The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Caeileera

I was relieved when we received an invitation from Nyx, as I was in the process of being demolished in a board game we were playing. Basically, you went around a hexagonal board and took over various towns on Andermon for your feudal territory. If you managed to take control of all the towns in a province, it became part of your demesne, and you could build various establishments on them to increase the fees other players had to pay for staying on them.

‘Ooof, that's going to be expensive,’ Ren laughed as the dice sent me to a field where she built an expensive bath complex just moments before.

I checked the fee and swore.

Six hundred Divines! That's most of my money!

I was terrible at the game, at least in comparison to Lilyth and Ren, though Aki quickly caught on and was starting to give the other two a run for their money.

That's the unfun version of being their bitch.

Deirdee was having moderately better luck. She was about as confused about the best strats as I was, but at least the dice didn't seem to hate her.

Why couldn't we play the card game where the loser strips again? At least losing is fun in that one.

Suddenly, Lilyth's gaze went vacant, and moments later she said:

‘Nyxie said that she had something fun to show the five of us.’

YES!

‘Five?’ Deirdee asked. ‘No Sav?’

‘Nyx didn't say. Not that she could come with us anyway, or likely doesn't have more important things to do.’

That was true. Sav was back in Ror-Bhyk helping the Children of Elements at their clinic. I asked whether I should help out too, but she said there would likely be work for me in Mer-Cas. At first, I was confused, but then I discovered that ice wasn’t just some spell effect and that it was quite effective at hurting people. Despite that, Eill, the village surgeon, requested my help very sparingly, citing the same argument as Jaeliar - I wasn't in the village permanently, so he didn't want to teach people to rely on me. He apparently had the same arrangement with Sav. The medic wasn't happy about it, but eventually agreed.

I had been called in three times so far - two complex fractures; a simple one, but the patient was a single mother of three; and a five-year-old with a broken skull. The realisation that without me the kid would die… seeing him run around the village as if nothing had happened just a few days later… it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

Still, we wouldn't leave Eill completely without aid if I had to suddenly leave, so, after I saved the boy, we donated some of our healing potions to him. He then revealed to me that he had his own small stash of them for cases just like the ones he had me handle and was very happy to get more, as those were always in short supply.

‘Why hide the fact you had them from me?’ I asked. ‘That would have made me less worried about not being fast enough.’

‘I am sorry,’ Eill said, ashamed. ‘But I was afraid you would refuse to help me.’

I was aghast at hearing that.

‘Why?’ I could only ask.

‘Because I was afraid you would view my requests as less urgent.’

I realised this is exactly what I would do, making me feel like a monster.

‘Do not feel bad, Miss Caeileera,’ he said, likely seeing it on my face. ‘It is a very mortal thing to think.’

As such, I was fairly okay with leaving Mer-Cas for a few days. I would just have to let Eill know I was leaving so he wouldn't have to waste time having someone go look for me.

‘I guess we’ll finish this later,’ Ren said, bringing my attention back to the game.

FUCK!

We emerged from the portal inside an unfamiliar place. It seemed to be an empty, large stone cottage rather than Nyx's palace. There were several bedrooms in it, one containing a suspiciously large bed, while the others had double beds. There was also a kitchen, bathrooms, a living room, and a small library.

‘Where the hell are we?’ Lilyth wondered out loud.

‘Welcome to Emerald Falls,’ Nyxie smiled. ‘A small town a few hundred kilometres away from the palace. They will be holding their annual harvest festival soon, and I thought you would like to take part in it. I may or may not have also invited special guests just for you guys. Well… mostly for Lilyth really, you’ll see why, but all of you will have a lot of fun with them.’

The town was absolutely stunning. As the name suggested, it was built at the base of a waterfall of clear green water. Lilyth muttered something about her, hoping it wasn't radioactive or “electrified toxic waste”, whatever either of those terms meant. Nyx threw her an amused look but said nothing.

Anyway, moving past Lilyth's particular brand of crazy, the houses looked shockingly normal - stone or wooden buildings mostly painted orange or very light purple, which made them go very well with the water and the grayish-white grass.

‘Huh,’ Deirdee said. ‘I expected this place to be in the clouds.’

‘Naaah,’ Nyx said. ‘We still have ground here. Sometimes I do bring people to the cloudy parts to fuck with them, though.’

She winked at Lilyth.

‘Something has been bugging me about that, actually,’ my Jelly said, ignoring Nyx’s jab. ‘What exactly IS the Realm of Air? Is it a planet? A disk floating in space? An infinite plain?’

‘Good question,’ Nyxie beamed. ‘One, I will actually reward with an answer since most people never think to ask that. It is closest to a continent, actually. Roughly the size of Eurasia on Terra. Other Realms exist on the same “planet”, with the Realm of Water between them, but also a continent of its own. Basically, my Realm is surrounded by water. If you get a certain distance from the shore, you will enter Irmi’s realm. But no matter where you are… You will enter on the edge of it, assigned to me. And if you return, you will do so at the point you left if you do so within a few hours. Otherwise, you enter at a predetermined point.’

That's… headache-inducing.

‘So I could go to R'as-T'uar’s realm from here?’ Deirdee asked.

‘Not directly,’ Nyx shook her head. ‘Air Fae don’t fare well there and vice versa. You would have to catch a second connection from any other Realm, or go through the Realm of Shadow, which runs beneath all. And since I haven't given you kids enough of a headache… The Realm of Shadows also has its port from which you can enter the Realm of Water.’

‘Or to simplify what this jackass is doing,’ Ereshkigal said, entering the cottage, ‘Four Realms, even Fire, have two Entry Points - one through the Realm of Water and one through the Realm of Shadow. Those two are connected to each other through Water. All realms, except Shadow, also have shores you can use to leave, and within a short period of time, return.’

Much clearer.

Ereshkigal was in her casual wear. A green hoodie with bunny ears, a leather skirt, thigh-high white-and-black socks and what Lilyth calls “sneakers”.

‘You are no fun, Ere,’ Nyx pouted.

‘They are my agents, and if I ever need them to do something here, I’d like them to be able to navigate.’

‘They would figure it out. Eventually.’

‘Yes. But I’d rather them not have to do so under the pressure of time. Knowing Lilyth, I’d rather not have her just wing it around these parts.’

‘Hey!’ my Jelly protested.

‘Sweetie, your latest instance of just making it up as you go, somehow resulted in you accidentally overthrowing a warlord. I mean, how the fuck…’

‘It was mostly Phosi,’ Lilyth said automatically.

‘As a reminder - you were the one who set up a meeting between Herlicht and her, not even considering the fact Phosi would have no interest in honouring any deals with a slaver.’

‘Umm… The whole thing was Persephone's fault, anyway.’

‘Yes. I am not sure Dwynveia will survive the two of you working together.’

Ereshkigal shook her head and continued.

‘And speaking of Persephone, I am here to congratulate all of you on a job very well done. This is a major victory, and she potentially will be a powerful ally. Well… At least you have lost a powerful enemy, as I am not sure even she knows whose side she will be on. And so… I think a reward is in order, and one that matches the victory, so I want to build you a proper base of operations.’

Damn. That sounds good.

Others seemed equally excited.

‘Now, the problem is the location,’ Ere said. ‘My original idea was to place it in the Realm of Shadows and get you a permanent portal to it; however, I realised that could have caused… trust issues.’

She looked at Lilyth.

‘I imagine Sav would have the same concerns,’ my Jelly shrugged.

‘What concerns?’ Aki asked.

‘That we could cut you off from it,’ Nyx supplied. ‘We would never do that, but…’

‘... the doubt would be there,’ Lilyth finished.

‘Yes,’ Ere confirmed. ‘Particularly since you just got enough ordnance to blow up half of Ror-Bhyk. Me swooping in and offering to store it outside of your immediate reach… would not be a good look.’

We all nodded.

‘As such, my solution is different. With your permission, Rennie, I want to excavate out and turn that dank cave of yours into a more proper base. Fully furnished and everything.’

Ren immediately agreed.

‘Amazing, I’ll start assembling a work crew immediately. The whole process will take a few months, so the first step will be to element-proof your armoury and get you some proper shelving there. After that, we will work together on designing the place. Sounds fine?’

It did.

After Ere made her farewells, Nyx confirmed that the cottage would be a vacation home for us, with a portal to it installed in our new base, and that we could use the one that's in the cottage to go to her palace.

‘Basically, if you ever need time to just chill and rest, this will be the place,’ Nyx confirmed. You can stay here for weeks without any issues.’

That was a relief. Our visits to Nyx’s palace were too rare for us to fully enjoy them, and without us there, Lilyth didn't feel comfortable staying there for too long.

Maybe now our furball will be able to relax here.

After finishing giving us the tour, it was time for Nyx to introduce us to the first of the special guests, and I must say… she looked awfully familiar: a fluffy orange tail, triangular ears, green eyes.

Before us stood a Kitsune.

Savri

‘You would think a place like this wouldn’t be controversial,’ Sergeant Milten sighed in a tired voice.

It had been his ninth hour of standing guard before the Old Yamaoka Compound, so I could understand. We were keeping him and Guardsman Sol company with Persephone, who had quite taken to the work at the clinic, because it was time for our smokebreak. Neither of us actually smoked, but I was calling it that way because watch-crazy-inquisitor-rant-and-rave-break didn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily.

‘I’ve been around quite a lot, Sergeant,’ I replied, ‘and there is one universal truth: there will always be some idiots.’

This got a smile out of the bearded guard.

‘Truer words were never said, Sav.’

The Inquisitor showed up a few days before. Rumour had it that he was summoned to the city by one of the local priests. While most of the clerics, including the local bishop, knew the best course of action with regard to the Children of Elements was to “shut the fuck up”, this guy didn't get the memo.

I have heard that it didn't take him long after the arrival of the fae to start rallying against them, something that didn't win him any friends and actually cost the Church a lot. While some Church-ran organisations did help with relief after the explosion, no priest ever bothered to show up at either of the disaster sites. So, calling for collection only for the religious organisations and outright condemning the fae by that one idiot didn't go down particularly well. No, siree.

The bishop, likely realising the sheer scale of the PR disaster he had on his hands, told the cunt to shut the fuck up, and a few weeks later the bald Inquisitor in his white robes showed up, surrounded by five temple dragoons. Call me paranoid, but I doubted it was a coincidence.

I had no doubt it would massively backfire. We were in the middle of the standard-issue Winter ILI outbreak with the worst likely yet to come. Add to that your usual ice-related injuries, frostbite, hypothermia and people realising that they could get all of their chronic issues treated to some extent or another, and we were getting hundreds of patients daily. There were only eleven of us - three life mages, five doctors and three nurses, and we were frankly getting overwhelmed. I was told we would be getting more assistance from the Children soon, but it would be a few days, as there were never enough doctors, and the city was low on the priority list, reinforcements-wise.

Before you wonder, this was perfectly fine, as the Children have set up multiple smaller outposts all over the province, and those were heavily undermanned right now, and dealing with their own “It is Winter” issues.

As such, people would be very angry if the Inquisitor engaged in any fuckery that would result in the help they desperately needed going away. Add to that people still remembering the recent exploits of a certain other Inquisitor… Yeah.

Still, to ensure there would be no incidents, Wilhum assigned some of his guards to the Compound. I was certain we could take care of ourselves. I even said as such to Milten on another of my smokebreaks.

‘I know that, lassie,’ the Sergeant shrugged. ‘You know that. The Viscount knows that. The whole city knows that. This fucker’s guards likely know that. But I am not sure whether this zealot knows that. And, unfortunately, while I think that seeing him smeared all over the street would be funny, the Viscount believes it would cause more issues than it is worth.’

And so it went. Each day, the Inquisitor would stand before the Compound and try to convince people not to get themselves ensorceled by the evil fae magic. Sometimes, more fanatical townsfolk would join him, but usually every either ignored the cunt or jeered at him. And we were getting to the part of the program when he noticed me standing outside.

‘Behold the demon whore!’ she shouted. ‘The true culprit behind her place! She is here to draw you away from the benevolent grace of the Light.’

“Demon whore” was a new one, so I rewarded it with a one-fingered salute to the cheers of the crowd gathered before the clinic.

‘I don’t get it,’ Guardsman Sol said. ‘This place provides people with free healing, shelter and food. What does it matter that people running it aren’t human?’

‘Haven’t you been listening to Baldie?’ Persephone asked. ‘He has been explaining that over and over again for the past week. I wish he would get some new material.’

‘But that's what I don’t get. It didn't make sense back home, and it makes even less sense here. The fae just want to help people, as do you and Miss Savri.’

‘Followers of The Light That Condemns All Creation were always massive bigots.’

Huh?

‘The what now?’ Milten asked, sharing my confusion.

This, in turn, confused Persephone.

‘Is its full name not common knowledge these days?’

We all shook our heads.

‘I guess the Church of Light is an easier sell without the latter part of its deity’s name,’ the Sorceress shrugged.

‘This name actually explains… a lot,’ Sol said.

‘That it does, lad,’ Milten nodded. ‘That it does.’

He then turned towards the sorceress.

‘Excuse me for asking this, Miss Persephone, but I have heard bits and pieces about you being… hmm… from the ancient past. How ancient are we talking about?’

‘Didn’t your mother teach you not to ask women their age?’ the sorceress smiled. ‘I was born sixteen hundred and eighty-two years ago. Though I have spent only twenty-nine of as a “free woman”, so for obvious reasons I consider myself to be the latter number.’

‘You were born before the Empire was founded?’ Milten was shocked.

‘I’ve been encased in a pillar longer than it existed, yes.’

I still had trouble accepting that my mom was that old. But the evidence was there.

‘I think I killed some relative of the Empire’s founder, come to think of it,’ Persephone continued. ‘His father or grandfather, maybe. Azrgehll Vander. He was a minor warlord of some repute, who had the bright idea of attacking a coven of sorceresses with a few hundred men. Now that could have worked if they had just charged at us. Instead, they were taking their sweet time first getting into formation and then giving them an inspiring speech. At that point, we were long ready and were just watching them from hiding, waiting for them to actually do something. This was early in our “career”, so we still were iffy about things like sneak attacks. Eventually, though, I got bored with his yapping and just shut him up. His men didn't fare much better afterwards.’

Sol and Milten were staring at her bug-eyed.

‘I am very happy you are now on our side, lassie,’ Milten finally said.

‘Me too,’ Persephone smiled. ‘Me too, Sergeant.’

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