Chapter Sixty-Two Of the Nest

Clara and Tanyi arrived in the inn later than usual. Arlie waved them over, noting they were mostly naked, especially from the waist down, their visible pussies were swollen, reddish, twitching and leaking a copious amount of fluid, which dribbled down their legs. Their skin was flushed, and their nipples were fully erect poking through the thin fabric of the blouses they were wearing. It seemed that they were still quite aroused.

As they sat down at the table, she asked them a question, “I was beginning to think you two were caught or something.”

Clara giggled, “That might have been hot.”

Tanyi chuckled, then turned as serious as she could, even while her hand wandered between Clara’s legs. “Had a couple close calls, but last night was quite productive. On our way back from the homesteads we stumbled across that devil we spotted with Mirrele, she and her fiends were heading back to the nest so we followed them.”

“You found the nest?”

She grinned, “We sure did, and managed to scout the perimeter.”

Arlie let out a breath. Finding the nest was huge, “Wonderful, where is it?”

“To the South and East of town. Appears fairly well established, it’s a bit off the road, hidden behind a thicket of trees, and magical ward stones that create a barrier to prevent people from stumbling on it. We didn’t risk entering the nest, but we noted several fiend pits, and structures erected.” Tanyi paused and quietly drew out a quick map, to show the group.

Everyone studied it for a moment, well except Terrabeth and Mirrele but they were off at the other inn and compromised.

Clara pointed at one area, “This part of the nest is fenced. We noticed strange vegetation within the area, I couldn’t recognize any of it. There was a structure in the middle, stone, roughly pyramid shaped, obelisks in front of the steps, flattop, with an altar at the top. Behind the altar was an arch of stone with a glowing red portal in the middle.”

Everyone shared looks. Arlie frowned, “You mean there’s an active hell gate?”

“Seems that way.”

They all knew what that meant; such gates were made with blood magic. The fiends had likely sacrificed a number of babies from the town. How many was hard to say.

Lily her voice cracking slightly, “Did you at least confirm where they were taking the babies?”

Tanyi tapped a pit, in the fenced area. “I saw a few of those carts parked near this one. Might be the nursery pit.”

Arlie nodded, “That makes sense, and the rest of the missing children?”

The two shrugged, “We aren’t sure.”

“Well good work, that’s one problem solved.” she paused thinking about Aunt Vivian's last missive. A response to her last updates. “I will inform Aunt Vivian that we located the nest, but we still have a couple of weeks before her reinforcements arrive.”

Tanyi, reading between the lines, commented, “So we are going to sit tight for a bit?”

“I’m still hoping to lure out that devil. If she bites, I might get a few answers, but a direct assault on the nest would be risky. I’d rather an order of knights be at my back.”

“That I understand, but there is another topic we must discuss. We didn’t just locate the nest, we uncovered a couple of other things. First, under the Perth residence, we uncovered a fiend-run fighting ring and brothel. The female guards are participating in rather brutal fights, then being whored out to the fiends after. Rather nasty, but what we found at one of the homesteads might be more concerning.”

Clara nodded, “Yeah, we overheard some fiends talking, hard to say on what, but one of them said: Be careful what you say, Mistress Visha doesn’t exactly approve. If she got wind of what we are doing...”

Arlie frowned, “That sounds like they are hiding something, and I can’t imagine it’s good.”

Tanyi agreed, “Definitely hiding something, and we have an idea about who they are hiding it from. We think they are hiding it from the devil girl you want to lure out.”

Horon interjected, while the twins whispered to each other, “I don’t think we should dawdle much longer. We still need to meet up with Terrabeth and Mirrele.”

“You can all go ahead, I’m going back to the room. I have more books to study and a letter to write. Tanyi I’m going to borrow this map. Come by my room later to collect the letter.”

“Alright we can do that.”

Following the conversation, Arlie walked into the room she was staying at. Now alone with her thoughts and volumes of books on mind magic. Yet she couldn’t help thinking about the nest. Unfortunately, they didn’t really have a way to safely scout the nest.

Sneaking in wasn’t in the cards, they’d be caught if they tried, no questions about that. Without magic to change the score that was. Arlie wasn’t well-versed in the scrying branch of magic, not like her aunt anyway. Her gaze fell on the map, but she wasn’t without knowledge of the branch. Now that they knew where the nest was, she could try a spell or two. If that didn’t work she could maybe send a letter to Aunt Ria, and ask for her help. Yet she’d already received so much help. Maybe a potion would be better? A potion of Spiritwalking would be perfect, the trick was finding the right materials and...

She sighed, that might not work. Even if she had the materials, she didn’t have a ready to use lab. Alchemy required carefully maintained tools, a clean environment, and plenty of time. She might be able to make something if she appropriated the shop of the local apothecary, but there was no guarantee she’d have all the tools Arlie would need. Arlie had brought some tools with her, but not of the grade needed for a Potion of Spiritwalking.

Her mind flashed to the last time she’d made some potions. Some of that had been for travel funds, so she’d sold most of them, but she still had a couple on hand. Turning from the books, she went rifling through her belongings. After a couple of minutes looking through the potions she’d stocked in the Enchanted Item Bag, she’d been given. The expanded spatial storage had plenty of space for her gear, and she’d organized it so it wasn’t hard to find what she was looking for: A Potion of Revelation. It had powerful mind-expanding effects, and would last a day thanks to its Mythic Grading. She expected nothing less from something she’d brewed herself.

She held it for only a moment, hesitating before she popped the top, and began drinking from the potion. A sweet, tangy flavor spread across her tongue, just before her body began to tingle with electric energy. Her vision swam for a second, her eyes, and brain throbbed, burned and tingled all at once, then all the pain was gone as the world suddenly appeared far more vivid. Her mind felt sharper, her magic more clear, but she knew the effects were temporary, and came with a cost. She’d spend tomorrow recovering, which meant she had no time to waste.

Putting her bag away, her gaze briefly fell on her sword. Skylord’s Wrath was a family heirloom. For some reason, she was compelled to touch her blade. A moment later her grip settled around the handle, and she felt the way it drew at the lightning elemental mana within her but also something else. She’d always heard the stories about it being forged by the gods, but in this very moment, she realized it beheld more secrets than she knew.

Taking the blade from its sheaf, she placed it on the desk, and reached out with her magic. Letting her mind’s gaze reveal what secrets were hiding from her, bugging her. Why was the sword important? She knew at this moment it was more important than she realized but now why. Then her mind was elsewhere.

Magic burned through her veins, lightning rained around her, while in front of her Xeos alloy flowed like water as it flew through the air. Mixing with adamantite, orichalcum, and Mythril. Right before her eyes, the lightning rain focused on the forming blade of molten metal, as it crackled with every strike, each more intense than the last.

Each strike, forged the blade like the blows of a mortal hammer, changing the metals, and filling them with a natural essence for lightning. From her flowed an endless supply of holy magic, light, darkness, and shadow channeled right into the blade imbuing it with her magical signature, while her mastery of fire and earth helped her shape the blade.

More metal flowed from the earth, which she mixed with mythril, transforming it into magesteel, which began to coat the blade. Far beneath what the eye could show, she altered the very metals, arranging them in impossible layouts, coding the very blade with magical enchantments.

Calling upon the powers of ice, she quenched the blade, solidifying it. Lightning continued to flow into it, as she applied the finishing touches to the surface of the blade. Now solid, it was 55 centimeters long with a structural core of Xeos, a shell of adamantium magesteel, and channels of mythril infused orichalcum. The handle of the blade was wrapped in alternating metal threads of Xeos and Mythril. While prongs of orichalum made up the incomplete pommel.

Taking a drop of her blood, and a Sytheian Crystal, she began making the final piece of her new sword. Sytheian Crystals were powerful magical crystals albeit rarely found in nature. Most were forged, created to store, channel and augment magical flows. As her blood fused with the Crystal, it transformed into a Sytheian Blood Crystal, one perfectly aligned to her bloodline. Meaning that if anyone not of her blood used it, they’d find the blade practically worthless, but one of her blood could fully draw out its powers.

Still she wasn’t done, as she called upon the elements, all of them. From the forces of Nature, to the very essence of life, and even the holy trinity. Some of them were opposites, others merely different faces of the same coin, but all of them responded to her call. Carefully she infused each and every element of magic into the crystal changing it further. It gleamed with a mystic light, swirling in hues of blue, green, and silver. As a final touch, she spoke, “I call upon the storm that forged us all, the Ion Wake. May its terrible power imbue balance upon this blade, bringing forth the wrath of creation, and allow new life to sprout forth from the destruction this blade shall inevitably bring.”

Her words finished, imbuing the blade with a potent power. Now all the blade needed with a name, then she would need to seal its true form. This was for her daughter, and she knew the young girl wouldn’t be able to wield Skylord’s Wrath to its full potential. A sword of the gods would be far too much, even for a demigod, especially when they were young, but perhaps in a few centuries they’d be able to use its true form: The Last Lord’s Imperial Wrath.

Arlie blinked as she came back to herself. The implications... she didn’t want to consider them. Her gaze fell on the blade, she’d heard the stories, but that vision... Was that true? Had she really been walking around with a true Godsword? That couldn’t be? Could it? Idly she touched the crystal, feeling how it eagerly responded to her, recognizing her as its master. Her family had been favored by the gods for generations, but could they really have a god’s blood flowing through their veins? Her mind flashed to her breath, then again maybe her family was related to Aurora somehow?

She shook her head, she was getting off track, and she might have just wasted one of the seven magical insights the potion offered her. This problem wasn’t one she needed to solve just yet. There was the question of the nest. Now how was she going to confirm...

Her mind trailed off as spell formula bloomed into her mind. She didn’t need a potion of spiritwalking, why would she? The formula for the spell was right there in the recipe, she’d used it countless times under Ria’s tutelage, and right now she could see how to translate it into something to work. Yet the nest was shielded, even with the location known, those ward stones... Her gaze fell on the sword again, right she’d need her sword. If it really had all the elements imbued within it, it would be the perfect focus. Idly she started penning a letter with one thought, and focusing on working a spell with the next. A moment after that, she found herself flashing across the town, her mind flying to the nest.

Arlie found herself looking around as she took in where her spirit had landed. It almost felt like she was really here, and it was much like what her escorts had described. A smile touched her lips; her spell had worked! That potion had certainly helped, even if she knew she’d used another of the insights it granted to do that. Five more before the most potent of the potions' effects was used up.

Then she began to take in her surroundings, she was on the edge of the nest. From here she could see the Hell Temple with its active portal. She was mere steps from the fence. It was a good two meters high, composed of neatly placed white stones, not the usual black stones the hellfiends seemed to favor, but they still had the same eerie red etchings over the surface. The top of the fence was capped with a light blue metal. Making the fence strangely pretty, but she could tell that it was heavily enchanted. Not only that but she could read them.

All of it, she’d previously been... rather ignorant of hellfiend spellwork but now here it was clear as day for her. They were defensive enchantments, wards to keep the fence from being broken and to repel intruders. An element of mind, designed to make the unaware look away. It was part of how they’d been able to avoid notice. There was more to it as well. Yet Arlie didn’t stay to unravel the spellwork, as much as she was tempted she knew the goal. Find the kids, confirm where the babies were, and ascertain what defenses were present. Everything she learned would be useful for planning the assault when the knights arrived.