Seeds of Discordia

Lady Arachne watched Liam walk through the door with cautious eyes. From what she could see, even though his body language screamed that he wanted to punch someone, she could also see the tiredness with each movement. Like he was tired of fighting some invisible fight. Like he wanted to just be done with it all.

One of the problems with Orchid’s recent choice of lyrics tied with that ability of hers that she had honed over the years is no one knew which of the two they would enter. The Ministry of Love and Hate was an experimental creation she was currently testing. When using that as the lyrical portion of her Tantalizing Dream World, the target would enter either a dream which represented the Love aspect or a nightmare which represented the Hate part.

In the Dream part, the target would relax and fall into a trance that would allow her to get her target to spill anything she wanted to know. This was great for information gathering. After getting all she needed she would be able to kill the target without any issues.

The nightmare version was different. It would unlock memories that the target locked away due to trauma or something similar. It would cause the target to get angry, frightened, or even breakdown. It was the exact opposite of what she needed to have happen in order to get what she needed. While it didn’t happen often, it was still really rare to have the nightmare part appear. She needed to ask Tantalizing Orchid what happened and if she was able to see what triggered this.

 As soon as the door closed behind him she turned to look at the others and ordered, “I want to hear all your thoughts on what just happened, but first let’s start with our thoughts on how he did through each of our sections. We’re going to start with Silent Saboteur and work our way to you Tantalizing Orchid.”

Everyone nodded.

They then turned their focus on Silent Saboteur and waited for him to start.

“As per our agreement on the Escape theme for this Survival Test, I used a small parliament of my Lunar Tyto Albas to scout him out. Once when one found him they informed the others, and they chased after him. He used the terrain to his advantage and disappeared in a dark area of a group of trees that were clumped together,” Silent Saboteur explained.

Lady Arachne and the other two nodded their heads as they continued to listen.

“After running past a trunk, he had disappeared like he wasn’t there to begin with,” Silent Saboteur stated. “I believe he used that stealth skill he used during the first test. I found that a smart tactic because he used the trees to mask how he used the stealth ability. My little Albas didn’t catch what he had done and to be honest the smoothness he used to disappear was enough to confuse them. They then spread out within the area of the dark space under those trees and used their Lunar Exposure to try and take him out from his stealth.”

Silent Saboteur let out a slight chuckle before continuing, “However, to their irritation he wasn’t there. The young man had used his Shadow Magic to appear behind a tree not too far from that location. The Lunar Exposure did take his stealth ability down, but he swiftly brought it back up before they could see him. Luckily for me I was able to spot it. I used my own Lunar Exposure spell, albeit I lessened it to make sure the damage my level on the spell wouldn’t cause the Stellar Affliction from Within to trigger.”

Silent Saboteur shook his head as he said with slight disbelief, “To my shock, not only did the Debuff not trigger, but he was able to get out of the Blind Debuff that usually accompanies the spell.”

“Wait what?” Orchid and Noxi questioned.

Lady Arachne lifted a hand up to stop the questions even she had and then motioned Silent Saboteur to continue.

“After that he slowly moved behind the tree to hide,” Silent Saboteur started back up. “Since I knew he had Shadow Magic, I looked for signs of him using the abilities he had already used to try and escape. I noticed a small puff of black smoke wafting from a tree not too far away. Thinking he used an ability to move behind it, I nudged my owls to make their move for that spot. After they all had circled around the tree, do you know what they found?”

Lady Arachne shook her head. She was interested in how he had gotten out of this. She knew those owls were fast and many had a hard time escaping them once when they had their sight on you.

“It wasn’t the young man, but a shadow copy of himself,” Silent Saboteur laughed. “And to add to it. He had timed the moment they had all gotten close and around the trunk in order to trap them all in one swoop. He had thrown a Weak Crushing Dark Fog at a spot right above them. Since their level wasn’t too high the gravity effects as well as the Whispers From Beyond Debuff took affect on all of them, rendering them in one go. Before I could figure out what had happened, he was already sprinting away.”

“Creativity, timing, resources, and not giving up when the odds were against him,” Silent Saboteur listed. “These are the things he showed in my part of this Escape Themed Survival Test.” He then added in a soft and conspiratorial voice, “Although I am very intrigued about how he was able to lessen the effects of Lunar Exposure. Being able to get out of the Blind Debuff that it creates requires some form of knowledge of the skill. I want to know if he really does have any Knowledge Theory of it or if he had just gotten lucky.”

That last part intrigued Lady Arachne. She was already impressed after finding out the young man had Shadow Magic, but if he had information about Lunar Magic as well…he would be a highly sought after person.

“Wait,” Noxi chimed in. Everyone turned to look at him as he continued, “You said your bird brains weren’t at a high level. How low level were they? I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t be pulling any punches here?”

Slightly annoyed by the bird brain comment, Silent Saboteur informed him, “I say low level, but they were still higher leveled than him. Also, while you all said you wouldn’t be pulling your punches, I never agreed to it.”

Noxi was about to retort but was stopped as Silent Saboteur raised a hand up to stop him.

“That being said, I did make sure to not make it easy for him. My Albas were around level fifteen to seventeen, still well above his level. Plus, there were seven of them,” Silent Saboteur informed.

“Why use the low levels though? Why not use your prized Allie?” Noxi questioned.

“Two reasons,” Silent Saboteur stated. “One, I went with my youngest parliament of Lunar Tyto Albas in hopes he would push their limitations and help them grow. And push them he did. They are still upset with what he had done.”

“And the second?” Orchid asked.

Silent Saboteur looked a bit reluctant before saying, “Allie tried to attack him during their first encounter. Right before she struck, something happened that even I am not entirely sure of.”

“What does that mean? Also, she really attacked him?” Noxi asked before he and Orchid looked at Lady Arachne adding, “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”

“The situation was taken care of with my presence there,” Lady Arachne stated with a tone that said do not ask more about it.

“I don’t know what it means, but there is one thing that I am certain of,” Silent Saboteur started back up attracting their attention back on him. “Whatever method he used; it had an affect on Allie. One where she told me that if any harm comes to the young man while she is around she will go on a rampage on whoever causes it.”

The three looked shocked and surprised.

“That is something right there,” Lady Arachne stated.

“But isn’t she your tamed beast?” Orchid questioned. “Why would she go so far for someone who isn’t her tamer?”

Silent Saboteur shrugged. “I don’t know, but I trust her judgement. If that is what she has decided then that’s that.” He then looked at Lady Arachne and asked, “How about your section?”

Not liking that the topic was shifted to her, Lady Arachne said, “We’re going to talk more about this later.”

Silent Saboteur shrugged once again but didn’t say anything more.

“I will admit my section was kind of like yours, but with more numbers and a lot less lighting,” Lady Arachne started. “I used my…spiders to hide in the darkest section of the forest. I had their numbers chase him, which he surprising showed out nimble and agile he was. He dodged, juked, and spun around them. He also used a couple of Weak Implosive Heatwaves and two Weak Magnetic Shockwaves to clear a nice path for him to run straight while making my little cuties wary of what else he had in stock.”

Noxi and Orchid felt a shiver run down their spines as they imagined the spiders chasing after the young man. They knew how powerful those creatures were as well as how creepy as hell they were too.

“I must admit I wasn’t expecting him to do that, plus making those Chemicalized Creations and using them was brilliant as well,” Lady Arachne continued. “However, the next part is what really impressed me. While he didn’t know it, my spiders had guided him right into a trap they had laid before the exit. They created a net of Shadow Silk Webbing, which he tried to brute rush his way through without knowing what he was getting himself into. Eventually he got his lower half stuck to the webs as planned.”

Lady Arachne grew a smile before looking at Silent Saboteur. Curious as to why the short woman was smiling at him, he tilted his head in a questioning way.

“Like your Allie,” Lady Arachne started back up. “Three of my Shade Stalker Spiders tried to disobey my orders and wanted to eat him. Do you know how he stopped them?”

All three gave her a puzzled look as they waited.

“He threw a boulder at them,” Lady Arachne laughed. “He used Gravity Force Push on a boulder that was within arms reach of him and crashed it right into them. After that he threw oil along the webbing and used Light and Burn to burn himself free.”

Impressed with what she said, Silent Saboteur asked, “He used a crafting magic spell to get himself free of his trap?”

Lady Arachne nodded. “Just like what you listed, he demonstrated the same feats but with a swarm of foes much stronger than your owls. I am actually impressed how well he escaped. His survivability is hugely impressive.”

Silent Saboteur let out a loud laugh as a response.

After he quieted down, Lady Arachne turned to look at Orchid and said, “Now for your part.”

Orchid stared at them. While her approach to the test was completely different than the others, she still saw some interesting things she wasn’t ready for.

“Well, we all know my abilities and specialties are completely different from all of yours. My specialty isn’t in my physical stats, but in mental,” Orchid started.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“As I usually do, I had planted my orchids using my Plant Magic and had them create the Soothing Mist to try and relax both his mind and body before he reached me,” Orchid continued. “Like many times I have used this tactic, he was already in my illusion by the time he reached my clearing in the forest. I used some light chit chatter to allow the Soothing Mist to settle in more before I started my Tantalizing Dream World. Figuring he would be a great test subject, I used Ministry of Love and Hate.”

Noxi groaned at the mention of it. She had used him as a test subject once for this lyrical piece and while it had brought up fond memories of his past, he felt completely drained afterwards. It had taken him forty five mins to feel completely better after that.

“After I had started I felt the illusory world start to turn into the dream version,” Orchid stated. “However, I noticed some…discrepancies right at the first memory.”

Lady Arachne stared at Orchid for a long moment. “What do you mean discrepancies?”

“Well…,” Orchid started as she thought about it. “For one, the people that appeared in each memory had their faces blurred out. I wrote it off as him trying to fight against me, which, I must say, was tough. I have felt some strong people resist and fight back, but never with the force of what he had. It felt like a powerful wave was slamming against my spell. No…a wave isn’t exactly the right way to describe it…”

Lady Arachne tilted her head slightly as a question popped. “Why did you think a wave?”

Orchid looked at her. “I don’t know. Probably because of how cold it felt each time he tried to resist. The coldness of each attempt just reminded me of the cold dark depths of an ocean. And each time he resisted it felt like it hit and splashed out like a wave.”

Lady Arachne’s mouth slightly dropped as she heard her description.

“Anyways, I wrote off the slight issue as just him trying to fight back subconsciously because the memories after that showed people that I think he was attached to,” Orchid continued. “They had some kind of fall out after an incident. He felt down about whatever happened, but he didn’t let it bring him down. In fact, I think he tried helping them from the shadows…I think his old world became chaotic at some point making him do things that align well with our Association.”

“So, he has some experience with our line of work? That’s good to know,” Lady Arachne stated.

 Orchid nodded. “I thought it was going smoothly so I tried to dive a bit deeper, but when I did…the dream like world changed as certain memory popped up,” Orchid stated as she tried to remember it.

A brief flash suddenly raced through her mind before disappearing. Even though it was quick, she was able to remember certain details. Those details made her body tense.

Everyone in the room noticed it and quickly asked what was wrong.

Orchid slowly looked at Lady Arachne before saying, “The memory…the one that made him so mad…it was one that he had locked away tightly. It surfaced for only a brief moment, but that moment was all it took to stir whatever that was within him.”

“What was the memory?” Noxi asked.

“It was too quick to know exactly what all had happened, but I was able to see a…,” Orchid brought a hand to head as she forced herself to remember. “A dark room…I heard screams…I think I also saw chains…” Orchid felt a sharp pain pierce her mind as she tried to push her thoughts on the memory a bit more.

Lady Arachne reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. As Orchid looked at her, the shorter woman smiled and said, “Don’t push yourself. With those vague images I can haggard a guess as to what happened.”

Orchid nodded as she looked at the composed woman.

Even though Lady Arachne looked composed, she was inwardly shocked at what she heard. She wasn’t lying when she said she could make a guess as to what had happened. She didn’t expect it, but it wasn’t rare for people to lock away memories like those. However, the strong reaction from that memory was rare. Not only that, but she felt her Shade Stalker Spider react to his sudden bloodlust.

The next surprise was that bloodlust that everyone else felt from the young man hadn’t exactly came from him. Well, it had, but at the same time it hadn’t. For the briefest of moments she had seen the shadow underneath the young man quiver. Because of how fast it had happened she wasn’t entirely sure if what she saw was right.

 She was confused and wasn’t entirely sure of what happened because if what she thought was right, then her earlier statement and beliefs of the man’s race would clash with it. She knew that there was no way it could be true since the race in question refused to mate with others races, but…

She was brought out of her thoughts as Silent Saboteur asked, “What do you think?”

Lady Arachne turned to look at him and said with a puzzled expression, “What?”

Silent Saboteur let out a long sigh as he repeated, “I asked, what do you think about that powerful bloodlust the young man exuded before completely freeing himself from Tantalizing Orchid’s ability?”

“Oh,” the shorter woman replied as she answered, “I don’t know where or what that came from…But I think that we could chop it up as a resource he used to help him try and get out of the trap he was in.” She then looked at Orchid and inquired, “You said it felt like he was resisting and fighting your ability right?”

Orchid nodded.

“Then we’ll leave it as that,” Lady Arachne stated. She wanted to finish this conversation and hurry with the next test because she had questions for the Little Kitten. Questions she now felt needed to be addressed sooner than later.

Before anyone else could say anything, Lady Arachne raised a hand and informed, “We need to get the next test ready. Our time is running out and he will be waiting.”

The others didn’t have an argument for that. They wanted to argue that they needed to figure out more about the phenomenon that had happened, but they did tell the young man that the next test will be in the next hour, and they had already spent a good portion going over everything that had happened.

They resigned themselves to putting their questions and concerns on the backburner for now, but like Lady Arachne, they too wanted questions answered.

 

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Liam had spent the last hour trying to calm himself. He used Devour to replenish his Spirit Pool, but even when using the ability, he felt it acting strange. It felt like, to Liam, the ability was agitated. It acted like it wanted to devour more than just the Soul Orbs he fed it. 

Even in his drained and irritable state, he felt that was weird. He wasn’t sure if the ability could pick up on the caster’s emotions and wanted to figure out more about it. However, he knew he didn’t have the time for that right now.

Thanks to the longer wait time, he was able to not only replenish his Spirit Pool, but he was also able to make a couple of Weak Magnetic Shockwaves to replace the two he had used earlier.

After the hour long timer, he placed had reached zero he walked out of the crafting room and back into the reception room. There all four stood waiting for him.

Each of them stared at him. He felt a bit out of place and thought about how he acted before leaving the last room. As he approached them he said, “I’m sorry for my attitude earlier. I don’t know why, but I felt drained and irritable.”

To Liam’s surprise it was Noxi who responded with, “I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way when the man eater tested the ability on me.”

Orchid swiftly punched the man for the certain comment he made. Afterwards she looked at him and said, “I’m still working on the ability. I thought I had it all under control, but I guess there are still some mysteries I need to look into.”

Liam didn’t know what to say to that. He also didn’t know how to react to Noxi’s earlier comment. However, the part where he said he felt drained and irritable as well when he was used as a test subject made him feel a bit better. If those effects were due to the ability and not because of his memories then he was glad. That particular memory was one he never wanted to see ever again. He knew it was pointless to not let the past go, but he also didn’t want it to ever resurface again. Ever.

Liam nodded a thanks as he looked at the man.

“Are you ready for the next test?” Lady Arachne asked.

Liam nodded as he asked, “What’s this next one?”

“This next test is called the Killing Test,” Lady Arachne replied. “It will test your combat prowess. We want to know how you fight and if you are suited for combat type missions.”

“Okay…,” Liam drew out. He didn’t know how to feel about this. He wasn’t sure if he needed to try and kill them or someone else. After the stuff he went through in the past, he didn’t want to go down that path again unless he really had to. Wanting to know, he asked, “Am I fighting you guys directly?”

All four of them started laughing.

The way they each laughed made him feel a bit embarrassed. He didn’t think it was a bad question, but he guess it was a funny one to them.

After the laughing died down, Noxi stated, “We would wipe the floor with you if you had to do that.”

Before Liam could reply to that comment, Lady Arachne butted in, “We are not your opponents.” She then turned around and opened the door they stood next to and entered it.

Liam followed her and the others and reappeared in a vast open area. The ground was split between cement and dirt. There were grass areas along with a riverbed. However, what had Liam’s attention was what was the area pretty far away from where he stood.

At first he didn’t pay that area much mind. However, a cacophony of loud noises mixed together and filled the air all around him. The noises consisted of roars, angered gibberish, yips, screeches, and more.

Liam’s eyes widened as he stared at several different pens with tall thick, reinforced fences filled with different species of monsters. Each creature in the penned area looked enraged as they stared at the people who had entered the room.

The fences rattled as the creatures struck as hard as they could against it. No matter how much they bent, the fences held in place. Different elemental magical attacks crashed against other sides of the pens, not leaving a scratch.

“These creatures will be your opponents,” Lady Arachne announced with a wicked grin.