Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 399

Argrave and Anneliese walked up to Onychinusa as she played with the dryad children on the ground. She seemed to have resigned herself to being adorned with all manner of flamboyant leaf accessories-- from Argrave’s sight, he saw a few rings, a crown, and a bracelet, each and all made of flowers and twigs.

“You must think me a fool,” Onychinusa said, looking up at them. “To help these dryads would be to hurt Kirel Qircassia, undo all the work that he’s done to this forest. You should know as well as I do that I cannot make that happen. He is in Erlebnis’ design, and so not to be meddled with.”

Argrave offered his hand to help her up. “We’re not here about that. I need your help for something more immediate.” As he looked on the forest floor, he spotted something peculiar crossed out in the dirt. “Is that... tic-tac-toe?”

“Anneliese showed me that,” Onychinusa said unabashedly, then grabbed Argrave’s wrist to rise to her feet awkwardly. “It’s a stupid game, but they’re children.”

A thousand-year-old elf calls thousand-year-old forest dwellers children, while acting like the epitome of one herself in many scenarios. Argrave held his tongue, but glanced at Anneliese and felt she shared the same sentiments he did.

“We would like to ask a favor of you,” Anneliese began her pitch. “We need to call upon your shamanic magic. There’s a place that we cannot reach without it.”

“Reach?” the woman repeated, looking at the two of them. “You mean transportation, then.”

“Yeah. One spell to reach there, one spell to return from there,” he summarized.

“One person?” she said, taking account of all variables.

“Two. Us,” Argrave pointed his finger between himself and Anneliese. “I suppose three, if you count yourself.”

“Okay. Best get everything that you need done, because I won’t stress my spirits beyond that extent. You have one chance,” she shook her head, then walked past Argrave. “Are you ready now?”

One chance, indeed, Argrave thought. One chance to get you to agree to ruin Kirel Qircassia’s plan, cause a falling out.

“Let’s walk a little closer to the site itself, then, to ease your spirits' burden,” Argrave suggested, taking the lead. Orion was already ready to come along, and so Argrave called out to Batbayar, “Myriarch. Are you staying here, or are we going back?”

“I want to speak to the mother dryad,” he called back.

Argrave nodded, then looked to Onychinusa. “Well... let’s go, shall we?”

#####

“In all your years, you never learned about your own lineage?” Anneliese asked Onychinusa as they walked back to where the mandragora and the library waited.

Argrave was very surprised to see that Anneliese had broken down Onychinusa’s defensiveness enough to ask a question as bold as that and not have the immediate response be a tantrum of some kind.

“I told you... I know what you’re doing, so stop,” Onychinusa shook her head.

“I mean... Erlebnis is the god of knowledge, and you are his mortal champion. He

direction the conversation took.

the dryad is claiming that learning of your lineage will allow you to empower her,” Argrave cut in. “If it can do that much... well, hell. It’s got to be important, somehow. Given how hard this place was to reach, it might be something Erlebnis might

true?” Onychinusa looked at

“Of course,” Argrave nodded.

grew silent. “...call him

“I think... I think I can do

faced ahead, her face a complex storm of thought. Argrave was ready to say more, but Anneliese pinched

leading them back to where the mandragora was as he cleared bits of

sufficient time to think, Anneliese said, “Argrave and Orion rediscovered their lineage. It gave them tremendous

back, and said in

thick as an elephant. With her help, I was able to learn how to fully understand the mind of another person—in this case, my sister. More than that, we saw all of the past that she’d seen. We

look impressed, but in the end her brows furrowed. “But you’re human, not a snake. You can’t be

the most conventional ancestor, her

pondered the forbidden, unanswerable Vasquer question, and in the end went silent

said poignantly. “But I imagine you can be

both been holding. “The reason

want him to drown,”

chuckled. “Drown?

most painful way

slightly. Hers was a

I asked for, should everything go right with this... I asked for

looked at him. “What was

either.” Argrave looked to the ceiling above. “I figure they must still have a use for him yet. Something he has that you don’t.

quickly, feeling indignant, confused, and focused all at

this can work, Argrave began to

#####

Lord’s blessing this time,” Onychinusa told Argrave firmly.

sound offended by the fact she thought he was that stupid. “Orion, just wait here,

will wait until the

maybe just a few hours,” Argrave said, attempting

hours,” Orion

shamanic magic from this procedure of hers. The ancient elf raised up her hand and cast the spell in a fluid, quick, and near effortless motion, but

spirits. It confirmed to him then that she had intended to abduct him with spirits without his permission in the past, and now this time things were not the same. He caught fleeting glimpses of the spirits as they

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