After two and a half months underground, the sun was blinding. It took Elise many minutes for her eyes to adjust to the sudden influx of light, and when they finally did, everything looked strange. They were floating above the sa forest she had spawned in, but it all looked so unfamiliar. The greenness looked wrong compared to the black, blue, and red of the drow cave and the Dwarven grayscale.
Once outside, Emilia held Elise under her arms as she flew to the south. Although she didn’t want to see it, Elise couldn’t help but to keep an eye out for the cabin. She wasn’t sure whether she was happy or sad when she couldn’t find it. She was curious what it was like now. Had soone co to retrieve the bodies. Were they still lying there, mutilated and rotting? Was the cabin still abandoned, or had it beco a critter ho?
As they flew, the forest below thinned, then turned to grassland which beca farmland, and soon, a city ca into view, surrounded by low, gray walls. Emilia ignored these walls, flying right over the heads of a pair of chatting guards toward the center of the city. She set down in a dark alley near the city center, and then fashioned a sling out of vines that she produced from thin air, and slung it over her shoulder with Elise inside.
“Don’t say anything,” she said.
A mont later, Elise was transford into a purse. She could still feel all her extremities, and she could still move her head and twitch her ears, but when she looked at herself, she looked just like a purse made of black crocodile leather. Emilia herself had swapped her normal white dress for an elegant purple one with a fur scarf, and her antlers were replaced by a wide hat in matching purple with tall feathers sticking out of the top. Her hair had turned from green to blonde, and her face had gone from kindly and mature to cruel and arrogant.
When they erged from the alley, they got a few strange looks, but Emilia walked with such confidence and purpose that none dared to stop her. They only walked about a block further until they ca to an elegant wooden building. It had a sign above its door, but it had been so long since she lived with the Grays that she had forgotten most of the human language, and the only word she could make out on it was “center”.
The building’s purpose was made obvious though as soon as they entered. The entire bottom floor was a wide, busy lobby with lane lines drawn on the floor indicating which way they were to go, and small daises with intricate inscriptions on them. As Elise watched, so of the inscriptions started to glow, and a mont later, there were people standing on them. They were teleportation circles.
Emilia ignored the lane lines, and walked through the room without a care in the world, even stepping on top of a dais or two until she reached the staircase on the far right wall. She ascended the staircase, past a second floor full of larger, more intricate circles, and to the third floor, which held just three circles, larger and more complex than any of the lower ones.
None of the employees took notice of her, except one, who went to stand next to the nearest circle. Emilia walked with Elise up to the center, and without a word, the employee made so hand motions, and the circle began to glow. There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, they stood in a similar, but much larger room with about a dozen of identical circles. Like before, no one paid them any mind, and Emilia simply walked out of the building and onto the street.
This city was much bigger than the one they had co from, and not just in population. Everything in it was bigger. The streets were wider, the buildings were taller, and even the people were bigger. Elise saw a square-jawed man that must have been at least eight feet tall pushing a cart loaded with fried pastries and calling out to passersby.
Instead of ducking into an alley and undoing the disguise, Emilia continued on down the street. Elise didn’t know how long they walked for because she wasn’t really paying attention. Everywhere she looked, there seed to be soone, or sothing interesting.
To her right, there was another man, just as big as the pastry-seller, who was putting nails in a sign above a door while an elf woman guided him from below to make sure it was level. On the left, a cyclops woman in a tight-fitting outfit had stopped a blushing young man to hand him so kind of flier. When they passed through a market square, there was a trio of what were either halflings or gnos doing acrobatic tricks for a small crowd. She saw a lizard man scolding a teenage boy for stepping on his tail, a young couple posing while a street-painter’s hands moved too fast for her to track over a portrait in progress, and a shady man in a hooded trench coat with an eagle on each shoulder. She even saw a dwarf or two, buying food or knick knacks at one of the many street stalls.
Elise was so caught up in all the sights that she almost forgot that they had a real destination to go to, and was surprised when they stopped in front of an ordinary-looking dress shop. There was nothing strange about the interior, other than perhaps the odd lack of custors. The dresses looked to be of reasonable quality, and the street outside was as busy as any Elise had ever seen, but aside from a bored-looking young woman at the counter, there was no one inside.
The clerk said sothing that Elise didn’t understand, and Emilia responded with sothing equally incomprehensible, making the clerk perk up. She smiled and said sothing else, then led Emilia to a room at the far side of the store. It looked like an ordinary closet at first, but when the clerk grabbed a broom and stuck it into a crack between two boards on the ceiling, the back wall slid to the side, and behind it was a red carpeted staircase illuminated by glowing stones that led down far enough that Elise couldn’t see the end.
“Thank you,” said Emilia before stepping onto the stairs.
Those two words at least, Elise rembered. Sylvanna had always made sure that Sophie said it whenever it was applicable, and Sophie always tried to get away with not saying it at all. The wonder she had felt at seeing the city vanished and was replaced by lancholy, and her mood wasn’t helped by the fact that she had gotten to enjoy just an hour of sunlight before going right back underground.
As soon as the wall closed behind them, Emilia undid the illusion, and let Elise out of the vine carrier so she could move on her own.
“We’re almost there,” said Emilia. “There is no special etiquette that you need to follow, but please try not to offend anyone. If you do, I will try to step in to help, but I will have to step away for a eting between the higher-ups, so I won’t be around the whole ti.”
“I’ll try my best,” replied Elise.
The staircase was at least a few hundred stairs long– Elise stopped counting when she started flying– and ended in a short stone hallway. On the opposite side of the hall, there was an extravagant red double door, at least twelve feet high and inlaid with gold filigree. The brass ring knockers were hanging from the mouths of silver dragons whose eyes were rubies. Emilia grabbed one and knocked three tis, and a mont later, the door opened and they were let in by a woman with the lower half of a bird and wings for arms.
[ Pigeon Harpy, lvl 4 ]
“Welco, Representative Emilia,” said the woman in Fey.
Her voice was high-pitched and rough, and not at all pleasant to listen to. Her shirt– the only article of clothing she wore– was covered in stains, and riddled with holes, and she slled like she hadn’t bathed in months. She bowed and lifted her wings and a few stray feathers broke free and fluttered to the ground. Emilia wrinkled her nose and swiftly walked by without acknowledging the woman.
They were in another hallway, this one feeling more like one that belonged in a mansion than the underground halls that Elise was used to. The floor was hardwood, but a decorative rug ran along the center, muffling Emilia’s footsteps, and it was illuminated by golden candelabras with more of the glowing stones set on its tips. The walls were also made of wood, and were painted a soft green color.
Their final destination was at the end of this hallway, where a more ordinary looking door opened up to reveal a ballroom filled with the strangest assortnt of creatures Elise could possibly imagine. They ranged from small animals like her to a literal elephant with everything in between. There were humanoids and semi-humanoids like Emilia and the harpy, and there was a giant insect or two, and even a few wispy, translucent creatures that seed to fade in and out of existence.
“Emilia, you’re here!” said a deep voice. “And I see you’ve brought a friend!”
The speaker looked like a centaur, except its lower half was a jaguar, and its upper half was also a jaguar. It had the body of a jaguar, but instead of a neck and a head, it had another half a jaguar body, and then the head, and it was not anthropomorphic in the slightest. Elise inspected it, just to see what it was, and was only left with even more questions.
[ Greater Firebreath Jagaur, lvl ??? ]
She read the species na three tis before she realized that the a and the u were switched. Who had decided to na it that? Why? Why did this creature even exist? How did it benefit from this evolution?
“Jag,” said Emilia. “It’s good to see you. This is Elise. I ntioned her briefly at the last eting.”
“Oh yes, the Rabbit Fey,” he said with a toothy grin. “A pleasure to et you. My na is Jag, I’m one of the mbers here. I’ve been friends with Emilia now for… Oh, how long has it been?”
“Almost seventy years,” supplied Emilia.
“Has it really been that long?” he asked. “Well, as they say, ti soars when you’re enjoying yourself, and I have certainly enjoyed every second I’ve spent here. I hope you’ll be able to say the sa in seventy years too.” He chuckled. “So, how much do you know about what we do here?”
“Almost nothing,” said Elise. “All I know is that it’s an ‘organization of non-humanoids seeking to change the world.’”
“Well, you know a lot more than I did when I first ca here,” he said. “When I was invited here the first ti, all I knew was that there would be free food.”
“I was promised that too, yes,” said Elise.
Jag laughed. “Well, I must say that even if you did only co for the food, it would be worth it. We have the best food in the city– dare I say the world?– right here.”
He turned and gestured behind him to where a long table was set out with a wide array of dishes. There were steaming plates of at, trays piled high with fruits and vegetables Elise couldn’t even begin to describe, and bowls of soups and other liquids of every color. It slled heavenly, and her stomach was starting to grumble just from looking at it.
“Co to think of it,” continued Jag. “I heard that Freddy is bringing in soone new today as well. Hey Emilia, you know that big Shift that just happened way down by Albionia?”
“I had heard about it.”
“Yeah, so apparently, so lucky monster got to his sixth evolution because of it, and Freddy’s been teaching him how to suppress his instincts. There were rumors he was gonna bring the new guy in last ti, but I guess he wasn’t ready yet. He might not co this ti either, but it would be interesting if we had two new mbers today.”
“Oh, I’m not a mber yet,” said Elise.
“Well, that’s not hard to do,” said Jag, smiling. “It’s a very quick process really.”
“I’m not sure if I will join,” Elise clarified. “Emilia invited so I could learn about it, and see if it was sothing I’d be interested in.”
“Well, that’s fine too,” he said. “But I bet you’ll want to join by the ti you leave. There’s no better place for a non-humanoid to get connections than here. Even if you’re not participating in our greater cause, we’ll still have your back, even when the rest of the world is against you. People like us have to learn to work together, you know.”
“What is this place exactly?” asked Elise. “I don’t even know what this group’s na is yet.”
“Well, I can tell you that we call ourselves Ostra, which is short for ‘ostracized’, but I’m not sure if I’m the right person to try to explain the rest. I’m over a century old, but compared to the Chairs like Emilia, I’m basically a newcor.”
“I haven’t been here that long either, Jag,” said Emilia. “It’s only been ninety years for , and I didn’t beco a Chair until sixty years ago.”
“What’s a Chair?” asked Elise.
“A Chair is just soone trusted and powerful enough to be involved in the group’s more clandestine operations,” said Emilia. “I’m one, and you’ll et a few more later tonight, probably. I can’t tell you exactly what we do, but now that we’re here, I can give you a better idea of why you might want to join.
“Non-humanoids are highly discriminated against all over the world, both by societies, and by the System itself. There are very few groups that accept even fey, and almost none that work with people like Jag. It’s quite unfair. We look different, and we evolve instead of classing up, but we still think and feel, just like the humanoids.”
“Too true,” said Jag, lowering his head.
“Our goal is to make the world that is willing to accept us,” continued Emilia. “A world where Jag can walk down the street without causing a panic and getting attacked by the city guards. A world where I can have a conversation without being accused of trying to steal a soul. A world where everyone can coexist in peace.”
“Hear hear,” said Jag. “Have you ever had a at pie? I hear they sell them from wooden carts on the streets in the city. I’ve had so down here, but it’s just not authentic. It’s my dream to be able to walk down the street and buy a at pie from a wooden cart one day. It’s simple and silly, I know, but it’s those simple and silly things that I want to be able to do.”
“I think it’s a good dream,” said Elise.
“Thank you,” said Jag. “And I an it. A lot of people hear say that, and they think I’m joking. I an, look at . I’m a Jagaur. Nobody looks at a Jagaur and thinks ‘That guy wants to walk freely down the street and buy at pies from push carts.’ They all think I must want to be an apex predator, and the top of the world or sothing. And it’s not that I don’t want that too, but that’s just not my dream, you know?”
“I understand completely,” said Elise. “All I want is to be able to live a quiet, comfortable life.”
“Exactly! If I could swap lives with anyone, I would choose a human shopkeep. Just think about it. You wake up every morning in a bed in a city protected by your race’s most powerful people. You sell your goods, and get to talk to your custors all day. You can go out and eat at a local restaurant, maybe befriend the owner, and get drinks with him on the weekends. And then at the end of the day, you go right back to bed, safe and sound, not a care in the world beyond how much I can sell the next day. That sounds like the life.”
“Yeah…” said Elise.
“That’s why I’m here,” said Jag. “I’m not a Chair yet, but I’ve applied. I want to be involved. I know I’m not gonna live forever, but I want to see the world we’re trying to build at least once before then, and know that it was because of that it can exist.”
“I hope you can make your dream co true,” said Elise. “Sincerely. It sounds wonderful.”
“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head. “Thanks for listening to my rambling too.”
“Oh, I didn’t mind at all.”
“Thank you anyway.”
At that mont, Elise’s stomach growled again, and it seed Jag heard it, because he smiled at her.
“Shall we go get so food then?” he said.
“Yes please,” said Elise.
“Well, I was a little worried, but you’re doing better than I could have hoped,” said Emilia. “Do you mind if I leave you with Jag while I go greet a few more people?”
“Not at all,” replied Elise.
“Then I’ll be off. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask , no matter who I’m talking to.”
“I’ll take good care of her,” said Jag, as she turned to walk away. “So, what kind of food do you like? You’re a rabbit, so probably not at.”
“Not at,” agreed Elise. “And not mushrooms.”
“Not mushrooms? Well, it’s a sha, because we have so fan-tastic mushroom soup here. I’m a carnivore, and I even like it. But if you say no mushrooms, then no mushrooms it is. Let’s see what else we can find…”
Elise ultimately settled on a small scoop of two different kinds of salad, and an odd blue fruit that was the size of an apple and an almost perfect cube. She couldn’t hold a plate, so Jag did it for her. He wasn’t very good at holding plates either, since he only had paws, but they were big enough and he was nimble enough with them that he made it work. He grabbed a large hunk of raw at for himself, then the two of them walked to a corner of the room where tables of all heights and sizes had been set out.
“I just realized that we never quite finished answering your question earlier,” he said as he sat down. “Although making a world where humanoids and non-humanoids can live in harmony is the group’s main goal, that’s not actually the reason that most join it. Mostly, we’re a hub for goods and information for non-humanoids. We can’t exactly walk into an information guild and make a request, or stop by a market to buy our food, so we get it from Ostra instead. Technically, anyone can use it, but if you beco a mber, you’ll get free news and rations whenever you co to one of our branches.”
“Really?”
Although Elise was feeling better about the group now that she had actually seen it and t Jag, she still wasn’t totally convinced on joining. She didn’t disagree with their goal, but she was never the activist type. And between survival, and stopping the dwarf-drow conflict, she already had her hands full. If she could just join and reap the benefits without getting too deeply involved, she would happily accept. Unless there was so hidden condition.
“Is there a catch?” she asked.
“Nope!” he said. “Well, you have to swear to secrecy before we can tell you any of the branch locations, but that’s basically a given. If you just join as a basic mber though, you don’t have to do anything for us. You can live your entire life getting free information and food, and we will never bother you about it. We know how hard it is to be a non-humanoid in a humanoid’s world, and we will gladly give to anyone in need.”
“Well, if that’s true, then I see no reason not to join.”
“Perfect! When Freddy gets here, I’ll let him know. He’s in charge of all the contract- Oh, speak of the Devil! Look who’s here!”
He looked over Elise toward the opposite side of the room. Before she could turn around, she felt all the hair on the back of her neck stand up straight, and she shivered. Nothing in the room had actually changed, but she felt like the temperature had suddenly dropped to below zero. It only took her a split second to connect the dots. Newcor. Recently evolved. Cold.
Standing in the doorway so tall its back almost scraped the top of the fra was the warg.
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