It took three days to travel to the Great Tree, during that time Cemi had tried her hardest to gather what she could from the group. A surprisingly… strenuous task to say the least. 

It was honestly strange, the four were amazingly forthcoming with some information, Amethyst happily talking about the Empire of Crown; why the group had arrived here, what they hoped to accomplish, even information about her family was freely given. Even though Cemi had known the family had access to the voice of the world to see both Amethyst and Hecatolite summon what they call terminals had been somewhat shocking, though it was irrefutable proof of who they were given how widespread information about anyone using the “voice of the world” is.

But that was just it, Amethyst herself seemed to have no qualms answering any of Cemi’s questions, that was until she had asked about the others in her group. The woman, Himari, was easy enough to overlook; after all, a human traveling with a delegation from the Empire was simple enough to overlook. But, once she had asked about Eryl, the young woman surprisingly clammed up. 

Amethyst had only shared that Eryl was a close friend of Hecatolite, but that only brought another question to mind. The Lapidary family, as far as the world knew, was human. So, Cemi did not think it remiss to ask about Hecatolite. 

The strange girl was clearly not human, in fact Cemi found herself confused on exactly what Hecatolite was. She was far from an expert on other races worldwide, a fruitless study given how diverse their world was along with the potential for cross breeding among the races. But given her position Cemi felt she was pretty well versed in the subject, normally able to at least narrow down the scope of someone’s origin but Hecatolite was an enigma. 

It was not just her physical appearance, though that would be the first clue, but Hecatolite’s mental capacity as well. She couldn’t understand how someone who needed to be told to stop putting every plant she came across in her mouth could carry herself with such… confidence. Even when Hecatolite spoke it was hard to tell if the girl was wise beyond her years or downright ignorant. 

Finally on the morning of the third day, before arriving at the Great Tree, Cemi’s curiosity got the better of her. It may have been the casual nature of the girls so far, or her own natural curiosity that had gotten her so far in life, but she couldn’t help herself as Hecatolite exited her tent early that morning.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” Cemi asked a bleary eyed Hecatolite as she sat beside the morning fire.

Hecatolite, taking a bowl of the egg stew that had been prepared, shrugged. “As long as I can refuse to answer.” 

It was still strange to Cemi; the way the young woman spoke. Sometimes she was childish, all giggles and jokes as she ran around. But other times she was… different. As if Cemi was sitting beside someone thrice the girl’s age, blunt and with no wasted words. “That is fair…” Cemi paused, she knew this was probably a bad idea but… “What are you?”

Hecatolite’s eyes rose from her bowl, the large blood red pools locking onto Cemi for a long moment. “What am I?” Hecatolite echoed Cemi’s question, blinking several times. 

The look in the girl’s eyes was… unnerving, the way she moved her head from side to side, blinking slightly out of sync as black lines started forming around Hecatolites eyes. As the air grew heavy Cemi realized she may have made a mistake. “I mean,” Quickly Cemi continued her question, “It’s just you don’t appear to be human like your sister, are you perhaps half-sisters?” She tried.

The strange feeling around the fire vanished as Hecatolite puffed out her cheeks, “That’s rude.” 

Cemi could feel the blood draining from her face as Hecatolite glared at her. Her entire body shivering as she tried desperately to think of a way out of this hole she had dug. Her mother always said she was too curious…

  Then, as if it had all been an act, Hecatolite blew out a long breath causing her lips to make a strange noise that the young woman clearly found amusing as she giggled. “I’m just playing with you,” Her long tail came around and patted Cemi on the arm causing her to jump. “You went all white there for a second,” She gave Cemi a large smile that did nothing to calm her nerves. “But you are right in that I look a lot better than a boring human, I mean, they don’t even have tails, you know. But Amethyst and I are sisters, twins in fact. But don’t ask Amethyst about it, ok? She’s a bit touchy about her tail, I think it’s because it’s so short.”

Cemi swallowed, “I see, I made a mistake then. I had assumed you both were…”

“Oh we “were”,” Hecatolite beamed, “but then the dumb heroes stabbed us in the chest. Kind of hard to live in a body with a hole in it, well a hole that’s not supposed to be in it…” Hecatolite cocked an eyebrow as she started counting… “Would eye sockets count as holes…. I mean they are, but they aren’t because your eyes are shoved in them… what if I lost an eye then it would become a hole?” She froze, looking at Cemi before coughing, “Anyway, yes, we were human, then we died and that was super inconvenient, so we made new bodies. But Amethyst is still human, well mostly, I think. I am only part now, I think it’s because I had more not human in me than she did; but she’s young so that’s ok. As she gets older, she will get fewer human bits and then she will get a long tail like me… maybe…”

As if that was the answer to Cemi’s question, Hecatolite stood, tipped her head back and poured the entire bowl of stew into her mouth, most of which ended up on the ground before she exclaimed, “I’m bored. I think I’ll go see what All-goose is up to, he owes me a tour of the big tree when we get there after all.” and she strode off leaving Cemi just as confused as when she arrived. 

“I would advise you not to press that matter anymore than you have.” Cemi jumped as a soft voice came from behind her. 

Spinning she found herself having to look up to see Eryl standing behind her, the woman watching Hecatolite as she vanished between two tents. 

Cemi rose to her feet to greet the elven woman, “Sister Eryl,” switching to elven she dipped her head in formal greeting before meeting the other woman’s gaze. Even standing at her full height Cemi had to look up at Eryl, which would normally not be surprising given Cemi was on the shorter side; but Eryl was also… tall. As tall as Alagos, if not taller. “I did not see you…”

“Please stop calling me that, it is just Eryl.” Eryl said with a sigh, she had said such things several times in the last few days; but unlike with the others Cemi was positive that Eryl was an elf. It is only proper to greet her as a sister then but… “Regardless, Cemi I must ask that you not press the matter of Hecatolite or Amethyst’s race. They are from the Lapidary family if that is your concern.”

It was clear that Cemi had made a mistake in asking about it but… in for a copper in for a gold. “What of you then? You appear to be elven but refuse to be seen as a sister of our kind?”

Eryl’s ears dropped, such a strange thing to Cemi… Eryl sighed, “Cemi, please heed my warning, you saw what came of the last person to dwell on this matter and I do not wish to see anyone else share his fate. We are as we appear, a group of travelers who simply wish for peace.” Eryl’s large blue eyes lingered on Cemi’s own for a long moment before she nodded.

“I see.” Cemi looked away, a little ashamed. Eryl was not wrong, and neither was Hecatolite. It had not only been rude of Cemi to ask out of her own curiosity, but unbefitting of her position. “I do apologize if I have offended you.”

“Think nothing of it,” Eryl’s voice felt more relaxed as her ears rose from their defensive down position, “After all, it is in mortal nature to be curious. Besides, the best way to learn is simply to ask, just somethings are best left unknown.” With that Eryl left just as Cemi could hear a ruckus behind her. 

Hecatolite had apparently not found Alagos, what she did find however was a sleeping escort who was supposed to be on guard duty. Cemi was unsure if the young man was lucky that Alagos hadn’t been the one to find him, or unlucky as Hecatolite ran by holding the entirety of the young man’s pack screaming about “loot!” Was… was that his helmet?  

The entirety of the rest of the walk back was spent watching the young man try, and fail, to get his pack back. Only as the Great Tree came into view did Hecatolite finally concede, apparently much more interested in the sprawling city on the horizon.