Prologue: Arrival in Alarin
Crystarium opened her eyes, not even realizing she had lost consciousness. The flash of her ‘banishment’ had certainly churned her stomach, but this was not what she expected. She heard the sound of water lazily sloshing up the shore, she could even feel warm sand under her. When she looked around she was dumbfounded to find that she was lying facedown on a beach. There was no sun that she could see, but there were clouds with its rays shining through patches.
She was expecting barrens at best, some hellish landscape at the most. This was… serene. Peaceful. There were trees, even a few birds flying around. She sluggishly pushed herself up to her feet, weakened by the ritual. Her love reserves were still bloated, though, and she was already starting to feel better. Her face fell into a deep scowl as she tried to reach the hive mind.
She felt the tiniest of flickers from it, but other than that she felt nothing. At that revelation she suddenly felt very cold. She closed her eyes and focused on the forest of her mind, manifesting there. Her single tree was now isolated on a small stretch of land, but every now and then she saw the flicker of a tree or caught the sound of wind and rustling leaves.
With a calming sigh she refocused herself in reality and was stunned when she saw a person staring at her. It was a woman, tall and slender, with a curved face and pointed ears. She had a bow in her hands but it was currently held idle pointing at the ground. When Crystarium moved it was drawn and pointed at her. She yelled something and Crystarium put her hands out, she didn’t understand the language but it sounded vaguely familiar.
“I do not understand your tongue, I am no threat.” Crystarium said slowly, trying to seem as friendly as possible. The person lowered the bow slightly, the string slackening slightly, before she held it back up again. She spoke again, but this time Crystarium understood it well enough. She spoke in the language of magic, the language of Glyph.
“You speak a tongue I’ve never heard before, creature, but you speak. You are no animal, then what are you?” The woman asked. Crystarium decided to just answer whatever questions she could and try to ask her own.
“I am a Changeling, what are you?” She asked. The bow slackened again, and this time it didn’t raise back up.
“A Changeling? Changelings don’t look so… Alive, and they are mindless. And I am an Elf, I don’t look like an Orc do I?” The Woman asked incredulously. Crystarium thought for a moment.
“I am from a different place, where there are no elves. And the only changelings that are mindless are those so ravenous with hunger that they can no longer think.” Crystarium explained. The elf hummed and the bow lowered more before she brought it back up.
“So you hunger too? Will you try to drink my life dry like the others?” She asked. Crystarium was baffled by that, and it showed.
“Drink you…? What are you talking about? We feed on the emotions of others, primarily love.” Crystarium balked. The elf hummed again, but didn’t lower the bow.
“After your kind feed the person is left a cold shell, little else. They still live, but they are not alive in their heads.” The Elf explained. Crystarium looked appalled.
“That’s such a waste! Even in my feral days I wouldn’t drain someone even close to that. We take what we need and leave the prey healthy, usually without them even realizing. That’s how we survived for so long in the shadows, the other races knowing nothing of our existence.” Crystarium continued to explain. The elf seemed to be in thought for a moment.
“Am I prey to you then? Even if you do not kill me, am I just food?” She asked. Crystarium shook her head.
“My Queen made sure I would not hunger for love for a long time before I came here. And while I do eat meat, I’m not particularly interested in eating the kind of meat I can hold a conversation with. Especially knowing a language as old and special as Glyph.” The cerulean royal replied. After a moment the bow finally went down and was even returned to hang around the elf’s shoulders, the arrow back in its quiver, as she walked up.
“I guess I will trust you for now. I see a bow and a quiver, but no arrows. Are you a hunter? And if so, do you need to borrow a few of mine?” The elf woman asked as she put her hands on her hips and smiled at her. Crystarium shook her head and pulled her empty quiver from its place and looked inside. The toxin and organic cement on the inside was still in good condition so she’d just have to re-mould her arrows.
“I just need to recraft them, is this place dangerous? My queen made sure to bring my alterations up to date before we were to come here, but I didn’t want my arrows sticking me and paralyzing me if I fell through a portal somewhere nasty.” Crystarium replied as she looked around. The Elf nodded.
“Yes, very dangerous. I was hunting near the treeline and saw you lying there. Your white Carapace looked like a beached fish, but then you stood. If you would like you may join me on my hunt, I can wait while you make your arrows though I don’t know what you’d make them from out here.” The Elf explained. Crystarium nodded and sat on the sand cross-legged.
“I would appreciate the guidance, I do not know this land or what creatures are in the forests to hunt. If you have a village or town nearby I would like to go there when we are finished.” Crystarium replied. The Elf nodded, but quickly turned away when Crystarium started regurgitating her cement to make the seven arrows. The Elf turned around a bit of the ways through and the disgust turned to fascination as the twisted shafts came to form in her hands quickly and the barbed heads finished before being stuck in the sticky toxin in the quiver.
“I have only seen that stuff used to entomb…” The Elf said.Crystarium looked up and nodded.
“A lot of the other hives only have the basic stuff and a basic toxin. Our stuff is super strong, stronger than steel, and our toxin can ease the pain or even paralyze and put our prey to sleep. We can also create a medicinal salve to heal minor injuries and accelerate the healing of major wounds.” Crystarium explained before finishing the last two arrows. The Elf seemed to just take the information in. She tossed a large stick, about as tall as she was, to the Royal as she hefted her own. Hers seemed elegantly crafted, though, and it had a fine blade at one end.
“Here, you will need to protect yourself and keep your balance in the forest. Many hazards for slipping.” The Elf said. Crystarium looked at it and then at the Elf’s. She then extended her forearm blades, startling the Elf.
“Ah! Those are nice, but you need reach. Some creatures are no good for fighting up close. You need to push them back with a stick or a spear.” She explained. Crystarium hummed but still looked at her stick disapprovingly. She thought about the long reach of a lasher’s tail, and a manticore’s stinger, and found sense in it, though with a bow and her mobility she saw little point in it. She humored the Elf, though, and planted it in the sand to help her stand up.
“Very well then, shall we be off?” The Royal asked. The Elf nodded and pointed in a direction.
“That is where the direction of the village if we get separated. If you reach the black trees you have gone too far, look for the elderwoods. If you are stopped then tell them Nilan has given you her blessing.” The elf said. Crystarium nodded and they started walking.
“Is that your name then, Nilan?” Crystarium asked. The Elf nodded. “There is a Nilan in my brood, she acted as queen of our hive for a time.” She continued.
“Hah! Then it is a name of strong leaders! I am the elder Druidess of my clan.” The woman replied. Crystarium smiled.
“I am Crystarium. I was a queen once, but I shan’t bore you with how I’m not anymore. I am a royal changeling though, which is like a Princess compared to the Queen. If you are the leader of your clan then I am honored to have you help.” The Changeling said. Nilan shrugged.
“I like stories, but not here. We must keep quiet now, we’re in the hunting grounds. We must be the hunters, not the hunted.” Nilan said. Crystarium just nodded. After a while of walking they both stopped. They looked at each other and surprisingly, to Crystarium at least, they knew what they were going to say. They had both heard the stick crack, the rustle of brambles.
There was a snarl as what looked like a massive feline pounced at them from the brush, but they were both ready for it. Crystarium soothly ducked under it as Nilan did the same, though Nilan braced her glaive and caught the thing in the chest and flung it overhead. It screamed and caught itself after hitting the tree, but was immediately stunned by the black arrow hitting it in the chest. Crystarium had hit the glaive wound dead center, cracking through the Manticore’s incredibly thick bone on its chest. It wasn’t enough for a kill shot, but the deeper wound circulated the toxin much quicker. Its tail flared at Nilan when she tried to get in closer for a kill, and was stunned as it lunged at her and threw her through a thicket of young saplings. She was winded, but held her blade up as she heard the snarl of a pounce.
It didn’t come for her, though. She quickly extricated herself, the brambles around her not even scratching her wooden armor, as she stood to face the beast. She was surprised to find Crystarium gone, though it had another arrow in its back. There was the faint sound of buzzing that it seemed to be following.
“I am your opponent!” Nilan called, drawing her bow to take a shot. The second the thing turned, though, she almost missed both the sight and sound as Crystarium flashed through the tiny clearing. If she would have blinked she would have missed it, and was shocked to see the beast falling over with another black arrow in its eye. Crystarium touched down, slowing her breathing back down, as Nilan approached it to confirm the kill.
“I was not aware those gossamer wings of your kind had the speed of the maneuverability to pull that off. Well shot.” Nilan said, confirming the kill with a nod.
“We’re special. Our Queen and our researchers have developed evolutionary advancements and implanted them upon us using a transmutation glyph array.” Crystarium replied as she extended her double set of wings to the fullest. Nilan seemed intrigued. “Do you have the tools to prepare and retrieve a kill? I’m afraid I’m only prepared to hunt for myself.” She continued. Nilan nodded, retrieving a few metal hooks and enough cloth squares to take what they needed. They prepared the kill and packed it up into Nilan’s pack.
“By the way, do not fly above the trees without looking first. There are people with wings here that may attack you on sight, the Ascended don’t get along well with others here.” Nilan advised as they continued on.
“People with wings, you mean Valkyrie?” Crystarium asked. Nilan shook her head.
“That may be what they are called in your home, but here they are called Aasimar. They have the blood of angels in them, and some have wings. The Ascended like to flaunt them around like posterboys. I don’t like them, but we can’t survive an assault against them and they’ve agreed not to come near our grove or wreak too much destruction on the forest. The Fallen are far more agreeable to deal with, but they’re on the other side of the continent.” The Druidess explained. Crystarium was etching the information into her mental archives, hoping one day she’ll be able to get them back to her queen. Otherwise they’d have to wait until she returned.
“So the Ascended and Fallen are nations? What is this continent called?” Crystarium asked. Nilan nodded.
“Factions, Nations, whatever you wish to call them. We are in the Elana Forest, the only significant forest on the continent and the largest. The Ascended city of Yggdrasil is built around the poor recreation of the prime elderwood that used to live there, but a new one has long since grown. That is where we are going, to my grove. It will be four days’ travel by foot, but you can fly so after tonight we will fly. We’ll be outside of the Ascended’s hair by then. And this place is called Alarin.” The dark-skinned Elf replied. Crystarium nodded and they continued in relative silence, hoping not to get ambushed again.
Author's Note
So here we go. This won't be regularly updated unless people really want it, and even then it'll depend. I do have two other stories going in tandem.
I'm doing something that'll hopefully work out, since the world building is fully fleshed out already. Maybe it means it won't kill my drive after the first few chapters. Alarin is my homebrewed Pathfinder setting, haven't decided exactly where in the timeline this would take place. Who knows, maybe one of my groups will meet Crystarium one day.
