... 'til somebody loses an eye

Auriel

I looked down at the shirtless orc in my lap, gently running my fingers through his hair. He only had a single strip of it, starting at the center of his forehead, along where a normal person's hairline would normally start, and it to the nape of his neck. I'd undone the wrap that kept it in a tight bun on the back of his head, and learned that it was surprisingly long when he let it down. 

It came down just past his shoulders. His skin was mostly grey, except where it was marred by one surprisingly extensive red tattoo, and a shocking number of scars. Looking at them, I wondered how he'd got them, tracing them with a finger as I tried to think of what weapons had made each. 

We had made it back to the large cavern, and were now waiting on Alcor to wake up. He'd been unconscious for hours now, and we'd had to drag him back here- not an easy feat for us three smaller elfinoids. He was far larger and heavier than he looked, and once we cut away his shirt to check on what the demon did to him, well... he was far more muscled as well. I was confused at first, since I could see how oddly mal-formed his muscles were, but then I got an unexpected explanation from Stephan. 

It seemed like Alcor's charisma never fully developed for whatever reason, leaving him less well-shaped than most of his race, and it also meant he'd never actually been trying to seduce me... he would've known he had no chance of success and given up before he started. Which meant that every single imagined offense- every time he'd been unnecessarily kind or understanding, or adorably naive... It had all been real. 

I blushed as I realized I was about to stop tracing scars on his arms and move on to his chest. I huffed, crossing my arms and looked at the pedestal, refusing to look at him anymore. I was an elf, after all... my parent's had taught me from a very young age that children of parents who mixed between races never did well- they rarely found people that were willing to marry them, and for more complex reasons, often ended up dying without any children. 

No, I was an elf... I couldn't afford to end my line just because some bumbling, baboonish... adorably nice orc happened to have a crush on me... I closed my eyes, breathing in and then out, trying to think of what Ashera would want. I had too low of a faith score to understand her will, lower by far than the average elf, and ashamedly unimpressive in general. 

No, I wasn't the most religious elf, but I was obedient and thoughtful despite that. I looked at Alcor again, biting my lip nervously. I'd finally cleaned up, blushing and praying he wouldn't wake up the entire time and thinking the heavens that he didn't, but part of me wished he would. Part of me wanted someone like him to love me, and to both take care of me, and let me take care of him. 

Admittedly I didn't want to be in charge alone, I was more...  looking for a partnership. something equal between me and my lover. Alcor would give me that, I knew, but... to go against the wishes and teachings of my parents, family, and society in general? I just wished Ashera would give me some sign- anything to make my choice... easier... 

Pausing, I looked back at him. I nervously reached into his bag, easily finding and pulling out a necklace with a white and green gem. I looked at it, considering what exactly I was doing. This was an item- and home-made item. There was no way that... someone with the ability to be influenced by his own god would be influenced by another? What was I thinking... there was every chance. 

I carefully looked around the gem, finding a sharp section and cutting my thumb on it- pressing some of my blood onto the gem before carefully placing it around his neck. The gem managed to end up magically in the center of his chest, and... it glowed softly. Not brightly enough to be my goddess telling me I needed to be with him, but... enough that I knew I could. She would approve of it if I chose this. 

I groaned, covering my eyes- until Alcor moaned in pain. I looked up, startled. I quickly knelt by his side again, shaking him gently and sucking in a nervous, worried breath. He was a good friend after all, and I didn't want him gone. 

"Alcor? Are you alright?" One eye opened, and... it was a demon's eye? I blinked, backing up and sucking in a breath as he chuckled, sitting up and then groaning. The necklace had stopped glowing, but... a small mark was on his skin, red like it had been burned. 

"Holy artifacts... Don't kill him yet, please. I promise I can explain, and you won't disapprove. Much." His voice was deeper, and much much sexier than Alcor's, making me uncomfortable. I hated that sound coming out of his mouth... I nodded, giving him the chance, though barely. I didn't think I could make myself hurt Alcor, even if he was possessed...

"I'm not really here inside of him. Well... I kind of am. I didn't want to leave the world again, so I decided to cut a deal with this little ranger you see. I would help him, and he would help me. Of course, he was blacking out and dying at the time, so he couldn't really think well enough to say no. The point is, I'll be nothing more than a mark and an enchantment soon- one that let's him choose where his charisma points go, instead of forcing him to accept them being randomly assigned to his speech or appearance. He'll also start naturally gaining Charisma every year again- for as long as he lives. 

"I'll extend his life as well, so he'll live longer than normal. And if by some miracle he actually has any children, they'll be born with this nice little tattoo and me in them too. I won't ever have to die again... and none of them will have to worry about being low on charisma. Don't you want that for this poor fellow? He's been in love with you for quite some time now after all..." He smiled. 

The demon smiled in a way that would've looked sexy on anyone else, but... with Alcor, it just looked like he was in pain. Or lonely. I glanced at the eyes around his neck, and the glowing was still gone, but... I could see the heatwaves coming from it. It was a holy item, but Ashera's power wouldn't touch it right now. That meant she didn't want Alcor dead, or the demon exorcised. 

"Go ahead, just make me a promise that you won't be able to control him or his children in any way once you're done." The demon blinked, then seemed to soften, his eyes slowly fading back into Alcor's and his face slowly going slack. "I promise, elf..." Alcor passed out again, and I caught him this time. Demon's couldn't break their promises, so I wasn't worried. 

I touched Alcor's face, looking at the eye as it started glowing again. I hugged the sleeping man, feeling deeply worried about him. Who knew how painful these next few years would be...? His next birthday was only a few months away. What would gaining a charisma point to to him on that day...?

I sighed, shaking my head. I'd give him the chance when he woke up... unless he made me lose my decorum, and my elegance. I was, after all, an elf- I had some standards I had to uphold no matter what. We were the eldest race, so we had to set the example for all of the other ones. Especially those who were born closer to or in the human era. 

Even if that meant we came off as cold and self-important to the other races...

___

Valentine

Valentine examined the pedestal, reading through the various languages present and sighing as she did so. The spell-work was utterly unfamiliar, and it was so faint she could only barely glimpse it now and then. She'd never seen a spell woven so chaotically before... like it had been pushed into the right shape by sheer will alone, without proper words to help shape it. The whole thing reeked of something powerful and young, something this world hadn't seen before. that worried her. 

Stephan was still exploring the place, and had found a few things hidden throughout it. Mostly just rusty, ancient seeming weapons- though what race had welded weapons shaped so oddly was beyond either of us. It must've been a race from before even the elves... though why no-one had found this place until now was something I didn't understand. Maybe... maybe it needed a dungeon core and had been hiding until it got a new one... that would be mildly terrifying. Though... a more important question was: what kind of core did they have?

It was mostly green and blue- a gorgeous color that was the base for a coastal core, or a forest core. Usually they were pretty exclusive, and this core had a shade of green so uniquely alive that she was certain it represented something other than forest. What, though, she didn't know. She had to study more...

But that wasn't it. No. It was marbled with streaks of gold and red! Gold appeared exclusively in celestial cores, and red appeared exclusively in demonic cores. To see both implied it was both, but that wasn't possible- the sources of magic were so opposite that they'd completely destroy each other, like combining matter and anti-matter. Which, interestingly enough, was exactly what one spell she knew did in order to cause it's explosive effect. 

How this little orb of sentient magic could somehow do the impossible implied that something she didn't understand had made it possible. She considered the green color, guessing that that majority, just might be the trick to solving this puzzle. Light green, like a forest. Like the magical forest above their heads... But what could it represent? 

She sighed, looking over at Stephan, who had appeared from seemingly no-where. He smiled at her, holding up what looked like a tablet that was half destroyed. The grin on his face and the roguish twinkle of his eyes just screamed 'look what I found' in the most annoyingly cute way she'd ever seen. He handed it to her, smiling and waiting. 

She sighed, inspecting it and slowly managing to translate the words. "To... the god of seas and moon, who... our ships sail and harvests... and keeps the endless void at bay. To An... lover, and sister of... who warms the sky with light. May... bones." She blinked, grimacing in confusion. 

"I believe that you found a prayer. Neither of their gods names are still intact, though this female one might still have threads of worship going on somewhere... Where did you find this?" Val looked up at Stephan, The poor man smiling at her attention as if he had won the lottery. She almost felt bad about how reliant he was on her attention... 

"I found it in a chest- one that was hidden in the ceiling, I-" Val cut him off. 

"On the ceiling?? What made you go up there!?" She stood, the core clutched tight in her hand as she started looking him over. He was like the little brother she'd never had, and she'd die if something were to happen to him...

He blushed, holding up his hands and chuckling. "I'm fine- I thought I saw some fairies near the ceiling. You know, the kind that make a ton of Wistlins Ash. I know how useful that stuff is in potion making, so I figured I might be able to collect some. I doubt they were fairies, though- they were too big. I could see them from the base of the wall. they would have to be massive fae if that were the case." He shook his head. 

Val blinked, looking at him. "Could... could you explain what a fae is...?" What would that word have to do with fairies? Stephan seemed to think for a minute before he answered, confused and not really sure why she wanted to know. He answered though. 

"You do know that most fairy tales call the fairies Fae, right? As well as anything that originated in the Fae-wilds? Satyrs, Centaurs, fairies, dryads, elves-" Val cut him off there, her eyes widening at a memory.

"Elves? As in, like... like Auriel?" Stephan nodded, confused. Val looked down, her mind racing. "Larger than normal fairies, an elf sensing the forest had a familiar magic that didn't belong to her goddess, ancient magic and gods from before the arrival of the elves..." She stared at the core in her hands, the green finally clicking. "Stephan, this is something the other's should be around to hear. I think I know what this mysterious little orb is..." The thought that she might be right terrified her, but...

If she was right, then she might have just made her great, great, great grandfather proud- no one had ever deduced things the way Sherlock Holmes had, thanks to his ungodly amount of points in wisdom and intelligence- and he'd built those up! He'd never joined the guild or even used his status page knowingly- he'd just practiced like a madman and worked for every point he'd gained. 

Thanks to him, the world knew that points earned through hard work, were far more effective than ones gained from leveling up, and human's knew that even they could outdo the other races when it came to feats of science and technology. After all, they'd always done well in those fields- and now she, Valentine Pyre, was about to state a discovery that just might change the world. She looked at Alcor's dungeon core and smiled, tracing the patterns across it's faintly warm crystalline body. "I wonder what a Fae core is doing so far from the Fae-wilds..." 

She'd thought those realms were fairy tales, but if she was right about this core, well... there were suddenly both more dangerous things in this world than the other races, and the world and it's peoples had an entire other realm or more to start exploring. Who knew what might be hiding in those wilds? 

The thought was exciting, downright dangerous, and tantalizingly intriguing. Imagining that- a human witch helping to lead the effort to explore a new, dangerous world and realm... she almost started to cry as she mentally prayed it would be enough to help the races forgive her people, and slowly start giving more of them the chance to level. Honestly, it was such a waste of a potentially great resource... human's could do so much good. 

Though, she had to admit, history had proved that human's were pretty awful, it was better than what sometimes happened... what had happened to her sister. That girl had been another Sherlock, and... well, Sherlock had been famous enough that the other races had a term for it. A 'Sherlockian' human. And they not only had potential, they were were very large batteries of unused, unusable magical power. Unless you could level, a human wizard had to start learning below a certain level of intelligence or risk death. 

She'd always hated the demi-human's for what they'd done.