The young noble looked nervous, and her steps were all jittery. What was strange was the dungeon—arguably a more dangerous place—had her much calmer. Whatever was bothering her must have been very serious. Moving along the unpaved path, the ground slowly turned from dusty soil into an almost gritty, rock-like surface. The mountain started to appear more ragged and rocky. The heat was also much more severe. Rennia chalked it up to volcanic activity.
As the sky slowly seemed to close above them, Maeve grabbed her wrist, pulling herself toward Rennia, and started whimpering.
"Can we stick really close? This place is really off."
"Yeah." She took Maeve's hand. "If you're uncomfortable, just say so. Should be an easy job. I've dealt with a spirit like this before, although in a group."
"No group here."
"No."
It was creepy. But having faced husks, monster trees, and bandits, a dark cavern was the least of Rennia's concerns. The air was thick and humid in here, which made it incredibly hard to put up a good fight. They were in a disadvantageous environment.
A giggle caught her attention as the cave narrowed inward, and a naked figure ran deeper into the darkness. There was something oddly familiar about its shape. The short blonde hair was very familiar. The naked individual giggled as she ran, then whispered her name.
"Rennia." The voice called out to her. It sounded much like Lyanna's, but it couldn't be—Lyanna wasn't anywhere near Ivarcant. She knew an illusion if she saw one. She wasn't going to fall for it.
Illusionists were a problem and contributed to the few reasons why adventurers ended up in caskets. Whether it was mimics or doppelganger bandits, it really wasn't something to laugh about.
"Stay close, Maeve. Don't believe anything you see in here," Rennia stated, her blade already gripped. She removed Maeve's hand from her own, and then her fingers gripped the empty air.
"Maeve?" she spun around, frantic. The space where Maeve had been was absent. Not a sound or a trace. Nothing at all. Her eyes widened. "Maeve!" her chest convulsed, panicking.
Her shouting was in vain. There were zero signs of her in the space she occupied. She turned her head and heard footsteps running. A coin fell to the ground in the thick mist. She scrambled toward it.
Definitely Maeve's. She crouched to pick it up and held the coin under the needle of her eye.
The cavern was one-way—she couldn't have gotten far, Rennia chanted to herself. "A river's glide and an eagle's wing, great old winds, make my feet spin! [Quicken]!"
Her feet moved like lightning, skittering over rocks and obstacles, moving through narrow corridors. She saw them running ahead, a grimoire in Maeve's hand and a green spectral woman around her like a puppet. The spectral woman giggled when she spotted Rennia.
"Maeve, stop!"
There was no response.
"Oh no you don't!" The spirit called out. She cast a spell, which sent Rennia tumbling. A wave of rocks flew her way. Rennia dodged effortlessly and pursued.
She gritted her teeth. How could they have moved so fast when she was magically enhanced?
Just how big was this fucking cavern?
Slowly but surely, she was gaining pace, positioning herself directly behind Maeve. She lunged into the darkness, holding her sword out like an arrow, gliding through the air. Maeve was on the cusp of her fingertips—she just had to wedge the sword into the specter. Fly with it and then she'd grab her.
Maeve turned her face, eyes glowing, brought her grimoire out, and cast a spell against Rennia. "[Rock Formation]!"
A gigantic stalagmite stuck its way in front of Rennia's face. She bounced back, narrowly dodging being impaled by Maeve's magic, and took a moment to gather her breath.
She had lost them. The naked Lyanna-like figure giggled and ran deeper with her companion. Rennia's heart sank but then settled. She was wrong all kinds of wrong. proportions off by a marginal measurement. Voice a little too soft. Not lyanna, which was a serious relief. But why was she able to see what Maeve couldn't?
There was no telling what the spirit would do. Typically they weren't evil and didn't kill people out of malice, but a trickster was a trickster and the environment she was in was concerning.
She heard the sloshing of what sounded like moving water to the side passage. Walked slowly, gathering her energy, sipping on a mana potion to regain bits of her mana. She saw steam rise from a hole, stepped forward, and peered down. Light came from the hole below—it was far, about four meters. Survivable easily if she jumped with focus. What bothered her was that the cave system was a narrow maze.
The greatest issue was that she didn't know Maeve's location. For whatever reason, she was unaffected by the spirit's effects.
Someone tapped on her shoulder softly. "Ahem... yoohoo." She spun around, jumping up and down, nearly falling down the crevice. Her face went pale as snow. A green-colored specter stood before her, smiling. She had the appearance of a young woman—naked, with leafy patterns inscribed on her body. Perky tits that immediately put Rennia in a trance of lust.
"Looking for your friend?"
Rennia burst out in outrage. "You filthy spirit whore, what did you do with her?"
The spirit walked slowly back and forth, finger in her mouth, smirking horribly at her. "Oh, nothing much. It's just that all who come here need to pay their tithes. And she has to pay hers. How she'll do that is a matter between me and her."
"What are you planning to do?"
"Only what she secretly wants, all consensual of course! teehee~"
Rennia brought her arms around and slapped her across the face. Her hand slipped right through, and the spirit giggled. In turn, she took Rennia's finger and twisted it slightly, causing her to scream.
Before she had left for the town, Ishmere had taught her a protective spell that could hurt anything. She used it immediately. "[Channel Spirit]!"
A wave of energy was expelled from Rennia, pure mana, It chipped at the spirit.
The spirit backed away, annoyed, as if the spell had affected her indeed.
"You're rude, aren't you, Rennia Perillion?"
She was startled, taken aback. "You know my name?"
She was smug again, the frown disappearing. "Of course. Your friend is telling me all about you as we speak. And who knows—I may have entered your mind while you slept last night."
Panic appeared on Rennia's face, but the spirit wasn't done speaking. "What kind of people enter someone's home without permission and without gifts?"
Rennia rejected her premise—it was fiction. The mountain couldn't belong to her, not if the springs were the town's ownership. "That's not true. They said you moved in. You should leave. Let's negotiate without a fight."
She shook her head. "Ahaha. I was sent here by none other than my sweet Lady Ember. I've a job to do, and you adventurers are getting in the way. So either pay your dues or leave by force."
"Ember?" Rennia asked. The name had rung something inside her, but nothing she knew. Almost like she should know it.
"That's not relevant at all. Look, if you want your friend in one piece, you have to play a little game with me."
Rennia shook her head. "I don't make deals with devils, demons, fae, tricksters, peddlers, or lawyers. So get out of my face and give Maeve back."
"I don't think so. You want your girlfriend back. You owe me something, and I want it."
"I have nothing to give you, so kill this facade."
She shook her head. "Nah, you're different. My illusions don't affect you, and oh—what is this?" Her hands trailed lower, toward Rennia's crotch, wrapping around her penis through the fabric, phasing through her body. Cold phantom touches.
"Ah—! Fuck!" Rennia jerked, but could not pull away. Her touch was wrong, electric but soo goood~
"A woman with a penis," she purred at her, stroking slowly at her. "How very rare. And would you look at all this hunger, you have." Rennia was throbbing, and in the spirit's grip, her cock had lengthen strecthed a bit father than it should. "I haven't seen anyone like this since I met the Queen of hearts. She was hungry like you?"
A disarmed Rennia, inquired into this. "Queen of hearts? Explain to me!"
"That would be a violation of my job!"
Queen of hearts, it had to be the same figure Arosia had alluded to. That was curious and who was ember, did she have something to do with this?
"Anyway, it's time to play!" she winked her eyes, playfully.
Rennia's eyes narrowed, but before she could inquire, she was pushed backwards, her feet tripping, as she fell down the hole.
"You bitch!"
The spirit giggled, echoing from above.
Rennia rolled to her side, trying to change the trajectory of her fall, but her leg got caught by a rock mid-air, altering her trajectory. She fell on her head. Everything went dark.