/monster/ - The Last Bastion of Romance

Balls of fires the size of your head fell directly toward your magical trio while a few more converging toward the scorpions-woman inching closer and closer yet denied a true holding as they were forced to dodge, or else be struck and burn alive. Beside you, the little Overlord was doing her best to intercept those hot projectiles, her set of numerous eyed-tendrils kept on flailing in what you first believe to be some kind of nervous twitch as the Gazer focused all of her attention on her single eye, but that wasn’t the case at all. Those eyestalks were quickly and efficiently looking for balls of flames to intercepts, for your liege was efficiently providing a shield for yourself and Devona, having embraced Focus and called upon her natural telekinetic prowess, numerous weapons, furniture and even a few corpses flew to collides with the flames, cause an near endless stream of aerial explosions as those very same items converged upon the flaming projectiles, creating an efficient status-quo that won’t last.

That was due to six of the mercenaries advancing toward your trio, only held at bay by a few braves Girtablilu keeping close despite the enemy magic, providing enough threats to prevent an outright charge; if the men advanced too fast the scorpion would be able to intercept with at least one or two lethal strikes as they descended upon your position.

The enemy mage was able to keep up this seemingly endless stream of projectiles through a neat trick of magic. The man had one of it arm held upward toward the heavens where a pillar of flame erupted a few meters up before separating into numerous tendrils that ended up being the thrown fireballs, the projectiles were essentially lobbed over the heads of his comrades with a last ditch trickle of magic to aim them in your general direction whilst simultaneously conserving ample amount of energy by using his body as point of origin. Yet despite this extremely dangerous use of fire and the many, many balls that ended splattered on the ground, there wasn’t any uncontrolled blaze for such a thing would require your enemy to fuel it with magic and he was obviously unwilling to do that.

‘’Alright Gwen I’ll be using the Hero to strength your magic, just hang in there. You too Devona, cast something if you can.’’

‘’I-I…’’ Whatever reproach she had died in her throat while Gwendolyn simply nodded, there wasn’t any time for rebuttal.

Calling upon the aspect of the Hero again was second nature, your mind, however, had to briefly wander toward the stars, the numbers of brilliant point forming the whole; you could feel the blessing of speed animating the three Girtablilu in a duel with the enemy leader, the magic enchanting them was stable, fueling it with your own energy was child play; the hardest and most costly part of a spell will always be its creation.

To ‘’strengthen’’ the magic of your fellow mages is an incredibly vague wish for your spell but the stars charted the needed path for your mind and your body fueled the needed energy for the girls beside you; nothing but pure, raw instincts created this spell, the great constellation responded, fueled by millennia-old wishes.

‘’Shit! Watch out!’’ The little Overlord screamed beside you as the aspect was gifted, enchanting their potential to a point that left both women dumbfounded; however the enemy mage had cast a unique projectile that was headed straight for…

Devona, the blond had now stood back on her feet beside you and a spiraling ball of blazes was heading toward with a long comet-like trail; the sheer heat enough to exhaust the air in your lungs.

You only had seconds to react; the spell of the enemy had managed to brute force its way through the obstacles of Gwen and of course, Devona didn’t stand still as she immediately threw herself on the ground to dodge but that wouldn’t work, because that fire mage can simply redirect the flaming tail with magic to redirect that molten projectile.

Clever bastard.

So you did the only thing you could; it was far too late for a spell of your own, you thrust yourself above the Pretender and offered your back for that comet of flame, you barely managed to get a breath when the projectile collided with your body.

‘’Gaaaah!’’ Yet still your arms held firms barely budging under the strain, the heat made it impossible to take a breath and you briefly wondered if you were starting to burn alive yet…yet… you barely felt a hint of pain. The fire should have melted right through your clothes, skins and perhaps even muscles in moments, your mind wasn’t clouded by that dangerous urge of self-preservation; is it because the shock of this wound was so great that your mind simply couldn’t register the damage or the pain? Maybe you’ve slipped into to total unconsciousness? It’s true that you couldn’t feel anything at all as if you very sense of touch numbed itself after this… damage.

No, that wasn’t the case; while clouded by tears you were still able to gaze at the woman you saved, her brilliant blue gaze held a humid shine of tears against the orange glow of the nearby lamps. Then your arms lost their strength and you landed right on top of her. ‘’Ugh!’’ she exclaimed and your tried your best to voice an apology, but your lips barely moved and the only thing that extracted itself out of your mouth was a pathetic whine, the sound of combat raged in impossible confusion as screams and magic melted together.

‘’Y-you’re al-ugh…it’s okay’’ Devona was struggling to breathe, yet strangely her voice was clear, in complete contrast to everything around you; yet still you tried to move, to crawl, to see if Gwendolyn was handling herself, to make sure nobody would die, to try your best so that Pretender God could squeeze herself off your frame…

‘’…I’m sorry. I’ve just been afraid of casting my magic.’’ Yet her voice didn’t hold a hint of emotion. ‘’I’ve been lying since I woke up because I didn’t know who you truly were but….that wound… I understand why the color of your Focus is so familiar now. I won’t leave you like this, Gardy.’’ She managed to wiggle herself out, pushing your relatively heavy frame out of your way and you finally abandoned what sparks of strength you had left to avoid squishing the poor girl, who crouched to your level and patted your back; yet this action didn’t trigger any wave of pain, her touch felt strangely comfortable with what should be an open wound, a crippling burn.

Are there even any open injuries on your body?

–

You were tethering on the brink of consciousness, surrounded by the sound of the battlefield and stimulated by the potent magic not a few feet away from your fallen frame, strength was slowly returning to your limbs despite the wounds but the process was, unfortunately, slow, much too slow to provide any help; at the very least keeping yourself alert allowed your magical boons to stay active but then… You began to hear the strangest of things. A quiet, elegant music of a violin, followed by a singing feminine voice; all of it mingling beautifully into an unearthly song that increased in volume enough to dwarf the battle, as if every combatant had stopped to listen.

Each word spoken by the lady create its own unique force of magic that soon engulfed the entire area, then the outward plain, rendering the total ‘’force’’ of this spell impossible to measure and as instruments mingled with the voices, many of which you’ve never heard before. A potent emotion of dread spread into your heart as the lady's voice changed in tone, become low, growls, angry each words of a dead languages you couldn’t understand anything other than instinct as soon this emotion exploded into outright fear, your body reacted by trembling, nothing other than sheer guts and stubbornness prevented you from escaping this infernal, angelic voice.

Screams erupted all over the camp, each one agonizing, adding itself to the gorgeous demonic chorus of music, those voices thankfully didn’t last as something much more disturbing followed. Crying, wet, disgusting tearing, gargles, and streaming liquid.

It’s as if you are hearing the world die.

But then as quickly as it appeared the song ended, the maiden voice disappeared and the instruments slowly but surely erased themselves from existence and as they did, your health returned. Dizziness, pain, weakness, disorientation… all of it disappeared as if you were suddenly put under a cloud of holy. Touching your back yielded no pain, no blood, not even burned clothes.

Of course there was only one thing to do next; look and understand what the hell happened in these minutes of agony.

The mercenary camp had gone from incredibly loud to deathly silent, with blood coating the entire center, furniture and even most of the tents while the single large campfire had been extinguished by the liquid. The remaining –enemy- combatants had been… massacred, reduced to a disgustingly macabre scene.

There was a collection of corpse not too far from you and Gwen, all of them completely headless with their spines still attached to the necks without a hint of muscles, only blood covering the bones; their limbs twisted in unnatural ways, twisted, turned and nearly ripped apart altogether with outward perforation from the bones within, as if the very skeletons of those poor fools tried to escapes from their skin. Their leader clad in plated metal was in the worse spot, having –every- single one of his limbs torn right off his body, reducing his carcase to a metallic torso of leaking blood nourishing the ground.

In the middle of it all in a circle of healthy green grass was the lying body of Devona who looked to be peacefully sleeping with interlocked fingers and her palms resting on her belly; some movements quickly caught your eyes.

It was the man Gwendolyn had hypnotised, the one referred to as ‘’Frian’’ by his now dead comrades who broke through the hypnosis out of sheer will to stay alive; he promptly threw his axe on the ground under the gaze of the entire company and held his waist with his hands, bellowing a loud ‘’I surrender!’’ that worked to break the silence surrounding Gwen and her honor guard.

‘’This is against nature!’’ One of the scorpions-woman quickly spoke in a panicked voice. ‘’Is this blood magic? She ripped them all apart while… while singing! They were torn from the inside out! Not even Corruption at its worse can do that!’’

‘’Silence, all of you!’’ Gwendolyn was quick to step in. The girl was still embracing focus and the boon you’ve granted her seemingly reinforced the glows of her enchanted veins; there was a surreal aura of power and presence surrounding the small Overlord, as if she was on the cusps of unleashing a grand spell whilst her organic energy shone with such intensity that it illuminated the night. ‘’You are the elite of my realm, my honor guard and I will not suffer such insults toward my friends! Make yourselves useful and arrest this man instead of complaining. Act like the pride of the army.’’

Nobody raised any protests though it took some moments for their nerves to come back. A few of the scorpions maneuvered around the gore and stood beside the survivor who expression was a complete blank; a complete mask fell over the man face as the stared at the massacre in apathy.

It was with some reluctance that you let go of Focus, even fi there were clearly not any threat. The Overlord followed and turned to you, asking a quiet ‘’are you alright?’’ To which you answered with a nod. Then she turned toward the blond peacefully sleeping on a patch of grass clean of blood.

‘’She… started singing and proceeded to kill all those men, but that wasn’t all of it.’’ You felt Gwendolyn's hand reach your back as she circled around you, gently petting what should be a very serious wound, even pinching the fabric of your cloth as it, too, had completely regenerated.

‘’I never once saw a hint of Focus but magic was swirling around her like a hurricane and the men… it was like their blood and entrails started to leak out as she twisted their bones, then she expulsed the… insides of the men as her music reached a crescendo and somehow transformed this…this amalgam of meats into a way to heal you. It’s like she used the insides of the men as an ingredients of some kind for a healing spell because most of it disappeared and when I finally got my wits to investigate you, you were perfectly fine.’’

What absurdity indeed, it’s easier to understand why the Girtablilu were upset over this display; it must truly have been a sight against nature. ‘’Was it blood magic?’’ You didn’t know much about this peculiar art, only that it was excessively dangerous.

Gwendolyn shook her head. ‘’Necromancy?’’ Another mystery of magic that you didn’t know much about, however, your query was answered by yet another negation. ‘’The men weren’t dead, it couldn’t have been that… unless my understanding of necromancy is wrong, which is very possible.’’ As the two of your spoke, your walk stopped near the sleeping Devona, who didn’t look suffering from any kind of overcast despite that unreasonable spell, she was simply lying on her back and peacefully sleeping without a care in the world. In a way, the girl looked like a projection of purity while surrounded by the macabre sight of deformed corpses and a small lake of blood.

‘’A win is a win regardless, so let’s make use of it and accomplish what we came to do.’’

>Free choice

>[Is there anything, in particular, you guys want to do, or just finish what you started and get out of here asap?]

‘’Think there’s anything of worth?’’

You ask the little Overlord as you gently pet the cheek of the sleeping blond.

‘’Maybe, we’ll take a quick look but leave the equipment and burial…’’ An obvious pause given the gruesome scenery. ‘’…For the army, how about you get our quarry? I’ll get to looting’’

‘’Of course.’’

–

Inside the biggest of the tents was a relatively Spartan appearance with two bedrolls, discarded piece of foods, maps and glowering lamps. The kidnapped girl you’ve fought to find wasn’t hidden anywhere: her hands were tightly tied around a wooden post planted on the ground and upon hearing your steps the girl flinched but kept silent, unable to see the world around her due to a blindfold keeping her blind and a pair of leather belt were enrolled around her chest, making breathing a struggle.

Those things were constraining a pair of magnificent purple wings decorated with strange swirls and patterns of both a lighter and darker shades, it was as if an artisan had painstakingly put a lovely girly embroidery all over those butterfly wings; the first thing you did was to unbuckle those rude belts and the girl wince at your touch and the following liberation, her appendages stretched naturally, finding repose with the ground and air, their length easily dwarfing the shapely silhouette of their host, that kidnapped victim they were about to sell as a slave… or worse.

Long white hair with hints of purples strands flowed like a blanket across her body, ending at her knees. The strand looked unnaturally thick and fluffy, looking almost like fur as it seemingly melted right into pieces of fluff sprouting from her skin, rubbing against the poor excuse for clothing that was nothing more than damaged garbs of cotton. Her skin was thankfully peachy and healthy, although the strange fur sticking out of an otherwise perfectly human body all but reinforced her monstrous origin; there was also a strange pair of boughs-like antennas sprouting from her head, the roots coming from deep within that fluffy hair. Numerous twig-like branches exited from their big, single limb that, upon closer inspection, was also full of tiny fuzzy furs of a darkened variant of the purple coloring her wings.

An insect type monster and a particularly gorgeous one at that.

‘’I’m not here to hurt you’’ You speak as gently as you can while slowly undo the bindings of her hands. She doesn’t try to move or even remove the blindfold around her head and you had to refrain yourself from doing it as you remembered the scene.

‘’I’m going to get you out of here, the mercenaries have been dealt with so I’ll remove your blindfold once it’s safe, alright?’’ Again she doesn’t respond but once you close in, the girl doesn’t attempt any hostility or flight, she simply stay submissively and allow you to carry her like a princess, even if she flinches here and there, her hands continuously massaging the bruises around her wrists.

–

Making camp a short distance away from the hills was a relatively fruitless endeavor, completely taken care of by the honor guard of the Overlord. The supplies and tent were quite a bit more comfortable compared to the previous travel to the Tree of Fire, tents, foods and guard shifts were erected flawlessly, the scorpions being too on edge to sleep and many took the fact that your campfire in a grand prairie of the outer frontier of the realm to be in need of reinforced guard.

Though the truth was much more obvious. The sorcery of the Pretender God had left everyone on edge. Thankfully Gwendolyn and Adaeze didn’t find anything wrong with the blond; she was sleeping peacefully without looking overtly exhausted as if her spell had plunged her into a deep slumber.

The other peculiarity was the freed captive, which you learned belonged to a race of moth instead of a butterfly and the girl hadn’t moved to take off the blindfold once, to the point that she sagely waited by the fire where the only movements she made were in relation to the cooking food… and of course, her stomach growled often, coloring her pale face in embarrassment.

She also didn’t seem too eager to leave your side so you were forced to wait as you pondered everything that happened in the last few hours; it was more than enough to briefly forget everything that happened, including the captive of your group who seemed docile enough with his hands bounds by rope, Gwen insisted on giving him a share of food at the very least and he graciously accepted, slurping the thick, delicious soup of meat and vegetables prepared by the leader of the scorpions.

‘’Say, girl’’ This time Gwen broke the silence, holding onto another wooden bowl while standing beside the mothgirl. ‘’Are you perchance… blind or wounded? It’d be difficult to eat with that thing. Or maybe you can’t understand us? You haven’t learned the Commons?’’

Whilst regions had their own dialect and tongue, the Great Crusade provided the perfect opportunity to spread one particular language of commerce amongst Humanity and after two-hundred years of hard work, this peculiar endeavor of the Church was a huge success in the realms surrounding the Cursed Swamp.

But there could always be some stubborn isolated hamlets speaking the tongues of their ancestors.

‘’N-no I’m…I’m fine’’ Her voice was a sweet, quiet thing that made you question her true age. She slowly brought her hands to pinch the blindfold and, after an obvious hesitation, she slowly slide the clothe off her face and kept her eyelids closed, only slowly working to open them as she got used to the bright lights of the fire, although there was also a whole lot of hesitation making the process longer.

‘’Ya don’t need to be so stressed, it’s okay. We came to rescue ya, things just… well, degenerated if you will. I’m Gwendolyn, Overlord of Monsters, leader of the dwellers of the forest; that make someone like you my responsibility’’ Your little leader puffed her (meager) chest in pride after introducing herself.

‘’I’m Arawn Loukanos, a man a little lost in time. I’ll tell you more about me if you’re curious at a later time, alright? You should eat now, your stomach is making its anger known’’

Those branches-like antennas twitched in synch and her wings briefly opened and retracted, the girl finally opened her eyes to stare at the bowl, revealing something incredibly ominous. Her eyes were far, far from normal.

Her sclera were completely dark, not to be described as ink or night-like: the sheer darkness dwelling where the white ought to be was complete and absolute while her retinas and pupils held a uniform red, made all the more obvious by the light of the campfire; it was nothing else than baffling to see something so unnatural, such colors made her gaze incredibly difficult to predict but she obviously understood the sudden newfound silence.

Try as you might to be polite, this astonishment was nothing else than a purely natural instinct. Thankfully you and Gwen recovered and uttered a synched comment about the delicious food, which obviously she couldn’t resist despite the heavy atmosphere as she brought a heavy mouthful of wooden spoon to her mouth… and after eating the meal, the moth was suddenly the victim of a brief sniffle as tears threatened to pour out of those demonic eyes.

‘’I-I’m sorry i-its just so…so good Uu…’’ She courageously quieted her little plaints, taking a few moments to calm down while those butterfly wings unfurled again behind her back and flapped like the excited waggle of a puppy tail, she didn’t seem to realize the wind she was producing that way either, too focused on eating and preventing more tears to crawl down her cheeks.

>Free choice

>Do you wait for her to calm down then talk? About what? Or try to do something else entirely tonight? It was a busy evening after all.

>>159455

>as if the very skeletons of those poor fools tried to escapes from their skin

After some time the purple moth calm down, trampling through her brief trembling by eating twice her share of rations, her cheeks gaining a tint of red under the trails of those tears. For a moment you feel compelled to shake down the last of the slavers who’s been sagely minding his business, taking good care of eating his share soundlessly. Your eyes briefly cross and the man look away with an awkward grimace then proceed to feign ignorance by cleaning some remnants of soup stuck in his beard.

So far he’s been a rather… low maintenance capture but the scorpions weren’t lacking in vigilance; there wasn’t any guards right next to him but the warriors-bugs were ready to pounce at a moment notice and he wasn’t too keen on trying his luck.

‘’Want a third bowl?’’

Gwen asked while stirring the pot, and then fills it up with the large spoon before the girl could even answer. You still had a hard time believing the… humbleness of that Overlord.

‘’…I’m…I’m sorry’’ even though she was meek, that butterfly-winged girl was still eager for more and her lovely wings flapped in happiness upon tasting the traveling food, this time eating at a much more measured pace. Thus like Gwen you decided to sit beside her, the strangeness of her demonic eyes fading now that you took a proper look at her.

‘’You need better clothe, don’t think we got anything that fit ya though. You’re a bit past my size.’’

You had to make an effort to avoid laughing or else wound your little liege, Gwen definitely spoke the truth; that moth was curvy and filled everywhere the Gazer wasn’t; though your liege wasn’t losing in term of waist and back. ‘’Eh’’ You heard that girl as she catch your glance, those numerous eyestalks making it impossible to be subtle.

‘’I’m…’’ But the Overlord shook her hand. ‘’Nah, naw don’t be. If you keep saying sorry I’ll treat you like a wounded puppy or something’’

At that this moth looked down at the food, slowly but surely getting her fill. Thus you decided to break the ice.

‘’What’s your name?’’

Her eyes shift to you and you nod at her brief indecision. ‘’I…’’ she briefly stops herself, gazing down at the fuming food. ‘’…Hecate’’

You could tell there was something of an inner struggle within her, her furrowed brows and distressed emotions dwelling inside those weird colored eyes made reading the girl child play. ‘’T-thank you for… freeing me.’’

‘’No thank needed, Hecate, we came for ya.’’

That wasn’t an answer she was expecting because she looked at the smaller Gazer with wide, dark and red-colored eyes.

‘’You’s be speaking to the Overlord of Monsters, leader of the forest dweller and what not, I don’t mind introducing meself twice’’ Gwen was obviously swirling her words here and there, enjoying this little intro for her chest puffed in bombastic pride.

It would seem your earlier introduction completely flew past her head, however Gwen held out her hand as the moth was just about ready to throw herself on the ground.

‘’Easy there, since we’ve gone and helped you, Hecate, perhaps you’d like to tell if you have anywhere to go? We don’t mind the detour, right Gwen?’’

To your words, the Gazer gave the two of you a thumb up. Yet the pink-papillon grew sullen, taking a moments to herself to finish her food while her thick antennas twitched, prey to some kind of nervousness.

‘’I… I don’t have anywhere to go. At all.’’

‘’No home? Didn’t you reside in a hamlet a few distances from here? Two days of march, I think right?’’

When Gwendolyn mentioned that village, Hecate expression grew worrisome as a flash of hatred briefly blazed into her eyes, but she quickly closed them, lowered her head, and balled her hands into fists.

‘’…No.’’ She simply said, her words thick with repressed emotions.

>Free choice.

‘’You don’t need to answer if you don’t want to.’’ It was obvious her past wasn’t an easy subject; you’d need to be delicate and above all, nurture some kind of trust. Of course you were curious to learn more about this strange moth but satisfying your curiosity will have to wait. ‘’Just tell me about the hamlet, have you been living there alone? For a few years?’’

Hecate let out a sigh as she just now realize she was keeping herself from breathing. ‘’Just a year… I came to that place last winter; I didn’t have anywhere else to go. It was… well, it was surviving. The locals didn’t trust me because of my eyes and my races, you know moths have this powder that stimulates people right?’’ Slowly crawling out of her shell, Hecate added gestures to words by flapping her wings; you didn’t see any following fall or powdery substance.

‘’It happens only during autumn but it is a… problem. My eyes didn’t help either, almost everyone mistrusted me.’’ Hecate didn’t make eye contact once, her eyes kept on trailing from your gaze and soon she simply sat without fidgeting while facing the fire.

‘’That village… it just a fishing hamlets, a group of like-minded monsters, a few men and human women that didn’t want to answer to any lords. It was rough going getting started for them because they are very suspicious of strangers, maybe they don’t consider themselves citizens of any country by residing here, on the frontier between Gwalchmai and the Overlord realm.’’ Her voice held a melodious edge that made listening to a near-hypnotic experience.

‘’I don’t really think… there’s any need for retribution or JUSTICE over what happened. The mercenaries attacked and tried to sack the place but the militia was quick to answer because such attacks aren’t too rare, they happened once a year on average they just didn’t… try to help me’’ Hecate features briefly twisted in frustration and bottled anger. ‘’It wasn’t really bad, they just believe me to be cursed so didn’t want anything to do with me. At least, they gave me food and the old woman I was living with took enough pity on me to give me a roof.’’ Then her last remark came out in a whisper. ‘’I’ve had much worse’’

That was also when Gwendolyn returned with one garb in the form of a dark red tunic that, for a moment, made you wonder if it wasn’t drenched in blood. Thankfully your eyes were just playing tricks on you.

‘’Should be about your size, why don’t you go see her, she’ll help ya cut this thing to fit your wings. Don’t worry, Adaeze is a pro with clothcraft, it’s her secret little guilty pleasure.’’ Her single eye closed in a wink while the leader of the scorpion coughed to interrupt her liege, and then gesture for the biggest tent.

For a moment Hecate looked lost, her demonic eyes trailed to you and she only got up when you nodded a go ahead and keeping her face downcast she disappeared behind the tent with a strangely eager Girthablilu in tow.

‘’Girl had it pretty hard’’ You spoke to your liege as the both of you kept staring at the tent.

‘’Yeah’’ she answered with a sigh. ‘’Don’t surprise me. Monsters, in general, don’t like bugs-type, the only exception I can think of at the beetles that took part in the rebellion. All the other races?’’ Gwen ended her sentence in an annoyed ‘’tsk’’

‘’There're the eyes, people are a bit superstitious with mutations, everyone she stared at must have believed her to be oozing corruption or worse; assumed her to be a blood mage. Bollocks to both I say, monsters aren't walking biohazard no matter what the church tell you. I doubt a proper blood mage would have let themselves caught like that… but I guess I'm being naive here, a little willing to believe that Hecate. ’’

You could only grimace at those words. ‘’Think we can get some more info if your royal guard goes knocking at that hamlet?’’

But the Overlord shook her head, not answering right away. Instead, she cast a downward glance at the campfire whilst the many eye-stalks twitched around her like living serpents. You’ve gotten used to that by now.

‘’I think the villagers were one natural disaster away from burning her up, she’s better off away from them. Whether they were human or monsters don't matter to me, they’re well outside my realm and don’t deserve my protection. We just took one cursed existence off their hands, sending in my squad to knock some heads together will just make them all resentful, even if I want –do- want to fuck with em for making a cute girl suffer like that.’’

Then the Gazer observed you, her single big eye colored in red didn’t hold the unsettling tone of the moth by the single fact of possessing a visible iris.

‘’I just don’t know what to do for her. Is her condition contagious? Is she a menace to other people? Was she simply born with an unfortunate, harmless mutation? Does she even want our help?’’

The little Overlord shook her shoulders.

‘’What do you think Arawn?’’

>Free choice.

>Do you also want to question someone else tonight, or move on?

>>160365

>Besides, we have a soft spot for unfortunate insect types and you know it.

Really? So you want to talk to Hecate some more? That'll also advance things to the next day.

You and the girls exchange a few glares, Devona, in particular, understood Hecate situation very quickly so all of you had a few ideas as to the moth definition of ‘’kindness.’’

‘’Could you elaborate, please?’’ You ask her, which provoke an uncertain expression to settle on her face and a few dangerous twitches of those lovely fuzzy antennas.

‘’Um…’’ this time her voice drops to a whisper, prompting the group surrounding her to close in as if to prevent anyone else from overhearing.

‘’That big mountain and… that creepy mage wanted to…use me’’

Gwendolyn interrupts her with a growl but soon nod her head for the moth to continue. ‘’He didn’t let them. He kept saying that doing that with a…monster… would damn the entire company, that they’d lose the blessing of the Mother, that sex without love is an insult to Her very conception. He… never let go really, going as far as arguing openly and bringing the other men into it, forcing the two leaders to choose between lust or their faith. The tension in camp was very, very high.’’

Then she softly added. ‘’He was also the only one to give me food and take me out of the tent to do my…business. I don’t think he’s a bad man.’’

>Free choice