Jackal Among Snakes

Onychinusa looked upon the older dryad after she made her offer and said, “I agreed to help, but I don’t know what it is you’re asking of me.”

The mother dryad stepped up to Onychinusa, staring her eye to eye. “I cannot fault you for that. The circumstances of your birth were very strange, and so you cannot be expected to know what I speak of.” She held her hands out magnanimously, then continued, “I humbly plead that you reconnect with your lineage, learn of your people, and help us just as your ancestors once did.”

As Anneliese watched this exchange, repressed desire seemed to explode outwards from Onychinusa at that moment. The dryad’s request was something that she’d thought about herself many times before, yet the ancient elf had never been allowed—or perhaps never allowed herself—to explore it. When confronted with it directly, the emotionally inexperienced woman became a storm of uncertainty and curiosity.

A storm that Anneliese was more than happy to intensify.

“You should definitely do it,” Anneliese encouraged immediately, much of her initial purpose in coming here put to the wayside. She moved the Brumesingers aside.

“I don’t... I can’t...” Onychinusa edged backwards, “There are other considerations, and I...”

“I know that you are tied to Erlebnis. In the end, it matters not,” the dryad shook her head, dark eyes uncompromisingly kind. “Your parents, though entrapped, thought to preserve you... and by preserving you, preserve everything they held dear.”

Onychinusa stared for a few moments, coming to grips with what the dryad said. “...in the end, it matters not? That’s a fitting thing to say. I never knew them. I cannot remember them. Every year of my life, they were already dead.”

“You were never told of them? You never had that question answered?” Anneliese probed.

“I know...!” Onychinusa whipped her head to glare at Anneliese, then took a deep breath. “I know what you’re doing.”

Anneliese only tilted her head innocently.

“The children... my children...” the dryad turned her body, looking out at them as the played loudly in the distant reaches of the clearing. “So long ago, they were so few. No more than five. But as the years passed, I made more and more, as I was instructed to so long ago by your kin. Hide away, they told me... hide away, and prepare for the return of our brood. They thought that one day, the troubles would be over... and even were that not the case, their legacy would be preserved, to be reborn.”

Anneliese watched as Onychinusa was assailed by tremendous guilt. But soon enough, the elf felt confusion in equal measure as though this feeling was entirely new to her. Perhaps it was—Anneliese supposed there was seldom an opportunity for Onychinusa to feel like she’d wronged Erlebnis enough to feel guilty.

The dryad turned her head away from the children. “You must forgive me, but I have promised my children for so long that you would come back. Could you please, at the very least... indulge them for a time? They have practiced for centuries how best to serve you... or someone like you. Could you allow them that?”

Onychinusa looked quite trepidatious, and she offered no verbal answer. After a time of debating with herself, she abruptly stormed off towards the playing dryad children, almost as though to give them a piece of her mind.

“I am feeling a sense of what you might call irony,” the dryad said to Anneliese, turning her head away. “It was a slave rebellion that marked the end of their empire. Now the last of them returns nearly a thousand years later... as a slave that does not know it.”

not meant as such. She questioned gently, “How is it you know all of these

them is the gift to see to the root of life. We can intimately understand the origins of all that we lay eyes upon, from the smallest sapling

like there was something more important. Ahead, Onychinusa reluctantly engaged with the dryad children, pushing past her unease to let them act. As she watched, Anneliese asked,

the dryad confirmed. “Those children cannot grow without her. This forest cannot spread beyond these ruins without her. And I believe, perhaps with few exceptions, that the whole of this forest cannot be healed of the damage that foul

undoing what Kirel Qircassia did,” Anneliese

that is its name,” the mother dryad nodded. “The roots have taken in

approach Onychinusa. It began to fit her hands with rings of purple flowers, vibrant and bright. As she watched, Anneliese asked, “Why

on this continent were once slaves. They have all broken their bonds, razed the cities of their captors, and allowed the gods to lay waste to their culture. Now, only me and my children remain bound in servitude. It is something within us, something that

the Bloodwoods... aren’t descendants?” Anneliese

The elves living here were the first among the servants of state, but they were still servants. The elves sought to assume the position of overlord, but

ancient elves... how did their

end of it all harvested Onychinusa’s ancestors like wheat. He took the knowledge he wanted, hoarding it, and left the victors to stew in

hate Erlebnis,” Anneliese

they trust you, and treat you very kindly. Naysayers claim it could be likened to the relationship between dogs and mortals, but… whatever the case, our masters were very kind. They brought peace to this continent, and some beyond it. I

attempting with Argrave was not his first instance of such a behavior. Perhaps just as the empire

of the kingdom reminded her of another thing, and so she asked, “The man that was with me,

out across the

with him returned. She could tell just by looking on him that things had not gone as he planned, and he walked with a heavy heart.

Orion...” she said, asking a question with

big hole. You can see it. You can damn well see it. The whole thing collapsed, and now the mandragora’s barely keeping

said, taking his arm

with the dryad as he might an old friend. Once they’d placed a sufficient distance between

engaged with the druids, the frustration written on his face. Around everyone else he was guarded, but before her

out,” Anneliese began hopefully. “I

way to get the spirits for the shamanic magic? She has spirits. We need spirits. We have to steal them,” he

of

get close...” He rubbed the bridge of his nose in stress, then shook his head. “I just... I don’t see how this can work out. We can show her a DNA test, tell her all about her

she knew Onychinusa... and indeed, all his words rang true. But something flared in her, and she argued, “I am certain only of the fact that she will never escape his ownership if we prove Erlebnis to

but in the end, his trust in her was so absolute he asked only, “What’s your