Chapter Twenty-Two

Talli was humming as she bustled around her small herbalist shop, performing her normal end-of-day closing activities, watering her herbs and plants while mixing the tiniest amount of life magic into her tune to help her little green children flourish. Talli the healer, as she preferred to be called, particularly by her human acquaintances, who went by such simple names as Katie, or Faith, or Peri, or James, or Walter, or Jay. She stopped her line of thought there, a happy little smile blossoming on her face as she thought of that despicable human who wormed his way into her heart, a small uptick in her tune along with a small spike in magic energy reflected her mood.

The sun had just dipped below the horizon, casting the sky in various shades of red, pink, and orange, when her front door chime tinkled, letting her know a potential customer had arrived. It was unfortunate, she thought as she made her way towards the door, that she had already closed for the day. As long as it wasn’t an emergency, they would have to return tomorrow. Or so she thought, until she spied a tall, slender elven man pacing through her shop. Confidence seemingly streamed off his shoulders, his eyes holding a hint of haughty arrogance as he glanced around the cluttered store. Talli ended her previously light and happy tune with tones of somber sadness and anger.

“Excuse me, sir,” Talli spoke, politely, despite her rude guest as she rounded a row of plants. “I have to apologize, my store is closed for the day, however I’ll be open tomorrow morning at dawn should you still require my services.”

The elven man glared at her briefly, saying nothing as he dropped the full weight of his mana pressure onto her shoulders.

“Tallivera Ashaxid, for crimes against the Elven Confederacy, King Darvazerít has dispatched squad three of Vashox to escort you home to face trial. Please come quietly, I would hate to deliver you to the court in… less than whole condition.” An ugly smirk was plastered on his face as his eyes scanned up and down Talli’s body. A sad look passed across Talli’s face as a sigh escaped her lips.

“I can’t believe that shit stain is still hunting me after all this time. Poison one disgusting little princeling and get hunted for eternity. Ridiculous.” The elven assassin’s face fell from its smug look to one of anger and impatience.

“Girl, don’t downplay your crimes, you didn’t just poison the prince; half of the noble inheritors died that night to your machinations.” A look of faux realization popped up on Talli’s face.

“Oh, yea! I suppose I did do that. It’s not like they didn’t deserve it though,” she shrugged. “After all, they did plan to rape me at that little party. Me, a poor little commoner elf. I was just acting in self-defense. Mhm. Yup. Self-defense.” Talli nodded, as if her flawless logic immediately exonerated her in front of this leader of murderers.

“Enough! You will either willingly come with us, or I will remove a few unnecessary body parts and then you will come with us. Choose!” he both shouted and growled, all pretense of cordiality dropped.

“Well, Mister Shadow, I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse both options. You see, you and your compatriots have so graciously intruded into my domain. You’ll most likely have noticed I run an herbalist shop, and I’m sure a premier member of the elvish executioner squads did their homework on all of my known skills and abilities, which primarily involves life magic in conjunction with plants, obviously extending to poisons.” Talli stopped her for a moment as several elves fell out of various shadows, their bodies paralyzed as toxins attacked their primary nervous and cardiovascular systems. “You and your fellow members also most likely made preparations against the many known poisons of the world, which is why I had to create a new toxin, grafting and coaxing several species of poisonous plants together to make something entirely new.” The assassin leader collapsed to his knees at this point, breaths coming in short gasps.

“The main shortcoming is it is slow acting, having to build up in the victim’s system through aerosol intake. I’m glad you were feeling so chatty. Of course I expected this, you high born elves and your silly pride, otherwise this might have been much uglier. I’d have had to use the root systems in place under the floor boards to turn you all into little elvish meat skewers. That would have been messy.” The elf fully succumbed to the poison at this point, breaths ceasing as his eyes glossed over. Talli looked around at the corpses at her feet and sighed once more.

“Such silly loss of life, all because of a bunch of arrogant pricks.” The door chime tinkled once again as Talli was preparing to move the bodies. She quickly scampered to the front door to find Ray Jering strolling in.

“Hey little elf, just dropping by to see how everything is going.”

Talli quickly placed a hand on Ray’s shoulder, infusing his body with the correct life magic instructions to counteract the poison still lingering in the room.

“Good timing Ray, I do actually need a spare pair of hands. First, could you open the windows and lock the door for me, please? It’d be rather troublesome if someone else walked in while we were disposing of these bodies and was poisoned while we were preoccupied.”

Ray blankly stared at the elven woman in front of him for a moment before sighing and silently doing as he was asked. If he didn’t ask questions, and didn’t know the answers, nobody could blame him. Plausible deniability at its pinnacle.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Elise Wintz was slowly sipping on a glass of fine wine as she watched her family and the nobles of their kingdom celebrate the conception of a new heir. The Stone Princess had returned and was gradually becoming known as a new moniker, the Ice Princess, instead. Previously she was simply unfeeling, emotionless, however the weeks following the departure of Jay had found her even less tolerant of the frivolities of court and her contemporaries it spawned.

Elise dearly hoped her new little brother would be more carefully supervised and instructed, otherwise… well, she didn’t want to tread too far down that line of thought. Watching her parents acting so joyfully was somewhat of a relief, causing the smallest of smiles to appear behind her glass as she took a sip. They needed happy news, especially after all the recent events, her mother the most. After the death of her brother, Caroline Wintz had fallen into a small depression which was thankfully quickly overcome through distraction by her father’s enthusiasm to produce a new male child.

A happy flutter shot through her when she remembered how excited and pleased her mother had been a few days ago when she strolled through the middle of the court proceedings. She strolled straight up to King Darius and plopped right down on his lap in front of the entire court before whispering in his ear the good news. She had just returned from the life mages who attended The Mother’s temple who informed her she had conceived and been blessed with a boy. Her lack of decorum was immediately excused as everyone laughed and cheered, congratulating the two. That was regrettably the only happy news.

Beyond that, Drennan spies had reported alarming movement amongst every single bordering neighbor. The Crads and Vux were both showing increased production of arms, armor, and recruitment for their militaries, while the southern elves shared whispers of foreign intrusions onto Draskian soil. Troubled times seemed to loom on the horizon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shira was having a difficult time of maintaining a pleasant façade in front of Rividus as they sipped tea. It didn’t help that both Daphenious and Vratix, two polar opposites, were accompanying them. From an outside perspective, this would be a bizarre collection of gods to witness. The serious and pure Shira seated across from the bloodthirsty, warmonger Rividus, while the light hearted party animal Daphenious and the stoic, gloomy Vratix sat to the sides. Vratix had started dropping by more regularly, as both a way to poke fun at his little sister and possibly to simply interact with his siblings. He wasn’t the most social guy after all. It made for an odd collection indeed, and was most likely the exact reason Shira had not already blasted the pretentious little arrogant asshole seated before her.

He had once again come seeking an audience, which really just meant he wanted a date and another chance to attempt to get in her pants… gown… robe, thing. Whatever. The prick just wanted to fuck her, it was obvious, and the only reason she was even entertaining the scumbag and his ‘desire to court her’ was the fact that he had a tendency to let important information slip about his pantheon’s home, Gerani. He loved to brag about his follower’s conquests, their colosseum, the blood, how great he was, how devoted some of his followers could be to pioneering new routes of invasion.

He was going on particularly at length about one of his more successful devotees, some mortal named Tirious Bendleweiss, a real piece of work from what he was saying. Vicious, cunning, wealthy, with a noble title earned through contributions to the empire. Apparently, he was making steady inroads into new opportunities for his country and god but had recently met a few unfortunate setbacks.

This is why Shira put up with his shit. Slip of the tongue information like this. Although how much of a slip it was could be debated. She’d be lying if she said Rividus wasn’t a cunning, sly, and, while she’d never admit to it, intelligent, son of a bitch. Anyone who became a god, even lower ones such as them, had to be.

Her lovely Jay had recently put the smack down on a large part of this Tirious’ operation, which is why this slip of the tongue was actually much more important than Rividus apparently realized. The only reason the three of them knew anything about this was their somewhat unhealthy obsession with Jay’s exploits.

Through the context clues and a bit of extrapolation, the empire of Gerani was apparently gearing up for an expansionist movement, having already fully controlled their own continent and was looking to expand the ‘glory of their god’s teachings’ to more far reaching locations, sending out feelers and expeditions under the guise of slave marketing, merchants, explorers, diplomats, etcetera. All three of them would be sending alerts to their most pious of followers. Warnings of dark days ahead.

The only question was when it would occur.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kara and Bane slunk through the tall grasses of the Drennan countryside. They had regrettably had to part ways from their adopted humans on the trip to Rike. The Call of the Dark Forest had been sent out, and all denizens, present or prior, were required to attend. A new leader was required for the inhabitants of the world’s most dangerous environment, someone to take control of the feral shadows lurking within the boughs and direct their ferocity on their enemies.

Bane huffed, growling a bit towards his sister, who simply snorted.

It had been centuries, perhaps longer, since a Call had been made. It almost always prefaced a time of immense change and bloodshed in both the forest and the world. Bane and Kara could both feel it, even from their current distance. Something big was coming, a huge change, not just for their forest, but the world itself. A shimmer passed over Bane’s coat, his mana agitating unconsciously as his excitement for the inevitable fight to come stirred. Kara bared her teeth in his direction in a ferocious approximation of a grin, her own emotions mirroring his. They were family, they were Drenz, and they would slaughter everything in their path.