Aliandra
Ali was still a little unsteady on her feet when she touched down in the library, and she had to lean on Malika more than she would have liked to admit. As Malika guided her to her favorite reading chair – the big burgundy one that was soft and large enough that she could curl up in it with a good book – her friends fussed over her. Altogether too much.
“Be careful,” Calen cautioned as she approached the chair. “Mato, help her.”
“Got it,” the big Beastkin said.
“I’m not an invalid,” Ali complained. “I can get into a chair by myself.”
Malika cocked an eyebrow at her with an expression that told her in no uncertain terms that she was being delusional.
“The dizziness and ntal fatigue are passing already,” Ali said, allowing Malika to help her up into the chair. “Mato’s aura really helped.” It had taken an hour sitting in the forest by his trunk before her domain withdrawal had faded, and his potent aura had set her squarely on the path of healing the life she had channeled away. Still, it would take quite so ti for her to fully recover.
“Here, drink up,” Mato said, holding out an erald-green potion that shone brightly with a luminous otherworldly glow. “Eliyen said you would need to take one every hour for the first six hours.”
“Ugh,” Ali grimaced.
“Co, Ali, take your dicine,” Malika chided.
“I know,” she said, taking the vial and glaring at it. “But why does it have to taste so awful?” Under the guidance of Lamyndra Duskwind, Eliyen had whipped this restorative potion up out of a soul extract brewed from Ali’s Soulshade Blossoms and a Living Essence. It tasted like it was ‘good for you.’
“You sure sound like an invalid,” Malika said.
“So an,” Ali mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.” Ali tossed the nasty potion back in one shot, shuddering as the dicinal oily sludge went down like it was reluctant to be swallowed.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Malika said encouragingly.
“Bah,” Ali grumbled, but her friend was right. They were just trying to be helpful. She sank into her chair and accepted a selection of books from Ryn, managing a smile for all of them as they all settled in nearby. There was still a ton for her to unpack and process. She had a new title – one which would cause her significant problems in any civilized community on the continent were she to encounter soone who could identify it.
Dungeon Ally.
From the description, this title had been earned because she had twice helped a dungeon survive: once with Naia and, more recently, saving Cael and Gage from the decay of their life support spells.
I guess I am a dungeon, she thought, and so technically, the title shouldn’t matter. However, it was much more likely that soone with an Advanced Identify, Analyze, or similar skill could view her titles than be able to discern the nature of her class at a glance. Sowhat worrying, the title also made itself always visible to dungeons – but that was a different problem, and one for another day.
Not much I can do about it. She wasn’t about to advertise it. At least it gave her a nice bonus to manipulating domain mana – the effects had been obvious the mont she had returned to her domain.
Holding up a book and pretending to read – for the benefit of her friends with their concerned glances – Ali sorted through her skill descriptions. Arcane Recall’s life-channeling advancent was insane. Due to its nature, it would be challenging to experint with it, needing a lot of free ti to recover from the steep cost and the emotional energy required to wield it. The only ti she had ever seen it before had been her mother’s final act of sacrifice.
The almost insignificant-looking addition of being able to power Arcane Recall’s normal function with health ant she would never again be quite so helpless caught by a mana suppression field.
Sohow, she had awakened a Fae Bloodline. What the heck do I even do with this?
And she had a brother. Brothers.
Her thoughts continued to dwell on her newfound brothers. Half-brothers? Ali glanced over at Ryn. Given the nature of how they had co to be, the relationship was technically complex. But what mattered most was whether she could continue to trust them, unstable as they seed to be. They were two distinct personalities despite sharing a single body, or what was left of their body, at least. She had so many questions about them and so little experience with this kind of thing. Did that an two souls? Or one which was split down the middle or coexisted like her domain and Aunt Lira’s? Mom must have ant to co back and help them – she would, wouldn’t she?
Even now, the realm mana compatibility advancent to Arcane Recall allowed her to feel Cael and Gage’s domain mana wherever her dungeon overlapped with theirs in the spirit realm – calm, now, and devoid of any of the dungeon rage since she had attuned her mana to their domain. Throughout her domain, Ali could feel her mana spilling into the spirit realm, extending her influence there – the implications were hard to predict.
She curled up deeper into her comfortable chair, her mind churning over her recent experiences.
“Tea?” Lira asked, gracefully stepping out of one of the branches of the giant tree as if entering a throne room or a palace.
Typical. But the re words ward her heart more than she could say. Ali looked up and had to dab at the corners of her eyes, montarily surprised to discover the teapot was already steaming and the cups already set out. “Um, sure. Thank you.”
“Sothing on your mind?” Lira asked mildly, moving over to the side table, beginning to pour tea for everyone, and arranging a few cookies on a plate.
Ali always found it curious how a being of such imnse power, who didn’t actually eat normal food, still managed to be such a fantastic judge of the best cookies.
“I found my brothers,” Ali said, catching the slight narrowing of Lira’s eyes as she dropped the news. “They have a dungeon in the spirit realm, overlapping with this space.” Ali gestured with a hand wave to the library.
Lira’s dark hazel eyes suddenly seed to be an infinitely deep well of lancholy and ancient pain, drawing Ali in. “I see,” she said as she gracefully passed out the teacups and offered cookies to everyone.
In the mont of silence, Ali accepted a steaming cup, pausing to sample the delightfully refreshing floral aroma, and then chose a cookie. “So, you knew about Cael and Gage?”
“Aah, those two dear ones,” Lira said, taking her seat with regal grace and sipping her tea as she failed to conceal a flicker of pity or perhaps old grief that passed across her face. “Such a sha.”
“You knew them?” Ali asked, surprised by the depths of emotions she found in the normally serene dryad’s eyes. “Why haven’t you ever ntioned them before now?”
“You must understand, Aliandra, when the nature of Nevyn Eld’s experintation ca to light, your mother was horrified. Elowynn made it her purpose to track down every last victim and care for them, to right the wrongs he had wrought upon them, but the more we dug, the more we found. He must have made hundreds, maybe thousands – it is impossible now to know how many suffered for his ambition. Most were already dead by the ti we found them, and the rest succumbed soon after, despite your mother’s supre efforts to save them. She was beside herself, as you can imagine. Despite them being spawned unwillingly from her mana and bloodline in his laboratories, your mother grieved for every child that died in her arms.”
Ali swallowed, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Knowing her mother, this must have been anguish for her. “Cael and Gage survived.”
“A few did. So were never found, leaving sparse footprints that carried down the generations,” Lira said, glancing over to Ryn, who was curled into a tight, trembling ball on the couch as she listened.
“I spoke with them. Cael and Gage rember… they rember my mother.”
“I rember when Elowynn found them. She ca to for help, but we were unable to do much for them. They were barely in the mid-forties, chained to the Spirit Realm by the class he forced on them, their mind already fractured, and their body torn asunder by the Fae bloodline running rampant.”
“Wait, they were two personalities already? I thought that happened because they spent three thousand years alone,” Ali said. Spending that ti fully conscious with nothing but shades trying to eat you could not be healthy.
“No, Nevyn Eld’s experints had left nothing but shards and rubble,” Lira answered. “The two personalities that erged from the shattered remains were the result of our best efforts to put his mind back together. I’m honestly surprised Cael and Gage survived.”
It took a strong will and several monts for Ali to unravel the knot of pure anger and frustration that gripped her at the horrific story Lira had revealed. She had heard the outline of it before, but having t Cael and Gage, it felt more imdiate. More real. More personal. His – their – insanity and fractured personality had been the result of Nevyn’s magic breaking his mind. It sounded like none of his personality had initially survived. Perhaps the three thousand years in isolation had helped heal their mind sowhat from that initial damage rather than caused it as she had initially feared.
“Cael and Gage seem a little childlike, and very… damaged. They tried to kill at first, but… I think I understand now. They kept their word to when it mattered,” Ali said, reexamining her recollection of the events in the light of Lira’s insight.
“Hearing that is such a relief,” Lira said, putting her teacup down to look at her intently. “I only wish Elowynn could have been here to hear it. I know it ate at her to be forced to leave them there, but she couldn’t fully extract them from Nevyn Eld’s formation – they were wholly dependent on it for life at that point.”
“Why did he put them in the spirit realm?” Ali asked.
“It wasn’t the spirit realm he was interested in,” Lira said. “He was obsessed with accumulating magical power. We saw evidence of it several tis – he wanted that rift. He wanted to harvest it. That’s what his soul magic array was for.”
Ali nodded soberly. It all agreed with what she had seen with her own eyes. And it matched what she had learned from Aman Rak even though there had been no rift there – the pattern was unmistakable.
“I saved them with her magic,” Ali said slowly. “I awakened my bloodline.”
“The Fae bloodline is awake in you, child?” Lira asked, her head snapping around to fix her with a piercing stare as sparks of erald-green mana sprang up in her eyes. “Aah, I see it is true. I always knew you were special, but this is sothing that not even I expected. Your mother had it, but it is truly a fickle thing, appearing and disappearing throughout the generations without rhy or reason that I could ever tell. Tell , are you well?”
“I think so. What does it even do?” Ali asked. She obviously didn’t feel great after spending so much of her life force – but that ability seed to be the only obvious change so far – powerful, yes, and yet quite difficult to use.
“It’s hard to say for certain. It manifests differently for everyone, but it has been responsible for so of the most powerful magic users among your kind. It is responsible for granting you the sa arcane mana as your mother – not just the ability to spend your life but the unique golden arcane magic you wield. But the Fae bloodline is fickle and contains the seeds of much destructive power. Nevyn Eld forced it to awaken early in his victims – and you saw what damage it wrought on the body of Cael and Gage. It is also undoubtedly the reason for… your wings.”
Ali swallowed uncomfortably as her tiny wings quivered on her back, but she ignored that for now. “Gage has it too,” she said, recalling the vast number of golden barriers throughout the spirit realm dungeon. “He definitely wields mother’s golden arcane magic.”
“Does he?” Lira asked, her eyes sparkling with complex emotion. “Well then… I would very much like to visit them if you can arrange it.”
“I did promise to bring them visitors,” Ali said, smiling at her. “Provided they behave, that is.”
“May… may I co too?” Ryn asked, glancing up from the couch.
“You want to visit a dungeon in the spirit realm?” Ali asked.
“If I understand… they’re cousins, right? Many tis removed?”
“Quite possibly, child,” Lira murmured.
“And they’re the ones we defeated in Kings and Emperors?”
“Yes,” Ali confird.
“Then I definitely want to et them,” Ryn said, her eyes sparkling with fresh interest. “Um… as long as you think it’s safe? I’ve never been in a dungeon before. Well, except for yours. Which is pretty aweso.”
Ali smiled at her. “It’s alright, Ryn.”
“I’ll be coming, too,” Lira said, reassuring her, leaning forward and placing her empty teacup on the table.
“I’m not going to let you go back there without ,” Malika said, looking up from her cross-legged ditation pose. “I’m not sure I trust them quite yet.”
“Let’s all visit together,” Ali said, finally finding a smile at Malika’s commitnt and the reminder that her friends had been there for her when she needed them – and in anticipation of the incredible surprise that waited there for Ryn. “But I do need a little ti to recover.”
“And food,” Mato reminded her. “Fae cannot live on spirit flowers and fancy glittery arcane mana alone, you know. They need real food, too.”
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