Chương 206: 194. Thallisar

"So, where are we going?" Peter asked, still confused, as he hoisted up his large backpack.

"On a field trip," I said, relaxing into the car seat.

"Riiiight," he replied, his eyes sweeping over the two mushroom people sitting in front of us in the large van.

"So." He turned to Ophelia sitting next to him.

"Um, Miss Ophelia."

"Just Ophelia."

"Right, so is this a normal thing?" he asked, confusion clear in his voice. Well, one couldn't blame him. I had given the two a call last night, saying we were going on an educational trip to mushroom land and they should pack a few days' worth of clothes and be ready the next morning.

"Yeah, more or less," Ophelia answered the confused boy before sighing deeply.

"You'll get used to it."

"Oh," he replied, nodding slowly.

"Yooou can't tell anyone about the place you will be taken to," Myhur boomed from beside me.

"You will be made to swear vows of silence, but I want you to understand the weight of this invitation," he said, turning around in his seat to gaze at the two in the back.

"I imagine your teacher"—he gave me a side-eye—"didn't tell you anything."

"I leave it to you. It's your home, not mine," I said seriously this time.

"Weee shall take you to the great library of dreams, in the grand temple of Ghyllothar, where deep underneath, Thalyssa the Sporemother rests," Myhur said slowly, his voice solemn and filled with reverence.

"One of the few places untouched since the age of myth. Well, more or less," I chimed in.

"Yeees. It's our holy place, where the knowledge of our people is kept by all those resting in the chamber of slumber. It's a great honor to be let inside and even greater to connect with Thalyssa and the colony." I could feel questioning looks bore into my back.

"It's hard to explain. Better you just see for yourselves," I said. This wasn't me trying to worm my way out of teaching. It was actually hard to describe where we were going. We spent a good few hours on a road trip with the mycanoid honor guard in the front seats. The two mushrooms weren't really talkative, but we did get some stories out of Myhur about his people. Finally, after a good ten-hour drive, we made it to the vicinity of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Appalachian forest spread all around us as we entered the area of the national park.

"We will have to walk from here on," I said as we stopped at the farthest parking lot we could find. The mycanoids donned large cloaks before getting out to lead us. There weren't any people around, but satellites and cameras were a thing, so better safe than sorry. We got our stuff from the car and then set out on a trek into the mountains, guided by the guards. The walk was long, very long, as the entrance we were looking for was deep in the heart of the forest.

Slowly, the sun sank below the horizon as the forest drowned in darkness.

"Reminds me of Norway," Ophelia said, looking around at the tall trees. I nodded at her words. The forest was increasingly overgrown with moss and various kinds of mushrooms, taking over the rocks and trees all around us.

"You took a trip like that before?" Peter asked, trailing behind, trying to catch his breath as the only untrained person in the squad.

"Yeah, we got to see a messenger of a god. A tournament. Ophelia killed her first man. Good times," I said from the front, looking over my shoulder at the boy. His eyes opened wide as he looked to Ophelia.

"He had it coming," she replied, not missing a beat.

"That he did," I said cheerfully.

"Are we going to kill someone here?" Peter asked, now clearly worried.

"Noooo," one of the guards spoke from the front, booming loudly.

"There will be no killing or fighting in the sanctuary of the Sporemother."

"As the man said," I spoke up.

"We are here to check a few things out. No killing." Peter visibly relaxed at my words. Finally, we arrived at a not particularly impressive-looking stone wall at the foot of one of the smaller peaks. It was just a normal spot, nothing about it stood out, aside from maybe two massive trees growing to the sides, both slightly larger and thicker than the rest. One of the guards approached the wall and touched one of the large trees.

Then, with a dry groan of bending wood, the roots contracted like flexible arms, and the wall came apart. The wooden tendrils of both trees moved the boulders making up the mountainside. The stones had looked like one solid mass before, only to come apart easily, revealing that they fit perfectly together, with the roots growing into them from the other side. The trees revealed a passage into the mountain that went underground, lit by glowing blue mushrooms evenly spaced along the walls.

We took the passage and began going deeper under the mountain. The first few minutes of the walk weren't particularly impressive, considering all we could see was a long cave lit up by mushrooms, but once we were deeper, the corridor turned sharply to the right, revealing the entrance to the mushroom sanctuary city. Stolen story; please report. The small cave opened into a massive corridor, tall and beautifully decorated with carvings on the walls and the ceiling, depicting the history of the mushroom people.

The whole place was lit up by glowing moss growing between the carved scenes, like soft blue framing for the art. Along the sides of the large passage stood massive statues depicting mages of the past. The corridor fell sharply, leading us deeper and deeper underground. We walked on, with the two keeping their heads on a swivel. I could see a growing frown on their faces as more and more of the statues were no longer mycanoids and began depicting humans, elves, dwarves, and other creatures.

The two read all the engravings, or attempted to, as they were written in the arcane language. Ophelia tried to pronounce the names phonetically, with mixed results. That lasted until one of the statues made her stop in her tracks, bringing our procession to a halt. I stood with a light smile as she struggled with the name. She most likely got it on the first try but now stared at it in growing confusion. She finally turned around, but this time, instead of giving Peter the translation, she looked to me.

"Yolanda Alhazred," she said.

"Why is your family carved here?"

"What do you think those statues are?" I asked back.

"Heroes of the Mycanoids?" she proposed. I shook my head.

"No, they are statues of ancient mages predating the war, all of whom made their names in history, no matter their relation to the Mycanoids. They carved the statues for friends and enemies alike." Myhur nodded at my words.

"Weee have a deep fondness for history. All are part of the cycle, all should be remembered," he explained. We began walking slowly once again, and this time it was Peter who asked.

"So why was your ancestor carved here?"

"She was a priestess of Yidhra, the terrible Earth-mother, a lesser-known god of my pantheon," I explained as we walked. For the first time, I could also see some interest from the mycanoid guards escorting us as they slightly tilted their caps toward me.

"Not much is known about her, actually, as we lost a lot of knowledge. She was a master of flesh manipulation. Sadly, of all her work, only one thing remains in my possession—the spell of Nameless Mist, as written in the Necronomicon."

"Nameless Mist," Peter repeated the approximate English name.

"Sounds almost poetic," he said with a light smile. I could see Ophelia wince, as she knew how poetic the effects of my magic were. I smiled at his description, then leaned slightly toward the kid before explaining.

"It's very poetic. The spell would liquefy the enemy's skin." I saw Peter go pale, chuckled at his reaction, and straightened back up.

"It's very hard, dangerous, and advanced magic, so sadly, I'm nowhere near performing it. But that's all of her legacy that remains." We spent the rest of the walk in silence until arriving at another passage. Once again, the stones formed a gate in front of us, this one much more obvious as a passageway. This time, the roots holding the stones were visible. The gate looked like a mycanoid warrior kneeling, barring our path, taking up the whole passage, even though it was a good few meters high and wide.

The roots made it look as if the statue were bound on all sides. The guard approached it, and just as before, the stones were pulled apart smoothly, revealing the city.

"Weeelcome to Thallisar, the first city of my people," Myhur said in a ceremonious voice to the stunned pair. Even though I had seen it once before, the sight was still impressive, especially with all the changes. Previously, while the gate outside was closed, the one shaped like a statue had been permanently open due to the mana needed to move it. Much the same had been true of the city before me. The mycanoids had actually had to use electricity to light it up.

They had also lived only in the lower parts, as the plants holding up the high constructions were brittle without mana. But now the city was in its full glory before us. We stepped out of the passage into the large cavern. This was a defensive position with bastions and a wall around us, patrolled by mycanoids.

Beyond them, we could see the massive cavern lit by thousands of fungi and mossy growths, creating a ceiling of countless colorful lights above us, as if someone had spilled dyes of every color over the stars of a night sky. To the left, right, and front, we could see the city's three wings. The place was formed around the central cave in which we stood and stretched into three massive underground ravines. The mycanoids had their homes, temples, and every other kind of space in the walls of said ravines.

Judging by the movement, only one of them was actually inhabited, but all three were lit, revealing the impressive ancient structures. There were temples carved into massive mushrooms growing on the walls, homes hanging in the air, held up by gigantic roots coming from the ceiling. Many bridges connecting the sides of the ravine hung in the air, merging seamlessly with strange glowing trees. No one could tell if they were handmade or simply grown like branches.

"Wooow," Peter said. Ophelia just looked around with an open mouth. It took us all some time to stop staring as we took in the sight. The mycanoids let us gaze in silence, pride showing on their mossy faces. Finally, the guard turned toward the passage deeper into the city, hurrying us up. We were led through the fortifications past the gate we had just crossed and into the lower street that snaked along the bottom of the ravine.

The streets were actually relatively lively with mycanoids walking around, joined by other strange creatures. Most gave us weirded-out looks, yet did not interrupt our procession. The air smelled of humidity, but not the unpleasant kind, but more like the fresh yet still wet air after a storm, joined by a note of ozone. Despite the many creatures moving around, the street was still relatively silent, lending the place an otherworldly, almost unnatural calm.

"What the…" Peter said, frowning as he caught a glimpse of a massive black panther-like cat lounging on one of the branches above us. Despite having six legs, the most striking feature was still its eyes—they were fully human. I leaned to whisper to him.

"That's a wampus cat. I'd suggest you don't make eye contact with some of the stranger creatures here. A cryptid's intelligence is tied to their magical power, and a lot of them have only just begun growing recently, so they can still have… animalistic instincts," I warned. Peter smartly stopped staring as we passed the creature, ignoring its strange gaze. We passed a few other strange beings, including a deer walking on many jointed legs, swaying with each step, producing cracking sounds.

Of all the inhabitants of the city, this one made Peter and Ophelia drop their eyes the fastest. The thing was given the rather unimpressive name of a 'Not-deer.' However, it had an impressively unnerving aura, as even local mycanoids moved aside. We were finally led into one of the houses on the lower level and let in to wait until we were taken to the library. I left Peter and Ophelia staring with suspicion at their cups of strange green tea and went out to talk with Myhur.

"Will it take long?" I asked.

"Iii don't know. I did report our last encounter to the council. They know what you want to get from the library."

"I understand your people are touchy when it comes to hive minds, but you saw what those things could do. If they can infect normal people, you might have competition for the bodies of your own dead."

"Weee understand. That's why the case is even considered. But the council will want more than a pledge of silence."

"You could just send your people if you don't want me learning about hives," I proposed.

"The FBI learned about you." Myhur stared at me for some time before shaking his head.

"Iii… I don't want to hurt a hive. And—" I could see him become slightly awkward as a light shiver went through the growths on his body.

"And SHE has a request, I believe."

"She?" I frowned.

"What would your hive want with me?