A Witch and Her In

INDEX:

Alario - A Mixed race kingdom, currently where the surviving matriarchal family lives.

Branten- Mixed race kingdom - has the Prestigious school of magic led by high elves and witches and formerly wizards.

Voltstung - High elf capital where magic is said to have originated.

Promescura - The right side of the continent where the story takes place in, any race living on this side is nicknamed "Promies", separated by the large mountain range called the peaks.

Malcroth- Under the demon king's banner was once a divided left side of the continent, after his death slain by the hands of the Hero's party, his remaining forces renamed their lands in honor of him.

The Peaks- The largest known mountain range, that separates Promescura and Malcroth

Mensh- Generally referred to as a term when addressing male humans,elves and beastkin.

D'aldeia- A once well kept sizable forest, following the plague it was left unchecked the forest has grown substantially larger, and now hides decrepit manors and towns, multiple species of female races and female demon-kind parties now call the forest home. It is believed a large majority of mensh hunting parties situate in the forest due to its convenient access to the roads and large territory and its ease of access to Rantel.

Rantel- Though not a lawless city, many such transgressions are allowed here after not being recognized by either side following the "Malcroth-Promie " peace accords. Rantel was established following the end of the "Ten years of death" and now hosts the most trade of mensh, and other black market items. After the "Ten years of death" many women of varying races be it demon or promie - kind flocked to the city where few rules could govern them.

"The plague would spread suddenly - The first years of the now infamous virus saw the targeting of young and old mensh alike, overcoming the sick with fits of violent coughing and stripping them of their vitality with overbearing weakness, before a slow-painful death ended their suffering. From the strongest beastkin, the youngest of man or the oldest-lived races of the elves, all male races would be touched and felled by this unknown plague eventually festering in the kingdom's of Alario and Branten to the smallest of villages and towns in the Southlands."

"No one, Not Branten's scholars of the prestigious school of magic or the high elves of Voltstung, could place what the virus had mutated from nor how it could spread so quickly. A name however was given, due to its specificity in targeting only the mensh whether human, elf or beastkin it was decided from there on to be named the "Man-Killer" virus. It would ravish the continent for ten years. Up until the last known case of the "Man-Killer" virus was documented the virus that had once ravaged the land would simply seemingly disappear, leaving families. towns, cities and villages broken in its wake and many standing armies shattered."

" Many believed following the aftermath, that the Demon King, Malcor the Blood-Red the once feared leader of the demonic forces, slain at the hands of the Hero's party "Grohild" had in his final moments before death cursed the lands of "Promescura". A sickening solution to allow his demonic forces to spread following the end of the Demonic war. Citizens in villages and towns spoke of how the Virus would only target men, crippling armies and recruitment efforts, leaving village and town infrastructure un-manned, a logistical solution that would overtime be a decisive blow if the demon armies were to march on the cities of Promescura. However through exchanges citizens would shockingly realize that the plague was also targeting the male demon armies and ravaging their respective cities, many were left wondering "why would Malcor unleash something so vile on his own men?". "

"Regardless, the nearing of the end of the "Ten years of death" as it was dubbed saw villages ravaged and families destroyed. With few male kin to help aid and defend them, female led militias from the demon armies would descend on these poor villages capturing men of various races who had not been infected with the virus or were too young to aid its defense, those who were infected were given swift deaths. With their "prizes" these female armies would march these poor souls to the newly renamed demon lands of "Malcroth" where what is known about their fates remain a undocumented mystery."

"With no male-led hands to lead development and growth of these villages, many would see women regardless of race head to larger cities, or establish their own women-led settlements as they went. Any men who had lived past the "Ten years of death" would either join these parties of women helping set up these women-led towns, or would go off on their own. Seeing that they would rather lead themselves, as they regardless of race saw mensh and only mensh fit to lead them. It was no surprise that much smaller men-led villages would also pop up far along the paths from the now empty "Ghost-Villages".

"The aftermath of the "Ten years of death" saw women of all races leading the charge in garrisoning armies, restructuring in appointing women leaders in cities and towns, defending the streets and roads of "Promescura", even seeing a Queen appointed the head of the crown in Alario, but it would also see the death of millions of men from various races. The end of the 'Ten years of death" would also see reforms and changes to how "demon-kind" and the various races of "Promescura" would interact, though the swords were now sheathed, the agreements settled and made with the two kingdoms saw that relations would henceforth be "Business-Friendly", though knives still glinted in the dark, both sides had merely agreed on not attacking each other and allowing for trade and mixing of women races between them."

"The loss of mensh and their ilk through a terrible price have allo........"

Closing the textbook, the female elf merely sighed, in reading the text, she was able to piece together more or less of what she already knew about the "man-killer" virus, all the texts on the subject were always the same, the same details the same queries, and yet never truly giving more details that she already knew. Mentally she knew that the virus had crippled "Promescura" and "Malcroth" alike, but the texts never truly mentioned the horrors and in-diginities that became the male-led races during and at the tail-end of the virus. These texts or scholars never mentioned how men who regardless of age following the end of the "Ten years" were kidnapped both on the "Demon" and "Promie" side forced to help repopulate both sides and made to do labor, majorly based on their looks establishing a hidden caste system where if you looked a certain way or were a specific race of beastkin, could be the deciding factor of whether or not you became a worker or a forced-concubine. The texts never mentioned how fertility rates in "Promescura" had never fully recovered, leading to her aforementioned thought, or how despite reforms and changes in how the women-led nations of Malcroth and Promescura had settled the wars between them, that sizable parties of demon and "promei" races would leave the two nations setting up raiding and hunting parties in and around the roads of Promescura and near the small men-led villages, looting and kidnapping men for their own goals, or to sell them for high coin in the dark trade markets of the newly blossoming city of Rantel.

Standing up from the table she had reserved in the local coffee & bookstore, the female elf adjusted her silver hair and refixed her thin half-framed glasses.

"Are you leaving us ma'am?" a young cat-eared woman asked.

Turning to the cat-eared woman the elf addressed the server by the wooden name tag on her apron "Yes, Lisa thank you for staying open for as long as you have." Smiling, the elf paid the cat-girl holding yesterday's menus for her service and quickly downed the remainder of her coffee walking past the young woman.

"Miss, this payment is more than enough," the cat girl said "please take it back. " the elf turned around, noticing Lisa was motioning with her hand the extra change to her, observing her cat tail and ears hanging low.

"She must be nervous since I paid her this much," the elf thought to herself. Shaking her head the silver-haired elf told her. "You must keep it, I have already extended my time past your closing hours just think of it as a gift" the silver-haired elf said. Nodding in understanding the server girl Lisa, thanked the elf bidding her farewell, before finishing cleaning the table.

As the elf left the bookstore, she realized how dark the sky was. Though the small town had magic imbued in its streetlamps, the sky was more than a dark pitch of black pulling from her leather satchel a dark green knitted cloak staring at it with distant memory before snapping out of her trance and donning it. Navigating the streets of the village the elf returned to her lodging house she had paid for the night, eating a small dinner that had been placed near her door after sufficient reheating with magic, she committed herself to her nightly hygiene routine before dressing in her nightdress and crawled into the lodgings provided bed. Thinking to herself the elf pondered how despite being twenty-four years since the virus first ravished the continent, she realized she was nowhere near close to discovering where the virus truly originated from. Once again the elf stared at the green cloak placed on a chair next to her room's table before taking off her glasses and closing her eyes, she silently drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke, adjusting her eyes she saw morning rays peeking through the curtains of her room getting dressed and committing to her morning routine the elf headed to the wooden table, donning her cloak again and fastening it in place, and donning her leather boots she packed her items in her satchel again. Finally using a magic incantation she organized the room to be as clean as it was when she arrived. Satisfied she walked to her door and closed it taking with her her adjoining room key and dropped it off at the lodges frontdesk, after a sufficient check with the lodges female owner the silver-haired elf walked out of the door bidding farewell before heading out of the towns gate, now walking on the cobble and dirt path, the woman made swiftly to get to the overgrown forests of "D'aldeia" it was afternoon when she found it, a decrepit white manor with trees sprouting through the roof, and vines growing through the cracks in what was once surely a grand facade. The elf had stumbled upon the manor when she made her way to the village of Tranvestea but since it was approaching night time when she first found it. She had thought better of sleeping in an abandoned manor opting instead for the warm rooms and comfy sheets of a lodge.

But now that she had all afternoon to explore the building, the elf smiling began to wade through the overgrown bushes as she headed towards the manor entrance. From afar she had noticed the doors, if there had been any, were nowhere to be seen. Passing into the scratched up wooden floor of the foyer, she carefully observed the view around her. The inside was at one point a grand one, she could definitely see how it would have looked in its prime. But now moss and ferns sprouted in cracks in the hardwood floors, vines were all along the walls, the chandelier if there ever was one, would have lit the foyer where she stood in but now nothing was left lighting the ceiling or walls, instead small rays of sunlight peeked through holes and cracks in the second stories ceiling. Using an incantation, she summoned 3 floating spheres of light, seeing with her blue eyes no item that many would have thought to be in a manor seemed to be in its place. The elf, rather quickly noticed the foyer had been ransacked and looted long ago, with no memory of the owner's pictures or plaques present. Choosing to head upstairs, the elf saw much the same as the foyer downstairs, In all the rooms the previous owners belongings were gone or in various states of disrepair many rooms stood empty, the drywall cracking, with vines and windows shattered. Satisfied with her observations on the second floor the elf and her floating lights headed downstairs, slowly walking down the creaking wood staircase, into a kitchen and an adjoining dining room. She came upon, at one point a rectangular grand library or study room through a long hallway. Turning right as she entered the broken doorways the elf noticed wooden stools and tables had been savagely hacked apart, books from multi-standing bookshelves were strewn on the wooden floors, their spines frayed. The only main source of light came from a wall to the far left sporting three large broken windows, stone walls on opposite sides containing tall multi-row bookshelves. In the front a grand fireplace stood black soot etched in its hearth.

The sight alone angered the woman, "How could people sully a place of learning?" she thought to herself.

Most of the tomes and books were still in their shelves but other texts were clearly missing, either having been stolen or used for fire or were thrown about to and fro on the floor. Walking around the decrepit room. The elf heard as she traversed the wooden floor toward the grand fireplace, that the ground under her was seemingly hollow, a weird creaking noise that got louder as she approached the stone fireplace. Raising her eyebrow, the elf adjusted her glasses. Scanning the room for anything that a person would think of as a switch to open some hidden door, the elf settled on the two metal torches next to the fireplace's large square opening.

"Would someone place a switch here?" she mumbled, testing the torches with her hands she realized awkwardly they gave no pull. Sighing she turned her eyes to the shelves though the room was only one story high, the amount of books on the shelves with their height alone was causing her to be dizzy. The checking she would have to do would be strenuous.

"But for the sake of curiosity...." she said aloud, "Great minds must be satiated". It would be over a-hundred book pulls later when she finally discovered the switch giving an audible "Click!", the silver-haired elf smiled. Looking back at the fireplace now slowly moving away to the back revealing a stone spiral staircase in its stead. Quickly staring out of one of the broken windows the elf noticed it must have passed midday noticing the sunlight had been replaced by what seemed like graying clouds. Nodding to herself the elf adjusted her three floating spheres of light before heading down the stone spiral staircase, noticing how pristine the stonework was compared to the rest of the manor's cracked and less pristine wooden floors. Her leather boots reverberated off the tall, stone walls until she came to the end of the staircase - where the air was noticeably colder. Adjusting her green cloak the elf saw in front of her a large brown door of polished wood. She decided to test the handle, and was surprised at how it was not locked.

Cautiously opening the door, revealed to the woman something more interesting than she would have thought to find. In front of her was a large rectangular stone room, wooden tables filled with once beakers of long evaporated chemicals and papers strewn about, multiple writing boards were covered with elvish writing. The room was lit under some magic imbued blue lighting outlet that flickered in the ceiling. But what shocked the elf the most were the two bronze and glass tubes on either side of the room near the end of the stonewall, both filled with some form of purple liquid, floating in them were two clearly observable people. Apprehensively approaching one, the first purple tube after walking closer to it contained a brown-haired elf woman floating inside. Her features, though old-looking, had at one point been a beautiful, well-endowed woman though slightly wrinkly in the present. Looking to her side, the second held a male wolf-kin. His stand-outish ears and hair a dark rich black, a few gray hairs peaked out, his facial features like the brown-haired elf woman in front of him were old. But clearly judging by his muscular frame although wrinkly, indicated a powerful man in his prime. Both figures were in what looked like a deep sleep, floating in the purple mixture. However the elf noticed upon listening more closely through the hum of the ceiling lights, that the two shared no pulse that she could pick up on..

Truth be told though she had heard bronze tubes like the ones here were not a rare find, at least according to the conversations she had heard years ago. There were many such stories, tied to the rich noble class - who had in the height of the "Man-killer" plague placed themselves in a form of suspended animation, after some witch from Branten had made the discovery of stasis technology and marketed it to the highest company bidder. These noblemen and women bought into the belief that they could outlive the virus and its effects by going into deep sleep. Perhaps waiting for the day where, when they awake again the virus would be gone.

"A fool's gamble." the elf thought, but one that money and coin could buy. Though of course not without major repercussions. There were many such stories in the height and tail end of the "man-killer virus" of those nobles who had been found by parties of women stumbling upon these kinds of chambers through looting empty manors or homes. If male mensh or otherwise, they were forcibly broken out and awakened from their sleep. Then sold for high coin or made to serve as slaves. Twisted as it was, the female nobles had a far worse fate. Often left in their chambers the power was then cut off, at which point the chambers ceased their only function and the subjects died in their sleep. Never knowing their partner's had been sold.

The silver-haired elf shaking her head assumed these to be the manors former owners, no name plates were etched into the intricate bronze paneling and after perusing the papers and boards found no name of the two that could be connected. Turning around, the elf walked to the door, but not before colliding into a wooden table causing beakers of glass and papers to tumble to the stone floor. While moving the table back the elf heard something behind her, an audible "CLANG!".

Whirling around the elf noticed on the floor in front of her a large piece of the stone wall where the chambers stood on either side, now separate from those stones around it. Surprised, the elf could only mutter "Interesting?" to herself. Curiously looking up, the elf saw a now sizable alcove in the wall, noticing a letter and a lever right beside it.

Curiously, the elf walked past the two bronze and glass chambers to the now visible lever and letter. Pulling from the alcove and scanning over the letter, it was in a faded yellow paper envelope sealed with a simple red wax seal, curiously no address was written on it. Turning now to the chambers, the elf carefully opened the envelope - gently pulling out and unfolding the letter inside.

Mentally she began by reading faded letter in her hands:

"To whomever reads this, seeing to it that you have found my wifes laboratory you must have through some means stumbled upon this message. Please read my words before you continue to desecrate my proud wife's work. As parents there is no greater gift than your child, the room in front of you holds our most prized possession, our son. We raised him, loved him, nurtured the best in him, Until the virus began, we could not know when the carnage would end. We heard of the death the plague was spreading and foresaw the societal changes that it could bring, so in our last act to protect him as parents we saw no other way. When our boy turned eighteen we placed him here."