[There is something else about the Hidan that is worth knowing.] Eirlathion said. Great, looks like the bombshells are going to be falling like rain now.

[The Hidan also have a powerful bloodline with a beast taming power. Any beast who is not of Kingu, of Uridimmu, or of the fey can be tamed by the power of the Hidan, and they can form a special bond with the mounts they tame. The beast riders of the Hidan are one of the most influential forces on the human plains both for the power and the mobility they possess.] He said.

“What’s Kingu and Uridimmu?” Levin asked, and then before I could even process the question to repeat it in elven, Eirlathion was making a scary face.

[Humans are not allowed to speak those names.] He said in a heavy tone toward Levin.

[What! Why?] I demanded, outraged at the sudden and blatantly racist thing he just said.

He looked back to me with a confused and sort of lost expression on his face. I could literally see the wheels in his head spinning as he tried to figure out how to answer my shocked and angry demand. Was he seriously that baffled over why I got angry at him?

[Well… Kingu and Uridimmu are two of the eleven gods who rule over the worlds and created the creatures that live on them.] He said in a placating and cautious tone. [Kingu created humans, but then became upset with those he created. He has since turned away from the human race, and humans are not allowed to speak the names of any of the eleven ruling gods. Especially Kingu. If anyone heard Levin or Rolwen saying the names of one of the eleven gods, something very bad would happen to them. So, you have to tell them ‘no’ if you hear them saying any of those names, alright?] He said.

That’s… well, there’s no other way to really put it. That’s kinda fucked up. In other words, for their own safety, even I have to enforce this absolutely racist rule.

I looked over to Levin and Rolwen. They silently looked back. With looks alone, we came to an understanding. When I looked into their eyes, I knew they were aware of what I wanted to say. That I thought this situation was absolutely wrong, but they had to abide by it anyway. Levin still looked a little shaken up about having just been yelled at. Rolwen just let out a surly ‘tisk,’ and dramatically threw his body back and laid on the floor with a groan.

I could understand the expressions of frustration, but I knew that they understood. In fact, it was because of the frustration that I knew they really did get the whole shitty fucking life-is-crap picture.

As I was doing my body-language communication with the boys, Tiaren decided to pick up the conversation with Eirlathion.

[So, uhh… if Kingu created humans, what did Uridimmu create?] She asked.

Eirlathion sighed and turned to Tia. [Uridimmu is the god of the chimeric humans. Chimeras with mostly human-like bodies. He is the brother of Akrabamelu, who is the creator of the true chimeras. Those who either have no human characteristics, or if they do have any then it is just the head.]

“Humph, I wonder where centaurs fall in those categories.” Rolwen said with a tone that was still a bit on the surly side.

[So, this bloodline power can not work on humans or chimeric humans?] Tia asked.

[It does not work on dragons either.] He said. [Dragons are also of Kingu. He did not create dragons, but he is the leader of the four dragon gods, as well as the rest of the eleven creator gods as a whole.]

Ok. So, Kingu is the leader of the gods. And eleven gods too. If I remember my cursory glance at the Enuma Elis back when I was taking a passing interest in Babylonian mythos, this is actually starting to paint a pretty clear picture of what this world is and why the language here resembles Akkadian so much that Tia recognizes the origins of several words.

[So… this bloodline…] Tia mused. [It will work on dogs, right?]

Uhhh…. what? Where did that question come from?

[Dogs?] Eirlathion parroted back, looking as confused as I was. [Well, yes. It should.]

[Aaah!] Tia responded with a huge smile. [I want that bloodline!]

[Ahh, well.] Eirlathion suddenly had a completely bewildered look at Tia’s comment. [Umm… you can’t… really just get another bloodline.] He said.

[I can! My bloodline is special like that!] Tia said with all the force and confidence in the world. [I want to get this bloodline so I can have a whole lot of dogs!]

Eirlathion was silent for several seconds, pondering what she just said. [Tiaren… are you saying that you can take the bloodline from another person?] Eirlathion said with a heavy sigh that gave me an idea of the fact that this was in no way a normal thing to be able to do.

[I think she is.] I answered for her, and then turned to look at my sister. [Don’t tell anyone you can do that.] I said.

[Yes, don’t] Eirlathion agreed with me immediately. [You girls, really… how can the both of you be so unusual, and each in completely different ways? Tiaren, you especially.] He groaned and shook his head. [It is as I thought then. You were a bloodline originator in the last life you lived, weren’t you?]

[Bloodline originator?] She repeated the word in a confused tone.

[It’s fine.] He said. [It is probably not in the stuff you remember from the last life you lived. It means you had enough knowledge of blood magic to create a bloodline. It is one of the most complex yet prestigious feats a person can pull off as it means all the descendants you produce will share the magic you created.]

Tia and I looked at each other. Both of us knew he had made an incorrect assumption, but this sort of worked out for us.

“Let’s just let him assume he’s right.” I told her. Tia nodded.

*******

After discussing our destination, we got seriously into the planning phase for getting out of the village. We had no idea when the envoy from the capital would arrive, and we could not waste any time. The fairies would likely have left by the end of the day.

The envoy would not be coming at all until the fairies told the fey court that this was an “acceptable” village due to the level of it’s strongest tree spirit. That spirit being Nymph, of course.

They were just having a snack and lazing about the village a bit while watching the capital fly by through the air. We were warned to stay inside while they were here, and to keep Levin and Rolwen inside as well. It would apparently also be a bad thing if they realized how strong Levin and Rolwen were, and fortunately the barrier Eirlathion put up in this room over a year ago was still keeping their energy concealed.

While they would have to fly to the capital and back, the capital had just moved very close to the location of this village and travel by flight was very fast. There was a good chance that a round trip could be made in as little as a single day. Therefore, we had to get out of here tonight.

Eirlathion left out to prepare things on his end. He had to get his stuff ready, and tell a few trusted villagers about our plan. The village had a tight watch since the dark elf attack, especially at night. So, we had to be sure that we had a sympathetic guard stationed in the direction we would be leaving the village.

Fortunately, it seems like my predictions on human nature extended perfectly to elves. Contrary to Nymph’s fears sparked by the noisy ones calling for Tia and I to turn into some gruesome totems to ward off the dark elves, the silent majority were actually on our side. If they weren’t flat out against us being killed for moral reasons, then at the very least they were smart enough to know it was a very bad long-term decision to turn Nymph into an eternal enemy out to murder every last person in this village.

It was only a small amount of young idiots out there calling for our heads, and it seems like they have all already been put on some kind of effective house arrest.

With us having until sun-down, the four of us spent the rest of the day spending time interacting with Nymph. We tried our best to give her some good memories here at the end, but everything had a dark cloud over it as she was in a pretty sullen mood through the whole thing knowing that we were going to leave when this was all over.

To her credit, the closest she ever came to trying to convince us out of this were her saying lines like “I wish you didn’t have to go,” or something like that. She was frustrated over this, but it seems like the last fight we had and the subsequent silent treatment I gave her were enough to give her some perspective on the situation. At the very least she knew that arguing was not going to let her have her way, and she seemed to agree that she did not want a fight to be our last memories of each other before we left.

Eventually, the time had come. Nymph suddenly cringed and looked like all the energy was just drained out of her.

“They’re here, aren’t they?” I asked.

Nymph just nodded.

I breathed a deep breath. “Well, you are the spirit of a tree. You are going to live a very long life. Don’t worry, we will see each other again.” I told her, and then got a severe look on my face. “And I had better not find out that you tormented the people of this village while I was gone. I will be angry at you if you do. Extremely angry.  It will be nothing like what I showed you before.” I warned.

“Mmm… Ok.” Nymph said in a sullen voice. “It is supposed to be a tree spirit’s job to protect the village.” She definitely did not seem enthused about it. I also did not miss the term ‘supposed to be’ in there either.

“Well, you don’t have to make it a happy village with double it’s current population, but at least try to make them less afraid of you. Ok?” I said.

“Ok.” Nymph moaned.

“Alright. I guess we will need some stairs.” I said, and then channeled some mana through my feet and into the floor beneath me. We got stairs leading down. We collected a few lunch packages Nymph had made for us wrapped up in leaves, and then made our way down and immediately out of Nymph’s tree body with a heavy sense of finality.

Eirlathion, who was still just approaching, stopped a little short when he saw us coming out before he even had a chance to come in and get us. He seemed to adapt quickly, but he still quirked a curious eyebrow at the boys who were following behind us with the same self-assured steps.

I was glad to see that he wasn’t alone though. The woman behind him, mine and Tia’s mother, averted her eyes the very second she saw us.

She’s definitely still uneasy about seeing her own daughters, but that was fine with me. The important part is just the fact that she’s here. So long as she’s coming along rather than staying behind in the village, we will have plenty of time to get to know each other moving forward.