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I hope this letter finds you well. I would like to formally invite you to visit Paradise when you have the time. It's become quite busy around here – busy enough for exodii to start servicing it, on occasion. The portal to/from Hespæria is scheduled for the 50th at noon, if you'd like to come. I can't promise a peaceful vacation, as we've been dealing with a lot of wyverns from the desert, but it should be a good time nonetheless."
That was the letter that would arrive to Velho's business a few days before the 50th of Spring. It was a bit later than Caelum would have liked, but Paradise had stalled in growth due to the numerous construction projects that made its leadership focus on building instead of recruitment. It was finally at what he would consider a 'presentable' state. Far from being finished, but he doubted the construction would ever truly stop.
Själasalr received all sorts of mail, and not all of it useful. Much of the letters the business received were inquiries about services and the like, and as such, the first person to see any given thing was a particular sveinn, whose job it was to sift through such things. One Velho trusted, too, as some of the deliveries could be, at times, questionable. Nevertheless, she was a bit surprised when Cælum's letter arrived as, generally, the boy only received correspondence from his kin or what few Fælnir friends he kept meager contact with– the return address made her raise a brow. Still, she gave it to him all the same, not particularly interested in his affairs.
And when Æhti read it, he was delighted by the invitation; he had wanted to visit Paradise for a while now, curious as he was about what exactly the place Cælum had built was like. He could only wonder how any settlement built onto the edge of the Veiðrbrand managed to function, but he supposed it was doable– the ælves just didn't bother, in part, because they oft preferred the path of least resistance. And given how vast Ælheim actually is, they preferred to make their settlements in climbs with far less conflagration.
As per the letter, he sought out the Exodii, unsure what to expect upon arrival. The mage made the portal, and through it he went. Æhti figured he ought to seek out Cælum before wandering around too much on his own.
The portal would lead AEhti and a dozen or so women to the gates of Paradise. The gates and wall were a strange mesh of aetumetal, not dissimilar to the design used for the felinog's enclosure… though it was much bigger – being a part of Caelum's grove made it much easier to make them so.
It'd be simple enough making it inside. The gate guard would have told him where to find Caelum – in the big ol' sequoia at the center of town. It was impossible to miss.
In any case, AEhti would find that most of the women would glance at him. Whether they fancied him or not, they would still take an interest in a man being present. Especially one that was relatively young and clearly not a laborer.
Caelum would be outside the sequoia, right at the entrance. He'd be leaning against the door frame sifting through some papers he'd been handed, trying to make sense of them.
Æhti was, to an extent, aware of the goings on within Paradise. This was both in part from conversations with Cælum himself as well as overhearing things from Själasalr's clientele and staff– still, he was a bit surprised to be accompanied by a gaggle of girls on his way in. It made him wonder; what was the death rate of folks here? Did Cælum really need to continuously refresh the populace in this fashion, or was the dragon simply succumbing to his species' nature and hoarding the women? Perhaps he'd ask more about how things worked here later on.
Given the warmer climes of Veiðrbrand, too, Æhti had dressed relatively light, wearing a sleeveless tunic dyed an earth sort of deep red, almost brown, loose, charcoal colored braies, and dark leather boots– all of which looked fairly high quality, but were clearly more function over form. Still, the cut and fit of his clothing was enough to show off his well built upper body, though this was not purposeful on his end.
As he walked with the group through the gate, he didn't say much. He didn't know what, if anything, would be useful to say, really, because he wasn't sure if he ought to treat these women as he did Fælnir owned by Æld'Norai– as property of their master– or as the individuals they were, since he wasn't sure how Cælum viewed his, er…flock…outside of Abraia, at least. Still, if any of them acknowledged him, he was friendly enough. Some caught his eye more than others, but he was certainly wary of taking an interest in anyone whose fate was entwined with Paradise– plus, it felt delusional to fancy anyone at the moment, given his circumstances.
Following the guard's instructions, finding Cælum was, indeed, a simple affair; Paradise's center sequoia was far from difficult to find.
As he approached the man-shaped dragon, "...what've you got there?" he asked, slightly nosy, referring to the papers the other was leafing through.
Caelum ignored the words at first, not even registering that they were for him until he realized how odd it was for him to hear a male voice. He looked up and a broad smile spread across his face. "AEhti! How are ya? I'm glad to see you decided to pay us a visit!"
Then, his eyes turned back to the papers. "It's a report… a disturbing one from one of the few aelves that spend some time in the area. It describes flesh beasts in the area west of here that have been moving towards town. I have no clue how big the threat actually is or what a flesh beast's capabilities are… but I assume that if they're giving me forewarning then it must be somewhat serious."
He sighed. Of course he would get this news when he had company. The wyverns were also a threat, but those were easy to spot long before they flew from the desert. He continued, "But that can wait. With any luck they won't bother us during your stay. I'm uh, not that used to hosting people but if you wanted to eat or make arrangements to stay the night I can help arrange that… and if you were hoping to find a wife, I'm sure there's plenty of pretty ladies who would be more than happy to make your acquaintance."
Caelum hadn't considered it when the idea for Paradise popped into his head, but there were quite a few men and aelves alike who viewed this place as a prime location to find a beautiful and easily manipulated human woman. The dragon didn't particularly like their requests, but sometimes the money was too good to ignore… quite literally as it was expensive to run this operation. Not that he had any intention of charging AEhti.
Æhti frowned at the mention of 'fleshbeasts.' He'd never heard of such a thing in his young life, which was fair, given the rarity of such monstrosities. In all likelihood, most Æld'Norai younger than a few centuries or living more epicurean lives outside of governance or power positions would've met the term with the same level of confusion. For on Antarok, such creatures tended to congregate in the frozen wastes of the north where the gaping maw of Pelezotz's decaying demesne hung open. It was nigh unheard of for them to appear anywhere else– once word spread, surely, this would become a matter of national concern within Ælheim rather quickly.
"What…exactly does the report mean by 'fleshbeasts' … ?" Æhti queried, his face just as confused as his voice.
"Velho said I could stay for a while…said he'll be busy with…something…and won't want to be disturbed anyways," he continued, "...might as well stay long enough to ensure such monstrosities won't cause you too much trouble. I imagine you've security of your own, but I'd be happy to help ease their burden."
But when Cælum mentioned the prospect of him potentially finding a partner here, the young man's features reddened and his expression made him look far more boyish than before.
"Um…maybe. I…lack much charisma when it comes to, uh-...flirting," he stammered in response. Poor Æhti– for this was true, he was dismal at affairs of the heart, regardless of whether the target of his affections were man or woman.
But on the horizon, the sky began to dim– an eerie darkness starting to creep in. And though for now all remained quiet, the tension in the atmosphere would gradually rise, confusion begetting paranoia.
He said, "I honestly don't know. Maybe they thought I would know what it meant, but nothing comes to mind. We run into so much bullshit out this way that it's hard to judge whether something's an issue or not. If nothing attacks us then I suppose I'll have to go do some scouting to judge the threat on my own."
He sighed, clearly unhappy with how much work he had to set aside to keep this place safe. "My security is not as strong as you might expect. We keep this place 'safe' but in some ways it feels like we're one bad day away from everything going up in flames." He had an incredibly 'powerful' defense force but it was led by someone who didn't know a lick about guarding things properly. He and his squad were more likely to do more damage than good if things got serious. The only reason they were even around was because Caelum didn't think he could get rid of them if he wanted to.
He smirked when the man mentioned his lack of skills when it came to flirting. "Well, there's no better place to practice." He stretched, wondering if he ought to press or not. He added, "most people who came here just want a decent life and are more than happy to commit, whether it be to an idea, a man, or whatever. So long as you can reasonably promise a safe and comfy life I think you won't have much trouble. Whether you think you can provide that, I suppose something else entirely."
He scowled at the horizon. "Alright, say I hired you as a security consultant. What would you do about that?"
Abraia barged out of the big door to the sequoia with an annoyed look on her face.
"Cae, what are you doing? There's two dozen women upstairs waiting for you. They've been yapping and yapping away. It's driving me mad!"
She stopped when she saw Aehti. She did remember wanting to invite him but she didn't recall Cae telling her. If he had been so kind then she would have been prepared to see him.
"And you, what are you doing here? Is there a problem?"
She calmed herself a little because she had sounded much too rude. She liked to see new faces that weren't part of the endless sea of women.
"Sorry, I meant that to come out a lot less aggressively. I'm glad you're visiting."
She went back through the door to make sure it was known that she and Cae would be unavailable while they had a guest.
The color that had risen in Æhti's cheeks began to drain once he noticed the sky's shift. He looked around, as if checking to make sure what was happening wasn't imagined.
"Whatever this is, it's no natural weather pattern– you've secure enough borders, yes? Close them– call to have everyone inside, and then lock down further; if you care at all for the civilians, corral them into whatever buildings are most secure. I can't help but think this is related to those strange reports of–" the young man appeared to function quite a bit better under stress than he did in most other circumstances, but was cut off when Abraia made her appearance.
Æhti tried to give her a friendly smile, though his features were marked with concern. "...did you hear any of that? Unfortunate timing, but something strange is happening–" he gestured to the sky, now sickly gray in color.
"Neither Cælum nor I know what this is and I'm not sure there'll be enough time to wait for any aid from the Æld'Norai– can you help ensure the safety of civilians?" He spoke gravely, much as he wished he didn't have to.
The Galsterei wished he'd not come unarmed, but he hadn't imagined he'd be fighting anything for this particular trip. And, he supposed his magic alone would likely serve well enough– at least Abation was good for keeping things away from both the sorcerer and his allies.
His gaze shifted back to Cælum once Abraia went back inside. "Who is actually in charge of your security? We should meet up with them and prepare for whatever comes next."
By now, the sky had darkened completely; looming over Paradise were pernicious, inky black clouds. In all likelihood, Cælum's citizenry would rapidly begin to panic unless something was done to protect them and soothe their fears.
Caelum picked up on AEhti's change of tone and he adopted a worried look. "You're making this sound like a pretty big deal. Secure borders? There's the wall, which isn't infallible. There's only the one gate, which I suppose we could get closed."
"Who's in charge? Some gnoll and his lackeys. I'm fairly certain the boss is out and to be quite honest, his subordinates are kind of useless. It's a long story. So security wise, it's just me. I can do a lot since this is technically my grove, but if you're worried about a larger threat, I'm probably not going to be enough."
"Abraia, be a dear and go spread the word for everyone to get indoors and prepare for the worst."
He sighed, turning back to AEhti, "what strange reports were you talking about? I know there's supposed to be a lot of bad stuff out this way but we haven't experienced anything that could wipe this town off the map yet."
"I heard a little but I got the main point. Get everyone inside, I'll make it so. As for defenses, we have basically none. The wall keeps most things out. I fear getting people inside will not be enough. Damn it I knew we should have hired a portal mage to help with evacuation."
"Where are you two going to be? I may want to meet back up with you later. I don't have many spells in my book but I might be able to help."
Abraia hurried past the two and started shouting orders. She was not particularly skilled as a leader but she knew how to be loud and demanding, if that counted.
A handful of women went to go spread the word across the town. It would take a while for the message to spread. It was not a place set up to be able to deliver news quickly. Abraia also went to try finding Sjal. If there was a fight then they might need her help.
"Well…I don't know what 'fleshbeasts' are so we might as well prepare for anything if they've been spotted in the vicinity and now, ah…" Æhti gestured at the caliginous sky, somewhat distressed, "...whatever this is."
"I just think it'd be prudent to err on the side of caution," he finished before allowing Cælum to continue.
The young Galsterei listened as the dragon explained the markedly haphazard security situation, eyes widening in apparent bewilderment.
"Gnolls? Why? Of all the…" he trailed off, clearly disapproving of such a choice. "No matter– there isn't time to ask about that right now," he continued, shaking his head.
"But in that case, all we can do is just make sure all the exits are sealed, keep your civilians inside, and wait for either the sky to clear or for something else to come," this time, he nodded at Cælum's words to Abraia– if she could do that, then he and the dragon could keep their focus on making sure whatever came next didn't raze the Grove itself.
"And I just meant the reports you mentioned about fleshbeasts. Anything else, I wouldn't know– it isn't as if I'm privy to Æld'Norai scouting reports or the like and Velho doesn't tell me anything he doesn't think I need to know." Æhti sounded somewhat annoyed, but restrained– as if resigned to the fact that most important information would always flow above his station. "...nor have I heard much beyond social gossip of late from his staff."
And to Abraia, "we'll sweep the perimeter and then meet back up with you here, using the main sequoia as a centerpoint. If we don't show up, I suppose you can come looking for us wherever a commotion may be– but uh…hopefully there won't be one," he said, though his optimism was unconvincing.
However, as they talked, the sky's inky blackness almost appeared to begin to descend upon Paradise. Not only did it snuff out all natural light, but a fog was starting to manifest; thick, black, and almost opaque, clouds of darkness started to set upon the settlement like a heavy curtain. Even standard fire struggled to penetrate the darkness, though surely, Luxium would still fare just fine.
In the distance, a thud shook the ground and a woman's scream pierced the air. Wrapped in shadow, it was impossible to see what had happened. However, if one paid attention to the direction and proximity of the sounds, whatever it was had occurred not that far away; only some distance to the left.
Not wanting to waste time, Æhti set off running into the darkness, muttering a few words of an incantation to harden his skin into myrksteinn. He didn't know if that would truly help, but something was better than nothing.
Caelum didn't know how to properly explain the gnoll situation – the only way to justify his choice was to have AEhti meet Lakali as that alone would probably make sense of it all. But the human was right, this wasn't the time.
He'd nod at AEhti's words, knowing that he was making logically correct suggestions. "There's really only one entrance and I'm sure they'll close it way before Abraia gets there. The rest is just a big aetumetal wall. Damn, it's getting dark."
Caelum spit out a couple intense globs of light that would act like as powerful torches. He'd offer one to AEhti and keep one for himself. They weren't as strong as he would have liked them to be, but he was wary about using too much aether so early on.
He felt his body lift into the air slightly as they sped along, pausing slightly when he heard the scream. "So, I guess they made it inside," he'd say nervously, "I don't suppose you know what these things are weak to, do you? And why is it that every time there's trouble I'm in my human form? So annoying."
The scream didn't last very long. When their lights were able to illuminate the scene they would see a trail of blood and strips of flesh on the ground, leading behind a tree. The unmistakable sound of someone being eaten was clearly audible. There was also a scraping sound behind one of the nearby buildings – something was trying to get in.
"I'll get that one," he said as he zipped around behind the building and didn't know what to think about what he saw. A creature unlike any he'd ever seen before stood before him with weapons and appendages that didn't make any sense. If he even had a weapon on him he wouldn't even know where to stab it. He let loose a small jet of flames that set it on fire which made it writhe and melt into a bubbling pool of flesh that smelled god awful.
Abraia ran around shouting for people to get inside. After some time her words were unnecessary. People scurried like cockroaches when the darkness set in and for good reason. Something was amiss. Her spellbook was by her side but her reservoir of spells was pathetic. She deserved it for spending all her money on stupid things that the village needed.
She made it to the gate but it was already closed. She made it in time to see the portal magician hurry a handful of ladies back through the portal before leaving as well. Rumor of what was happening here would be known to the outside world in minutes. Whether help would come, who knew?
She doubted many mages had been to this location so it wasn't like an army could be sent to defend the town even if the elves wanted to defend it. Abraia heard a scream and went towards it against her thoughts to flee.
Æhti had wanted to ask if Cælum could offer the two of them something akin to a torch, but he wasn't sure in what manner he would make this manifest. Truthfully, his education about Luxium as a Metaphor was somewhat lacking– he didn't realise that hardlight would not harm them if touched, and since neither of them were carrying suitable torches, he'd assumed they were out of luck in that regard. As such, he was somewhat surprised when the dragon crafted and then offered the strangely shaped torch to him. Outwardly, however, he expressed relief. Wandering around in the dark was certainly not an enticing idea, especially under sinister circumstances such as these.
"I'm glad you're able to make something to help us wade through this darkness– we're lucky that you Govern Luxium, huh?" Æhti remarked as he accepted the makeshift torch, his resolve appearing to be bolstered somewhat.
That was when the scream pierced the air's relative silence, and both he and Cælum began to move. "Might've been able to teleport? Or fly…" he commented about the fact that something had made it past the wall. "...but I've not a clue about weaknesses, if any at all."
While now was not really the time for such musings, Æhti couldn't help but wonder aloud, "you think you'll be able to use your Seeming to shift from human to dragon eventually?"
After he asked that, the two of them came upon the trail of blood and viscera left by the unfortunate soul that had first come across the creatures. Sounds from behind the tree– the snapping, crunching of bones, gnashing of teeth and wet tearing of meat and sinew– pulled his gaze away as Cælum began to chase after another thing that lurked behind a nearby building. In turn, he moved, very much aware he couldn't save the one being eaten, but he could at least stop the thing from consuming more of the dragon's hoard.
The creature that Cælum approached first was a small, fleshy abomination about the size of a small dog. It was as if somebody had combined a tick with a bat; it had six small, protruding insect-like legs connected by a thin layer of skin that enabled it to fly, fluttering before him in a jerky, unnatural fashion. It did not remain airborne for long, however, as the dragon's immediate response to its presence was to burn it to crisp. It writhed as an insect would in the sun beneath a spyglass before finally dying in a heap of burnt, melted meat.
Æhti, however, was left to approach a much mightier monster. He moved slowly, as silently as he could manage, towards the tree– but he wasn't quite quiet enough. The sick song of consumption abruptly stopped and the beast's shambling quickly replaced it as it emerged from the other side of the tree, throwing the mangled corpse of its victim off to the side. The thing was easily fifteen feet tall, more than twice the height of both Æhti and Cælum. It appeared to be a horrible marriage of many bodies, all twisted and warped into one monster. The mouths of its many faces seemed to moan as it moved, each vestigial limb twitching in turn.
Its main four limbs, however, were about as thick as logs, and adorning the ends of the arms were two long, bony spikes, one per limb. The young mage did not wait to react, forming an icicle through Cryomancy in his free hand and then throwing it at the thing as he turned to run back towards his companion.
"Cælum! Over here!" He yelled, unsure how well his magic would even work on it.
Were Abraia to also follow the sound of the scream, she would happen upon the site shortly. Depending on her approach, she'd be able to see Æhti confronting the monster whilst managing to escape its notice.
Caelum had chuckled and said, "I've had little regrets as to what I govern. Luxium has never done me wrong."
"Hmm, well, the wall has gaps in it, kind of like the felinog enclosure. It's just that I figured nothing all that big could fit through them. If a creature had the ability to become fluid-like, like a slime… they would not have much issue, I think." The thought of going up against something like that irked him.
"That's actually not a bad idea. I could stay in my dragon form and then shape shift to a regular man… except that I wish to only reproduce in my form. So I suppose it would make more sense for me to stay in my normal human form and assume the form of another dragon. That would probably make more sense." He didn't know if that was how genetics worked, he'd just assumed. "In any case, my goal is to get better at shifting using grist. It should be possible… I'm just not there yet."
Caelum quickly flew back to the sounds of AEhti running. His torch illuminated a creature that was far bigger than it had any right to be. "What in the…" Caelum started as he stared at it. What the hell was he supposed to do against that?
"You know how to efficiently take these things down?" Caelum called down to AEhti below him. "Or should I roast it?" His mouth was already glowing, and out from it shot a handful of hardlight spikes meant to pin the bottom parts of its body to the ground to give them some breathing room.
Abraia saw a light and then two as she kept going. She tried not to pay attention to the unsettling texture of the ground beneath her feet. It was wet in some places despite not having rained in ages. She saw the monster and feinted.
She woke on the ground a minute later with the taste of blood in her mouth. She struggled to her feet and pressed on. She didn't know what else to do.
Another light. It had to be hard light, she concluded. That meant Cae was nearby and probably Aehti. She watched the spikes of light come and then she made herself known.
"Can we fight this thing?"
She shouted as she ran towards them.
"I think we need to gather everyone and run before it kills us all!"
One creature was bad enough but she had a feeling there were a lot more around. The skies didn't darken for no reason.
The icicle Æhti had thrown pierced the creature in the shoulder, causing it to roar in fury– but this did not appear to slow it down at all.
Trying to suppress his rising panic, "I-...I've never seen anything like this before!" Faintly, his voice wavered.
"Try and burn it, yeah! I'll try to keep it from attacking us," he blurted out.
And not wanting to waste time, the words that followed that sentiment were a mellifluous incantation rather than anything coherent. The creature's movements appeared to slow as Æhti stepped back, though the angry beast, apparently, was resisting him and fighting through it.
He did hear Abraia's concern, too, but he didn't consider running to be an option. At least, not for Cælum– he doubted the dragon would ever consider abandoning all that he'd built. Especially so because it appeared that the women he'd gathered here were like a hoard to him, and, if he knew one thing about dragons, it was that they were very covetous of their hoards.
"We…we can kill it! Just don't get close to it at all!" he responded to Abraia, though he didn't dare turn his gaze away from the lumbering beast.
Given the relatively small battlefield they had between buildings, Æhti and Cælum were not far from one another. Though it appeared to be struggling due to the Galsterei's meddling, it was still able to raise one of its bony appendages and attempt a sweeping strike at both men. Æhti's reaction was to quickly harden his body to ice and absorb the blow, doubting he'd be able to dodge it. However, doing so didn't plant him in the ground, so his frozen form was knocked back and over as a result– Cælum would have to fend for himself for a moment while Æhti regained his bearings.
Caelum had been thinking about fleeing. Perhaps not from the town, but he didn't like the idea of attacking this thing head on. He feared its unsettling appearance and the fact that something so strange had made its way inside. It was only Abraia's presence that steeled him. If he ran, then he thought she was as good as dead.
"I'm seriously starting to doubt my decision to try making a settlement out here," Caelum said as gathered energy into his throat once more. He breathed a concentrated stream of fire at its center of mass while maintaining his distance from it in mid-air. He had no idea if it would be enough to kill the thing, though he was wary of spending all of his energy on a single foe.
"Fuck," he thought when he saw AEhti get hit. It seemed that now Caelum was the primary target. He maintained his stream of flames and flew back to a tree. Caelum would put his hand on a it and willed it to grow large, tendril like roots to wrap around its legs and feet. He had doubts about whether it would work, when their previous attempts at keeping it in place had failed, then again it didn't take much to make someone topple over.
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Abraia jumped out of the way of the flames that spread out from the impact. She felt so helpless, scared, useless. She ran to one of the nearby buildings and pounded on the door.
"Let me in!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Nobody responded. She swore and ran to another but the same thing happened. Were they all dead? Were they are too scared?
She saw Aehti's body fly past her. She ran over to him and tried to help him up.
"Come on you can't die here for nothing. Damn, where is that girl when you need her"
She kept thinking about Sjal who had magic that could help. She worried for her safety.
"Do you think the aelves will send help? I'm sure news is spreading that something is wrong here."
How serious the news would be taken was up for debate because it seemed the portal mage had not returned yet.
