The Mother of Monsters

Teyva could have drifted over the city, she’d done it before a few times to a great deal of fanfare down below. It was fun, in a narcissistic sort of way. But she wanted to be close to her people even more than she wanted to feed her own ego. And so, after walking over the tall grasses of the wildlands for a few minutes she came to a stop at the walls. She held her hand out and ran her fingers over the glossy surface and could literally feel the mana cycling inside of it. It seemed to draw mana in from the very atmosphere, processing it before releasing it somewhere else. The whole system was far too complicated for her to fully understand, but she got the gist as Paraklytus had tried to explain it to her.

She was not a formally educated Labyrinthian Archmage, though.

Teyva glanced up and with a mental effort created a set of stairs using her abilities, following them up and alighting on the top of the wall. She swept her gaze over the city. Her field of view was still something she was getting used to even after her extra pair of eyes had opened. It was like looking at a panoramic image that she could in turn focus on and zoom into portions with a bit of effort. The ability to see out of what amounted to the side of her head had come in handy on more than one occasion, sometimes boiling down to teasing her daughter who insisted on trying to sneak up on her.

Her chest warmed, she wanted to see her little girl.

Before her, though, was the external city of Osan, beautiful as always and now properly protected with a wall that would turn away all but the strongest ascendants. Just the first obstacle, of course. While her father had adhered to a time-lost tradition of defending his throne with guardians of ever escalating threats, she had no such compunctions. When the time came that the heroes would try to attack her home she would respond with overwhelming force. She had no intention of waiting in the throne room. Her lips thinned and her expression turned dark. No, she would crush them without mercy.

She stepped off the side of the wall and down towards the road below. A path made of stone and other techniques that had resulted in something akin to a paved road. It was nice to walk on level ground now and then. She smiled contentedly to herself as she made her way towards where the buildings began. Already, people were starting to get back to their daily lives after the brief shock that had taken the town with the creation of the walls. Most of them had gotten used to structures appearing out of nowhere as Teyva took full advantage of her new connection to the city as an extension of her will.

She considered using [Alter Self] and slipping into the crowd unnoticed for just a little while, but decided against it. She liked hearing the people’s unfiltered thoughts but didn’t want to deceive them either. As such, she simply stepped into view and was immediately surrounded by a crowd. Smiling Azar, Elves, and even a few Orcs approached her with sparkling eyes and words of greeting and thanks. She took a few hands, and even gave a hug to a little boy who looked at her with momentary fright before she opened her arms for him. 

That was when a rocket of fur and feathers came hurtling in her direction. She set the boy down and got to her feet, bracing herself for the impact. A grin on her face that sent a wave of confusion through the crowd before a few of them gasped in alarm as she was pounced by a careening feline propelled forward by big feathery wings. She pulled Nephral up into her arms, laughing as he purred loudly against her head, rubbing his whiskers against her scaled neck. “Hello Nephral.”

“Magnificent work as always, Mother,” Nephral said, “My heart swells with pride!”

She smiled and let him crawl up onto her shoulder, his tail wrapping around her neck like it always did. She reached up and ran her fingers through his fur and over his wings as he settled in. “Thank you, love,” She said, “Enjoy your nap?”

“Until I was awakened by the rumblings of the earth,” He quipped, folding his wings and resting his head against her chin. “It was quite nice.”

She snorted, “Well sorry for waking you.”

He huffed, “You are forgiven.”

She rolled her eyes and glanced at everyone gathered, “Everyone! I will be making an announcement-” She was about to get down to a spot of business when someone interrupted her.

“Excuse me!” 

The voice was of a young man.

“Shh! Are you crazy? Wait a second!”

That was a woman.

“There’s no point in beating around the bush, she’s right there!”

The young man again.

She scanned the crowd and most of the locals turned around, facing the source. There, at the back of the crowd, two humans were standing and looking decidedly uncomfortable. A young man and a woman looking a bit older than him. Teyva tilted her head, frowning, her gut instinct was the first to react to their presence. She felt… defensive all of a sudden. She narrowed her eyes, confused, it wasn’t like humans were uncommon in Osan. There were a good number of those native to the wildlands who had chosen to side with her over Katal. But these two…

She identified them and everything became extremely clear.

Teyva fixed the two of them with a stare and they both flinched in turn, taking a hesitant step back. They were both actually of a respectably high level for transmigrated heroes, she’d learned through her spies that most heroes didn’t get the various advantages she’d had or experience the same trials and tribulations that forced her to grow in levels rapidly to survive. Sources of experience weren’t exactly and infinite resource near Katal and it grew dangerous the further one explored into the green sea. In short, it meant it took a while to get to where they were.

Not that she wasn’t trying to fatten up the heroes for that sweet sweet experience, she created opportunities every now and then for them but only enough to control their growth and give herself time to remain far ahead.

“I hope you two realize you are grossly underleveled to be here,” She said primly, stroking Nephral’s neck as he growled at them in warning. Nephral himself could probably kill the both of them in short order without her even having to lift a finger.

The woman stepped forward, Delilah, and put herself between Teyva and Mack.

“We didn’t come looking for a fight,” She said hurriedly.

“Wise decision,” Teyva said, “I’m surprised you got in here at all.”

The woman hesitated, “Um… one of us has the aspect of Presence,” She said, looking uncomfortable, and rightly so. Revealing the name of an aspect was the same as giving a hint at its weaknesses. Though she was smart enough not to reveal which one of them had it. “We erased our presence and crossed the Wildlands.”

Teyva raised her eyebrows, “I see. Well you’re the first of your kind to make it here. I suppose you made it in before the walls went up?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

The woman nodded, “Y-yes.”

“You want to talk?” Teyva pressed.

She nodded again, “Yes.”

Teyva let out a sigh, this was going to interfere with her family time and she wanted to start working on her expansion plans. She’d finally decided stop with the passive harassment of Katal and now this happens. It had the smell of System all over it, though she had a feeling another divine being might have had something to do with it. As if to answer her question, she got a smug feeling from somewhere close but distant and let out a sigh. Journey was meddling on her behalf again. She didn’t hate Teyva but she didn’t appreciate being her slave either, she also hated System even more. So she tended to hash out the difference by being a nuisance now and then.

“A quest brought you to me?” She asked, ignoring the growing crowd of people all looking at the heroes with growing hostility.

The two looked at one another with surprise, then back at her, “Um… yes, you know about quests?”

Teyva chuckled, “Why don’t we go to my palace?” She said, gesturing to the tower and the elaborate structure at its peak. “We can talk there, Katali aren’t very welcome here on the streets of Osan.”

As if triggered by her statement, the heroes glanced around and realized that they were on the verge of being strung up by an angry mob of civilians. The only reason the people hadn’t moved in on them was the fact that Teyva was tolerating their presence. Mack swallowed and looked urgently at Delilah who nodded, “R-right, we’ll follow you, your majesty.”

Teyva smirked at her, “We’ll see.”