Heleion Archives

On the topmost floor of the towering mansion, the wild southern wind swept against Gudninil’s abundant, long chromatic hair shaved on the sides, the few sharp motes of sand cutting her prominent elven cheeks of a fair snow white tint. A sibilant hiss escaped her glossy lips as she swept off the immediately healing minor wound and stared for a moment at the iridescent, snow silvery blood.

The chromatic waterfall of tresses dangled into against her pretty skielfrith face, the tip of her long, sloping ear beset with a glinting piece of sharp, pyramid shaped stud from which a chain slipped through the silken tresses connecting to a second stud embedded into her lobe.

Her chilling, cerulean eyes of entrenched into gentle, wide almond frames glared towards the city’s middle floors while the rest towered over them, a rainbow of colors emanating from the distant windows creating a disorderly pattern that strangely drawn the skielfrith Draupnaeth’s attention as she stood alone on the balcony.

“Elevated-Sister!” A soft, almost whispery voice called out to her from behind. She turned around to face one of the Drengriars Hersith Aurae assigned to her small entourage hired to protect the treasures of the Mitri family – treasures they plundered away from the others’ and flaunt before them to show their higher status. A feyfolk of the seossurian kindred, specifically a Child of Spring evident from the tender pinkish hair long hair bundled into an elegant low bun resting atop the back of her coat’s high triangular collar, fair peachy epidermis glowing softly in the moonlit night. “The servants asked if we need anything once more.”

Gudninal sighed as a stronger gust of wind kept into her long coats’ elevated collar with an angular tear-shaped neckline from which the open and folded out rhombus collar itself rose out around her neck, surrounding the equally high boreal collars of her majorly golden aetherna satin blouse. The golden lining and piping of the coat’s frames merged at the collars and lapels as they glided down on the angular frame with asymmetrical curves until they reached the curved hemline and made their round up to the broad, padded shoulders decorated with epaulettes bearing four amber golden dragon claw pins.

“Is it a different one?” The Spring Seossurian nodded once and swiftly. “Just tell her the same… wait add that she should spread it amongst the others. The night is still long.” The seossurian nodded then took off while Gudninal turned back and stared down at the vast plateau housing the mansion and the surrounding park-garden – as she called it in her head – while her eyes seemingly focused to a distant and dimly lit section of the verandah she could still see from the balcony.

For a shirt moment, her chiseled, delicate chin wedged into the mild slit of her boreal collars, pushing onto them as a strange sensation, a warning came over her, forcing her head to look over the columned railing, down to the verandah several floors below them where the waiters, waitresses and the guards under her made their rounds, with the former two searching for guests to serve while the others kept vigil around the perimeters in the pleasantly cold night.

In the end she gave up from staring down, extending the range of her sight as the strange sensation abated just as suddenly as it came a minute ago. Though she still went out from the treasure – or well trophy – room and instructed the drengriars patrolling outside to keep watch and ID everyone who steps out from the elevator, be a mansion’s staff member or their own.

A command that placed a great deal of distress on her for some reason. Gudninil felt that it must have been the work of Gods, signaling against a plot that maybe beyond a simple angry noble trying to steal back their family’s plundered treasure. She believed sinister forces were on the move to sow the seeds of discord in the southern colony of the Alliance.

With a smile on her face, she cracked her fingers and stretched her arms, eagerly anticipating the plot to unfold and elevate this boring night into a more exciting one.

**

Shrouded by the large slab inscribed with the exotic, southern hieroglyphics, The God of Justice etched into the center holding the sun and a decanter filled with the vices and virtues of people in the other, Gudninil crossed her wrists behind her back while her left lid rolled down whilst mana from the arcane point embedded into her mind and soul, supplying the unseen eye floating in the vast corridor outside the treasure chamber.

A yawn stretched her wide and thin lips with a faint tint of frost to them as at least two hours passed since that sudden feeling of unease washed over her, signaling a wicked plot about to unfold. At any minute now she whispered in her own mind whilst watching the four drengriars including the seossurian making rounds with two alternating at the elevators stopping and waiting facing it with quite the bored expressions on their mesmerizing faces.

Mostly as she left out of informing them about the plot, and refused to told them fearing that may go full paranoid on their first job. Although many of them were former members of the Sakhran-Ib-Anab, since they accepted the membership offered to them after the end of the Great War, many were barred from reaching higher ranks in the main branches, and were often just worked as patrol officers in the cities, often mopping up criminal or rebel elements in the city whom had little to no combat experience compared to a spy or assassin.

More importantly, she did not mention them as she saw it as a good opportunity for them to learn how to handle capturing those well-versed in the arts of subterfuge, how to pick up on the mild paranoia even the best of the best could not get rid of fully – at least according to her – and if they fail at all those, she could just capture them herself, earning maybe a bit of goodwill from the head of House Mitri and her own superiors in their branch.

Just as she began her rounds in the so called Chamber of Treasures, – plundered after the war from the distraught other noble Houses – amongst artifact holders, a piece of enchanted glass embedded into a heavy stone platform seemingly growing forth the mosaiced floor, the elevator door opened and revealed a stygian drengriar she recognized as Gudninil assigned her to the lowermost floor, a practically cellar of expansive size. A young hornless stygian bearing the ghastly traits of Bone Devils and the beauty of aelfrith kind at the same time, resulting in their weirdly enticing, gleaming and grayish ivory epidermis, sunken pallid eyes, and wide grinning eternally lips.

As per the instructions, the warm amber scaled merfolk with vivid emerald hair greeted her and held out her webbed hands to take her identification crystal she checked. Whilst her wide greenish and purple eyes glared at the crystal, ethereally lit by the spell checking the inscriptions within the glowing violet crystal, the stygian sprung behind her, covered her mouth while pressing her collars and arm onto her neck with six slits on each side.

After a few seconds the squirming of the merfolk drengriar came to an end, and her groans stifled by the silencing field ceased completely, the identification crystal slipped from her unfurling hands caught by her captor. The stygian remained oblivious to the unseen eye as she dragged the merfolk to a nearby room where she was placed onto the floor face down. “Good.” She whispered to herself while watching the stygian pat up and down the unconscious merfolk.

Whilst doing so, she retrieved her roll of silver sealing tape and pair of plastic mana ties, and fastened the latter around her wrists and ankles, then pulled her onto her sides while using her gleaming white teeth to bit onto the release liner and pulled her head back while holding the roll in place then severed the wide strip that made a circle around the merfolk gleaming golden and pouty lips and waited whilst the strip tightened onto the scaled epidermis.

Then she grabbed the bound and gagged merfolk and dragged her into one of the corners, producing a piece of silken looking sheet she draped over the svelte form laying before her in the shadowy corner. “Prepared aren’t we.” Gudninil murmured to herself as she watched the merfolk disappear, and felt through the eye the flow of mana as the invisibility enchantment activated in the piece of sheet lacking any distinctive feature and remembered it from her academical days where the teacher of the clandestine class taught on the ways of hiding corpses or secured hostiles if people lack affinity to shadows spells.

“How unlucky.” As the sweet, old memory faded from her mind, Gudninil chuckled when the impostor ran into the naurdian drengriar almost immediately stepping out from the small room. One of the few northerners of the branch in the city, a dashing maiden of the north with luxuriant snow blonde hair tied into a long pointy tail, on the front her light violet dyed bangs swept right whilst covering her vibrant chestnut left eye. Her taut lips ripe and possessing an almost marbly sheen, and what drove the attention of the impostor for a short moment as she seemingly tried to explain herself.

For a moment, the naurdian looked at her suspiciously, then seemed to point towards the office opposite to the Chamber of Treasures, and whilst doing so lowered her guard – something both Gudninil and the imposter agreed on as the latter sprung into action within seconds. A long shock wand appeared in her hands whilst her fingers snapped, encompassing the section of the corridor. Its pointy end pressed against the back of the dragonid leather coat bearing the branches’ insignia – a lotus rose blooming with the sun hovering above its center – and three mauve zaps lit up the area.

The impostor quickly reached and grabbed the unconscious drengriar and looked around making sure no one else walks in on her this time. Hastily, she dragged her into the same room, though this time she forego with the patting and went straight to binding her wrists and ankles after placing her against the legs of the right empty shelf. This time she also wrapped the tape around her mouth and the pole like leg.

Before she left, she stopped for a few moments before the door, seemingly meditating to confirm no more guards will run into her. After she got her confirmation, Gudninil watched inquisitively as the impostor made her way to the aelfrith drengriar posted in the office with the second balcony gazing upon the vast dunes stretching into the infinite, dark horizon.

With her presence erased completely, Gudninil watched the impostor take down the oblivious aelfrith with long and bright scarlet hair with ends ending in slightly curved wisps like hers. This time the shock wand pressed swiftly against the nape covered by the thick triangular collar of the Agaevarh coat, and two strong zips sent the aelfrith fumbled onto the thick rail, almost slipping over if not for the impostor who grabbed the coat’s waist belt within seconds with a terrified expression followed by a sigh full of relief.

Gudninil felt conflicted, though concluded no wicked plot, just some thief who have some moral code. Or at least don’t want to alert the guards down by having them witness one of their own fall to their death and become a smorgasbord of gore.

Once more the impostor patted the aelfrith seated against the railing, then secured her with silver sealing tape, though this time she also restrained her abdomen, securing her wrists and arms to her back and sides before tearing off two wide strips and pressuring them over the aelfriths’ pink lips and fair glossy cheeks and closed eyes, parting away the few curling tresses falling over them. Then she heaved her over her shoulder and hid the trussed up drengriar in one of the large cupboards.

And once more again, misfortune struck as the seossurian called out to her with wand pistol aimed at the impostor who just closed the cupboard. Gudninil felt conflicted at her prize stolen but also relieved a bit at the capture of the thief. For a while she pondered whether to help in apprehending the thief, but in the end after recalling the first time she arrested one, Gudninil had to do the whole procedure alone. The same anxious eyes seared with an aethereal light on the seossurian as she slowly approached the thief holding hands up with a calm expression.

The seossurian then signaled for the thief to come closer, and as she done so, she tumbled over a lone piece stool besides the ornated table, completely losing her balance as she flew towards the flabbergasted drengriar who herself plummeted into one of the shelves, completely knocked out, saved only by her uniform working tirelessly to fix her broken neck.

The thief – or impostor – rushed to check on and seemed relieved at the survival of the drengriar, and as if nothing happened in the past minute, she quickly took the dampening cuffs and roll of silver sealing tape from her, and secured the still sleeping guard whose injuries were no more.

With the last of the drengriars out on the uppermost floor, Gudninil revoked the spell, letting the mana return into the arcane point of her head where she altered it to keep tabs on the thief, impostor making her way to the treasure room far opposite to the office. At least she sensed her outside the door, and even as the door creaked open, she remained facing the slab, emanating an air of being lost in the translation.

“Damnit. You watched me didn’t you!” She said as the moment she reached within a few steps, Gudninil conjured forth thick, oily shadows that wrapped around her faux form and lifted her up into the air. “That, and middle grade spells won’t pass past my senses.” Gudninil gloatingly said while tapping the edge of her narrow elven forehead.

“MMnnph N'm...” The moment her thin lips began to move, the oily shadows moved up and encased the collars of the stolen uniform, and crept up until even her mouth was covered completely by them. Gudninil shushed at her while walking rounds around her. “We shall speak after the party is over and Lord Mitri is notified. Until then, where should I put you?” She murmured while tapping his chiseled, delicate chin pushing into the slit of her boreal collars.

Tawheeda heaved a sigh as she feigned accepting her defeat whilst sensing the faint presence of Tulaiha reaching the door. “Shush, I’m trying to think here.” Then when she reached the door, Tawheeda began to squirm and test the bonds, to draw away her attention from the door slowly opening, and simply out of testing herself for future cases.

“If you won’t stop now I shall…” Before Gudninil could finish, Tulaiha used the old trick of whacking her in the back of her head with the shock wand. As soon as Gudninil hit the floor groaning, the spell binding Tawheeda dispersed and with a quick tazing poke, sent Gudninil to the dreamlands. “You know that you don’t need to be a lightning mage to use these properly?” She asked while cracking her jaws.

“Yeah, but she would probably feel it. Now go look for it while I secure this one.” Tulaiha said as she grabbed the draupnaeth by her boots’ shafts and dragged her behind the slab’s glass and marble holding. Not far from it, Tawheeda found what they were looking for, the Scepter of Hazred-Kha said to be capable of dispersing any curse – even the Gods.

Whilst she produced a magicraft glass cutter from her pocket void, she listened to the harsh tearing of the sealing tape as Tulaiha secured Gudninil’s wrists behind her back, then winded it across her ankles and knee joints encased in the dragonid leather garments tightly pressing with their golden lining onto her snow white legs.

“Got it.” She said loudly while holding the scepter. “Me too in a second.” Hearing it, Tulaiha using her teeth severed off a wide strip from the roll instead of attaching it to the folded arms to wrap around Gudninil’s torso. She swiftly rolled the skielfrith draupnaeth onto her sides and smoothened over the wide strip reaching from ear to ear and watched as it pressed onto her almost marbly white skin.

“You got lucky.” She whispered into her ears, eliciting a groan from Gudninil before she sauntered playfully towards Tawheeda with the roll of sealing tape in hand. As soon as she reached within her, a circle appeared beneath their feet and the two disappeared in a wild storm of magical energies that shattered the nearby glass panels, alerting the guards below…

Footnote: And now with this, the uploads fully caught up with pixiv and deviantart. But more on that a bit further down. For now, just a bit on Tawheeda. And Zeyneb as the former was created as a toned down version of Zeyneb - less prone to killing, but with a divine quirk of her own that gives her a little bit of comedy.

Originally I planned for her to be part of the same organization [which name I forgot, and lazy to look up in notes] with a vendetta against the Black Roses. Which was a bit alluded in their goal in the first story she and Tulaiha was featured in first. Though I say she is not part of the remnants of that organization, the same ain't true for Tulaiha and their third friend. Whose name also alludes me.

Anyhow, what comes next after this story? A couple of four more short stories, three Archives with one set in the Midnight Isles featured so far once, before that a returning cameo character Karlanna, who surprise surprise is Karlach but not really, still set here in the mildly warm south, a story set in the Void Between Worlds in the somewhat far future of Heleion, and a Chronicles story. Most of them a bit more scenario based stories.

After those, for september, another longer story, one a remake of my first story that started this world. A story reintroducing another old character called Valindra, a traitor of the Black Roses, a snow elf working for the intelligence corps of the Arghyrians now. Her mission, to infiltrate the Black Rose's largest academy at the highest peak of the Eptirrion Mountain northern ridge.

And that is all for now. The first short story is scheduled for next week. And from this point on the uploads will be slower. So thank you for reading all this, and take care folks!

Pixiv

Twitter

Deviantart