Work Text
SPRING 6017
Alarm blared as Chieftainess Serafeen actively attempted to create a portal to the moon. She was almost finished with her portal, she simply needed to finish the last few sigils. Unluckily, it'd take longer than she'd like as all of her researchers had fled the scene, feigning concern over the safety of the portal. She knew that was nonsense, however. The portal was perfectly safe. She just needed to-A massive explosion occurred, although Serafeen would never see it.Damijana was swiftly destroyed in one fell swoop via this explosion, and the effects would soon hit other cities...~~~~~~~~"What the fuck was that?" Skylie muttered as she heard a massive, distant explosion. She knew it wasn't her imagination, as Rook, Kinglet, Queenlet (A new monster Saraia had made for Darshaan to ride once she got older), and Darshaan turned their heads to the southwest, where the explosion came from. She also heard the crowd of people Saraia was giving a speech to for the Naturalists party murmur concerned about the sound."Anyway, these solar panels will allow for great amounts of energy without much maintenance! Think about that! The Zareen energy problem, gone in days!" Saraia continued her speech after everything calmed down."What was that, though?" Darshaan asked, wincing after Skylie put a drop of disinfectant into his eye socket. It seemed his eyes would always rot away after he resurrected, making him permanently blind after a few months. Saraia had diagnosed it as a permanent residual curse from when he was being controlled by the Crescent mask. Skylie had taken to keeping his eyes from getting infected, although Darshaan was fine with it."I dunno..." Skylie said, finishing putting drops into Darshaan's eyes and put the eye drops away into her bag. "Hope it isn't anything serious..."~~~~~~~~"Okay, we all good to go?" Saraia asked as she finished answering questions to Zareenite news anchors. Skylie nodded."Hey, do we know what that thing was yet?" Darshaan asked, facing the wall. Skylie gently pushed his arm to make him turn in the right direction."Uh, no, but let's go now, all this iron's making me sick..." Skylie said, getting Kinglet and Queenlet into their travel cage and strapping them onto Rook as she mounted her, Darshaan and Saraia following along. "Hey, what's all of that yelling outside?"The gang went outside to see a massive black rock crash right in front of them, making Rook jump backwards slightly. Skylie saw more falling from the sky as people were fleeing from the rocks, some being crushed by them."Well then, that's not an explosion that's local," Saraia commented. "Well, gotta go!" Rook leaped over the rock and ran down the street, dodging falling rocks as she bounded down the road."Shit!" A nearby succubus fell over, and Skylie quickly led Rook over to her and grabbed her by her top's collar and managed to drag her on with Saraia's help."Rook, think you can fly us out of here?" Skylie asked Rook, who quickly started making a running start for taking off and took to the sky, flapping as her armed magically became membranous wings, Saraia and Skylie holding onto the succubus as she clung on.
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Rook landed near some people who had evacuated Driza with a clumsy landing as Darshaan and Iriana, the succubus Skylie had saved, fell off the monster. Skylie hopped off as Saraia checked on Kinglet and Queenlet."Thanks for getting me outta there," Iriana said, rubbing the back of her neck."No problem!" Skylie responded. "Wanna stay with us for a bit?""Uh, sure... Not like I'll be heading back to Driza, look." She pointed to Driza in the distance, which was smoking from fires."Well, we could try going up to Zareen Capital...?" Saraia tried, and Iriana shrugged."Sounds like everyone who got out is planning to do that as well," Darshaan said."Okay, then, everyone back on Rook, we're goin to Zareen Capital!" Skylie said, and Rook laid down to let everyone on."Well, I am a succubus..." Iriana started nervously."Uh, I'll rail you when you need to be railed," Saraia said, and Darshaan shrugged before nodding in agreement.~~~~~~~"WADDA YOU MEAN GIT BACK TO WERK!?!?" A dworfen man yelled at Empress Qara as she told the refugees from Driza and Viersen, which had gotten affected by the disaster as well, to get back to work... In homes destroyed by the recent disaster. People started to echo his complaint."Really? It isn't that bad! Just rebuild, we'll send the materials over," Qara scoffed before turning away. The noise turned into a cacophony of protests, making Skylie have to cover her ears, only for her to quickly pop her ears open and shut to hear the noise as a manageable on and off of shouts and silence.Some time later, the gang left the plaza where the protest was still happening, and Iriana almost keeled over, drenched in sweat."S-sorry, guys... Just-just hafta sit down," Iriana stammered out before flopping over Rook's back."Geez, that's bad, maybe we should see a doctor?" Skylie asked, before being slapped in the back of her head by Saraia."You know how expensive that'd be!? Even if she's just having a hot flash or something, we'd be three broke divines and a succubus for gods-know-how-long!""Oh... Sorry...""I... I feel that we should check what's going in in Damijana..." Iriana said as she slightly supported herself."That's a solid idea," Skylie said. "Wanna go down there?""Yeah! I'm done with this empire, let's go!" Over 100 citizens of Driza and Viersen approached them, and Saraia shrugged."Guess it's exodus time," She said. "C'mon, ya lot. We're going now, and we ain't waitin'."
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"Wow... Guess they made the disaster and didn't live long enough to brag about it..." Saraia said, as the gang and the refugees crested the hill leading to the city Damijana, which had been destroyed and turned into a husk of buildings that were burning blue fire like great torches, and were mostly underwater. Skylie spotted a few smoke towers from near the water, and pointed to them."Should we ask them?" Skylie asked Saraia, and the elfenne nodded. Rook carefully walked down the steep hill, Saraia growing a vine from a seed in her bag onto the ridge, growing it as Rook traveled down and a dworf on the top of the hill grabbed it and slowly rappelled down, followed by other people who followed along.Eventually, Rook leapt the remaining distance, and Saraia grew the vine onto a nearby piece of rubble before dropping it to the ground as Rook padded over to the nearest campsite.Several Damijani citizens panicked and threw spells at the gang, but Saraia jumped off of Rook and made a large rock wall in front of Rook. She grew a second vine rope and climbed up the vine to peek over the wall."Hey- Stop lobbing spells, we wanna help out!" Saraia yelled as she dodged fire spells. Eventually the fires died down, and a single, terrified elfenne peeked behind the rock wall, stumbling over when Saraia dropped down."Geez, skittish much?" Saraia commented, and Skylie threw a rock at her. "Sorry""W-what d-do y-y-you m-mean b-by help us?" The elfenne asked, quaking in her boots."Hey, we saw Damijana on fire and decided to help y'all out," Darshaan said, pointing at Damijana."But first, we just wanna know what happened here, like, why is Damijana on fire?" Saraia asked, and the elfenne nodded."W-well, we don't know... But some are theorizing Chieftainess Serafeen's Project Starlight failed and destroyed our home..." She explained, and Saraia chuckled as she looked at what Skylie realized was the husk of the Iron Spire, now the tallest remaining object albeit sliced in half."Well then, that went well, people got killed as far as Driza!" Saraia remarked. "Also, weren't these made of iron? So she somehow made such a destructive explosion, using magic may I add, that it melted iron. Magic can't melt steel," She added. "Also, this explosion had to be so fucking hot it vaporized people, because I ain't seein' too many red elves on this beach or in the water!""Wait... This water... It's..." Skylie finally noticed how clear the water was. Instead of being polluted with whatever Damijana was spilling into the seas, the water was clear, beautifully so. She could even see the bottom of the water, where more rubble lay."Clear, we know. It's actually rather pretty," The elfenne said wistfully as she approached the water. "Clean even, if too salty to drink. A river also formed somehow, and we've been drinking from it. Even clearer...""Well then, wanna rebuild?" Saraia offered, and the Zareenites shrugged and started to push and carry stones to an area to help rebuild.~~~~~~~Thousands of miles away, in a castle wracked with disrepair and bones, a woman screamed as a drau flew out of a window, screaming before he fell to the ground and died from the impact."Can no one in this gods forsaken kingdom figure out what the hell is wrong with me!?" Overlord Morgause of the Unseelie Court screeched, and her adhene physician shook her head, terrified as she flew to stay out of Morgause's range. Morgause soon fell onto her throne, sobbing. Soon, a kobold messenger rushed through the throne room's door, falling to his knees out of respect as Morgause caught the letter he sent flying and ripped it open.Inside was a map of southwest Evik, where a large X was marked where Damijana itself was, with the words Damijana has been destroyed? Potential source of The Great Sick? Scribbled near it. Morgause stared at the map before folding it up and stuffing it into her dress right next to her hip."TANYA!" Morgause yelled at the adhene, who yelped. "Get an exploration fleet set up, we're goin' to Damijana!
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"Okay, we have housing! That's good!" Skylie said as she looked at the clusters of housing the new village of Damiscend (A name voted on by the Damijani survivors and Zareenite refugees as a memorial to the Damijani and as a hope to ascend the disaster), which were enough for everyone in the village to sleep the night in. The villagers had decided to build the houses, made of Damijana rubble and mud as mortar, on top of a large ridge surrounding most of the new bay, where some people had even managed to catch fish, albeit hardy ones like salmon. The ridge they were building on was reasonably wide, allowing for clusters of small, single-room houses to be built without too much odd construction."Yep, not too shabby," Saraia said as she climb the highest point of the ridge to admire the work. They, along with Iriana and Darshaan, were staying in a hut on that hill, primarily as defense, since the ruins of Damijana, which were slowly yet surely collapsing and crumbling as the days went by, weren't in the line of sight to the ocean and allowed them to watch the entrance to the bay created by the explosion, which people were referring to as Project Starblast, for any threats. Combined with Saraia's elven vision, they could easily spot enemies from far away."Anyway, I'mma check out that odd hut I was hearing voices in, be right back!" Skylie said as she hopped onto Rook's back and the monster took off to the hut she had been investigating a bit. Rook landed close to the hut, and Skylie jogged in, bringing out a soul matrix Saraia had gifted her for the purpose, a golf ball-sized crystal worked into the shape of a skull. She went into the hut and started to charge the soul matrix. She began to hear the rambling of something that wasn't there, and a small piece of paper in the hut caught on fire.Slowly yet surely, Skylie began to charge the matrix up, and the hut began to heat up as Skylie began to sweat more and more profusely - But also spotted a red elf in black clothing stare at her angrily, as it began to scream at her about Project Starlight and ruining her plans.Suddenly, the matrix released all of its energy, blowing Skylie into the wall behind her, making Skylie fall down with a grunt.She got herself onto her shoulder only to see a very pissed off Chieftainess Serafeen glare at her. However, she was translucent, a ghost now."Well?" Serafeen said sharply, making Skylie blink. "Are you going to at least attempt to continue Project Starlight iron-blooded squealer?""Uh, I don't have your research papers..." Skylie said, and Serafeen shrieked and attempted to burn Skylie, which resulted in little, although Skylie's hair was lightly singed. "Geez! Whaddya want me to do?! Somehow summon your research from my ass?!""Grr, free me from this ghostly prison and I'll do it myself!" Serafeen growled, and Skylie shrugged."I have no clue how to do that... But I'll make a deal. You promise not to hurt me and aid me in fights when I request it, and I'll try to figure out how to free you, but no promises I'll be able to or even make you able to repeat Project Starlight.""Fine. I promise to do you no harm and assist you upon request..." Serafeen growled, and Skylie beamed."Anyway, that was all I wanted to do here, and I'mma head back to my pad now," Skylie said, and headed out, and Serafeen silently gasped. "What? The natural beauty nice? We're guessing your experiment magically scrubbed the earth, making it habitable. We even catch fish in the bay!""I-I didn't know..." Serafeen said quietly. "A moment, please..." Serafeen quickly faded away, but Skylie felt her in her mind, seemingly rambling about whether the Council was wrong about the outside world and nymphs or not. She hopped back onto Rook and flew back up to Saraia, who was now peering into a spyglass, and Skylie looked towards the bay entrance and saw several good-sized ships, one flying the Unseelie Court's flag and the other two sporting the Damijani flag."What should we do?" Skylie asked, and Saraia simply said, "Give 'em hell. We've been eating reasonably good despite our conditions as the Zareenite packed a lotta food for the trip, that shits lasts forever, and the Damijani scavenged a buncha stuff for themselves too.""Oh! I also reforged the Divine Executioner for you, Skylie!" Darshaan said as Iriana gave her a sword that looked like the Divine Executioner's sibling. "I managed to make a replica of it, however, still used to fighting with it." Skylie unsheathed it and looked at it. "Same features as the Executioner, but it'll return to you with your will!""So I could throw it?""If you want to!"Anyway, what's going on? Serafeen asked from Skylie's mind, and Skylie said, We're about to fight the Unseelie and likely those coming in from Slegelse.Well, try to call for parley if you can, Serafeen responded, then added, I'll help if needed, however. Skylie's sword lit on fire, and Skylie quickly said, "Serafeen's helping me out, I accidentally made her a ghost and we made a deal that she helps me out and I try to find a way to un-ghost her.""The future could bring anything, but right now magic can't do that without sending her to the afterlife," Saraia said bluntly, and Serafeen said, Well, when that day comes I'll be ready. Skylie noticed the people down below seemingly getting ready for a fight.~~~~~~~The Unseelie and Damijani armies were fighting each other right on the beach as the Damiscendii villagers charged them, Skylie flying astride Rook and sending waves of flames down with the Celestial Blade with Serafeen's aid, and Darshaan and Saraia waded into the fight wielding Executioner and spearstaff, right before Overlord Morgause yelled, "Why the hell are we fighting, PARLEY!"Immediately everyone stopped fighting, and Skylie landed Rook close to Morgause as the leader of the Slegelse troops jogged up followed by Saraia."Okay, so all of the monsters in Unseelie have been down with a Great Sick, and we only know the origin of it is related to Damijana, which somehow got destroyed..." Morgause started, and the Slegelse leader took off his hat."We lost connection to the capital, and we investigated... The shock we received..." He said, looking despondently at the ruins, and on cue a tower collapsed into the bay as he wiped a tear from his eyes."Well, we'll gladly accept more hands to help us make something from the ashes, we've been doing that shit for the last month or two," Saraia said, pointing her thumb at Damiscend. "We've called it Damiscend Village.""W-well, not like we'll have much to work for anymore, eh?" The leader of Slegelse said as the others with him walked to the village, and Morgause looked on."Well, we'll try to figure out what it is, then... I'll be making a visit to the World Athenaeum to figure out what the hell's wrong with us monsters..." She said before turning to her crew. "C'mon, next stop is Matuzu Capital!""Damn, I'm starting to feel Project Starblast did a lot more than destroy Damijana and cities in Zareen, hell, maybe this had global repercussions," Skylie said ponderously, then turned to join the villagers back up the hill.
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SUMMER 6017
"Wait, you're growing crops?" Skylie asked the drau, stunned. Not all of the Unseelie expedition followed Morgause: In fact, many stayed behind."Well, we planted some recently, and they sprouted," He repeated. "Just outside the ridge, matter of fact. Ain't much, but we expect the crop to come in just before winter next year.""Well, that's certainly good... Nature's recovering from Damijana..." Skylie muttered. "Anyway, how about our attempts at constructing fortifications?""Well, those are going pretty well, we're sending the odd diving team down to recover materials from the ruins."I honestly don't mind, not like the Damijani are using them, Serafeen said from inside Skylie's head.Technically they are, they're just the survivors, Skylie replied.~~~~~~~~"Impossible... And you said Damijana was in ruins, Overlord Morgause?" The PPL researcher asked Morgause in awe: They had detected souls in every monster they've tested, from Duali skorpius, Unseelie and Seelie faerys, to demons who came in conflicted about how much they started to feel towards their prey, spriggans and the odd changeling who could communicate, to even newer monsters such as merrow, saraians, and various monsters in coastal Noalen."Uh, yes... The survivors said it was destroyed, and Serafeen, who's a ghost now and bound to a Skylie Teyvat in the area via a deal they made, said it was because Project Starlight failed. They're calling the disaster Project Starblast.""Well, if that's the case, I have a potential theory for this: The sheer amount of magic emanating from Project Starblast was too much for Gaia to handle forever, and She was forced to displace it, thus requiring she make monsters have souls. I do not believe this will be passed down to newborn monsters..."
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AUTUMN 6017
"Wow! We harvested a lot this season!" Skylie remarked at the cartloads of food rolling into the village as more rolled back to harvest more. "And to think none of us actually knew how to do large scale farming!""Yeah, best we had was me having a garden during my time in the woods for 6 centuries, Darshaan knowing some stuff, and me using some botanical magic to guarantee the plants stayed alive," Saraia commented, grabbing a grapevine from a passing cart and eating the grapes. "Really good, too.""Well, wanna do a-" Skylie started before a Damijani survivor rushed into the village, obviously frightened."Limniad!" She cried, and Saraia and Skylie were both shocked."Limniad?" Skylie said, and whistled for Rook. "We gotta see this! Take us to her! She's unlikely to bite!" Saraia hopped onto Rook as the monster bounded onto the scene, followed by Skylie and the elfenne. Rook followed her pointing, and soon Skylie saw a naked green female limniad wandering the harvested grapevines with a basket of grapes, seemingly lost."Hey, you good? What's your name?" Skylie said happily as she looked at Damiscend's first ever limniad, maybe even the first nymph this side of Evik since Zareen and Damijana got out of control with their pollution."My name's Grappa," She said calmly, then approached with the grapes. "She dropped this.""Thanks. You might wanna bury yourself so you don't freeze to death, though," Saraia said as she took the grapes."I felt like I was supposed to, I just wanted to return these before I did," Grappa said before digging a small hole into the ground for herself and burying herself in it."Anyway, now that we have all of that wrapped up, wanna have a harvest festival?" Skylie asked Saraia, and the divine nodded."Especially since a limniad showed up!" Saraia added.~~~~~~~~A few days later, the harvest was all in and stored away, save for the food in the feast."First off, a toast!" Saraia declared as she stood up onto the table she, Skylie, Darshaan, and Iriana were sitting at. "To life, freedom, and the fact a limniad was born in the vineyard a few days ago!" Saraia was joined by the entire village as she downed her cup of grape juice."So that's why there was that massive fucking grape..." An ogre near Skylie muttered."Yeah, no exploiting the poor nymphs for their fruits, I'll smite you personally," Skylie said, flicking him with a grape."Okay, I guess..." He said as he looked back. A human near him asked, "Didn't she mention she was raised in Evangeline, like, the other day?""I did, and there we respect the nymphs. So do so or I'm smiting you."
WINTER 6017
"Okay then, now that the village is settling down for the winter, I'mma run to my aunt's palace to attend Amber's 2nd birthday party," Skylie said to Darshaan she she packed Rook's saddlebags for the trip. She heard Saraia going down on Iriana in their hut, Saraia seemingly on top and calling Iriana a slut."Okay, take care, we'll try not to die until you get back," He said, waving to her as she took off.I'd hope we didn't die at all, personally, Serafeen commented, and Skylie chuckled."Yeah, hope we got enough in for everyone..."
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"C'mon, gotta get there before it's too late..." Skylie urged Rook to run faster as they ran through the Matuzu Capital's dragonport and into the city as she tried to get to Uekoro for Amber's birthday party. She had wished to get here the day before, but weather had been bad off the coast of Serkel, so she had to slow down.She and Rook rocketed out of the gates north to Uekoro, Rook quickly finding the train and racing along the train tracks to Uekoro, effortlessly racing past the train as Skylie was placing the finishing touches on a magical jewel she was crafting using her divinity powers and the Crescent Masks as inspiration as Rook raced along, and attempted to leap over the wildebeest pulling it...Only to not make it, and Skylie held onto the Vision as Rook and she attempted to survive the wildebeest group, Rook extricating them from the beasts and sprinting ahead only for Skylie to spot Kaconean raiders charging to the train."Oh for fuck's sake," Skylie groaned as she activated the Celestial Blade and sent it flying into the zebra riders as Rook took off, the blade blazing with Serafeen's flames and wreaking havoc in the Kaconeans as Rook breathed fire onto them and Skylie started lobbing fire with Serafeen's aid to destroy the Kaconeans before continuing to Uekoro."SKORPIUS!" Skylie heard the train conductors yell, and she spotted dozens of monsters, including skorpius, running down the path."Ignore 'em, Rook, we're late as it is," Skylie grumbled, and Rook took off into the air, flying just low enough to slice the skorpius in half as spriggans and drau ducked to avoid being slain before taking off into the air to Uekoro."Sorry!" Skylie yelled back as Rook flew as fast as she could into the air.~~~~~~~~"FINALLY!" Skylie sighed as she spotted Uekoro Village just ahead. The village, really a massive city of stone with an endearing name, had a massive main plaza Rook landed in, villagers and others dodging Rook as Skylie saw some tourists take photos as Rook hit the ground sprinting up to Uekoro Palace, Celestial Blade still flying back to Skylie.Finally, Skylie had gotten up to Uekoro Palace, the Vision finally complete for Amber's birthday present, a lovely ruby sphere with a stylized flame in its center, and a golden frame. The guards at the door let her and Rook in, knowing them well enough, one guard giving Rook a quick head scratch as she walked in after Skylie.Not bad, for a palace, Serafeen voiced as she looked around the Uekoro palace in Skylie's head.She heard talking near the decorative pool, and spotted Cyana and Angeline with Amber, and called out, "I'm here!"As expected, Amber squealed, "AUNTY SKYSKY" and began to try to crawl to Skylie before Skylie hopped off of Rook and hugged her older sister."I didn't think you'd be here!" Cyana said after they separated, and Skylie nodded."I was rushing over here, believe me," Skylie huffed. "Believe me, I have had an insane year since after you left. Anyway, present!" She gave her Vision to Amber, who babbled as she took it and investigated the Vision. As expected, a small flurry of sparks erupted from the gem as Amber attuned to it, Amber being both surprised and delighted by the display."A gem...?" Cyana asked Skylie as she looked at it, having not noticed the gem make sparks, or maybe not realize it wasn't Amber doing it."It's more powerful then you think, although it's just a gem for now... Anyway, wanna hear my story of the last 6 months?""Yeah. Start when you were in Driza. There was a disaster there, right?""Oh, yeah, that. Well, that happened like a week after y'all left, and it was where I was gonna start anyway...""And that leaves me here!" Skylie beamed, Amber smiling as well. Cyana, Angeline, Jelani, and Azura were varying levels of surprised."So... Let me get this straight..." Cyana started, with her hand to her temple. "You're telling me Damijana, via Serafeen's Project Starlight, exploded, destroying Driza and Viersen as well, their citizens abandoned Zareen for this little village you're building from Damijana's rubble, and Serafeen herself is permanently bound to you as a ghost you accidentally made by trying to exorcise her, and a limniad spawned in magically scrubbed land around Damijana from a grapevine?""Yup. If Asha wants to, she can check my memories myself!""Well then, I shall, just to verify..." Asha said as Skylie felt her very obviously prodding in her brain. It felt highly uncomfortable, but Skylie stuck through it until Asha said, "Yes, it's all accurate. She's also friends with a succubus by the name of Iriana Liatt whom she saved while escaping Driza.""That's true! She's also how we figured out something happened to Damijana, as she started feeling faint and whatever. I also heard talk of the World Athenaeum suggesting monsters gained souls from the excess magical energy...""Okay, then... That's news..." Cyana muttered.