Arthur Hansen
Author of no Authority.
- Location
- Utah, behind the Zion Curtain.
*I* didn't know who it was, so I had to go check. The names are inspired though.
A Green Sun Illuminates the Void (ZnT/Exalted)
- Thread starter EarthScorpion
- Start date
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
I've read a few stories on here, but this one I really had to pop in to comment on - I'm absolutely loving it so far, and can't wait to see what happens next.
Your description of Mardukth has brought me on board as one of his many fans. It has also inspired what I now know his Imperfection to be, should I ever write a Charmset for the big existentially-confused bastard.
Of course, I can't help but wonder what will happen if Louise tries to actually summon a legitimate Familiar (given that the Neomah wasn't actually summoned, afaik). I mean, she has no magic (bar potential Sorcery initiations) now, so... Bah. Logic stands against it, but I want to see Saito get slapped with a Magnanimous Warning Glyph, followed by a Malfeas Training Charm (I ought to write one of those).
Interesting that she has Cecelyne favoured. I would have thought SWLiHN would have been a more useful choice, especially for someone who wants to be a caster (and the potential for a Tomescu as a coadjutor - gandalfr reference, natch?) - I can't really see Louise spreading a Holy Land Infliction. Still, you're not using actual xp costs (are you?), so I don't suppose it matters outside of the Urge.
I am rendered gleefully incapable at the idea of seeing Driven Beyond Death get busted out... Maybe at Saxe-Gotha?
That sutra is delightfully appropriate, even if the idea of Louise using Infernal Monster Style makes me giggle in a manner rather inappropriate for the manly male I am. It's quite similar to the giggle I get when I imagine her using Demon Emperor Shintai. Loli Sauron is adora- ohgodmyfaceismelting.
As for the Urge, just a reminder - Unwoven Coadjutors are there, advisory role aside, to manage the Urge. Check page 79 - they're the ones who come up with the new one once the original is complete, and can make field-changes to it before implantation to make it more attuned to their mark. They also come up with a new one if it turns out that the current one is physically impossible; if Louise's neomah works out she's not in Kansas anymore (and granted, that could take a while, what with Creation being so unreasonably huge) then a new Urge will pop out, and given Cecelyne's proclivities, it may well result in a poor outlook for Henrietta.
The Red Moon Princesses are, as you say, corrupted Lunars. Of course, Lunars being what they are this means very little - it's mostly a flavour change, with the main alteration being their adoption of demonic totems in place of animals.
Tainted Dragons are the Yozi version of Dragonbloods, with each Aspect dedicated to a different Yozi. Their anima flux is weird.
Black Star Viziers are where the main action is at, being corrupted Sidereals. They've got all kinds of nonsense going on; for instance, they start off with Primordial-style soul structure Charms, which interact in a disturbing fashion with their Resplendent Destinies. The oldest Vizier currently in existence in this apocalyptically glorious timeline runs an entire department of Yu-Shan on her own - a bureaucracy in her own right.
Of course, having read this story, I'm formulating a new origin story for the Broken-Winged Crane... After all, what better name for a character with the potential for glorious void-spanning flight, who sacrificed it in the name of power? I shall write the First Louise Excellency.
Your description of Mardukth has brought me on board as one of his many fans. It has also inspired what I now know his Imperfection to be, should I ever write a Charmset for the big existentially-confused bastard.
Of course, I can't help but wonder what will happen if Louise tries to actually summon a legitimate Familiar (given that the Neomah wasn't actually summoned, afaik). I mean, she has no magic (bar potential Sorcery initiations) now, so... Bah. Logic stands against it, but I want to see Saito get slapped with a Magnanimous Warning Glyph, followed by a Malfeas Training Charm (I ought to write one of those).
Interesting that she has Cecelyne favoured. I would have thought SWLiHN would have been a more useful choice, especially for someone who wants to be a caster (and the potential for a Tomescu as a coadjutor - gandalfr reference, natch?) - I can't really see Louise spreading a Holy Land Infliction. Still, you're not using actual xp costs (are you?), so I don't suppose it matters outside of the Urge.
I am rendered gleefully incapable at the idea of seeing Driven Beyond Death get busted out... Maybe at Saxe-Gotha?
That sutra is delightfully appropriate, even if the idea of Louise using Infernal Monster Style makes me giggle in a manner rather inappropriate for the manly male I am. It's quite similar to the giggle I get when I imagine her using Demon Emperor Shintai. Loli Sauron is adora- ohgodmyfaceismelting.
As for the Urge, just a reminder - Unwoven Coadjutors are there, advisory role aside, to manage the Urge. Check page 79 - they're the ones who come up with the new one once the original is complete, and can make field-changes to it before implantation to make it more attuned to their mark. They also come up with a new one if it turns out that the current one is physically impossible; if Louise's neomah works out she's not in Kansas anymore (and granted, that could take a while, what with Creation being so unreasonably huge) then a new Urge will pop out, and given Cecelyne's proclivities, it may well result in a poor outlook for Henrietta.
I'm flattered!Stormseer88 said:
The Red Moon Princesses are, as you say, corrupted Lunars. Of course, Lunars being what they are this means very little - it's mostly a flavour change, with the main alteration being their adoption of demonic totems in place of animals.
Tainted Dragons are the Yozi version of Dragonbloods, with each Aspect dedicated to a different Yozi. Their anima flux is weird.
Black Star Viziers are where the main action is at, being corrupted Sidereals. They've got all kinds of nonsense going on; for instance, they start off with Primordial-style soul structure Charms, which interact in a disturbing fashion with their Resplendent Destinies. The oldest Vizier currently in existence in this apocalyptically glorious timeline runs an entire department of Yu-Shan on her own - a bureaucracy in her own right.
Of course, having read this story, I'm formulating a new origin story for the Broken-Winged Crane... After all, what better name for a character with the potential for glorious void-spanning flight, who sacrificed it in the name of power? I shall write the First Louise Excellency.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Well, I just did a megapost of 30 new Kimbery Charms that seem to be fairly well-liked, though if I never have to type the words "tumorous alien womb" again it'll be too soon. Louise probably wouldn't be interested in those, unless...Stormgear said:Write anything interesting lately?
*checks map* Yes, Tristania is a coastal nation...
Oho, do tell! Actually, probably not here, for the sake of keeping on-topic.Stormgear said:
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Here you go, Pirate Jenny.Stormgear said:
Oh, hell yeah. Infernal behaviour-altering Charms are all kinds of fun.Stormgear said:Though I'm not quite sure Louise /needs/ those tentacle charms. Now, Intolerable Burning Truths could be interesting, especially the ones that prevent her from ever doubting a loved one or disobeying a parent.
Have Louise's coadjutor alter her Urge to "Seize control of Tristania".
Have Louise take Impervious Primacy Mantle, preventing her from obeying direct orders.
Have Louise take Intolerable Burning Truths (Trust Is Naive), preventing her from doubting her loved ones.
Have Louise take Intolerable Burning Truths (Mother Before Daughter), preventing her from betraying her parents.
Watch her steadily go insane, or invent her own Virtue-transcendance Charms to cope.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Well, IPM makes taking orders an Unacceptable Order, while Kimbery's stuff is a mere Compulsion - so the former overrules the latter.Stormgear said:
Louise taking Skyfire-Seizing Repast (and/or Sun-Heart Furnace Soul) would be a little bit of a gamebreaker here, wouldn't it? I mean, it would all but negate a solid quarter of all magic (void and elves aside).
Welcome to Exalt/non Exalt relations 101.Revlid said:
Yay! A wild Revlid appeared!Revlid said:
Although, I must query. Why do you believe that she doesn't already have one?
No. For this, I'm just treating "Favoured" as being synonymous with "Urge", as I'm not actually tracking XP. And, sadly, the way the Coadjustor works means it has to be caste-linked to the Yozi of the caste. I did actually consider a metody, just for the interesting idea of Louise assuming that what she'd actually done was be born with the Sixth Element, but I rejected that for the solid guarantee that Louise now has a perverted (yet actually kind of nice... certainly Virtuous) courtesan-demon living in her skull.
It's like your own personal head!Saito, only you can't beat it up. Oh, and it's actually kind of useful. I mean, it's going to be advising Louise on what she should wear for the royal wedding. And once Louise has forced it to understand that, no, she will be wearing more than about a cubit of cloth (because its suggestions resemble the exotic dancer costume)... well.
She'll be dressed like a Princess.
Oh, yes. They are going to be what I have classified as ZOMG buys for her, because they really do fit her. I mean, obviously, she'll get Devil Tyrant Avatar Shintai as her first Shintai, so she can, as of the current moment, get her wings, Lidless Demon Eye, mane of prehensile hair, serpentine tongue, crown of horns, and (what she's actually interested in) marginally larger breasts.
Incidentally, I have dubbed "Demon Emperor Louise" as Ark-of-the-Covenant-chan.
Yes. Very much so.Stormgear said:And so did Revlid descend upon the Spacebattles, to spill the radiance and grace of holy Ligier upon the Earth. What's up, Revlid? Write anything interesting lately?
It is because of Revlid, the thought that "You know, if Louise accidentally killed Guiche, she could always use his blood to impregnate Montmorency with a mutated clone of him, after feeding the other girl tainted breast milk as to make her view her as a sister" occurred. It was not a happy thought. It is entirely due to Revlid's Charms that such a thing even occurred to me.
It is also because of Revlid that Kimbery charms have suddenly entered the contention for "things that could be interesting" for Louise. I mean, really, subconsciously she's already leaning towards quite a few of the Intolerable Burning Truths, and at least the canon character obviously has All Things Betray, as well as the whole beloved/reviled thing. I mean, damn it, I spend enough time writing Lovecraftian horror normally! I don't need it infesting this with Ichor Flux Tendrils, too!
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I can't wait for the first time Louise uses Crowned With Fury.
Other than that, EarthScorpion, Louise is really quite ideal for conversion into a Green Sun. Massive inferiority complex? Check. Total, abject despair? Check. Thirsting for power? Check. Repeated failures? Check.
Sound perfect, is perfect.
And all that anger, all that boiling rage within Louise... yes, the mantle of a Slayer fits her well.
Other than that, EarthScorpion, Louise is really quite ideal for conversion into a Green Sun. Massive inferiority complex? Check. Total, abject despair? Check. Thirsting for power? Check. Repeated failures? Check.
Sound perfect, is perfect.
And all that anger, all that boiling rage within Louise... yes, the mantle of a Slayer fits her well.
I can't see this being different from canon.EarthScorpion said:
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Image:ZNT-page-259.jpg
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Image:ZnT03-023.JPG
Wait....You got the idea for Louise feed Montmorency tainted breast milk, that I can only presume that Louise creates herself, to brainwash Montmorency to view Louise as her sister.EarthScorpion said:
Did I get that right?
Kimbery's shtick is Acidic Jewish Mother who is an Ocean. Revlid took the Acidic Jewish Mother part and ran with it to its logical conclusion, producing a charm tree that appeals to many fetishes. Secreting brainwashing (and extremely nutritious) breast milk is but one of many useful abilities granted by the charmset.HolySeraph said:
Well, for further consideration... is the charm limited to female GSPs?
I'm very sorry, EarthScorpion, be we appear to have ruined your thread.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
...I must admit to confusion. Possible interpretations:EarthScorpion said:Although, I must query. Why do you believe that she doesn't already have one?
1. Louise has no Familiar, having botched the summoning. She lost her magic when fusing with the Neomah attracted to her heroic failure, and cannot call another.
2. Louise has a Familiar, and it is the Neomah now serving as her Coadjutor.
3. Louise has a Familiar, and it is that poor useless crane.
4. Louise has a Demon Familiar, as per the Infernal background. It just hasn't been called yet.
My reaction should be "d'aaaw", or possibly "oooh".EarthScorpion said:
So why is it that my first thought was "'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good"?
I actually spent the afternoon that Charm was released going over mutation lists, working out how to use DTAS to turn into a dragon. It's shockingly easy, if a bit geiger-esque.EarthScorpion said:
HNNNNGHEarthScorpion said:
While I had no idea my paltry offerings had spread this far, and am incredibly flattered that they have, I must beg that you not do this terrible thing. Sure, it's exactly the kind of horrible plot I was aiming for when I wrote that clause in, but...EarthScorpion said:
I swear to god, I didn't even realize it appealed to fetishes until after it was posted. I plead unintentionality! I just wanted to create monstrous horrors, I didn't intend for the internet to get off on it!hyzmarca said:
Of course, I'm not going to object, because let's face it, these are Infernal Charms, but damn.
She can also be called Mothering Cthulhu.hyzmarca said:
Except, of course, K'tula was a Solar who dove into Kimbery Charms, so she's the one who, in Exalted, K'tula used to become a tentacled squid-thing.
... and then she turns up to the wedding in Viridian Legend Exoskeleton.Stormseer88 said:
And nothing else.
Malfeas may not be, but Louise only has it as a Pox.Only a marginal increase?
Heresy!
Only a Kirche-class bust can properly show the glory of Malfeas!
Malfeas is not much for moderation in case you didn't notice...
And Kirche... well, poor girl, but she obviously took "Breasts" as an Abomination.
Breasts as an abomination would have them make up her entire body. After all, Abominations are the kind of things that turn your body into a swarm of BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!
Not even superficially human.
Not even superficially human.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
A LIVING HIVE!Robotninja said:
...
With absolutely no mechanical effect whatsoever.
Stuff like that mutation is why I homebrew.
Given that it's superheavy brass plate, I don't think that's exactly immodest attire.EarthScorpion said:... and then she turns up to the wedding in Viridian Legend Exoskeleton.
And nothing else.
Unless...
Fair warning: If you turn Viridian Legend Exoskeleton into a Chainmail Bikini, I shall- I shall- I shall be terribly caustic (perhaps even snide) about it.
Why not just do something completely dreadful?Revlid said:
Chapter 3: A Bad Letter Day
A Green Sun Illuminates The Void
Chapter 3: A Bad Letter Day
It was dawn, and the pink-haired girl was already awake. Clad only in her nightgown, she paced up and down in her room, her bare feet slapping against cold stone and soft rugs equally. They had fixed the door, but it wasn't quite in place properly, and there was a chill draft blowing in underneath. Her feet should have been cold.
They weren't.
Halting, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière stared at herself in the mirror again, the soft glow of a magical lamp enough to illuminate the room. Two eyes stared back at her, from a pale face surrounded by long pink hair. The resemblance to her older sister, Cattleya, and to her mother was immediately clear, although her eyes narrowed slightly, before softening, at the thought of the differences between them. The previous differences, that was. Not these new ones.
Her pupils were slightly larger, and were her eyes, she was sure of it, larger and a touch darker. And, likewise, her face was slightly more symmetrical, although Louise had to admit that it was possible that she was imagining that bit. The scars, like the one on her knee where she had fallen over on gravel when she was six, were gone, but... they might have just faded with time, right? But there were things that she wasn't, couldn't be imagining.
She glared down at her hands, glaring at the brass that had replaced her finger nails. Raising one to her mouth, the distinctive taste of flesh-warm metal was clear. She had broken her nail scissors trying to cut them, and had resorted to trying to file them down with her nail file. The brass shavings on her desk were a legacy of that attempt, along with a splash of blood. The file had been utterly inappropriate for these purposes, and when she had slipped, the edge had scraped away flesh all down the side of her finger.
That had healed up far faster than it should have, too. There was no trace of it any more, apart from the blood on the desk and the spine of a book she had touched accidentally. Still, even that might have been the product of some kind of magical mishap. She had blown things up before, far too many times, creating explosions when she had been trying to control water, or levitate. It made sense that she might have accidentally transmuted her fingernails to brass, when she was trying to summon things. At least by her standards.
No, what made it clear that it had actually happened, was...
"Hmm. I like this mirror. Just the right size, and the frame is tastefully understated. Although, I have to admit, it's disconcerting..." and there was a mental shudder, "... how quiet it is in this place. I mean, I know intellectually that you need not fear the Silent Wind, but old habits are hard to break. Anyway, how about breakfast? You're getting hungry."
... was the voice in her head.
"No, wait a moment. Turn sideways a bit. In the mirror."
'Why?' Louise thought to herself.
"I want to see what you're like," the voice of the neomah said, a certain desultory note in her... its voice. "What changes have occurred?"
Louise grudgingly acquiesced.
"You know, you're really rather attractive," Marisalon stated. "Yes... my. I wouldn't have minded using flesh from you in one of my children. You could have done whatever you wanted to me. I mean, yes, it's a shame about the lack of a bust..."
"Shut up!" Louise hissed, out loud, blushing furiously.
"What? It isn't as if many beings don't prefer a certain tastefulness in the chest area, and you, my lady, are very tasteful. Hmm... tasteful. Lick your left wrist, please."
"No! I'm not going to do that!" Louise said, getting even redder. She coughed. "And what do you mean, changes?"
There was a sigh. "I'm in your head. I can see that you're preening yourself, admiring the changes which the exaltation has wrought on you." Louise shivered, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. "And... well, although you're still rather short... and rather tastefully sized in the chest region..."
"Argh! Shut up shut up shut up!" Spinning around, she grabbed the pillow off her bed, and headbutted it, clasping it over her face. Sadly, this didn't actually do anything to actually silence the voice.
"I don't see what you're getting into a fuss about. I love the wonderful forms of flesh, in all its variety and shapes. And your appearance nicely complements the more adolescent features of your physique."
There was quiet. Then;
"Listen to me," Louise hissed at her reflection. "We are going to lay down some ground rules here." She ground her teeth. "One. No comments about my height. Two. No comments about my... my chest. Three. I don't look like a little girl. Four. You shut up when I tell you to." She took a deep breath. "Five. Um. Nails. How do you cut them?"
"Huh?"
"Well," Louise licked her lips, "they're made of brass. Are... are they going to grow back normal, or..."
"You mean that brass isn't normal?" the voice asked, curiously.
"No! Not for humans!"
"Oh yeah. Huh. Well, it depends a lot on what you want, and the end finish. I mean, for mundane activities, I always prefer a thin lacquer of theion to, which removes the end, and then careful honing with an obsidian razor, but that's just the day to day finish. When I am engaged with another citizen, it is of course necessary to take more care. I myself swear by the use of aumnovores, because their saliva means that the nails hold a near-perfect edge, and also give them a wonderful, crystal-like gleam, but I know that's a minority opinion. Another..."
Louise tuned out the voice, as it babbled about... things. Things that, to her ears, sound more like alchemy than nail-clipping. She stared down at the offending transmuted nails, and their matching friends on her feet. This had the potential to be problematic, she thought, tapping her lips with her index finger.
She yelped.
"... of course, the blood of a... watch out, they're sharp. Now, where was I?"
The girl wiped her lip against her hand, and ran her tongue over the gash... which was no longer there, having already sealed up. 'That's enough,' she thought. 'I'll need to go into the capital, and see what we... I can get.' She stared back at herself in the mirror. 'I have one question,' she thought, raising two hands to her chest. 'Why... well, my fingernails changed. And there's something a bit... odd about my eyes. But... um... er... that is to say, why didn't these grow at all?"
"Beats me!" the neomah said, cheerfully. "When we journey back to The City, you can get an explanation from the Unquestionables themselves. You'll be a peer there, you know, above mere serfs and even citizens, like I was, above even my progenitor."
"Journey?" Louise blurted out. "I... I can't do that! I have school, you know. And..." she paused. They had told her, yesterday, that she was being permitted to stay, but had anything really changed?
Well, yes, a lot had changed. She had summoned something. It wasn't her fault that it had melted into her. She wasn't just a failure.
And she now knew things. In those dreams, those odd nightmare-fantasies of strength and brass and green fire, and that sense of beauty, of wonder, and of justice unfairly maligned that came with it, she had learned things. That voice, that... she blushed, faintly... that strong, commanding, attractive voice, that radiated the same respect, the same authority, the same pillar of unyielding strength as Mother, had told her things, told her of what she could do.
Yes.
She picked up a piece of paper from her desk, and, holding it in front of her, Louise quite deliberately tore it in two.
"Green Sun Nimbus Flare," she said, a smirk on her face.
The green gouts of flame that radiated down the tear, engulfing the entire piece of paper, and leaving only ash to fall down between her fingers, were enough to satisfy her. And from the other small piles of ashes there were on the floor, this was not for the first time that she was so satisfied.
"So, you see," she said, out loud. "I'm not going to go anywhere. I'm not going to run away. I am going to stay here, and learn magic properly, and I am going to show them all that I am not the Zero. Understand me?"
"But of course, my lady. You are a peer of the City, chosen of the King himself. Such thing is your right," the neomah said, its tone slightly different... maybe even a little fearful. "But you must make your entry to the City, for your victor's parade, to take up your lands and your seat at the Althing."
"And I will do that. In time. But for now..."
"Of course, my lady, of course. But I merely say... someone is about to knock."
"Really?"
There was a knock at the door.
"Really."
"Oh, Zero! Hey, there. None of us have seen you for a few days, and then there was all that fuss with the teachers outside your door, and... well, after the summoning, we wondered... well, I heard you talking... is there anyone in here? Have you actually managed to find a man who'll put up with your... inadequacies?"
Louise stared at the dark-skinned, Germanian redhead, contempt on her face. She had a scathing retort ready, oh yes she did, something that would utterly put that girl down, and humiliate the old rival of her family. This was going to be good, she thought, looking the girl up and down.
"Well, hello there!"
She lost her train of thought almost immediately. 'Shut up!' she mentally ordered.
"My lady, I would direct your attention to the many fine attributes which this exquisite young lady possesses. Look at the curve of her arm, that sleek, rounded, elegant ratio of musculature to flesh. Look at those lips, perfectly formed, and..." the neomah made a... well, there was no other way of putting it, orgasmic noise, "... eminently kissable. And as for that figure, those hips curving into such a delectable waist before..."
"Shut up!"
Kirche stared at her, and Louise realised that she'd said that out loud. "I only asked if you were all right," she said, a slightly offended note in her voice. "But, of course, it would be far too much to accept manners from a de la Vallière, wouldn't it?" She turned on her heels, and strode off.
"Mmm... look at that behind, those sleek curves like the very apples of desire, rounded..."
'Shut up shut up shut up shut up!'
Upon first examination, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière appeared to be perfectly normal at breakfast. She sat down normally, said her prayer to the Founder normally, and resolutely ignored everyone who tried to talk to her about the fact that she had been absent for five days, and still appeared to lack a familiar... normally.
It was upon second examination when the oddities emerged. Like the fact that she looked subtly different. Or the fact that she had apparently painted her nails a bronze colour. Or the slightly distracted, occasionally bemused expression on her face. Or the way that she ate as if starved, but only took a little bit from every dish. Or the way that she switched, and occasionally blushed if she looked at certain of her classmates.
It was probably nothing.
"There is certainly something up with the Zero," Guiche de Gramont said, a flippant smile somewhat plastered on his face, as he loaded up his plate. The second years, seated on the middle table, were abuzz with casual chatter and the sounds of eating. With an overly showy flip of a hand, he acquired a cluster of grapes, grown in the water-mage aided greenhouses of the school, and delicately placed them on top of the mound of fruit which seemed to compose his breakfast.
"So you are staring at her," his girlfriend remarked, accusingly.
"Monmon, she disappeared for 5 days after being a failure at the summoning ritual. This is actually curiosity," he said, his tone actually serious, despite his expression. He shrugged. "Moreover, she is simply inadequate compared to your beauty. Surely you could not believe that I could ever, possibly be disloyal to you."
"What I'd like to know is, why is she still here?" Montmorency Margarita la Fère de Montmorency said, folding her arms. "It's not as if there aren't rules about this sort of thing. She shouldn't be here. Send her to Germania; she wouldn't stick out there, or send her to Saint Eloise's, or something, one of the reform schools."
"You know that wouldn't happen, though. She's a de la Vallière."
"But even that family can't stand up to the actual rules in that way." The girl snorted, tweaking the sit of her black mantle with an irritated jerk. "Of course, so much for their vaunted lineage. If even they can produce an inexprimé, then perhaps they're..." she kicked the blond boy under the table, "...hey! Look at me, not some stupid first year!"
"I'm not looking at... hey, you can't catch me out that easil... oww!"
"Aha! You have something to hide, then!
"Would you mind?" the fat boy sitting next to Guiche drawled, as the blond fliched. "You're making the table rock."
"Yeah, you two, cut it out. We wouldn't want Malicorne to miss his meals, would be?" Charles Alexandre de Calonne said, with a shrug, before he frowned, steepling his fingers. "Anyway, use your heads. She can't be an inexprimé, because we're all quite..." he coughed, "... aware of her faculty for blowing things up." He tapped his fingers on the table. "Now, consider something else. Who... or, should I say, what else are destructive, don't have familiars, and don't use magic the normal, proper, righteous way?"
"... dragons?"
Louise was, at that point, contemplating the virtues of forks, and their possible use as a brain-stabbing tool. She was uncertain if her targets were going to be everyone who was talking about her disappearance and reappearance, or her own brain to shut up its unwelcome passenger, but, Founder damn it, someone was going to get a fork through the eyesocket.
"Ooh! Ooh! Try some of the grapes next! I love grapes! I don't suppose you have any lacunae here, do you? I can't see any on the table. Have you tried asking the serving staff for some... oh, hello there. Fair lady, might I recommend that you add that butler to your harem... oh, wait, I was meant to recommend that you get a harem first, wasn't I? Get a harem."
The odds were leaning towards 'her own brain'.
'Listen,' she thought furiously. 'If you don't shut up about... about s-sex and stuff, I'm not going to eat.'
There was a mental silence. "I'll be good," Marisalon eventually replied.
'Liar. You're in my head. I can feel when you lie, neomah.'
"Well, I'll try. If you'll eat some of those grapes, that is."
Louise gave in. It seemed for the best.
Someone cleared their throat behind her.
"What is it, Kejak?" she said, without thinking, sitting back on her throne, and waiting for yet another tedious report from the Convention of Destiny. Honestly, they did go on. She could probably cut one of their reports in half, with no loss in the actual content.
"Um. Miss Vallière, it's me. Professor Colbert," said the balding man.
"Oh." The girl blinked, once, twice, a hand going to her head. "Urgh."
"Are you feeling all right?" There seemed to be honest, genuine concern in the man's voice.
"Tell him you're fine, and you just have a headache," Marisalon said, any levity gone.
She forced herself to smile. "Just a bit of a headache," she 'admitted'. "I am fine."
"Are you sure? Because, you know, you should go to the infirmary if you feel wrong, at all," Colbert told her. "We're not sure why..." he looked at the other students who weren't even trying that hard to conceal that they were listening in, "... why you were ill, or if there are any long term consequences, and... well, if you feel unusual at all, you shouldn't keep it hidden."
The girl stared up at him, and he suppressed a shudder. He hadn't slept more than a few hours last night, because he had been up late in the restricted areas of the library. Fenrir's library may have been only for the teachers, but there were still holes in it, still gaps. Luckily, the headmaster's secretary had volunteered to aid him, and she had been useful; she had helped him make a proper catalogue of all the books which had traces of the proto-runic script.
Which had been remarkably many. Just traces most of the time, small excerpts from texts which were old when they had been written, or in a number of cases, as notes about a now-unknown language, but sometimes there were more. Texts from the East, books on old architecture... it was fascinating. Colbert was beginning to realise how little he had paid attention to old history when he had been at school himself.
He shook his head, and returned his attention to the girl who had prompted this.
Her eyes gleamed green in the light.
Colbert flinched slightly, and his hand twitched, reaching for his wand. That instinct was suppressed. That was silly. It... it had only been a trick of the light. He hadn't been getting enough sleep, and he had been thinking about the green runes and... yes, there was green glass in the stained glass window behind him, he realised, and... he took a breath.
"Miss Vallière," he began formally, "the Headmaster asked that I pass this letter to you. Open it in private."
"I see." The girl seemed to wince. "Is... um..."
"I would recommend that you study as hard as you can to maintain your academic record," Colbert added, his voice edged.
The pink-haired girl nodded. "I understand," she said, after a momentary pause.
{0}
Charles rolled his eyes, flicking his dark hair. "Yes, Malicorne. Louise is actually part-dragon. She might appear to be human, but she carries the blood of giant flying scaly lizards in her veins. Perhaps she is part... part rhyme-dragon. It makes perfect sense. That would, of course, explain her amazing prowess with the element of wind, her ability to fly, and, of course, her..."
"Actually, come to think of it, her mother is Karin of the Heavy Wind..."
"No! There are no such thing as people who are secretly part-dragon! Does not work that way!" the boy hissed, slamming his fist down into the table, and sending a fork pinwheeling through the air. There was a yell from somewhere behind him, and one of the maids collapsed in a pile of plates, a gash on the side of her
Silence held for a moment, as the students turned around to stare at the figure fallen among the shattered plates. Gazes were exchanged. And, as one, they turned back to their food, studiously.
"The point is," Charles said, stumbling on, "... um... where was I? Oh yes. You don't get people who are really dragons. She is..."
There was a tap on his shoulder, and he turned, to see a bespectacled, blue haired girl staring down at him. "Pass," she said, pointing at a pot of pâté.
He did so, and she departed.
"I really don't know what Tabitha's problem is," he remarked, eyes widening slightly as the girl somehow managed to empty the jar with a single scoop of a fork, and then fit it all into her mouth. "But where was I? Louise. She is likewise almost certainly not part-orc, part-ghost, part-spirit, pa..."
"Hey!" Montmorency interjected, eyes narrowed. "We de Montmorencys can trace our lineage back to a pact made between us and the water spirits, when my ancestors took one as a bride!"
"That's just mythology."
"It's true!"
"Yes, sure."
"You're pushing it, Charlie," Guiche said, leaning forwards. "I do so hope that you're not insinuating that Monmon is lying. Because that would be an affront to her honour. And such an affront to her is an affront to me, for she is my dearest love," he added, with a sideways glance at the girl. The smile on her face was enough.
"Then, Montmorency, I sincerely apologise," the dark-haired boy said. "But all of this is a diversion, because of an interruption. Several interruptions. Quite a few." He paused, taking a deep breath, looking around. "Could she have... elvish blood?" he asked, in a half-whisper.
Malicorne leant forwards, intently. "No way. Impossible. Her ears, for one," he said, with a sudden air of authority. "And elves aren't built like real people, at all. I mean, yes, they look more human than, say, an orc, but... have you ever seen an elf skeleton? "
There were shaken heads.
"Well, my father has one, in his study. He showed me the difference between it and a human one. It's... weird. It isn't quite like normal bone." He tilted his head. "Of course, the skull was sort of caved in, but even then... the eye sockets were too big. Compared to the human ones I saw."
"Well, there's no reason that someone with some distant elvish blood would have to have the ears," Charles argued. "She could just... just be a throwback, or something."
"This is getting silly," Guiche said. "For one, we're missing breakfast. For two..." he winced, "... do you really want to be the one throwing around allegations that the de Vallierés have elvish blood in them? I know for one that I don't."
"Oh. Yeah. No, that's... not a good thing to be saying."
Attention from thereon in was dedicated to their plates.
'He's powerful,' thought Louise, watching the balding man walk away. She knew it, she could feel it radiating off him, in the heat and fire she had almost tasted, roiling and hissing and bubbling.
"He's..." Marisalon's voice trailed away. "He's not what I thought. I... I could... I was sure that you were children of the devas of the traitor Gaia. Not that I have any personal dislike of them, of course; they have such... inventiveness. It's exquisite, sometimes, such passion, such..." There was a mental pleasurable shudder. "But although he is of fire, he is not of Hesiesh. What... what is that man?"
The neomah actually sounded scared, and Louise's mouth twitched up at the corners. That was good. It was far too... annoying and in-her-head for anything else to be a natural response. 'He's one of my teachers,' she thought back. 'He's... nicer than some of the others.'
"No, no, no." She could somehow feel the sensation of a head being shaken, within her own head. "Some child of an elemental, perhaps?
'What on earth are you talking about?"
"Well, he certainly keeps himself in shape," the neomah added, but that comment seemed almost reflexive, as if its mind was elsewhere.
"What do you mean by that?" she said, and realised that she'd said that out loud.
"Nothing, Zero," one of the girls said, glaring at her. "I wasn't talking to you. Although," she added, "... come on, tell all. Where have you been for the last week, come on?"
Louise twitched. "It doesn't matter," she blurted out, trying to keep an expression befitting of a Vallière steady. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with her napkin, to cover her mouth, and checked the plate before her. Somehow, she had managed to eat considerably more than she normally would. She frowned at that, which broke her glare, and resolved that she would have to be more careful about bribing Marisalon with food.
"You know, with humans, weight put on often goes straight to the breasts," the neomah remarked, hastily, with an utterly transparent attempt at innocuousness. "And if you don't want to get bigger breasts because you put on weight, you can just eat things like lovely, juicy, succulent grapes, which hardly mean that you'll put on grapes... I mean, weight."
Louise stood, and tucked her chair in.
"Come on. At least take something with you back to your room. Pleee~eease!"
"No, really, come on! There are grapes and pears and..."
"If you nag me, you don't get food. And I can hold out without it longer than you," Louise muttered to herself, as she strode down the stone corridors of the school building, back to her room. There was a "getting to know your familiar" lesson next, so it wasn't like she needed to do that, was it?
"Starvation... you monster!
Wax cracked, as, sitting at her desk, the pink haired girl broke the seal on the letter, and carefully unfolded it.
She reached the end.
Her expression rigid, Louise stood up, placed the letter down on her desk, and stepped towards the wall.
Then she headbutted the wall as hard as she could. The plaster cracked.
"Why would you do something like that, fair lady?"
"Shut." Louise was panting, a wet trickle of hot blood rolling down her forehead. "Up."
"I am sorry, my lady, but..."
"No. No. More." She shook her head, and reached up, to wipe at the blood. "I... I just... I..." she let out a shuddering breath. "No. Just... shut it. You... you say you were a... a courtesan, yes? And certainly dressed like it. Why are you so annoying!"
There was a silence. Then "Well, I think the answer is obvious," Marisalon said, its voice sounding slightly hurt. "It's not as if all of them were interested in talking at all. Although, of course, that's not quite true. Why, my beloved mistress, Cynis Saliza loved to listen to me talk about the affairs of the City, and my services to the denizens of that mighty places. She found my tales inspiring and arousing alike, and it was due to these that she began to experiment with teodozjia and demjen, which she found most plea..."
There was another smash, as Louise headbutted the wall again, giving the first dent a twin. "Perverted head-thing!" she yelled. "Oh, Founder! Why! Why couldn't I not summon a... a stupid, perverted head... head..."
"Neomah."
"Shut. Up. Just... just get out of my head! Go be a proper familiar for me! Be a proper familiar so I don't have to face the fact that I'm going to be the subject of a tribunal to see if I'm an inexprimé! You know what this means! If... if I'd just got a proper one, this wouldn't be a problem! If you hadn't glued yourself into my skull, then I could have showed them you, and you could... you could be a familiar, and humiliate Kirche by having bigger breasts than the bloated melons she has glued to her front and... and I wouldn't have to be the subject of a tribunal! So just... get out of me!"
The last words were shouted.
"My lady." The voice was suddenly penitent-sounding, though Louise had her doubts as to how genuine such emotions were. "I cannot. I am of you, now. And," here it suddenly took on a slightly sullen note, "you are talking to yourself."
"Oh, I wonder why?"
No response.
The girl let her head fall. "Great," she muttered to herself. "Just... great. Why couldn't I just get a normal familiar, and normal magic, and normal... normalness? Why do I have to have this... thisness? Why is the world so... unfair!"
"Because it is broken," Marisalon said, its voice serious. "You know this. You have seen it, experienced it, felt it, and so you know it. You are a princess of the Green Sun, Chosen by the Emperor. You are a scion of the creators of the world, of the ones who carved the fabric of creation from the chaos of Beyond, and this power was granted to you to remedy the injustices of the world. You have been betrayed by the world. They were betrayed by the world." A pause. "You have this power. Use it. This is your chance, your reason to do whatever you wish."
Louise straightened up, her jawline set. "Yes," she said, simply. "I am not an inexprimé. I know this. Even before, I could make explosions. If they are going to try to kick me out because I didn't summon a proper familiar, they're going to have to find a better way than sticking that... that slander on me and my family, and, above that, implicate that my mother was unfaithful. I will not let this stand."
"Now you're talking!" exulted the neomah. "So, what will you do, fair lady? Take over the school! Hunt down the people who dare to sit in judgement in you, and show them what a mistake they have made! They shall serve you, or they shall perish! Let your beauty and magnificence shine like the Green Sun himself!"
"What?" Louise's eyes widened in shock. "No!"
"Even a little bit of subjugation? Possibly followed by enslaving them as your concubines?"
The girl ran her hands through her hair. "No," she said, rubbing one brass nail against her lips. "Urgh. No. Have you seen the Headmaster? Yuck. Ick." Louise blinked, anger in her voice. "I'm going to study. By the time the tribunal comes, I am going to be able to do enough to show them that I am not an inexprimé. Would an inexprimé be able to destroy things with green fire?"
"Um..."
"No, they would not. Therefore, I am going to find everything that I can do, and I will show them this. And their slander will be dismissed. I have 3 days. Today and tomorrow there are reduced lessons, because we are meant to be getting used to our familiars. Therefore, I am not going to waste time. At all."
Her nails sung into her palms, drawing blood.
"I am not going to fail this. I am not going to fail Mother in this way."
{0}
Bandage wrapped around her head, Siesta sat on her bed in the servants quarters, the oil-light guttering. The cut from the fork that one of the little noble brats had thrown had been shallow, but the infirmary had insisted on wrapping it. She suspected that it was just to cover the way that the thing that they'd put in the wound, which had stung like hell, stained the skin yellow. And they hadn't even given her any time to recover.
At least she wasn't being charged for the damaged plates.
She let her tired eyes sink shut, only to open them immediately. That green fire, that branded forehead... they haunted her. Such a thing... was terrifying. And she'd seen the girl, the... the... she'd seen her at breakfast, looking perfectly normal, with no one even watching her. What was this? Were the nobility all mad or something? Or just too full of themselves, too full with the impression that they were somehow the chosen of God and ruled everything to actually think that, oh, maybe someone appearing from a chrysalis of green fire and brass, like some maddened butterfly, wasn't a good thing?
She missed home, right now. She wanted to see her parents and the rest of her family, before... she wanted them here. And at least she had one of her letters for them, tucked into the cupboard where her uniforms were stored. On her next day off, she could give it to Jessica, and it could make its way back to Tarbes. It was a pity how little she could tell them, but she hoped it would be enough.
Folding her arms over herself, she shook her head. She could only hope that she slept better tonight than last night. Hope which she suspected was in vain.
Dear Mama and Papa,
I feel I must write to you, though it has only been a month since my last letter. I am well, and my employment remains gainful. I have remembered all that you told me, and my virtue remains intact. As you taught me, we must look shy, but we must also dissuade the men, and sometimes I wish that only a seventh of the legion of men and boys at this place could be as chivalrous as the tales tell us. I was a little ill recently, but I got better. I remember to say my prayers to the Lord and the Founder every day, that we may be redeemed from this world, though its sins and injustices be anathema to us all, so that we may not be forsaken.
I must sadly tell you that I cannot make my way home for St Marian's Day this year, for it is still in term time and the school will not grant me leave. In my place, therefore, please leave five blue flowers on Great-grandmother Mela's grave, in my place. I hope that we may all see fortune and happiness this coming year, and I, myself, wish that I will see you all again soon.
May the Founder bless you,
Your loyal daughter
Siesta
Chapter 3: A Bad Letter Day
{0}
It was dawn, and the pink-haired girl was already awake. Clad only in her nightgown, she paced up and down in her room, her bare feet slapping against cold stone and soft rugs equally. They had fixed the door, but it wasn't quite in place properly, and there was a chill draft blowing in underneath. Her feet should have been cold.
They weren't.
Halting, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière stared at herself in the mirror again, the soft glow of a magical lamp enough to illuminate the room. Two eyes stared back at her, from a pale face surrounded by long pink hair. The resemblance to her older sister, Cattleya, and to her mother was immediately clear, although her eyes narrowed slightly, before softening, at the thought of the differences between them. The previous differences, that was. Not these new ones.
Her pupils were slightly larger, and were her eyes, she was sure of it, larger and a touch darker. And, likewise, her face was slightly more symmetrical, although Louise had to admit that it was possible that she was imagining that bit. The scars, like the one on her knee where she had fallen over on gravel when she was six, were gone, but... they might have just faded with time, right? But there were things that she wasn't, couldn't be imagining.
She glared down at her hands, glaring at the brass that had replaced her finger nails. Raising one to her mouth, the distinctive taste of flesh-warm metal was clear. She had broken her nail scissors trying to cut them, and had resorted to trying to file them down with her nail file. The brass shavings on her desk were a legacy of that attempt, along with a splash of blood. The file had been utterly inappropriate for these purposes, and when she had slipped, the edge had scraped away flesh all down the side of her finger.
That had healed up far faster than it should have, too. There was no trace of it any more, apart from the blood on the desk and the spine of a book she had touched accidentally. Still, even that might have been the product of some kind of magical mishap. She had blown things up before, far too many times, creating explosions when she had been trying to control water, or levitate. It made sense that she might have accidentally transmuted her fingernails to brass, when she was trying to summon things. At least by her standards.
No, what made it clear that it had actually happened, was...
"Hmm. I like this mirror. Just the right size, and the frame is tastefully understated. Although, I have to admit, it's disconcerting..." and there was a mental shudder, "... how quiet it is in this place. I mean, I know intellectually that you need not fear the Silent Wind, but old habits are hard to break. Anyway, how about breakfast? You're getting hungry."
... was the voice in her head.
"No, wait a moment. Turn sideways a bit. In the mirror."
'Why?' Louise thought to herself.
"I want to see what you're like," the voice of the neomah said, a certain desultory note in her... its voice. "What changes have occurred?"
Louise grudgingly acquiesced.
"You know, you're really rather attractive," Marisalon stated. "Yes... my. I wouldn't have minded using flesh from you in one of my children. You could have done whatever you wanted to me. I mean, yes, it's a shame about the lack of a bust..."
"Shut up!" Louise hissed, out loud, blushing furiously.
"What? It isn't as if many beings don't prefer a certain tastefulness in the chest area, and you, my lady, are very tasteful. Hmm... tasteful. Lick your left wrist, please."
"No! I'm not going to do that!" Louise said, getting even redder. She coughed. "And what do you mean, changes?"
There was a sigh. "I'm in your head. I can see that you're preening yourself, admiring the changes which the exaltation has wrought on you." Louise shivered, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. "And... well, although you're still rather short... and rather tastefully sized in the chest region..."
"Argh! Shut up shut up shut up!" Spinning around, she grabbed the pillow off her bed, and headbutted it, clasping it over her face. Sadly, this didn't actually do anything to actually silence the voice.
"I don't see what you're getting into a fuss about. I love the wonderful forms of flesh, in all its variety and shapes. And your appearance nicely complements the more adolescent features of your physique."
There was quiet. Then;
"Listen to me," Louise hissed at her reflection. "We are going to lay down some ground rules here." She ground her teeth. "One. No comments about my height. Two. No comments about my... my chest. Three. I don't look like a little girl. Four. You shut up when I tell you to." She took a deep breath. "Five. Um. Nails. How do you cut them?"
"Huh?"
"Well," Louise licked her lips, "they're made of brass. Are... are they going to grow back normal, or..."
"You mean that brass isn't normal?" the voice asked, curiously.
"No! Not for humans!"
"Oh yeah. Huh. Well, it depends a lot on what you want, and the end finish. I mean, for mundane activities, I always prefer a thin lacquer of theion to, which removes the end, and then careful honing with an obsidian razor, but that's just the day to day finish. When I am engaged with another citizen, it is of course necessary to take more care. I myself swear by the use of aumnovores, because their saliva means that the nails hold a near-perfect edge, and also give them a wonderful, crystal-like gleam, but I know that's a minority opinion. Another..."
Louise tuned out the voice, as it babbled about... things. Things that, to her ears, sound more like alchemy than nail-clipping. She stared down at the offending transmuted nails, and their matching friends on her feet. This had the potential to be problematic, she thought, tapping her lips with her index finger.
She yelped.
"... of course, the blood of a... watch out, they're sharp. Now, where was I?"
The girl wiped her lip against her hand, and ran her tongue over the gash... which was no longer there, having already sealed up. 'That's enough,' she thought. 'I'll need to go into the capital, and see what we... I can get.' She stared back at herself in the mirror. 'I have one question,' she thought, raising two hands to her chest. 'Why... well, my fingernails changed. And there's something a bit... odd about my eyes. But... um... er... that is to say, why didn't these grow at all?"
"Beats me!" the neomah said, cheerfully. "When we journey back to The City, you can get an explanation from the Unquestionables themselves. You'll be a peer there, you know, above mere serfs and even citizens, like I was, above even my progenitor."
"Journey?" Louise blurted out. "I... I can't do that! I have school, you know. And..." she paused. They had told her, yesterday, that she was being permitted to stay, but had anything really changed?
Well, yes, a lot had changed. She had summoned something. It wasn't her fault that it had melted into her. She wasn't just a failure.
And she now knew things. In those dreams, those odd nightmare-fantasies of strength and brass and green fire, and that sense of beauty, of wonder, and of justice unfairly maligned that came with it, she had learned things. That voice, that... she blushed, faintly... that strong, commanding, attractive voice, that radiated the same respect, the same authority, the same pillar of unyielding strength as Mother, had told her things, told her of what she could do.
Yes.
She picked up a piece of paper from her desk, and, holding it in front of her, Louise quite deliberately tore it in two.
"Green Sun Nimbus Flare," she said, a smirk on her face.
The green gouts of flame that radiated down the tear, engulfing the entire piece of paper, and leaving only ash to fall down between her fingers, were enough to satisfy her. And from the other small piles of ashes there were on the floor, this was not for the first time that she was so satisfied.
"So, you see," she said, out loud. "I'm not going to go anywhere. I'm not going to run away. I am going to stay here, and learn magic properly, and I am going to show them all that I am not the Zero. Understand me?"
"But of course, my lady. You are a peer of the City, chosen of the King himself. Such thing is your right," the neomah said, its tone slightly different... maybe even a little fearful. "But you must make your entry to the City, for your victor's parade, to take up your lands and your seat at the Althing."
"And I will do that. In time. But for now..."
"Of course, my lady, of course. But I merely say... someone is about to knock."
"Really?"
There was a knock at the door.
"Really."
"Oh, Zero! Hey, there. None of us have seen you for a few days, and then there was all that fuss with the teachers outside your door, and... well, after the summoning, we wondered... well, I heard you talking... is there anyone in here? Have you actually managed to find a man who'll put up with your... inadequacies?"
Louise stared at the dark-skinned, Germanian redhead, contempt on her face. She had a scathing retort ready, oh yes she did, something that would utterly put that girl down, and humiliate the old rival of her family. This was going to be good, she thought, looking the girl up and down.
"Well, hello there!"
She lost her train of thought almost immediately. 'Shut up!' she mentally ordered.
"My lady, I would direct your attention to the many fine attributes which this exquisite young lady possesses. Look at the curve of her arm, that sleek, rounded, elegant ratio of musculature to flesh. Look at those lips, perfectly formed, and..." the neomah made a... well, there was no other way of putting it, orgasmic noise, "... eminently kissable. And as for that figure, those hips curving into such a delectable waist before..."
"Shut up!"
Kirche stared at her, and Louise realised that she'd said that out loud. "I only asked if you were all right," she said, a slightly offended note in her voice. "But, of course, it would be far too much to accept manners from a de la Vallière, wouldn't it?" She turned on her heels, and strode off.
"Mmm... look at that behind, those sleek curves like the very apples of desire, rounded..."
'Shut up shut up shut up shut up!'
{0}
Upon first examination, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière appeared to be perfectly normal at breakfast. She sat down normally, said her prayer to the Founder normally, and resolutely ignored everyone who tried to talk to her about the fact that she had been absent for five days, and still appeared to lack a familiar... normally.
It was upon second examination when the oddities emerged. Like the fact that she looked subtly different. Or the fact that she had apparently painted her nails a bronze colour. Or the slightly distracted, occasionally bemused expression on her face. Or the way that she ate as if starved, but only took a little bit from every dish. Or the way that she switched, and occasionally blushed if she looked at certain of her classmates.
It was probably nothing.
{0}
"There is certainly something up with the Zero," Guiche de Gramont said, a flippant smile somewhat plastered on his face, as he loaded up his plate. The second years, seated on the middle table, were abuzz with casual chatter and the sounds of eating. With an overly showy flip of a hand, he acquired a cluster of grapes, grown in the water-mage aided greenhouses of the school, and delicately placed them on top of the mound of fruit which seemed to compose his breakfast.
"So you are staring at her," his girlfriend remarked, accusingly.
"Monmon, she disappeared for 5 days after being a failure at the summoning ritual. This is actually curiosity," he said, his tone actually serious, despite his expression. He shrugged. "Moreover, she is simply inadequate compared to your beauty. Surely you could not believe that I could ever, possibly be disloyal to you."
"What I'd like to know is, why is she still here?" Montmorency Margarita la Fère de Montmorency said, folding her arms. "It's not as if there aren't rules about this sort of thing. She shouldn't be here. Send her to Germania; she wouldn't stick out there, or send her to Saint Eloise's, or something, one of the reform schools."
"You know that wouldn't happen, though. She's a de la Vallière."
"But even that family can't stand up to the actual rules in that way." The girl snorted, tweaking the sit of her black mantle with an irritated jerk. "Of course, so much for their vaunted lineage. If even they can produce an inexprimé, then perhaps they're..." she kicked the blond boy under the table, "...hey! Look at me, not some stupid first year!"
"I'm not looking at... hey, you can't catch me out that easil... oww!"
"Aha! You have something to hide, then!
"Would you mind?" the fat boy sitting next to Guiche drawled, as the blond fliched. "You're making the table rock."
"Yeah, you two, cut it out. We wouldn't want Malicorne to miss his meals, would be?" Charles Alexandre de Calonne said, with a shrug, before he frowned, steepling his fingers. "Anyway, use your heads. She can't be an inexprimé, because we're all quite..." he coughed, "... aware of her faculty for blowing things up." He tapped his fingers on the table. "Now, consider something else. Who... or, should I say, what else are destructive, don't have familiars, and don't use magic the normal, proper, righteous way?"
"... dragons?"
{0}
Louise was, at that point, contemplating the virtues of forks, and their possible use as a brain-stabbing tool. She was uncertain if her targets were going to be everyone who was talking about her disappearance and reappearance, or her own brain to shut up its unwelcome passenger, but, Founder damn it, someone was going to get a fork through the eyesocket.
"Ooh! Ooh! Try some of the grapes next! I love grapes! I don't suppose you have any lacunae here, do you? I can't see any on the table. Have you tried asking the serving staff for some... oh, hello there. Fair lady, might I recommend that you add that butler to your harem... oh, wait, I was meant to recommend that you get a harem first, wasn't I? Get a harem."
The odds were leaning towards 'her own brain'.
'Listen,' she thought furiously. 'If you don't shut up about... about s-sex and stuff, I'm not going to eat.'
There was a mental silence. "I'll be good," Marisalon eventually replied.
'Liar. You're in my head. I can feel when you lie, neomah.'
"Well, I'll try. If you'll eat some of those grapes, that is."
Louise gave in. It seemed for the best.
Someone cleared their throat behind her.
"What is it, Kejak?" she said, without thinking, sitting back on her throne, and waiting for yet another tedious report from the Convention of Destiny. Honestly, they did go on. She could probably cut one of their reports in half, with no loss in the actual content.
"Um. Miss Vallière, it's me. Professor Colbert," said the balding man.
"Oh." The girl blinked, once, twice, a hand going to her head. "Urgh."
"Are you feeling all right?" There seemed to be honest, genuine concern in the man's voice.
"Tell him you're fine, and you just have a headache," Marisalon said, any levity gone.
She forced herself to smile. "Just a bit of a headache," she 'admitted'. "I am fine."
"Are you sure? Because, you know, you should go to the infirmary if you feel wrong, at all," Colbert told her. "We're not sure why..." he looked at the other students who weren't even trying that hard to conceal that they were listening in, "... why you were ill, or if there are any long term consequences, and... well, if you feel unusual at all, you shouldn't keep it hidden."
The girl stared up at him, and he suppressed a shudder. He hadn't slept more than a few hours last night, because he had been up late in the restricted areas of the library. Fenrir's library may have been only for the teachers, but there were still holes in it, still gaps. Luckily, the headmaster's secretary had volunteered to aid him, and she had been useful; she had helped him make a proper catalogue of all the books which had traces of the proto-runic script.
Which had been remarkably many. Just traces most of the time, small excerpts from texts which were old when they had been written, or in a number of cases, as notes about a now-unknown language, but sometimes there were more. Texts from the East, books on old architecture... it was fascinating. Colbert was beginning to realise how little he had paid attention to old history when he had been at school himself.
He shook his head, and returned his attention to the girl who had prompted this.
Her eyes gleamed green in the light.
Colbert flinched slightly, and his hand twitched, reaching for his wand. That instinct was suppressed. That was silly. It... it had only been a trick of the light. He hadn't been getting enough sleep, and he had been thinking about the green runes and... yes, there was green glass in the stained glass window behind him, he realised, and... he took a breath.
"Miss Vallière," he began formally, "the Headmaster asked that I pass this letter to you. Open it in private."
"I see." The girl seemed to wince. "Is... um..."
"I would recommend that you study as hard as you can to maintain your academic record," Colbert added, his voice edged.
The pink-haired girl nodded. "I understand," she said, after a momentary pause.
{0}
Charles rolled his eyes, flicking his dark hair. "Yes, Malicorne. Louise is actually part-dragon. She might appear to be human, but she carries the blood of giant flying scaly lizards in her veins. Perhaps she is part... part rhyme-dragon. It makes perfect sense. That would, of course, explain her amazing prowess with the element of wind, her ability to fly, and, of course, her..."
"Actually, come to think of it, her mother is Karin of the Heavy Wind..."
"No! There are no such thing as people who are secretly part-dragon! Does not work that way!" the boy hissed, slamming his fist down into the table, and sending a fork pinwheeling through the air. There was a yell from somewhere behind him, and one of the maids collapsed in a pile of plates, a gash on the side of her
Silence held for a moment, as the students turned around to stare at the figure fallen among the shattered plates. Gazes were exchanged. And, as one, they turned back to their food, studiously.
"The point is," Charles said, stumbling on, "... um... where was I? Oh yes. You don't get people who are really dragons. She is..."
There was a tap on his shoulder, and he turned, to see a bespectacled, blue haired girl staring down at him. "Pass," she said, pointing at a pot of pâté.
He did so, and she departed.
"I really don't know what Tabitha's problem is," he remarked, eyes widening slightly as the girl somehow managed to empty the jar with a single scoop of a fork, and then fit it all into her mouth. "But where was I? Louise. She is likewise almost certainly not part-orc, part-ghost, part-spirit, pa..."
"Hey!" Montmorency interjected, eyes narrowed. "We de Montmorencys can trace our lineage back to a pact made between us and the water spirits, when my ancestors took one as a bride!"
"That's just mythology."
"It's true!"
"Yes, sure."
"You're pushing it, Charlie," Guiche said, leaning forwards. "I do so hope that you're not insinuating that Monmon is lying. Because that would be an affront to her honour. And such an affront to her is an affront to me, for she is my dearest love," he added, with a sideways glance at the girl. The smile on her face was enough.
"Then, Montmorency, I sincerely apologise," the dark-haired boy said. "But all of this is a diversion, because of an interruption. Several interruptions. Quite a few." He paused, taking a deep breath, looking around. "Could she have... elvish blood?" he asked, in a half-whisper.
Malicorne leant forwards, intently. "No way. Impossible. Her ears, for one," he said, with a sudden air of authority. "And elves aren't built like real people, at all. I mean, yes, they look more human than, say, an orc, but... have you ever seen an elf skeleton? "
There were shaken heads.
"Well, my father has one, in his study. He showed me the difference between it and a human one. It's... weird. It isn't quite like normal bone." He tilted his head. "Of course, the skull was sort of caved in, but even then... the eye sockets were too big. Compared to the human ones I saw."
"Well, there's no reason that someone with some distant elvish blood would have to have the ears," Charles argued. "She could just... just be a throwback, or something."
"This is getting silly," Guiche said. "For one, we're missing breakfast. For two..." he winced, "... do you really want to be the one throwing around allegations that the de Vallierés have elvish blood in them? I know for one that I don't."
"Oh. Yeah. No, that's... not a good thing to be saying."
Attention from thereon in was dedicated to their plates.
{0}
'He's powerful,' thought Louise, watching the balding man walk away. She knew it, she could feel it radiating off him, in the heat and fire she had almost tasted, roiling and hissing and bubbling.
"He's..." Marisalon's voice trailed away. "He's not what I thought. I... I could... I was sure that you were children of the devas of the traitor Gaia. Not that I have any personal dislike of them, of course; they have such... inventiveness. It's exquisite, sometimes, such passion, such..." There was a mental pleasurable shudder. "But although he is of fire, he is not of Hesiesh. What... what is that man?"
The neomah actually sounded scared, and Louise's mouth twitched up at the corners. That was good. It was far too... annoying and in-her-head for anything else to be a natural response. 'He's one of my teachers,' she thought back. 'He's... nicer than some of the others.'
"No, no, no." She could somehow feel the sensation of a head being shaken, within her own head. "Some child of an elemental, perhaps?
'What on earth are you talking about?"
"Well, he certainly keeps himself in shape," the neomah added, but that comment seemed almost reflexive, as if its mind was elsewhere.
"What do you mean by that?" she said, and realised that she'd said that out loud.
"Nothing, Zero," one of the girls said, glaring at her. "I wasn't talking to you. Although," she added, "... come on, tell all. Where have you been for the last week, come on?"
Louise twitched. "It doesn't matter," she blurted out, trying to keep an expression befitting of a Vallière steady. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with her napkin, to cover her mouth, and checked the plate before her. Somehow, she had managed to eat considerably more than she normally would. She frowned at that, which broke her glare, and resolved that she would have to be more careful about bribing Marisalon with food.
"You know, with humans, weight put on often goes straight to the breasts," the neomah remarked, hastily, with an utterly transparent attempt at innocuousness. "And if you don't want to get bigger breasts because you put on weight, you can just eat things like lovely, juicy, succulent grapes, which hardly mean that you'll put on grapes... I mean, weight."
Louise stood, and tucked her chair in.
"Come on. At least take something with you back to your room. Pleee~eease!"
{0}
"No, really, come on! There are grapes and pears and..."
"If you nag me, you don't get food. And I can hold out without it longer than you," Louise muttered to herself, as she strode down the stone corridors of the school building, back to her room. There was a "getting to know your familiar" lesson next, so it wasn't like she needed to do that, was it?
"Starvation... you monster!
{0}
Wax cracked, as, sitting at her desk, the pink haired girl broke the seal on the letter, and carefully unfolded it.
She reached the end.
Her expression rigid, Louise stood up, placed the letter down on her desk, and stepped towards the wall.
Then she headbutted the wall as hard as she could. The plaster cracked.
"Why would you do something like that, fair lady?"
"Shut." Louise was panting, a wet trickle of hot blood rolling down her forehead. "Up."
"I am sorry, my lady, but..."
"No. No. More." She shook her head, and reached up, to wipe at the blood. "I... I just... I..." she let out a shuddering breath. "No. Just... shut it. You... you say you were a... a courtesan, yes? And certainly dressed like it. Why are you so annoying!"
There was a silence. Then "Well, I think the answer is obvious," Marisalon said, its voice sounding slightly hurt. "It's not as if all of them were interested in talking at all. Although, of course, that's not quite true. Why, my beloved mistress, Cynis Saliza loved to listen to me talk about the affairs of the City, and my services to the denizens of that mighty places. She found my tales inspiring and arousing alike, and it was due to these that she began to experiment with teodozjia and demjen, which she found most plea..."
There was another smash, as Louise headbutted the wall again, giving the first dent a twin. "Perverted head-thing!" she yelled. "Oh, Founder! Why! Why couldn't I not summon a... a stupid, perverted head... head..."
"Neomah."
"Shut. Up. Just... just get out of my head! Go be a proper familiar for me! Be a proper familiar so I don't have to face the fact that I'm going to be the subject of a tribunal to see if I'm an inexprimé! You know what this means! If... if I'd just got a proper one, this wouldn't be a problem! If you hadn't glued yourself into my skull, then I could have showed them you, and you could... you could be a familiar, and humiliate Kirche by having bigger breasts than the bloated melons she has glued to her front and... and I wouldn't have to be the subject of a tribunal! So just... get out of me!"
The last words were shouted.
"My lady." The voice was suddenly penitent-sounding, though Louise had her doubts as to how genuine such emotions were. "I cannot. I am of you, now. And," here it suddenly took on a slightly sullen note, "you are talking to yourself."
"Oh, I wonder why?"
No response.
The girl let her head fall. "Great," she muttered to herself. "Just... great. Why couldn't I just get a normal familiar, and normal magic, and normal... normalness? Why do I have to have this... thisness? Why is the world so... unfair!"
"Because it is broken," Marisalon said, its voice serious. "You know this. You have seen it, experienced it, felt it, and so you know it. You are a princess of the Green Sun, Chosen by the Emperor. You are a scion of the creators of the world, of the ones who carved the fabric of creation from the chaos of Beyond, and this power was granted to you to remedy the injustices of the world. You have been betrayed by the world. They were betrayed by the world." A pause. "You have this power. Use it. This is your chance, your reason to do whatever you wish."
Louise straightened up, her jawline set. "Yes," she said, simply. "I am not an inexprimé. I know this. Even before, I could make explosions. If they are going to try to kick me out because I didn't summon a proper familiar, they're going to have to find a better way than sticking that... that slander on me and my family, and, above that, implicate that my mother was unfaithful. I will not let this stand."
"Now you're talking!" exulted the neomah. "So, what will you do, fair lady? Take over the school! Hunt down the people who dare to sit in judgement in you, and show them what a mistake they have made! They shall serve you, or they shall perish! Let your beauty and magnificence shine like the Green Sun himself!"
"What?" Louise's eyes widened in shock. "No!"
"Even a little bit of subjugation? Possibly followed by enslaving them as your concubines?"
The girl ran her hands through her hair. "No," she said, rubbing one brass nail against her lips. "Urgh. No. Have you seen the Headmaster? Yuck. Ick." Louise blinked, anger in her voice. "I'm going to study. By the time the tribunal comes, I am going to be able to do enough to show them that I am not an inexprimé. Would an inexprimé be able to destroy things with green fire?"
"Um..."
"No, they would not. Therefore, I am going to find everything that I can do, and I will show them this. And their slander will be dismissed. I have 3 days. Today and tomorrow there are reduced lessons, because we are meant to be getting used to our familiars. Therefore, I am not going to waste time. At all."
Her nails sung into her palms, drawing blood.
"I am not going to fail this. I am not going to fail Mother in this way."
{0}
Bandage wrapped around her head, Siesta sat on her bed in the servants quarters, the oil-light guttering. The cut from the fork that one of the little noble brats had thrown had been shallow, but the infirmary had insisted on wrapping it. She suspected that it was just to cover the way that the thing that they'd put in the wound, which had stung like hell, stained the skin yellow. And they hadn't even given her any time to recover.
At least she wasn't being charged for the damaged plates.
She let her tired eyes sink shut, only to open them immediately. That green fire, that branded forehead... they haunted her. Such a thing... was terrifying. And she'd seen the girl, the... the... she'd seen her at breakfast, looking perfectly normal, with no one even watching her. What was this? Were the nobility all mad or something? Or just too full of themselves, too full with the impression that they were somehow the chosen of God and ruled everything to actually think that, oh, maybe someone appearing from a chrysalis of green fire and brass, like some maddened butterfly, wasn't a good thing?
She missed home, right now. She wanted to see her parents and the rest of her family, before... she wanted them here. And at least she had one of her letters for them, tucked into the cupboard where her uniforms were stored. On her next day off, she could give it to Jessica, and it could make its way back to Tarbes. It was a pity how little she could tell them, but she hoped it would be enough.
Folding her arms over herself, she shook her head. She could only hope that she slept better tonight than last night. Hope which she suspected was in vain.
Dear Mama and Papa,
I feel I must write to you, though it has only been a month since my last letter. I am well, and my employment remains gainful. I have remembered all that you told me, and my virtue remains intact. As you taught me, we must look shy, but we must also dissuade the men, and sometimes I wish that only a seventh of the legion of men and boys at this place could be as chivalrous as the tales tell us. I was a little ill recently, but I got better. I remember to say my prayers to the Lord and the Founder every day, that we may be redeemed from this world, though its sins and injustices be anathema to us all, so that we may not be forsaken.
I must sadly tell you that I cannot make my way home for St Marian's Day this year, for it is still in term time and the school will not grant me leave. In my place, therefore, please leave five blue flowers on Great-grandmother Mela's grave, in my place. I hope that we may all see fortune and happiness this coming year, and I, myself, wish that I will see you all again soon.
May the Founder bless you,
Your loyal daughter
Siesta
{0}
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Actually, VLE is just a coat of brass with glowing runes on it, it doesn't actually come with any clothing in and of itself, at least until Essence 4 anyway.Revlid said:
Jonen C
F.M.D.G.
- Location
- Lincopense, Ostrogothia, Suecia
My well honed Ninja sense is telling me that maid is more than she appears, and that there is indeed some specific significance to the contents of her letter home. Let us break it down.
Engage Spy to English translation.
...
I am probably over-analyzing this. But yeah. NINJA MAID is what my sensors are telling me.
Engage Spy to English translation.
There has been a development which needs to be brought to your attention immediately, and can not wait for the next regular report.
I do not appear to be in immediate danger, or at least no more so than usual.
I have not been compromised. Possibly, the first part of this sentence can also be interpreted as meaning that the message has something specifically to do with what she has been taught.
Seventh of the legion? Code senses tingling. Guessing that this is also code for "something has me seriously spooked and maintaining low profile". Furthermore "as the tales tell us" is a bit of an odd wording, possibly referencing something... Like the teachings of the founder of this particular order of ninjas.
This sentence is completely innocuous!
Key word: Anathema. Edit: Also, is the separation between the Lord and the Founder notable? Probably - Louise prays only to the Founder when eating, earlier in the same chapter.
Will not be able to submit a report in person without breaking cover.
Again, specifically "five blue flowers"? A call for back up if I ever read one.
And this is sentence does not need translating, it is written in the clear. Though with a wink in the eye.
Key word: Loyal.
...
I am probably over-analyzing this. But yeah. NINJA MAID is what my sensors are telling me.
She mention she was sick. Wasn't Louise 'sick'?
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
The interesting question would be "why would the Dragonblooded bother to conceal themselves from the mortals?"
Especially considering that, unlike Celestial Exalts, Dragonblooded grow more and more obviously inhuman/elemental as they grow in power.
--------------
Epsilon
Especially considering that, unlike Celestial Exalts, Dragonblooded grow more and more obviously inhuman/elemental as they grow in power.
--------------
Epsilon
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Because they're not supposed to be there?
Nobles in ZnTverse seem to not register as having the Elements of Creation, and there seems to have been considerable effort taken to dissuade everyone from thinking that they're anywhere but from their homeland. Dragon Blooded are sufficiently low-key in strength that they can't afford to openly start something with a society that has a signficant number of Functional Essence Users, especially if they're cut off from their support network (As seems logical in this setting).
Also, good catch Stormgear! I thought the 'Seventh of Legions' remark looked funny, but I never even noticed the 'Look Shy' bit, nice!
So, we've definitively established at that point that the big divergence here is 'The Portal Stuff is connected to Creation'. A small Seventh Legion field force wound up getting slurped up way back when, and they continue to gather information in hopes of returning to the motherland?
Who knows!
Nobles in ZnTverse seem to not register as having the Elements of Creation, and there seems to have been considerable effort taken to dissuade everyone from thinking that they're anywhere but from their homeland. Dragon Blooded are sufficiently low-key in strength that they can't afford to openly start something with a society that has a signficant number of Functional Essence Users, especially if they're cut off from their support network (As seems logical in this setting).
Also, good catch Stormgear! I thought the 'Seventh of Legions' remark looked funny, but I never even noticed the 'Look Shy' bit, nice!
So, we've definitively established at that point that the big divergence here is 'The Portal Stuff is connected to Creation'. A small Seventh Legion field force wound up getting slurped up way back when, and they continue to gather information in hopes of returning to the motherland?
Who knows!
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Lookshy is Fantasy Sparta mostly--they're camped out on top of one of the biggest First Age magitech caches left in Creation, and they have the second highest Dragon Blooded population of any single power in Creation--this makes them sufficiently badass that the Scarlet Empire has to treat them more-or-less as an equal, and they've got a pretty spectacular cold war running in the setting.
Their advantages (From a Celestial Standpoint anyway) are that they are less indoctrinated in the 'Kill anything that isn't a Dragon Blood on sight' routine then the Realm is (So they can be bargained with), and that they're relatively free of Bronze Faction Social engineering (Meaning that they don't have a millenium of propaganda keeping them from being reasoned with).
Their disadvantages are an isolationist bent, heavy elitism, and that they fight for their continued independence and influence tooth and nail, complete with a cache of heavy duty WMDs that they hold ready for a MAD situation if someone tries pulling something on them. Needless to say, they're popular with the playerbase.
Their advantages (From a Celestial Standpoint anyway) are that they are less indoctrinated in the 'Kill anything that isn't a Dragon Blood on sight' routine then the Realm is (So they can be bargained with), and that they're relatively free of Bronze Faction Social engineering (Meaning that they don't have a millenium of propaganda keeping them from being reasoned with).
Their disadvantages are an isolationist bent, heavy elitism, and that they fight for their continued independence and influence tooth and nail, complete with a cache of heavy duty WMDs that they hold ready for a MAD situation if someone tries pulling something on them. Needless to say, they're popular with the playerbase.