[ - Author's Note - ]
This should have been out sooner... Final Fantasy Fourteen has long grinds for relic weapons... And the new Buried Memories patch came out... And level 90 relic weapons are on the horizon...
Am I an FF14 addict? Be honest...
Joking aside, this one and the following chapters will be a little lighter and more fun in tone, at least I hope so. With a dash of plot.
I'm sure the hints I left has people knowing who the Adelles are based on, although there are not a carbon copy. That would be less fun.
Okay, enough chatter, enjoy!
[ - Act II - Chapter XX: Adelle Family Values - ]
Orwin Blackfang, otherwise known as Orwin the Obsene, was one of the most notable and favorite lieutenants of Veralegan. The man once set one thousand heads on a wall of pikes as a message to the enemies of the Brazen Empire. So impressed was the Emperor at his loyalty and cruelty he gave him his own territory, what would become Hakla. It was a territory that boasted no castle of it's own, merely the foundations of one destroyed during the First Age of Conflict. The Imperium didn't have the resources to repair or rebuilt it; even today the original castle of the state is a ruin.
Orwin then had one built for him. He took the designers and engineers aside and told them he wanted a 'castle as powerful as possible, as impenetrable as possible, as ugly, foreboding and intimidating as possible to make fear itself my ally'. The bone like structure of Castle Hakla and the skull gate certainly met his expectations. As an added touch Blackfang had an enchantment set to the central keep to keep the skies over the castle overcast with dark clouds. Even Emperor Veralegan was said to be unsettled by the place.
His descendant, Wargon Blackfang, was defeated in the Battle of Arndale and his castle guard surrendered without a fight. House Burnside took over Hakla when Eostia was founded but never entered the castle nor manned it as they considered it 'cursed'. In fact, Castle Hakla remained empty for three centuries until a wealthy merchant family arrived from Zenith; House Adelle, led by Grandus von Adelle. Considered a family of eccentrics and strange folk they bought the land the castle stood on and moved in. While they seemed friendly enough many found their love for the strange and macabre to be a bit disturbing and few wanted anything to do with them.
And then the Great Pox came and almost all the nobility of Hakla was wiped out. In response Calson von Adelle started to organize the Barony and assumed temporary command. While the family had always been known as odd and eccentric their leadership managed to keep things running smoothly. When High King Rictor Rodimus finally got around to dealing with the situation in Hakla and found the Adelle's had managed to lead the Barony through the Pox rather well he decided to appoint them as the new Local Lords, although without fully knowing their reputation.
Since then House Adelle has ruled Hakla and while none doubt their abilities as leaders, enchanters and mages. Despite their oddities they are well respected within Hakla and with some have an... odd popularity, and their peers in the Council of Lords admit their capability.
~Dominic James Pencraft, The Eostia Historia
[-]
It wasn't long before we rode past grassy fields speckled with the odd tree and bush and coating of flowers and rode around the Barony's capital, Maison D'os City, and saw the home of House Adelle in the distance. Lorcan sighed as Castle Hakla came into view. And yeah, I've heard the rumors of the place but seeing it was another thing. The castle wall... Looked like they had ribs growing up on the outside, with the crenelations being the spikes of their ends. The ribs were white washed while the rest of the wall they hugged into was black. Pitch black. As in as black as black could get. Could it be more black?
No. It could be none more black.
The towers of the wall were just the walls rounding outwards with what looked like bone hands sticking up and cupping a bowl like roof that was lit on fire and producing dark, gray smoke with some form of enchantment; the gap between the wrist bones allowing from travel to the tower and the walls with siege weaponry hosted under the roofs. And then there was the gate... It was a massive, huge, skull with long fangs. The gate looked like lines of teeth meeting another series of teeth sticking up from the bottom. The eyes of the skull also boasted flames, but also came with clouds of dark, gray smoke billowing outwards. There was only one set of walls, but set around them was a thick, thick, moat; it was nearly as wide as a football field is long. You could sail full sized ships in it!
At first I saw no drawbridge linking the gate to the ground beyond the moat but as we approached a long, long bridge rose up from under the water; the planks shaped like thigh bones and rib-like protrusions on the outside. As our convoy started to cross the bridge the teeth of the gate opened; the upper half pulling into the skill, the lower half folding back to make part of the floor. Additionally I noted the tops of the bone like bridge was flattened for a smooth and not-bumpy ride across. Already I didn't envy any commander charged with laying siege to this place.
As we entered the castle grounds proper I could taste the enchantments around me; I could only imagine how much time, money, effort, spell stones and more went into this place!
The keep was more of the same; it was large with towers on each corner capped with skulls with opened jaws; the eyes bore the flames and gray smoke once more while more smoke spilled from the mouths... Making me wonder what they were hiding. There was also several windows that was spilling the same smoke; I wasn't sure if it was an illusion spell or something else but once more I was sure they hid defenses. The keep's gate, meanwhile, was a large drawbridge made of thick, thick wood with a slight void under where it would cover once down... And the front of the door was carved with... Umm...
Remember what Han Solo looked like, frozen in carbonite? Yeah, imagine that, but a block of one hundred people, nude and in a very 'and I must scream' pose. Oh, and all of their eyes was glowing red. Yeah, who designed this castle, Freddy Kruger?
No, not enough red and green stripes for him.
We stepped out of the carriages as we moved towards the keep, my eyes glancing up as the gate lowered for our entry, and additiona; set of double doors opening inwards. Directly overheard of the castle and maybe some quarter of a mile past the moat was a swirling mass of dark clouds. Really, everything about this place felt... ominous... Yet, not in the 'an evil overlord lives here' way but more of a 'if a haunted house enthusiast had an unlimited budget and way too much time' way.
Walking into the entrance hall was well lit, but bore gray wall and bone like pillars. The stairs looked like the steps were made of bone and skulls capped the ends of the railings. Hanging under the banisters of the second floor, framing the stairs was the emblem of House Adelle and it was... fitting. The shape was a standard knight's shield with a single, raised point in the center with a thick, white outline with a thinner, black outline outside of that and a black background. A white skull with a dark, gray crown with lighter gray trim dominated the banner (As I recall, House Adelle and their banner predated the Brazen Empire) with a black outline around the skull, and a white outline around the black outline and the crown. And finally, in each eye socket... was a dark gray heart, outlined in white. No, really.
"This place is spooky..." Cress let off as he looked around, gulping. A series of skeleton statues lined the walls, each holding a sword and shield... And boasting some sort of magic. What sort I didn't know, but it was there.
"I heard House Adelle was well known for their enchanters and enchantments, but I didn't know it was to this degree." I let off, taking in a breath. "Klaus, can you feel it?"
"Indeed, I've visited before... It's almost overwhelming the first few times you visit." The man agreed, adjusting his glasses. "Among other... Well, you'll see. Whatever can be said of Blake von Adelle everyone will admit he is among the foremost enchanters of the realm."
"Ah, Klaus my friend, such words warm my heart!" It was then we looked to the top of the stairs to see a man, for lack of a better term, speed walk to the top of the stairs, slap something on the railing and... With the sound of several soft 'thunks' the stairs dropped and tilted to form a ramp that the man leapt up to land on, feet first as he slid down the ramp of bone planks until he was at the bottom of the steps like a child, stumbling forwards slightly to bleed the momentum he took on, the stairs returning to normal a moment after.
Said man was... umm... err... wearing... A black and deep gray pinstriped, buttoned up jacket with matching pants, polished black shoes, a Jacob's collar in all black with dark gray, spider web print on it, a single monocle on a silver chain that attached to his single, silver earring. He was a bit short at around five foot seven, a bit stout yet fit looking with short, combed back black hair that grayed on the sides and a pen thin mustache. He bore a friendly, yet slightly unnerving, smile as he opened his arms wide and quickly hugged Klaus. "Ahhhhh, Klaus my boy! You brought your beautiful wife with you! I hear Dendrick is still jealous of you landing her!" He said, letting go to poke the scholar's ribs gently as Klaus flinched back, the man acting in an overly friendly way.
Yup... I... Didn't know what to expect, but this was not it...
(-)
Name: Blake von Adelle
Title: The Baron of the Bone
Class: Wizard
Level: 34
Alignment: Friendly
Reputation: 100
Status: Healthy, Happy, Giddy
Known Traits
[Dark Wizard] All of your Arcane Spells are converted to Darkness spells. Each of these spells have their Mana Costs reduced by 5%
[Unfazed by the Macabre] You are unfazed by sights such as death, rape, destruction and horror.
[Spell Weaver] You can imbue items with spells and other abilities to make them better. Gain the [[Imbue Magic]] Spell
Considered by some to be the finest enchanter of Eostia, if not Sererus, he holds the rank of Archmage. Patriarch of the Adelle Family his tastes and mannerisms frighten off many, but those he befriends are treated like family; even if they can't stand his tastes. Despite his love for the odd, the macabre and the strange he is opposed to causing harm and avoids doing so... On purpose.
(-)
"And you must be the Young Lord Noxdecus, eh?" Blake said, walking up to me as he slapped his hands onto my shoulders, making me flinch from the force; it wasn't hard but it was stronger then needed. "I am damn glad to meet you; I've been looking into your little voxlux project and it is genius! I mean having the spells reach so far up; never occurred to me!" Before I could respond he pulled into a half hug with one arm around my shoulders. "Lad, my lad, you are going to do great things with this! Heck, I already ordered twenty of the boosters from your manor for the Barony!"
"You ordered twenty!?" I let off in surprise. That was... a bit much; Hakla only had three major cities including the capital of Maison D'os City, plus four notable towns. Maybe a few notable military bases could use them, but there was only two in the territory! Overkill much?
"Well... I might have sent some out to merchant ships we hire; expand the range out a bit." He said with a shrug. "But it also means I can see family anytime I travel! Ooooooh, I would... crawl through a tunnel of... broken glass, acid and fire to see my wife any day of the week." He said as a goofy smile came to his face; almost creepy really. Before I could speak a new voice called out.
"Why wait, my dear?" I turned my head to see the newcomer; a beautiful, young yet elegant and statuesque looking woman. She stood some five eleven with smooth, soft skin with only a small mole under the right eye. Her hair was a rich purple, tied back in a braid that was long enough to reach the small of her back hanging over her left shoulder on her chest, the right side of her face framed by a long bang and the bangs of her forehead cut in a slope, highlighting her bright, purple eyes. A set of purple flowers was set to the right side of her head with a white pattern on the inside.
She wore a black dress that was tight to her frame and reached the floor, heels clacking as she walked in, wide, loose sleeves over her arms and thick lace over her C-Cup breasts. A black lace collar was over her throat as she smiled to us.
"MY MELINDA!" Blake bellowed out, rushing to her side as she extended her hand out as he dropped to both knees and slip to a stop before her, the man taking then kissing up her arm and rising to his feet as he did to, kissed over her shoulder then up her neck and finally her cheek and lips. No question about the love here...
(-)
Name: Melinda von Adelle
Title: Beautiful Baroness of the Bone Castle
Class: Sage
Level: 37
Alignment: Friendly
Reputation: 99
Status: Healthy, Relaxed, Loving
Romance Rating: N/A
Corruption Rating: 1
Known Traits
[Dark Sage] All of your Holy Spells are converted to Darkness spells. Each of these spells have their Mana Costs reduced by 5%
[Single Target Sexuality] You're only attracted to one person at any one time. +300 Romance Rating for that person. Cannot have a Romance Rating for anyone else
[?]
[Drop the Hammer] You are adept at hammers and maces. +2 Damage to all one handed hammers or maces. +4 Damage to all two handed hammers or maces
Melinda was aware she had Adelle lineage in her since a young age, if four generations removed. Curious about her origins she traveled to Hakla to see Maison D'os City herself and the castle off in it's distance. Upon meeting Blake von Adelle she was instantly taken with his poise and unashamed love of the odd and bizzare. They would wed some five months later.
(-)
"Dear... Aren't you forgetting something?" Melinda let off as Blake gave her a blank look. "We have guests. We must take care of their luggage! Assign them quarters!"
"Ahh!" He let off, smacking his forehead. "Of course! Forgive me!" He set two fingers into his mouth and gave off a loud whistle. "Tiny! We have guests! Can you help see them to their rooms?"
"Ah, yes master..." We heard a deep voice say as... A seven foot tall ogre came in from a side room, dressed up in a black butler's outfit with white undershirt, red tie and the Adelle Emblem on the chest on the left side. That was odd enough, but he also wore tiny, gold rimmed glasses on his nose as he half walked/half lumbered to us, smiling and bowing before us, even as many of our group gawked at him. "Masters and Mistresses, I am at your service." He said; his voice as smooth as it was deep as he bowed before us. "Tiny DeMoin, at your service."
(-)
Name: Tiny DeMoin
Title: Castle Hakla's Butler
Class: Warlord
Level: 24
Alignment: Friendly
Reputation: 45
Status: Healthy, Calm, Fulfilled
Known Traits
[?]
[An Axe To Grind] You love your axes! +3 Damage to all Axe Weapons in your Hand
[Silent Servant] +8 to Stealth when at your place of work
Once just another Aberrant warlord he would find his younger brother would rise up and challenge him for command of their tribe. Losing to him he was left for dead only to be found by Blake and Melinda von Adelle who took him in, taught him to read and mended his wounds. Finding a strange level of fulfillment serving under them he would become the Head Butler of Hakla Castle.
(-)
Well... That's new.
The ogre butler raised a hand and snapped his fingers... And the skeletons lining the walls, turned, hung up their weapons and started to march as Tiny moved out to the carriage. Needless to say everyone (Save our escorting couple) gawked. I was worried they were made of bone but the soft, metallic 'clang-clang' of their footsteps told me they were made of metal. "... Golems?" I let off as Blake nodded.
"Ah, family has been tweaking them for over thirteen centuries now!" He said, grinning as he slapped my back in a friendly manner (Before I even noticed he had moved back to me; how did he move without a sound?) as I looked to him. "The Skeleton Guard is quite useful!" He said as Tiny followed the skeleton golems out.
"U-u-u-undead servants!?" Lorcan let off as he gawked at the marching bone beings.
"No, you can hear the metallic footsteps, right?" Lorcan looked to me, blinking at me as I spoke. "They're golems; they just looks like skeletons. Likely a spell stone hidden on the inside of their skulls."
"Hey, bone head! Watch where you're taking that!"
"You watch it, bone brain!"
"Knock it off, both of you knuckleheads! We're working here!"
Now I was the one gawking much more as I looked to the skeletons, bringing our things inside and arguing with each other. "... But I've never heard of golems that acted with such... personality." I said as Blake chuckled.
"Centuries of work, my friend, centuries of work." Blake said as he chuckled with a bit of pride. Whatever else he has to say was cut off by what sounded like a hissing snake trying to give out a long, happy 'squee' as I looked to the side and saw...
Err... Umm...
An Arachnid of Unusual Size running towards us.
It was a tarantula that was mostly a chestnut brown with yellow stripes on the legs and another yellow stripe along it's back. Eight eyes looked to Blake as it skittered along and slid to a stop before lifting it's front legs, waving them about as Blake grinned... I was blinking at it. Makoto kept a hand on her katana as Riri took a step back. Aeris paled and moved behind Makoto, almost hiding behind her. Cress blinked in confusion... Until Miria let off a short scream and jumped on him, clutching him around the head, making him yelp out and stumble about as Ur'Akara moved to pry her mistress off my cousin. Lorcan screamed out and darted to the safest place in the room; behind Claudia. Then again, how does one react to a tarantula that looks like it's begging for attention... when it's the size of a large bulldog? Yes, it was that big! Only Claudia and Klaus managed to have controlled reactions (Beyond the former's clear annoyance at Lorcan taking cover behind her), likely knowing this was coming. Even so both of them sighed, in unison.
I would have liked a heads-up myself...
"Homer!" Blake let off, kneeling down and picking the huge spider up with a grunt, holding it like one would a fat cat with it's back to his chest. "Ah, let me introduce you! This is Homer, our pet." He said with a grin, turning to face me. "He's a big lug, once you get to know him." The two, front most legs reached out and looked like it was trying to swim to me as I blinked and looked to it It gave an odd sound; one part hiss, one part coo, one part whimper as it looked at me... And against my better judgment I reached out and petted it's head. It gave a long hiss/coo and lifted it's head up into my hand. It's.. fur? Hair? It's hairs, I think, were a bit itchy but surprisingly soft. "Ha! New friend for Homer!" He let off as I let go as he knelt down before lifting himself back up and... tossed Homer right up into the air!? Said spider flipped twice before firing a line of web from it's backside that attached to the ceiling as it hiss/cooed, spinning and wriggling it's legs happily as it hung from it's web.
At least... I think it was happily...
"Come! Let's have some tea!" He said, leading me away by the shoulder, Melinda following us. From the corner of my eye I could see Riri and Makoto looked to one another before nervously following us the others slowly following; Miria back on her feet and watching the spider and moving to give it some distance as followed as Ur'Akara and Cress flanked her. I felt it was just best to try and ride the tide on this one...
"Maybe I'll just retire to my room and-Whoa! Hey!" I looked back to the speaker, Lorcan, who had two of the skeleton guards taking an arm in each of theirs and doing some can-can dance along to follow Blake and dragging him along.
Oh lord... What brand of insanity did we walk in on?
[-]
So was the sitting room for tea creepy? Yes. Yes it was.
The furniture was antique; no skulls, bones or the like and the table matched. That said the pictures hung around the room depicted things like decapitations via guillotine (The image depicted the execution of members of House Congus, a minor house in Sanka some nine hundred years ago; they were a slave owning family... In a territory that had harsh punishments for slavery), the hanging of three women side by side (The Drugen Sisters; members of the Cloaked Crowns who were caught, exposed and hung) and a burning manor. It took me a moment to figure out that some of the banners on the manor was visible and of what House they were for... House Oxford. Yes, there was an image of the home of Halbert Oxford's childhood home burning down in Blake's sitting room.
...
Is it wrong I want a copy? I think it was...
Nearly every tea around was black, but at my suggestion an Earl Grey was brewed... In a skull shaped pot. A red spell stone was set to it's forehead and I assumed that would heat the water. The spout came out of it's nose and looked like someone jabbed it in there and twisted it in; black and shaped not unlike a large spike. The tea cups, by contrast, were glass and well sized... And cupped by ceramic shaped in a bone hand with the index finger stuck out and curled to form a handle.
I was half expecting a disembodied hand to crawl across the table, to be frank. Although we did have Homer crawling along the ceiling to a feeding station in the chandelier. A lot of people were watching the spider with a mix of interest, wariness or unease, mostly Lorcan and my sister on that last one. I couldn't say about Lorcan but Miria didn't like large spiders much. By large I mean 'bigger then a house cat', not 'large enough to fill a hand'. I didn't understand the full story beyond 'before she came to the manor'. I... Didn't know if I should say anything, to be honest. After all the spider seemed to understand approaching her would be a bad idea and even avoided the side of the table she was on and our hosts wasn't being rude about it. I knew Miria was able to speak up if she was too uncomfortable and I made a mental note to mention to Blake that it would be best to keep the spider and Miria in separate rooms, politely.
I did keep an eye on her, of course; she looked uneasy but wasn't ready to bolt.
There were two conversations going on as we drank tea; Melinda with most of the group talking about our various travels (With maybe too much focus on the fighting...) while myself, Klaus and Blake was talking shop about enchantments. While some of Blake's ideas were... Odd to say the least (No, I didn't need to enchant portraits to have their eyes move to watch people... Even if Blake thought it was a good 'mood setter') there was no denying he knew the craft and was the master in it. Even Klaus was pulled into the talk which would have been boring to some but was quite interesting to the three of us. Baron Blake von Adelle was an Archmage, after all.
The tea was also good, although there was no sugar or cream about. Guess they were used to tea as black as their souls. Bad pun? Maybe. Whatever.
"Father! Mother!"
"Father!"
I heard the voices call out as I saw two girls moving into the room. The first was a young woman, maybe late teens or so. Five foot seven with purple hair set to loose pigtails that brushed her shoulders, matching her eyes. A thin collar was around her neck while wearing a spaghetti strap dress that fell to the top of her thighs and with a mesh shirt over her dress. Her nails were painted black and she wore leather boots past the knees with three inch heels; so I imagined she was around five four without them.
(-)
Name: Violet von Adelle
Title: Heiress of the Skull Castle
Class: 11
Level: Arcanist
Alignment: Friendly
Reputation: 44
Status: Healthy, Happy, Pleased
Romance Rating: 88
Corruption Rating: 13
Known Traits
[?]
[Dark Summons] All of your summons possess the Darkness element. Any summons made with another will have both elements. In addition -5% to Mana Costs to all summons.
[Ooky and Spooky] You have a love for the strange and macabre.
Eldest daughter of Melinda and Black von Adelle, she is an apprentice mage and newly inducted into the Adventurer's Guild of Maison D'os City. Although her summons often unnerve her peers she had proven her capability as a mage and summoner. She adores the family pet, the Savannah Stripped Tarantula, Homer.
(-)
So, Homer is a Savannah Stripped Tarantula? That's interesting; I felt there was a story with Miria there now with that kind of spider in particular. I looked to the other girl, about the same age of the first. By contrast she was wearing something that looked between something girlish and something tomboyish. She bore short hair that ended to the top of the neck with matching eyes and an easy smile. A thick, leather collar was around her neck (Like, very thick and tall), a cropped, white top covering C-Cup breasts with two, purple stripes over each bicep and some mesh under the shirt. She wore a black, pleated skirt that hung down to the top of her thighs, a pair of suspenders hanging off the sides of the skirt. A pair of white and black stripped stockings ran up to her mid-thighs and a pair of short boots on each foot.
I was about to use observe when she tripped on something, set her hands on the table to catch herself... And... er... umm...
Her head fell off her body.
I am serious.
I am not joking.
Not kidding.
Not even the slightest.
Her head rolled along the table, bumping the teapot and rolling in front of Lorcan, the top of her head facing him, face up as she looked to him as she smiled warmly. "Hi!" She said cheerfully.
Lorcan screamed like a little girl and leaped back, stumbling over the chair and falling to the floor, shoving her head aside as the girl yelped out, her head spinning away from him over the table until it was close enough so I could reach out and stop the spin before I gently picked it up, turning her head in my hands to look her in the face. From the place the head would meet the neck a wispy, purple mist spread out as I blinked, her eyes spinning for a moment in dizziness. "You're... a dullahan?" I said, half amazed, half dumbfounded as she recovered from her spin.
"Yup!" She let off with a smile... As Homer dipped down on a web, plucking the head from my hands with two of his legs and pulled it up to the ceiling. Homer then crawled along the ceiling before attaching a web once more and dropped down. The girl's body was standing up straight up with a matching, purple mist spilling from the neck as the tarantula set her head back into place with a soft pop. "Sorry... Sorry... Still having trouble keeping my head on straight! Or on at all!" She said with a laugh and some cheer.
(-)
Name: Lilac von Adelle
Title: Dullahan Daughter of House Adelle
Class: Rouge
Level: 12
Alignment: Friendly
Reputation: 56
Status: Healthy, Enchanted, Cheerful
Romance Rating: 92
Corruption Rating: 13
Known Traits
[?]
[Dark Arts] All of your combat arts boast the Darkness Element. +5% to all positive Combat Art's effects and -5% to all negative Combat Art's effects.
[Dyed in Shadow] You can see better in the darkness and are harder to see in darkness as well. +5% Damage to all attacks you made in the darkness
One of the few members of House Adelle with little magical talent, the daughter of Blake and Melinda von Adelle found tales of rouges and spies to be fascinating and attempted to follow in those footsteps, although an emergency transformation into a Dullahan had made this more difficult then normal.
(-)
Emergency transformation!?
"These are my daughters, Violet and Lilac." Blake said proudly with a chuckle... While almost everyone but Klaus looked to the second of the daughters with looks of horror and shock. To be fair, a head randomly rolling off a neck without killing the owner of said head is unusual.
"Baron Blake-" I began before he cut me off.
"Just Blake please, let us be friends and all that."
"Blake..." I restarted as I looked to him. "Why exactly is your daughter a dullahan?"
"Ah... That's a bit of a story!" He said, clasping his hands. "You see I had heard of a new little curio shop in Maison D'os that I wanted to check out." It's worth noting that Maison D'os has a lot of things sold with in it that wouldn't look out of place in a Halloween shop due to the Adelle's influence on the region. "My daughters came with me, had a couple of knights with us, the usual. Then a few assassins attempted to kill me, which is fine." We all (Save the Adelles, including Klaus and Claudia this time) stared at him; like an attempt on his life is just a minor inconvenience, like his local McDonalds just discontinued the McRib or something. "Keeps a man on his toes! Then they went for my daughters; which I found a bit rude. Then my sweet Lilac took a throwing knife to the throat... Far less fine. Thankfully she survived, but was sort of choking on her blood because of it." I winced, as did everyone else at the table beyond the Adelle family.
Blake continued with a grin. "Once the fight was over I managed to get a few regents from a nearby store, quality powered spell stone and got to work and managed to perform the dullahan transformation along the knife's cut line." Wow... I mean, a good healer would have a better answer, but if none of the required quality were on hand that is a hell of a plan B.
"You performed a dullahan operation on someone with no preparation, in the middle of the street with only a handful of things from a store fast enough to keep her from asphyxiating or bleeding out?" I summarized as he nodded. "I'm... impressed. Very impressed. That's a difficult thing to pull off, doubly so as that sort of information is very limited." Ti put this into perspective, that's like a doctor in my original world needed to perform open heart surgery on someone with whatever he could get his hands on from his local Walmart and pulling it off.
"Excuse me..." Lorcan let off, setting his chair up on it's feet before slowly moving to sit down. "Are we ignoring that his daughter is undead!?" He let off as the Adelle's gave him a confused look. Klaus and Aeris both turned to look at him with irritated looks while Claudia remained calm. The rest of the group, not being magically trained, had a mixture of horror and worry come to them as I took the chance to speak up.
"She's not undead. In fact almost everything that's considered an undead is either classified as a golem or some form of chimera." I explained; most of my group turning to me expecting yet another one of James Noxdecus' Many Lectures. "Zombies are officially called 'corpse golems' and their bites won't turn you into one unless you die within a couple of minutes, and even that's temporary; the corpse will drop after a few hours after the magic wears off." Yes, this world lacked any sort of 'zombie plague' which was a good thing; if my old world had a hard time containing a bad strain of a flu to one country I can't imaging this world could do much better. "Mummies are just corpse zombies with more preparation. Vampires are a chimera of humans and bats made in Sangevania on the northern continent, and Liches are an attempt by less scrupulous mages to attain eternal life but it never works." I said before looking to the girl that was the subject of conversation. "Lilac, was it? Could you come over here so I can demonstrate?"
"Oh, sure!" She chirped skipping around the table to me. Without ask or prompt she pulled her head off with a soft 'pop' sound and passed it to me.
"Ah, thanks. Riri, take hold of her wrist; can you find a pulse?" I asked her as my maid stood up and moved to the body of the girl, taking hold of her arm and setting two fingers to her wrist.
"Yeah... Feels pretty normal." She said as I nodded.
"Thank you. You can be seated." I told her as I held Lilac's head in one hand, facing the table as Riri moved to sit down once more. "The dullahan transformation is a very tricky form of transmutation magic, although unlike most the result isn't any sort of chimera. What it requires is knowledge of teleportation magics, specifically knowledge of how to make portals. These magics tend to be very restricted and limited only to those with a magical rank of Grand Magus or higher."
"Why such restrictions?" Miria asked, focusing on me and not at all the spider on the ceiling for a change.
"Because if you screw up bad things happen." I told her. "Like your arm or heart ending up a place you aren't, or someone popping into another person's body which usually kills both people painfully. I remember one of my teachers, an Archmage, deliberately flubbing such a spell with a pair of chicken legs to show what could happen if this kind of magic was misused. Apparently the legs weren't supposed to explode." Myself and Channer were in the front row for that class. Afterwards we agreed to sit a few rows back from then on.
I carried on, pointing to the mist pouring out from under her head, adjusting said head to face upwards. "These sections generating mist are the result of a pair of portals that connects her head and neck. In short, air, blood, food, water and everything else operates as normal for her; they just take a... detour along the way." I said, passing her back her head. "As I understand it, the dullahan transformation is usually performed on some form of cattle or poultry that's about to be eaten for tests or demonstrations but those are rare because... ... Well, this is one of the rare instances where performing the operation on a living human being is ethical." I said as Lilac put her head back into place. "There isn't really a reason to do this to a human being, except as a form of punishment or the like."
"Eh, I've gotten used to it." Lilac said with a shrug.
"Indeed. Ah, girls, did you need something?" Blake asked, smiling to them now that the lecture was over.
"Oh, we just got home from another adventuring job! There was a few goblins running around Hakla, but we took care of it." Violet said proudly.
[-]
Castle Hakla Dungeon
That Very Moment
"AH HA! HA HA HA! HE HE HE! S-STOP! M-MERCY! AH HE HO HA!"
"BAH HA HE HO! FORGI-HE-HE-HE-GIVE US PLE-HA-HA-HE-HO! PLEASE FORGIVE US!"
"TH-THIS IS HE-HE-HO-HO-HA! THIS IS INGOBLIN TR-HE-HE-HO-TREATMENT! STOP! STOP!"
Seven goblins were locked in the dungeon of Hakla Castle, one of the rooms of the castle that would like it's counterparts in other castles. Like some of them, implements of torture and punishment could be found there. Unlike those the means of punishment was... different. The seven goblins were chained to tables by all four limbs as a dozen skeletal hands held a dozen feathers per table were tickling the goblins. The bottoms of the feet, under the armpits, between the toes, the neck and other roaming the bodies.
"I'M GONNA D-D-DIE-IE-IE-IE-IE-IE-HE-HE-HE-HE-HE-HE-HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO!"
[-]
Good to know goblins were being eliminated around the nation still.
"So when we heard there was guests we want to see." Lilac continued. "We so rarely get guests, so we wanted to introduce ourselves." The sisters moved, taking up seats on the table, Blake shifting his away from me to my surprise as Lilac pulled a chair from the side of the room over to sit next to me and between me and her father. I didn't mind, she seemed like a nice girl... So long as she could keep her head on straight.
Yes, bad pun but also true.
"Violet is becoming quite the enchanter in her own right, you know!" Blake said proudly as he puffed his chest out, the girl smiling with a small blush. "And Lilac might not have any talent for magic, but she's knows the theory pretty well." Lilac puffed her own chest out a bit with a small giggle as she smiled wider. "But we can talk more about that over dinner. For now-"
"Beg pardon." I jumped a bit; as did everyone that doesn't have 'Adelle' in their name, as I looked over to Tiny who just... appeared in the room. How? When? I dunno. "The quarters are readied for our guests if they would like to relax."
"Ah, thank you Tiny!" Blake let off, clasping his hands loudly.
"Well, if that's the case before I retire for a bit, may I ask your opinion on something?" I asked our host who looked to me with a warm smile... While Klaus raised his eyebrow at me.
"Of course, what do you need?" He answered, quickly and honestly.
[-]
I brought Blake and Riri to my quarters with the former bringing Violet along and rolled out a scroll which the two Adelles looked over with great interest. Riri had a pair of long, dark blue combat knifes for awhile and we've been talking about what enchantments to put on their spell stones; the scroll outlined the current plans on what to add. There was the usual; reinforcement effects, never dull effects and never rust effects. Riri wanted the blades to be soundless on draw and when swung, which I could manage. That said I wanted to include a spell for defensive use and one for offensive use. I didn't plan on trigger words for it; Riri's training included how to manipulate her mana and while not on the level to cast spells (Yet; the Ninja path she could take had it's own spell types in it though) she could still control these sort of enchantments. The defensive effect was simple to consider; a shield spell. I planned to encode it so use it with one blade would make a normal sized shield projected from the cutting edge and if both were used close enough to create a larger tower shield; to defend herself and those behind her. It was the offensive options we were struggling on.
I laid out the issue in short; the stones could only do so much, as things do, and we had a few options. Do we insert a spell to bolster her melee abilities or give her some ranged options? What element do we set on it? Something basic like an arcane or something that couldn't be seen like a wind spell? She pointed out that in stealth, recon and infiltration fire was oddly useful; setting fire to something as a distraction or as a signal or just when things needed to get loud. Lightning was another option with subtle uses and could be used to set fire to things.
Naturally Blake nodded and given his expertise, promoted Violet to give her own inputs before he gave his own comments on each option presented... And dropped an idea I didn't expect. "What about a modified Dark Flare spell?" I blinked at him for a long moment as I nearly felt my jaw drop a bit.
"You know Dark Flare?" I let off surprised. Some explanation was needed...
There were spells used by High Elves and Dark Elves that confused the heck out of most human mages for literally thousands of years since they seemed to not fit the usual rules of magic, elemental effects or even layered elements. It wasn't until over a century ago that the answers came; a High Elf Mage of no small skill had a massive argument with his peers in the United Elven Kingdoms and in a move of petty revenge revealed to one of Eostia's Magus' something they kept secret to their general public; Hybrid Magic.
Hybrid Magic was a spell that combined two elements together in one spell. This was different then some trait or effect that added a second element such as in Layered Magic, although related; those were layering another element onto it not unlike adding icing to a cake like a holy spell on top of a fire spell. Although the result of that was just a fire spell that had the holy element on top of it; it burned like fire it just did holy damage atop of it which was useful for things weak to fire or holy magic. Even if a target resisted one element the other would deal damage.
Hybrid Magic was more of a full fusion as if cake and icing were blended into one combined item. These were, compared to normal spells, more powerful in effect and costly in mana and often boasted more powerful and additional effects then normal spells but was rare and their creation was difficult to say the least. Additionally there was almost no known way to resist Hybrid Magic; using Flame Guard would do nothing to a Hybrid Spell, even if fire was one of the blended elements. Needless to say these were very potent and powerful spells. The Spellcraft Guild only knew less then a dozen of these spells (Most provided from said High Elf Mage) and of them human mages had created only three; Dark Flare being one of them which had it's own story.
The Queen of Garan, Olga Discordia, had a very powerful spell called Annihilation Stream; a massive, directional blast of dark purple flame that was wide enough to cover a gymnasium. It was a frightening spell that boasted the effect of rapidly chewing through shield spells in addition to blazing hot flames. No one at the time knew if it was a darkness or fire spell and some attempted to use spells to counter one or the other when she used her attack to no effect save a violent death that left just enough of the victims to be swept up in a dust pan. After the knowledge of Hybrid Spells came and that likeliness the Dark Elves shared in the knowledge it was determined that Annihilation Stream was a darkness/fire hybrid spell and that most type of normal defenses wouldn't phase it at all.
Thirty years ago Dark Flare was created to mimic the effects of Annihilation Stream, and to great success. While the spell was much weaker then the Dark Queen's signature spell it was one: much more efficient in mana to the point of being usable by most people and two: was more useful in situations as there was few cases where 'turn everything in front of you to carbonized ash' was really needed. Even then it was a rare spell to know; hindsight being what it was an Archmage would have access to this knowledge.
Blake grinned and snapped his finger and, err, a... Well... A skeleton in a maid uniform walked in... Yes, seriously. Blake gave it directions and it left after a bow. "Indeed. My grandfather was involved with it's creation! It was a join effort between him, Halson DeSagesse, Ulysses Magister and Melissa Erotique. It was difficult, but they did finally pull it off!" He grinned wider as the skeleton maid golem walked back in with a silver tray, a single scroll on it. He unrolled the scroll and stood aside a bit to let me see. I stepped in and took a long moment to read and understand the spell and add it to my spell list.
(-)
Dark Flare [Lvl I] (0/1000)
Magic Type: Darkness/Fire Hybrid
Cool Down: Moderate
Mana Cost: Very High
Direct a sphere of dark purple flame at a target where it will explode on impact and burn anything struck. Additionally it will rapidly burn shield based spells, damaging them greatly and feeding on it's mana.
(-)
Eccentricities aside, it was clear to me House Adelle would be very useful allies. I brought Riri back into the conversation and came up with a simple idea to maximize the spell's use for Riri. My proposal was to use the basis of Dark Flare and Blazing Weapon to make a new spell; creating a Hybrid version of Blazing Weapon and teach Riri the Sonic Wave Combat Art. That would improve the melee damage greatly while using Sonic Wave with it active would send the magic off to strike a target granting her a great ranged option.
The one downside was it was very ambitious; Hybrid magic was difficult to work with and while I had the templates to work from being on the road meant I did have regular access to the facilities I'd need to test it out; Mungale Manor had it of course, but not everywhere I would visit would. Blake, naturally, offered to help and offered his facilities and Riri agreed that waiting would be worth it.
So, off to work we went.
[-]
Elsewhere in Castle Hakla
"This place is so creepy." Lorcan let off with a soft shiver as he looked about. While not a part of his job he wanted to see what Castle Hakla was all about; chances were once the new order came to pass there would be various hold outs who would resist; House Adelle among them. Understanding their defenses, even if only in part, would be a massive help should it come to it. As such he decided to move to the battlements of the keep for a look. Sneaking was pointless; there was no one to sneak by after all.
That being said, he did not like how various paintings had their eyes turn to watch them. It was annoying, eerie and off-putting. Making it more creepy was the lack of personnel in the castle. Most castles had servants of various stripes; maids, butlers, cooks, smiths, secretaries and more in addition to soldiers as a guard.
The place was nearly empty. Sure, at least one of the skeletons that littered the halls would turn their heads to watch him pass and send chills up his spine as they did but there was nothing that could hurt him...
Openly...
This was a castle owned by a House famed for enchanting; who knows what traps were in wait for someone sticking their noses where it didn't belong? Indeed, the biggest danger here wasn't the people who lived there but the location itself. He also had one thing to do; to steal a thing. What didn't matter; even a letter opener or spoon would do; it would be a memento of sorts; a hobby he told no one about.
Finally he reached the top of one of the corner towers of the keep and looked about to see the range of distance and possible range of fire. The tower was well stocked with arrows, bolts, barrels of gunpowder and more with a cannon facing to the outside. It was well stocked for a possible attack save the lack of men to man the battlements. That begged the question; would the skeletons man the walls or would the local guard move in when an attack was expected?
Where was the local guard, anyway? Hakla had it's own knights, of course... With skull shaped helms, because House Adelle would ask for those.
Satisfied he moved to head back where he came, bracing himself for voyeuristic paintings and skeleton statues...
CLANG!
Only for a portcullis to drop down from the door leading to the stairs as he jumped back with a startled gasp. "Hey buddy!" He looked around him, trying to find the source of the voice, a cold sweat coming to him. "Down here!" He blinked and looked down to the floor and saw... A skull's face set into the floor in question as he blinked at the odd design choice. "Wanna play a game?" Lorcan blinked and before he could reply the skull spoke once more. "Too bad, we're playing!"
"... Playing, what?" Lorcan asked.
"We here call it 'Follow Fred'. I'm Fred!" The skull let off as the floor shifted around it, forming four, small circles around the skull face; one turning yellow, one green, another red and one blue. "Step on them after the light up in the same pattern! If you get ten in a row I'll pop the gate open for you!"
"That's it...? Okay, sounds easy... What's the catch?" Lorcan said, blinking to the skull.
"Oh, well it gets harder. And... Well, gotta do something to encourage ya not to slip up!" The skull lot off with a chuckle. Lorcan was sure it would grin if it was able to do so. Still, he was sure it would go well. "Let's start!" Quickly the various spots on the floor flashed in a pattern.
Red, red, blue, green.
He shrugged. That was easy as he moved to tap the circles with his foot; red, red, blue and green.
"Hey, first one done! Round two!"
Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, Red.
Lorcan snickered. Easy. He would tap in the same pattern; blue, yellow, green, red, red. No problem.
Blue, Red, Red, Yellow, Red, Green.
Blue, red, red, yellow, red and green in turn. For Lorcan, it was easy.
Yellow, Red, Green, Red, Red, Yellow, Yellow.
Yellow, red, green, red, red, yellow, red. ... Wait... "Damnit." Lorcan hiss out to himself..
Before screaming loudly as ice cold water was conjured right over his head; a bucket's worth dropped on his head. "Awww, too bad, you had a rhythm going!"
"That's fucking cold!" Lorcan cried out, shivering.
"Yup! The maker of it, good'ole Baron Vicson von Adelle made the game! And the punishment!" The skull said with a chuckle. "He called it invigorating, played it all the time!"
"Oh gods..."
"Back to round one!" The skull said cheerfully as Lorcan shivered.
Maybe jumping out the keep's window was an option?
[-]
Myself and Blake ended up talking for a couple hours. As tricky as Hybrid spells were we did have an outline of how to make it work. In fairness, I wasn't really pioneering anything with this idea. If I were to try and put it into words someone from my world could understand it's like taking a console system or computer system, cracking open the case, yanking everything out and moving it all into a new case. If you know enough about electronics you can move them to their new home without too much issue. On the other hand it's a much different issue to build a CPU from scratch and make it work with the rest of the system.
Well, that's the best analogy I have, anyway. This would take time to adapt fully and was another project on my lap, but in truth my other one was coming along smoothly. My flying toy wagon boasted another pair of small spell stones on the back, then one more on each side. Weak, modified Vortex Tunnel spells in the back provided the thrust needed to get it speeding along without going too fast and the ones on the sides helped turn them at a rate faster then 'sleepy turtle' while also not banking like a jet fighter to turn. The downside was I had to be careful on working on the toy's stones; that was five on one toy and risking some interference if I wasn't careful. In addition I had to adjust the enchantments to keep the toy as level as possible as it turned and tilted. A little was fine; if it turned more then twenty odd degrees in any direction that could be a bit too much.
Once done it was time to head off to dinner for the evening as I headed on my way... ignoring the paintings watching me. I could tell they weren't any sort of spy devices, they were just there to be creepy. 'Ambiance' is what Blake called it. I think treating this place as a giant Halloween haunted house was the best approach and I did my best to ignore the weirdness around me.
Dinner was nice... but weird (Surprise!); dodo cooked in a blood orange sauce (Yes, dodo's haven't gone the way of the, err, dodo here. They lived on isles south of the continent and they were domesticated as a food source by many southern peoples; Desh Kaho was well known for it's Butter Dodo dishes with Eostian versions of the dishes substituting chicken in their place. Importing them was costly), piranha cooked with spices and herbs (Miria was shocked when she learned what she was eating... Then kept eating; fish was fish after all), slow roasted jackalope (Tasted like rabbit) and strips of alligator cooked with salt and pepper (Tasted like chicken) with mashed potatoes with herbs and butter and salad... Served in skull shaped bowls.
If you could ignore the odd choices for the dishes then it was really good... Although I noticed Lorcan wasn't present, for some reason. We all came to an agreement he likely got lost somewhere, and Blake assured us he'd be found and fed. With a place like this and given how much I trusted the man I had to guess Lorcan found some weird catacombs or maze on the castle grounds and got lost exploring for some reason or another. I could only guess, but with nothing I could prove we still had to look out for him.
Even if I was sure he was trouble.
Blake sent Tiny out to find him so rather then worry I went and washed up in the bathroom... Which was mostly normal, surprisingly. I mean the sink was skull shaped, and the faucets for the bath was set in the mouth of another skull, but other then that it was mostly normal. Nothing happened of note during the bath, but after it was where the oddity came into play.
I moved back to where I set my clothing on a shelf and blinked as something new had appeared. A lever was now sticking out of the wall, next to the shelf and no it wasn't there before. Looking at it I noted that if pressed to the wall it would look like a matching decoration on the other side. That's still not the oddest thing, however. A small spell stone was revealed on the back of the lever and as I looked at it it turned on and with an illusion spell that projected something over it. Two words in bold, Gothic font.
[PULL ME!]
It might have well said 'Schmuck Bait' on it. I think I stared at it for a full two odd minutes. Yes, I really was considering pulling it.
I mean how else do I know what will happen?
The catch was what would happen? I was relatively sure the people of House Adelle meant no harm... But it was clear they had some... different viewpoints on things. What ever happened might not have been painful or harmful but that didn't mean it would be enjoyable or comfortable. Would I be able to put up with whatever weirdness would come? What would come? Would it be sexual?
...
Okay, maybe I had an answer for the last one, this is Eostia after all.
Sighing I reached up, grabbed the lever and gave a shallow but firm pull... And the floor dropped out from under me as I yelped out. I slid down a dark, smooth shaft that turned near the bottom and I had my legs kick up before I hit something butt first. My legs and arms pressed onto the same thing; a chair... That had shackles that slapped over by ankles and wrists as it flipped upright and shuddered before lowering down to the floor under it. A 'plop' was heard as I looked to my side; my clothing had made the trip down to and landed neatly folded on another shelf.
How?
The room was mostly plain, uncolored stone. I would call it a room in a dungeon given the sleeping bench held up with two chains and various spots to chain people to walls, but the bench was well padded and the locks on the cuffs were both padded and had no visible locks. Indeed, a brief inspection of my own binds showed that they A: didn't restrict my magic in the least, B: a brief pull showed I could pull my arms free if I wanted to and C: a test pull on a latch in my finger's reach nearly unlatched my wrists. I was shacked in place but I wasn't trapped and I could leave if I wanted. I was in no danger; not unlike what I expected. I was still a bit surprised, of course.
The metal door opened and both Lilac and Violet poked their heads in (Lilac's was held in her hand) before pulling back and then walking into the room (Lilac's head back in it's proper place on her neck) and wearing matching outfits; said outfits being black miniskirts and a matching, tube top... But both were made mostly of a mesh with leather bands at the tops and bottoms of each, showing off their sexes and breasts in near full. Violet kept her hands behind her back as feet clad in matching, thigh high leather boots, clacked on the floor as they grinned.
"Eeee! We have him!" Lilac let off, clapping her hands together. "No we can do whatever we want!" She let off, sounding less like a dominatrix and more like an excited schoolgirl. Violet gave a matching smile and nod to her before both looked to me as I raised an eyebrow at them. Once more I didn't feel the least bit threatened but I was curious. Maybe a hint nervous and swallowing it, mind. They leaned over and grinned before Violet pulled something out from behind her and I finally faced down the implement of their desires with me...
A bowl of chocolate ice cream. Given the tint of the ice cream I assumed dark chocolate. There was three scoops in the bowl and a single spoon as Lilac sat on my thigh and reached out, using the spoon to scoop up a bit of the treat and held it to my face with an expectant look.
With no reason to refuse I opened my mouth, forced to be fed a dessert by two, cute, Gothic girls.
Oh the horror...
[-]
Elsewhere in Castle Hakla
Miria felt her eyebrow twitch as she watched Cress hum and hem over the chess board. She now understood why Lorcan was not a fan of coming through Hakla on a whim when it could have been avoided. The nobility ruling here was weird, creepy and just bizarre. Honestly it was here she envied her brother's ability to just go with the flow in this kind of situation; as relaxed as she considered herself she just got mentally off balance at seeing a Der'rahan K'ass of all things as a family pet!
She was unaware of what it was called outside of the plains but to the Catalan tribes they were called Der'rahan K'ass and was an uncommon sight but one you would stumble over sooner or later. They mostly didn't bother the tribes...
Unless you were a lone, little girl who was vulnerable and struggling to survive. She could still remember a batch of five of those spiders trapping her in a small cave for two days and nights before moving on; her sharpened stick being the only thing to ward them off and unable to sleep lest they killed and ate her. She had nightmares of those Der'rahan K'ass for years afterwards. She had thought she was over it, that she wouldn't fear them ever again...
She supposed it wasn't so easy to swallow such a fear...
Thankfully when she saw the Der'rahan K'ass in the halls it seemed to pick up on her unease and steered well clear of her which helped keep her panic in check with it's general, apparent friendliness.
And the very least her instincts to violently remove or slay her host's family pet were under control.
"Check." And that led her here to the library with Ur'Akara following her, seeking a moment to relax... And finding Cress locked in a battle over a chess board... with what she assumed was another of the manor's skeleton golems... that was dressed in a black cloak with a hood over it's head, glowing red eyes and carried a combat scythe with it, looking not unlike the Grim Reaper.
Combat scythes were rare and not to be confused with war picks nor single handed sickles used as Eastern weapons, the combat scythe was a two handed polearm with a long, curved blade sticking out the end. Some had them pointing straight up but most stuck out to the side, like the farming tool. However cutting wheat was a different thing then flesh, bone and even gambeson armors. Without some form of enhancement it was useless against any metal armor but it's shape made it useful for hooking mounted units and reaching around shields. However the blade needed to be built with care; a farmer's scythe was not built with the rigors and wear of combat in mind with a thicker center and carefully formed edge that could withstand cutting into thick wool, bodies and shields. On top of that it was a difficult weapon to use well; a simple pike, poleaxe or polehammer was often a better choice; easier to make, easier to use and easier to train with. That meant most combat scythes were enchanted to some degree; seeing a marble sized stone in the blade of the skeleton's weapon showed that this was an enchanted one.
Cress moved a knight to place as the golem moved to cup it's chin, stroking it as it considered it's next move as Cress kept an oddly serious look to his face as he focused on the game.
It was cute, in a way.
It would have been cuter without the (Apparent) Grim Reaper as his opponent.
[-]
"Yes... Right there..." Liliac let off in a soft whimper as I worked her body; having been moved from the weird dungeon like cell to her room; purple walls, white sheets on the bed, furniture with light color stain to highlight their grain and white curtains over the window. There was surprisingly little Gothic themed items around the room, save a skull or two here and there and the fully body mirror in the room behind held up by two skeletons. "Harder... Harder... Ah, little lower..."
Crick-crick-crick-pop!
"Ahhhh... Right there..." She let off as I let go of her shoulder on which I had been pulling back on, my other fist grinding into her spine as I performed some impromptu chiropracty on her. Violet held her sister's head in her hands as she watched me work on her own spine from an angle most could never see. I had slipped my underwear back on, but was otherwise still unclothed. "Thanks... I think the dullahan spell made my spine a bit more creaky or something." She said as I moved off her body letting her sit up as her sister set her head back into place.
"Eh, I would have never guessed..." Maybe because of the weight missing now and then? I couldn't guess why...
"Well then..." Violet let off, moving to a drawer of the room's dresser, opening it and leaning over. Both sisters were still in their dominatrix gear so I had a very good view of her ass as she slipped something out. "Let's have some real fun..." She said before turning and showing off... A deck of cards. The backing was black with a thorny pattern in white with a goat's skull on a pike as the main image, but otherwise a normal, unenchanted deck of cards. "You know how to play Old Maid, right?" She grinned, wider as I nodded as she squeed and jumped on the bed before starting to deal cards out to the three of us...
[-]
Elsewhere in Castle Hakla
Red, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red, Blue, Blue, Red.
Red, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Yellow-
Splash!
"Ahhhh, so close! Round ten and you botched it!" The skull let off with a chuckle to a dripping wet and freezing Lorcan. "Welp, back to round one!"
"ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGHHH!"
Lorcan swore that once the Black Storm came he was personally killing the entirety of House Adelle for this! And James Noxdecus fro dragging him here!
There would be vengeance for this!
[-]
After a few hours of card games, chatting and a sudden, unexpected pillow fight we slipped into bed. Violet cuddled into one side of me and Lilac on the other (After setting her head on pillow on the night stand; no really) They fell asleep first and I was about to follow as a weight hit the bed. I lifted my head, looking down to see Homer padding on his eight legs over my own before curling them under him, clearly intending to sleep there. We looked at each other for a long, long moment.
"You don't snore do you?" I asked the over-sized spider. It tilted it's head for a moment before shaking it's head.
"Good." I said as I laid my head back down and started to go back to sleep.
It was an... interesting day.
[-]
In the morning we loaded up to ride off and to the south towards Saul and then to Forestside. That said I found I was one of the few who was fully rested.
Makoto had founded a skeleton golem sparring partner with it's own (Blunted) katana and lost track of time... She was still fine, aside from a yawn. Or three.
Miria apparently slept in Cress' room as she didn't find me in mine with Ur'Akara joining them. I guess Homer had her unnerved still, or maybe something else about the castle. Cress, for his part, was trying not to show how happy he was for that, but was tired as well. He couldn't stop looking at the painting in his room; dogs playing poker. Yes, they had a take on that classic in the manor... Save the dogs in the painting moved and were really playing actual poker. I guess he found it oddly fascinating. I mean, so would I to be fair...
Riri was better rested then the rest but swore she 'heard things' in the manor. I wouldn't be surprised, given the sheer amount of golems.
Aeris was one of the few to be well rested; she said she pulled the covers over her head and ignored all the nonsense. I imagine Klaus and Claudia were more used to it as well; they seemed fine.
The worst off was Lorcan who looked dead on his feet. I asked what happened and... he was just muttering colors... Four colors... Red, yellow, green and blue... And in weird combinations, like he played those Simon color kids games...
I'm... not sure I wanted to know. ... Although with some spell orbs I bet I could make that game... Maybe cheap enough to sell?
We would leave early in the morning with the family Adelle seeing us off. On one hand I was kinda glad we stopped in, and not just for the help Blake gave me.
On the other hand I wasn't in a rush to revisit...
[-]
Within the Halls of Castle Hakla
Later That Afternoon
Lines of skeletons lined the halls of the old, historic castle as the various members of House Adelle and their butler Tiny did various things about the fortification and home. It was quiet with nothing moving and no sounds being heard...
Until one of the skeletons leaned forwards and looked about for a long moment before leaning back And then...
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
The line of skeletons lifted both hands up and as one snapped their fingers
Snap! Snap!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
And then, as one the skeletons... Began to sing a song.
They're often a lil' creepy!
Maybe seem a bit seedy
But they're rather sweetie!
The Adelle Family!
Their Castle's a Museum!
Or maybe a Mausoleum!
But feel free to see'em!
The Adelle Family!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
Maybe they seem a lil' spooky!
And come off as a bit kooky!
But they've an inner beauty!
The Adelle Family!
If you see them in assembly!
Come on and be friendly!
And give them an entry!
The Adelle Family!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
Snap! Snap!
If they seem a lil' odd!
At home or abroad!
Just know to applaud!
The Adelle Family!
If you're around Maison!
And need a bed rest on!
Then just know to call on!
"Honey!" The skeletons stopped in their song, returning to their normal positions as the Castle's master briskly moved down the hall. "I finally found that old book! You wouldn't believe where I found it! It was under the webs in Homer's nest! Ah, I must have forgotten it when I was reading it last week to him!" He let of his voice fading as he walked down the hall, a door shutting behind him. Soon the skeletons who started looked out and once sure it was clear, he finished the song he started.
The Adelle Family!
Snap! Snap!
[-]
The Following Day
Primus City
Within the Domus Regulae
Grave huffed as he stopped at the life sized statue before the Domus Regulae, crossing his arms as a soft breeze blew along an otherwise bright day. The Domus Regulae was the center of the Geofu government; where the High Governor, High General and High Councilor would work, coordinate and debate. The building was a crescent shaped building with many columns holding up the roof beyond the footprint of the first floor. In the middle of it was a ten story tall keep; hosting records, offices and it's own elite guard for the rulers. Surrounding the Domus Regulae was a circular wall without towers but it still allowed guards to patrol them on the top. None patrolled the top of the walls at the moment; the guard assumed it was a waste of time and resources on men who could be patrolling for crime. With no current unrest in the city Grave agreed that it was a good idea.
The brass statue was of a six foot even woman holding a two handed sword with one hand, resting the flat of the blade on her shoulder, wild, neck length hair hanging down. In her other hand, one end resting on the ground and the other in her hand was a long bow. The woman herself wore fur trimmed leather boots and bracers, her body clad in fur trimmed, bikini like metal armor holding in B-Cup breasts and a single circlet around her head with a jewel set to it's center. Resting on her right shoulder was the upper half of a bear's skull, acting like a pauldron and at her back was a quiver of arrows. The plaque set to the statues base both identified the woman and imprinted to the reader a piece of her philosophy.
The best warriors know their limitations
and are not afraid to ask others for help.
The best rulers know when they know
nothing and will ask to be taught.
The best leaders know they must allow
another to take point and be the guide.
The best of us know humility.
Sheila the Huntress of the Wilds
Founder of Geofu
"Know weakness, is more like it." He huffed out softly to himself. Really, rather then consolidate power into a single, competent ruler under one crown she divided into three parts and into the hands of three people who could bicker and back-stab each other. It was stupid and silly.
Really, 'Varro' regardless of what faults the man had and his rather strange idea of a 'cuntry' (As interesting and tempting as it was) he understood how important it was to centralize power to instill discipline, order and power. And if his empire fell short of expectations...
Well, he could deal with it. He might have lost their spar but he didn't go all out either... Nor did his opponent he was sure. But Grave didn't reach his old age as a front-line general without a few surprises and trump cards of his own. He chuckled for a moment before hearing his new voxlux ping, pulling it from his pocket. "Answer." He let off as Lorcan's face was projected over the device. "Speak." He let off, is a low growl.
"Well, happy to see you too." Lorcan let off as Grave glanced about. No one was close by; the nearest was the two guards by the gate insuring no unwanted troublemakers walked onto the grounds of the Domus Regulae. "We ended up stopping in Hakla Castle for a night." Grave winced.
"My condolences." Grave let off with a sigh. While he always saw mages as lesser then warriors he was not unaware of exceptions to such rules. Baron Blake von Adelle was such an exception to that, and many other, rules. If there was one magic using egghead he wouldn't cross lightly it was him.
"On the bright side, we got one good thing from it." Lorcan said as the retired general looked about. He was still tired from the ordeal in the tower, but was somewhat recovered from it. "Blake commented on the voxlux. He said that the spell in the thing reached 'far up'." He said as Grave hummed. "I dunno what it means, and it's all I overheard but it's something..."
"Hmmm, I don't understand it myself, but I will forwards it. Take your rest." Grave said with a huff. "After dealing with the Adelles I'm sure you've earned it. Com End." He said turning the device off without another word. "Hmmm..."
Of course he didn't know what it meant either. It could mean nothing. It could mean something. It could mean everything. He was not that well educated on magic beyond it's military applications and enchanting was something he knew less of beyond 'make thing do more thing'. On the other hand he was well aware of how important these communicators were, and how important cracking and making their own was.
"I wonder boy... Will your defenses hold? Or shall they crack before long?" Grave sneered as he turned on his heel. His eyes darted to the side as he felt a presence but otherwise made no change in his motion. He was not surprised that someone was watching him; his conversation was low enough in volume to go unheard from the distance of him and his follower.
He or she was good, he'd admit. He lost track of his tail now and then, even. A Blackwatch agent, he was sure. Not that it would matter.
He had his ways to operate even under their noses.
After all soldiers could be foolish or old, but never both.
[ - Author's Note - ]
I wonder why I try and do songs in this fic... I mean marching and campfire songs would be expected in various cultures, but now I went and made a whole, god damned theme tune! I'm not that musical a person... I really should stop that...
Regardless, yes House Adelle is based on the Adams Family, although I doubt I managed to capture the same creepy charm in full. It was mostly meant to be more fun, so I hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know what you think; could I have done better? Did you enjoy it?
Anyway, next chapter will be in Sual and then Forestside for a more carnal type of fun. As always give me some feedback! Give me praise! Give me criticism! Give me an honest opinion!
And see you all next time!
~Eostian Scribe