Deep in a space outside of space, the enigmatic shadow goddess begins a mysterious construction...
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Typically, most of the Fey generally just flit from world to world, pulling tricks on their inhabitants; one on the Nameless World hid seashells on the mountaintops to confuse the dwarves, one on Incindium hid scorpions in the beds of Gheronaton's Firstborn (out of spite at his announcement that he was the One True God)...
But one had a mission. Elzeru, most ambitious of his kind, was embarked on a grand heist; one that he knew would earn the favor of his mistress, should he succeed.
He peered around the corner of a bookcase, waiting for the librarian to return to his duties, before turning to the shadows that lay on the partially empty shelf on which he stood. Bending down, he grabbed the shadow in the corner of the shelf and pulled, opening it up like a zipper. The tome he pursued was far too heavy for him to lift, much less carry through the air, so he would have to transport it using... alternative methods.
With the first step of his scheme complete, he hopped off the bookshelf and hovered over to the door. A massive slab of steel (at least, from his diminutive perspective), blocked by a huge bar, and warded against magical intrusion. It was pretty formidable... to a mortal. But this was a mere hurdle to the immortal Fey: wrapping himself in arcane energies, Elzeru's form dissolved into a cloud of black smoke, and he seeped through the gap around the door.
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Worlds away, Akkataromondamias once more pulled the wood and stone spear from the river, and threw the fish impaled upon it into the reed basket he had crafted, with the rest of the haul. He'd almost not needed the weapon; when he first approached the river, an entire school of the larger fish had actually leapt bodily from the stream, flailing and snapping, and tried to drag him in, forcing him to beat them to death with his bare fists on the spot.
Him and his people had been rudely plucked from Natus and transplanted across the Void, but overall, the Ta'rai hadn't minded the change of scenery; though he was disturbed by the sudden displacement of the entire village, the humans had adapted quickly. As well, it brought him new things to study, and spared his charges the predation of his less savory kindred; in turn, the relief of that burden provided him with more time to pursue his research, which pleased him.
But as dusk crept over the landscape once more, a feeling of grim uneasiness fell over him, unlike any he had felt since before their arrival here. Something was wrong. Not with the village- he had erected magical wards that would alert him to attack there. Something... elsewhere. Elusive.
Collecting the basket and his staff, Akkataromondamias began the trek back up the hill to the village, for his danger sense had never failed him in the past. Tomorrow, he would teach the tribe how to catch fish, and have his apprentice collect some of the clay from the riverbank for study; he resolved to remain vigilant in the face of this gathering storm- which precluded him venturing out and leaving the humans unprotected any longer- yet he was compelled to continue his research, for expanding his knowledge expanded his ability to protect and care for his people.
Cresting the hill, however, he found something even more disturbing... a gargantuan horror, like a giant, chitinous cylinder, with tentacles protruding from both it's top and bottom. From the longest of these it's maw unfolded, like a macabre flower; each petal tipped with a cruel fang, and eyes ringed it's center.
Curiously, even though the villagers cowered in their homes, and it towered over the entire hill, it made no move to attack. It just sat? Stood? Whatever it did, it did so passively, eyeing them with something like curiosity.
He discarded the fish and spear, and moved to the front of the village to confront it. "What business do you have with my clan, creature?"
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Behind the door, Elzeru rematerialized in a fit of coughing. 'Needs work.' he thought bitterly, spitting a gob on black ichor onto his sleeve. He pat himself down to ensure all of his organs were in the right places- while it was a handy technique to have, it was one that he rarely practiced, which had resulted in... interesting times before. No time to reflect on that now, though- he summoned a small glowing orb in his hand and looked up towards his prize. "Top bloody shelf, of course."
Sticking the orb to the door midway up, the Fey dropped down to the floor of the closet and spread a thick mat of dust across it, before rising up to the ceiling. His dark-vision was fine, of course, but he'd need a shadow to escape.
"Lesse here... Luna... Gheronaton... Galt..." he murmured as he browsed along the row of forbidden texts. "Ahh, here we are, then." Pushing and pulling, he slowly finessed the tome out of the row and tipped it off the shelf, before diving after it and wrapping himself around it, wings beating furiously to try and slow it into a soft landing.
As he opened the other end of the portal and pushed the book through, Elzeru sighed with satisfaction. Phase One was down, with two to go.
He rested the stolen tome against the back of the bookshelf, and pulled the book from the end of the row. It was similarly sized- something about vegetables- and would suit his purposes nicely. He brushed both with illusions, making each appear as the other, and slid the decoy back through the rift.
Now for a breather. Elzeru dismissed the light and dust he'd set on the other side of the door, and lay the disguised tome up against the portal, concealing it. He'd need a lot of energy to get the decoy back into the tome's original spot.
Satae constructs a mysterious artifact.