The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Lilyth

We decided not to tell anybody else about my findings just yet. We needed more information.

I was about to suggest we go to bed; it was getting late, and I was spent, but then someone knocked at the door.

It was Asha. She was in her low-power form and wearing a black suit with a red shirt. Her features also looked… sharper. More male-like.

Someone is a shapeshifter it seems.

‘What brings you here at such a late hour, Asha?’ I asked.

‘Mother told me to report here,’ she answered in a terse way.

Why do I have a feeling I am not going to like what is about to happen?

‘Because you won’t,’ she said as she appeared in the room and sat at the table, motioning to her daughter to sit by her side. ‘You see… I heard about your ideas of both the alliance AND making my Ashy the Captain of the Guard. I’m going to have to veto both.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘God things going far beyond the rules of the Great Game. This is a core directive we cannot disobey. No direct aid for mortals. There are loopholes around that, of course, like the patronage system, but deploying my forces or having my daughter serve as the Captain of the Guard in a kingdom run by my pupil? That's not happening.’

That makes sense. Sadly.

‘I assume, aiding the Children of the Elements is one of the loopholes?’ Caei asked.

‘Within a certain limited framework… yes. Like stopping a magical plague. A threat that is now over by the looks of it. That also means any aid that the Children pledged to help resolve the crisis is now off the table. They will maintain an increased security force around their compound, but that will be it. They are a neutral organisation after all.’

That was very unwelcome news.

‘I sense a "but" coming,’ Caei said. ‘Asha wouldn't be here otherwise.’

‘Yes. One of your butts in fact,’ there was no mirth behind the joke.

‘You want one of us to marry Asha,’ I guessed.

‘It would have to be as real a marriage as it gets too. All bells and whistles. People far more perceptive than Herlicht’s court would be watching. In fact, an heir would need to be on the way before I would be able to deploy even a single Gale Knight.’

‘What?’ the cambion exclaimed. ‘Absolutely not, mother.’

‘Nuh-uh,’ Aki agreed.

‘I’m good too,’ I added. ‘I was already forced to marry Dain. Twice. You also said something about not being my pimp.’

‘Told you you wouldn't like it. Come, Asha, it's time to head back home. I’ll send someone to grab your things.’

‘No, mother,’ the cambion said, causing a hint of a smile to appear on Nyx’s face. ‘There is still evil lurking down here that I am duty-bound to help root out.’

Nyx shook her head.

‘As a Gale Knight, your duty is to follow my directives.’

‘Even if I think they are wrong?!’

‘Especially, if you think they are wrong.’

‘Then, I am afraid I must quit the Gale Knights!’ Asha got so heated that she turned into her fire form.

I think I see what is happening here.

‘Then shut it furball, or I will hit you with such a case of static electricity you will look like a hedgehog,’ Nyx threatened me via telepathy.

‘You do realise this will mean exile?’ she said to Asha instead. ‘I can't have my own daughter defy me without consequences.’

‘So be it!’ Asha said without a hint of hesitation. ‘I will not stand idly by while the Sanguine are on the move!’

As I expected, Nyx, instead of being angry, let out a sigh of relief.

‘That was easier than I thought,’ she laughed. ‘You may be an adult, but I still know what buttons to press.’

‘You wanted me to quit…’ Asha realised. ‘Why?’

‘So that there was no doubt you were doing it out of your own free will. Pesky thing that, and I played you like a fucking fiddle, kiddo.’

‘If you wanted me to quit, why do the whole heir spiel?’

‘You can’t blame me for wanting to have grandchildren I can spoil rotten, can you Ashy? You are so grim and serious all the time, you will never find someone.’

‘Someone has to be, mother,’ Asha said through gritted teeth.

‘Awwww…’ Nyx pouted. ‘Anyway, got any more wine?’

We did.

Aki

While eating breakfast we discussed our picks for a Chancellor and agreed that Ireela was the best choice as she had some experience in governing. We would also raise her to the rank of Duchess, given how the three of us were Queens now and it would be weird to have a Baroness in that role. She was reluctant to accept the offer, but we told her it would be either her or Chirpy. The nesumi, so far lazing away in a very enticing patch of sunlight in the council chamber, looked disappointed by Ireela’s decision, but his mood improved when we promised the little asshole to appoint him to some important post.

Chirpy was such a diva. Why couldn’t he be like Fluffy who settled for being Lilyth's personal assistant?

I will need to find something for Veenaya so she doesn't feel too bad at being left out. Maybe High Admiral of the Fleet?

Ireela would handle setting up a cabinet for herself. We earmarked the position of Chief Archivist for Dainyir, but otherwise, she had free rein.

We’ve decided that our group for the second catacomb expedition would be the four of us “lovebirds” and Persephone, as Sav, named a Lieutenant, was helping Asha reorganise the City Guard and Deirdee was handling an important mission.

I wasn’t sure about Rennie joining us, she was still in a bit of a shock after her grandfather's death, but she wanted to. Probably to get her mind off things.

If you are wondering why Ireela wasn't terribly torn about Lilyth killing Yachiro… If your father-in-law tries to kill your children, you aren't going to be particularly saddened by his death. If anything, I suspected one of the reasons she agreed to become our Chancellor was her gratitude for keeping Rennie safe.

As we were preparing our gear in our room, we didn't have time to set up our personal armoury yet, Dainyir came by to visit. Well… not really visit, unless there was some weird tradition on Varlia that involved making social calls while wearing an oversized breastplate and carrying a sword on one of your hips, and a satchel on the other. Lilyth’s face visibly brightened upon seeing him.

‘I assume you want to come with us?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ he smiled back. ‘As little as I did yesterday, I felt that for the first time in my life I was doing something important. So I want to keep helping you.’

‘I mean, we are just going to tour the catacombs again, see if we missed anything, so sure you can tag along. An extra pair of eyes will never hurt.’

Dainyir, looking very proud of himself, pulled out a book from a satchel and handed it over to Lilyth.

I looked at it and saw that its title was “Underground Necropolis: The History of Burial Practices in Ror-Bhyk.”

‘I couldn't sleep at night, so I went to the keep’s library to find something to read,’ he explained. ‘I may have focused on searching for books about those catacombs.’

He looked embarrassed by the admission. I had no idea why. As boring as the book sounded, it certainly seemed useful given the circumstances. Lilyth motioned at him to continue.

‘So, the catacombs used to be much larger; however, around four hundred years ago, the two lower levels were sealed off.’

Lilyth wrapped her arms around Dainyir and hugged him.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You could have just handed us the answer. Will you be able to find the partition?’

‘I think so.’

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Ren interrupted. ‘Why were the lower levels sealed off?’

Good question.

‘Not sure,’ he said. ‘Now that you mention it, Miss Ren, that bit was… weird.’

We gave each other worried looks.

‘Let me find the fragment,’ he said and Lilyth handed him the book back.

He paged through it and, locating the bit he was looking for, began reading:

‘“Mounting costs of expanding the catacombs led Viscount Arvghel to abandon the project in favour of building a surface mausoleum dedicated to housing the bodies of the ruling family. A further decision was made to seal off the two lower levels of the underground necropolis and to keep the topmost floor as a burial preparation chamber.” The narrative then moves to describe well… the mausoleum and states that ”Viscount Arvghel von Caiver was the first ruler of the city to be interred there".’

‘So what… digging out further levels became too expensive, so they sealed the lower ones…’ Ren began to summarise.

‘Without removing the bodies by the sounds of it,’ Lilyth muttered.

‘Yes. Without removing the bodies and they what… built a new mausoleum and, what, called it a day?’

‘Translation: We found something while digging and decided to hide it,’ Lilyth said, grimly.

‘Let’s grab Deirdee and Sav,’ I quickly decided. ‘Dain, thank you so much for this!’

I also hugged him, but then I added:

‘Though I am not sure that you coming with us is a good idea. It could be dangerous. Very dangerous.’

‘I w-want to h-help,’ he said with a shaky voice.

‘You already helped a lot,’ Lilyth pointed out. ‘No need to risk your life.’

‘I know,’ he smiled. ‘But I want to go with you. Travel with you. My whole life I was reading history books. With you, I have a chance to see it. If I stay back now… I will never get the courage to try again.’

‘I don’t want to see you get hurt!’

‘You can’t protect me all the time. So if I am to die, I’d rather die by your side.’

I could see the pain and conflict on Lilyth's face.

‘Fine,’ she finally said, slowly exhaling the air through her mouth, and looked at me for confirmation.

I nodded and said:

‘Follow every order we give you. If you step out of the line, Persephone will teleport you home. If the situation turns out to be really bad, the same thing happens if possible.’

Dainyir agreed to all those conditions.

‘Let's get you a proper suit of armour, then,’ Lilyth said. ‘An ill-fitting breastplate strikes me as a quick way to meet Ere and not in the fun way. Where’d you get it anyway?’

‘Oh, I raided the armoury before coming here.’

‘They just let you in?’ Ren asked.

‘Still Lilyth's husband. Technically.’

‘Good point,’ my Jelly laughed despite all her worries. ‘I would say we should get it annulled, but I think it would cause us to get married a third time in a few months, probably in an even bigger farce of a ceremony.’

‘Y-yes,’ he said, getting red-faced. ‘I’d like that. To st-stay your husband. N-not the farce part.’

Lilyth, smiling ear to ear, hugged him again and kissed him. Dain was surprised by it but soon reciprocated.

I realized I was happy for them. Maybe with a male partner her upcoming issues would be more bearable. And well… I also had some ideas already brewing in my mind, and judging by Caei’s expression… she did too. Still… we all had to survive to put those into use.

While we were busy fitting Dainyir with a suit of scale armour, a very familiar-looking green-eyed pale girl with raven-black hair styled into an inverted bob entered the armoury. She was clad in a full set of deep dark blue leather armour covered by the purple tabard of the City Guard.

‘I’m sorry to interrupt, your Highnesses,’ she began in a voice that also sounded very familiar, ‘but I bring tragic news. Chief Archivist Haakan is dead. It would appear he fell out of the window of his room. There was no sign of struggle so it would appear he must have lost his balance.’

‘Perfect, Deirdee, thank you,’ Lilyth said. ‘Top-notch disguise, by the way.'

Holy shit.

My Jelly was right. It was Deirdee.

‘Thanks, Lilyth,’ the dancer replied. ‘What gave me away?’

‘Your voice. But I wouldn't worry about it. I had to activate [Enhanced Acoustic Processing] to be completely sure.’

‘Why are you not concerned about the Chief Archivist?’ horrified Dainyir asked.

‘Oh, right,’ Caei said. ‘Terrible tragedy that. We should give him a nice state funeral.’

‘Lots of flowers,’ I agreed.

‘Maybe an edible arrangement,’ Lilyth added.

Seeing Dainyir’s confusion, Ren took pity on him and said:

‘To translate from Jackass: He was retired from his position.’

‘You had him assassinated?’ Dainyir asked, completely aghast.

‘Louder,’ Lilyth grumbled. ‘I don’t think all of Dwynveia heard you. But yes. We retired the man because besides being the Chief Archivist, Haakan also ran something called “The Office of Personal Archives”, a nice term for "Secret Police".’

Dainyir didn't seem to understand, so Lilyth nodded at Deirdee, who reached into a satchel she was carrying and took out a bunch of files. Four of them were fairly thick. Dee gave a very thin one to Dain, who opened it and quickly dropped it in shock.

‘What the fuck?!’ he exclaimed. ‘They were gathering information on me?’

‘On all of us,’ Lilyth said with a shrug. ‘Many people in Ror-Bhyk too. Needless to say, we are dismantling the OPA and retiring all of its agents. Speaking of…’

‘Asha will personally see to burning all of their archives,’ Deirdee explained. ‘Except the agent ones that is. Those will be handed over to Kart for processing.’

‘Excellent. I guess we now have a Duchess of Tyr-Mel.’

‘Kart will be happy to hear that.’

We explained to Dain that the majordomo was actually also the Viscount's Spymaster and she quickly pointed out the Chief Archivist to us. Deirdee first confirmed her intel and then arranged Haakan’s “accident”.

I was initially torn about the plan, but then Lilyth pointed out that Wilhum likely had me under constant watch while I was growing up and gathering all sorts of intimate details about me. At which point my attitude became “fuck those people”.

Now for the hard part.

‘Can I see mine?’ I asked.

‘I think this is the one you are looking for,’ Deirdee said sadly, and gave me the second thickest file.

It was my mother’s.

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