Arcane Journey

Chapter 20 City Building Festival

The candle flame flickered for the last time, and was finally annihilated in wax tears.

The darkness swallowed the figure curled up on the bed and every corner of the house.

A long sigh.
Santilla put her arms around her knees, resting her chin on her knees, recalling everything in her dream.

In fact, she rarely dreamed, and when she did, she almost forgot all about it when she woke up, even after a nightmare.

But this time, she remembered some details with a deep impression.

In her dream, she saw a fallen drow goddess, Eilistraee, in the forest, bathed in the moonlight, with a pergola woven of white and green moonstones hanging from the treetops above her head. covered.

The goddess is naked, and her silver-white ankle-length hair glides over her black satin-like skin like flowing water.

The two silver swords were suspended in mid-air on both sides of the buttocks. Their silver blades trembled slightly, and their sounds intertwined with each other, just like the high-pitched singing voices of women, playing a wordless tune.

Her eyes are the ultimate in these mortal women's memories: pupils with shifting blue lights found only in moonstones.

Although the goddess' perfect face and sky-blue eyes are full of confidence, Santilla's most impressive thing is her tearful and suffocating voice.

An inexplicable sadness welling up in her heart made her no longer want to look at this kind goddess, but forcibly turned her gaze to another goddess of the drow, 'Spider Queen' Rose.

She sat upon the pale Iron Throne, a bloated bulb resting on eight legs like a bulging belly.

Above her, tormented souls filled the sweltering black-purple sky.

Lolth was in her drow avatar, her barklike skin wrapped in clothes woven of spider silk, reaching to her shoulders and digging into her long, bone-white hair.

As she spoke, tiny red spiders gushed out of her mouth and fell through Rose's lower lip onto hair-thin webs that swayed in the fetid breeze.

The red light in Rose's eyeballs is the reflection of the hell fire in the hell spider web, and this is the only place that shines on her body.

Darkness enveloped her like a cloak.

The eyes of the two goddesses jumped across the huge gap, through a portal, and stared at each other tightly.

The portal towered between the planes of the goddesses, Lolth and the long-fallen Eilistraee, mother and daughter, the drow gods of darkness and cruelty and light and mercy.

A chessboard spans a portal between two gods.

"We get on the board and play the game ourselves."

"A life-and-death battle, the winner gets everything, and the god Aiou will be the witness of our bet."

……

Santilla shook her head, forcibly dispelling the distracting thoughts in her mind.

Out of an instinctive defensiveness, she didn't want to know the meaning of everything in the dream at all, she just wanted them to disappear like smoke, that's all.

Queen Rose, Goddess of Kindness, and the battle of life and death on the chessboard are not as important as her own affairs.

She cheered up, with a confident and familiar smile on her sad pretty face, and stretched out her hands to comb her loose long hair, then got out of bed, changed her clothes, and was ready to go out.

Today is a special day.

The once-in-a-thousand-year city-building festival of the ancient city of Orens has arrived.

On this day, the clansmen in the city will visit the family's residence or hold a picnic in the wilderness, and even invite the clan they usually fight to the death to have dinner together with smiles on their faces to celebrate the arrival of the festival.

At the banquet, the solemn toast is first to pay tribute to Rose, then to the ancient city of Orens, then to the founder of the family to which the diner belongs, and finally to pay tribute to the favorite ancestor or fallen hero of the relevant family, And tell about their great achievements.

The key is.

It is said that on this day, Rose, the Spider Queen, will walk among her people, listen to and judge her people in any mortal image of any gender, any age, any appearance, and any race.

Because no one can guarantee that the stranger passing by must not be the incarnation of Rose, the queen of spiders.

Therefore, on the day of the city's founding, no strangers or slaves passing by would be refused by the drow family to entertain them.

Instead, they are warmly invited to sit down and share food, and to accommodate any requests they may have.

Because if their hospitality satisfies Rose, she rewards those who please her with magical powers, weaknesses, minor but permanent changes to flaws, or magic items.

Likewise, if poorly served, she will transform food and drink into deadly poisons that will kill entire clans that irritate or offend her.

If Rose happens to overhear or pass by when one of her drow talks about her favorite, she sometimes appears in a real image reminiscent of a dead hero, responding with silent ornaments and expressions Or, as if they were alive and could hear what they were saying.

Of course, she would use these illusions to persuade the drow to take on the tasks she wanted them to undertake, or to make the decisions she wanted them to make.

Santilla couldn't help thinking curiously.

If on this day, a stinking goblin asked the mistress of the Tux family to wash his feet or sleep with him, would this vicious old bastard bite the bullet and agree?

The corner of the drow girl's mouth curled into a smile. For some reason, she suddenly had the intention of going to a goblin to try.

After thinking about it, she shook her head again, but in the end she didn't choose to put her thoughts into action.

Because right now she has a more important matter, which needs to be confirmed by herself.

To the northwest of Ancient Orens City, there is the most chaotic trade fair.

The purpose of most people coming here is to trade strictly prohibited goods, and merchants from hundreds of races do business in a dangerous environment.

It is said that this was once the burial place of a destroyed first family of their drow race.

Over the centuries, many untended ruins became home to other, more dangerous creatures.

From time to time, treasure hunters come to find hidden caches of undiscovered wealth.

Most of these explorers left behind piles of rotting bones, a strong testament to the traps and monsters that still roam the family burial grounds.

Santilla walked through the dark tunnel with ease, the magic elf boots muffled the sound of her footsteps, and the elf magic cloak helped her hide her figure.

In the intricate tunnel, she suddenly found a faint blue halo.

This is a magical warning, only those wizards who are born with magical talents and hard training can detect it.

She left the main tunnel leading to the trade fair and approached cautiously.

She saw an eerie blue light like a glowing scroll, covering the entrance to the cavern.

Santilla, who was invisible, looked around and noticed several kobolds, orcs, and goblins walking, discussing which drow family to go to eat and drink.

They passed by her as if nothing had happened, completely oblivious to the strange situation here and the blue aura of the cave.

This made her instantly understand that this is a magical aura that only wizards can see, and the blue aura emitted cannot illuminate the surrounding scenes at all.

She hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to risk breaking the restraint.

In the end, curiosity overcame the fear in her heart. She temporarily put aside what she had to do, and began to carefully observe the restriction of the sealed entrance. Then, with a whisper, she summoned an elf flame ball.

As expected, the moment she summoned the flame ball, the blue forbidden light began to flicker from strength to strength, which made her realize that this was just the simplest illusion.

There was a smile on the corner of Santilla's mouth, she put away the fireball, and walked in as if nothing had happened.

In the spacious tunnel, the corpses of goblins, kobolds, and ogres were scattered among them, and the floor and walls were splashed with blood and dark red blood clots that had dried for a long time.

Seeing this situation, Santilla was a little disappointed.

Because this looks more like an ordinary cave, it is completely impossible for there to be any unknown treasures.

She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, waved away the disgusting stench, and then set her blue eyes on a dead goblin corpse, observing carefully, trying to find out whether the cause of their death came from improper distribution of spoils. Even infighting.

She raised her foot and kicked the corpse, and found that the little guy's head had been neatly cut open.

The crude helmet and bones were cleanly cut, and the edges on the sides were smooth as if they had been honed by a master gem cutter.

Then, she looked at a thigh belonging to a huge ogre. As she guessed, the incision at the thigh joint was also very smooth.

Obviously, the corpses here should all be the work of a person with superb swordsmanship, and almost all of them were killed with one blow, without the power to resist.

What a sharp sword, what a swift sword technique, she thought in amazement.

In her impression, I am afraid that only the martial arts masters of the major families can achieve this level.

For some reason, the figure of Brian appeared in her mind inexplicably.

He also seems to be a master swordsman, and the weapon Brian wears is the result of her careful selection for him.

If he is allowed to do it, can he do it to this extent?She couldn't help but wonder curiously.

As soon as he was mentioned, her thinking suddenly became a little confused.

Because the purpose of her trip was to confirm whether Brian had escaped or not.

From some hidden channel, she learned that several priestesses of Lolth and drow warriors had indeed died in the Spider Cave.

This proves that Brian has escaped according to their pre-negotiated plan.

However, more than 20 people were killed in the Venom Cave where the spider elves were transformed, including eight low-level priestesses of Rose.

It is said that even the God Queen's maid, the wax melting demon, was kicked over the altar by the intruder, and then was forcibly driven back to the lower plane with humiliation.

That scene must be very interesting, Santilla thought, and she almost thought of the funny look of the Waxmelt showing its teeth and claws at the intruders, but helpless.

This kind of naked blasphemy naturally attracted the utmost attention of the high-level officials.

Some of Lolth's high priests even summoned waxmelts, just to find out where the Defiler was.

However, what was very disappointing was that the other party seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, and there was no news of it.

According to the descriptions of the survivors, they only knew that the person who trespassed into the forbidden area was a half-elf wizard, and when he was desperate, he jumped into the abyss with a crack in the abyss.

When all the doubts point to the fact that this person is Brian, Santilla clearly feels that among the items given to him, some things that she secretly tampered with are all invalid, so that it is impossible for her to use her detective skills Test spells and detect any whereabouts of the opponent.

Therefore, she had to go to the trade bazaar to find out if Brian used the teleportation scroll she gave him to leave the city of Ancient Orens.

Because the end point of the teleportation scroll is a hidden cave in the trade market.

After all, in her mind, Brian was a true friend.

This is simply impossible in their drow society.

In Santilla's young life, she suffered many betrayals, each betrayal made her unexpected, and gave birth to a dull pain of emptiness, and most of them came from trust, so that she had to learn to pretend Own.

She hadn't lost the drow gifts she had, a knack for intrigue, once learned, never forgotten.

But with Brian, she developed something akin to trust.

Although the two occasionally deceived each other, Santilla could feel that behind this deception was not the murder of the drow race, but a kind of kindness that even she herself could not explain clearly.

That's why she was willing to take the initiative to share her passion with him.

As a drow elf who grew up in the ancient Orens city.

Santilla knew that apart from an area she was familiar with that could be used to vent her emotions, she had no idea of ​​any other means to deepen the relationship between the two before parting.

This made her involuntarily recall a pleasant exchange between the two before they parted.

That feeling is really amazing.

At first she felt a momentary pain, but the pain slowly melted into a sweetness, like a magic potion that she could only taste once in a lifetime.

She tried to let that feeling last as long as possible, and gradually, the sweetness took over, and she was completely overwhelmed by the sweetness.

It wasn't until the end that she realized that this incident brought more than just sweetness.

She felt a dizzying spasm in the part that bloomed in front of him like a flower, and then the dizziness swept over her body.

She once thought that there is nothing more pleasant than this, even if she pays her life for it.

thinking about
Santilla's cheeks became hot all of a sudden, and her heartbeat also accelerated involuntarily.

She suppressed the stench of the cave, calmed down her disordered breath, and diverted her attention.

Thinking of Brian out of control, she couldn't help sighing depressingly again.

In her opinion, the other party is obviously a very smart half-elf, why doesn't she understand her own thoughts and the hints in her words.

When communicating with him, she has repeatedly hinted that she would like to go to the surface with him.

As long as he nodded in agreement, she would immediately leave everything in the city of Ancient Orens and go happily, but he kept silent about this matter from the beginning to the end.

For the first time, Santilla felt a sense of loss that she was neglected.

I have to say, this taste is very uncomfortable.

A long sigh.
Santilla flicked the hair on her forehead, as long as she encountered troubles recently, she just liked to flick her hair.

Even she herself didn't know how this bad habit appeared.

And she also found that she sighed more and more every day.

This is not a good sign, she quickly adjusted her mentality, put all her troubles behind her, and thought about the good side.

Involuntarily, she began to analyze her current situation.

Although she missed an opportunity to leave the underground world, she knew that with her own personality, it was only a matter of time before she ventured to the surface.

Therefore, she must start thinking about everything she will abandon in the future.

After thinking about the problem, she realized that she didn't feel so regretful about the surface travel that she could only take a few years in the future.

After all, she still has a lot of things to do now. In Ancient Orens City, she still has a lot of magic knowledge to learn and many things to experience.

Although she didn't like her father, the chief archmage of the city of Orens, but his ability to fill up his pockets at any time and never have to frown at the expensive prices of spell materials and magic books, But as a wizard, she needs it most right now.

In the final analysis, she is still too weak, and she still needs to grow up.

Only by gaining more power, can she take these powers to the Land of Light and look for the Walking Temple.

However, whenever that moment comes, Santilla knows that she can only set foot on a strange land alone.

She had to get used to not relying on anyone, including the chief archmage who might not see each other for several years.

After figuring out the problem, she showed her most familiar confident smile again, ready to end this disappointing treasure hunting adventure.

Just as she was about to walk out of the cave, an object that was inadvertently kicked caught her attention.

She looked down and found that it was a shallow, concave and convex bronze bowl, with exquisite flower patterns embossed on it, like roses, and the inner wall was inlaid with ivory.

The item seemed out of place compared to the horrific wreckage and utilities that lay strewn about her feet.

It's hard to imagine that she didn't discover this unusual item in the first place, which seemed to appear out of thin air.

This made her feel suspicious.

In the end, doubt overcame her exuberant curiosity.

She reached out to touch the rim of the bowl.

As soon as she touched the bowl, a faint magical aura emerged, and clear water filled the bowl.

Santilla's eyes widened and she looked down into the bowl.

At first she saw only her own reflection, but the water darkened in a moment, blacker than the deepest cracks in the Underdark.

Immediately afterwards, images began to appear, floating in calm water.

Seeker's Bowl.

The drow wizard guessed the name of the item, a magic item that could be used to monitor other areas.

It is said that there is a nephrite wizard hidden somewhere in the Venom Cave, and he possesses the Bowl of the Insightr, who can even monitor every move of the entire ancient Orens city.

Santilla immediately concentrated and looked at the clear water in the bowl.

When she cast her gaze away, she was surprised to find that she actually saw Matron Elisabeta of the Tux family.

The old woman was dressed in a splendid dress, standing in the banquet hall, looking around her, with satisfaction shining in her vicious eyes.

Under the order of the mistress, the attendants brought the most precious treasures of the family and placed them in the banquet hall:

Chairs made of Deaclaw bones, onyx tables supported by dragon claws, and crystal goblets painted crimson that hold the blood wine of surface elves, etc., are exhibits that even Santilla amazes.

Work in a while.

A guard walks in leading a hunchbacked troll with green moss skin and a pustular face.

She noticed that Matron Elisabetha forcibly suppressed the strong desire to whip her snake's head on the other person, and forced herself to fake a smile at the ugly troll.

Apparently, she'd heard stories like that of families who drove off some poor creature, only to find out that it was Rose in disguise, and they just happened to die of food turned into poison.

Santilla gloated at the antics in the bowl.

Matron Elisabeth welcomed the troll with a smile on her face and extended him a warm invitation to dine.

The troll nodded its high head, its trunk-like hands rubbed against each other, grinned and showed its yellow teeth, and walked towards the banquet hall with unrecognizable steps.

When the meal was over and Matron Elisabeta washed the troll's hard-shelled feet with water from a silver basin, Santilla suddenly noticed that the troll suddenly looked up with its eyes bulging.

This move obviously startled her, as if her voyeurism had been discovered.

When she focused on the bowl again, the clear water in the bowl had disappeared, and the bronze bowl was also completely damaged in dense cracks.

Could it be that the troll is really Rose's incarnation?Santilla was shocked by her own thoughts.

At this moment, a strange black flame suddenly ignited in the cave.

The flame didn't have any temperature, nor any halo, but as long as Santilla stared at it, her eyes would feel stinging.

Just when she was at a loss for this weird black flame, the flame suddenly spread and disappeared, and what appeared in front of her turned into a bunch of black flowers.

The shape of this flower was similar to the red roses she saw in the jewelry store, and she subconsciously reached out to catch the bouquet of black roses suspended in mid-air.

The smooth touch made her think that the production process of this bouquet of black roses should be to pour a liquid similar to amber on a bouquet of black roses and condense them into shapes.

But a venom-like smell from the flowers made her feel very uncomfortable, and she became a little irritable for no reason.

"Hello, Santilla Tax." A sexy female voice came into her ears.

Santilla looked startled, and turned around on the spot.

In the empty cave, a scene in the shadows was revealed in front of her.

She is the most beautiful Zhuo woman that Santilla has ever seen.

Her skin was as black as onyx, and as gorgeous as demon fire, and her bone-white long hair slid over her smooth shoulders, flowing down in soft ripples.

She was wearing a floor-length gown that seemed to be made of thick black velvet. There was a faint smile on her deep red lips, revealing her pearly white teeth.

"My child, we meet again." The lady said with a smile, her smile was like a spring flowing over a black stone.

"Meet again?" Santilla looked at the black rose in her hand and said doubtfully, "I haven't seen you before, how do you know me?"

"I know a lot of things, and you will know a lot in the future." Ms. Zhuoer gave her a meaningful look and replied with a smile.

Her gown fluttered slightly, as though the breeze had rippled it, but Santilla didn't feel any of it.

She noticed the truth with astonishment.

It was her dress itself that moved.

Her gown was not made of velvet, but was woven into a living fabric by tiny spiders hugging each other tightly.

A bold guess emerged in the drow girl's mind.

"Don't be afraid. I'm just here to take what belongs to me. Give me back the Chirashar rose." The lady in the spider dress gave Santilla a dangerous smile, then raised her slender arms, With a flick.

In a trance, Santilla noticed that the rose in her hand disappeared together with Ms. Drow.

On the Day of the Founding of the City, if someone clearly saw Rose herself, the whole city would be erupted.

And her family and herself will be respected by all the drow for the next whole year—because she is a person favored by Monrose, she should not be angered or hurt.

Santilla recalled the last description of the Founding Festival.

However, she was not happy at all.

What happened today, as long as you are not a fool, you can see that this is obviously a conspiracy.

From the moment she became interested in a magical restriction that only she could perceive, she had entered a web of intrigue woven by a being.

This conspiracy was not cleverly woven, but it caught her just right.

Santilla knows Rose's reputation very well, and she also knows what kind of bad luck Drow will suffer if she loses the favor of Lady Chaos.

Rose's favor is a double-edged sword.

She couldn't understand the purpose of the mastermind behind the scenes, what exactly was it?
(End of this chapter)