Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave offered his hand to help her up. “We’re not here about that. I need your help for something more immediate.” As he looked on the forest floor, he spotted something peculiar crossed out in the dirt. “Is that... tic-tac-toe?”

“Anneliese showed me that,” Onychinusa said unabashedly, then grabbed Argrave’s wrist to rise to her feet awkwardly. “It’s a stupid game, but they’re children.”

A thousand-year-old elf calls thousand-year-old forest dwellers children, while acting like the epitome of one herself in many scenarios. Argrave held his tongue, but glanced at Anneliese and felt she shared the same sentiments he did.

“We would like to ask a favor of you,” Anneliese began her pitch. “We need to call upon your shamanic magic. There’s a place that we cannot reach without it.”

“Reach?” the woman repeated, looking at the two of them. “You mean transportation, then.”

“Yeah. One spell to reach there, one spell to return from there,” he summarized.

“One person?” she said, taking account of all variables.

“Two. Us,” Argrave pointed his finger between himself and Anneliese. “I suppose three, if you count yourself.”

“Okay. Best get everything that you need done, because I won’t stress my spirits beyond that extent. You have one chance,” she shook her head, then walked past Argrave. “Are you ready now?”

One chance, indeed, Argrave thought. One chance to get you to agree to ruin Kirel Qircassia’s plan, cause a falling out.

“Let’s walk a little closer to the site itself, then, to ease your spirits\' burden,” Argrave suggested, taking the lead. Orion was already ready to come along, and so Argrave called out to Batbayar, “Myriarch. Are you staying here, or are we going back?”

“I want to speak to the mother dryad,” he called back.

Argrave nodded, then looked to Onychinusa. “Well... let’s go, shall we?”

#####

“In all your years, you never learned about your own lineage?” Anneliese asked Onychinusa as they walked back to where the mandragora and the library waited.

Argrave was very surprised to see that Anneliese had broken down Onychinusa’s defensiveness enough to ask a question as bold as that and not have the immediate response be a tantrum of some kind.

“I told you... I know what you’re doing, so stop,” Onychinusa shook her head.

“You must not have cared to ask,” Anneliese continued. “I mean... Erlebnis is the god of knowledge, and you are his mortal champion. He couldn’t have forbidden you to learn. It’s antithetical.”

Onychinusa spared a glance at Anneliese, perhaps surprised that was the direction the conversation took. “Not all knowledge is important,” she said dismissively. “I learned only what was important.”

“But the dryad is claiming that learning of your lineage will allow you to empower her,” Argrave cut in. “If it can do that much... well, hell. It’s got to be important, somehow. Given how hard this place was to reach, it might be something Erlebnis might not even know. There’s nothing wrong with learning. Part of the reason Erlebnis allowed us to come here was because he believed the dryads had secrets.”

“Is that true?” Onychinusa looked at him.

“Of course,” Argrave nodded.

Onychinusa turned her head forward, then grew silent. “...call him Lord,” she muttered quietly after a while. “Both of you.”

Argrave held his hand out. “I think... I think I can do that.”

Onychinusa looked at him once more in surprise, then faced ahead, her face a complex storm of thought. Argrave was ready to say more, but Anneliese pinched him and raised a gloved finger to her lips. Let her think, she mouthed. Argrave nodded, trusting her judgment.

The four of them moved in silence, Orion leading them back to where the mandragora was as he cleared bits of crushed Yettle out of the way.

After giving Onychinusa sufficient time to think, Anneliese said, “Argrave and Orion rediscovered their lineage. It gave them tremendous ability and knowledge.”

Onychinusa looked at the two of them curiously, Orion looked back, and said in confusion, “...but Argrave knew for a long time before—"

“She’s right,” Argrave interrupted Orion. “Our ancestor, Vasquer... she’s a Gilderwatcher, a sort of snake that grows to be miles long with a body as thick as an elephant. With her help, I was able to learn how to fully understand the mind of another person—in this case, my sister. More than that, we saw all of the past that she’d seen. We saw the last cycle of judgment-- Gerechtigkeit.”

Onychinusa did look impressed, but in the end her brows furrowed. “But you’re human, not a snake. You can’t be related.”

“It is true,” Orion backed up the statement. “Though not quite the most conventional ancestor, her compassion was a boundless ocean all the same.”

Onychinusa looked quite mortified as she pondered the forbidden, unanswerable Vasquer question, and in the end went silent once again.

“You cannot be punished for learning,” Anneliese said poignantly. “But I imagine you can be punished for not learning.”

“Yeah,” Argrave supported her claims, then looked at Anneliese, bringing up a card they’d both been holding. “The reason Dimocles was given responsibility was because he could be trusted to act independently, do what needed to be done.”

“Don’t talk about him. I hate him. I want him to drown,” Onychinusa responded instantly and violently.

Argrave chuckled. “Drown? Why drown?”

“Because it’s the most painful way to die,” she said venomously.

Argrave laughed louder, prompting even the ancient elf Onychinusa to chuckle slightly. Hers was a strange laughter—stuttery and jittery, but entirely natural and unrehearsed.

“Well... one of the things that I asked for, should everything go right with this... I asked for Dimocles to die,” Argrave said quietly, almost as if confiding.

Onychinusa looked at him. “What was the answer?”

“The emissary didn’t say yes... but didn’t say no, either.” Argrave looked to the ceiling above. “I figure they must still have a use for him yet. Something he has that you don’t. Seeing as how everyone here hates his guts, it can’t be interpersonal skills...”

Onychinusa blinked quickly, feeling indignant, confused, and focused all at the same time. As she did, Argrave looked to Anneliese.

Maybe... this can work, Argrave began to hope.

#####

“Don’t use the Lord’s blessing this time,” Onychinusa told Argrave firmly. “I have to teleport you with [Worldstrider].”

“Naturally,” Argrave said, trying his best not to sound offended by the fact she thought he was that stupid. “Orion, just wait here, if you would.”

“I will wait until the world itself ends,” he swore.

“...or maybe just a few hours,” Argrave said, attempting to ground him.

“Or a few hours,” Orion nodded just as seriously.

Onychinusa looked back to where the mandragora and the library waited for them. Argrave and Anneliese both paid very close attention to what she did, both of them hoping to grasp some insight about shamanic magic from this procedure of hers. The ancient elf raised up her hand and cast the spell in a fluid, quick, and near effortless motion, but Argrave paid very close attention to how the magic acted and how the spell called upon the spirits.

Argrave felt a familiar pull emerge as spirits danced out from her body, surrounding Argrave. This time, however, he did not feel that all-consuming passivity that had come last time, where he’d felt subdued and thoughtless before her spirits. It confirmed to him then that she had intended to abduct him with spirits without his permission in the past, and now this time things were not the same. He caught fleeting glimpses of the spirits as they weaved around him and Anneliese.

Argrave felt like his whole body was being stretched-- not pulled apart, but rather stretched as though he was doing literal stretches with his body. This intensely satisfying feeling lasted no longer than a moment, and then... all he saw changed. Argrave was staring at a door frame.

He whipped his head about in surprise by the sudden change, then spotted the mandragora’s thick wooden body just ahead. He slowly got his bearings, looking around... and then stepped inside the library in panic. Anneliese was here, just as confounded. The two of them got their wits about them just as Onychinusa’s body came to join them, black mist condensing by them until she was whole once again.

“Done,” Onychinusa declared.

Argrave took a deep breath, and then moved quickly inside the library, taking a survey of the place. He looked at the ceiling, at the walls, ensuring that no damage was done. He’d seen the outside and noticed no structural damage, but what was most important was the contents of the place. Perhaps he’d missed some of the floor having collapsed, or any number of things.

“It’s all here,” Argrave breathed out in relief. “Do you know what this place is? Of course you don’t,” Argrave answered for them.

This library was not like many others that Argrave had gone to before. The Alchemist’s library, the library in the Order of the Rose headquarters... they were grand, tall, and housed all books high and low. But this place served two purposes: a personal study, and a teacher’s study. It had a rather quaint atmosphere to it.

The whole of it was one giant stone room, filled with many bookshelves each perhaps eight feet tall. It had no walls-- instead, there were railed balconies that overlooked what would have once been a vibrant underground garden, but was now only an empty abyss. It had two sections, from Argrave’s eye-- one for visitors, and another for personal use.

“This was where the second to last sovereign of the ancient elven empire lived out his days after his abdication,” Argrave commentated as he walked around. “He was a spellcaster. Over there, he worked on his craft, honing it and perfecting it,” Argrave pointed to a small space that had many books behind glass cases, then turned his head to the other parts of the library. “Most of his time, though... it was occupied teaching his grandchildren.”

Argrave walked between the shelves, looking upon the largely undecayed books. “His own kids were all politician, statesmen, and rulers. They didn’t make the time to care for their children. Instead, they lumped them off on ol’ granddad. He’d teach them about the kingdom, teach them about how to rule... I think he liked it.”

Onychinusa looked totally confused, but she followed along nonetheless as Argrave came to the personal desk of the man he’d been speaking of. He opened a drawer and took out a stash of parchments and a key just beneath it.

“These are lesson plans for his grandkids,” Argrave outlined, then looked at Onychinusa. “I’m sure you want me to stop beating around the bush, so... let me do that. I came here to get this man’s spells that he made,” Argrave looked to the glass case in the distance, where dangerous things were kept out of reach of children. "They’re experimental, and can’t be found anywhere else. But I think there’s something you can gain, too.”

Argrave handed her the lesson plans, and Onychinusa took them off his hands in confusion.

“This is your grandfather’s library,” Argrave said, sitting on the desk. “I mean... it makes sense, doesn’t it? Who else would the imperial family preserve but one of their own children? That’s you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You must be making one of those jokes. How could you know any of this? It’s impossible,” she shook her head.

Argrave only shrugged, staring at the stack of parchments in her hand. “You’ll learn soon enough, anyhow. I don’t think you were ever meant to come here, but you have.”

Certainly, in Heroes of Berendar, Onychinusa never came here. This place was only a location for the player to gain a few powerful spells. Beyond that, the player could learn some interesting lore if they already had enough information about the ancient elven empire and Onychinusa to put the pieces together about who this place’s owner was and how they related to the woman in front of him.

“Why don’t you look around? Meanwhile, I’ll get what I came here for,” Argrave pointed to the glass display cases off to the side.

Onychinusa looked down at the papers with anxiety. Argrave gestured for Anneliese to come with him, and then the two of them came upon the glass display case. He fit in the key he’d retrieved from the desk moments ago, and the lid popped open. There, five books waited for him.

“Five tomes... and these were potent enough to make you consider...?” Anneliese trailed off, leaving words unspoken.

Strong enough to make me think we might fight Erlebnis’ emissaries and maybe win, Argrave finished her words in his head, then reached and took the first of them.

“That’s right...” he said, weighing it in his hand. “Let’s, uhh... open it up, I guess. One for you, madam?”