[Obsidian Agent]

Not my fault I suffered a laptop crash, and lost all my notes regarding "The Cold War".

Besides, the voting doesn't occur until we both reach 10 chapters.

[SFI]

Well then SFI, it looks like you might be the first to win the 10 Fanfic chapters challenge or whatever you are having with Obsidian Agent...

Push on SFI, YOU CAN DO IT!

It's not about getting to ten chapters first, it's about making the better first ten chapters

[CutieSquiggoth]

Not my fault I suffered a laptop crash, and lost all my notes regarding "The Cold War".

Besides, the voting doesn't occur until we both reach 10 chapters.

Voting?

Somehow, I get the feeling I've missed something here...

Now where is my clue-panda gone? I can never find anything without her

[SFI]

Not my fault I suffered a laptop crash, and lost all my notes regarding "The Cold War".

Besides, the voting doesn't occur until we both reach 10 chapters.

Voting?

Somehow, I get the feeling I've missed something here...

Now where is my clue-panda gone? I can never find anything without her

You missed a discussion in the Ban-thread

[CutieSquiggoth]

You missed a discussion in the Ban-thread

What's that Skippy? A discussion in the Ban-thread you say?

That's strange, clue-pandas don't talk, I wonder who that was

[ThatGuyThisGuy]

There are plenty of discussions in the ban thread although it is rare that they get anywhere of importance or are profound.

[SFI]

Fanfic on Hold until Obsie gets his notes back in order, or is like 'F*** the contest'.

[SFI]

“These seem like the creatures as described.” Diva’ratrika looked with distaste at the corpses that had been delivered to the Dome. The three males had hurried back, summoning several workers to transfer some of the corpses to the Ill’haresses.
“Somewhat.” Asira gently shifted one of them to look at it better. “But not quite. They seem... only remotely related, I’d say.”
“They were Shaped.” Waes’soloth darkly stated, a shadow-tendril lifting one of the bodies closest to her. “I’d say this one used to be a spider... and a wolf?” She tilted her head a touch. “They’re not natural, at the very least.” Dropping the creature, she crossed her arms.
“So someone IS doing this.” Sanindi stated in disbelief. “But who’d want such slaughter!?”
“I am more interested where they have learned how to do this.” Quain’tana kicked one of the bodies lightly. “It’s not like the Shaping-arts are up for grabs for just anyone to learn.”
“Are you insinuating one of my people did this?” The Val’Jaaldarya Ill’haress got up quickly.
“We already covered this.” The Empress sharply pointed out. “None of us would condone this.”
“It could still – and probably has to, if Waes is correct in her assumption – happen in secret.” Nega’fanea pointed out. “And it is also a fact that your clan is the most reasonable assumption for this to happen, Asira.”
“It could also still happen in the Beldrobbaen.” The smaller drowolath pointed at the black-clothed Ill’haress. “They too know Shaping-arts.”
“The art to merge a fae with something else... not... not this!” Waes’soloth gestured to the creatures at their feet.
“Enough!” Diva sharply stated. “If we cannot do this without bickering, we might as well throw ourselves at the things actually out there.” When none of the others spoke up, she continued. “Thank you.” Sharess, that sounded far too much like a snarl. She was letting this thing get to her. “Now, Waes’soloth, Asira’malika, we are not accusing anyone of anything, but just to be certain, see if you can find out anything in your clan.”

“Well, it certainly is a relief we were done using it.” The elder female leaned against the wall. Rumour had spread that a ‘garbage-dump’ had been found. Beside her were her three children, though her daughter seemed to subconsciously lean away from the other three in the room.
“So where next?” One of her sons grinned eagerly.
“We ought to tone it down.” His twin countered. “They’re on guard now.”
“Take mine.” Their mother looked at the first speaker. “Do visit... her. I can’t stand the sight of her.”
“Heh, as you wish.” He quickly left the room to head for their pets.
“Take your own.” She gestured outside with her head. “Let’s make them tremble.”

[Isaiah Cortez]

Hmmm... This is getting truly intresting!

[SFI]

“I am just... worried, is all.” Since they had to travel in the same direction for the most part of their return-journey, Waes’soloth and Rel’lumia were travelling together. Currently, they were reclining in the same carriage. “What is the use of all this?”
“Someone is bloody insane.” Waes’soloth darkly stated, caressing the small spider that had snuck onto the carriage when she left her fortress. The little white thing had tried to cuddle with Rel, but the Nal’sarkoth had not been that happy about it.
“That is an understatement.” The green-haired female snapped her fan closed to point at the window. “This is taking more lives than any war did.”
“Save the Sharen-Sullisin’rune one...” The Beldrobbaen mused. “But yes, I do not even want to know how many will have died before we figure this out.”
The younger female was prevented from answering when their escorts stopped moving. Hearing some talking, someone finally knocked on their door.
“What is it?” Waes’soloth reached over to open it, the one in charge of Rel’lumia’s escort standing in front of it.
“Forgive me, Ill’haress, but the Haledri refuse to move on.” The armoured female looked back the way they should be heading. “And I am no expert on spiders, but I think the Beldrobbaen-mounts are also getting restless.”
The two Val shared a brief look. “Take a different route, head straight for the Beldrobbaen-fortress.”
“At once.” The door closed again and the group soon started moving in a different direction again.
“Those things wouldn’t attack a group this large, would they?” Rel’lumia pushed the curtains aside briefly to look outside.
“Let’s hope not.” Waes’soloth lifted the spider onto her lap again. “I really do not want to consider what that would mean.”
Letting the curtains fall back in place, the other female made a face before opening her fan again.

That would not be the only interruption of their journey. The group stopped again after a while, calls being passed back and forth between their escorts.
“What is it now?” Waes’soloth leaned towards the door.
“Can’t see anything outside.” Rel’lumia pushed aside the curtain. Then she paled as the lights inside the carriage flickered out. “The mana-lights are out...”
“Oh, mother-killing hell...” The Beldrobbaen raised her hand, a light briefly appearing above her upturned palm before fading. “I think you jinxed it a touch back there, Rel.”
The green-haired female was kept from retorting when the carriage shook. Outside, their guards were screaming orders.
“Goddess!” Whatever had made the carriage shake had been enough to topple it onto its’ side, it’s door pointing up now and something trying to push it open.
“We got to get out.” Waes’soloth rubbed her forehead as blood ran down it. “I’d rather not be in here when that thing is.”
“Easier said than done.” Rel’lumia reached up to push the door closed. “In case you didn’t notice.”
“Move when I say so.” Reaching to what had been under the seat but now was beside it, Waes’soloth pulled a crossbow up. “Let’s see how they deal with a crossbow-bolt in their eye.”
“You have a crossbow in your carriage!?”
“Rule number one: no matter how good you are at something, don’t rely on it. Especially when it is the arts.” Waes’soloth took aim. “Go!”
Rel’lumia dodged aside and at once the door was smashed open. A bolt shot passed her head, lodging itself in one glowing eye. Howling in pain, the creature jumped away.
“Good shot.” The younger female got up again. “Why are our escorts not helping?”
“Don’t ask me.” Waes’soloth reached up, pushing herself off on the bottom of the carriage to climb up. She now regretted getting such a wide vehicle. “Oh Goddess... Give me the bow.”
“Here.” Rel’lumia followed her out, realizing quickly enough why their escorts were too busy: there were two of the things. One had a bolt lodged in his head and the other seemed to be trying to kill one of Waes’soloth’s driders. “This is bad.”
“Don’t tell me about it.” The Beldrobbaen climbed down to the street, crossbow in one hand. “We have to get away.”
Rel’lumia dropped down beside her. “Where to?” She really wanted to help their escorts, but also realized – probably just as Waes had – that basically unarmed and more importantly unarmoured, the two of them would merely be a liability.
“Away.” The one the black-haired female had shot had gotten over the pain and was now starting to turn on them again. “I have the feeling we are the target.”
“Oh, bugger.” The younger female looked around. “This way.” She moved to the far end of the street. “I should put a weapon in my carriage as well.”
“You can do that if we get out of here.” Waes’soloth tried to shoot another eye, but the thing had wizened up and shielded his face just in time with a chitin-covered leg. “Pick a mace, please.”
“Noted.” Both had to dodge when the beast shot forward and impacted against the tipped carriage hard enough to dent it. It seemed not even fazed by it as the vaguely feline body turned to the unarmed female. Behind the creature, Waes’soloth was taking aim again, though what she was actually aiming for with all that chitin Rel’lumia couldn’t say. Besides, she had far different priorities right now.
Only to get a massive upheaval in her priorities when the elder female pulled the trigger. Having been around spiders her entire life, the Ill’haress found another weak-spot, managing to just fit a bolt between two chitin-plates.
Roaring, the creature turned and charged the black-clad female. She only barely managed to dodge, nearly losing her balance. Before she could recover, one of its’ hard legs smashed into her side, flinging her halfway across the street. The crossbow skittered even further, leaving the wheezing female defenceless.
Barely managing to turn into her back, the second-generation found herself pinned and a set of massive jaws on crushing-course with her head. In a rather feeble attempt, she reached up to stop them. She only managed to slow them down.

[Isaiah Cortez]

Splat?

[SFI]

If the Nine had been in an uproar about all this before, then ‘panic’ was the only way to describe how they felt when word of this attack reached them. Two of their number, as well as their substantial escorts had been attacked and half a dozen had died before the creatures had been hunted off.
Rel’lumia had taken temporary refuge in the Beldrobbaen-fortress until more of her people had arrived to escort her the rest of the way to her fortress.
“You summoned me?” Naubol’oth knocked lightly on the door. Miracle of miracles, Waes’soloth’s attacker had fled before finishing her off. Several bitemarks and bruises marred her face and body though, one of the empath-healers tending to her.
“Yes.” The black-haired female gestured the healer away, getting up slowly herself to walk over to the window. “How are my guards?”
“Two death, one will require golem-prosthetics, but the rest will be well with time.” He followed her over, watching as she leaned her forehead against the window. “But surely Ischa could have informed you of this...?”
“I didn’t call you for that.” The Ill’haress turned around, looking at him through a curtain of black hair. “I want your opinion on something.”
He dipped his head briefly.
“I think Asira was right when claiming this came from our Shaping-arts.” Her voice was even, but he was shocked.
“Waes!” The rest of his sentence was stopped by her raised hand.
“It was Shaped.” She stated darkly. “And I should be dead. While I am not.”
“They were hunted off...” The Headmaster offered.
“Not on time.” Waes’soloth leaned back against the window. “It stopped from crushing my head before any of the guards reached me.” She touched the marks on her face. “It had already decided it would not kill me.”
“Assuming you are correct...” He crossed his arms. “How? It’s not like no one else wears black. And Aura or scent would be far too complicated, no doubt.”
“I thought about that too.” A frown crossed the elegant face. “Then I realized something that sets Beldrobbaen apart from the other clans...” Reaching over, she pulled on his robes. “These.”
“Our clothes?” He looked at her hand holding the dark-grey fabric. “Wait...”
“We are the only people who as a rule do not wear spidersilk-clothes.” Letting go, she turned away. “We use dridersilk which we do not trade, hardly gift to others – even Diva only has one outfit as far as I recall - and I believe there is only one drider who occasionally does business in Klarbol...” Tapping her nails against the glass, she continued. “If you want to exclude the Beldrobbaen from something, just teach your... thing... to not attack someone that wears dridersilk... I am sure it smells different or something.” She sighed once.
“What about the other Beldrobbaen that were attacked though?” He pointed out. “Yours was not the first attack for this clan. Sharess, two were killed in the same attack that wounded you!”
“But they were not wearing dridersilk, were they?” A small, pained smile replaced her frown. “We don’t use our rare dridersilk for things that could get damaged easily, like armour-padding...” Rubbing her forehead, she continued. “And the other one... the first one that died? He was with a group of Sharen, I believe, after spending the week with his mate and her sisters... How likely is it he was wearing something she gifted him instead of his own clothes?” A broken chuckle escaped her lips. “Let’s face it, Naubol’oth... One of our own is doing this.”

[SFI]

Waes’soloth did not yet voice her realization to the other Ill’haresses. Not until she had an idea as to who exactly was responsible for all this. Perhaps she was wrong and paranoia was getting to her, which was still a possibility.
“You’re tense.” Her lover had come shortly afterwards, worry for his mate driving him to risk Chel alone. “You’ll find them, no doubt.” He of course was an exception... she had told him, if only because she needed to vent.
“Before or after they cause all clans to turn against me once they find out.” Leaning back, she accepted his arms around her shoulders. “How am I supposed to convince them I had no part in this?”
“I’m sure you can think of something.” He pressed a kiss on her head. “You always do.”
“I feel like their heads might not even be enough.” Getting up, she groaned lightly. “Who though? Who would see this... this... slaughter as something worthwhile!?”
“You know your people better than I do.” He massaged her shoulders. “But not now, my love. Let me pamper you a bit after everything.”
“With the luck I am having, I feel like Astra will interfere again.” She allowed him to pull her back from the window. “Or something like that...”
“Bloody, depressive Beldrobbaen.” He kissed the back of her neck. “Come along.”

The Jaal’darya were intensively studying the cadavers that had been found, the Nine were present as well.
“It does not seem they are from our arts.” The researcher mused, pointing at some of the bones of the open body. “The internal structure is quite clearly of several origins, unlike our Biogolems.”
Waes’soloth’s eyes narrowed at that.
“So they are made with the old shaping-arts?” Diva’ratrika asked.
The researcher nodded, listing a few more indications of this fact. At each one, Waes’soloth felt her heart tighten. So it had not been paranoia speaking when she talked with Nau’boloth... it was reality.
And considering some of the glances the others were throwing her way, they had come to the same realization. Mother-killers...
She had to find out who was responsible before someone thought wiping out the entire clan was a good way of dealing with things.
A few cycles later she was back in her fortress, ordering her spymaster to find out who would be capable of using the old Shaping-arts to such a degree.
Surprisingly enough, there were plenty, considering there were quite some books on those in the clan’s libraries. This would not be easy, in any form or way.
“Send the children to Orthorbbae, all of them.” Who knows what they’d do once they realized she was on to them, whoever they were? Particularly her own family would probably not be safe. “Let’s hope they cannot reach there...” That was added in a whisper.
At least it seemed that the school was indeed beyond their reach. Though other places all had to suffer under attacks, that was still untouched.
Absent-mindedly brushing her hair, the old Ill’haress felt quite uncomfortable for the next few days.
This only became worse when it seemed one of those responsible blew their cover a week after the failed attack on Rel’lumia and herself.
And now the hunt was on in earnest...

[SFI]

The attack had been on Mel’arnach as she tried to return to the Sarghress. Surprising everyone, it actually was Quain’tana herself who came to the rescue of Snadhya’s lover. Regardless how awkward that was afterwards, the two of them – and what guards had been with Quain – managed to trail the creature and its’ master to one of the houses in the Beldrobbaen-district.
The inhabitants fled when seeing the Sarghress closing in. Shortly after that, Quain send out a summons for people to join her in a hunt. Many Ill’haresses and Ill’hars send her people, though quite a few even joined her personally.
The next morning they gathered outside of the Beldrobbaen-gate.
“She did not come.” Diva’ratrika stated in disbelief. The districts under Waes’soloth’s leadership had been locked off before they even had started moving, the proud gates closed firmly shut. And now, the Phariastan descendants stood out by their absence. Not a single member was there.
“We can complain about that later.” Quain looked around. “That motherkilling bitch and her brood have a headstart we can’t afford to let grow just to go kick Waes’ ass.”
“I suppose so.” The Sharen urged her dragon forward. Despite quite a few family-members insisting she would be putting herself at risk of mana-deprivation if she left the Dome, let alone the cavern, she had refused to stay behind. She was only willing to let Quain be the hero so much, thank you very much. “We’ll have words with her upon our return.”
It was quite the substantial group that moved out, following the Sarghress-wolves as they sniffed out their prey.
The small family of three had moved out into the wild, only to find that their eldest member could not sustain herself with both the mana-draining creatures and the near manaless air of the lands outside of Chel’el’sussoloth’s main cavern.

“That was that, thank Sharess...” Diva’ratrika watched as several warriors cut up the various bodies just to make sure they were really dead. “Let’s hope this means the end of THIS mess.”
“Let’s indeed.” Rel’lumia looked at the scene in distaste. “I suppose now we go to Waes’soloth?”
“I’d certainly want to know why she decided to sit on her ass while our people died to fix what hers did.” Quain’tana muttered darkly, resting the hammer she had brought on her shoulder. “She’ll pay for those.” A short distance away from them, were those that had died in this endeavour. The Mercenary Queen was currently glowering at those.
“Somehow I do not think Waes decided to stay away lightly.” Nega’fanea pointed out as she joined them. “She never struck me as some kind of coward.”
“What would be an important enough reason to pull a no-show of this magnitude!?” The Empress wondered. “How many people died through those three in the end? A couple hundreds, if one is being optimistic. I will demand answers for those.”
“We have healed whom we could.” Asira’malika joined them. “And it’s not like she could have known. I doubt they’d bother informing her of whatever their plans were.”
“But to do a complete no-show when we DO find out?” Quain demanded harshly. “She’s probably hiding in some corner of that fortress of hers.”

[SFI]

“Open the gates!” A member of the Imperial Guard called out, his sound-affinity making the sound of his voice echo against the gates leading into the main cavern via the Beldrobbaen-districts. “The Empress demands it.” It had been quite a while since he had started calling it.
“What the Nether is going on in there?” Diva’ratrika leaned forward lightly, looking at the locked gates. “This is not like Waes’soloth at all.”
“I told you we should have gone through another gate.” Quain’tana dryly answered, looking out through the Beldrobbaen mines they had travelled through. “It’d certainly have been faster.”
“And I answered you could have gone through those yourself.” The Val’Sharess returned to sitting upright. “But you are still here, so don’t complain.”
Before the conversation could once again descend into the typical arguing between the Sharen and Sarghress, there was finally movement at the gates. The heavy doors were opened and they were greeted not with Waes’soloth, but rather with the woman that sat beside her during Council-meetings; Hile’wen.
“Greetings.” She bowed lightly. “I assume you want an explanation for our absence?”
“Damn right we do.” The Sarghress Ill’haress snarled. “Does Waes even realize how many died? Not only today, but before.”
“I am sure she would...” The other Beldrobbaen looked tired. “If you could follow me, I will explain.”
“Lead the way.” Diva’ratrika ordered while throwing a small glare in Quain’s direction.

“Abducted!?” Apparently, shortly after the three fled, but before the Clans had started the hunt, the fourth member of the family, along with the third and last beast had managed to ambush the ancient Ill’haress and abduct her. It had resulted in Waes’ current mate – Diva was going to have words with her spies for failing to inform her of his existence – being severely injured to the point where Hile’wen honestly seemed to contemplate hiring several of the Jaal’darya to heal him.
“Indeed.” It certainly seemed to hurt her to admit it. “Which is why I cancelled those Waes’soloth intended to have join you in hunting down the family. Currently, our forces are focusing on actually finding her.”
“To no success?” Ash’waren softly asked, standing between Quain’tana and Diva’ratrika.
“To no success. He took her into the sewers and while we are fairly confident we managed to lower the gates around the district on time to trap him here, they are still extensive.” Hile’wen looked outside over the district.
“Wouldn’t that make him just that much more liable to kill her?”
“I am quite certain of not.” The grey-haired Beldrobbaen mused darkly. “He... fancied her, shall we say. I assume this ‘revelation’ tipped him over the edge of common sense.”