Tell Violet to wait

Before responding to the lamia, you weigh your options. On one hand, you could ignore her and keep walking. Your time is valuable, and you were already generous enough to say you’d make time for her this afternoon. What’s more, Violet swore to kill you no more than two days ago. She hates you for being a human, for taking over her village, probably for naming her, and possibly for a wide range of other offenses. Whatever she has to say to you now, it won’t be anything close to a reconciliation. It could even be a trap. On the other hand, trust is a two way street. The sooner you sit down and talk things out with her, the sooner you might be able to get her on your side. Having Violet’s support, both as a former leader of the village, and as a powerful, evolved monster, would surely be a huge benefit in the days to come.

“Blythe and I happen to be talking about what to do with the adventurers we captured yesterday, Violet,” you call up to the evolved lamia. “Unless you have something to add to our discussion, I need you to wait until this afternoon.” Your reply stuns Violet into silence. Satisfied with that, you look at Blythe, gently squeeze her hand, and start walking side by side with her again.

“H-hey! Wait, damn it!” yells Violet. Once again, you stop in place and turn to look up towards her tree house. The snake woman is now propped up on her hands and leaning over the edge of the balcony. Bizarrely, the moment you look at her eyes, filled with anger, frustration, and a hint of **** fear, you feel a rigidity spread throughout your body. You try to flex the fingers of your free hand as a test, but they remain perfectly still, as if frozen in place. Testing your other limbs yields similar results. You cannot move. You cannot speak. You cannot look away from Violet’s piercing, snake-like eyes.

“Evan?” You feel Blythe’s hand pull away from your petrified fingers. Despite your attempts to do so, you cannot turn to look her way, or open your mouth to answer her call. “What is wrong?” the elf asks from beside you. Suddenly, you see the blonde’s worried expression come into view as she steps in front of you. The moment Blythe waves a hand in front of your face, cutting off your line of sight to Violet, you feel all the tension in your body disappear. Your legs buckle under the sudden return of motor function, but Blythe is there with a swift embrace to keep you steady on your feet. She holds you close until you regain your faculties, and a little while longer just to be sure. For your part, you try to keep your eyes pinned to the ground, so as not to fall right back into whatever crazy paralysis spell you were just hit by. A few seconds pass, with nothing but the din of monsters going about their day to fill your ears. Some of the monsters in the soldier group are already busy sparring with each other. Young monsters are out playing, while their older siblings are heading into the forest to gather food and fresh water. You hear the wind blowing through the trees, and the chirping of little birds. Then, as she releases you, Blythe quietly asks, “What happened just now?”

“I’m not sure,” you say, keeping your eyes trained on Blythe and nothing else. “As soon as I looked at Violet, my whole body froze up.” This was different from the numb, heavy feeling I had when Violet used her venom on me before, you think. That was just like having a leg go to sleep, but with my whole body. This was something else. I could still feel everything, I just couldn’t move at all. Like I’d been turned into a living statue. Was looking at her the trigger? But I looked at her a second ago with no problem… Carefully, your vision creeps back up to the lamia’s tree house. You find the balcony empty now, the snake woman having mysteriously disappeared from where you last laid eyes on her. “She’s gone,” you say, bringing Blythe’s attention now to the balcony as well.

“I do not like this,” says the elf. “Hiding away when she wishes to speak with you? Paralyzing you with a strange ability? What is she thinking?”

“I don’t know,” you say, “but I’m going to get to the bottom of it.” You take a step towards the tree house, but Blythe quickly throws a hand out to stop you. “What’s wrong?” you ask. “Don’t you think we need to ask her about what just happened?”

“Of course I do, but you are attempting to charge in without a plan again,” says the elf, giving you a stern look. Blythe staring you down so seriously turns out to be quite a sobering experience, and you can hear your own words ring through your head.

I should have worked out a plan with you before charging in there. Next time I’m about to make that mistake, I want you to stop me, okay?

It’s only been a few minutes since then, you think, feeling an odd mix of emotions setting in. You’re relieved and grateful that Blythe is such a perceptive and reliable ally, but also deeply humiliated that you could only go a few minutes before she needed to step in and prevent you from doing something stupid. For the first time in a long while, you look at your elven lover and wonder what you did to deserve her. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” you say. Then, you take time to collect your thoughts. Getting information out of the adventurers today is still critical, you think, but we can’t afford to ignore what just happened. If Violet has that kind of power now, then she could be a potential threat. Climbing up to her tree house is too reckless. So is talking to her alone. I was paralyzed the moment I looked at her eyes, but that could still be a coincidence. The trigger could be something completely different. Still, a precaution against that couldn’t hurt… After following that train of thought for a little while, you put a plan together. “Here’s what we’ll do.”