The two alchemists sipped from ceramic cups— thrown with slight imperfections that aligned comfortably with the grooves of the hand. Herbal aromatics drifted with the tea steam, adding another layer of tranquility for their senses. Morning glories brushed Nico’s fox-tipped ears, catching lightly on the ashen fur, while several blooms rested between Kai’s ears in a way that fancied him a flower crown. Both sat angled in their seats because their knees could not fit beneath the tables. Their tails were kept neatly wrapped, mindful to not spill into the shared wooden seating.
Virid staff exchanged giggling pleasantries with them, their reeds bobbling in soft amusement. The Lycans assured them they were enjoying the experience and laughed along, agreeing they were larger than the space had been designed to accommodate. Staff offered extra cushions should they prefer their canine forms— which could fit the space better— but they declined, adjusting their ears instead to avoid brushing the hanging planters.
It drew attention, naturally, including from the Governor’s staff who tried to observe inconspicuously from a nearby balcony. Nico and Kai had identified them immediately by the faint scent of lacquered imported mahogany, a finish iconic to the government quarters they had just left. The Lycans behaved with the care expected of touring diplomats who would never dare interfere with the sage familiar’s work. Their presence was understood by everyone in the quarter, visible or not.
“Oh wow, I really did know immediately,” a voice chirped in as a pair of folded leaf blades came into view.
The Virid who owned those fronds stepped in wearing an arrangement of leaves wrapped close around her frame. The layers formed a neat cloak that shifted in small coordination with her walk, each blade trimmed and maintained with regular care.
“I really thought I was being clowned when I was sent to look for ‘The two Lycan alchemists in the Virid quarter this afternoon’ like that was enough to go off of!”
Warm green eyes took brisk stock of the Lycans, and she rested her hands at her hips, satisfied she had settled the mystery of her day.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kai smiled as he leaned on the table, his chin resting on interlocked fingers.
“Hmmm, you must be Kai then.” Two palm-frond antennae nodded in a light sway as she also shifted her weight onto the table.
“That’s me, actually,” Nico corrected.
Her fronds fanned open as she turned towards him. “No, you’re Nico,” she fired back. “The one with the nervous energy.”
The comment caught Kai in an involuntary laugh that he turned to cough and suppress. Nico’s ears flicked reactively to being read so boldly, bumping an overhead planter into a haphazard swing.
Lilith slid smoothly onto the wooden bench Nico was sat at, her fronds not even coming close to grazing the overhead fixtures. She eagerly ordered her ‘favorite drink from this cafe!’ while gushing over other items the Lycans had to try before they left Tellur. After some time exchanging introductions and dessert reviews, she laced her fingers and stretched them just above her fronds.
“So! What alchemy are we up to today?”
“None. We’re here on a sightseeing tour,” Nico replied, not inaccurately.
“R-really?” Her cape puffed in genuine surprise. “But aren’t you two A-ranks…” She twiddled her thumbs, shifting her posture slightly. “From Eclipse…”
Kai intervened before she admitted any more of how much she already knew about them. “Sage Aster’s familiar has arrived in response to the southern border rift,” He added a warm smile. “So we’re taking some time to get to know the area.”
“O-oh right!” Lilith perked back up. “Totally, I’ll show you two around! I’m a Virid bloomed from these marshes after all!”
That seemed enough to nudge her back toward the mission she was sent on. She motioned for the server, then turned a bit rosy at the discovery that Kai had already covered their meal. Kai reassured her that he was practiced in outmaneuvering everyone to the check, not just her. Nico, meanwhile, felt quietly relieved she hadn’t identified him purely through his anxious energy.
* * *
Lilith waved her hand to the left, and with a sparkle of green mana, the leafy vines hanging overhead shifted aside, then followed her hand again as she guided them to the right. The curtain of vines held just wide enough for the ear clearance of two Lycans still not in canine forms. Once they passed through, the canopy settled back into place behind them on their own. The trio continued along winding paths beneath layers of leafy cover, some formed by willow branches, others by overhead trellises.
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As they walked, Lilith gently adjusted any flora that crept into their path with soft waves of green mana. When asked about it, her coconut fronds suddenly bunched into tight blades atop her head. She tugged her leaf cloak higher, trying to hide the bloom of color rising beneath it.
“Oh! Uhm! It’s a skill that I developed called Rootweave! It moves the water inside of plants…” she mumbled, looking down at her shuffling feet.
“I’d love to hear more about it,” Kai encouraged.
The coconut fronds fanned back out as she launched into an explanation faster than she could catch her breath between sentences. The quick turns around narrow paths, combined with awnings and dense foliage, were not helping her breath control. As their pace picked up through a crowded bazaar, her detailed explanation of how to manipulate water without bursting plant cell walls struggled to keep up. From what Nico could smell, or rather couldn’t as the scent faded from proximity, it seemed the mahogany following them was having similar trouble.
|| Skill Activated || [ ? Lycanthropy ]
Lilith folded her palm fronds as she and the canines slid between stalls and ducked under a strip of awnings that wrapped around the base of a hill. She waved them into a tight alley that felt distinctly residential, especially as they ascended staircases lined with welcome mats and shoes kept neatly outside doors, before it opened into a roof patio. Rows of colorful parasols were strung overhead, opened decoratively to provide cover. With a few hops across rooftops and more staircases that felt suspiciously like trespassing into someone’s home, they arrived at the base of another set of stairs, this time carved directly into the hillside.
Lilith paused to reclaim the breaths she had missed while animatedly discussing variables in plant and soil manipulation with Kai.
“We’re… phew!” She took a few more breaths and shook out her fronds. “We’re here!”
At the top of the hill stood a workshop the rest of the quarter seemed to gather around, a stone structure set firmly into the slope. Its age showed in how the hillside below had filled in over time, smaller workshops clustering outward from it in uneven tiers. The surrounding gadgetry lined with glyphs made for an easy guess: this was a hub for mana engineers, devoted to applied inscription work rather than elemental affinity.
A mature tree grew from the roof of the main structure, its exposed roots spreading across the stone and down the walls, gripping the building as they worked their way into the hill. The roots had been repeatedly accommodated: vents split to pass between them, channels cut to guide runoff and mana flow, brackets embedded where equipment had been shifted. Moss gathered where moisture collected, and shallow inscriptions scored into the stone documented past restorations, layered in a way that showed the workshop was ever evolving. Inside, the space opened wider than the exterior suggested.
|| Active Skill : ? Lycanthropy ||
[ Deactivate? Y/N ]
Stone walls carried the same layered inscriptions, with mana flowing visibly through channels set into the floor and lower walls, branching toward workstations throughout the room. Warm glowlights filtered around the roots and stone, illuminating manatech components, half-assembled devices, and carefully labeled racks of materials. In one corner, vibrating with an array of mana crystals, batteries, and generators, a bundle of feathers flapped around in visible distress, overwhelmed by the volume of crystals to sort through, yet somehow still selecting the correct one amid the organized chaos.
“Teerrrrriiii!” Lilith’s greeting carried through the workshop.
A few feathers perked up as a pair of goggles turned to meet them.
“Oh!! Lilith!” Terri chirped. She flapped her wings a few times to get to her feet, then drifted cleanly down from the perch she’d been working on.
“These are the A-ranks Imae was telling us about!!” Lilith’s fronds swayed excitedly as Terri took off her goggles and they exchanged hugs.
The fronds came to a still as Lilith came to remember said A-ranks were standing directly behind her. Her cloak leaves bristled as she went faintly rosy. Kai stepped in smoothly, offering graceful introductions layered with soft flattery. Lilith almost managed to recover her composure, until Kai mentioned how impressive Rootweave was.
“Yeah, isn’t Lilith the best?” Terri said brightly. “That’s how she became a B-rank alchemist so quickly, all the way from our marshes!” She sang Lilith’s praises as Lilith went from rosy to beet red.
Kai did not defuse this time. “Her skill development is creative in a way most people are afraid to push,” he pushed. Terri nodded eagerly and launched into several examples.
Nico stepped forward just enough to let Lilith retreat quietly behind him, giving her space to die in embarrassed flattery in peace. He empathized, often the target of the wolf’s weaponized flattery himself.
Terri led them to a circular center console and blew the stray papers off it in a disorganized gust of wing flaps. A hologram flickered to life from the center, hovering above the surface, rendering a scale-accurate, three-dimensional map of the Tellur’s western bank.
“Aster’s presence is here now, yeah?” Terri confirmed with the group.
“Information travels fast in your circuit,” Kai said, “Considering it’s only been a few hours since his Familiar arrived.”
“It often does about people who are actively poisoning Tellur,” Terri replied sharply. She manipulated the map, pinching to zoom and rotating it. “The rift we’re targeting is at the far corner of the west bank, upriver. Aster mines from it and dumps the manasolids straight into the river that feeds our marshes.” Her voice turned progressively more scornful. “But it might be more complicated now that his familiar is here.”
“You’re much more straightforward than Imae,” Kai commented.
“That’s why I don’t run AatP,” Terri said, lightening with a laugh.
Nico’s ears tilted, his eyebrows scrunching toward each other. Whatever Imae had meant by secrets, this wasn’t what he had pictured. He glanced sideways at the wolf beside him.
“I’ll be straightforward too,” Kai said, shifting the map again. “Aster’s familiar is pulling manpower toward the southern border. That transition leaves the west bank uncovered overnight, before the morning briefing. It should stay quiet until then.”
Terri nodded. “Then we plan around that.”
Lilith nodded as well—then froze as her fronds passed through the hologram and sent the map spinning wildly. She made a small, mortified sound and turned beet red while Terri reset the projection.
Nico shot a quick side eye at Kai.
This guy and night missions.