The next two days passed without incident. No more monsters, no more brazen sexual overtures. It was almost peaceful.

  The only issue was that the ‘hunger’ had yet to abate. Worse, I could feel the connection to Nioka constantly hanging between us like a taught thread, waiting to be plucked. It wasn’t always there, but whenever I became aware of Nioka being nearby, the connection immediately came to mind. And since I was camping with Lyren’s group and marching with the dusk elves, it wasn’t exactly as if we could avoid each other.

  It was just after dinner, the third ‘night’ since the enstolbii that found me sitting with the Quartermaster having just finished eating. I was full, yet still hungry, and found myself looking across the camp towards Nioka.

  “Well, there goes my ten Crescents," I heard the Quartermaster murmur.

  I blinked and turned to face him. “Uh?”

  He blushed slightly and tried to look away, but I was too curious to let that work. Eventually he sighed and turned back to me.

  “Well, I mentioned on the first day that we were betting on whether you’d make it to the first rest point without collapsing. That wasn’t the only thing about you we’ve been betting on.” He said with a shrug. Apparently he’d been embarrassed at being caught but not enough, it seemed, to apologise.

  “Does this have something to do with the ‘pool’ you were mentioning?” Given further context, I was guessing that it wasn’t an accumulation of water, but some euphemism I didn’t quite understand.

  He gave me a curious look, but nodded.

  I sighed, not wanting to ask but unable to really stop myself from doing so. “So what did you bet on about me? How did I ‘lose you ten Crescents’. Whatever those are.”

  ‘They’re a coin.”

  “I gathered, but are they big ones or small. Is that a lot of money or pocket change?”

  He cocked his hand to the side, “Eh, kind of a middle amount? They’re silver based, which means that they trade decently enough. But since the Empire mostly uses a Talon marker system, we have some trouble tr…ad…ing…”

  The boredom must’ve shown on my face, given how he trailed off.

  “Sorry for boring you,” he said, removing any doubt. His tone wasn’t apologetic in the least, but given how rude I had been I supposed his scorn was justified.

  “No, my apologies. It was just that…” I trailed off trying to think of the trained excuse provided. There were dozens we had been taught to use on behalf of our Lords. I remembered the excuses for public drunkenness and untoward behavior perfectly, but could not for the life of me remember the excuse for when someone nodded off in court.

  “Just that you don’t care about the fascinating history of coinage and the deeper implications?” his face was severe, but his tone was flat in a way that couldn’t be anything but sarcasm. Still, I felt bad.

  “No, I’m sure on another occasion it would be fascinating to hear about the coinage history” I said, trying to put as much sincerity into my words as I could manage. “It’s just that it was getting afield of my original question. You were betting on me.”

  He gave me a skeptical look, but eventually nodded conceding the point.

  “The only bet I had left after that first day was on your preferences. And given how you keep staring at Nioka, it would seem that you prefer the fairer sex.”

  I blushed before I could master it and shook my head.

  He gave me a curious glance, his voice slightly hopeful. “Do you prefer men? And if so, would you say that in front of someone so I can get my money.”

  “I’d prefer that my preferences not be a topic of discussion,” I said pointedly ignoring his request.

  He laughed, “Far too late for that one.”

  I sighed and shook my head and he graciously let the conversation fall. However, I had a thought. With a curious glance I turned to him.

  “You said that you ‘only’ bet on my preferences. That means that there are other bets?”

  “Several. Most of them are already resolved. Whether you’d make it through the first day. Whether or not you’d get injured in the first combat. Whether or not you’d take umbrage at having to sleep in a tent.”

  “Betting on my fragility,” I summarized.

  “Essentially. Though, if it makes you feel better, all bets about how glassy you are have been considered settled. You’ve proven that you aren’t glass.”

  I nodded, “But my… preferences aren’t fragility.”

  “No,” he said, taking his time and picking his words. It wasn’t translation struggles though. He was reluctant.

  “If your worry is that I’ll be offended at you for telling me, don’t. I know better than to be angry at the messenger.”

  The look he gave me was thoughtful, but he eventually nodded.

  “Soldiers are a, well, salacious bunch.”

  “Salascious?”

  He sighed exasperatedly, “Horny. They’re horny. And you are, not to put too fine a point on it, a very attractive woman.”

  “Your kind for saying so.”

  “Not for me, but that’s because I’m not particular to women in general,” he said.

  I nodded, oddly relieved at his confession. It took me a long moment to figure out why. Despite it being seen as a deviancy back home, the number one duty of any of the common People was to provide more children to the Wood, his preferences would mean that I would be, at least from him, safe from the brazen courting processes I had been subject to every since I had left Imardos.

  “And as a Starborn, you have been seen as, well, twice the prize, so to speak,” he eventually finished.

  “They’ve been betting on whether or not I’d lay with them,” I asked aghast.

  He snorted, “None of them would be so… obtuse. In fact, I’d imagine most of them don’t even know what obtuse is. But in essence, yes.”

  And just like that all the comfort I from the guarantee the Quartermaster wouldn’t had been replaced with the mounting dread that a dozen of them would.

  “Eleven days is hardly enough time for a romance,” I eventually said, hoping to soothe myself.

  “What does romance have to do with it?” the Quartermaster asked incredulously. “You can have sex with out love. You can have love without sex.”

  I stared at him uncomprehendingly.

  He grimaced uncomfortably. “Right, well, uh… I am not the person to have that conversation with you.”

  I nodded slightly, hand cupping my face. In theory I should look like I was in thought, but behind my palm I was mortified. We sat in awkward silence for a long while. It was only after an extended period that I was able to speak.

  “I’m… not interested.”

  “Clearly,” he agreed.

  “Is there any way I could make sure that people… not know. But uh, don’t try?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Right,” I eventually said. “Well, uh, thanks for letting me know?”

  Now I just had to figure out what to do with that information.

  *****************************************************************************************************

  After that conversation, I spent desperately trying to find a solution to the ‘hunger’. The rest of the structure was almost familiar. March during the day. Occasionally fight a smaller monster. Nothing as dangerous as the enstolbii, but still burrs in otherwise smooth journeys. In the ‘evening’ I’d help Lyren cook and then talk to the Quartermaster over dinner. The sameness of the rest days freed up my mind to try and find solutions.

  I tried meditation. I tried to ignore it. I had tried looking at magical auras to get more information. I tried drawing extra energy in and holding it within me to try and replace whatever the hunger was holding. That one almost worked for a time, but eventually the excess would leak away and the hunger would return.

  Fortunately, despite the fears the Quartermaster had unintentionally stoked, no one had been problematically bold. There were a few attempts, but nothing more serious than Nioka’s offer of ‘help’.

  There was, however, a notable pattern to their frequency. Each day I spent with the group, the number of people asking increased. The Quartermaster suggested it was because people were worried about losing their bets as time ran short and thus were being pressured to act but something about that felt incomplete. On the tenth day of the journey I finally got a hint about what was happening.

  I was sitting around the fire after dinner, as I had become accustomed to doing. The quartermaster had long left, Lyren and Nioka were on guard duty, so I was sitting alone watching the people around the fire and the seeming gaps around myself when I saw something new.

  A soldier from one of the other groups, I wasn’t sure which but definitively not one of Lyren’s, came by the fire. Thankfully, they weren’t one of of the ones who had made a bet about me. Or at least not that bet about me. I knew this because instead of trying to talk to me like the other had, they instead struck up a conversation with one of the other soldiers around the fire. Already watching the group around the fire, I noted that the newcomer didn’t have one of the tendrils wrapped around them. Not new, but certainly in the minority of the people I interacted with. Most of Lyren’s camp had a tendril, with Lyren and Everik being the only ones who didn’t.

  But as the new elf stood there, slowly, almost hesitantly a new tendril formed. It wasn’t an extension or splitting of an existing one, but something new that stretched from around me and out. It looked a bit odd and concerning, but after the past few days, I was convinced that the tendrils were harmless unless I ‘pulled’ on them. None of the others had become seemingly permanent like Nioka’s had and, except for Nioka’s, they all faded away once the person got far enough.

  But this was the first time I had seen a new tendril connect. And what that did to a person. Almost instantly, their posture shifted. They shuffled a bit, closer to me, but also turning so they could see me. And, when they thought I wasn’t looking, they quickly tucked their hair behind their ears. It was the hair sparked my understanding.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I used to do the same thing when I realized I was going to be by Dimarso. It seemed like an eternity ago now, but I still remember wanting to look good for him. Wanting to be noticed by him.

  And suddenly, I see the change as clear as the difference between night and day. They had gone from someone seemingly indifferent to me to someone who cared what I thought about them. Wanted me to notice them. And the change point was when the tendril touched. It wasn’t that the tendril indicated attraction. It was that the tendril caused attraction.

  I was trying to figure out the implications of that particular discovery when I noticed that they had started to walk towards me. At some point the conversation had died and instead of leaving, the new elf was walking towards me. Slowly, their face uncertain, but there was motion. I was annoyed more than anything, but then I saw the tendril wrapped around the elf’s waist. And how, when they stopped and moved to turn around, it pulsed almost like it was pulling on the elf. And immediately after, they started taking steps towards me again.

  I made a show of yawning before shaking my head.

  “Good night everyone,” I said in Runna. None of them understood the words, but the little wave I added to it seemed to convey my intent. The new elf looked a bit disappointed, but eventually I moved far enough away that the tendril seemed to fade and by the time I was at my tent, they had turned and walked back from wherever they came from. Once I was inside my tent, I started babbling excitedly to myself.

  “It’s not an aura, it’s a snare. It’s reaching out to find people and pulling them to me. Pulling people in.” My mind continued, chasing the implications that I couldn’t bring myself to speak, but Rin had no reservations.

  “Kumiho seduce to isolate others and harvest from them. This field is there to help that process along. A non-natural effect to help push people past their inhibitions and make choices a bit more impulsively than they would otherwise. Nikoa didn’t just feel like she was out of character; she was out of character. Compelled by the field. And it has to be a nonmagical effect because otherwise it might be detected. We can sense flows of magic even when we aren’t enhancing our senses. It stands to reason that a more powerful Mage could sense even subtle changes like the tendrils.”

  It fit. It made sense. And it explained why this was only a problem recently. I hadn’t been “Hungry’ before. But now that I was, this… enticing lure. No. The Enticement Field was there to help satiate the ‘Hunger’.

  I had figured it out!

  Oh, Spiders. I had figured it out. And what it was was horrid. I definitively had to figure out how to stop it.

  “Why? Extra attraction to you isn’t inherently problematic.”

  Besides the fact that I was a kitsune in elven lands and the more people who paid attention to me the more likely I was to being found out? And that wasn’t even factoring the fact that I simply didn’t want to spend the rest of my days telling people ‘no’.

  Rin didn’t respond to that, leaving me alone in a quiet tent.

  “Well, back to work.”

  *****************************************************************************************************

  Despite my best efforts, I made next to no progress. There just wasn’t enough time. It was the eighth day, or at least I had slept eight times, by the time I had figured it out. And despite the quartermaster implying that the journey was to be around ten days, it wasn’t until just after second stretch of marching on the eleventh ‘day’ that we reached our destination.

  I hadn’t noticed at first, I was so busy going through mental calculations and trying to figure out the effective quantity of the field based on the density of the magical aura it was occluding. I had several different numbers. The lower range being if the field was equivalent to the aura, but counter in such a way that it canceled out, like equivalently potent evocations of light and shadow. The higher is if it had enough equivalent power to completely eclipse the magical aura.

  The difference between those two numbers was large enough that the estimations were effectively useless, but I was working on narrowing it down when my thoughts were interrupted by a series of gasps were heard around me. My first fear was about potential enemies, but when I looked up, no one was readying their shields or positioning spears. They were all looking up. I followed their eyes, but couldn’t see anything. Confused, I moved towards the quartermaster and gave him a tap and then my best confused face once he turned.

  He gave me a look of confusion in return before turning to realization. “You can take the goggles off.”

  I had almost forgotten I was wearing the things given how long they had been affixed to my head, but they came off easily.

  Light bloomed, blurring and staggering me. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust, but all that did was swarm my vision with dots.

  “Rub your eyes. It should help you adapt,” the quartermaster suggested.

  I rubbed my eyes hard enough that they ached, but when I stopped rubbing, the world I found before me took my breath away.

  What I originally thought had been the sun resolved itself into a vaulted ceiling covered in glowing patterns. Splotches of colored light slowly resolved themselves into arranged beds of glowing fauna, hanging from the pillars of stone and arranged into intricate geometric patterns. As I watched, a bright pulse ran across one of the blue strands, arcing through the night like a comet. At the end of the trail, it landed at a fence of gilded fungi, guarding an elegant stone building, carved spires tapering to a spear tip that held a temple the size of the Refrectory and its surrounding yard.

  Another pulse, purple flashed at the corner of my eye, bursting from the center in a strobing pattern, leaving a starburst across the sky, touching at the compass points of the cavern. And then there was a green pulse, and then another blue. Each racing across the cavern roof, tracing geometric patterns.

  Rin, who had been rather quiet the past few days, commented. “These patterns seem reminiscent of rune work inside the Refrectory. At a conservative estimate, could hold more Kolim than our village could accumulate in the next thirty years.”

  The math was probably right, it came from my own mind, but I didn’t believe it. That was far too much power to just be left. But as I quickly ran the numbers myself, I surprised to find that the number she had given me wasn’t just correct, but likely on the conservative side of estimates. The original estimate must’ve been neglecting the fact living creatures, even ones as simple as fungi, were used in the array would increase the storage capacity beyond what pure runes could. There was likely a trade off, probably a slower accumulation rate, but I’d have to get closer to be sure.

  I paused, momentarily distracted from the vast repositories of power just above my head to be impressed by how much better at numbers I was. The need to self-congratulate passed quickly enough, leaving me once more staring at the ceiling.

  “I wonder,” I said aloud, to no one in particular, “When was the last time that repository was tapped.”

  “Starborn?” the quartermaster asked at my shoulder.

  I turned to find the entire dusk elf company politely waiting for me to finish looking at the ceiling. I was slightly embarrassed that I had all but forgotten them.

  “My apologies,” I said with a small bow. “Ready to go when you are.”

  Mah-tok grunted and let off some words in their language. The quartermaster nodded and turned to me. “It might, uh, be wise for you to hide your ears and tails before we go much farther. Freeport, even it’s underground, are firmly under Runnan control.”

  I nodded in agreement while fighting a blush. I should have already thought of that, but I had just… been distracted. I breathed out and willed the shift to happen.

  It wasn’t smooth as it had been on the boat. My nails shorted at irregular intervals and the ears didn’t fold away at the same time. Worse, the entire thing felt awkward. It also didn’t help that I could feel several dusk elves watching the change with rapt attention.

  I had long since grown inured to being watched doing magic, the Academy had trained me out of my nervousness there, but having so many was a new complication. Regardless, I managed to fold my ears away, curl my tails, flatten my feet, and shrink my teeth. All of my obviously Kitsune features just tucked away, like a letter you didn’t want to read.

  Feigning comfort and confidence I didn’t feel, I gave Mah-tok and the Quartermaster my best smile. “Ready when you are.”

  Mah-tok nodded, turned and the entire group started marching again.

  I spent the short time enjoying the ability to see colors once more and admiring the ceiling that had opened above us. The wonder was a bit marred by how tight the walls stayed and there were clearly ledges above, but I did my best not to think too hard about that.

  It only took a few kedu, no more than twenty, of marching before we approached the gate. Or, at least I assumed it was a gate. There was an unadorned slab of metal stretched across the narrow tunnel. Another armored figure stood in front of the gate. Where the dusk elves armor was sharp, precise, and overlaid in such a way that it didn’t leave any openings, this person’s looked like someone had simply wrapped sheets of metal around the body and head before hammering them into place. In fact, now that I was taking a closer look at them, they looked far less like a person and more like an effigy made of steel. Still, the figure was clearly able to see us and speak.

  Without leaving their post, they raised their arm and a deep voice came from somewhere within the pile of metal. “HAIL!” they cried in Runna.

  “HAIL,” the quartermaster called back. The slowed and let the quartermaster move to the front to talk. He did so, producing paperwork from his satchel as he moved. “We’re here on a trade mission from Mulvalod.”

  The metal effigy’s hand moved and pulled off what turned out to be a helmet from their head before taking the papers in hand. The face was thick and rugged looking, with sandy brown hair. Human, given the lack of pointed ears and male by the beard.

  I spent a moment trying to figure out if I should try and adapt my disguise to better blend in with the local humans before dismissing the thought as fancy. Even if I thought I could do it, there was no way I hadn’t been noticed by now and shapeshifting like that would draw more attention than my red hair ever would.

  The guard continued in Runna. “We haven’t had any traders come through these tunnels in years,” he said, eyeing the group skeptically. I, almost instinctively, tried to demur and place myself farther back as training indicated I should, but it was a futile effort. Between the dusk elves’ gray-purple skin and black hair, I stood out. His eyes did linger on me for just a moment, but quickly moved on.

  “Still, paperwork is in order. One sun, or equivalent, per person to come through the gate.”

  The quartermaster was already nodding, pulling a sack from his satchel and putting it in the guard’s hand. The guard took a moment to look through before grunting and putting his fist to the metal slab behind him.

  With a groan, the entire slab of metal pushed back, dragging across the ground. As it slid, a gap opened behind the guard. He took two steps to the side, leaving us a path just narrow enough for us to walk through single file.

  “Welcome to Freeport,” the guard declared. The quartermaster nodded, Mah-tok grunted, and elves started to march through the gap. Lyren’s company was first, followed by another group. Only then were the quartermaster and I pushed forward.

  Swallowing air nervously, I stepped forward, following the line. It led through a narrow corridor, tight enough that you couldn’t maneuver with walls steep enough that it would be difficult to scale them before one of the patrol guards knocked you down. A deathtrap if someone was so inclined. I tried to push those thoughts from my mind as the dusk elf in front of me bobbed along.

  Just before the end, I felt a tingle at my skin, a slight tug in the pathways where I gathered magical energy from, but extending beyond my skin. I followed the pull and found a bored man sitting at the top of the wall with a small red stone attached to a string. As I watched, the stone began to glow and then pulse and the man turned to his side and whispered quietly to the man next to him. I was concerned, but the fact that there wasn’t a bell ringing or alarms being rung, soothed me a little. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t a large response.

  That concern slowly gave way to confusion as the hallway let into a more open area, where the dusk elves were mulling about. But that wasn’t what caught my eye. Across from the entryway, there was a series of carvings on the wall that looked familiar.

  The carvings themselves meant nothing to me, depicting lizards sitting like cats and spanning wings, the likes of which I had never seen or heard of before. But something about the wall felt familiar. I tried to push the thought away, dismiss it as too much time in the dark, but it kept nagging at my brain. And before I had realized it, I had unthinkingly stepped towards the wall and my fingers were extended to touch the mural. There wasn’t a threat, or any magical energies, just my own mind insisting that there was something familiar about this.

  I spared a glance around. None of the guards or dusk elves seemed concerned with me, or the mural or even me touching the mural. It seemed like it was okay.

  But the doubt stayed. Because the longer I stood here, the more it felt like I needed to touch the wall. Needed to know why I thought this familiar. I needed.

  And that need sat very uncomfortable with the ‘hungering’ needs that I had been struggling with since Mulvalod.

  It didn’t feel the same inside me, but the struggle to control the impulse was similar enough that it made me nervous. Fearful that this desire would be harmful to those around me and a source of new nightmares. Slowly. Deliberately. I pulled my hands away from the carvings.

  And then one of the dusk elves bumped into me, knocking me into the wall face first.

  The stonework pressed against my face, pain there for but a moment before my vision swam and I found myself remembering things half forgotten.

  It came as a series of flashes, one after another, memories of the visions the Pale Lady had given me coming back in a flash. I remembered this wall, then sunlight, seabirds, then a tower with bells and numbered circles atop it with two metal bars, both pointing straight up to the twelve. “Scelehi Tower,” whispered her voice from across the fog of memory.

  When I came out of the reverie, there was another man standing over me. I blinked twice, before the man resolved into the quartermaster.

  “Starborn?” he quietly asked. “Are you alright?”

  I nodded numbly.

  “Good,” he said relieved and then pointed with one hand while helping me up with the other. “Wouldn’t want to make it all this way for naught. Come, one of the guards has offered to guide us.”

  I looked to where he motioned and found a smaller human man, with a nervous smile palming his helm while he waited. It was the second guard, the one who had run off, from earlier. When he noticed me looking, he dropped into a small bow, “Honored mage,” he declared, “Welcome to Freeport. It would be my honor to guide you wherever you might want to go.”

  And while the fact that he had identified me as a mage, not as a Starborn was concerning, I wasn’t really thinking about that right now. I had reached Freeport and the first leg of my journey was done.