bunny

Elise barely had time to {Dart} away before a set of jaws with teeth as tall as she was closed around the air where she had just been. As the creature sank back into the dark water, she continued to fly up, as high as she could, until her wings were almost brushing against the roof of the cave. The monster leapt again, getting its full body out of the water– which was impressive, given its size– but it still wasn't quite high enough to reach her.

[Darkwater Plesiosaur, lvl ???]

[{Inspect} lvl 25 -> 27]

The monster was a plesiosaur. An enormous, black plesiosaur. After its second failed attempt to get her into its mouth, it surfaced more calmly and stared at her with giant pale eyes. Thankfully, despite its size, it didn't seem to be very powerful. Not compared to the warg, at least. And it didn't have any ranged attacks. Elise was high enough up to be safe. For now.

The problem was that if she went too close to any side, the ceiling got lower, and she would then be within its reach, which meant she couldn't go back to the tunnel. While her flight didn't cost any mana, and her dragonfly wings didn't seem to tire, she doubted it was truly indefinite. Her wings would tire eventually, and she would have to descend.

Now that she knew what was probably the lake's biggest danger was, it left her more free to explore, at least. Whether she was closer to the edge like she was at that moment, or at the center where the water was deeper and the ceiling was higher, it still wouldn't be able to reach her. She could roam about as she pleased.

The off-brand Loch Ness monster followed her as she flew toward the middle of the cave. She was again awed by its sheer size. It was dark, which limited her range, but she was glowing, and had good night vision, and she still couldn't see any of the sides from the middle. She kept an eye on the dinosaur below her, wary of it making any sudden movements, but mostly, she ignored it as she flew on toward the opposite side of the cave.

There was nothing on the opposite side. Just more blank stone. She flew back toward the center, and as she was over the head of the plesiosaur, an idea struck her. She stopped right above it, and used {Fairy Dust}. The monster watched in confusion as the sparkling particles fell all around it, and flinched as a few hit its eyes.

[Darkwater Plesiosaur has been afflicted with {Cursed Fairy Dust}! The target's stats will be reduced by 5% for the next ten seconds]

Elise had started moving as soon as the System message appeared. Her plan was to fly back to the tunnel while the plesiosaur was weakened by her curse. She didn't register that the numbers were different until the shadow under the water sped under her and the monster surfaced on the shore blocking her path.

"What the heck?" she exclaimed. "System, why is it only 5%? And why only 10 seconds?"

"I believe you are referring to the effects of your skill, {Fairy Dust}. {Fairy Dust} is a skill that grants a blessing or a curse on any creature it hits. The power of the blessing or curse depends on the level of the skill, the difference in Charisma between the user and the target, and the target's willingness to be affected by the dust."

"What do you mean 'willingness to be affected'? You mean that the target can just say 'no' and reduce the effects?"

"No. That is not what I mean. What I mean is that if the target has higher Charisma than the user, whether the blessing or curse caused by {Fairy Dust} applies to them depends on whether they want it to apply. If the user has higher Charisma, then it does not matter whether the target is willing or not, and the scale of the effects will be dependent on the skill's level and the difference in Charisma between the two."

Elise glared at the plesiosaur, which was baring its teeth at her as it waited in front of the tunnel. It almost looked like it was smiling.

"So you're saying that that monster's Charisma is almost as high as mine?"

"I do not have access to the stats of the creature in question. However, if your skill, {Fairy Dust} had reduced effects compared to what you were expecting, it is likely that that is the case."

She looked back at the dinosaur. It was definitely smiling. It was swaying its head back and forth like a charmed snake, and making a soft purring noise with its throat. Elise turned away, trying to get it to follow her back out to the lake, but it was smarter than that. It stayed where it was. Even when she went out of its sight and stayed for a half hour, it was still waiting when she returned.

That did not bode well. That meant it was confident that the tunnel was her only way out. Either that, or it had better vision than she thought, and it had seen her hovering on the ceiling the whole time and knew she wasn't going anywhere.

Elise didn't lose hope though. It was smarter than she would have preferred, but it might still have been stupid. There could still be a way for her to get out that it didn't know about, or that it had forgotten about. She went to the side cavern, taking a closer look to make sure she wasn't missing any small tunnels that could provide a way out, and when that was fruitless, she went to the wall opposite where the monster was camped.

This side was better than the others, but not by much. There was a small shore, about the same size as the one on the tunnel side, but this side lacked a tunnel. The monster was out of sight, so she took a chance and alighted on the dry rocks. Her wings didn't feel tired, but it was looking like things were shaping up to be a game of patience. If she was going to need to spend hours hovering, waiting for the monster to either sleep, or get hungry and go hunting, she wanted to be in as perfect condition as she could be.

She laid down on the most comfortable place she could find, and rested, but kept her ears opened for the slightest noise. She was ready to take off at a moment's notice if she heard even the slightest hint of a splash as the plesiosaur re-entered the water.

However, it was not from the water that she heard the first sound, but rather from the stone wall behind her. She flew straight up and away as the wall rumbled. A few seconds later, a small crack appeared, and the crack got wider and wider until soon, it was wide enough for three people to comfortably walk side by side. And walk side-by-side they did, though she was not sure if they were people, exactly.

Out of the tunnel marched three stout, bearded men clad in heavy plate armor and wielding hammers and pickaxes that looked way too sharp and pointy to be used for construction or mining. They each had a large glowing stone inlaid on the foreheads of their helms that basked the shore in light.

[Dwarven Guard, lvl 7]

[Dwarven Guard, lvl 4]

[Dwarven Guard, lvl 3]

They noticed her immediately. It would have been hard for them not to, since she was the only other source of light in the room. For a few moments, they just stopped, and stared at her in confusion.

Meanwhile, Elise had gone through a full mental cycle of panic, and was returning to reason. First she had only thought of fleeing. Then she realized that they were not monsters, and that they might be able to help her. She forgot that she could speak now– which was perfectly reasonable, since she had only gained that ability less than twelve hours prior– and ran through a few ideas on how to communicate without words until she remembered.

"Hello," she said in the same language that the hunter family had used. "I am not a monster. Please don't hunt me."

She did not know the word for kill, but she hoped that 'hunt' would get the point across. The dwarves had a new round of confusion when they heard her speak, and shared a few glances before the leader responded.

"Alex evi csy?"

Dangit! thought Elise.

Of course they spoke a different language! Why would the world make things easy on her when it could just do things like this instead.

"I don't understand what you're saying," she said, switching to English. There was no point in continuing to use the unfamiliar language if they didn't know it either.

The dwarves talked amongst each other, but kept their eyes on her. Though she could hear what they said, she couldn't make out a single word. Not only was it a different language, It was a different language that shared no words with the only other two languages she was familiar with. She was racking her brain trying to come up with a way to get her meaning across when suddenly, the one on the left gasped and pointed at her.

"Xli Vyri sj Jexi!" he exclaimed "Mx lew xli Vyri sj Jexi!"

The other two leaned forward and squinted at her, then almost simultaneously, they gasped as well.

"Xli Vyri sj Jexi! Mx'w xli Vyri sj Jexi!" exclaimed the middle one.

All three of them tossed their weapons to the ground, took off their helmets and did the same, then got on their knees and bowed to her, with their beards held in outstretched hands. Confused, Elise drifted down toward them. She wasn't sure what they meant, or why they had suddenly decided that she was something worth bowing toward, but it was clearly a sign of respect and goodwill. She needed to return the favor, and she had the perfect way of doing it.

She flew over their heads, making sure to go slow enough that she appeared as non-threatening as possible, and when she was over the one, she used {Fairy Dust}, this time with a blessing in mind. She also tried to think about giving them a blessing that wasn't a stat buff. They were peaceful now, but if they changed their mind later, she would rather not have to fight them when they were buffed by her own skill.

Once she was done in the middle, she did the same to the left, and to the right, and then landed on the ground in front of them.

[3 targets have been granted Minor Blessings]

[{Fairy Dust} lvl 2 -> 4]

At first, it looked like nothing happened, then in the same order that she had blessed them in, their beards started to lengthen. It was nothing immense, each only getting a few inches, but it was definitely something. The dwarves raised their heads, stared at their beards, then broke out into smiles so wide she could see their teeth, even between all the facial hair.

They stood back up, still smiling, and the middle one said something else to Elise while gesturing inside. It looked to her like an invitation, and she decided to take it as such. If it was a trap, then so be it. If they knew her well enough to know that such a trap would work, she never stood a chance in the first place. It was better than the almost certain death that awaited her if she tried the plesiosaur at least.

The middle one led her inside while the other two picked up the discarded weapons and helmets and followed behind her.

At first, the tunnel seemed to be just an empty dead end, but the lead dwarf put his hand on a seemingly random place in the side of the tunnel, and the dead end opened up into a large and well-lit corridor. He left the other two to close the doors behind as he led her down the hall.

Unlike the unmarked tubes of the wyrm tunnels, the Dwarven tunnels seemed like places that people actually lived. The floors were flat, the walls were straight, and there were glowing stones in sconces regularly to keep the whole area illuminated at all times. They seemed to be the same kind that Sophie had used to read in the dark.

There were no other dwarves in that particular hallway, but another two doors and a descending flight of stairs later, they came to a more open cavern full of stone huts and they started to make their appearances. Most were confused, but their confusion turned to elation when the guide dwarf made an announcement.

"Psso! Xli Vyri sj Jexi! Mx lew xli Vyri sj Jexi!"

There was a collective gasp, followed by loud cheering. The dwarves bowed down as she hopped by calling out "Xli Vyri sj Jexi!" like it was a mantra. A few of the younger dwarves, whom she could identify by their lack of beards, even tried to reach out to touch her, earning a rap on the head from their equally beardless mothers.

This scene repeated itself a half dozen more times as the dwarves led her further and further into their city, and deeper and deeper underground. Each cavern was bigger than the last, and had more dwarves, until finally they arrived at a cavern just as big, if not bigger than the ones with the lake and the cows. Even more impressively, the cave didn't look natural at all.

Every house was carved from a solid, singular piece of stone that was fused to the ground with no signs of any kind of joining. In the distance, there was even a castle made in the same way. There were no bricks, no seams, and no supporting structures. Everything, from the street lamps to the statues on top of the bigger houses was carved out of the same stone.

Their progress slowed down a lot once they got here. An impromptu parade formed behind them, and a dense crowd formed in front, and soon, it was more like they were wading through a sea of people than walking. Elise had never struggled with claustrophobia before, but with so many people around her, she was starting to feel a bit stuffy, so she took to flight again, staying a few feet above the head of her guide.

When she flew up, there was a round of cheering from the crowd. She had to admit, it felt good. She had never gotten this kind of reception anywhere before, and it was night and day compared to the reception she had gotten just about everywhere else in this new world.

She did a loop in the air, making the crowd cheer louder, then she flew over them and rained blessed {Fairy Dust} on their heads until she had none left. She didn't realize that there was a limit, since it didn't cost mana, but she did notice that her wings were much less sparkly than they were before.

Though most of the people in the crowd looked overjoyed, Elise would have had to be blind if she thought the feeling was universal. Even among the closest, there were a few sour faces, and around the edges, they looked more grim than glad. A few even looked angry, fixated on her with murderous glares.

She settled back into place above the armored dwarf who had found her, who was laughing and cheering with the crowd. Seeing her stop above him again, he started moving again. However, Elise's theatrics had slowed them down even more, and ten minutes later, they had barely made it a block further. She was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to make it to wherever the dwarf was taking her when they were rescued by a regiment of shield-bearing dwarves.

They lined up on the street like riot police, leaving only a small gap for the three dwarves she had first met to pass through and blocking the rest. Behind the line, a dwarf in a much shinier, more elegantly decorated suit stood. He bowed to Elise and said something in Dwarvish and gestured toward the cleared part of the street. It was obvious that he was offering to escort her, but unlike the other three, he did not look pleased at all. He didn't look displeased either, but she felt much less comfortable with him than she did with the others.

With their new escort group, they made it to the castle on the other side of the city with relative ease. At the gate of the castle, the dwarf in the fancy armor tried to dismiss Elise's first escorts, saying something to them and waving back behind them. Elise was worried about what would happen if she didn't have anyone on her side in the castle, so she flew down and landed on the head of her first guide.

"I want them to come with me," she said.

Though he couldn't understand her words, the other dwarf at least understood her meaning. He sighed, and said something that made the first three dwarves cheer, then opened the gate to lead them inside.

Inside the gate, leading up to the front door was a garden of sorts. There were two channels of water, dug in a symmetric pattern on either side of the walkway, and on its sides grew a wide array of multicolored mushrooms. There was no grass, but there was moss, and some carved stones decorating. Overall, it was an unusual, but pleasant sight.

The inside of the castle, however, was awe-inspiring. Every inch of the inner walls was carved with intricate patterns and inlaid with jewels and gold filigree. In some places, mosaic-like images made of equal parts carving, jewels, and gold portrayed dwarves in various settings. One showed a pair of dwarves hammering away at a glowing something on an anvil. One showed a mighty-looking dwarf bringing down an ax on the head of a giant wolf. A third showed a tall castle on top of a mountain with the sun setting behind it.

There were many more, but Elise did not have time to take them all in, because the dwarf in the decorated armor was keeping a brisk pace, leading them up a tall staircase and through another large set of doors. On the other side was a chamber as long as a football field with the ceiling a hundred feet up and supported by tall, decorative pillars. There was a large throne made of steel on the far end, with red jewels bigger than Elise set on the ends of its five pronged top.

On the throne sat a dwarf with a long black beard wearing pure white armor and a crown. His face was emotionless and unreadable, but he stared unblinkingly at Elise. She used {Inspect} and found that he was a king, just as he appeared. More specifically, he was the [King of Dokkalfheimr], and she couldn't see his level, meaning he was stronger than her by a wide margin.

Beside him stood a wizened old dwarf wearing blue robes with a white beard that brushed the ground. His face was much more readable, and somewhat unnerving. His eyes had dark shadows under them, as though he hadn't slept in a week, but they were also wide open, and a brown so dark they almost looked black. His beard hid most of his face, but even through the thick white hair, she could see that he was frowning. Contrary to his appearance, however, his class seemed perfectly normal. {Inspect} showed that he was merely a {Court Wizard} and his level was 13. He was holding a sphere that looked almost like a bowling ball without the holes, though when she looked closer, she saw that the swirling patterns were actually moving.

The four dwarves that were with her stopped and knelt before the throne when they got closer. Elise tried to do the same, but she had never knelt as a rabbit before, so she ended up doing an awkward half-bow, half-curtsey thing that she was sure looked foolish.

"Vmwi," said the king.

The dwarves behind her stood up, so she did the same as the king nodded to the old man. The orb glowed so bright it was hard to look at, then settled down into a softer glow.

"Fated One," said the king in perfect English, staring directly at Elise. "Can you understand me?"

Stat sheet as of the end of Chapter 13:

Spoiler

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"Y-yes," said Elise. "How? Is that orb a translator?"

"It is," said the king. "I am King Hallbjorn. Do you have a name?"

"Elise. You called me 'Fated One' earlier. What does that mean?"

"It means you are the Fated One. You bear the Rune of Fate."

"The Rune of-?"

Elise's eyes widened with understanding, and she went to check her status window. The skill {Mark of Fate} was still there where she had nearly forgotten about it. However, as she watched, the name and description blurred and morphed. {Rune of Fate}, it now read, and the description was no longer blank, though it wasn't really any better than before. All it said was "A rune that" followed by a bunch of gibberish.

"I see," she said. "But what does that mean? Why were all those people so happy to see me?"

"Whenever one appears bearing the Rune of Fate, the world undergoes a change. Sometimes, that is for the better. Others, it is not. There is an old dwarven prophecy stating that the Fated One will return us to the days of old, when the dwarves lived on the surface and had as much power as the humans and the orcs. My people believe that to be you."

"Me?"

"Yes. It has not even been a full hour since you arrived, yet some of them are already packing their bags to go to the surface. However, as a king, I cannot blindly follow prophecy, even if it is the will of the people. So tell me: are you our Fated One? Have you come to liberate us?"

Elise looked around nervously. The three dwarves who had brought her in looked at her expectantly, while the older dwarf holding the orb regarded her with undisguised suspicion, and the king's face was unreadable.

"If you are, then we will give you whatever you desire. Food, riches… whatever else rabbits want. If not, however, you will be treated as any other creature we find trespassing at our gates."

Elise gulped. The choice was so obvious that it looped back around to being difficult. Was this a test? If it was, then telling the truth and saying that she wasn't, or that she didn't know was the right answer. But if it wasn't, neither of the other two options were good. If she said yes, and she couldn't do what they asked of her, that would likely turn out worse than if she said no. What did they even do to trespassers? Surely they didn't execute them, right? She could handle a little prison time.

"I-I don't know," she said. "I don't think so. I didn't even know you were here. I was just-"

"She is the Fated One!" exclaimed one of the dwarves behind her.

"What?" she said. "But I just-"

She looked up at the king, who, for the first time, was smiling.

Oh no.

"Welcome to Dokkalfheimr," said the king, getting up from his throne. "Come, this is no place for a conversation with an honored guest. The chefs have prepared a feast."

"Wait!" said Elise. "Your Majesty-"

"Oh, no need for formalities," he said.

"I don't think I'm the Fated One you think I am!"

"Oh, I'm sure you don't."

"Then why are you treating me like this?"

"The prophecy stated that the Fated One would deny being the Fated One."

"But- you-" she sputtered. "You can't just go along with it because of that! Anyone could deny being the Fated One!"

"Yes, but you also have the Rune of Fate, and when presented with the offer of riches, you still denied it!"

"Wasn't that a test?"

"It was!"

"But what if I was lying? What if I was just telling you what you wanted to hear?"

"Then why would you bring it to my attention now?" said the king with a chuckle. "Let us go. We don't want the food to get cold."

Elise wanted to protest more, but she could see that she was only digging herself deeper into a hole by doing so. She was pretty sure she wasn't the Fated One that the dwarves were talking about, and she didn't want them thinking she was. What if they re-emerged on the surface, thinking she would keep them safe, only to be wiped out? There was nothing she could do to stop that.

The "feast" that had been prepared was almost exclusively mushrooms. Elise was fine with that, since she liked mushrooms, but she had been half-expecting there to be more. The weird cows in the other cave looked like they'd make for a decent meal, and if there was one cave like that, there were probably more. Unless she had gotten lucky/unlucky and found the only one in the area, and the dwarves couldn't get to it because of the plesiosaur and the wyrm.

There was also some kind of dark brown liquid that smelled strongly of mushrooms and even more strongly of alcohol. The dwarves were downing it by the pint, and they were all red in the face and four cups in before any real conversation occurred. Even the old dwarf, whose name she had learned was Jens, was drinking while still clutching the blue translation orb in his off hand.

There were about twenty dwarves present in total. Hallbjorn the king and Jens the wizard were two, the guards who first found her were three more, the important-looking dwarf whose name she still didn't know was the sixth, and of the rest, half were guards, and half well-dressed dwarves that the king had introduced as his Council. He had also told her their names, but they were too foreign and too many for her to remember them all.

Fifteen minutes into the feast, another dwarf arrived. He was just as tall and broad as any of the others, but his beard was almost non-existent, and his face looked like a child's.

"Johann!" exclaimed the king. "You're here! Come and sit down!"

The young dwarf walked through the hall, trying to appear confident, but Elise noticed his eyes nervously glancing all around, and a bead of sweat on his temple. He sat down in an empty chair next to the king. He looked at Elise with curiosity, but looked away when she made eye contact with him.

"Dad, what's going on?" he asked.

"Johann, this rabbit in front of you is the Fated One, Elise," said Hallbjorn. "Elise, this is my son, Prince Johann."

"I'm not the Fated One," said Elise.

"See?" said the king, glancing at his son. "Go on. Greet her."

"It- it's an honor to meet you, Fated One," said Johann.

"It's nice to meet you too," said Elise. "But I'm not the Fated One. Or at least I don't think I am."

"That's exactly what the Fated One would say," said Hallbjorn, smiling merrily. "By the way, what exactly are you, Elise? I called you a rabbit before, but I'm afraid I've only ever seen drawings of rabbits in the old records. You are a rabbit, right?"

"Yes."

"I see, I see." He took another swig of the liquor. "It's been a while, so maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't remember-" he burped loudly. "I don't remember seeing any wings on that drawing. And are rabbits normally able to talk?"

"Can you not {Inspect} me?" she asked, looking up from the yellow mushroom she was nibbling on.

"{Inspect}?!" he exclaimed before roaring with laughter. "If I could do that, we wouldn't still be trapped down here, would we now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Eh? You really-? Wait, do you have {Inspect}?"

"Is- is that not normal?"

The king stared at her for a few moments, dumbfounded, then burst out into laughter again.

"As expected of the Fated One!"

He pounded his fist on the table, and the others imitated him, shouting triumphantly.

"Wait, what's so special about {Inspect}?" she asked

"It is a skill that normally cannot be learned until one's class reaches the 7th tier, and that is only for Legendary classes," said Jens. "If any of us had {Inspect} we would not be weak enough to be forced into hiding like this."

"I'm not at 7th tier yet." She wanted to make sure that was absolutely clear before they could get the wrong idea.

"Aye, we know," said Hallbjorn. "But the fact that you have {Inspect} is just more proof that you are the Fated One."

"Hear hear!" said one of the Council members, raising his cup and downing it in one gulp.

"Hear hear!" repeated some of the other dwarves, doing the same.

Johann tried to imitate them, but he couldn't help but make a face as he swallowed the alcohol. The king wiped the foam off his mouth, burped, and then grinned at Elise.

"Back to what we were talking about before, you said you were a rabbit, right?"

"I was, but I evolved."

"Evolved?" he said, looking confused. "Are you a monster?"

He only looked confused, and not angry or suspicious, but Elise was still anxious about how she should answer. Calling herself a monster sounded extreme, but at this point, wasn't it technically true? She certainly wasn't a humanoid, and though she had started as an ordinary rabbit, the way she was treated by the System was no different from a monster.

System, am I a monster? she thought

"Yes. By $%^& standards, you are defined as a monster."

That cleared the semantics of it up at least, but she still wasn't sure if she wanted to call herself a monster. It just felt wrong.

"Yes," she said. "But I'm not monstrous. I'm just a rabbit that evolved. I'm a Lesser Fey now."

She had hoped the additional qualifiers would help put the dwarves' minds at ease. Unfortunately, it seemed to have the opposite effect. As soon as she finished speaking, the entire hall fell silent, and she was met with looks of suspicion, anger, and in some cases, outright hatred. Even Johann was looking at her as if he had just found out she killed his mother.

"A filthy Fey dares to impersonate the Fated One!" shouted one of the Council members.

Some of the others began shouting as well, and two even jumped out of their seats and drew their weapons. Elise flew up as high as the ceiling would allow her, which was thankfully quite high.

"Wait! I'm not impersonating anything! I never said I was the Fated One!"

"That's exactly what someone trying to impersonate the Fated One would say!" replied one of the angry dwarves.

Elise tried to reason with them for a minute more, dodging thrown cups, plates, and utensils while also trying to look for a way out. Only about half the dwarves were actually angry violent, but none of the others took her side.

"ENOUGH!" the king finally said. "I SAID ENOUGH!!"

His voice echoed throughout the room, and the others stopped what they were doing, some paused mid-throw.

"Sit down!" he said. "You're all acting like children! A fey she may be, but even a fey cannot imitate the Rune of Fate. Now sit down before I make you sit down! We can talk this out like adults."

The other dwarves reluctantly returned to their seats, but they all continued to glare at Elise, and kept their hands on their weapons or the nearest projectile. The immediate danger was gone, but Elise did not descend.

"Elise, come back down so we can continue our conversation."

"I don't feel comfortable down there," she said. "Can't we talk from here?"

The king stared at her, then looked around at the other dwarves.

"All of you, move to the other end of the table."

"But Your Majesty-!"

"Now! Jens, Johann, you stay."

With much grumbling–mostly curses– the dwarves stood up and moved down the benches away from the king. The tables were very long, so once they had all moved, there were now 30 feet between them and the king. Elise returned to her spot on the table, but kept half her attention on the dwarves behind her, in case one decided to make a move.

"Is it true that you are a Fey?" asked the king.

"Y-yes."

"Where did you come from?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Where did you live before you came here?"

"Well I was on the surface for a while, living with-" she almost said humans, but she had a gut feeling that that was a bad idea. "-with family. Then we were attacked by a strong monster, so I fled into some tunnels underground. I found this place while exploring."

"Tunnels? What tunnels? There are only three kinds of tunnels here: our tunnels, monster tunnels, and the tunnels of the thrice-damned ghouls."

"Ghouls?"

"What kind of tunnels were you in?"

"Monster tunnels. There was a wyrm– an Earth Wyrm– and it made some tunnels. I was living there before I found this place."

"With the Earth Wyrm?" the king said, raising an eyebrow. "We know of that creature, and it is not one that would be able to live with another. How did you survive?"

"It's dead," she replied. "I killed it." The king's eyes widened. "I found it while it was evolving. All I did was break its evolution cocoon. I didn't actually fight it."

Comprehension dawned on his face.

"I see. Then you are not with the ghouls?"

"Gh-ghouls? I've never met a ghoul."

"You might know them as Drow." He spat that last word out as if it was offensive for him to even say it.

"I've never met one of them."

"Good. Best you don't. Nasty, arrogant little buggers they are. Always creeping around in the dark and killing our guards whenever they can. You're lucky you found us instead of them. They worship the Fey Goddess, Titania. They might have tried to sacrifice you to her. They've done it before."

Elise shuddered.

"Your Majesty, we can't simply trust her words," said Jens. "The ghouls are devious. She could be a spy."

"I'm not a spy!"

"That's exactly what a spy would say!" called a voice from the other end of the table.

"Quiet!" said the king. "Jens, I will not blindly trust her. However, I do not believe her to be an evil creature. If she was truly a spy, she wouldn't have told us she was a fey. And if she was with the ghouls and not a spy, she wouldn't have come to our city in the first place."

"Your Majesty, the fact that you believe so is exactly why I think she could be. She may be an expert, and everything she's done thus far has been calculated to earn your trust."

"It wasn't!" protested Elise. "How would I even do that?"

"I don't know," replied Jens, leaning toward her. "How would you do that?"

"What?"

"Jens, I will take your advice into account," said the king. "However, for now, I will choose to believe her."

"I-!" Jens pursed his lips and bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"I believe that this feast has come to its end," said the king, getting up from his seat.

The state of the room agreed with him. More than half the food that had not already been eaten was now on the floor, as were most of the utensils. The stone plates and cups were mostly shattered, though the pitchers of the mushroom alcohol were still intact.

"Elise, Jens and I will now show you to your room. The rest of you, clean this mess up."

The room that had been prepared for Elise was clearly one that was originally meant for another dwarf, not a rabbit. Still, it was nice, or at least as nice as an underground cave room could be. There was a stone desk and stone bookshelves, and a stone bed with a thin mattress made of a material she didn't recognize. It wasn't as good as Sophie's bed, but it was better than the ground.

After seeing her room and giving her approval, the king then showed her a few more important locations, such as the bath and the pantry, as well as a library and even his own chambers. Jens protested showing Elise that last place, saying that if she was an assassin, he had just shown her where to go, but the king waved him off, and said that it wasn't as if it was a secret, and that Elise needed to know in case of emergency.

"Jens, is there anything else I'm forgetting?" asked the king once they returned to Elise's new chambers.

"I don't believe so, Your Majesty."

"Then Elise, do you have any questions?"

"No, Your Majesty."

"I told you to call me Hallbjorn. I'll search for a tutor to teach you our language later tonight. We can't have Jens just follow you around all day so that we know what you're saying. He will still be present for the first few until you can learn the basics, but after that, I would like my wizard back.

"For now, I must speak with my council. Will you be alright here alone?"

"Yes, I'll be fine."

"Good. I will see you again later tonight once things have settled down a bit more, and we can discuss the future in greater detail."

"That sounds good to me, Your- I mean Hallbjorn."

The king smiled at her, then the orb in Jens' hands stopped glowing and the two made their exit. They didn't lock the door behind them, or at least it didn't sound like they did, but Elise couldn't help but feel almost like a prisoner.

Her room was located on top of one of the towers in the castle, and the only exit other than the main door was a window overlooking the city. The window sill was wide enough that she could comfortably sit there, so she jumped up and looked out.

There was still a crowd outside the city gates, with a wall of shield-bearing dwarves holding them back. It hadn't gotten any smaller since she entered the castle; if anything, it had grown. They still seemed relatively happy, meaning the news that she was a fey hadn't gotten out of the castle yet, but there was an uneasy tension over the whole area.

About half an hour later, the king emerged from the main gate, flanked by a few of his Council members and Jens. He stood in the center of the ring formed by the shield-bearers and cleared his throat. Jens turned on his blue orb again, and Elise perked up, hoping she would be able to understand what was said, but it was not the translation feature that he enabled. Instead, he gave the king a microphone effect, so that he could be heard throughout the entire city.

She had no idea what he said, but whatever it was left the crowd disappointed. They were still not angry, which was good, but they did disperse, and Elise could hear a pervasive rumble from all the grumbling that was going on.

Later that night, she met with the king, and he told her the results of his discussions with his Council. At first, most of the council had been on board with returning to the surface, taking her as proof that they were fated to do so. Immediately after learning that she was a fey, none of them were willing to do so, believing it to be a trap set by the Drow, or the "ghouls", as the dwarves called them.

Elise had heard of Drow before, and wouldn't have totally minded meeting them if she hadn't heard the dwarves' stories about them. The way they described the Drow made Elise's skin crawl. They were humanoid, but they were closer to goblins than elves. They had pale gray skin, which is why the dwarves called them "ghouls" and mouths full of fangs and claws dripping with venom. Their language sounded evil too, using a lot of guttural noises that sounded more like choking than anything else.

And apparently, the tunnels in which they lived were close enough that they caused the dwarves serious trouble. They had been harassing the dwarves for centuries, killing whoever they could. They had even killed Hallbjorn's wife, which explained Johann's look of hatred for her at the table earlier. Elise was glad that she had found the dwarves instead of them. The dwarves were odd, and apparently hated her species, but they had been reasonable, and overall, were fairly normal people. She did not know how she would have survived with the Drow.

Once the king had stopped cursing the Drow, he went on to say that ultimately, the Council had decided to do nothing for the time being. They would simply observe her, and continue to discuss the prospects of returning to the surface. At the time, he said that the Council was mostly in favor of staying and waiting, but a few of them believed her Rune of Fate to be true, and wanted to leave as soon as possible. The king was one of them, and he believed that more would come to his side as time passed.

Elise personally hoped that wouldn't happen. She had never even intended to meet the dwarves, let alone become their symbol of hope and prophesied hero. That was way more responsibility than she signed up for, and if it went horribly wrong, she didn't want that on her conscience.

The next morning, she met her new tutor, who was an ancient dwarven woman named Greta. She was 30 years past even Dwarven retirement age, but she was an accomplished historian, and had taught the royal family for 3 generations. Her main qualification for the position, however, was that she hated the Drow and Fey less than most, and was too old to do Elise any real harm if she got riled up.

And so, three months passed. Elise spent the main part of her days learning dwarven and talking with the king and a few other important dwarves, and occasionally practicing her skills on the guard's training grounds. When she wasn't doing any of those things, she did… nothing.

The castle was boring. There was nothing for her to do, and she wasn't able to leave. Someone– likely one of the Council members who didn't approve of her– had leaked that she was a fey, and the king was under fire for housing an "enemy of the dwarven species," and as the only pure white rabbit in the city, she couldn't really wander around without being recognized.

Even worse than that, she couldn't even level up. The one thing that the Council could agree on regarding her was that they couldn't let her into any of their experience farm caves. The anti-Elise group didn't want her getting stronger, and the pro-Elise side didn't want to put her in danger. She was able to practice her skills, but even that was limited, since she only had access to the training grounds when the Royal Guards weren't using them, which was not often. It was a frustrating existence, and by the end of those three months, Elise was sick of it, and actively looking for a way to leave without making enemies of the entire city.

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