Arcane Journey

Chapter 11 The Way of the Drow
The mansion of the Tux family is huge and impressive.

The natural rock formations are already magnificent, but over the centuries Matron Tux has added countless more intricate carvings.

The circular vaults glow with purple demon fire, and the magic spider webs are even said to have been woven by Rose herself.

But in Santilla's view, it's a bit exaggerated.

From the perspective of a wizard, although it is gorgeous and extraordinary, it is a bit too much.

The gate swung open as she approached, and a troop of Turks bowed to her.

The ogre servant hurried forward to take away her mount, and eight heavily armed drow women, the elite guard from the mistress, led her through the winding corridors to the center of the fortress: the Temple of Lolth.

The young wizard marched with the guard, her mood growing restless as the shrine approached.

As the clock struck midnight, Santilla stepped into the hall of the shrine.

The two most powerful priestesses of Rose in the ancient Orens city came into her sight.

They are all high-ranking priests of Lolth, typical representatives of the followers of the Spider God Queen.

Wearing a dark priest's robe with a serious and pious face is Marina, the guardian of Rose Temple.

This seemingly boring and lazy guardian has an extremely firm belief in Rose and rarely leaves her beloved shrine.

The other is Elisabeta, the mistress of the Tux family, the ruler of the first family, and the best candidate to be the mistress.

To Santilla, the old bastard was nothing more than a vicious two-legged spider.

Cold, utterly practical, ruthlessly efficient, and even that slightly sullen, commanding image frightened her a little.

Santilla saw her wizard standing behind her two sisters.

When she noticed the strange indifference on the other party's face, the uneasiness in her heart increased.

In the shrine.

Prominently towering over the three sisters of Tux is a gigantic magical vision, a tribute to Lolth, Queen of the Spider Gods, that alternates endlessly between giant spiders and beautiful drow women.

About a decade ago, her father, the Chief Archmage himself, created the stunning illusion to please the Matron of House Thackes.

This magical vision was one of the conditions of her upbringing by the Tarks family.

"You've arrived at last." Madam Elisabeth's tone was stern and emotionless, as usual.

Santilla bowed deeply to her, blinked her eyes, and said in a deliberately frivolous tone, "At your command, Aunt Tux."

"It's the mistress!"

Marina reprimanded severely, her anger towards Santilla's lack of respect was clearly expressed in her words.

Santilla ignored it.

Disrespect was just one of the reasons why the most devout high priest to the Spider Queen hated her.

In fact, there are deeper reasons.

One night a year ago, Marina worshiped Rose devoutly as usual.

But she quietly hid in the dark, using the power of magic to activate the two spider threads, vividly imitating her distinctive staggering gait and exaggerated kneeling posture.

The prank in front of the shrine, Santilla once thought that this incident would annoy the spider queen.

But the strange thing was that Rose wasn't upset about it. It seemed that even the evil gods appreciated a little black humor once in a while, so much so that her Aunt Marina could only suppress her anger.

"Praise Rose, one day the capricious Spider Queen will tire of her tricks, but right now, this naughty girl has undoubtedly won Rose's favor." Afterwards, Matron Elisabeth said analyzed in this way.

It was because of this sentence that she almost entered the spider academy where priestesses were trained.

as usual.

The guardian of the shrine took a deep breath, ready to scold at length.

But to Santilla's surprise, Mistress Tux waved her hand to keep her sister quiet. She leaned forward, stared at her for a long time, and spoke slowly.

"It can be seen that your age is over 30 years old. However, you did not enter the academy as required by law and custom for nobles. When you should have prepared to serve the Tux family, you wasted nearly 15 years for you to have fun."

"I'm from the Pumor family." Santilla raised her head and faced the mistress firmly. "My family has been destroyed for centuries, so I don't belong to the nobility."

"Besides." She emphasized again: "I made good use of this time, and my father arranged the best magic training for me."

A smile crept up the corner of Mistress Elisabeta's mouth, and she swept over the scowling Jolana, and said softly to Santilla, "Don't worry, child. Soon, you will be a real nobleman, The most dazzling drow princess of the Tax family, when you complete the blood sacrifice, I will personally adopt you as my adopted daughter, so as to make up for the regrets of your dead mother."

"Is this my father's decision?" The young wizard's expression changed slightly.

Hathorf refused her to join the Turks, as his only daughter, he didn't want her to be the target of countless plots.

He told me that himself, Santilla thought.

"That old Roth must be raging." Matron Elisabeth snorted derisively, smiling wickedly, "but he had no choice. That's what happened to his lack of devotion to Rose. "

The old bastard finally showed her purpose, Santilla thought furiously.

She could not help wondering maliciously why Elisabeth had never had a mate.

Some veiled rumors even suggest that Mistress Matron's hobbies are incomprehensible even by drow standards.

But it is obviously extremely unwise to say such things.

Her heart sank, but she knew that it was impossible to avoid this disaster. The most important thing right now was to pass her blood sacrifice ceremony and become a real drow recognized by Rose.

Santilla nodded with great difficulty.

And so she saw Matron Elisabetha's old bastard's smirk more clearly.

This made her consider whether to secretly arrange a monitoring spell in the old bastard's bedroom, and then announce the crystal image at the ceremony in the ancient city of Orens.

It would be wonderful, she thought maliciously, that some dark rumor would be made public.

"Is the game ready?" the mistress turned to her second sister.

"Yes."

Jolana nodded gloomyly, "The young drow standing in front of us has shown great potential, which is exactly what we expect from her. If she is not given a real test, it will be a testament to the future of the First Family." An insult to the princess."

"I understand."

Madam Elisabeth raised her eyebrows, and said coldly to Jonara in threatening words, "Very well, as long as it is within the rules of the blood sacrifice, this is your prerogative, and I will not interfere. However, did you know that if any misfortune happens, you will bear the brunt of it?"

"Rose, the great spider queen, has been watching her devout people." Jolana didn't answer directly, she looked at the image respectfully, and asked, "Are you doubting my belief in Rose?"

"Praise Rose!" Marina whispered.

It turned out that the old bastard's status was threatened, so she was pulling allies, and Santilla, who was watching coldly, saw why.

"Santila, the future princess of the Tux family, are you ready?" Mistress Elisabeta looked at her.

Santila bowed deeply, trying her best to hide her uneasiness and make her appear calm.

"Then, this will be the prey you have been waiting for for a long time." Joanara raised her arms high, and then swung her body sideways violently.

A slight crackling sound resounded in the heavy, humid air of the room, and a strange light of magic circle suddenly flashed on the ground.

Every pair of eyes in the hall turned, anticipating the imminent prey.

Santilla watched uneasily at the surging light.

The moment the light of the magic circle dissipated.

A half-elf male in a black cloak appeared in front of everyone.

"It's an insult!"

Seeing the prey's face clearly, Santilla became very emotional, and blurted out in anger and confusion, "I always thought that my blood sacrifice would be a test of skill and courage, a hunt for dangerous creatures on the surface. He is an intelligent race, and this blood sacrifice has humiliated him and me as well."

"Presumptuous! You have misunderstood the meaning of blood sacrifice, so you can't blame others." Marina, the guardian of the shrine, said coldly:

"Over the years, you have heard so many stories of surprise raids by surface commandos. What do you think was slaughtered? Could it be a domestic animal like the Roth beast? The prey is the prey! Whether it has two legs or four legs, it is sacrificed to The prey of the Spider Queen!"

"I won't do that." Santilla refused coldly.

She turned her head, and a huge cage appeared in her sight.

Prepared to receive the Ritual of Blood's offering, it is surrounded by giant magic-fed spiders, the core of Taksi's guardian power.

In fact, there are giant spiders standing guard everywhere - in every corner of the room, on every step leading up to the throne, and even hanging from the room's ceiling by long glowing threads.

"In this matter, you don't have the right to choose." Mistress Elisabeta looked at the stubborn wizard and said unhurriedly, "It's the mistress's job to choose the prey, and they define what hunting is. .”

"This battle mage from the Kingdom of Cormyr."

Joanara couldn't help showing a slight smile, "You will be transported to an abandoned cave in the southeast of Ancient Orens City. And you will be escorted to a nearby tunnel. No matter what weapons and methods you use, you must capture and Kill this half-elf. If you do not complete within ten dark circles, your hunt will be a failure."

"Take this with you."

As she said, she handed Santilla a small glass bottle, "The tunnels in the wild are very complicated, and many young drow will fail the mission because they cannot find the prey. Take this, trust me, no matter how far you go Far away, your prey will run after you, completely eliminating the worries of you struggling to find your prey."

"Is there no room for maneuver?"

Santilla took the vial blankly and looked at her for the last time with sad eyes, desperate whispers that clearly indicated her mood at the moment.

"You are very talented and well trained and we are very confident in your success."

Joanara comforted her with a perfunctory smirk, "Otherwise, you will be killed by the prey. This is the challenge and rules of the blood sacrifice, and it is also the truth of our drow life!"

Her voice was calm and cold, and at this moment, Santilla understood everything, and understood it completely.

In a trance, she seemed to feel that deep in her heart, a faint flame of hope was swaying and extinguished. Perhaps, this was the harbinger of the coming darkness.

After all, it is never the darkness of fear that tortures people, but the soul struggling to pursue the light.

She had to get used to this betrayal, try to accept this reality, and then try to stay vigilant and move on with her life.

Revenge was at the root of drow's passion, yet it was a feeling foreign to Santilla.

She savored it as if it were a glass of spiced green wine she had tasted lately—bitter, yes, but invigorating and resolute.

Santilla is still young, open to accepting and learning about her people.

However, this was the first time she had seen their desire for her own death in the eyes of the other drow.

Santilla instinctively felt that if she wanted to survive, she couldn't just ignore it.

The young drow wizards turned their sky-blue gazes away from that malevolent gaze and turned them back to the prey they had chosen for themselves.

She was surprised to find that the battle mage from the kingdom of Cormyr, his eyes were surprisingly calm, as if he was a spectator who stayed out of the matter, completely unaware of where his next fate would lead.

His complexion is pale, his smooth and fair face reveals sharp-edged sternness, and his dark and deep eyes glow with a soft and charming color.

Seeing him shaking his head slightly to herself, she nodded secretly again.

Then, he calmly stepped into the portal and disappeared.

Really ironic.

Santilla felt a pair of vicious and joyful eyes staring at her, and she whispered to herself.

At her most desperate moment, it was not her blood relatives who comforted herself, but a prey about to be hunted by her.

This is the society of Drow, the truth of Drow's life.

Therefore, she will never succumb to the conspiracy and rules they have already woven. She must try to resist, and use her own way to complete the blood sacrifice and become a real drow.

However, what other options did she have to become a true drow?
other options?

Watching the back of the battle mage leaving, a cold smile slowly climbed onto Santilla's pretty face.

A solution to the dilemma gradually took shape in her mind.

After all, wanting to become a real drow is far more than simply killing.

Constant change is the way of drow.

Only the fittest survive!
(End of this chapter)