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.

the god of knowledge, and you are his mortal champion. He couldn’t have forbidden you to learn. It’s

spared a glance at Anneliese, perhaps surprised that was the direction the conversation took. “Not

this place was to reach, it

Onychinusa looked

“Of course,” Argrave nodded.

head forward, then grew silent. “...call him

held his hand out. “I think... I think

looked at him once more in surprise, then faced ahead, her face a complex storm of thought. Argrave was ready to say more, but Anneliese pinched him and raised a gloved finger to her lips.

back to where the mandragora

giving Onychinusa sufficient time to think, Anneliese said, “Argrave and Orion

at the two of them curiously, Orion looked back, and said in confusion,

elephant. With her help, I was able to learn how to fully

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

backed up the statement. “Though not quite the most conventional ancestor, her compassion was a boundless

pondered the forbidden, unanswerable Vasquer

be punished for learning,” Anneliese said poignantly. “But

been holding. “The reason Dimocles was given

I hate him. I want him to drown,”

“Drown?

painful way to die,” she said

Onychinusa to chuckle slightly. Hers was a strange laughter—stuttery and jittery, but entirely

I asked for, should everything go right with this... I asked for Dimocles to die,” Argrave said quietly, almost

him. “What was

have a use for him yet. Something he has that you don’t. Seeing as how everyone here hates

feeling indignant, confused, and focused all at the same time. As she

work,

#####

Lord’s blessing this time,” Onychinusa told Argrave firmly. “I have to teleport you with

Argrave said, trying his best not to sound offended by the fact she thought he was that stupid. “Orion,

wait until the world itself ends,” he

hours,” Argrave said, attempting

Orion nodded

from this procedure of

last time, where he’d felt subdued and thoughtless before her spirits. It confirmed to him then that she had intended to abduct him with spirits without his permission

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