Chapter 361: A Quest Of Old

A sudden knock at the door broke Grolm from his daydream. He got up from his seat and ledger with a heavy groan and went to get the door.

He wondered to himself who would be visiting at this late hour and grabbed the fire poker for his own protection.

He pushed the door open just a crack. “Who is it?”

“A friend of Kithina.”

Grolm slowly looked up in mute surprise. His eyes widened to saucers and his jaw went slack. A towering cloaked figure loomed before him, but where there might have been legs, instead there was only a sapphire serpentine tail.

Grolm stumbled backwards and pointed at the stranger with a shaky finger, “L-l-lami-i-i-aaaa!”

Lysaila rolled her eyes at the terrified ramble and pushed the door open. She slithered inside the small home and glanced about, “I heard this is where Kithina lives. Is Kitty here?”

“K-Kitty?” Grolm stiffened.

What sort of trouble had his precious Kithina gotten herself into? Was the infamous deadly monster here to kill her? Or worse, eat her?

Grolm’s legs trembled but he gathered himself up and gripped his fire poker. “W-What do you w-want with my daughter?”

Lysaila glanced at the fire poker and slowly looked up at the dwarf’s pale face. She could practically smell the fear on him. She could definitely hear the fear in his chest, his heart was beating so fast she wouldn’t be surprised if he dropped dead right then and there.

“You dwarves, always ready for a fight, hm?” Lysaila smirked and flicked the door closed behind her with her tail. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Grolm swallowed hard and whispered a prayer to the ebon gods.

“Are you praying?” Lysaila laughed. “I thought you and your family weren’t believers.”

Gidget opened her bedroom and poked her head into the hallway, “Honey, is someone here—? G-Grolm, what are you doing!?”

“Darling, stay back!” Grolm said and jumped between the bedroom and the lamia.

Lysaila didn’t move and simply watched him quiver with amusement.

Gidget frowned, walked out of her bedroom, and slapped her husband across the back, “Put that down before you hurt yourself!”

“Ow!” Grolm jumped. “What are you doing!? Get back inside! Can’t you see I’m trying to protect this family!”

“You’re putting our family in danger is what you’re doing!” Gidget snapped at him. She turned to the lamia and smiled warmly, “Hello, dear, you must be Lysaila, Kitty has told me so much about you.”

Lysaila blinked, “She has?”

“Yes, but her stories don’t do you justice, clearly. It is our honor to have you in our house,” Gidget bowed her head.

“Wait, you know her?” Grolm asked.

“She’s Kitty’s friend.”

“Oh,” Grolm dropped the fire poker unceremoniously and laughed, “Oh, why didn’t you say so?”

Lysaila furrowed her brow, “I did…”

“It’s been a long day, why don’t you go to bed, honey? I’ll make some tea and get Kitty,” Gidget said.

Grolm stretched his arms out and yawned, “Sounds good to me. Miss Lysaila, it was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Right…” Lysaila said dryly.

A few minutes later Lysaila could hear the water in the kettle boiling from the kitchen. After several attempts, Gidget had finally woken up sleepy Kithina. The young dwarf mage sat on the couch across from Lysaila in the small living room.

Kithina’s mass of red hair was strewn across her face like a bramble bush. She rubbed her eyes constantly and groaned softly.

Lysaila glanced about the room with a thoughtful gaze, “So this is where you live…?”

“Mm, for now,” Kithina yawned. “When did you get back?”

“Earlier this afternoon. It took me a few hours to find this place, your instructions weren’t very clear. Turns out drunks give terrible directions.”

“Well, I’m sober now.” Kithina clapped her cheeks and shook her head, “And I’m awake now too.”

“Wonderful, we can finally have a proper conversation.”

“Well, this is interesting,” Kithina smiled.

“What is?”

“You. Being here. You’ve never wanted to come before, I can only guess you have a good reason now.”

“I do. But I’m guessing you have a lot of questions before that.”

Kithina crossed her arms, “Obviously.”

“...You get three questions.”

“Is it true? What they said about an Ebon Aspirant appearing in the tourney?”

“My, you people are behind,” Lysaila rolled her serpentine eyes. “It is.”

“Well, who is it? Do I know them—?”

“It’s Stryg.”

“What…? WHAT!?” Kithina jumped to her feet.

“And that’s four questions.”

“W-wha? No! That’s not fair and you know it! You can’t just tell me something like Stryg is a goddamn Ebon Aspirant and then tell me nothing more!”

“Fine,” Lysaila sighed. “Stryg is a prime mage, a master at that. He revealed his abilities during the 2nd Challenge of Pillar & Sea. Everyone had that same stupid expression you have on now. As for Stryg he’s become quite renowned in Undergrowth, especially after he won the tourney.”

“He won the tourney?” Kithina fell back on the chair. “Like personally? I mean, I knew he was strong but… an Aspirant? And he never told us?”

“That boy seems to have more secrets than he lets on.”

“I need to talk to him.”

“Good luck with that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure everyone will be talking about it soon enough, but after the tourney, Lady Thorn attacked us, she attacked all the foreign teams and diplomats. Undergrowth has turned its back on the other Great Cities and is preparing for war.”

Kithina paled, “Oh my gods… Is Ca— …I-Is everyone okay?”

Lysaila shrugged, “We don’t know where the Noir and Glaz mages are, and Stryg left for Vulture Woods with the Katag one and some other girl called Plum.”

“Plum? Wait, you saw Plumela!?”

“You know her? Actually, I don’t care. The point is the others are fine.”

“That’s not enough! What exactly happened in Undergrowth!?”

“Not enough? I thought you said I should come here if I ever needed your help, not for you to interrogate me,” Lysaila glared at her.

“Right, sorry. You can tell me later I guess…” Kithina said sheepishly.

“The tea is ready!” Gidget called out from the kitchen. “I’m gonna head to bed. Have a good night you two.”

“Thanks, mom,” Kithina answered with a small smile. She turned to Lysaila and nodded, “So, what do you need?”

“...I met someone. I think she was a Mortem mage or someone like them.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

“This woman, she has the ability to control my movements. It was like what happened with Stryg, but worse. I was helpless against her,” Lysaila admitted with frustration.

“That sounds terrible,” Kitty said sympathetically.

“It was…” Lysaila balled her fists, “But the good thing is we made a deal, her and I.”

“What kind of deal?”

“If I help her with something, she promised to break the Prime Edict within my body. I’ll be free at last from the Mortem Order’s curse.”

“That sounds great, but can you trust her?”

“I don’t have much of a choice. I have no other leads, this is the closest one of my tribe has ever gotten this close to breaking the Prime Edict.”

“Okay, so how can I help?”

“This woman wants me to destroy a chrome gate in the Ebon Realm.”

“Chrome gate? Like the ones that let you travel through the Null Realms? But I thought they were all destroyed after the Schism by the feuding Houses?”

“One survived. It's how I came to this realm.”

“So you know where it is.”

“I’m the only one who's not by Marek’s side that does,” Lysaila nodded.

“But even if you do, can’t only the Ebon Lords operate the gates? Why would this woman want you to destroy it?” Kithina asked.

“Because there are others who can open the chrome gate. A pair of twins, archmages. They serve the warlord Marek.”

“Shit, that explains a lot… So this woman wants you to destroy the gate to prevent the warlord from escaping?”

“No, I’m afraid it's much worse than that.” Lysaila bit her lip, “I haven’t told you or anyone else for that matter. But when I was traveling with the warlord we came upon this cave in the Rupture Mountains. Deep in the earth, we found something, these otherworldly silver eggs. We hatched them…”

Kithina narrowed her eyes, “And what exactly was inside?”

Lysaila swallowed and she smiled shakily, “Monsters. Monsters from the Age of Titans, immune to any magic we threw at them and with skin harder than steel and claws sharper than any magical weapon I’ve ever seen. They are called Unildyr, I think.”

“…They can’t be that bad right?” Kithina grimaced.

“I don’t think you understand. These things are literal dragon killers. I’ve seen what happened when mages tried to fight them. They could do nothing against these monsters, nothing. Those mages died, their souls were devoured, and the Unildyr were mere hatchlings! They’ve only grown since, I can’t even begin to imagine how large they are now. Marek plans on using them to destroy the shade wall.”

“And you didn’t think to mention any of this earlier?!”

“I didn’t care what happened to the people of this land,” Lysaila admitted.

“We have to warn the city lords,” Kithina stood up anxiously.

“No, they wouldn’t believe us anyway. Even if they somehow did, there is no way they would follow a lamia anywhere, especially into the unknown wilderness. Besides, this woman, Holo, she calls herself, she said that she’ll make sure the city is properly warned.”

“So what are we supposed to do?”

Lysaila bit her lip, “I’m not going to lie to you, Kitty. Holo believes the enemy in the future may plan to transport some of the Unildyr to other realms. If that's true, and the Unildyr cross over… If they reproduce and spread… all life could be destroyed. No matter what happens, we cannot allow the Unildyr to cross to another realm. The Ebon Realm may already be lost. If it is, then the least we can do is save the other realms.”

“If this Holo is so worried about what might happen, then why doesn’t she just destroy the chrome gate?”

“She doesn’t know where it is. And even if she did, she and her people are too busy preventing an even greater threat to this realm, whatever that means… Either way, this is my problem to fix.”

“So you’re doing this to protect people you don’t even know? I thought you hated everyone?”

Lysaila glanced out the window worriedly, “My old tribe, they are still in the Amber Realm. If I can keep them safe from the monsters I helped unleash, then I will, no matter the cost.”

“…How far is this chrome gate?”

“Far. Past the Northern Lands, on a frozen island in the Hoarfrost Bay.”

“And you want me to come with you?”

“I’d have asked Rhiannon, but she’s in charge of keeping Feli safe.” Lysaila shrugged stiffly, “You’re the only other friend I’ve got…”

Kithina sighed and looked up at the ceiling, “A long journey through frozen lands filled with countless creatures that want to kill you. A path so dangerous that no one in their right mind would wish to travel if it wasn’t for the fact that the literal fate of all the Null Realms might be at stake.” She smiled, “Sounds like one of the quests of old where the heroes went off to save the world. I’m lucky my mage duties don’t start until autumn.”

“Are you saying…?”

Kithina grinned, “When do we leave?”

“Tonight.”

“I’ll grab the tea.”

A sudden knock rang on the door.

Kithina frowned, “Did you invite anyone else?”

Lysaila narrowed her eyes as she stared at the door. “No, I didn’t…”