Chapter 467: The Flower Part 1
5 days before the new moon…
The sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing apart echoed quietly in the forest clearing. Elayne and the Sylvan scout watched in morbid fascination as the giant frost wolf tore apart the deer carcass with its fangs. Each fang was as large as a long knife and even sharper.
As Blueberry ate blood spattered on the ground and a few droplets fell on Stryg who sat crouched next to the giant beast. No sane goblin would ever get close to a frost wolf while it was eating, but Stryg didn’t seem to care. He simply smiled and rubbed the wolf’s neck as it finished off the deer.
After a few moments, all that was left was a few scraps of meat and a puddle of blood. Stryg raised his satchel and dumped its contents onto the ground. Countless blueberries fell on the ground and splattered all over the scarlet puddle. Blueberry didn’t hesitate to lick up his namesake and scarf down the berries covered in blood.
Stryg grinned softly and scratched the giant wolf’s leg. “You were hungry, huh, bud?”
Blueberry didn’t bother to answer and kept eating.
Stryg leaned on his friend’s leg and closed his eyes. “How long have you been following us, hm? If you just traveled with the other wolves you wouldn’t go hungry like this.”
Blueberry growled between chewing and swallowing.
“It’s not demeaning. The frost wolves are with them too. You’d fit right in.”
The massive wolf glanced at him with a pale icy blue eye and huffed.
“Lunae? Yeah, the Mother Moon is traveling with us too, but no one seems to know where she is exactly. She appears on one side of the camp and then the other a few minutes later. Maybe she’s blessing them? Maybe it's an inspection? Who knows?”
Blueberry shivered at the thought.
Stryg smiled sympathetically. “Don’t worry she’s not coming after you. Yes, I know, of course, she’s dangerous, she’s a goddess. Did you think she’d be as cuddly as a bunny? No, I don’t think she’s scary. Intimidating maybe, but not scary. Okay, fine, agree to disagree.”
Elayne and the Sylvan scout watched their exchange from a bush a healthy distance away.
“What’s he doing…?” the scout whispered cautiously.
“I think… he’s communing with the beast?” Elayne whispered.
“Communing?”
“Frost wolves are heralds of Lunae. The Moon’s Chosen must be communicating with the beast through some sort of spiritual bond. I don’t think we should intervene.”
“Right, it could be blasphemous,” the scout nodded in understanding.
“Stryg!” Aurelia’s voice resounded from above the canopy.
Her son looked up in surprise, “Mother?”
The First Mother jumped down from a branch and landed softly on the grass. Her eyes darted around the clearing and her wrist suddenly flicked out. Giant vines shot out from the ground and snatched Elayne and the scout into the air. The duo shouted in surprise and tried to move helplessly.
“Mother, they’re allies,” Stryg said hurriedly.
Aurelia glanced at the captured goblins and her eyes widened in recognition. “You’re Lykos’ daughter.” She lowered the vines and released them from their grip.
The young woman quickly brushed herself off and stood up straight and saluted, “Elayne, daughter of the Storm Howler tribe, and captain of the War Master’s honor guard, at your service, Favored One!”
Aurelia narrowed her eyes. “Where is the rest of your honor guard, captain?”
“Huh?” Elayne blinked.
“Is this it, him?” Aurelia pointed to the man beside her.
“I’m just a humble scout,” he bowed subserviently.
Aurelia glanced at Elayne, “Explain yourself.”
“Uh, the rest of the guards are back at camp, probably having dinner by now, I imagine,” Elayne replied.
“Are you telling me that besides you, the honor guard of our War Master isn't guarding him!? What is wrong with you!” Aurelia shouted.
“Um, t-that’s…” Elayne looked down in shame.
“Mother, don’t blame her, I was the one who had the rest stay back,” Stryg spoke up.
Aurelia turned on him with a hiss, “And as for you! You are the War Master, the leader of our army! You’re not a child anymore! You can’t just leave the encampment and run off into the forest chasing some spy!”
“I knew it wasn’t a spy, that’s why I only had Elayne accompany me, and that’s only after she insisted.” Stryg tried to sound calm, but he felt as if he was a child once more, making up some excuse after being caught doing something wrong.
“Yes, it was your fuzzy friend, I can see that,” Aurelia glanced pointedly at the frost wolf who was still licking the berries off the ground, oblivious to their conversation.
“Wait, you recognize Blueberry?” Stryg asked, surprised.
“Of course, I do. You once tried to sneak that pup into the village and ever since he’s come by the village once in a while, no doubt looking for you I imagine,” said Aurelia.
“What? Really?” Stryg looked at the wolf and smirked playfully, “You missed me, huh?”
Blueberry huffed abashedly and looked away.
“Hehe, I knew it,” Stryg grinned slyly.
Blueberry growled angrily, before stalking away into the trees.
“The herald is gone…” Elayne said with deep reverence.
“He’ll be back,” Stryg shrugged confidently.
“Even if he does, that is no reason for you to leave camp, don't you understand ?!” Aurelia snapped.
Stryg frowned. “I’ve been in these woods countless times and I’m still fine, aren’t I?”
“You two, go scout the perimeter, check for any others,” Aurelia said without even glancing at them.
Elayne and the scout didn’t need another cue to know they weren’t needed. The duo nodded and hurriedly made themselves scarce.
Once they were gone, Aurelia sighed tiredly. “Stryg, just because you’ve managed to stay safe all this time, doesn’t mean it’s safe.” Her eyes softened, “Especially after the owl… You don’t know what dangers might be lurking in these woods.”
“The spirit owl? Mom, everything is fine,” Stryg said reassuringly.
“You don’t know that! You have no idea—!” Aurelia stopped herself and abruptly hugged him. “Just please, please, don’t stray far from me, not now.”
Stryg stood stock-still. He had never seen his mother like this. She seemed— scared. Stryg slowly nodded and hugged her back. “I won’t,” he whispered.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
Aurelia stepped back and smiled warmly, “Let’s head back, yeah?”
He smiled. “Yeah.”
As Aurelia watched her son walk back the way they came she couldn’t help but feel a sense of discomfort growing deep inside her. Memories of that day came back to her, like a haunting whisper…
~~~
21 years ago…
In the dark hours of the night, deep in the archives of the Celestial Shrine, sat two figures under the blue dim light of magestone lanterns. Tens of dozens of scrolls, books, and loose parchment papers were strewn across their table. Aurelia sat hunched over one such ancient scroll, pouring over its words, searching for any clue to her dilemma.
Finally, she groaned out loud and sank back into her chair. “I can’t understand half of this. These archives are useless!”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Ivory answered calmly while glancing over several books and scrolls at once. “The Lunisian Republic placed great importance on their studies of life. Whether it was herbology, the biology of Ebon species, medicinal studies, and more, all of it was stored in their most sacred temple’s library, here.”
“And maybe I’d be able to find something if I could read it! Most of these books aren’t even in the common tongue. And don’t even get me started on the scrolls!”
“I thought the olden tongues were a part of your priestly studies.”
“The Ebon Realm’s sure, but half of these aren’t even that. Some of these are in ancient Violetian, Ashen, Azurian, hell, even Ivorian, anything but our own tongue!” Aurelia threw her hands up in frustration.
“Well, the Lunisians gathered knowledge from all the Null Realms before the Schism. It makes sense that much of their knowledge wouldn’t be in your native language,” Ivory said sympathetically.
She picked up an old tattered scroll and held it up to the lantern light, “Oh, look, this one is in ancient Scarletian, maybe you can read it.”
“Actually, I can read all of these,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Of course, you can,” she rolled her eyes. “Then maybe you can tell me if this has anything that might prove useful?” she held up a dusty old book. “Mother Sabina had it in the deepest part of the restrictive section. I can’t read it, but I think it’s in ancient Amberdine?”
He smiled and stretched out his arm across the table. “Hand it over here, I’ll see what it says.”
Aurelia gave it to him and began scouring the table for something she could actually read.
“Huh, interesting,” Ivory muttered, his lilac eyes narrowed.
“What? Anything?!” Aurelia asked hopefully.
“Sorry, no, this contains nothing that could help with your mother’s ailment, but it does have some interesting information regarding mystic blood practices. Do you know what this is?” He held up the book.
“Not really…?”
“This is a one-of-a-kind original work based on the teachings of a long-dead blood goddess. The story goes that the author was the high priest of the deity and he wrote down all he learned into this book. Not long after the goddess was slain. Afraid that his goddess’ secrets might be stolen, the priest hid the book away, waiting for his goddess’ triumphant resurrection.”
“And what happened?” Aurelia whispered.
“The priest was killed and the goddess stayed dead, as dead people do. But who would have thought that the book would somehow find its way here?”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“Well, good for me. This book is famous, or infamous, depending on who you ask. I was always somewhat curious about its secrets.”
“Curious about blood practices?”
“Secrets of the blood,” he corrected. “Very fascinating stuff, when you get past the whole heinous and forbidden parts, of course.”
“You know, for someone who just came across an ancient forbidden book you seem pretty happy,” she noted.
“Oh? Do I?” He blinked.
“Hey, Ivory. You didn’t by chance offer to help me just so you could have access to the library’s archives, did you?”
Ivory closed the book and raised his hands. “Alright, I may have come to visit Evenfall to read your library’s archives, but—!”
“I knew it! How could I be so stupid to trust you!?”
“But! Your Silver Mother already granted me permission to read the books from your archives the second day I arrived. Long before I knew about your mother.”
She shook her head skeptically, “You don’t even care about my mother’s illness at all, do you?”
He frowned, “Of course, I do. I wouldn’t have spent last night designing a cure if I didn’t.”
Aurelia’s eyes widened, “Wait, you have a cure!? Why didn’t you say anything!?”
Ivory winced, “Well, it’s not— complete… yet.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’m missing a crucial component. In order to brew a cure for your mother I am in need of a very rare plant, a Selevine Flower. I’ve been looking for any records of the flower in these lands but I can’t find any.”
“You could have told me,” she glared at him.
“I didn’t want to say anything and give you false hope.” He sighed, “I’ll most likely have to search for a new cure.”
“You said it’s a flower, right? Mother Sabina is the foremost expert of flowers among all the tribes. If anyone knows where we could find the flower it’s her.”
“Really? Well, damn, maybe I should have said something earlier.”
“Instead of trying to do it all by yourself? Yeah,” she smirked. “For a genius, you really are an idiot.”
“In my defense, I don’t consider myself a genius.”
“Uh-huh,” she said dryly.
“And it’s hard to rely on people sometimes, even people you trust can let you down,” he admitted.
“Let’s hope this isn’t one of those times,” Aurelia got up from her chair. “It’s almost dawn, Mother Sabina should be waking up any minute. I’ll go find her and see if she knows anything.”
“Good luck.”
“Enjoy your disgusting blood book while I'm gone!”
“Thanks, I will!” he said with a laugh, but she was already gone. He glanced at the ancient book, opened it, and began skimming through its contents.
Frostbird https://discord.gg/uYqw7R6SKz
If you liked the chapter please leave a like, if there is something else you are interested in knowing about the lore, or if you have any questions, remarks, or just want to say hi drop a comment below!
Check out the glossary for more info on characters, lore, magic, and more!
Chapter 467: The Flower Part 1
5 days before the new moon…
The sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing apart echoed quietly in the forest clearing. Elayne and the Sylvan scout watched in morbid fascination as the giant frost wolf tore apart the deer carcass with its fangs. Each fang was as large as a long knife and even sharper.
As Blueberry ate blood spattered on the ground and a few droplets fell on Stryg who sat crouched next to the giant beast. No sane goblin would ever get close to a frost wolf while it was eating, but Stryg didn’t seem to care. He simply smiled and rubbed the wolf’s neck as it finished off the deer.
After a few moments, all that was left was a few scraps of meat and a puddle of blood. Stryg raised his satchel and dumped its contents onto the ground. Countless blueberries fell on the ground and splattered all over the scarlet puddle. Blueberry didn’t hesitate to lick up his namesake and scarf down the berries covered in blood.
Stryg grinned softly and scratched the giant wolf’s leg. “You were hungry, huh, bud?”
Blueberry didn’t bother to answer and kept eating.
Stryg leaned on his friend’s leg and closed his eyes. “How long have you been following us, hm? If you just traveled with the other wolves you wouldn’t go hungry like this.”
Blueberry growled between chewing and swallowing.
“It’s not demeaning. The frost wolves are with them too. You’d fit right in.”
The massive wolf glanced at him with a pale icy blue eye and huffed.
“Lunae? Yeah, the Mother Moon is traveling with us too, but no one seems to know where she is exactly. She appears on one side of the camp and then the other a few minutes later. Maybe she’s blessing them? Maybe it's an inspection? Who knows?”
Blueberry shivered at the thought.
Stryg smiled sympathetically. “Don’t worry she’s not coming after you. Yes, I know, of course, she’s dangerous, she’s a goddess. Did you think she’d be as cuddly as a bunny? No, I don’t think she’s scary. Intimidating maybe, but not scary. Okay, fine, agree to disagree.”
Elayne and the Sylvan scout watched their exchange from a bush a healthy distance away.
“What’s he doing…?” the scout whispered cautiously.
“I think… he’s communing with the beast?” Elayne whispered.
“Communing?”
“Frost wolves are heralds of Lunae. The Moon’s Chosen must be communicating with the beast through some sort of spiritual bond. I don’t think we should intervene.”
“Right, it could be blasphemous,” the scout nodded in understanding.
“Stryg!” Aurelia’s voice resounded from above the canopy.
Her son looked up in surprise, “Mother?”
The First Mother jumped down from a branch and landed softly on the grass. Her eyes darted around the clearing and her wrist suddenly flicked out. Giant vines shot out from the ground and snatched Elayne and the scout into the air. The duo shouted in surprise and tried to move helplessly.
“Mother, they’re allies,” Stryg said hurriedly.
Aurelia glanced at the captured goblins and her eyes widened in recognition. “You’re Lykos’ daughter.” She lowered the vines and released them from their grip.
The young woman quickly brushed herself off and stood up straight and saluted, “Elayne, daughter of the Storm Howler tribe, and captain of the War Master’s honor guard, at your service, Favored One!”
Aurelia narrowed her eyes. “Where is the rest of your honor guard, captain?”
“Huh?” Elayne blinked.
“Is this it, him?” Aurelia pointed to the man beside her.
“I’m just a humble scout,” he bowed subserviently.
Aurelia glanced at Elayne, “Explain yourself.”
“Uh, the rest of the guards are back at camp, probably having dinner by now, I imagine,” Elayne replied.
“Are you telling me that besides you, the honor guard of our War Master isn't guarding him!? What is wrong with you!” Aurelia shouted.
“Um, t-that’s…” Elayne looked down in shame.
“Mother, don’t blame her, I was the one who had the rest stay back,” Stryg spoke up.
Aurelia turned on him with a hiss, “And as for you! You are the War Master, the leader of our army! You’re not a child anymore! You can’t just leave the encampment and run off into the forest chasing some spy!”
“I knew it wasn’t a spy, that’s why I only had Elayne accompany me, and that’s only after she insisted.” Stryg tried to sound calm, but he felt as if he was a child once more, making up some excuse after being caught doing something wrong.
“Yes, it was your fuzzy friend, I can see that,” Aurelia glanced pointedly at the frost wolf who was still licking the berries off the ground, oblivious to their conversation.
“Wait, you recognize Blueberry?” Stryg asked, surprised.
“Of course, I do. You once tried to sneak that pup into the village and ever since he’s come by the village once in a while, no doubt looking for you I imagine,” said Aurelia.
“What? Really?” Stryg looked at the wolf and smirked playfully, “You missed me, huh?”
Blueberry huffed abashedly and looked away.
“Hehe, I knew it,” Stryg grinned slyly.
Blueberry growled angrily, before stalking away into the trees.
“The herald is gone…” Elayne said with deep reverence.
“He’ll be back,” Stryg shrugged confidently.
“Even if he does, that is no reason for you to leave camp, don't you understand ?!” Aurelia snapped.
Stryg frowned. “I’ve been in these woods countless times and I’m still fine, aren’t I?”
“You two, go scout the perimeter, check for any others,” Aurelia said without even glancing at them.
Elayne and the scout didn’t need another cue to know they weren’t needed. The duo nodded and hurriedly made themselves scarce.
Once they were gone, Aurelia sighed tiredly. “Stryg, just because you’ve managed to stay safe all this time, doesn’t mean it’s safe.” Her eyes softened, “Especially after the owl… You don’t know what dangers might be lurking in these woods.”
“The spirit owl? Mom, everything is fine,” Stryg said reassuringly.
“You don’t know that! You have no idea—!” Aurelia stopped herself and abruptly hugged him. “Just please, please, don’t stray far from me, not now.”
Stryg stood stock-still. He had never seen his mother like this. She seemed— scared. Stryg slowly nodded and hugged her back. “I won’t,” he whispered.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
Aurelia stepped back and smiled warmly, “Let’s head back, yeah?”
He smiled. “Yeah.”
As Aurelia watched her son walk back the way they came she couldn’t help but feel a sense of discomfort growing deep inside her. Memories of that day came back to her, like a haunting whisper…
~~~
21 years ago…
In the dark hours of the night, deep in the archives of the Celestial Shrine, sat two figures under the blue dim light of magestone lanterns. Tens of dozens of scrolls, books, and loose parchment papers were strewn across their table. Aurelia sat hunched over one such ancient scroll, pouring over its words, searching for any clue to her dilemma.
Finally, she groaned out loud and sank back into her chair. “I can’t understand half of this. These archives are useless!”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Ivory answered calmly while glancing over several books and scrolls at once. “The Lunisian Republic placed great importance on their studies of life. Whether it was herbology, the biology of Ebon species, medicinal studies, and more, all of it was stored in their most sacred temple’s library, here.”
“And maybe I’d be able to find something if I could read it! Most of these books aren’t even in the common tongue. And don’t even get me started on the scrolls!”
“I thought the olden tongues were a part of your priestly studies.”
“The Ebon Realm’s sure, but half of these aren’t even that. Some of these are in ancient Violetian, Ashen, Azurian, hell, even Ivorian, anything but our own tongue!” Aurelia threw her hands up in frustration.
“Well, the Lunisians gathered knowledge from all the Null Realms before the Schism. It makes sense that much of their knowledge wouldn’t be in your native language,” Ivory said sympathetically.
She picked up an old tattered scroll and held it up to the lantern light, “Oh, look, this one is in ancient Scarletian, maybe you can read it.”
“Actually, I can read all of these,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Of course, you can,” she rolled her eyes. “Then maybe you can tell me if this has anything that might prove useful?” she held up a dusty old book. “Mother Sabina had it in the deepest part of the restrictive section. I can’t read it, but I think it’s in ancient Amberdine?”
He smiled and stretched out his arm across the table. “Hand it over here, I’ll see what it says.”
Aurelia gave it to him and began scouring the table for something she could actually read.
“Huh, interesting,” Ivory muttered, his lilac eyes narrowed.
“What? Anything?!” Aurelia asked hopefully.
“Sorry, no, this contains nothing that could help with your mother’s ailment, but it does have some interesting information regarding mystic blood practices. Do you know what this is?” He held up the book.
“Not really…?”
“This is a one-of-a-kind original work based on the teachings of a long-dead blood goddess. The story goes that the author was the high priest of the deity and he wrote down all he learned into this book. Not long after the goddess was slain. Afraid that his goddess’ secrets might be stolen, the priest hid the book away, waiting for his goddess’ triumphant resurrection.”
“And what happened?” Aurelia whispered.
“The priest was killed and the goddess stayed dead, as dead people do. But who would have thought that the book would somehow find its way here?”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“Well, good for me. This book is famous, or infamous, depending on who you ask. I was always somewhat curious about its secrets.”
“Curious about blood practices?”
“Secrets of the blood,” he corrected. “Very fascinating stuff, when you get past the whole heinous and forbidden parts, of course.”
“You know, for someone who just came across an ancient forbidden book you seem pretty happy,” she noted.
“Oh? Do I?” He blinked.
“Hey, Ivory. You didn’t by chance offer to help me just so you could have access to the library’s archives, did you?”
Ivory closed the book and raised his hands. “Alright, I may have come to visit Evenfall to read your library’s archives, but—!”
“I knew it! How could I be so stupid to trust you!?”
“But! Your Silver Mother already granted me permission to read the books from your archives the second day I arrived. Long before I knew about your mother.”
She shook her head skeptically, “You don’t even care about my mother’s illness at all, do you?”
He frowned, “Of course, I do. I wouldn’t have spent last night designing a cure if I didn’t.”
Aurelia’s eyes widened, “Wait, you have a cure!? Why didn’t you say anything!?”
Ivory winced, “Well, it’s not— complete… yet.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’m missing a crucial component. In order to brew a cure for your mother I am in need of a very rare plant, a Selevine Flower. I’ve been looking for any records of the flower in these lands but I can’t find any.”
“You could have told me,” she glared at him.
“I didn’t want to say anything and give you false hope.” He sighed, “I’ll most likely have to search for a new cure.”
“You said it’s a flower, right? Mother Sabina is the foremost expert of flowers among all the tribes. If anyone knows where we could find the flower it’s her.”
“Really? Well, damn, maybe I should have said something earlier.”
“Instead of trying to do it all by yourself? Yeah,” she smirked. “For a genius, you really are an idiot.”
“In my defense, I don’t consider myself a genius.”
“Uh-huh,” she said dryly.
“And it’s hard to rely on people sometimes, even people you trust can let you down,” he admitted.
“Let’s hope this isn’t one of those times,” Aurelia got up from her chair. “It’s almost dawn, Mother Sabina should be waking up any minute. I’ll go find her and see if she knows anything.”
“Good luck.”
“Enjoy your disgusting blood book while I'm gone!”
“Thanks, I will!” he said with a laugh, but she was already gone. He glanced at the ancient book, opened it, and began skimming through its contents.
Frostbird https://discord.gg/uYqw7R6SKz
If you liked the chapter please leave a like, if there is something else you are interested in knowing about the lore, or if you have any questions, remarks, or just want to say hi drop a comment below!
Check out the glossary for more info on characters, lore, magic, and more!
