‘I got violated, twice…’ Mentally sobbing Alicia was recovering from the incident. As for the violator, she was blissfully snoring away the chemicals.  The aphrodisiac-like effects were caused by disinhibition and the hallucinogenic influence from the mushrooms. Perhaps feeling safe in the presence of Alicia or either the counteragents suppressing the stimulants, she dozed off during the ‘oral administration’ process. Apparently the agents should have taken only 10-15 minutes to kick in but in reality they took about 30 minutes before Faenas was sedated. Alma concluded that the result was from a slower metabolic rate than the expected forecast. Out of curiosity Alicia inquired about how long it would have taken for the disruptive effects to disperse naturally. According to its analysis the natural breakdown half-life was around 1-3 hours but accounting for Faenas’ - or maybe for the entirety of the Elves’ - slower metabolic rate it expected the decay time to double at least, though she skipped over the what and why of the reason.

As a half spiritual being, sleep still eludes her. Faenas didn’t plan for camping out thus she lacked anything resembling a bedroll. With the rangers’ preferred breast band like vests, and mini short length leggings the chill of night was likely to be ruthless. Though she wanted to do something, leaving Faenas’ vulnerable like this was not an option either thus she patiently waited. The night’s crescent moon failed to illuminate the darkness even without the usual shade from viridescent canopies. From within the depths of blackness of the forest just nearby specks of chenin¹RGB 225, 218, 122 pierced through the gloom. Rumbling steps perceived only by her were charging straight to their shelter. However Alicia was calm.

Pair of wolves emerged dragging a sack of silky ball, slowing down to a trot when approaching her, their destination. From behind the rocky cover, a spider with a huge and bulbous abdomen creeped out. Dire wolves and one of her numerous familiars, a Crypt weaver specializing in spinning webs.

• ‘Great, you guys are here. I’m sorry for making you run all the way over here but I need your help.’

Crypt weavers were sedentary ambushers unsuitable for travelling, Alicia needed their weaving skills to make a bedroll and a blanket for Faenas as without Alice her web spinning skills were… questionable at best. The weaver in question relayed that the trip was inconsequential.

• ‘Thanks for bringing the wool, you two. I’ll be sure to give you two something delicious. For now keep watch while I go out, I won’t stray far but let me know if you sniff out anything suspicious.’

The lupines were panting happily, sitting on the ground, their tails sweeping the floor as she took the ball of thundergoat wool enveloped in silk from them that they brought. The weaver was instructed to create a bedroll, blanket and a pillow out of silk with wool filling. Alicia was thankful that her spider familiars had access to her memories through telepathy and Kindred this one time as she didn’t have to go through the gruelling hurdle of explaining the concept of bedroom furniture.

Though she could sustain the flames with magic, she would rather spare herself the trouble of doing so, all night long. With Faenas's safety assured, Alicia entered the woods to collect fuel for the campfire with the additional goal of getting a treat for Rufus’ followers she borrowed. It took her some time to understand that her familiars and followers expected her to take the lead and give them orders. Nonetheless the role of leadership came to her naturally. Afterall controlling dogs, bees, sheep and pest control wasn't all too different from managing a rag-tag bunch of college drop-outs, troublemakers, brawlers and drunkards from starting a brawl in a construction zone while trying to complete a half decent job for a obstinate client who is stingy with their purse but still expect state of the art results  while imposing ridiculous completion date.

‘At least they don't fight each other. I expected the wolves to try and take a bite out of someone by now.’ Amidst the song of cicadas and the luminous display of fireflies, or in this world, bladeleaper and wandering wisp - she picked up dry kindlings for the camp, on the lookout for a danger and prey. Night stroll and cool air was refreshing to her mind, especially after what happened. While absent mindedly wandering the forest she noticed the surroundings had gone unusually silent, the trees and leaves stood still yet there was a creeping feeling that they were moving behind her back.

Cool breeze turned to cold haze, suspicions of some unseen threat circling her in the fog plagued her mind, unfounded paranoia setting in. It felt as her eyes and ears were playing tricks on her thus…

⟨ Instinct ⟩

⟨ Pallesthesia ⟩

but she couldn’t feel anything. And yet she just felt as if something moved behind her. Turning around there was nothing but dead leaves and cold dews from condensation. With that confirmed…

｢ Pyrokinesis ｣

Spreading out her collected wood around her in a circle, gathering a blaze of pyre above her head at her fingertip she set the kindling aflame in single sweeping motion of her hands. As the shin height flames dispelled the darkness, coils of shadow that were surrounding her with unknown intent all retreated in a single direction and from where they fled inhuman shriek resounded.

⟨ Fire Aspect ⟩

↳ ｢ Fan of Flames ｣ Acquired.

• “Nightrider huh… Thought I was going crazy for a moment there.”

Carrefour’s²Carrefour/Kalfu/Kalfou is the Loa of the darkness and evil of the spirit world, his sign is the moon. Often thought to be a demon but ‘he’ himself denies this. spirit, Nightrider or more commonly known as a Mare are a type of Djinn often blamed for nightmares and sleep paralysis. Only appearing after sun down or in dark depths of cave systems, they are nocturnal predators of travellers and lunatics who dare wander without a torch or a lamp. Draining the strength and will to fight against them by showing their slumbering prey terrible nightmares before attacking is their preferred method of hunting. However that does not mean one is safe during waking hours as they often stalk their prey to fuel their fears until the victim starts to run. And after they pointlessly tire themselves, it becomes material only to strike their exhausted hunt. They show terrible nightmares to travellers whose campfire has snuffed out and even without sleep they lure and lull their quarry, often making them hear or see things beckoning them closer to madness. They being a spirit of night and darkness are able to shapeshift into terrifying creatures of nightmares, however where light shines they cannot thrive.

• “Makes sense I didn’t feel anything moving with Pallesthesia.”

A mass of darkness wriggled just out of reach of the light, inimically hissing as the sudden flash of light from the flames seemed to have harmed it. Pair of red dots resembling an eye stared back at her. Mares are never born in the wild. They are birthed from negative experiences of past trauma and recurring nightmares as such they only plague creatures capable of higher levels of thought. As for who the host is…

• “I guess you’re the love child of Faenas and her fever dreams eh?”

As the flames slowly died out it was becoming more agitated, vengeful at being harmed.

• “You were… haunting… Faenas for a while now, weren’t you? Because of the campfire and my presence, you couldn’t touch her and after the wolves and the weaver showed up it only got worse. But then I left and went out into the dark, you got annoyed with me clinging around your host so you followed around to get rid of me. That sound about right?”

The only response was its unintelligible shrieks.

• “Can’t talk, not a mature mare then…”

By now the only thing preventing the mare from attacking Alicia was the faint glow from the circle of smoldering cinders surrounding her.

>Cognitive intrusion attempt detected… Rejecting…

• “You won’t get to play with my senses that easily.”

‘Now the question is how to kill what is basically a formless energy… Local shaman and a spirit expert³ Sardak if you’ve forgotten. What? Rings no bells? Leader of the trolls, witch doctor, spiritualist. might know a way to do it… Fire would work but if I scare it off it’ll just run away and hide from me never to show up again, as much as I like to, I can’t keep watch over Faenas forever so I need to deal with this right here, right now.’

Mares often intrude upon people’s thoughts to pull up their greatest fears and turn into a manifestation of it. But if one is prepared and most importantly if they do not fear the mare, it is severely weakened. Making them the most dangerous to the host who created them and Mares do not present themselves in the presence of a third party who might interfere. It tracking Alicia, an outsider who it should avoid, showed just how much she had irated it. Though Mares who had claimed the life of their host and others were much more bold, this one was clearly not like that.

‘Only magic is going to be effective against this guy, what do I have… Lightning huh… Yeesh, I have to hold back so I don’t scare it off while not holding back too much that I might die.’

The mass of blackness coaslescensed into a single point before growing in size with unearthly shifting movements presumably shapeshifting into a more suitable form. Anon, a sinister caricature of a Manticore, came forth with a strange mix of cry between a shriek and a growl. Obscure branching limbs of wispy darkness had taken place of the creature’s spiked tail, waving around with uncertain movements. And its size was larger than a normal Manticore. Because it couldn’t peer into Alicia’s mind, it chose something else, something familiar to it.

｢ Void Vault ｣

Reaching out to a gap between worlds she pulled out her weapon. Dauntless seemed a little different than how she remembered it. The blade appeared to have a small teetering fissures underneath its dark glassy surface from which a faint iridescent⁴Think of iridescent obsidian but with a color spectrum mostly limited to 400 - 475. glow could be seen, though she disregarded it for the moment as the mare could attack her at any moment. Or so she thought, strangely the Djinn seemed almost disturbed by the appearance of her weapon. Bizarre reaction as physical weapons should pose no threat to spiritual beings. Alicia was counting on the Mare to know this fact and be more confident yet it seemed wary of it. She was planning to use the sword as a conductor to deliver lightning which can harm the djinn. The process could also create a brief but intense flash of light from the plasma which would become the nail in the coffin as by being in such close proximity to the source of light would surely destroy it.

‘I know you’re young but are you that green to not understand this stick is harmless to you…? I only got the cursory information from Sardak so… Well doesn’t change my plan that much I’ll just have to demonstrate to it that this is harmless. Let’s try not to get hit.’

Stamping on the remaining cinders to quench the lingering embers she stepped forth. Although it was just wary of her weapon, her challenging action had enraged it enough. Despite looking like a manticore, it didn’t act or move like one after all it was only imitating one. Cautiously the appendages on the tail shot out at her. Avoiding their assault by stepping back to then purposefully let few of them graze her, she feigned to be on the defensive.

⟨ Regeneration ⟩

Though those small cuts and scratches immediately closed by themselves, whits of drawn blood and the lour expression was convincing enough to feed into its belief that she was having a hard time. Frustrated not being able to land a square hit on Alicia, the Mare in the form of a Manticore closed the distance, now certain that she wasn’t much of a threat to it.

‘That’s it… get closer…’

The ‘tails’ returned back to it vanishing behind it. Shortly thereafter grew once more, their numbers had reduced and instead of some flimsy appendages, thicker, more defined limbs grew out. With a strange reverberating growl its tendrils flailed madly.

‘Finally getting serious… Alright let’s do this right.’

Many sweeping attacks were launched at her. Their speed was faster than any human could react and dodge, though for Alicia they were just right for her to get a decent ‘warmup’. Again evading most of its attack and some smashing the trees in the vicinity as she used them as cover, her plan was just about to come to fruition.

‘This might hurt but oh well…’

The very last attack she would pretend to be too late to evade, then she would attempt to block it with her blade. Turning the edge of the blade facing towards the oncoming sweep she braced for impact squinting her eyes. Yet the strike that landed felt too weak, especially considering those same sweeps could shake down the leaves and nuts of trees and leave a mark. Something black whiffed by her face, and she felt something roll behind her. The Mare yowled in a fiendish cry, reeling backwards.

• “Hu?”

Turning around to look, a fair tip of the tendril was cut off and wriggling, writhing on the ground, black smoky evanescent essence was ‘bleeding’ out from where it was severed and dissolving into thin air shrinking in the process… or so it seemed but looking more closely revealed that they were being funneled somewhere. Following the trail of strange essence, it led to her weapon, Dauntless where the smoke seemed to be seeping in. Or rather, the blade appeared to be draining if not absorbing it. The blade should have simply passed through the Djinn’s attack harmlessly, like stone in water.

⟨ Cold Reader ⟩

↳ Confusion…

Not readily comprehending what had transpired…

• “Don’t look at me like that! I’m just as confused as you are! Wait… I can just stab you then… Oh that makes things much simpler…”

Realizing that she could just destroy it without the extra steps of magic, her self restraint faded as she felt liberated from the hurdles of her plan. A change in mood so plain that even the other party could feel.

⟨ Cold Reader ⟩

↳ Fear…

---

A Mare which sowed dread amongst men, orchestrator of nightmares waking or not, peerless hunter of the dark, in the form of a Man-eater Manticore an indisputable Apex predator in many biomes was frightened by a girl, tiny compared to it. Though because it was led into the false impression that it had a chance against her… it recomposed itself to attack once more. After all… those hits couldn’t have been a fluke, could it?

Like a butterfly dancing in the wind, she weaved through all of its attacks, it was as if she was a completely different being, was she not the Elf she appeared to be? Every miss was answered by a fierce reprisal, the steely edge nipping away at its limbs. Sense of terrible trepidation set in that it could not ignore, desperate to drive her back it attacked with more speed, more strength, more numbers. Fear was the archenemy of rational thought which mayhaps could have saved it. For it was all for a nary but give her more to cut down.

Finally the true magnitude of the threat she poses dawned upon it. It shapeshifted back into a formless mass to slither away, surely she couldn’t keep up with it then… As she stood still and didn’t give chase, it was confident in its escape. But soon something was on its tail and gaining speed, could it be? Impossible, no Elf had that agility, it had studied its host - an Elf - closely, It should know… As it was consumed by bewildering thoughts and fears, vile burning pain of light stung at it from behind shortly  followed by a loud thunderclap. And what it saw was a strange being, a humanoid thing that rode upon a many legged creature. No they were one and the same and what it thought to be an Elf was an Araneae masquerading as one.

It was holding the same long terrifying object, pointed at it. Crackling of electricity was becoming louder as the flashes of lightning picked up. It now realized that it didn’t just run into a dangerous predator, but also it was already caught in its web of deception long before it attempted to attack her. When… maybe when it started to stalk her into the forest in the first place. The pale flash of lightning eradicated the regretful Mare completely.

• “Well that takes care of that… I was thinking too much about it.”

>Analysis of retrieved sample complete.

>Compatibility registration complete.

↳ Major compatibility (87.2%) to the thaumaturgy tree defined ｢ Void ｣

>Begin Integration? Y/N.

‘Does that mean a new skill? Sure… but how did you… oh right Dauntless… Why was it absorbing the essence of it anyway?’

>Material makeup of object has high absorption compatibility with mercurial entities.

>Cause unknown.

>Additional data required.

‘So you’re just as clueless as I am hm… The essence has high compatibility to void and my sword… Is it because I kept it in the vault too long or the material itself already somehow was associated with the void?’

While making her way back to the camp, lost in her thought she suddenly crouched down clutching her head as she remembered the reason she even entered the forest.

• “I burned all the tinder when I encountered that…! Gaaaaah I have to collect moooore!”

Her indignant yells echoed throughout the woods.

• “CURSE YOU MARE! HAD I KNOWN OF THIS INSULT I WOULD HAVE TAKEN MY TIME WITH YOU!!!”

Turns of the Mare did harm Alicia significantly… oh the injury and insult of re-doing a menial task you had already completed before… Much of her anger stemmed from the fact that she did it herself.