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.

Erlebnis is the god of knowledge, and you are his mortal champion. He couldn’t have forbidden

a glance at Anneliese, perhaps surprised that was the direction the conversation took. “Not all knowledge is important,” she

well, hell. It’s got to be important, somehow. Given how hard this place was to reach, it might

that true?” Onychinusa looked

“Of course,” Argrave nodded.

forward, then grew silent. “...call him Lord,” she muttered quietly after a while.

think... I think I can

ahead, her face a complex storm of thought. Argrave was ready to say more, but Anneliese pinched him and raised a gloved finger to

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

time to think, Anneliese said, “Argrave and Orion rediscovered their lineage.

of them curiously, Orion looked back, and said

interrupted Orion. “Our ancestor, Vasquer... she’s a Gilderwatcher, a sort of snake that grows to be miles long with a body as thick as an elephant. With her help, I was able to learn how

end her brows furrowed. “But you’re

the most conventional ancestor, her

mortified as she pondered the forbidden, unanswerable Vasquer question, and

Anneliese said poignantly. “But I imagine you can be punished

they’d both been holding. “The reason Dimocles was given responsibility was because he could be trusted to act independently, do what

him. I want him to drown,” Onychinusa responded instantly and

“Drown?

painful way to die,”

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

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

him. “What was

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

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

can work, Argrave

#####

this time,” Onychinusa told

best not to sound offended by the fact she thought he was that stupid. “Orion, just

until the world itself

few hours,” Argrave said,

few hours,” Orion nodded

about 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 Argrave paid very close attention

as spirits danced out from her body, surrounding Argrave. This time, however, he did not feel that all-consuming passivity that had come 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

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