Chapter 154 – The Daughters

Aki

‘At least Lilyth won’t be the only one with tattoos on her face,’ Caei laughed after taking care of my most serious wounds.

The whole healing process was very unpleasant as Caeileera couldn't use the [Soothe Pain] spell due to being very low on mana and Lilyth compared me to a Terran animal called hejhog, which apparently were those cute little things with spikes on their back. Unfortunately, in my case, those were sharp bone shards, and they didn't grow out of me. Let’s just say that wasn't a particularly fun fifteen minutes of my life.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked my wife.

She wordlessly took out a small mirror and handed it over to me. To my unpleasant surprise, there were now glowing red rectangles on my cheekbones. Then I noticed that something was off with my hair too. Were my hair tips glowing purple?

With trepidation, I checked the interface

Status: Elemental Contamination - Hellfire

Level: 1 - Minor

Effects:

• Minor reversible cosmetic changes to the body
• Increased effectiveness of Hellfire Arcana-based spells, abilities and traits
• Decreased effectiveness of other Water Arcana-based spells, abilities and traits

Note: The contamination will clear in about six weeks.

Shieeeet.

Still, something felt off and I reread the message.

Six weeks? SIX WEEKS?! Lilyth's contamination was supposed to last far shorter! It is because she is a sentient jelly, isn't it?

Well… those glowing rectangles did look cool, so maybe it wouldn't be that bad and my two new abilities - [Abyssal Barrier] and [Jet of Hellfire] were well worth it.

Lilyth seemed to agree as she said:

‘They do complement your eyes and hair.’

I felt butterflies in my stomach.

Yay!

I looked around our group. We were all in a pretty sorry state, as we had wounds all over our bodies, the most serious of which were probably Ren’s damaged knee, the nasty wound in Deirdee's stomach, Caei’s sprained wrist and Lilyth's oozing hole in the chest. My alabaster beauty did everything she could to fix them and that wasn't much, even after we agreed to my foxy cutie’s suggestion to skip her for now, as her wound was not life-threatening. The fact it seemed like a logical choice to all of us only served to underscore how deep in shit we all were.

The worst part, however, was the fact that Ren could barely walk, and I was too weak to do so altogether. My first thought was that the archer could use the quarterstaff to support herself but it turned out that I burnt it alongside the woman.

Oops.

Still, our job was not done yet. After Caei patched us up the best she could I asked Lilyth and Deirdee to scout out the side tunnels. Both just led to side crypts, though there seemed to be some sort of a cold spell cast on one of them, likely to preserve bodies longer. So… there was only one place more for us to check.

‘Maybe there will be potions there!’ I laughed after asking my friends to go check it out.

Lilyth

There weren’t any potions behind door number one. What was there was a fairly large chamber with another obelisk in the centre along with some hollow egg under one of the walls. I immediately dismissed the latter as worth our attention. The only thing inside looked to be some sort of open sarcophagus. The obelisk though… Now that was interesting. It was maybe five metres tall, made from some sort of black metal and on the three sides of it, there were very realistic sculptures of screaming young women. They seemed to be coming out of the middle of each side, clawing at air and trying to escape. They were too realistic, in fact. And what was even more worrying was the damaged empty space on the remaining side where the sculpture ought to have been.

There was a trail of rotted out footprints leading away from the obelisk towards the door and growing fainter with each step.

I looked down and saw that the tracks ended around where we were standing with Deirdee.

She walks, I thought grimly.

‘Why do I have a feeling we are in a place we really shouldn’t be?’ Deirdee asked.

The answer to her question came from a system notification.

Quest module activated.

New Quest Acquired: Things Best Left Alone

Type: Mystery (Legendary)

Difficulty: ???

Description: Some things are best left forgotten. And yet you keep wandering into them.

Objectives:

• Discover the identity of the women from the obelisk
• Discover the identity of the woman on the statue from the Tower of Trials
• Discover the identity of She Who Walks

Rewards:

• Unknown

Notice: You really shouldn’t do this.

Notice: This quest cannot be cancelled or declined.

Notice: Did you really think you could get away from this?

I guess not.

I looked at the footprints again. Was this where the horror at the Akh’ret's Mercy had begun?

I remembered the necromancer's missing jaw and the signs of Rot there.

Was this how the Smiling Death ended if the patient survived long enough?

So many questions. So few answers.

The one thing I was sure of, however, was that the obelisk had to go. Ereshkigal’s sword seemed to agree based on the sensations I was getting from it. Still, that was not a decision I could make on my own.

‘Let’s bring in the others,’ I turned to Deirdee.

Deirdee

‘The Daughters!’ Aki exclaimed gleefully when she saw the obelisk.

They all looked at her in confusion and Deirdee could have sworn that she had heard the name before.

‘Umm…’ Ren began. ‘What daughters?’

‘It’s a legend my mom told me about. Basically, hundreds of years ago a group of powerful sorceresses arose and caused mayhem across Andermon. The Daughters couldn't be killed so they and their supporters were sealed away.’

Lilyth looked at the obelisk.

‘Checks out, I guess,’ she muttered and turned to Ren. ‘I’m surprised you haven't heard about that one. I imagine this could be some local “legend”, but it doesn't sound like one and you are from Ror-Bhyk.’

Ren shook her head.

‘Remember, both my parents came from the South. My father wasn't the storytelling kind, and Mom mostly told me stories of the Bloody Perch clan. Still… I agree, this doesn't sound like a local legend at all.’

‘Also, remember that if Lilyth is right about this dating back to at least pre-fall Vandarian Empire, and I suspect she is, then… this place pre-dates Dan-Hem by at least two hundred years,’ Caei pointed out

‘There is also an Y-Ramite ruin here,’ the slimeling added. ‘A second one associated with those… Daughters. So likely this obelisk is likely much, much older. Deirdee? Know anything?’

She shook her head. Still… where did she hear that name before?

‘Maybe Taros will know…’ Lilyth continued, but Deirdee stopped paying attention.

Taros. He mentioned them. In that song.

The words echoed in Deirdee’s mind.

Said the king to his mourning queen,

“The Daughters return near the Tower,”

Yet the struggling mortals may win.

Vae portrayed them as the good guys, but based on what Aki has just said… and the Tooth Horrors… and what happened down here…

Her heart felt like it was going to explode.

‘Guys…’ she interrupted Lilyth. ‘I think we may have a problem.’

Aki

‘The problem is far greater than you think,’ Lily said after Deirdee finished telling us about the song. ‘The King he mentions? That's probably the King Who Commands The Ocean.’

‘Who’s the mourning Queen then?’ Caei mused. ‘Irmen and Nyx said that the King is a fairly obscure deity.’

Deirdee thought about it for a moment.

‘I have never heard about her, but I have heard mentions of a realm called “The Sea of Tears”. I imagine those are not tears of joy.’

‘Okaaay,’ Lilyth picked up the thread again. ‘So we have The King warning some Queen about the Daughters, who are supposedly… What… our secret weapon? Ally?’

‘I find that hard to believe,’ I said, lifting my metal hand for emphasis.

‘I agree with you, hon,’ Lilyth nodded. ‘This is all a load of shit. Which brings up the question of Taros. Why does vae believe that?’

‘Maybe Tee thinks they will help restore the Old Gods to power?’ Deirdee suggested.

‘Makes sense. But that is a deal with the devil and likely a lying one too. From all I’ve seen, the Old Gods genuinely care about the people of Dwynveia. In their own fashion, of course.’

‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘When I accepted her Patronage, Irmen told me they had no interest in winning the Great Game.’

‘There is also that clinic Ereshkigal has in the Realm of Shadow,’ Rennie reminded us. ‘She even asked me to help Teliar run it.’

‘And probably other initiatives we are unaware of,’ my wife agreed. ‘I am fairly certain they are sometimes manipulating us to their ends… but they seem to have the right idea? In fact, I am fairly certain that one of my first quests was given to me by one of the Daughters. And she wasn't happy I chose to forgive Ere.’

She shook her head and continued.

‘Anyway, we can sit here and speculate till the Day of Judgement. Let’s get rid of that thing and leave. We still have a chinwag with Taros on our itinerary, after all.’

Assuming vae is still here.

Lilyth gently handed me over to Caei for support and approached the obelisk with Ereshkigal’s sword at the ready. The plan was for my wife to try to “kill” each woman, and if that didn't work try to hack the whole thing to pieces. She raised the sword to swing when, suddenly, she stopped.

‘Ren… is that what I think it is?’ My wife pointed to some mark.

We all approached. There was a very familiar flowery motif carved there.

‘What is the symbol from my mom's ring doing here?’ I asked.

‘That is an excellent question,’ Lilyth said carefully. ‘Another being… How exactly did your mother learn about the Daughters?’

I had no answer to that and my mind began to race. Several things quickly occurred to me. The first was Bergia’s comment about the women in my family always getting into weird relationships. The second was my mom’s warning about using my powers. What if it wasn't about those of Zekuthran?

Oh no.

‘Y-you don’t think that…’ I began, but Lilyth simply smiled.

‘I don't know what to think, and frankly, I don’t give a fuck. You being potentially a descendant of some ancient sorceress does fill out some gaps, but I haven't got the fuckingest idea how. Like… it has been centuries, if not millennia since the time that cunt last walked on Dwynveia, so even if you are descended from her in a straight line, a concept meaningless in and of itself, it has been so long that this shouldn't matter. Like… probably thousands of people on the continent are related to your presumed ancestor and more to the other daughters. It’s like with Ren and that Terran ancestor of hers.’

‘Unless it is a more recent parentage,’ Caei pointed out. ‘Possibly not all of the Daughters were caught. Or something.’

‘Still… irrelevant,’ Lilyth shrugged. ‘Or it is possible Aki comes from the family of people who caught the Daughters. Fuck knows.

Here it comes.

‘Actually…’ I jumped in and told them about my mom’s warnings.

‘Ah,’ Lilyth said after I finished. ‘There goes that option. Still… does anyone here actually care?’

She looked at the others but they all shook their heads.

‘I mean…’ Ren laughed. ‘I think Lilyth here is the only one without problematic ancestors. Or… I guess creators.’

‘You would be surprised,’ my wife smiled. ‘But yeah, nothing on the level of “head of a criminal family” or “a sadistic Blood God”. And hey, the fleur-de-lis symbol is Terran in origin, so my people are involved in this shitshow too. Anyway…’

Lilyth raised her sword again and plunged it into the heart of one of the women. Glowing blue cracks appeared all over her body and the sculpture shattered. The same happened with the other two, and once the last one was dead the obelisk crumbled to dust.

A message appeared in front of my eyes.

You have successfully cleansed a pocket of quiet, a deed only a few mortals achieved. As a reward you have been awarded three perk points. (Current number of Perk Points: 8)