38: Camilia and the Map

They packed up camp and resumed their climb up the forest mountain paths. At a far distance a shadow swiftly followed.

Amongst the dense, raw, foliage they spied crumbled ruins of a bygone civilization. Liran eyed one of the stone symbols, picking off weeds from the face. She frowned, recognizing the alfaren royal emblem but with a flower motif strange to her.

"Do you recognize this?" Aiden coolly asked.

She nodded. "It belongs to alfar royalty but likely a time before our era."

"What makes it alfaren?"

"The motif is a flower and the square border is a rose vine, which is consistent with the recent seal for the Alfaren Royal Army."

"You know their seal?"

She nodded as she tenderly stroked the stone. Her fingers tingled with lingxi. "This emblem might be left to ruins but it's still surviving in this wilderness." The feeling gave her hope.

"Symbols don't go away easily no matter how much they're left to be forgotten." Aiden looked up to the broken statue of a warrior, which was almost hidden among climbing vines.

"Neither did Morningstar." She sighed but faced him with a smile. "Neither will we. We'll find a way to stop his threat to our lives."

He nodded.

They resumed their hiking and were able to travel into the forest's depth when they encountered a ratiss vermin nest within stone, ancient ruins.

"Well, well, we have some fresh meat." An adult cat-sized, black rat cackled as he approached them, with its spindly tail flicking through the air. His red beady eyes narrowed with cunning.

"Tsk, ratiss scum." Rat huffed, not hiding his distaste for the black rodents.

"Ha, look at this little gray mucus talking big." The rat cackled louder, stirring others into the area.

Liran glanced around to see themselves surrounded by hundreds of red eyes amongst the bushes, stone and trees. She sighed and flashed Rat with a charming wink. "I know just the thing to make you ratiss happy," she said with a ditzy tone.

"Oh?" The rats' whiskers twitched with curiosity.

Liran eased onto a piece of ruin that she could use as a seat, she crossed her legs and placed her lute before her. "Ever heard of the song, The Fat Man's Money?"

Before the rats could answer or react, she unsheathed her lute and began to play a ditty, fast-paced tune, which had every rat being lifted into the air and spinning around with a sort of infatuation for each other's riches.

The ratiss landed and were soon running about after each other. Aiden yelped when one banged into his leg, picked itself up and chased after another rat.

Liran burst with laughter.

"Air Magic: Sanity!" A deep voice boomed over their heads, which cleared the rats' senses.

"Whelp, that came too soon." She gulped.

All the rats revealed themselves with snouts bearing their teeth and growling.

"To think a bard could make my brats go stupid with one song." An attractive sith woman stepped before them. Her bare feet were laden with silver bracelets with bell charms. A fine red silk and lace dress accentuated her slender, fine, curves. Long black hair tumbled over her chest. She stared at Liran with deep blue eyes with narrow pupils.

"Stupid?" Liran tapped her lips with a finger as she thought. "I was actually trying to distract them and get away. But it seems they have someone powerful to snap them out of their moment."

The sith woman sighed when she realized who she was talking to. "You haven't changed one bit, Liran-sai. Ditsy as ever yet too smart for your own good."

Liran frowned, as she studied the woman and came back with no clue. "Have we met?"

The woman's pale face heated with frustration.

"Boss, let's take em out. They look loaded with good stuff." A rat licked his lips.

"Fine. Do you worst." The woman huffed as she turned around and dashed out of view.

"Sheeze. Someone has an ego complex." Liran wryly noted as she strummed her lute to send shockwave attacks, which had lines of rat horde flying backward.

Aiden followed with his own repel wave spell that caused others to dissipate or get tossed into the air.

The woman reappeared when she saw her ratiss subordinates being easily overcome. "Useless scum!" With one wave of her hand, she cast a power blast that knocked out half her group.

"Boss! We're sorry." A surviving rat cowered.

"You'd harm your own members?" Liran frowned.

"I wanted to see how well they would do against you, but it's clear they couldn't take the first wave. No point in dragging it out." The woman yawned and stepped before Liran so they saw each other clearly. "Camilia's the name. It's clear you've forgotten."

"Camilia? I've heard of that..." Liran blinked as she recalled Oliver picking up a cat whom Liran looked after temporarily, and found herself bitten every time. "You! Talk about biting the hand that fed you!" She wagged a finger at the sith.

"Serves you right! Both of you abandoned me to this backward dump."

Liran scratched her head as she tried to recall when she had done that. "I don't remember that."

"Of course not. You left me with Oliver and then he brought me to the wizards."

"Then why're you hating on me? That's his doing." Liran pouted.

Camilia frowned, "If that's what you think, I'll have my horde eat you."

"Wait. I'm confused." Liran scratched her head as she struggled to understand the woman's meaning.

Clover sighed. "If you want your horde to fight us to the death, we'll fight. But if you just want to test our prowess for a task, I think we've proven this."

Camilia gave a gesture for her horde to back down.

"Boss!" The ratiss confirmed in unison.

"You owe me Liran-sai." Camilia's tone sweetened when she added, "If you do one thing for me I'll bury all grudges."

Liran groaned. "Again. That's Oliver's issue not mine." She faced the woman with a plain and serious expression, "Anyway, I won't do anything that'll put my friends in danger."

"Oh, that's not an issue. All I need you to do is fetch a flower and bring it back here. I'm even willing to give you a map."

"If you already know the way, why haven't you gone to get it?"

"I'm ashamed to say that I lack the power to undo the seals." Camilia feigned innocence, which stirred sniggers from her horde.

"This might be the same one we're after?" Aiden whispered carefully to her.

"Show me the map, and maybe I'd consider your fetch-quest."

Camilia nodded and clapped her hands to make a scroll materialize. It dropped into her hands. She unraveled the scroll so everyone could see the ways into a mountain cavern maze system, which led to apex chambers. "A lot of my ratiss sacrificed their lives to map this detail."

It was indeed the location of the same thing they were after. The difference is that Camilia held a map to get there. It felt odd to Liran that the wizards didn't have a version.

"Did you really map this on your own or did you borrow it from the library?"

She giggled. "Girl's gotta have her secrets."

"If you don't tell me, I'll walk. I don't care how many of your horde I clear on my way out." Liran turned around to take her leave.

"Fine, it was indeed by discovery." Camilia flippantly brushed off, "Besides those old fuddies don't seem to know this area."

Aligns with their knowledge they gave me. Liran tapped her chin as she mulled over the option. If Camilia had been mapping the forest and mountains for sometime, the map might be legitimate.

"Okay, perhaps I can believe you." She turned around with a smile. "Fine, give me the map."

"Sounds good to me." Camilia ordered three of her ratiss to join Liran's party.

"Boss!" Three stepped forward.

"You're to take my boys with you. Here is a copy of the map." Camilia tossed her another scroll.

Aiden looked over it and nodded, as it seemed the same as the one shown.

"Why do they have to come?" Rat hissed.

"Because their blood codes are the only ones capable of plucking the flower. Little mucus can't do it." She chuckled at Rat's heated expression.

"Remember this flower has emerald petals and a disc that sparkles like a galaxy. Pluck it while the moon is high only."

"Okay, for 20 sovereigns I'll bring back one flower." Liran twirled the map on her fingertip.

Camilia growled. "You're asking for money? I gave the map. Besides, Oliver did me wrong. 10 sovereigns."

"Again, Oliver's issue, not mine. I looked after you well. 19 sovereigns."

"True. But you're his fiancé, so responsibility is partially yours. 12 sovereigns."

Liran caught the scroll and stepped up to her closely when she added. "How about, I take your ratiss, scroll for 15 sovereigns, come back with the flower. Think about it. I'm taking all the risk and you get all the gain."

Camilia huffed. "Fine then." She tossed a small pouch to Liran who pocketed it.

"Pleasure doing business. Now, if you let us be on our way."

Liran and her party were let out of the area to trek further inland and up the mountain paths. The three ratiss led the way with orders to keep up.

"The fact she was willing to give you 15 sovereigns..." Aiden carefully voiced his concern to Liran.

"Means it's more dangerous than we'd imagine."

Rat scampered up to Aiden's arm to add his input, "She's not going to sit around and wait. Giving that many sovereigns is someone intending to take it back."

Liran eyed the three black rats leading the way a few meters ahead. "For now, we've got a path to the flower. Let's see where it takes us."

Eventually, they entered the dark mouth of a mountain cave.