Chapter Four-Hundred Eighty-Seven (Patreon)

_________

Aranya

_________

She smiles warmly as they all finally exit the shortcut and can see the huge Tree of Cycles.  Going on a sojourn is good for her, but coming back home, and having a real home to come back to, makes her glad she doesn’t need to head out too often.

The others express their relief at coming home in their own ways.  The scions are resisting the urge to sprint the remaining distance, making Aranya think of them like children eager to get back to their familiar toys.  Vernew is similarly eager to get back, bouncing around and abandoning her dignity in her excitement to tell the other spiderkin about what happened.  Ragnar, Aelara, and Yvonne chat about the adventure and what they’ll need to prepare for the raid on the Betrayer, and she lets herself get pulled into the conversation, ensuring she pulls in Tupul, too.

She’s uncertain if he’ll be joining the raid, but better to be prepared for the possibility.

“D’ye thin’ Thediem’ll ‘ave ‘is fancy armor ready fer th’ raid?” asks Ragnar.  He was very impressed with the first version of the armor, and the slow trickle of information about the new ones have made him all the more eager to get his hands on some.

“I believe his development is, if not finished, at least on hold enough for the scions and enclaves to produce the armor en mass,” answers Aranya.

“That repair enchantment is something else,” comments Yvonne.  “I bet he’s going to have your clergy working around the clock to ensure everything gets properly blessed for durability.”

“I hope I can get a piece or two just to examine,” adds Aelara.  “I’m no enchantress, but I can follow runework, and his whole philosophy with runes flies in the face of convention.  If I can apply some of that to my own magic, it’d be incredible.”

“If nothing else, I’m sure you can talk with Laermali’s representatives,” Aranya assures her friend.  “Lord Thedeim doesn’t tell me everything, but I get the impression they’re being model guests and assistants.  They may have a few of their own takes on His magical methods.”

Ragnar grins and pats Tupul on the back, making him stumble a little.  “Or y’ could ask th’ lad ‘ere!  ‘Is mind shadow trick’s right outta ‘is book!”

Aranya smiles as Tupul tries to hide his stumble at the pat, wondering if he understands Ragnar’s messing with him by pretending to not know his own strength.  “Ragnar’s right.  It’s just the sort of new approach He takes with practically everything.”

“Well… he is my mentor, I guess?  It’s about time I learned something, right?”

Aelara nods with a smile, and turns her attention to Aranya.  “I don’t suppose he has any insights into earth affinity?”

She closes her eyes for a moment to listen to the bond, and soon opens her eyes and shakes her head.  “Not at the moment, at least.  Right now, He’s working on how to move so many people through the Molten Abyss.”

Ragnar chuckles and shakes his head at the very idea.  “Anyone else, I’d call mad, bu’ ‘e’s jus’ the sort t’ figure it out!”

“Have the dwarves never explored it?” asks Tupul.  “I always thought they were the ones to discover it.”

Ragnar shrugs as Aelara speaks up, the elf much more familiar with history than him.  “They’re credited with it, and have done a few small incursions to explore, but it’s basically impassible to anyone without magma or lava affinity.  As I understand it, what few dwarves in the Holds have the affinities use them to track down pockets of magma with denser concentrations of molten metals, and encourage them to erupt into prepared areas for later mining.”

Ragnar nods.  “Aye.  One’a m’ cousins ‘as th’ affinity.  Got a good job deep in th’ mines, ensurin’ the veins never run dry.”

“Huh.  Do you think the antkin could do that, too?”

The dwarf shrugs.  “I dinnae see why not.”

“Do you think you’ll come for the raid, Tupul?” asks Aelara, and the young elf fidgets.

“I… don’t know.  Me and my friends are strong enough, I think.  We did well against Fluffles, but…”

Aranya and the others nod.  “You’re still young and learning, and Lord Thedeim could very well not allow you to come on those grounds alone.  On the other hand, He has seen you all grow and knows your strength.  It’ll be difficult for Him to argue you should stay when I’m sure there will be delvers who will go who will be weaker than your party.”

Tupul sighs and nods at the assessment, clearly not happy about it, but smart enough to understand the truth of the matter.  “Not to mention Rhonda would need to get permission from Old Staiven, Freddie would need to get Torlon to let him go, and there’s no way Rezlar would be able to go without Miller letting him.”

They all nod again, the conversation lapsing as there really isn’t much to say at that point.  Mentors are to help their students grow, but also to protect them from danger.  Something like this could be a good learning experience, but it could also lead to their doom.  Aranya suspects none of them would allow their charge to go off on something so dangerous as the upcoming raid.

“Are you looking forward to seeing how the ravenkin are doing?” asks Vernew, bringing up a topic that’s much easier to chat about.

“I am,” she confirms with a nod and a smile.  “Lord Thedeim has been keeping me informed, and they’re ready to have their ceremony as soon as possible.  They want to join on the raid on the Betrayer as dwellers, and will need to train with the delvers to have the best possible chance of survival.  He actually gave them the keys for the next raid boss: Poe.”

Vernew laughs at that as Ragnar gives an impressed whistle, with the spiderking giving voice to her thoughts.  “And they’ve actually kept the delvers away from them?  That last raid was a huge hit with them.  They can’t have made it easy to keep the keys.”

“They didn’t, but the ravenkin have managed to keep one safe until now.  Lord Thedeim’s stipulation for them to join the attack was to keep the raid boss from happening until after we returned.”

“Sounds like they did it,” observes Tupul.  “How’d they manage it?”

Aranya giggles.  “With a bit of Lord Thedeim’s unique way of thinking.  Three keys were fairly obvious, with two hidden away in remote places in Lord Thedeim’s territory, while the third was put into a new metal fortress built into the branches of the Tree of Cycles.  The delvers attacked all three known locations at once, and even got into the fortress and the key there, too, before discovering the location of the fourth.”

She pauses to build the suspense.  “Deep in the fortress, there is a pool of lava, with a shortcut leading into a secret space in the Labyrinth, completely full of magma.  The final key is there.  Now, for the siege, none of the delvers brought their magma equipment, because who would even think to bring it?  As I understand it, a lot of them still haven’t even gotten anything for magma yet.”

Ragnar bursts out laughing.  “‘E’s gonna make ‘em siege it again?!”

Aranya nods, laughing with him.  “Indeed He will!  And He’ll be improving the fortress as well.  It’ll give us time to do the ceremony for the ravenkin and get them some time to train with the delvers, too.”

“And it’ll give us some time to recover before joining in the training, too,” adds Yvonne, before turning a playful look of scorn on Aelara.  “Thanks to you, I’ve been looking forward to a nice long bath for over a week now!  I never knew my feathers could feel so soft.  You’ve ruined me!”

Everyone laughs at that, with Aelara turning eyes full of mischief on Aranya.  “You know, I’ve been looking into products for scales, too.  Moisturizer and shine enhancers are common, but there’s things for softening or hardening them, too!  I have no idea which you’d prefer.”

“Harder, definitely.  Soft scales are for nobles who never do anything that might scuff them.”

Aelara nods with a devious smile, clearly plotting to ruin Aranya, too.  “Then I’ll keep that in mind.  How about you, Ragnar?”

He resolutely shakes his head.  “Nay.  Yer conditioner’s far ‘s I’m willin’ t’ go.  Makes m’ beard easier t’ comb.”

Aelara tries to convince him, but she can’t keep that evil look off her face as she does so.  Sure, she goes on and on about hygiene and dwarven pride, but it’s clear to everyone that, if Ragnar’s not careful, he’ll have his hair and beard braided with ribbons woven in.

Aranya can’t keep a devious smile off her own face as she makes her own plans to help Aelara.  Beard beads are a common dwarven accessory, and a few metallic ribbons might look good, too.  Plying him with those might get him to allow her a bit of pampering.

And once he lowers his guard, then the colorful ribbons can come out.