“What do humanoids who venture outside of your lands know about the protection agreent made about them?” Verya’s question surprised Ajax for a mont, though it really shouldn’t have.
It was obvious that for the sidhe there wouldn’t be much value in anything the humanoids had, but the question she posed would give her an advantage with any humanoids she t in the future. Ajax also saw that he had an easy way out of the question, less than 1% of the population even set foot on the Wild Lands so that alone could disqualify the question but Ajax found it would be a question he was willing to answer.
“Until recently nothing.” Ajax answered. “Though the theory of Ascended races leaving humanoids alone until provoked has recently started to gain so traction.”
“Gained so traction?” Verya focused on sothing that didn’t even occur to Ajax, he had been so focused on not revealing any of the extra knowledge he had gained from the dragon all those years ago while also giving a full answer he used a phrase from Earth, thankfully the phrase fit well enough with the carts humanoids used so often that it wouldn’t be suspicious. “That’s an interesting way of putting things, like the wagons you humanoids use so often, I like it.”
“But you know nothing, and from that nothing a theory started to appear, so what changed?” It was clear Verya was just thinking aloud trying to extrapolate any information. “Did sothing happen? I haven’t heard of any interactions with humanoids but then again most Ascended races keep any interactions with humanoids quiet. But you know sothing, more than sothing.”
Ajax was surprised at the accusation. “Why do you assu that?” Ajax asked.
“First you weren’t surprised when I said there was an old agreent protecting you.” Verya explained. “That could be a Skill, but you went ahead and answered like you know exactly what I wanted to know about so you clearly know sothing about the deal. Would you tell
what you know or where from?”
“No.” Ajax shook his head. “I’ll keep that to myself.”
“I thought you might.” Verya let out a little disappointed sigh but Ajax’s [Diplomat] Skill was telling him it was an act to try and get him to divulge sothing. ‘Even I could tell that was an act, where were you when I gave away free information about knowing of the deal?’ Ajax couldn’t help but silently curse his newest social Skill. “But since you know of the agreent I can now go into so detail about this dungeon we are heading to.”
“The agreent is related to our visit to the dungeon?” Ajax asked. “How? I thought Ascended creatures didn’t like staying that close to dungeons on account of the Mana drain.”
“It is related because the dungeon is part of the domain of an elental hawk.” Verya said. “The acquisition is recent, within the last few centuries, and while it does not have an issue with other Ascended coming to delve the dungeon it might take issue with our situation.”
“An elental hawk? So like a phoenix?” Ajax asked as he tried to imagine the creature.
“No, phoenixes are elentals that take the form of birds whereas elental hawks are birds that use elental affinities.” Verya corrected him. “While they would seem closely related they very much do not get along with one another as a general rule and would take offense to the comparison so please don’t make it in their presence.”
“I got it, not going to ntion phoenixes if we et the elental hawk.” Ajax nodded dutifully. “If it has no issue with others delving why would it have an issue with us?”
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“Because elental hawks like humanoids, humans especially. While us sidhe have a reputation about making convenient deals.” Verya explained. “It might very well get the wrong idea about why I am with you and that would end very badly for . So much so that I won’t enter its territory without a deal in place that you explain the agreent to them if we should et them.”
Ajax was surprised at this. He knew for a fact that so of the Ascended races hated humanoids on account of the Reaper while others were neutral since they didn’t hold a grudge but it was clear that this positive view had to also link back to him. He couldn’t help but wonder what the reaper had done to make the elental hawks be protective of humanoids all these millenia after his death.
“What are you willing to trade in exchange for that deal?” Ajax asked, a small grin on his face.
“Nothing.” Verya shut him down. “Entering its territory without such a deal in place would place
in significant danger, enough so that the deal won’t force
to enter. Either you make the deal or I leave you at the border.”
“I want to et this hawk more and more.” Ajax said as he started thinking. “I suppose since they are elental hawks they might like things that are elental attuned. Do you know of anything on the way there that would have any elental attunent?”
“There are a few.” Verya confird. “But they would most likely be guarded by creatures that were also drawn to them for their Mana density and elental attunent.”
“How strong would you say they are?” Ajax asked as he planned for his next interaction with another ascended race to begin with him giving them a gift, his [Diplomat] Skill buzzing with approval at the thought.
“I don’t know.” Verya admitted. “I haven’t been interested in elental affinities beyond fire and I don’t plan on adding more until I get better with it.”
Ajax was pretty sure Verya was doing just fine with her fire, the fla lance he saw her launch at the shadow elental would have given Anna a run for her money, though that might no longer be true once Anna reached the sa level as Verya and evolved to beco Ascended herself.
“Would it be safe to try and gather them?” Ajax asked.
“No.” Verya denied it quickly. “It might not be suicidal but it certainly won’t be safe, if any of those treasures had enough ti to grow to beco valuable there was also enough ti for sothing decently powerful to have found it and beco its unofficial guardian while it gained benefits from living around it. The only question is how strong that guardian is, at its lowest I would expect level one hundred and ten, though more likely it would be one hundred and thirty, maybe even higher than that.”
That very much reminded Ajax of the previous guardian he had t, one that he had to return to for payback as well as to mine out that Mana dense material. That guardian had been level one hundred and eighty and while it was weak for its level since it was clearly over-reliant on the moss for its progress it wasn’t weak compared to Ajax.
Level one hundred and thirty sounded ideal to Ajax. It would be a perfect chance to see just how much progress he had made as well as the perfect opportunity to give him so added danger while he tried to learn [Spell Direction].
“I don’t suppose I could convince you to help
learn [Spell Direction]?” Ajax asked.
“You plan to learn [Spell Direction] in a few days?” Verya didn’t even attempt to hide her surprise at his goal or how much she doubted he would be able to achieve it. “ I’ll agree you are good enough with free casting to be able to unlock it and that is the longest part of getting the Skill but you would have to be extrely talented to unlock it in a few days of learning about it at all.”
Ajax didn’t ntion that he already had a restriction Skill in [Empowering Restriction] and while he couldn’t use the Skill if he hoped to unlock [Spell Direction] his experience with both unlocking and using [Empowering Restriction] had to be a boon for making this go faster. That wasn’t to ntion the boost his Divine Witness Trait added.
“Will you help or not?” Ajax asked.
Verya took a mont to think on this. Clearly Ajax was going to be a major influence in the future of humanoids if not their future ruler, assuming he lived long enough to get there. Helping him now would help forge a beneficial relationship with him going forward. On the other hand doing so might get her target by others once Ajax grows into his powers and its found out she helped him when he was young.
“I won’t teach you but I suppose I will have to fight a few of the other creatures around the attuned treasures.” Verya decided to go for a compromise, from what she could tell Ajax was a quick study who picked up a lot from his surrounding, his ability to analyze Mana was pretty high considering he had noticed the change in Mana when they struck their deals as well as being able to sense the Shadow elental following them previously. “If you’re as good as you think you are, maybe you’ll pick sothing up.”
“What about the kids' parents?”Ajax turned to the reason they were moving away so quickly from the previous dungeon. “You think they’ll catch up to us if we go on a detour?”
“As long as we don’t stay there and just go see if you can fight the guardian and grab the reward, if you can beat it then it should be fine.” Verya reassured him. “We are far enough away from the dungeon that they will waste a few days waiting to see if they just missed you and you might co out of that dungeon.”
What Verya didn’t ntion was that by adding the extra detour Elduin’s parents would almost certainly catch up to him by the ti he exited the second dungeon if they decided to follow him there. But that wasn’t an issue for her, their deal was to help him get to the dungeon, not what happens after he gets out of the dungeon. The detours might actually be a boon to her if things go bad for Ajax once he ets Elduin’s parents.
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