Pixies are a unique and strange race. They aren’t an overly trusting bunch with poor combat prowess, and if grounded will lose their only slight advantage. The upsides of being a pixie, their extraordinary speed when flying, and their unshakable bond with the natural world. It is unfortunate that their magic is so limited. Every pixie possesses an overwhelming bond with one single aspect of nature. In fact it is so overwhelming that the older a pixie gets the more their bodies change to reflect their Thread.

This is an effect known as arcane bleeding, and is the worst nightmare for a spellcaster. Instead of controlling magic in a fantastic external fashion. The arcane is uncontrolled, and runs wild inside the body of said mage. This is a death sentence for most spellcasters as their bodies warp into dysfunction and every mundane function shuts down. For a magical being, like a pixie it is a lifelong curse.

Most pixie offshoots state that they have found contentment with their basic communion and their simple lives, but that is a lie. All pixies desire to rid their people of their afflicted birthright. They want to return to the former glory of the Fae.

However, that is a topic for later though.

There are two types of pixies that, as a whole, don’t take this curse lying down. First you have the rot pixies which are just as nasty as they sound, actively kidnapping children for blood sacrifice. Second you have the earth pixies, they don't put up the same facade as their kin. Actively seeking out anyroad to power through hard work. They have taken on many qualities of the most infamous people of stone, the dwarves. Loving nothing more than forging, or crafting objects of beauty or using their magics to shape underground settlements. Earth pixies are supposed to be honest and hardworking, even if they are lacking in the brawn department.

These specific earth pixies toed the line of occult research and got exiled for it. They were dabbling in some of the more unexplored regions of magics and crafting, and discovered a lost art. For a time this lost art made them filthy rich, but it was a double edged sword. You see dear friends this clan had discovered a sacrificial art, an art which they used to create almost living charms and accessories. Having an item that could grow and change based upon what it and its wielder had been through was a wet dream for any adventurer.

Fame for a pixie is the same as infamy, the only clans gathered up their strongest protectors and smashed the clan of crafters. Though the clans had no idea of their revived sacrificial art, the alliance of pixies judged that too much attention from the humans was far worse. Those that survived the onslaught were exiled to the Lost Woods, a death sentence in its own right.

Despite this harrowing series of events Aldreya still had a voracious thirst for knowledge, and a deep curiosity about the world both mundane and magical. Vaelin on the other hand had a more practical curiosity, she was more interested in the applications of knowledge than knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Meaning that both women had a great interest in the magical and physical amalgamation that had stepped in and saved their people.

They both watched as the bug consumed a pile of bugs nearly ten times its size Aldreya peppered the bug with questions that were causaily ignored. Seeing the absolute glee on Aldreya’s face, and the pleading despair in the bug’s eyes made Vaelin want to laugh. Unfortunately, the weight of responsibility made itself known once more, and Lin flew off. She was up to her eyeballs in preparations for the settlement ritual. Since the pixies basically wielded monster-bait for magic they had to be very deliberate in their rituals.

Which required one to know all the factors. She had the unpleasant task of determining who was still alive and who was dead. All told they had lost thirty seven pixies on the trip here leaving them with only fifty six survivors including herself. She then had to do the brain numbing mana calculations. Of those that survived she had to figure out how much mana they would have left, again eating into their max quantity of mana. Then she had to figure out what percentage they could actually bring to bear during the ritual. Then she had to figure out what she could do with that quantity of mana. It was tedious but necessary work that had to be completed before sundown. Otherwise Lin would have to revise her calculation for tomorrow. Night being when most truly dangerous monsters were awake.

While Vaelin was busy our insect had to endure an endless stream of dialogue. Aldreya would ask a question about the deväk’s strange morphology, and then puzzle out a dozen possible answers to her own question. Finally getting sick and tired of her endless Q and A, our deväk gave in, “FiiiinEE. MeeeE GIive aanNsweerss.”

“Really? I was having fun guessing, but if you want to answer, I guess I won't turn it down.” Our bug was left in awe at the audacity of the pixie to be disappointed by getting the very answers she had been trying to puzzle out. Not noticing this Aldreya began with her fist question, “Okay well first things first, how can you talk?”

“GGGOt FRrroom... paaarrEnts? theeeeY kNEeeew hOw ssso I knooOOOW Tooo.”

“By 'parents' do you mean the creature you ate as a larva? Or your aväk progenitor?”

“BOOtth?”

Aldreya had many questions for the hatchling, yet the deväk's way of speaking only seemed to sprout more questions.It was almost like the bug was being intentionally unhelpful, but our deväk was no cunning linguist. So much was lost in both the questions and the bug’s answers. When Vaelin finally finished her work she flew towards the pond where the bug and Aldreya were. The black of its shell still greatly unsettled Lin, it looked like it drank in the light and had no defined depth to it. As if it was flat, and yet not at the same time. Generally speaking, it just looked like it should not be allowed. Twisted legs, blubus black shell that was oddly ill fitting, a human frame with insect limbs, and miniature Human eyes sticking out of a head lacking any other features gave the distinct impression that the deväk should not be alive. Or rather could not be alive. But as Vaelin approached, the deväk proved just how alive it was.

While flying towards the lake Vaelin had locked her attention on the deväk, not noticing that Aldreya was nearly screaming at the bug. Bug looked confused, but was shouting right back. The deväk didn’t really want to answer questions at first, but started to enjoy it when Aldreya’s face started changing colors in frustration. Then really got into it when she started shouting. Having a blast just saying nonsense words loudly back at Aldreya. It wasn’t sure why they were yelling, but it wouldn't stop it from having fun. Catching sight of Vaelin our bug waved its arm frantically and screamed out, “HeeeeLLLo! nEEEED Ssssomethiiiing?”

Vaelin winced at the volume , but the deväk seemed pleased as punch. Going so far as to put a horrid smile on both its tendrils. The smile in question was stretched too wide and curved up just a bit too much. Looking both cartoonish and nightmarish at the same time. Aldreya seemed to regain some control over herself at the sight of Vaelin.

“Ah… My lady, I am sorry for the disturbance, I lost myself there.”

“I never thought I’d see the day,” A note of awed respect in Vaelin’s tone, “I have seen you mad, and I’ve made you mad more times than I can count. I’ve poked, prodded, and teased you for decades and I’ve never seen you… Well hysterical like that. Yet when I leave you alone with a bug for less than an hour, you’re in full blown hysterics. How in the hell did this happen?”

“W-well you see,” A deep blush rose in Aldreya’s dark cheeks, “I was just trying to get some straight answers outta the bug, and it just wouldn’t. So eventually I tried to get the bug to share its status page, but it flat out refused, and I guess one thing added on another and… Well you know.”

After some light hearted chuckling from Vaelin, the two pixies were able to explain what they wanted the bug to do. However explaining it and actually getting the bug to do where entirely separate matters. With the patience of a saint Lin mediated between Aldreya and the bug. The deväk eventually succeeded and shared its status screen with both pixies.Alreya had hoped to fill in some of the blanks with the status screen, yet both pixies were shocked by the contents.

“...But, that’s... you can't have.H-How did you manage, to not only choose to conquer your sin, but also get to the second rank in under a week?” Asked a befuddled Vaelin.

Then Aldreya broke in before our deväk could answer, “How did you get three, gene pools? Why is the requirement for host-worms only 100? What is your plan for your evolution? Do you even have a plan? How did you gain combat level 5 without picking up any kind of weapon or Skills? How are you even moving with modifiers that low, doesn’t it hurt?”

The questions came so fast that our deväk shrugged in reflex. Which made Aldreya want to tear her hair out, since that had been the response to most of her questions.

“At least think a moment before shrugging!” Aldreya said shrilly, then taking a deep breath she continued, “At the very least I know, you can check why the requirements for the host-worms are different. It's tied to an Ability which should give you some innate knowledge or a vague feeling about it."

After a pause and seeing the confusion on the deväk tendrils, i.e. a horrific frown, Vae decided to rephrase what Aldreya had said. With a slight sigh and smile she said, “Take a guess.”

Before Aldreya could even muster an indigent comment our bug ground out, “OH. Ifff me guueSS theEEn Woould sssay wormmm iiis CLLOser TOo MarG thaaan AAn ANnt is to aANN Avvvväk, buutt Mee noO know. Tellll meee bout skillls.”

“… I suppose that is all we can really ask for right now. Well your Skills are very unusual. You should know that almost every Skill can be trained and leveled up. However, most of your skills are either stagnant or unique. Unique, meaning they have special ways to raise their effectiveness, and stagnant meaning that their effectiveness can’t be raised without a deep change in the Skill. In other words no combat experience nor training will raise these Skills. The Skill gained through your sin is a bit different.” Vae stopped in her monologue to see if the deväk was paying attention. To her surprise it was giving her its undivided attention. So she continued, “That skill will only get stronger through conquering more levels of Gluttony. Density may increase to level two when you no longer feel slow, or might you get something new. Which is fundamentally different from a normal Skill like The Path of Small Blades. This Skill would require the use and practice with knives or daggers to advance. Understand?”

“...Thiinnk ssSso. youu knOOW muuucCH Off ssssiiins?” The deväk acknowledged after a short pause.

“Quite a lot actually. Most people think of sins as bad things. While it is more apt to say they are what you make of them. They can be like trials, or slippery slopes toward madness. It all depends on the wielder.”

“From an academic standpoint they are the fastest ways to power…” Cut in Aldreya for some reason she wouldn’t make eye contact with Vaelin. As if she was angry with the other pixie.

“… That’s true in a way, but no matter how quickly they take you towards power. They can destroy you thrice as fast. Though you were branded with this due to over indulgent behavior you had a choice. You could have chosen to let such desires guide you, and in the end you would become subject to them, this is the easy path. You have, even if it was unwittingly chosen the path of the conqueror, the difficult path. This means you battle against your own nature to overcome it. Slipping on this path is a sure fire way to become mindless, however succeeding gants far greater power. If you can rank a sin all the way up all negative side effects go away. The sin becomes a Core Trait granting you special passive and a Unique Skill. For example I have both the Pride and Lust sins maxed. Pride makes me immune to stuff like Doubt and Manipulation, while increasing my mind modifiers. While Lust… Well let's just say I tire half as quickly and can go twice as long…” It was Vaelin’s turn to avoid eye contact, though this was most assuredly from embarrassment.

“And that's just the tip of the iceberg! It gets so much worse!” Exclaimed in faux excitement Aldreya, not seeming to have noticed Vaelin’s embarrassment, “Once you get them max rank you can try to earn a Horn. Legends say that Horns grant new magic and unbelievable physical might, but to earn one you have to prove yourself a true master or true servant of your sin. Failing this will cause horrible alterations to both your mental and physical self! Sounds great right? I bet you want to know how to rank up yours so you can submit yourself to such horrible consequences, right?”

Vigorous head nodding was the deväk only response. Despite the bugs' new found love of talking it was still very hard for it to understand sarcasm. After an exasperated sigh from Aldreya Vae spoke up, “Well I hate to say it, but the only thing that I can really tell you about Gluttony is that you need to get it to rank seven to max it out. Same as all the other sins.”

Vae paused thinking about what she had read on the deväk stat screen. “However, I can guess what you have to do for your current rank. I'd say that you have to keep moving until it reaches one hundred percent.”

Our bug nodded again its voice sore, and only able to force out one word, “UunDderStttaannd.”

“Good. Well if you manage to pull this off, I'm sure the clan will be more than happy to help you find your last gene pool. So don't dine and dash on us once you eat your last Host-Worm, yeah?” Aldreya said it in a joking tone, but the deväk nodded slowly, contemplating the new concept of betrayal.

If she hadn’t said anything then our bug would have never even considered such a course of action. It could leave the pixies to die once it got all the worms, if enough worms showed up, but something deep in its brain screamed out. The fragments of Leon found the idea of betrayal distasteful. Besides, the possibility of that bonus reward was quite tempting.

Vaelin started leading the group back towards an alcove, and the rest of the clan which was in an uproar after learning that they were doing the ritual today. Though our bug couldn’t make out what they were doing exactly it could tell they were excited to be doing it. Hell they were probably ecstatic to be doing anything other than the solemn death march they had been on

As they all walked, Vaelin asked a very important question, “Do you have a plan?”

Our bug just shrugged. It had never used a plan before so why use one now.

“I was afraid of that, but lucky for you I have a very simple one in mind. Just for you!” Vaelin spoke with almost too much excitement, but the plan was simple: the pixies would join together and begin their ritual to do... Whatever they were going to do while the deväk would hold the hordes' attention. Exactly how that would be done was unknown to the bug, but Aldreya seemed to understand adopting the same too pleased expression as Lin.

“Ohh right, one more thing before that, would you like a weapon?”

Our young deväk gave this some serious thought as well. It liked stabbing things with its tendrils, but it wasn't ready to get past its oversight with the queen just yet and didn't want to open itself up to attack. It seemed to the deväk that its greatest weapon was also the spot of its great weakness. So perhaps a new weapon to rely upon would be best.

“YEEs meee waantTTt loOOOngg stabbbby HHharrd thinGS.”

Vaelin smiled devilishly before muttering in a low tone, “Story of my life…” Then continued in a much louder tone, “We should take a look through our limited armory to see if there is something you’d like.”

The trio began a leisurely walk back towards an alcove that positively swarmed with pixies. Aldreya and Vaelin chated, but our bug was busy paying attention to the sights. Mainly the feverishly working pixies. Many seemed to be flying back and forth from the alcove to the pond’s edge. Each doing a seemingly mundane task endlessly. Like fetching a pail of water, or dumping a sack of dirt, or even gathering twigs and leaves. It was mesmerizing to watch, however as our group got closer the workers bent and twisted out of their way. Most were still incredibly wery of getting near the unknown that was the deväk, and those that weren’t could almost feel a palpable wrongness surrounding the bug. Even though many of the pixies had an urgent need to speak with Vaelin or Aldreya, none approached, and the trio made it into the alcove unmolested. Once under the cover of the alcove our bug saw what had been hidden by shadows before. A surface of gleaming metal greeted the bug. Enraptured, our curious friend tried to scratch it with a claw, there was an unpleasant screeching, but the metal was left unblemished. To our young friend it looked to be the shiniest, most durable chitin it had ever seen and our bug got lost in a fantasy of gleaming steel and unblemished armor. While the two pixies just let the bug look on in childlike wonder.

“WhhhhaAt ISs Itt?”

“Though we are not exactly sure we, Vaelin and I believe that it is a suit of possessed armor. Or at least it used to be... Whatever it was it’s clear that it was meant to contain some type of energy. We’ve been digging to find how much of the suit is actually left and it seems like it's almost fully intact. What’s more, the suit is huge, at least three times the size of human armor. What you are looking at is just part of the helmet.”

Before our bug could ask any questions Vaelin cut in, “The reason why this is so exciting for us is because it usually takes several months of hard work to make a settlement fit to live in. The most important feature of any pixies settlement is the barrier. Usually it is a thin membrane enchanted to contain any and all magical signatures that pixies give off. To enchant it a ritual must be performed, usually on individual pieces and then set up at the new settlement site. It is slow work that would get us killed instantly if we tried to do it that way. However, this armor that we believed to be a cruel joke has now become our salvation. Not only would it provide ample space for us in the short term, but it’ll require a third of the work. You see whether this armor contained a spirit, or something else, it is already primed for containing magic. All we have to do is tune it to our magic, and…”

Vaelin shook her head and gestured up and to her right, just a little ways up from where they were standing was a massive gaping rent in the helmet.

“We haven’t been able to find the missing piece which means during the ritual most of our power will be going to fixing the rent and other flaws in the armor. If we had attempted this without someone to protect us we would have been dinner in a blink.”

There was silence as all three walked up a small incline that went up and into the helmet. The armor was positioned vertically like it had been buried in an instant, leaving no time to even properly fall over. The entirety of the helmet had cleared out and on the opposite side of the rent the face plate was open allowing a great volume of pixies to stream in and out. Nearby the face plate was a small shack of twigs and leaves which seemed to be their ultimate destination. Again our bug noticed the aversion the other pixies seemed to have about getting close, before the deväk could ask about it they made it to the hut.

Calling it an armory was a bit misleading. Holding no more than twenty or so unclaimed weapons. There were swords styled to look like thorns and flowers, bows made from spider silk, staves made from gems and twigs, but nothing it saw looked like anything our young deväk might've wanted. In total there were eight swords, six bows, five staves, and three oddly pulsating flowers.

Despite not liking the weapons at first glance our deväk decided to be thorough and test how they felt. All the swords, which were made and designed for pixies. They had handles that were much too small for our deväk’s ever increasing size. A few were large enough, but with six fingers they all felt uncomfortable. The swords did fit in its auxiliary hands, but seeing as those hands already had sharp claws it felt redundant. Besides, the swords were a bit too heavy for the small limbs. The bows required a completely different combat style and were the direct opposite from the deväk normal style. Which was up close and personal.

After Vae had explained what bows were and how useful they could be, our deväk decided to see how it felt to draw a bowstring. Unfortunately the unenhanced bow string snapped under the deväk's clawed fingers. Picking up the staves next our deviation set it down almost immediately. It had no stabby bits which was thoroughly disappointing, and since the deväk didn't know what magic was it felt they were extra useless. Finally the deväk eyed the flowers curiously, not even knowing where to begin.

“Just grab one by the stem.” Suggested a smirking Vae an evil glint in her eyes..

With narrowed eyes the deväk hissed, “wHAaat it Ddoooo?”

Aldreya sighed, a bit exasperated from Vaelins constant antiques, but still smiled and said, “Just do it.”

Wary, but without much thought the deväk grabbed the stem. The flower wrapped itself tightly around the startled deväks wrist and began to grow vines up its arm. This is when our bug began to panic. The flower stopped glowing and dimmed its color to match that of the deväks. It didn't match perfectly but it hid on the underside of its arm, so it was hard to notice. Yet the bug could still feel the vines squirming all over. It was insanely uncomfortable, and as the girls watched the week old bug thrash on the floor helpless they both burst into laughter.

Before the few week old bug slayer could throw a tantrum Vae spoke up choking down the last of her laughter and explained, “We call them leech flowers. They help stop bleeding, and promote the speed of healing. Unfortunately, they will drink your blood first, but only enough to keep itself alive. We find them quite useful aids in combat since they latch on to a host and are very hard to detect.”

“Issss theerre a lllimmit?”

“Yeah? When you run out of blood they stop helping.” Said a cavileer Vaelin.

“Plus the flowers can only do so much, and overuse can lead to death. It is not something to be used lightly.” Said the slow rough voice of Gwyn. Vae whipped her head towards Gwyn and an awkward moment of silence passed between before Gwyn spoke again. “I would think with all that needs to be done you two would allow those of lesser import to deal with such menial tasks.”

Which essentially translated to, ‘I need you to stop lollygagging, and get back to work.’

“...Yes, sir.” Vae put emphasis on sir as though she was mocking Gwyn. Aldreya just hung her head, not daring to make eye contact. Though it didn’t seem to be out of guilt or shame, but anger judging by the set of her jaw and the clenching of her hands. They left the armory with not more than a few mutterings about something Gwyn should gag on.