said as he tried to stop the hemorrhage.

“You can babble all you want in Hel, you are already dead.” The She-elf said as she crouched near him looking at him.

He didn’t like how she stared at him, as if he was nothing to her, “N-no, my clan will-will avenge… me”

The she-elf smiled wryly. “They will follow you then. Do you want to know the name of the one who killed you?”

“P-please tell me.” Persandoral said as he put his bloody hand in his belt pouch, touching a small item that will be his parting gift. A sending stone, they were magical items that allowed remote communication over any distance, even across different planes. This particular one was linked to the Matriarch, he had activated it.

“I am Elissa Dragonfang of the House Dragonfang, First of Her Name, The Storm Mage, Lady of Aryther and Great Chief of the Lutrinians, Troll Bane and now Archenemy of the Bhelveth clan.” Elissa had felt the activation of the magic item and spouted some bullshit that she did on the planet and fibbed the truth a little with a bit of Game of Swords added in.

“They will find you, Lady Dragonfang…” Persandoral said as his final parting words.

Elissa cut his belt pouch and saw the offending little magic item. Sending stones always came in pairs. They were smooth and delicately carved to match each other, so the pairs were easily recognizable. If one stone from the pair were destroyed, the other would lose its magic. This one had a spear carved on it.

“I am sure that they will, with the sending stones you activated, loser.” Elissa spit on his body. She spoke into the stone and said, “Whoever heard this conversation, if you come after me; know that, what I will do to your pathetic little clan, I am going to enjoy it.” The young woman said with great joy, her tone conveyed how happy she would be when she did what she threatened.

After a long moment she heard something from the stone, “We have an army.” Elissa heard a feminine voice say.

Elissa channeled a bit of Maliciatude into her voice. “They will bleed. They will die. And they will be insufficient to stop me!”

“I will kill you!” The voice screamed.

Elissa laughed. “You’ll try, and you’ll die.” The young woman said harshly and crushed the stone in her hand.