Knowledge is Forbidden Fruit [Non-ABDL, Dark Fantasy]

[Nozomi]

~Prologue~

"Are you kidding me?!"

The scholar didn't answer and instead stared at him expectantly through his tiny pair of spectacles, his violet eyes were chillingly entrancing. He had long, black hair tied back loosely and his complexion was quite pale. His apprentice also had long, black hair, but it was untied, and his complexion wasn't quite as pale. His piercing black eyes and judging smirk made him just as unnerving to look at though. The transport biomancer stared at his map to avoid both their gazes.

"I was only hired to take you to the Abysei ruins and to bring you back with that artefact you got. Now you want to go to a ruin you only assume is there, that just so happens to be near a Brittassian outpost?! Aren't the mercenaries already tired after the attack at the ruins?" He argued at them.

"The fluctuations Zevaryn spotted in his scry are far too suspicious not to be worth investigating. There must be something of interest there." The pale scholar answered calmly. He smiled and looked the biomancer in the eyes. "We're only going to take a reconnaissance approach for now and then we'll return to Sentients’ Tree. If we've discovered something, the finder's fee will more than reimburse you for the detour."

"Don't worry about us either." A female mercenary with a greatsword called out. "Kainys is a good leader, and he can cloak us. You just concentrate on getting your big-ass beetle there."

The biomancer sighed and turned to his creation and pet. He climbed up and sat in the compartment hollowed into the giant black beetle's head. A wave of his hand in front of a certain area in the compartment opened up the beetle's wing protectors, revealing the large hollow part for passengers and cargo. The group piled into their transport, and the driver closed the wing protectors. Then with another movement, the beetle started to walk.

"Our destination definitely shares the same culture as the mysterious artefact we found, or it's at least related." Zevaryn shared with his teacher. "We almost always come by here on the way to the main Abysei ruins, and there hasn’t been a fluctuation here before."

"It's great to see how observant and calculating you are, Zeva." Kainys praised. "A lot of certified field scholars are nowhere near as perceptive as you. People are right in calling you a prodigy."

"Praise is unnecessary and almost patronising." He replied. "It actually would be patronising from anyone else. I'm simply not as foolish and careless as other scholars are."

"That's true." Kainys said softly and almost to himself. "Well... Whatever we find, will definitely help research on this artefact. We don't even know what ancient culture this came from."

Kainys was about to go on, but something had caught his attention.

"There's Brittassians in the distance. I should start cloaking us." He informed, as his irises spread out in a spiral, beginning to resemble a swirling portal. He looked ahead as if in a trance and touched the nearby Brittassians' minds, ready to remove any signal from their senses that would make the soldiers realise a giant deformed beetle was passing by them. They passed undetected by two patrols before they came close to the centre of the fluctuation. The area looked normal enough, but there was a suspiciously symmetrical tree that assured the scholars that something was there. Unfortunately there was a Brittassian patrol, walking straight past it.

"Just wait until they go past." Kainys told the driver through a metal pipe installed into the beetle, for communicating through. "But open the doors so we're ready to get out."

The wing protectors rose, as the patrol came close. The group was waiting patiently when all of a sudden, their artefact’s clear crystal part lit up with a blazing light and began to hum. Kainys managed to shield it from their senses at the last second, but the patrol still felt weird for a second and now they were suspicious.

"That was some kind of sorcery!" The patrol's commander yelled. "There are witches or demons around here!"

The Brittassian's raised their rifles and waved them around, looking for the group. Their alertness gave them the will to resist Kainys' deception and they could now make out blurred and transparent images of the group.

"Attack them! Kill or capture, we can't let them run for help." Kainys commanded, and dropped his now resisted illusion. From under his cloak he drew a pair of long daggers and hacked off the nearest soldier's rifle arm. He pulled the soldier close and sunk his sharp canines into his neck drawing energy from his victim's blood. Zevaryn whipped out a pistol and shot point-blank at a soldier's head with a ghostly bullet. The targeted soldier fell to his knees, unharmed, but in total agonising despair. Zevaryn then snatched the soldier's rifle, unloaded it into an approaching soldier and then threw it at another starting to aim at him. In seconds he closed on the soldier he'd distracted and slashed his neck with his rapier. The beetle charged at some, those not trampled were slowly eaten by the hungry transport. The female mercenary swung her greatsword at the ones aiming at her. With her swing came a powerful surge of air that vacuum cut cleanly through all of them. The big mercenary with untamed red hair and matching beard began bellowing a loud war cry. The cry induced panic into all of the attackers. With a powerful heave with his axe, he cleaved through a soldier's skull. The slim and nimble mercenary clutched a large piece of emerald and filled it with a dark green energy that matched the colour of his eyes. It shot out like lightning at attacking soldiers and fried them where they stood, in the cases where targeted soldiers were too close together the current carried from one and into another. The patrol was quickly defeated.

"Okay. Drop the artefact by the tree" Kainys directed after flicking, wiping, and sheathing his daggers. "Then we need to load the captives in the boot of the transport."

"We should probably also load a few unbutchered corpses" Zevaryn suggested, as he searched the bodies for things of value. "Necromancers are paying some good money for them these days."

"Right, that's a good idea" Kainys replied. "Put the rest in a pile, ready to burn."

Once the artefact was closer, it shot a beam of light at the tree and went lifeless again. After a momentary delay, a gap formed in the tree and stairs of clear crystal could be seen leading down. A light turned on below.

"Wow, this place looks to be intact, or at least half functioning." Kainys said aloud. "There might be people down there."

He looked around at his group, thinking about the best course of action.

"I think we'll take Hathor with us, and have the rest guard the entrance." He told his apprentice. "We're only scouting the place out, so I'll hide us from anyone who might be down there"

"And we definitely haven't alerted anyone down there of our presence already" He replied in humourless sarcasm.

"We scout the place and then judge whether we need to engage anything down there. The point is that we're sweeping over it first."

Kainys called over the big mercenary and directed the other mercenaries to stand guard. The biomancer moved his beetle closer and relaxed in the driver's compartment, ready to leave in a hurry. The scholars made their way down the stairs with Hathor and surveyed the dome-shaped room. It was made up mostly of clean-cut crystal shining with light and framed by the tree's white roots in an unnaturally organised way. The roots were connected to a bulb-like growth in the centre of the room that extended from the floor and into the ceiling. The growth had shining crystal installed in it and it seemed like it had working organs inside it too. Around the room there were a total of four terminals made in a similar way, and each had an open pod nearby that could fit someone in it. The only other thing of note was a circular door on the other side of the room.

"You can't sense anyone?" Zevaryn asked Kainys with some bemusement, as he noticed the lack of portal shapes in his superior's eyes. "It must be amazingly self sufficient if it functions this much without someone up-keeping it."

"Hmm... We could probably play with it too." Kainys replied, inspecting a terminal. "Although it looks like a lot of it requires neuromancy to do anything."

"These pods look life supporting." Zevaryn relayed, as he too began to inspect things. "Like a womb for adults. My guess is that the residents used them as beds."

"Oh. Very interesting. We can show it to the biomancy researchers back home who are looking into that kind of thing." Kainys answered back, moving to inspect the item in the centre. "They'll have something to reverse engineer now."

"You just want them to stop examining your daughter all the time." Zevaryn teased. "But I agree that studying her acquired ability isn't going to help with that particular project."

"Without accessing the terminals I don't think we could find much about this central artefact" Kainys went on, ignoring Zevaryn's comment. "But we can assume it’s the heart of this place. Powering it and connecting the terminals together. It might help us upgrade our systems at home, assuming it's worth it."

Zevaryn had walked to the door and looked back at Kainys. Kainys made sure Hathor was following and went over to the door too. Hathor pushed the crystal double doors open for them and moved out the way for the scholars to inspect the room, even though his eyes were exploring the room too. Around the room were a great deal of life supporting pods that seemed to be a lot more heavy duty that the ones in the previous room. There was thick crystal shielding on almost all of them, but they looked occupied. The middle of the room had an altar marked with a complex design, but at the far end of the room there was a larger, more elaborate life support pod, which was much more translucent than the other pods in the room. It was so translucent that you could make out the shape of the sentient inside. Blonde hair hung over an almost faceless head. There was simply a nose and a wide mouth that smiled. White wings wrapped around the floating female body, and the arms clutched what looked like a crown.

"Shit! What is that?" Hathor cursed, his eyes fixated on the ancient being.

"We should leave now!" Kainys said with deadly seriousness. "We don't want to wake these sentients up. They don't sense us yet so we should get out now."

Hathor looked mellowed and he took a step forward towards the altar.

“Hathor! Didn’t you hear me? We’re...” Kainys started to yell, but stopped when the realisation hit him. His irises broke into spirals “She’s controlling him! Don’t let her grip your mind Zeva!”

Hathor screamed his war cry and charged at the altar. He cut his palm with the blade of his own axe and threw it to the side while he was still running. Kainys, who had deceived Hathor into thinking he was still chasing him, crouched in front of the mercenary and tripped him up. Kainys jumped on top of him and pulled back the arm with the bleeding hand until it dislocated. That didn't stop him from struggling closer to the altar though. Zevaryn caught up to them and locked Hathor's legs together, trying to pull him away at the same time. The neuromancer reached out for the scholars' minds. A powerful blast at both of their minds impaired them enough to loosen their hold on the mercenary. Hathor threw himself to his feet and swung his dangling arm onto the altar. The blood spilt over the circle design and the room flared brighter. Kainys whipped out a dagger and whacked him in the back of the head with its hilt, knocking Hathor out.

"Get him out of this room! And don't come back in it!" Kainys yelled to Zevaryn as his irises began to spin at violent speeds. Pods were opening and the winged beings inside were beginning to emerge. All of a sudden they broke out into harmonious, but wordless song. Circles of light formed above their heads. The other mercenaries ran down the stairs to see what was going on and saw Kainys struggling on his knees, trying not to be dominated but also struggling to keep them from targeting his allies. Then all of a sudden he started laughing. He had a devious smile on his face. He looked up at Zevaryn. His eyes weren't spiralling anymore. Zevaryn smiled, understanding something from the look Kainys gave him. In that moment, the light consumed the room. The song reached a climax and started to sound twisted. A pillar of light rose into the sky above as the room was drained of its illumination. The facility's power failed, and then everything went quiet. Kainys and the woken creatures were gone.

[Nozomi]

~Chapter One~

"Mysi, I need you to get us a book on soul capturing."

The girl with violet eyes looked up from her book and stood up. She was wearing a lilac kirtle and her long, black curls were tied back with a purple ribbon.

"Using enchanted crystals or just common method?" She asked the dark-skinned scholar that had called her.

"The common method will work just fine." He replied as another scholar pushed a pile of paper to him. "Oh... And deliver these reports to Seven while you're there."

Mysi nodded and took the papers. She walked out the door and into the late afternoon light. She started humming merrily as she looked up at the massive tree-shaped structure which was made up of a patchwork of technologies and styles. It wasn't alone in it's peculiarity, the whole city used whatever mixture of inspiration it's residents thought was best.

"Okay, soul capturing would be under... 3F0D6.C5, so that would be on the... thirtieth floor, in north-north-west branch." She murmured aloud, before proceeding to the side entrance. Entering, she waved to some friends amongst the library staff as she walked towards the organic looking chutes in the centre of the library. She pressed the soft fleshy bit near the sphincter muscle-like door and waited for it to open. The inside of this biological contraption was made of calloused skin. It had a flat, leveled floor and rim of the ceiling glowed slightly. The ceiling also consisted of a human size hole. On the walls were soft, fleshy gashes, and tattoos near them marked of floor numbers. Some library patrons came out of the elevator and after they did, Mysi went in and pressed the area to get to the thirtieth floor. The inner and outer door closed. Mysi watched through the ceiling as the creature ascended.

She had to wait on the way for a few people to get on and off, but it didn't take much of her time. Without any confusion, she left the lift and went straight in the direction she had planned, ignoring the exhibited artifacts and models, which she had already looked at before. As she walked up the gently ramping corridor, she passed shelf after shelf of books. Every so often the rooms style changed drastically, but there was still shelves and shelves of books, interupted only by the occasional study carrell. The only other common element was the calculated designs marked almost everywhere. Finally Mysi began to slow, as she came to the section she was looking for. She picked up a book and flicked through it. Dissatisfied she put it back and took out the book next to it. She looked thoughtfully at the pages and then smiled. She tucked the book under her arm with the reports and walked back to the elevator. This time taking it to the basement.

The basement ran through out the city. From here she could even walk home. The basement was actually a natural underground cave which had been refined for the library and eventually the city's use. Mysi walked into a round, stone booth that had a blood-splattered altar. She held her hand over it and secreted a dark orchid, viscous substance from her palm which dripped onto the altar. The marking carved into it flashed and then a dark cloud enveloped her for a second. When the cloud disappeared, she was in another room.

"Oh, Hey Mysi." Greeted a female guard that was waiting near the exit booth. "What brings you to the central office? Delivering something to the Grandserpent?"

"Uh huh. Is he in or is he helping with research somewhere again?" Mysi asked her.

"You're lucky." She answered. "He just got back. He's in his study."

Mysi walked past the people working through papers at their desks and past the people with strange helmets sitting at organic terminals until she got to the centre of the room which was enclosed by a weird mix of hardened rock, bones, and fungal growths which glowed. The wall was shaped like a giant snake, the open mouth forming a door. She entered, ramping around until it opened into the wide room.

"Mysika!" The city's leader greeted with a smirk. His deep black eyes reading into her face and body language. "Is that the field scholars' research reports you've brought me? I'll be interested to take a look through them."

"Hello Zeva." Mysi greeted enthusiastically. She walked over to him and handed over the reports.

"Have you finished the book I suggested you read the other day?" He asked her.

"Almost. It's quite scary. He really goes into detail of how he slaughters and eats his victims. And he tortures them so much before he kills them" She replied.

"The diary of Britassian's biggest serial killer is a great window into the mind of a blood-thirsty psychopath though. And all the horrific accounts provide great inspiration for torturous illusions you could manifest on your enemies in the future." Zevaryn preached to her. "I mean you're only half Meisai, so your illusion-casting ability works better concentrated on someone rather than spread out and used passively.You have to use it agressively to get the best use out of it."

"I know. I never said it wasn't interesting and useful." She replied. "I like reading all the material you recommend to me. Father used to do the same thing, but those things captured him. Now I have more reason to develop my skills."

"Enthusiasm for finding and eliminating the Celesai is all well and good." He told her. "But they're powerful ancient beings. While it's likely that what we released were all of them, they've already had a few years to plot and increase their strength and numbers. By all means, search for traces of them with us and be ready to fight them if the situation calls for it. But carelessly chasing them will lead only to your defeat."

"I know you're right Zeva. I just miss him." She muttered, her head hanging sadly.

"I'd imagine the field scholars want that book under your arm." Zevaryn commented, changing the subject into productivity. "You should get back to them with it. I'll get someone to deliver some good texts to your house."

Mysika left and made her way back to the ground floor. She got the book issued out to the field scholar's office at the circulation desk and headed back to the field scholars.
Mysi handed over the book she collected and resumed reading her book. She took little interest in watching them chalk up calculated markings around the artefact, but did look up at times. The dark skinned scholar who was leading the experiment on the artefact took out his ritual knife and cut his hand so he could activate the spell circles with blood. More time passed and Mysi had finished her book. She took a peek at the results they were getting. The younger assistant asked her for help with a task that he was having trouble with and she obliged. Eventually the scholars had finished. Some said their goodbyes and went home while those more involved in the artefact's research retreated to the study rooms to write up their report. Before they left, they asked the assistants to clean up after the experiment. Mysi pumped water into a bucket while the boy fetched the scrubbing brushes and soap. A crow flew into the window and landed on her shoulder.

"Maki!" She exclaimed at it. She heard other crows outside coming closer. She started petting the bird. "Did Kali leave something in her office?"

The scavenger cawed in reply. A young woman walked in the front door. She had sleek black hair and dazzling blue eyes. Her black, feathery clothes showed a lot of skin, but were still long and flowing. She held a foreign lightweight spear with bright purple tassels hanging around the tip. Many crows hung around her and some were even perched on her.

"Good evening Kali." Mysi greeted, and the boy waved his hello too. "We were about to clean up the markings of Mukanda’s experiment. Did you leave something behind this morning?"

"Actually, I came to chat to you." She said with a smirk. She took a brush off the other assistant and started to help out. "It's your twelfth birthday soon, right?"

"It's a couple of days away actually." She replied, accepting the help and quickly beginning to clean up with her. "I still haven't found someone who'll take me on as an apprentice though. I don't want to have to ask a research scholar, I want to go out there and discover things."

Kali laughed, and the crows on her cawed in synchronisation.

"Yeah, it would suck to spend all day underground processing lab results, good thing you won't have to" She said in reply and smiled mischievously at Mysi. "I want to have you as an apprentice."

"Really?!" Mysi answered excitedly. "You told me a while ago that you were too 'young and wild' to take on an apprentice."

"Yeah, well you're what I'm looking for in a student, and Maki likes you." Kali explained to her, then she caught the gaze of the other assistant. "Oh, sorry Todd. You don't need to hear me chatting away to Mysi. Don't worry about the cleaning, just take the books back to the library and then you can go home or whatever."

"Oh, take my book back too please." Mysi added.

They finished cleaning the floor while chatting about the new apprenticeship and how Kali liked to do things. They packed away and took their conversation to the streets. Kali asked if she could stay the night at Mysi's place.

"Well, I'd have to ask Amethyst but I can't see why she'd have any problem with it." She replied.

They approached a house built into a mound, in which a tree sprouted out of the top. Mysi took opened the door and Kali followed her, leaving the crows to roost around the house.

"Ame~. Are you home." Mysi called down the hallway. She received no answer.

"I guess she's still out on some mission." Mysi murmered, picking up the books by the door and heading up the stairs.

"She's nice to have on a mission. Cares for the people she works with and seems to nurture the rookie mercenaries who come with us." Kali said aloud. "Although, I wouldn't want to be her enemy, evocationists are always scary to go up against, but she uses that freezing acid slime so furiously and precise."

"I have that in my blood too." Mysi protested, coating her hand in the dark purple substance and then letting it disappear into mist.

"Yeah, but you don't use an amplification gem, and well, Ame is one." Kali said in reply. She caught the down look on Mysi's face. "She's still a lot like your mother you know. I never really knew her personally, but I did go on a few missions with her as an apprentice. Amethyst's trying to establish herself differently, but she came from the same memories."

They got to Mysi's room and she placed the books on her desk. Her furnishings were quite upper class, but of mixed cultures and tended to favour the colour violet quite a bit. She sat down on her bed. Kali sat down next to her. Maki and some other crows were staring in through the window.

"Just so you know, I'm planning to train you to be a raven shaman too." Kali said casually with a smirk. "So I'm gonna work you twice as hard." She gave a somewhat sadistic laugh.

"Huh...? Okay then. Whatever you can teach me." Mysi replied. "But are you sure you won't me to take on that role?"

"Sure. You have a good affinity for it and it is easier if I only have one apprentice." Kali answered and stood up. "Got anything to eat around here?"

"Not of the proper meal kind." Mysi replied. "We'd have to go to the nightmarket for meat and vegetables and such."

"I think I'll pass, people always complain when I enter the markets. "Kali sighed. "They complain that the crows steal their merchidise. I can't even go to the necromancer's market either because the crows attack their merchandise too."

Mysi started laughing at the image of crows pecking away at zombies. "I'll just get biscuits from the cupboard then."

Later on Amethyst got back with food she bought from the market on the way home. Mysi prepared some dinner while Kali chatted away to Amethyst. They ate together and then made their way to bed after a bit more chatting. Kali left early the next morning and Mysi joined her a bit later. At a more casual time, Amethyst went to see what mercenary jobs were on offer. Later in the day Kali was called to see the field scholar's manager.

"I hear you reserved Kainys' daughter as your apprentice." Said the young man with serious green eyes, who was going over maps and reports on his desk. He had short blond hair, large spectacles and a top hat. "Here are the forms you'll need to document that, although I called you here to inform you of your next mission. The son of the leader of the rangers recently uncovered some ruins quite close to home. I'm assigning you and your new apprentice to check them out just after this midnight."

"Wow, you're deploying her as soon as you can aren't you" Kali commented while taking the papers he handed her. "Do we get anyone to go with us?"

"Well the ranger's leader's son will guide you there, and I'll let you recruit one mercenary and a rookie they're training. Tell Mysi about this assignment and tell her she has the afternoon off to sleep and prepare. The same goes for you." He answered and let Kali leave the room. Kali told Mysi and the scholars ran off to prepare.

[Nozomi]

Oh... and while this isn't an application story, you can chat to me about getting a character into the story... They'll be background, but maybe they'll get random parts... It's prob better to PM or IM me about it though, rather than spamming this thread... I'd like to hear any comments, I know I'm not the best writer.

[Nozomi]

Okay... How about as a birthday treat to me, can people read and comment on this story... it's been sitting idle long enough... Y_Y

[silent deadly alchemist]

yegods SOMEONE should have responded by now. well mysi youKNOW my coments and such because half HELPED you write it

[Nozomi]

Y_Y It's depressing... isn't it...
Don't worry perverts, I'll write something kinda erotica-ful for you to read later...

[silent deadly alchemist]

oh u changed your name.. hoping for something of next chapter soon