Chapter 44: Scent Lures (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OtSzQsFWSIHI1i_9zPF1kb6FJ9MPF8vm_b_fLHwNoYo/edit?usp=sharing

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“Step away from the princess!”

Cayden had no idea which one of the girls might have been a princess, or what they might have been a princess of. But the man yelling out the command had two spells primed that had been able to take out a monster that even the BFG had only wounded. He stepped away from the two girls with his hands raised over his head, the universal gesture of non-aggression.

Unfortunately, it didn’t translate quite as well when he had razor-sharp claws tipping the raised hands.

The mage – who, now that Cayden got a better look at him, appeared to be a high elf, a race known for their magical skills – raised one of his arms as if to cast his prepared spell, and Cayden subtly shifted position to better intercept the flames. He wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to endure the attack, but he knew Elise didn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell against such a powerful skill.

“Stop!” the redheaded girl called with an imperious tone, and the mage froze. “Pelott, stand down. You saw what happened – we’d have been in trouble if not for this adventurer’s timely intervention.”

“Yes, your highness,” the man responded, and Cayden mentally labeled the redheaded girl as ‘princess’. The mage gave a shallow bow to the girl, but Cayden didn’t miss the subtle glare the man shot his way, and a moment later…something…washed over him.

Was that [Intimidation]? It didn’t feel particularly intimidating, at least not in comparison to the mind-altering effects of the [Compulsion] a few minutes earlier. But that was the second time in as many minutes that one of these people used a manipulating skill against him, and Cayden bristled.

“Pelott!” the princess called, her voice stern, and Cayden wondered if she had caught the subtle use of the skill. “How are you on mana? Any injuries?”

The mage glanced at Cayden and Elise before returning his focus to the girl. “Thirty percent, your highness. I broke my arm in the initial scrap, but the potion has already fixed that. No other injuries.”

“Then go back and help Jevroy with the leader. We will wait here with our new…acquaintances.”

“...your highness?” Pelott asked, his gaze jumping between the princess, her companion, Elise and Cayden, and then back to the princess.

“If they had wished us harm, all they had to do was watch,” the princess said. “We will be perfectly fine for the few minutes it takes. And Jevroy’s presence will be necessary to ensure a safe return to the capital.”

Pelott didn’t look convinced or excited about the prospect of leaving the two girls, but it didn’t seem as if he had the authority to contradict her commands. So, with a final glare directed at Cayden, the man turned and ran along the path the dinosaurs had chased the girls, disappearing a moment later into the ferns.

Without the threatening mage looking on, Cayden stood next to Elise and stared across the ten feet that separated them from the two female ‘adventurers,’ the silence feeling awkward in the wake of Pelott’s threats.

Even more now, after almost getting burned to a crisp, Cayden felt the urge to just walk away from the drama they had somehow stumbled into. Yet with the word ‘capital’ from the princess, he knew that was no longer possible.

It had been two months since Tiana’s last letter. They had gotten increasingly sporadic as time went on despite Cayden’s continuous letters back to her, and each of his sister’s rare correspondences left Cayden more and more worried.

He knew she was likely just in that phase where she relished her freedom and didn’t want her big brother constantly bothering her or looking over her shoulder. Cayden knew the feeling well enough from his previous life. But he also knew, as her big brother, it was his prerogative to check in and make sure she was doing okay. If he couldn’t do that through letters, he’d have to find another way.

He remembered the legion who’d carried Tiana away had mentioned she’d be working for the royal family. Cayden didn’t want to make any dangerous assumptions about the identity of the girl the fire mage had called ‘your highness’, but he also wouldn’t pass up this opportunity.

The second girl fidgeted in the silence, while the princess stared impassively back at Cayden and Elise. Cayden struggled to think of a way to gracefully broach the subject, but after a moment decided to simply go for it.

“Do you know anything about fateweavers who work in the capital?”

While her face remained impassive, the princess’ gaze sharpened into a glare as she raised her wand in preparation. The other girl looked confused by Cayden’s question, but picked up on the princess’ response and had an arrow half-drawn on her bow in a flash.

“How do you know about that?” the princess asked.

Once again, Cayden had his hands half-raised in a calming gesture, and once again, his claws did little to accomplish that goal. At his movement, the wand and the bow raised a little further. They weren’t quite yet pointing directly at Cayden, but were close.

“Whoa, whoa,” Elise said, stepping forward, and the weapons shifted in her direction. Cayden fought against his impulse to pull her back – he didn’t want to do anything that would put the two other girls further on edge, and Elise seemed oblivious to the danger. “Why don’t we start over a bit? My name is Elise, and this is Cayden, and we’re with the adventurer’s guild in Avernon. His sister is a fateweaver. What are your names?”

Slowly, the two weapons were lowered, the second girl drawing her cues from the princess.

“My name is Valeria,” the princess said.

“I’m Marianne.”

There was a pause.

“I’m sorry for making assumptions,” the princess continued, her voice sheepish despite her face displaying no emotions. “After the attack from the terravias, I am perhaps more on edge than is necessary.”

“How’d that happen, by the way?” Elise asked. “I assume they’re from a dungeon break, but I didn’t think we were that close to the center of the Lost Forest. And why were they so focused on you?”

Cayden nodded. He didn’t want to give up on his avenue of hearing more about Tiana, but he wouldn’t try to force the issue, either, not when it was clearly somewhat sensitive. “Yeah, it took three [Taunts] to get them to focus on me. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“That is something I would like to know the answer to as well,” Valeria responded. “We should be far enough out to avoid drawing the attention of the more dangerous monsters that have made the Lost Forest their home, or at least that is what I was told. And I have never heard of monsters pursuing someone so single-mindedly before.”

“I’d guess a skill was involved,” Marianne added. “Which was why Pelott was so suspicious of you. I’ve never heard of a skill that could do something like that, but what else could it have been?”

Elise rubbed her chin, her notebook appearing in her hands. Cayden recognized the look on her face and relaxed his stance in preparation for the coming lecture.

“It could be a scent lure, of course,” Elise began, and Marianne jumped in before she could continue.

“What’s a scent lure?”

“A potion which emits a strong odor that attracts monsters. There are all different types, but some are undetectable to people without extremely enhanced perception. And depending on the monster, they could lure them in for miles.”

“...that sounds extremely useful,” Cayden said, surprised she had never mentioned or made use of something like that before.

Elise waved him away. “I looked into them before you got [Taunt]. Not as useful as you might think. They’d certainly work great for luring away monsters while I’m enchanting or in case of an emergency in the dungeon, but the problem is that each lure is specific to a certain monster type. We don’t go on repeat delves often enough for it to be cost-effective to try and make scent lures for any specific monster. Plus, they’re not the easiest or cheapest to make, and they typically require materials harvested from the corpses of the monsters they’re made to attract. So even if I was willing to spend the time and money to make a scent lure for each different dungeon we delve, we’d have to kill a few of the monsters in the dungeon before I could craft the lure. There’s no scent lure that attracts all monsters.” She paused, her head tilted to the side. “Although…I suppose it might be possible to enchant a one-size-fits-all scent lure. From a moonflower, perhaps? No, that would be silly. I’d much rather try to enchant a variable scent lure that could be adjusted to different monsters, perhaps from liquid darkness…”

“So if someone were to somehow douse either of them,” Cayden asked with a gesture to the princess and her companion, cutting Elise off before she could get too far down the rabbit hole of theoretical enchantments. “In the scent lure for the terravias…then that might cause the behavior we saw?”

“Oh yeah, definitely. It would have to be a well-made scent lure for them to keep pursuing even beyond a [Taunt], but it’s definitely possible. And they wouldn’t even have to be doused for it to work. It could be put on their weapons, clothes, or even on something inside of that spatial pouch.” Elise gestured to an otherwise innocuous-looking pouch hanging from the princess’ belt.

The princess and Marianne were both staring at Elise with an expression Cayden couldn’t identify. “Is there any way someone could have slipped something onto one of your things without you noticing?” He asked, hoping to take some of their attention off of his friend.

“Perhaps…” Valeria said. But before she could continue, the fire mage returned with another by his side.

He was huge, a full head and a half taller than Cayden and probably twice as wide. Cayden’s initial thought was of Earth’s popular media’s representation of the Thing, but a moment later he realized the truth. The newcomer was an earth elemental, a race Cayden hadn’t seen outside of his own race change options.

“Ah, Jevroy, it is good to see you are unharmed,” the princess said upon the appearance of the two men. The earth elemental glanced at both Cayden and Elise, his expression unreadable beneath the shifting stone plates that comprised his ‘skin,’ before he turned to Valeria.

“Of course, princess. I am only sorry that I was unable to pull away more of them.” His voice was deep, sounding more like the shifting of the ground in an earthquake than something that came from vocal cords.

“It is sufficient that you were able to distract the boss,” Valeria answered, and Cayden frowned. There was a ‘boss’ terravia? One even bigger than the rest of the herd? And the earth elemental was able to distract him for the entire duration of their interaction without serious injury? That was one more reason to avoid antagonizing the two men he presumed were the bodyguards of the princess. “Our new friend, here, suspects that perhaps a scent lure was used to provoke the terravias. Are you familiar?”

The earth elemental shook his head, but the high elf looked at Elise consideringly. “I’ve heard of them, but am not personally familiar. But from what I’ve heard, that does sound possible.”

Princess Valeria’s frown deepened by just the slightest amount. She paused in thought before she glanced over to Elise and Cayden. “You said you were from Avernon?”

“...yes,” Cayden answered, not sure if he liked where this was going.

“Would you be amenable to leading us back there?” She raised a hand, palm forward, to forestall the protests that were on her bodyguards’ tongues. “If this incident was truly the result of a scent lure, that means it was likely an assassination attempt, potentially by someone with inside knowledge of the location of our prospective delve. As such, I deem it too dangerous to continue with the delve, and returning via the expected route carries an equivalent amount of risk. It will take longer than I would like, but traveling to Avernon and then finding alternative transportation back to the capital is unlikely to be something that anyone would expect, and so should be safe.” She looked at Cayden. “So, can we travel with you?”

Cayden sighed. He wanted to say no. Instincts honed in a past life warned him of getting too close to those in authority, and he doubted that the person in authority being a literal princess of the kingdom made things any better.

But from the glares both bodyguards were shooting his way, he doubted that denial was an option. Besides, he hadn’t yet gotten his answer about Tiana.

So, pasting a fake smile on his face, he responded. “Of course!”

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