Chapter CXXXIV The Aceri Quests (Patreon)

Amy Drake watched Misaki leave, and then left the room herself. While she wasn’t ready to really talk about them, she couldn’t help but think about the quests she had gone on. The one Aceri had sent her on. Most of them weren’t all that bad, just ordinary fetch or delivery quests. Those she had mentioned before Misaki left. What she didn’t want to talk about was actually one quest in particular. That one started on a perfectly ordinary day. At least it was an ordinary day until she was summoned to Aceri’s lair. It was a little jarring to suddenly remember that day though. Mainly because she had always remembered it differently. A part of her kind of wished she hadn’t remembered it either. Mostly because she hated being separated from Tammi for long, and that one quest had forced her to spend six months away from Tammi(then Thomas). Yet that wasn’t the only reason she wished she didn’t remember it.

Several Years Earlier within Aceri’s lair:

Amy stepped through the doorway, and watched her naked guide walk off. Thomas, as usual, had been guided to a different entrance so he was not here with her. She reached for the fastenings of her skirt, and started to strip. Honestly she would have preferred to stay clothed, but Aceri had made the rules quite clear. This was her lair, and her home. Besides she knew of a few parallels in other cultures. The Seafolk would remove their tops when they entered the home of another. In several human, elvish and Dwarven cultures she knew of, one would remove their footwear and weapons. Those were just scratching the surface, but in Aceri’s case she wanted those who entered her home to remove everything.

In moments she stood naked, and she neatly folded her clothing into the provided baskets. There were multiple because Aceri wanted panties in one basket, shirts in another, skirts in a third and so on. She sighed as she placed her clothes into them. Knowing full well she likely wasn’t going to see that outfit again, and she liked it too. Just her luck that she got summoned while on a day off, and wearing one of her favorite outfits. As for why she wasn’t likely to see it was that Aceri only ever kept these baskets for a week before having the contents destroyed, and most of the quests Aceri sent her on lasted longer than that, and usually required her to go naked for one reason or another. Honestly, it was a miracle she hadn’t gained a nature-based class yet because of this. Of course the whole destroying the outfits thing didn’t really affect any of Aceri’s other visitors. As everyone else who came here was usually here for their final initiation into Aceri’s little church. While Amy did have her doubts about the clothes being destroyed, she wasn’t really in a position to investigate what the dragon actually did with them.

Her thoughts were broken a second later when a naked young girl, easily half her age entered the room. She knew this poor girl, and her backstory. Aceri picked her up a year ago after her village was destroyed by an Ogre. Amy was just glad the little girl didn’t remember the actual attack. Aceri had mercifully taken the memory from the little orphan, and the little girl knew Aceri had taken that memory from her. Hell, she had even asked for it, but Amy didn’t blame her. Ogres were not kind monsters, and in fact they were kind of brutal. Especially with what they were known to do with their prey. Things she avoided thinking about herself. In any case, Aceri had adopted the young girl and was currently raising her as her own.

She greeted the familiar young girl. “Qeina, it’s good to see you. How has Aceri been treating you?”

Qeina giggled. “Mother has been treating me well. She taught me a new spell yesterday. Want to see it?”

Amy smiled, “Sure, but maybe after your mother tells me what she wanted me for.”

Qeina bounded out saying, “Follow me. Mom wanted me to show you the way. She is cleaning her hoard. I don’t think you have been in that area yet.”

She shook her head. “I have not. Lead the way.”

Happily, Qeina led her through the maze of corridors, and down several levels. Deeper into the massive draconic complex than she had been before. Past several wards including a type that she could feel no mana from. None at all.

They found Aceri inside the massive maze of a vault. She was near some warded shelves with a few other naked girls. All of them were polishing artifacts. Even the dragon, although Aceri was not physically touching them. Amy glanced at a nearby wall, and found her eye drawn to a strange looking cylinder that sent a shudder down her spine. Yet she didn’t know why, it was just repulsive to her for some reason. Aceri seemed to have feared it too, or something to that effect, as it was the most heavily warded artifact in the room. Before she could ask, Aceri commented, “I see you notice the Lykeri Slaver’s Rod. Nasty tool, that Rod, I keep it mainly as a trophy of my victory over a Lykeri Slaver that escaped from the Abyss some three thousand years ago. “

“Lykeri Slaver? I’ve never heard of the Lykeri, who are they?”

“A nasty race of Slavers that the Primal God Queen sealed into the Abyss in the primal age. That rod of theirs, for example, completely takes away a person’s mind. Reducing them to a mindless drone that can’t even think. At least until the rod is used again. Of course that rod isn’t the only reason they were sealed. The Lykeri are innately sadistic, and cruel. An example of that is that they take great pleasure in forcing mothers to do unspeakable things to their own daughters. Anyway, I’ll loan you a book on them. You might just need it.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I’ve been hearing strange rumors about a duke on the northern borders of the Empire. In addition to harassing and even taking some of my believers as slaves. I have heard rumors that he is trying to summon a Lykeri slaver from the abyss.”

Amy wasn’t sure she liked where this was going. She wasn’t all that strong as her level was still fairly low. If respectable for her age. The dragon produced a few rings and a bracelet, and continued, “I would like you to wear these. They will protect you for your mission, as for what that is. I want you to head north and pretend to be one of my cultists. I suspect sooner or later he will try for you. When he does, I want you to gather what information you can, and relay what you learn back to me.”

Then Aceri slipped into explaining each ring. The first ring, a simple silver band, was enchanted to raise the wearer’s level to 250, but nullified all experience gain. The second ring provided natural armor, raising the wearer’s armor and resist stats to 4000. The third rendered all of the wearer’s equipment invisible, and intangible until removed by the wearer. The fourth was a spell library granting an arsenal of nature aligned spells for the wearer, and increased the effectiveness of nature spells by thirty percent. The fifth ring granted her an inventory, which was perfect as it would give her a place to keep her bow. Aceri had thoughtfully provided her an enhanced copy, and an arsenal of arrows. Along with some gold.The bracelet was a communication tool, and was how she would report back to Aceri.

As for Thomas, apparently he was staying here for one on one lessons. She didn’t like that. In fact, she hated being separated from Thomas, but she also did not want to expose Thomas to what this mission entailed. This was a bit of a dilemma for her in fact. Especially given that it sounded like a very important mission. Even she knew that anything that was sealed in the Abyss was best left there, and could not be allowed to escape. Terrible, twisted, and vile evil things dwelled there. Thankfully only the lesser creatures could escape, but even those lesser creatures could wreak terrible evils upon the land and its inhabitants. Why anyone would want to summon one was beyond her, but if someone was trying to do that they needed to be stopped.

Ultimately she made her choice. She accepted the mission. As much as it pained her to leave Thomas here she could not in good conscience bring him along for this. As such she resolved to leave him here with Aceri as the dragon wanted. Maybe it was a mistake, but if she didn’t do this and one of those Abysals did get summoned she would feel bad about that. It was a lose-lose choice, so she picked the one she felt she could live with. Besides she knew she wasn’t going to remember this unless Aceri allowed her. That was part of their deal, part of their contract.

Aceri smiled when she did. “Glad to hear it.” At the same moment the dragon produced a sheet of crystal, and floated it over. “Alright this here is the mission contract. Once you sign it, we can go about getting you ready, and then send you off to the northern provinces.”

She took the crystal, and signed it without reviewing it. At this point she no longer bothered doing that with Aceri’s contracts. One thing she had learned was that Aceri’s contracts were pretty much the same.

Aceri smiled, and directed her to sit down. “Okay I am going to start by sealing your memories.”

“Sealing my memories!? You didn’t say anything about that!?”

“It was in the contract.”

Amy quickly picked up the contract and skimmed through it, and found the line. It said that Aceri would seal some of her memories for the duration of the mission and insert false ones. Along with any other needed mental alterations to ensure her success. Following it had the usual at the end of mission restoration clause. She deflated. Aceri always had a few mental clauses in her contracts. Today’s was just a little bigger than normal. She sighed, “What memories are you sealing anyway?”

“Well all memories of your brother for one. Can’t have you worrying about him, while trying to deal with Abyssals. That won’t end well.”

The pair spoke a little more, and then she sat down. Allowing Aceri to seal her memories. At this point she was already set on the path. It just made things a little worse. It wasn’t like she was going to remember this anyway. Almost as if to comfort her, Aceri said, “Don’t worry when you get back, I’ll give you two some lovely fake memories of the last six months. Consider it part of the reward.”

Present day:

She sighed again. The six months after that had been hell. Aceri had basically altered her to the point that she was technically a cultist. The cultist part hadn’t been that bad actually, and at the time she couldn’t even regret leaving Thomas behind because he was a complete stranger to her. Hell she didn’t even know her real name then. It had temporarily been changed as part of the identity that Aceri gave her. In a way that was actually kind of a mercy.

Not remembering that mission after was actually the real mercy. The duke really was trying to summon a Lykeri slaver, but there was more to that story as well. A story she really didn’t want to think about. So much horror she witnessed in those six months. Such unspeakable things. Choosing a course, she headed towards the nearest shrine. Amy really desperately wanted to forget that mission again. Aceri wasn’t here to grant her that mercy this time, but perhaps Dewari would be willing. Amy didn’t much care about the price to forget either. She would do anything so that she wouldn’t have to remember THAT mission again.