Bootstrapping (Multi-cross, Book 2 - Now in Naruto)
- Thread starter Tersin
- Start date
Book 1 - Power
- Location
- California
This hunger thing is now officially a problem.
The good news is that acquiring the Siren's beauty did exactly what I was hoping. I'm no longer a nine foot tall muscle bound behemoth. Now I'm a much more reasonable six foot three. Which is still more than a foot taller than I'm used to.
Ku's exercises for adapting to physical changes are going to get a real workout.
The rest of my appearance has enjoyed a similarly dramatic change. My raptor yellow eyes have turned to a beaten gold, though the slit pupils are unchanged. My hair has gone from a mousy auburnish brown, to a red so dark that it looks black in most light. My features haven't changed really, they've just been... refined? Polished? Okay, somehow the Siren's beauty has taken my thoroughly unimpressive features and made them beautiful without changing anything. Magic is the only explanation I can come up with.
I'm also ripped. I've always been in fantastic shape, but female bodies don't always show that well. Now I'm chiseled, I have a freaking six pack! It's awesome. And while I actually need a bra now, they still aren't big enough to get in my way. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfect.
Which is not to say everything is. It's been a week since Greece and I'm hungry constantly in spite of also eating constantly. The only time I'm not eating is when I'm asleep, and I wake up starving. I have a headache almost constantly, and that ache in my middle never goes away.
Worse, I'm slowly losing ground.
Fortunately, it's easy to determine what's wrong. I'm attempting to run a troll's strength and regeneration, a Siren's voice, plus whatever active effects their beauty comes with that changed my body this way, all of my previous animal based enhancements, and whatever I'd gotten from the Sidhe, on the energy a normal human body can produce via calories. Suffice it to say that I quite simply, physically, cannot eat enough to power my body.
Which means that I need a better power plant. The obvious answer would be to run down a stray devil and tear whatever they use to make magic out of them. I can probably pry the Script to make my own out of the analysis of the rook piece instead, but I have no idea how long that would take. I'm once again on a clock, this one just ends in days instead of years.
I end up discarding the idea of a devil core altogether because I have no idea if the next universe I land in will support magic. If wherever I find myself disallows magic, then I'm back to square one and starving again, at best. I probably won't have as many options to fix the problem, either.
So, no devil magic. Holy power and whatever Yokai use is out for the same reason. It's a problem with a lot of the sources of power available.
In fact, in the week that Cait, Pua, and myself have been searching everything we can lay our hands on, we only find one good answer.
Vampires.
Vampires are odd creatures from a magical perspective, and not just because they have a natural way of accomplishing what took the devils several millennia and an unparalleled genius to accomplish.
'Vampire', when not speaking to a layman, is the term for any creature that subsists on the life energy of other beings. Either because they no longer produce any of their own, or they have some additional passenger that requires more than they naturally have. The method of extracting said life energy is immaterial to the definition. Which is why hungry ghosts which feed via possession, hopping vampires which feed on breath, and the standard European variety which feed on blood, are all considered 'vampires'.
And then it gets interesting. Vampires, as it turns out, do not actually possess 'supernatural' strength or speed as a discreet ability. However, the life energy circulating through their bodies the way it does, passively enhances everything about them. Thus, the longer they live, the more life energy they saturate themselves with and can hold, the more they improve. It's also a process that doesn't ever stop. When muscles can no longer be improved, they naturally develop metaphysical systems that will allow them to use that life energy to continue to improve their strength, more like devils and other more normal supernatural entities do. Which is why the older a vampire is, the more powerful it inevitably becomes.
And then they get even better. Vampires also use this life energy system to fuel the widest variety of powers of any known supernatural species. I mean come on! Regeneration, strength, speed, enhanced senses, mesmerism, telekinesis, shape shifting, weather control, flesh shaping, there's even one vampire on record who can cause earthquakes at will. All of them running on the same energy source.
So, a supernatural system that will improve everything about me passively, if slowly, and fuel any powers I care to pick up. And the best part, if I end up in a universe that doesn't support life energy, I have bigger problems. So the life energy system will work anywhere I can. I even have ideas about Scripting up a weapon that would take the life energy of anything I kill with it, and feed the energy to me via my already present tattoos, to recharge me while I fought.
First I need a vampire though, and wouldn't you know it, I just happen to know where to find a lot of them. I doubt L.A. has changed that much in the last two years.
Sarah and I have an agreement that before I pop in from the transit Script, I'll call or text, and this is the important part, wait for a response before heading over. I only needed to surprise her once in the middle of... things once, before we agreed that it's something that needs to never happen again.
This time I text. I'm not sure she'll believe that I'm me unless she sees me using the Script that only I know how to use. My voice, much like my features, is still recognizably mine, just musical now. How can it still be my voice when it has tones and qualities that mine has never possessed...?
Magic, moving on.
I've packed the last two testing knives and enough clothes to last long enough for Sarah to take me shopping for more. She'd hurt me if I didn't let her help rebuild my wardrobe.
My phone dings. Checking it shows that Sarah is ready for me to head over. I shoulder my bag, wave to Cait, set my cell phone camera pointing at where I think Sarah will be, and activate the Script. It's a very new experience. The cut on my thumb heals almost before I can get my blood on the Script. My voice, now beautiful as I sing the Script, pulls energy through it faster than I've ever seen in an externally powered Script.
There's the bizarre sensation of being in two places at once, and then I'm in a dorm room.
"Ericka! I haven't heard from you in a month or... HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" Sarah starts greeting me from where she's working at her desk, and has started talking before she turns around. Her expression when she does turn to look at me is totally worth the beating I'll get for taking that picture, "No seriously what happened to you?" She stands from her chair, plants her fists on her hips and I have the unique experience of having Sarah glare up at me. Her five foot nine frame doesn't seem so towering any more.
Imagine that.
"First!" I hold up a finger, drop my bag, and take half a step to scoop Sarah up in my arms. When we were teenagers she had always hugged me like this. Picking me up and walking off with me, or just rocking me back and forth like a pendulum. I'd always told her I'd eventually be tall enough to do it to her.
She laughed at me.
Which is fair, there's no way I could have naturally grown this tall. However I've done it though, I have, and this needs to happen before anything else. Priorities, you know. I finally give in to her smacking me in the ribs and put her down.
"Now," Sarah primly sits herself down on her bed and waves me to the chair she'd been in, "tell me what the hell you've been doing to yourself. This is somewhat more extreme than cat's eyes and bat's ears," she says waving a hand at me.
I grab a power bar out of my bag, and in between bites I find myself recounting what the last few weeks have been like for me. I describe my encounter with the Sidhe who's name I never learned. I'm torn between tears and rage as I speak about him, tears for what almost happened, and rage for what had. I talk about the trolls, and the unforeseen results of absorbing the troll's strength. This has Sarah rubbing her nose and sighing in exasperation and waving me to continue. I tell her about my brawl with the Sirens and what I gained there. Finally, I tell her about how I've been getting hungrier and hungrier, how I'm slowly starving from all the things my body is trying to support, and my solution to it.
"Jesus fuck Ericka. You sat in Hawaii for two years, and I thought you were finally slowing down. Then you do this in... what? Three? Four weeks?"
I shrug, "Something like that."
"Are you trying to make up for lost time?" Sarah demands, exasperated.
"Well no... It's just... after the second troll, I was basically playing catch up. I couldn't really function in the world at nine feet tall. So I had to fix that, and now I'm going to starve to death while eating if I don't do something about that." I pause for a moment, then pull another power bar out of my bag and start in on it, "Like I said, always hungry."
Sarah stares at me for a moment, then slumps and sighs, "Fine. You're lucky I love you, you little menace."
I smirk at her, "Not so little anymore."
"That reminds me!" Sarah glares at me and surges to her feet sticking a finger in my face, "You scared the crap out of me when you showed up like this with no warning! And you took a picture! You better have a way to make it up to me," she leans in, eyes narrowed, "or you will suffer my wrath."
"I need to replace my entire wardrobe, and have a lot of the money I've saved since I was fifteen to do it with," I deadpan.
"Shopping spree on you? Even if it's also for you? Sold!"
Shopping is a lot of fun. Sarah is less pushy than she had been when we were younger, and I'm less self-conscious than I had been. Now that I actually look good, I'm more than willing to show it off. The only things that mar the day are my need to always have food, and the strange painful catching feeling I keep having. I have no idea what that is, but if the trend continues it's going to get worse until I do something about it.
One problem at a time, though.
Finishing our initial outing, somehow I end up in the guy's position carrying the bags, we head back to Sarah's dorm. Like we had when moving Sarah into her dorm, we get ready to go clubbing.
The last time we'd gone clubbing it had been a nightmare. Vampires were everywhere. I was terrified that one of them might take an interest in us, because at that point in time there had been nothing I could have done to even slow them down. There'd also been the issue that nobody wanted to dance with me, even people I wasn't attracted to. That was less dangerous, but far more damaging to my ego.
Now, as we enter the large warehouse club that had the highest vampire population the last time we were out, I'm immediately surrounded by guys, each of them trying to grab my attention, or dance against me or offer me a drink.
It is true what they say, you don't understand what you have until it's gone.
Seriously though, I'm detecting an unexpected problem with having supernatural beauty. I'm used to unexpected problems, unexpected problems are the story of my life. This one still feels different.
Maybe I can make a Script that has a mild aversion field to balance this...
Sarah yanks me out of the crowd and onto the dance floor. "Sorry I took so long, those assholes didn't want to get out of my way," she shouts and leans against my front to get closer to my ear to make sure she's heard over the music. Then she pokes me in the forehead, right on the tattoo over my third eye, "And no working. That was your magic scribbles face. None of that until you find a vampire."
I just smile at her and nod. I've never been good at dancing. After years of fighting, movement without purpose is something I just can't make myself do. Sarah, however, never had my issues despite having been fighting for as long as I have. I blame cheerleading. She works some magic that only she possesses, and somehow coaxes me into dancing with her. Though the catching, pulling pain in my body somewhere that keeps cropping up, certainly makes it harder for her.
I let Sarah lead as I keep watch on the people around us. Sarah's amulet has activated more than a dozen times since we entered the club, so I know that there are blood suckers in here somewhere. They're being subtle, though.
So, how to draw them out.
Some small voice in the back of my head insists that kissing Sarah would get everybody's attention. That, however, is the way one attracts boys, which is the opposite of what I want.
Vampires... Blood?
I don't think I'll keep a small cut long enough to bleed sufficiently. I'm not about to ask Sarah to shed blood. Aside from just not wanting to hurt her, I don't want to attract a vampire to her.
...But I don't need to get them to come to me, I just need them to stop blending in so well.
I lean forward to Sarah's ear, "Can you find an excuse to break somebody's nose?"
Sarah leans back to get a look at my face, so I can see the moment the penny drops and she figures out why I want her to assault somebody. A quick nod and she starts looking for a believable victim. Not that she has a shortage of choices. We're exclusively dancing with each other, which somehow doesn't translate to 'we're here with each other, leave us alone'. Instead the guys seem to think it means, 'convince us to dance with you instead'.
How that works, I don't know, but it does result in us being surrounded by a crowd of guys. Some of whom are getting increasingly handsy. It only takes a few moments for one of them to volunteer.
I can spot when she finds her target. She straightens up suddenly, her eyes widening. Then they narrow in fury. She spins on the ball of her foot to face the man behind her, who looks like he's won the lottery.
Instead of... whatever he's expecting, he gets a right cross to the face.
His nose explodes in blood, and he goes down like a felled tree, at least that's what it sounds like. I'm busy scanning the crowd. Most of the folks around me are recoiling in shock, or laughing and cheering. The scent of arousal also spikes, which confuses the hell out of me. But there's one guy who's head snaps around, nostrils flared.
And we have a winner.
The bouncers are on us almost immediately, more than a little pissed. However we're hot girls, and the guy was seen groping Sarah's ass by at least a dozen people. So the bouncers drag the guy off, glare the crowd of guys back a few feet, apologize for letting the asshole in, in the first place, and leave us to our dancing.
While Sarah placates the bouncers, I watch my suspected vampire. I watch where he goes, who he talks to, and perhaps most importantly, how he talks to them. The differences between a young vampire's 'you look like totally delicious prey' behavior, his 'you're my equal and I hate you for it' behavior, and his 'you are an older vampire than me, please don't kill me' behavior, is easy to spot after a little observation.
The first is depressingly similar to the way any desperate, partially drunk college guy behaves trying to get laid.
The second involves the veneer of comradery while the two seethe at each other.
The last involves a lot of submissive behaviors and groveling.
Watching various vampires interact with each other lets me map out who's who, with only an hour or so of observation. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any vampires too powerful here, so I don't need to worry about being ambushed by something I just can't fight. They also all seem to frequent something through a guarded door, probably a VIP room. I also see three different vampires take humans back through that door while I'm watching, so probably also a private place to feed.
Why can't they have done that in an alley where I can easily sneak up on them?
Still, that's evidently where I need to go, unless I want to chance shanking one of them in the middle of the club. Which sounds like just the worst idea.
"I've found what I'm looking for. I'm gonna try and do this quickly. If I can't, or get caught, I'll meet you back at your dorm room," I tell Sarah, pressing my mouth right up against her ear so she can hear me, without me having to shout anything incriminating. Sarah looks at me for a moment searchingly, but finally nods.
We separate, Sarah to go dance with a guy she's been eyeing and is free to pursue, now that she doesn't have to help keep the rest of the club off of me. Meanwhile, I try to sneak through the dancing crowd without attracting the attention of any opportunistic blood suckers, or vampires.
My sneaking mantra, I'm not here, I'm not here, runs through my head as I move through the dancing mass. I have a lot of people run into me during this, which combined with my insides catching against themselves has me nearly face planting into the floor. Still, I'm not here, I'm not here, I manage to make it across the floor without incident. I'm gasping for air by the time I get to the VIP door, my stomach feels like it's been stabbed, and it isn't stopping this time.
Apparently, two hours of dancing without eating anything is way more than my body is willing to put up with at this point. Why it suddenly gets worse now is an explanation that I don't have, but I have to work around it anyway. I'm not here, I'm not here.
I loiter by the door, trying to look like I'm just checking my cell phone as I wait for another vampire to open the door for me. I'm not here, I'm not here. The bouncer stationed next to the door kindly ignores my presence as we both wait for the next vampire to come by.
I'm not here, I'm not here. By the time one does, I'm nearly doubled over from the hunger pains. This can't go on much longer. My hands are beginning to shake, and my head is pounding. I'mnohere, I'mnothere. Finally though, the bouncer opens the door for an extraordinarily pale girl, about my original size, supporting a muscled guy at least twice her size, without apparent effort.
The girl vampire carries her dinner through the door and I sneak in behind them. I'mnothereI'mnothere. I'm gasping for air, sweat pours down my face and my hands won't stop trembling. My headache is so bad I'm seeing double. Still, I manage to draw one of my knives from where I have them hidden in my club gear, which is hard but possible, if uncomfortable, and move on vampire girl.
I wrap an arm around her neck, pulling her off her feet and causing her to drop her man-snack. Before she can catch up to what's happening, I drive the knife into her back between her ribs and into her heart.
She jerks once, and the Script lights.
I feel better almost immediately, my body altering itself again as a number of what feel like threads uncoil from my heart and spread throughout my body. There aren't very many of whatever they are, but they're enough that my trembling and headache start fading almost immediately.
I let out a sigh of relief and relax. I'm still hungry, but not nearly so cripplingly as I have been. Vampire girl slides from my slackened grip and hits the floor with a thud, next to her attempted juice box. She doesn't turn to dust or burst into flame... this could be awkward. In my desperation I haven't really been paying attention to the hallway I'm in. It hadn't seemed important next to imminent starvation.
"How many times have we been told to not feed in the hallway... Oh shit." Which is why I only notice then how effective the sound proofing on the door behind me is. Or that there are numerous other doors in this hallway, one of which has just opened. Out of it comes one of the guys I pegged as a vampire earlier. He takes in the living and dead bodies at my feet, the bloody knife in my hand, and comes to an obvious and accurate conclusion, "Hunter bitch!"
Okay, not entirely accurate.
Well, that shout no doubt warned every other vampire in here that something is up. I'll have to worry about that later, though, because he's lunging at me, his fingers stretched out before him having turned to claws.
I plant a hand in his chest to stop his charge, but he manages to sink his claws into my shoulders and starts pulling himself forward. I just barely can't stop him with one arm, his exposed fangs slowly inching closer to my neck. That I'm just stronger than a fledgling vampire is good information to have, but not really what I want to experiment with right now.
I stab this vampire in the armpit, knife angled to pierce his heart. He doesn't even try to defend himself, too focused on biting me to see what I'm doing, and the Script lights again. What I'd stolen from the first vampire... improves in some way. It stretches to more places, covers more of my body, and just feels... like more than it had before.
I'll have to think about it later, because other doors are opening in front of me, and even more that I can't see. Vampires emerge in ones or twos, and like the one that had come before them, come to mostly accurate conclusions.
I try to turn to run the moment the vampire drops, but my insides catch against each other again, harder, more painful this time. I nearly go crashing to the floor, but catch myself. Another attempt gets me two steps before it happens again.
Apparently, running isn't an option.
I focus on the dozen or so vampires visible in the hallway, analyzing what I'm up against. They're snarling and showing their fangs and inching forward, slightly hesitant from the two already dead on the floor. It's a narrow hallway, they won't be able to come at me more than two at a time, and will probably get in each other's way if they do. They all have the same stance as well, feet parallel to each other, leaning forward, hands spread like they're going to try and tackle me, with fingers spreading and curling into claws. In essence, nothing that indicates even a bit of competence in fighting hand to hand. They probably rely on their strength and speed to take on humans.
I have them beat in strength, if only just. They probably still have me beat in speed, and even if they don't, I can't move that much without feeling like there's a fish hook in my guts. So I'll need to beat and kill a dozen or so vampires while moving as little as possible. At least the wounds in my shoulders have healed in record time, and my headache and trembling have stopped completely.
The first lunges for me, thrusting a clawed hand at my head. I slide my front foot forward and out, taking myself off of the line of his thrust. At the same time I lift my knife enough for the vampire's own charge to drive the blade into his heart.
The Script triggers again, more improvements of my new vampire... circulatory system? Sure, I'll go with that.
The next lunges for my waist and gets stabbed in the heart through his back for his troubles.
Another Script trigger.
The next comes with a friend. I move to put them in each other's way, but find that even that much movement triggers the catch and pull of my internals. The one in the lead has to be suffering from some sort of blood frenzy because he lunges teeth first at my neck. I slap him off course with my off hand and into a headlock. My knife arm wraps around his neck and drives the blade up into his chest.
The Script lights.
The second takes advantage of the free shot at my ribs that my planned movement would have prevented. Troll bones save anything from breaking, but they sure as hell bruise. I drop the vampire corpse that I still have in the headlock, letting it slide off the knife. Pivoting on the balls of my feet, I slap the second vampire's follow up strike to the side. I grab his arm and pull him further off balance so he falls onto my knife.
The Script lights.
This is something of a disaster. The knife seems to be stuck on the first thing I had it steal, and now won't stop. Each activation steals from the victim, and adds to the vampire life energy system I now have. Each improvement spreads the vampiric energy system through my body more thoroughly, and the further it spreads the less movement it takes for my body to start catching on itself.
I can't just let them kill me though.
So a stab, and the Script lights.
A slash, the Script lights.
A lucky stagger, the Script lights.
All the while I take blows to my head and chest. Bites to my arms and shoulders. Slashes with claws to anything they can reach.
It keeps going until I can barely move at all, and there are only three of them left. The bravest of the three swaggers forward as I fight to keep myself upright without moving anything.
When he reaches me, ignoring the bodies and the blood on his way, he grabs my hair and tilts my head up to look at him, "Well. You were quite scary!" Condescending prick. I'd be less pissed at him over it if I thought he gave a shit about any of the vampires on the floor. "Not too smart though," says the man, monologuing, "attacking a coven all by yourself..." He shakes his head, clucking at me as if in disappointment. If this is a full coven, I'm the Easter Bunny. This is just an easy hunting ground for new vamps, I can tell by how I'm still alive. "Still, you did better than I would have thought you would. You know, I think I'll turn you." This vampire is way too smug, "You'll make a great toy." His grin turns savage, and he leans in towards my neck.
I can't move, that painful pulling feeling stopping me... Well, that isn't quite true. Nothing stops me from moving, I just don't because of the pain. Pain is a warning against doing something damaging. Usually, I never advocate ignoring that warning... Well no, as Sarah would say that's a dirty, dirty lie. I push myself through pain all the time in training, and regret it almost every time.
This time it seems like the lesser of two evils.
I can feel the hot breath on my neck, the points of sharp teeth teasing skin. I clench my jaw and jerk my arm upwards, the knife going in through his stomach and up. Something inside me, catches, pulls taut, then tears as I force myself to keep moving anyway. I scream in pain through gritted teeth. Something inside of me feels loose and burns with pain, though my regeneration is already starting to soothe the hurt.
The Script lights again.
The vampire only gasps once, then slides to the side, off my knife. I straighten slowly, I wish just for effect, but it's more because I can't move any faster. The two remaining vampires don't know that, though. They also don't know that, at the moment, a month old kitten can probably kick my ass. All they see is a human that had offed ten or eleven vampires, I wasn't keeping track, stand up, apparently ready to come after them.
They do what I hope for, and run.
No way that will come back to bite me later.
For the second time, Sarah has to collect me, barely moving and covered in blood, from an alley after a fight. She encouraged me to not let there be a third time. She gets progressively less snarky and irritated, and more worried as we make our way back to the dorm room, though. Her humor vanishes altogether when she has to half carry me up the stairs. I barely move until I'm dumped onto her bed, and even then I manage to tear two more things inside of myself going up the stairs.
"You're covered in blood, can you get to the shower?" Sarah asks, crouching next to me on the bed, one hand on my shoulder.
I try to shake my head, feel something in my neck catch and croak out, "No," instead. God, I hope I haven't crippled myself.
Sarah lets out a strange whining sound from somewhere in the back of her throat, "Did they get a piece of you?"
"Yeah," I carefully don't nod, "but that's not what this is. I don't know what this is, but it's a problem."
"I can't believe I'm doing this," she mutters, "I'm going to get these clothes off of you." I murmur a 'bow chicka bow wow' and get gently smacked upside the head for my troubles. "Shut up. If you're making jokes, you can't be that hurt."
She pulls off my shoes, then pants, and finally helps me sit up to peel the remains of my bloody shirt off. As soon as the scraps of shirt cloth are gone she stalls, "Oh my god." I tilt my head down and find my torso is a mass of ugly bruises that, for whatever reason, aren't fading like everything else has since I got my regeneration.
"Oh, that can't be good," I murmur, leaning back. Sarah takes the cue and lays me back down on the bed.
"Ericka," Sarah's voice is tight and high, "I'm freaking out here. What should I do?"
"No idea," I quip to cover the terror that's slowly growing in me.
"That's not helpful!" Sarah half shrieks.
"Right." If I breathe slowly nothing seems to catch, which is good because breathing is one of those things that I can't really do without. The inability to move is bad enough. "Get my phone, go to my contacts list, find Pua, then hold the phone so I can talk into it."
With something to do, Sarah scrambles, and moments later I have the phone pressed up against my ear. I lay very still with my eyes closed while the phone rings. Fortunately it doesn't take long.
"Aloha!" Pua's happy voice comes over the phone, "How is your hunting going, Ericka?"
"Both well and horribly," I rasp out.
The cheer is gone from her voice immediately, "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, that's what's wrong." And isn't that frustrating? I'm so ready for things to just work for a change, "I can't really move without injuring myself more. I have troll healing but my torso is a giant bruise that is only going away very slowly."
Pua makes an interested sound over the phone, "Did you get the vampire to power it? Could it not be working because you don't have the energy?"
"I got ten vampires, and I'm not hungry at the moment which is awesome, but this got worse the more vampires I killed. Pua, I can't move without tearing my insides apart, I..." I swallow, glancing up at Sarah, who's looking down at me, very worried. I'm about to make that so much worse. "I'm terrified I've broken myself," I whisper.
Sarah blanches and there's no reply from the phone for a moment, "Are you somewhere with one of your travel Script anchors?"
"Sarah's dorm room," I tell her and rattle off the 'address' in spoken Script.
"All right, we'll be there in a few minutes." Pua hangs up and I relax into Sarah's suddenly comfortable dorm bed.
"So?" Sarah asks, putting the phone away.
"Get the transit Script out. Help's coming." God, I'm tired. But I can't really sleep with all the adrenaline in my system.
God, I hope Pua can help.
The good news is that acquiring the Siren's beauty did exactly what I was hoping. I'm no longer a nine foot tall muscle bound behemoth. Now I'm a much more reasonable six foot three. Which is still more than a foot taller than I'm used to.
Ku's exercises for adapting to physical changes are going to get a real workout.
The rest of my appearance has enjoyed a similarly dramatic change. My raptor yellow eyes have turned to a beaten gold, though the slit pupils are unchanged. My hair has gone from a mousy auburnish brown, to a red so dark that it looks black in most light. My features haven't changed really, they've just been... refined? Polished? Okay, somehow the Siren's beauty has taken my thoroughly unimpressive features and made them beautiful without changing anything. Magic is the only explanation I can come up with.
I'm also ripped. I've always been in fantastic shape, but female bodies don't always show that well. Now I'm chiseled, I have a freaking six pack! It's awesome. And while I actually need a bra now, they still aren't big enough to get in my way. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfect.
Which is not to say everything is. It's been a week since Greece and I'm hungry constantly in spite of also eating constantly. The only time I'm not eating is when I'm asleep, and I wake up starving. I have a headache almost constantly, and that ache in my middle never goes away.
Worse, I'm slowly losing ground.
Fortunately, it's easy to determine what's wrong. I'm attempting to run a troll's strength and regeneration, a Siren's voice, plus whatever active effects their beauty comes with that changed my body this way, all of my previous animal based enhancements, and whatever I'd gotten from the Sidhe, on the energy a normal human body can produce via calories. Suffice it to say that I quite simply, physically, cannot eat enough to power my body.
Which means that I need a better power plant. The obvious answer would be to run down a stray devil and tear whatever they use to make magic out of them. I can probably pry the Script to make my own out of the analysis of the rook piece instead, but I have no idea how long that would take. I'm once again on a clock, this one just ends in days instead of years.
I end up discarding the idea of a devil core altogether because I have no idea if the next universe I land in will support magic. If wherever I find myself disallows magic, then I'm back to square one and starving again, at best. I probably won't have as many options to fix the problem, either.
So, no devil magic. Holy power and whatever Yokai use is out for the same reason. It's a problem with a lot of the sources of power available.
In fact, in the week that Cait, Pua, and myself have been searching everything we can lay our hands on, we only find one good answer.
Vampires.
Vampires are odd creatures from a magical perspective, and not just because they have a natural way of accomplishing what took the devils several millennia and an unparalleled genius to accomplish.
'Vampire', when not speaking to a layman, is the term for any creature that subsists on the life energy of other beings. Either because they no longer produce any of their own, or they have some additional passenger that requires more than they naturally have. The method of extracting said life energy is immaterial to the definition. Which is why hungry ghosts which feed via possession, hopping vampires which feed on breath, and the standard European variety which feed on blood, are all considered 'vampires'.
And then it gets interesting. Vampires, as it turns out, do not actually possess 'supernatural' strength or speed as a discreet ability. However, the life energy circulating through their bodies the way it does, passively enhances everything about them. Thus, the longer they live, the more life energy they saturate themselves with and can hold, the more they improve. It's also a process that doesn't ever stop. When muscles can no longer be improved, they naturally develop metaphysical systems that will allow them to use that life energy to continue to improve their strength, more like devils and other more normal supernatural entities do. Which is why the older a vampire is, the more powerful it inevitably becomes.
And then they get even better. Vampires also use this life energy system to fuel the widest variety of powers of any known supernatural species. I mean come on! Regeneration, strength, speed, enhanced senses, mesmerism, telekinesis, shape shifting, weather control, flesh shaping, there's even one vampire on record who can cause earthquakes at will. All of them running on the same energy source.
So, a supernatural system that will improve everything about me passively, if slowly, and fuel any powers I care to pick up. And the best part, if I end up in a universe that doesn't support life energy, I have bigger problems. So the life energy system will work anywhere I can. I even have ideas about Scripting up a weapon that would take the life energy of anything I kill with it, and feed the energy to me via my already present tattoos, to recharge me while I fought.
First I need a vampire though, and wouldn't you know it, I just happen to know where to find a lot of them. I doubt L.A. has changed that much in the last two years.
###
Sarah and I have an agreement that before I pop in from the transit Script, I'll call or text, and this is the important part, wait for a response before heading over. I only needed to surprise her once in the middle of... things once, before we agreed that it's something that needs to never happen again.
This time I text. I'm not sure she'll believe that I'm me unless she sees me using the Script that only I know how to use. My voice, much like my features, is still recognizably mine, just musical now. How can it still be my voice when it has tones and qualities that mine has never possessed...?
Magic, moving on.
I've packed the last two testing knives and enough clothes to last long enough for Sarah to take me shopping for more. She'd hurt me if I didn't let her help rebuild my wardrobe.
My phone dings. Checking it shows that Sarah is ready for me to head over. I shoulder my bag, wave to Cait, set my cell phone camera pointing at where I think Sarah will be, and activate the Script. It's a very new experience. The cut on my thumb heals almost before I can get my blood on the Script. My voice, now beautiful as I sing the Script, pulls energy through it faster than I've ever seen in an externally powered Script.
There's the bizarre sensation of being in two places at once, and then I'm in a dorm room.
"Ericka! I haven't heard from you in a month or... HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" Sarah starts greeting me from where she's working at her desk, and has started talking before she turns around. Her expression when she does turn to look at me is totally worth the beating I'll get for taking that picture, "No seriously what happened to you?" She stands from her chair, plants her fists on her hips and I have the unique experience of having Sarah glare up at me. Her five foot nine frame doesn't seem so towering any more.
Imagine that.
"First!" I hold up a finger, drop my bag, and take half a step to scoop Sarah up in my arms. When we were teenagers she had always hugged me like this. Picking me up and walking off with me, or just rocking me back and forth like a pendulum. I'd always told her I'd eventually be tall enough to do it to her.
She laughed at me.
Which is fair, there's no way I could have naturally grown this tall. However I've done it though, I have, and this needs to happen before anything else. Priorities, you know. I finally give in to her smacking me in the ribs and put her down.
"Now," Sarah primly sits herself down on her bed and waves me to the chair she'd been in, "tell me what the hell you've been doing to yourself. This is somewhat more extreme than cat's eyes and bat's ears," she says waving a hand at me.
I grab a power bar out of my bag, and in between bites I find myself recounting what the last few weeks have been like for me. I describe my encounter with the Sidhe who's name I never learned. I'm torn between tears and rage as I speak about him, tears for what almost happened, and rage for what had. I talk about the trolls, and the unforeseen results of absorbing the troll's strength. This has Sarah rubbing her nose and sighing in exasperation and waving me to continue. I tell her about my brawl with the Sirens and what I gained there. Finally, I tell her about how I've been getting hungrier and hungrier, how I'm slowly starving from all the things my body is trying to support, and my solution to it.
"Jesus fuck Ericka. You sat in Hawaii for two years, and I thought you were finally slowing down. Then you do this in... what? Three? Four weeks?"
I shrug, "Something like that."
"Are you trying to make up for lost time?" Sarah demands, exasperated.
"Well no... It's just... after the second troll, I was basically playing catch up. I couldn't really function in the world at nine feet tall. So I had to fix that, and now I'm going to starve to death while eating if I don't do something about that." I pause for a moment, then pull another power bar out of my bag and start in on it, "Like I said, always hungry."
Sarah stares at me for a moment, then slumps and sighs, "Fine. You're lucky I love you, you little menace."
I smirk at her, "Not so little anymore."
"That reminds me!" Sarah glares at me and surges to her feet sticking a finger in my face, "You scared the crap out of me when you showed up like this with no warning! And you took a picture! You better have a way to make it up to me," she leans in, eyes narrowed, "or you will suffer my wrath."
"I need to replace my entire wardrobe, and have a lot of the money I've saved since I was fifteen to do it with," I deadpan.
"Shopping spree on you? Even if it's also for you? Sold!"
###
Shopping is a lot of fun. Sarah is less pushy than she had been when we were younger, and I'm less self-conscious than I had been. Now that I actually look good, I'm more than willing to show it off. The only things that mar the day are my need to always have food, and the strange painful catching feeling I keep having. I have no idea what that is, but if the trend continues it's going to get worse until I do something about it.
One problem at a time, though.
Finishing our initial outing, somehow I end up in the guy's position carrying the bags, we head back to Sarah's dorm. Like we had when moving Sarah into her dorm, we get ready to go clubbing.
The last time we'd gone clubbing it had been a nightmare. Vampires were everywhere. I was terrified that one of them might take an interest in us, because at that point in time there had been nothing I could have done to even slow them down. There'd also been the issue that nobody wanted to dance with me, even people I wasn't attracted to. That was less dangerous, but far more damaging to my ego.
Now, as we enter the large warehouse club that had the highest vampire population the last time we were out, I'm immediately surrounded by guys, each of them trying to grab my attention, or dance against me or offer me a drink.
It is true what they say, you don't understand what you have until it's gone.
Seriously though, I'm detecting an unexpected problem with having supernatural beauty. I'm used to unexpected problems, unexpected problems are the story of my life. This one still feels different.
Maybe I can make a Script that has a mild aversion field to balance this...
Sarah yanks me out of the crowd and onto the dance floor. "Sorry I took so long, those assholes didn't want to get out of my way," she shouts and leans against my front to get closer to my ear to make sure she's heard over the music. Then she pokes me in the forehead, right on the tattoo over my third eye, "And no working. That was your magic scribbles face. None of that until you find a vampire."
I just smile at her and nod. I've never been good at dancing. After years of fighting, movement without purpose is something I just can't make myself do. Sarah, however, never had my issues despite having been fighting for as long as I have. I blame cheerleading. She works some magic that only she possesses, and somehow coaxes me into dancing with her. Though the catching, pulling pain in my body somewhere that keeps cropping up, certainly makes it harder for her.
I let Sarah lead as I keep watch on the people around us. Sarah's amulet has activated more than a dozen times since we entered the club, so I know that there are blood suckers in here somewhere. They're being subtle, though.
So, how to draw them out.
Some small voice in the back of my head insists that kissing Sarah would get everybody's attention. That, however, is the way one attracts boys, which is the opposite of what I want.
Vampires... Blood?
I don't think I'll keep a small cut long enough to bleed sufficiently. I'm not about to ask Sarah to shed blood. Aside from just not wanting to hurt her, I don't want to attract a vampire to her.
...But I don't need to get them to come to me, I just need them to stop blending in so well.
I lean forward to Sarah's ear, "Can you find an excuse to break somebody's nose?"
Sarah leans back to get a look at my face, so I can see the moment the penny drops and she figures out why I want her to assault somebody. A quick nod and she starts looking for a believable victim. Not that she has a shortage of choices. We're exclusively dancing with each other, which somehow doesn't translate to 'we're here with each other, leave us alone'. Instead the guys seem to think it means, 'convince us to dance with you instead'.
How that works, I don't know, but it does result in us being surrounded by a crowd of guys. Some of whom are getting increasingly handsy. It only takes a few moments for one of them to volunteer.
I can spot when she finds her target. She straightens up suddenly, her eyes widening. Then they narrow in fury. She spins on the ball of her foot to face the man behind her, who looks like he's won the lottery.
Instead of... whatever he's expecting, he gets a right cross to the face.
His nose explodes in blood, and he goes down like a felled tree, at least that's what it sounds like. I'm busy scanning the crowd. Most of the folks around me are recoiling in shock, or laughing and cheering. The scent of arousal also spikes, which confuses the hell out of me. But there's one guy who's head snaps around, nostrils flared.
And we have a winner.
The bouncers are on us almost immediately, more than a little pissed. However we're hot girls, and the guy was seen groping Sarah's ass by at least a dozen people. So the bouncers drag the guy off, glare the crowd of guys back a few feet, apologize for letting the asshole in, in the first place, and leave us to our dancing.
While Sarah placates the bouncers, I watch my suspected vampire. I watch where he goes, who he talks to, and perhaps most importantly, how he talks to them. The differences between a young vampire's 'you look like totally delicious prey' behavior, his 'you're my equal and I hate you for it' behavior, and his 'you are an older vampire than me, please don't kill me' behavior, is easy to spot after a little observation.
The first is depressingly similar to the way any desperate, partially drunk college guy behaves trying to get laid.
The second involves the veneer of comradery while the two seethe at each other.
The last involves a lot of submissive behaviors and groveling.
Watching various vampires interact with each other lets me map out who's who, with only an hour or so of observation. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any vampires too powerful here, so I don't need to worry about being ambushed by something I just can't fight. They also all seem to frequent something through a guarded door, probably a VIP room. I also see three different vampires take humans back through that door while I'm watching, so probably also a private place to feed.
Why can't they have done that in an alley where I can easily sneak up on them?
Still, that's evidently where I need to go, unless I want to chance shanking one of them in the middle of the club. Which sounds like just the worst idea.
"I've found what I'm looking for. I'm gonna try and do this quickly. If I can't, or get caught, I'll meet you back at your dorm room," I tell Sarah, pressing my mouth right up against her ear so she can hear me, without me having to shout anything incriminating. Sarah looks at me for a moment searchingly, but finally nods.
We separate, Sarah to go dance with a guy she's been eyeing and is free to pursue, now that she doesn't have to help keep the rest of the club off of me. Meanwhile, I try to sneak through the dancing crowd without attracting the attention of any opportunistic blood suckers, or vampires.
My sneaking mantra, I'm not here, I'm not here, runs through my head as I move through the dancing mass. I have a lot of people run into me during this, which combined with my insides catching against themselves has me nearly face planting into the floor. Still, I'm not here, I'm not here, I manage to make it across the floor without incident. I'm gasping for air by the time I get to the VIP door, my stomach feels like it's been stabbed, and it isn't stopping this time.
Apparently, two hours of dancing without eating anything is way more than my body is willing to put up with at this point. Why it suddenly gets worse now is an explanation that I don't have, but I have to work around it anyway. I'm not here, I'm not here.
I loiter by the door, trying to look like I'm just checking my cell phone as I wait for another vampire to open the door for me. I'm not here, I'm not here. The bouncer stationed next to the door kindly ignores my presence as we both wait for the next vampire to come by.
I'm not here, I'm not here. By the time one does, I'm nearly doubled over from the hunger pains. This can't go on much longer. My hands are beginning to shake, and my head is pounding. I'mnohere, I'mnothere. Finally though, the bouncer opens the door for an extraordinarily pale girl, about my original size, supporting a muscled guy at least twice her size, without apparent effort.
The girl vampire carries her dinner through the door and I sneak in behind them. I'mnothereI'mnothere. I'm gasping for air, sweat pours down my face and my hands won't stop trembling. My headache is so bad I'm seeing double. Still, I manage to draw one of my knives from where I have them hidden in my club gear, which is hard but possible, if uncomfortable, and move on vampire girl.
I wrap an arm around her neck, pulling her off her feet and causing her to drop her man-snack. Before she can catch up to what's happening, I drive the knife into her back between her ribs and into her heart.
She jerks once, and the Script lights.
I feel better almost immediately, my body altering itself again as a number of what feel like threads uncoil from my heart and spread throughout my body. There aren't very many of whatever they are, but they're enough that my trembling and headache start fading almost immediately.
I let out a sigh of relief and relax. I'm still hungry, but not nearly so cripplingly as I have been. Vampire girl slides from my slackened grip and hits the floor with a thud, next to her attempted juice box. She doesn't turn to dust or burst into flame... this could be awkward. In my desperation I haven't really been paying attention to the hallway I'm in. It hadn't seemed important next to imminent starvation.
"How many times have we been told to not feed in the hallway... Oh shit." Which is why I only notice then how effective the sound proofing on the door behind me is. Or that there are numerous other doors in this hallway, one of which has just opened. Out of it comes one of the guys I pegged as a vampire earlier. He takes in the living and dead bodies at my feet, the bloody knife in my hand, and comes to an obvious and accurate conclusion, "Hunter bitch!"
Okay, not entirely accurate.
Well, that shout no doubt warned every other vampire in here that something is up. I'll have to worry about that later, though, because he's lunging at me, his fingers stretched out before him having turned to claws.
I plant a hand in his chest to stop his charge, but he manages to sink his claws into my shoulders and starts pulling himself forward. I just barely can't stop him with one arm, his exposed fangs slowly inching closer to my neck. That I'm just stronger than a fledgling vampire is good information to have, but not really what I want to experiment with right now.
I stab this vampire in the armpit, knife angled to pierce his heart. He doesn't even try to defend himself, too focused on biting me to see what I'm doing, and the Script lights again. What I'd stolen from the first vampire... improves in some way. It stretches to more places, covers more of my body, and just feels... like more than it had before.
I'll have to think about it later, because other doors are opening in front of me, and even more that I can't see. Vampires emerge in ones or twos, and like the one that had come before them, come to mostly accurate conclusions.
I try to turn to run the moment the vampire drops, but my insides catch against each other again, harder, more painful this time. I nearly go crashing to the floor, but catch myself. Another attempt gets me two steps before it happens again.
Apparently, running isn't an option.
I focus on the dozen or so vampires visible in the hallway, analyzing what I'm up against. They're snarling and showing their fangs and inching forward, slightly hesitant from the two already dead on the floor. It's a narrow hallway, they won't be able to come at me more than two at a time, and will probably get in each other's way if they do. They all have the same stance as well, feet parallel to each other, leaning forward, hands spread like they're going to try and tackle me, with fingers spreading and curling into claws. In essence, nothing that indicates even a bit of competence in fighting hand to hand. They probably rely on their strength and speed to take on humans.
I have them beat in strength, if only just. They probably still have me beat in speed, and even if they don't, I can't move that much without feeling like there's a fish hook in my guts. So I'll need to beat and kill a dozen or so vampires while moving as little as possible. At least the wounds in my shoulders have healed in record time, and my headache and trembling have stopped completely.
The first lunges for me, thrusting a clawed hand at my head. I slide my front foot forward and out, taking myself off of the line of his thrust. At the same time I lift my knife enough for the vampire's own charge to drive the blade into his heart.
The Script triggers again, more improvements of my new vampire... circulatory system? Sure, I'll go with that.
The next lunges for my waist and gets stabbed in the heart through his back for his troubles.
Another Script trigger.
The next comes with a friend. I move to put them in each other's way, but find that even that much movement triggers the catch and pull of my internals. The one in the lead has to be suffering from some sort of blood frenzy because he lunges teeth first at my neck. I slap him off course with my off hand and into a headlock. My knife arm wraps around his neck and drives the blade up into his chest.
The Script lights.
The second takes advantage of the free shot at my ribs that my planned movement would have prevented. Troll bones save anything from breaking, but they sure as hell bruise. I drop the vampire corpse that I still have in the headlock, letting it slide off the knife. Pivoting on the balls of my feet, I slap the second vampire's follow up strike to the side. I grab his arm and pull him further off balance so he falls onto my knife.
The Script lights.
This is something of a disaster. The knife seems to be stuck on the first thing I had it steal, and now won't stop. Each activation steals from the victim, and adds to the vampire life energy system I now have. Each improvement spreads the vampiric energy system through my body more thoroughly, and the further it spreads the less movement it takes for my body to start catching on itself.
I can't just let them kill me though.
So a stab, and the Script lights.
A slash, the Script lights.
A lucky stagger, the Script lights.
All the while I take blows to my head and chest. Bites to my arms and shoulders. Slashes with claws to anything they can reach.
It keeps going until I can barely move at all, and there are only three of them left. The bravest of the three swaggers forward as I fight to keep myself upright without moving anything.
When he reaches me, ignoring the bodies and the blood on his way, he grabs my hair and tilts my head up to look at him, "Well. You were quite scary!" Condescending prick. I'd be less pissed at him over it if I thought he gave a shit about any of the vampires on the floor. "Not too smart though," says the man, monologuing, "attacking a coven all by yourself..." He shakes his head, clucking at me as if in disappointment. If this is a full coven, I'm the Easter Bunny. This is just an easy hunting ground for new vamps, I can tell by how I'm still alive. "Still, you did better than I would have thought you would. You know, I think I'll turn you." This vampire is way too smug, "You'll make a great toy." His grin turns savage, and he leans in towards my neck.
I can't move, that painful pulling feeling stopping me... Well, that isn't quite true. Nothing stops me from moving, I just don't because of the pain. Pain is a warning against doing something damaging. Usually, I never advocate ignoring that warning... Well no, as Sarah would say that's a dirty, dirty lie. I push myself through pain all the time in training, and regret it almost every time.
This time it seems like the lesser of two evils.
I can feel the hot breath on my neck, the points of sharp teeth teasing skin. I clench my jaw and jerk my arm upwards, the knife going in through his stomach and up. Something inside me, catches, pulls taut, then tears as I force myself to keep moving anyway. I scream in pain through gritted teeth. Something inside of me feels loose and burns with pain, though my regeneration is already starting to soothe the hurt.
The Script lights again.
The vampire only gasps once, then slides to the side, off my knife. I straighten slowly, I wish just for effect, but it's more because I can't move any faster. The two remaining vampires don't know that, though. They also don't know that, at the moment, a month old kitten can probably kick my ass. All they see is a human that had offed ten or eleven vampires, I wasn't keeping track, stand up, apparently ready to come after them.
They do what I hope for, and run.
No way that will come back to bite me later.
###
For the second time, Sarah has to collect me, barely moving and covered in blood, from an alley after a fight. She encouraged me to not let there be a third time. She gets progressively less snarky and irritated, and more worried as we make our way back to the dorm room, though. Her humor vanishes altogether when she has to half carry me up the stairs. I barely move until I'm dumped onto her bed, and even then I manage to tear two more things inside of myself going up the stairs.
"You're covered in blood, can you get to the shower?" Sarah asks, crouching next to me on the bed, one hand on my shoulder.
I try to shake my head, feel something in my neck catch and croak out, "No," instead. God, I hope I haven't crippled myself.
Sarah lets out a strange whining sound from somewhere in the back of her throat, "Did they get a piece of you?"
"Yeah," I carefully don't nod, "but that's not what this is. I don't know what this is, but it's a problem."
"I can't believe I'm doing this," she mutters, "I'm going to get these clothes off of you." I murmur a 'bow chicka bow wow' and get gently smacked upside the head for my troubles. "Shut up. If you're making jokes, you can't be that hurt."
She pulls off my shoes, then pants, and finally helps me sit up to peel the remains of my bloody shirt off. As soon as the scraps of shirt cloth are gone she stalls, "Oh my god." I tilt my head down and find my torso is a mass of ugly bruises that, for whatever reason, aren't fading like everything else has since I got my regeneration.
"Oh, that can't be good," I murmur, leaning back. Sarah takes the cue and lays me back down on the bed.
"Ericka," Sarah's voice is tight and high, "I'm freaking out here. What should I do?"
"No idea," I quip to cover the terror that's slowly growing in me.
"That's not helpful!" Sarah half shrieks.
"Right." If I breathe slowly nothing seems to catch, which is good because breathing is one of those things that I can't really do without. The inability to move is bad enough. "Get my phone, go to my contacts list, find Pua, then hold the phone so I can talk into it."
With something to do, Sarah scrambles, and moments later I have the phone pressed up against my ear. I lay very still with my eyes closed while the phone rings. Fortunately it doesn't take long.
"Aloha!" Pua's happy voice comes over the phone, "How is your hunting going, Ericka?"
"Both well and horribly," I rasp out.
The cheer is gone from her voice immediately, "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, that's what's wrong." And isn't that frustrating? I'm so ready for things to just work for a change, "I can't really move without injuring myself more. I have troll healing but my torso is a giant bruise that is only going away very slowly."
Pua makes an interested sound over the phone, "Did you get the vampire to power it? Could it not be working because you don't have the energy?"
"I got ten vampires, and I'm not hungry at the moment which is awesome, but this got worse the more vampires I killed. Pua, I can't move without tearing my insides apart, I..." I swallow, glancing up at Sarah, who's looking down at me, very worried. I'm about to make that so much worse. "I'm terrified I've broken myself," I whisper.
Sarah blanches and there's no reply from the phone for a moment, "Are you somewhere with one of your travel Script anchors?"
"Sarah's dorm room," I tell her and rattle off the 'address' in spoken Script.
"All right, we'll be there in a few minutes." Pua hangs up and I relax into Sarah's suddenly comfortable dorm bed.
"So?" Sarah asks, putting the phone away.
"Get the transit Script out. Help's coming." God, I'm tired. But I can't really sleep with all the adrenaline in my system.
God, I hope Pua can help.
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pingas plight
-Most cunning scientific fuck-up in all of Mobius
now i dont have to go on my phone if i want to read this
Book 1 - Sacrifice
- Location
- California
I wake up somewhere very much not L.A.. The air is warm and wet, a breeze blows gently through the room, and an odd chirping noise fills the air. It sounds familiar but I can't quite place it.
I open my eyes and immediately clench them shut again. Warm golden sunlight fills the room that's at least fifty percent windows. Where the fuck am I? The universe declines to answer.
I'm not going to get any answers by laying around so I push myself up, and immediately collapse back down with a scream. The last night comes rushing back about the same time Pua and Sarah come rushing into the room.
Oh. I'm back in Hawaii and the chirping is the house gecko chorus.
"What happened? What's wrong?" Sarah sounds a little frantic.
Pua on the other hand merely walks to the bed, checks me over, then smacks me on the shoulder, "Why were you trying to get up?"
I don't shrug, though I want to, "I was still waking up and couldn't figure out where I was. Figured the only way to get answers was to go looking for them."
"So you tried to sit up." Pua finishes for me.
"So I tried to sit up." I agree. Sarah, looking far less concerned now gets in on the action and smacks me as well, "Given how fucked up I appear to be should you two be hitting me like that?" Pua sighs and pulls up a chair while Sarah sits on the edge of my bed, "Well this doesn't look good."
"There's nothing wrong with you physically." Pua starts.
"The tearing pain whenever I try to move would indicate otherwise." I can't help myself. It get a grin out of Sarah and rolled eyes from Pua so mission accomplished.
"Other than when you fuck yourself up, there's nothing wrong with you physically. The problem is that you've been stuffing a lot of things into your soul that aren't supposed to be there, and neither of us considered that just randomly adding things might create conflict." Pua leans forward, setting her elbows on her knees, "Every time you add something it's like you're throwing a string into a box. With one string it isn't a problem, with two you're probably still okay. The more you add though, the more tangled everything gets. Until eventually everything is tangled with everything else. So when you do something, which would be pulling on one of the strings, everything else gets pulled as well. This is reflected in your body as things moving in ways and directions that they shouldn't, leading to tearing when you get insistent."
That... makes a kind of sense. When building a laptop making everything fit is a rather major part of designing it. What I've done is the equivalent of wiring everything together and trying to stuff it all in the case just hoping that it'll fit. So then, "What do we do about it? I'm effectively crippled right now, which I'd like to fix."
Pua groans, "The 'simplest'," She actually makes the finger quotes, "answer would be to craft a ritual compatible with what you've already done to make sure everything integrates better in the future... and a temporal aspect to fix this in a way that will also address what you've already done to yourself. As if all of that isn't enough, you've saturated yourself in the concept of 'sacrifice', both yours and others, that the ritual will pretty much have to be sacrificial in nature to integrate smoothly. So we need to figure out what to sacrifice, and exactly we're asking for." The Kahuna scrubs her face with her hands, "It'll have to be one hell of a sacrifice too. On the order of a few hundred people at least."
"What!" Sarah shrieks, making me flinch slightly, and regret it the second I do, "No! Killing one rapist and a bunch of monsters is one thing. I didn't like it but I understood the necessity after nothing else worked. I am not letting her become a mass murderer. That's not something that you can come back from!" Sarah is incensed, and not really exercising restraint as she vents herself on Pua.
For her part Pua takes the tirade in stride, "I'm not saying that she should, just giving that as an example of the degree of sacrifice that will be necessary."
"What the hell else is worth as much as a few hundred people?" Sarah demands. It's a fair question. All that potential, all those futures and histories, where else do you find that sort of thing?
"Self sacrifice generates more than the sacrifice of others, so it would theoretically take less..." Pua tries but Sarah isn't really listening any more.
"She's not killing herself either!"
"Sacrifice does not necessarily mean death." Pua is getting frustrated now, though she is sitting on it well. Do I have anything I could give up that's even worth even a dozen lives? Never mind the hundreds to make even the least version of this ritual work? I look down at my hands resting on my abdomen. An idea tickles at the back of my mind, just out of reach, maybe... My stomach grumbles and I flinch slightly, losing my train of thought.
Oh well, food is probably a good idea. If it's good, the idea will come back to me.
"Hey." I call trying to get their attention.
They don't appear to hear me though, "Oh what else could it be? That seems to be the only thing you people care about, death and power!" Oh, she's going to regret saying that when she's thinking clearly again.
"Hey!" I try louder, but Sarah has gotten her wish and finally cracked Pua's calm.
"Do not put me and Ericka in the same category as..."
"HEY!" Everybody snaps around to look at me, looking even more pissed than they had before I interrupted them. That vanishes when my stomach rumbles again. I also feel... empty in an odd way that I don't like, and haven't felt before.
"Right." Pua stands dusting off her sarong, "I'll get something for you to eat." She turns and strides out of the room, her back stiff with residual irritation.
I look up at Sarah, who seems ashamed of her outburst now that she isn't caught up in the moment. She lets out a sigh and sits back down on the bed, "How are you feeling?"
I restrain from shrugging, "As long as I don't move, or breath too hard, fine. If I do either of those I feel like I'm being torn in half."
Sarah winces slightly, "What do you think about this ritual that Pua wants to do." I take a moment to think about how to answer that. Apparently that moment is too long for Sarah though, "You're not actually going to kill a few hundred people are you?"
That... actually hurts, "What? Of course not! You don't really think that I...?"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Sarah curls up slightly and puts her face in her hands, "This whole thing is just freaking me out. It's just... You killed what, ten? Eleven, people?"
"Vampires. Their personhood is debatable."
"It's that debate that worries me." Sarah says quietly, "If it's a matter for debate, what else will you be able to talk yourself into? You've changed so much in just the last few months, never mind since you were that five year old girl that bounced into my jujitsu class. I can't help but wonder what else has changed?"
Before I can really generate a reply she stands and heads for the door. Sarah pauses, her hand on the doorknob but doesn't turn back to me when she speaks, "I'm glad that the idea of mass sacrifice still upsets you. I just... I liked that little girl that thought that gymnastics was the best idea ever. Don't lose her." She jerks the door open and slams it so hard behind her that it doesn't latch and bounces back open, letting me see her rushing down the hallway.
I... really don't know what to say to that.
When Pua comes back in she's carrying a cup and looking a bit concerned, "Sarah just went running past me looking like she was in tears. Is everything alright?"
I flinch slightly at the idea that I've somehow reduced Sarah to crying. Again. "I... don't really know." I admit, "The idea of us killing a few hundred people for this ritual really bothers her." After a moment I keep going, "The idea that she thinks I might actually do that bothers me."
Pua sighs and sets the cup on the bedside table and helps me sit up. And by help I mean that she warns me not to put any effort into moving myself and lifts me into a sitting position. She's stronger than I would have believed for such a tiny person, even having been a tiny person until very recently.
Once I'm upright-ish, she picks up the cup again, sits on my bed, and puts it to my lips, "Sip this. It'll feel odd right at first." I do as she instructs and the liquid, whatever it is, not only fills my stomach but that empty feeling I have as well. I quirk an eyebrow over the rim of the cup at her as I continue to sip. Pua smiles at me, "It's life energy distilled into a liquid along with protein, vitamins, and all the calories you need. A meal in a cup essentially."
"Where did you get the life energy?" I ask between sips, "Chickens?" I smirk at her.
"Of course. I love Hawaii, killing chickens is my civic duty." The now smaller woman smiles and sets the cup aside and puts on what I think of as her 'therapist face', "You do know that you adapted to the supernatural unusually quickly right? Even taking into account your unusual maturity, given your reincarnation, and your fore knowledge about what you were getting into, you accepted the more violent nature of our world with remarkable ease. Most people would have problems with that, much like Sarah is. Give her time, she'll adjust with more understanding and the time to actually think about things."
"What about me then?" I hate how small my voice sounds.
Pua raises an eyebrow, "What about you? You're doing fine. Just remember where your lines are. And make sure they are your lines. Things not natural to yourself will be much harder to keep to. Just make sure that you are happy with yourself. Everything else should be secondary."
I nod slowly mulling that over. I don't know what my lines should be, I've been so busy trying to get basic survivability that I haven't given much thought to the abstract. Maybe now, so close to attaining my first goals, I should?
"You don't have to work it all out right now." Pua says, breaking me out of my thoughts, "You have time, and it isn't something that should be rushed. Get some sleep for now, you're still healing."
I nod, Pua always gives good advice. And sleep does sound pretty good.
Yeah, everything else can wait until tomorrow.
Pua shows up minutes after I wake with another cup of tasty tasty chicken life. Once I've finished she gives me a checkup, "Well good news, your bruising is finally fading, which means your regeneration is finally catching up with the mess your insides turned into. How are you feeling?"
"I'm... Pretty much the same, I don't move, everything is fine. I'm getting really tired of not moving though. I don't think I've held still this long ever, and it's driving me nuts."
"I'm not surprised." Pua says with a small smile. Outside the door I can hear a familiar set of footsteps and Sarah's scent grows stronger, "So on that note, any thoughts about how to approach the ritual I proposed? Or any other ideas? I'll take those too."
Sarah stops outside the door, her breath catching as she gets within normal earshot, "Well... I start out slowly. As I understand this from what little you said about more abstract sacrificial rituals last time I was here, the more connected things are the better the ritual will work. We could burn a hundred dryad trees and use that as a sacrifice to make a bunch of gold or something. That sacrifice would work better if we used it to revitalize a field that had been sowed with salt though. Right?"
Pua nods, "I've never heard of a gold making ritual, that's usually more of an alchemy thing, but you have the basics."
"So wouldn't a large part of picking a sacrifice be knowing what we're trying to accomplish?" Sarah is still listening in, but given her earlier fears I'm inclined to let her, "Aside from fixing me I mean."
"Well... What you need is a way for everything you take in the future to settle as well as possible. As though they were natural to you. Luck?" Pua offers.
I grimace, "I'd rather not rely on luck. No matter how good, luck always runs out." How would I describe what I want if I were writing it in Script? There has to be a way for everything I've collected and more to fit. Plenty of critters have more powers than I do coexisting in the same soul and body, so it's possible. It just hasn't... fallen out that way for me. Is that what I need? To have what I take always settle the right way?
I can describe it better.
Probabilities?
No, that sounds too much like luck.
God, this is going to be frustrating. And if Pua does the ritual with local magic, how would it hold up between worlds? I guess it's always possible that I'll only go to worlds where magic is a thing, but I'd rather not depend on that...
Maybe that's the answer. Many worlds, an infinite number of possible futures, ways things could be. One of which is the way everything fits together perfectly in my soul. I just need to guarantee that I always get that one.
So I need to sacrifice many possible futures to let me always get the best one, and we're back to lots of human sacrifices. We could use animals or something, but futures of similar magnitude would be needed to get any kind of usable result. Where can I get that many human scale possibilities that wouldn't turn me into the mass murderer Sarah is afraid I'll become?
I look at my hands again, still folded on my stomach.
That... is an idea. One that initially seems like a great idea, which makes me cautious. To buy myself time to think I explain my idea for what to ask for to Pua.
The clever Kahuna narrows her eyes at me in suspicion. No doubt she can tell that there's something else on my mind that I'm not bringing up just yet, but she lets it be and considers what I said.
"It should work for what we want... But you'll need one hell of a trade." Pua points out and flicks her eyes at the door behind which Sarah is still hiding and listening.
Of course Pua knows she's there too.
I sigh, there's no real reason to hold back the idea, I just...
I'd have shaken my head to clear it, if that wouldn't have probably broken my neck or something... All I'm doing is stalling, "My ability to have children."
There's silence. Sarah speaks first, destroying whatever cover she might have thought she had, "What?"
Pu and I stare at the door at the outburst. There's silence for several moments, then the door to the room creaks open showing a slightly red faced Sarah. She takes in both my and Pua's unsurprised faces and huffs, "You both knew I was there, didn't you?"
"Bloodhound's sense of smell and bat's hearing." I point out.
At the same time Pua says, "Kahuna." Like somebody else might have said 'pirate'.
...Has that movie come out yet? I really haven't been paying attention to popular culture.
Sarah rolls her eyes, and plants her fists on her hips, "Very funny. Now explain."
"I sacrifice my ability to have children, all the potential lives and futures I could make. In return I get the best possible potential future every time for the integration of all future traits." I glance at Pua to see if she thinks this will work. I hope it does, but there's still some hesitation in me. I've never wanted kids, don't like most of them, but there is some small part of me that hopes the sacrifice won't be valid, so I won't have to go through with it.
Probably a good thing really, would make it a better sacrifice.
That doesn't make me feel any better about it though, which I suppose is the point.
Pua nods slowly, "'Potential lives and futures' would be better. That is certainly a great sacrifice... and a narrow enough gain to produce some spectacular results with that much given."
"Ericka, are you sure you want to give that up?" Sarah's looking a little shell shocked, and a lot worried, "It's possible to have kids without a guy involved with modern science, probably has been for even longer with all this magic around." Pua nods in the background, we ignored her, "You're even good with kids, when you let yourself be. You're still talking to that girl from the Vatican, aren't you?"
"Yeah and Asia's great, but she's an exception, not the rule. Look if I ever change my mind there are other ways to get kids than just popping one out myself." I shudder involuntarily at the idea, "I can adopt, there are even blood rituals that can make an adoptee genetically mine. I'm just... giving up on periods. We can make sure that's part of it right?" I ask Pua.
Sarah also looks over at the Kahuna, "Is she right?" she demands.
Pua nods to both of us, "Yes she is, and I'm sure we can."
My oldest friend stares at me for a long moment, then sighs, "Try to get some rest, Ericka. Just, make sure you don't regret what you do." That's about as close to approval as I'm likely to get.
"I won't." I assure Sarah as she steps through the bedroom door, leaving me and Pua alone in the room.
"You know depending on how firmly this sets, and how things are laid out, you might not even be able to adopt in the future." Pua points out.
I grimace, "I figured it could work out that way, given my luck. Still what choice do I have?" I look up at Pua without moving my head, mentally begging her to give me a better option.
I'm destined for disappointment, "I can't really think of anything better off the top of my head. I'll look... but my gut says you've hit on the best option we have." Pua admits sadly. I wasn't really expecting anything else, so it doesn't upset me too badly.
Pua stands to leave and has almost made it to the door when something occurs to me, "Hey Pua, did you use my transit Script to get to L.A. and me and Sarah back?" She looks over her shoulder and nods curiously, "How did you get that to work? I didn't leave an outgoing Script here?"
Pua smirks and shrugs, "My reputation is well deserved." With that she leaves, and I settle in for another nap.
Pua starts on the ritual almost immediately, and is kind enough to do most of the work on it in my room, so I can see what goes into this very different kind of sacrificial ritual. Mine sre pretty basic and straightforward, death for energy to get something that's solidly already there. What we're going to try now was far more conceptual in nature.
It's also untestable, as it's crafted for me and my specific situation. Pua assures me that I have nothing to worry about. I worry anyway, but I'm also mostly successful at distracting myself with the mechanics of what we're doing. Like every time I watch Pua work, I learn a lot, and get even more ideas. Things it would probably take me decades to figure out how to do.
The time of year, phase of the moon, positions of specific stars. What kind of tide (a phosphorescent one for best results) and a million other things go into the incredibly complex symbology and invocation she's crafting. There are so many variables that it makes my head spin.
During the first few days of work Sarah hovers over me, but after the third I call Ku and have him drag her out. She's in Hawaii, and already skipping classes for this, she should at least enjoy herself. So she spends most of her days out on the beach, or exploring the village, and comes back at night to regale me with what she's seen and done. Given the amount of time she spends with and talking about Ku, I have some hope that she might get more than just a vacation out of this. After all if Pua can make my Scripts work it isn't like Hawaii to L.A. is much of a commute.
In the second week of work I finally asked the question that has been bugging me since I came up with this idea, "Pua, if we do this in your magic how do we know it will keep working wherever I end up next?"
"Because after I'm done crafting this, we will translate it into Script." Pua answeres without looking up from where she's measuring the geometry of the beach where she intends to hold the ritual.
"...And how do we know that Script will work wherever I end up next?"
Pua stops and looks at me carefully, "You actually don't know what you've been working with do you?"
I blink, "Um... I guess not?"
"What you call World Script is the language by which reality defines itself." Pua explains in what I call her lecturing tone, "The reason there are so few people that work with Script directly is partially because it's difficult to use, and not really useful for blowing things up. Another part though, is that of the people in the know about what Script is, there are few that are willing to play with the source code of the universe. You were planning on using Script to leave right?" I nod stunned. Source code of the universe? Is that what I'd been playing with? Fuck! And how did devil's get plugged into it? Pua continues, so I put away these thoughts to go over later, "While other universes that use a different... dialect for lack of a better term probably exist, I doubt that Script could take you to a world where it doesn't work. So relax. Or if you can't manage that, be very specific on how you define your destination when you leave."
That seems like a really good idea.
Turns out that making a grand ritual from scratch takes time. Normally from what I'm told it takes anywhere from a year to decades to craft. Then however long you have to wait for everything to line up properly to actually perform it. Suffice it to say there's a reason a grand ritual actually being performed is a big deal.
Pua put one together in a month. Not only that but she decides when we'll perform the ritual, then crafts it to work perfectly at that time. It's equal parts encyclopedic knowledge of everything that could possibly affect a ritual, and sheer ungodly talent.
It takes another two months for us to translate her casual feat of genius into Script. It's an exercise in the use of Script that's new to me. As opposed to just trying to achieve an effect, we're trying to use Script to imitate the precise manner in which Pua's ritual would achieve the effect. On one hand that's good, I have some idea of how to begin to do this directly with Script, but it will take a lot of work before I'd be willing to try it on myself. On the other hand getting Script to imitate more conventional magic, while still altering things on the level that Script did... It's a feat of brain bending that sends me to sleep with a headache more nights than not.
Still it's three months during which I can barely turn my head, and certainly can't get out of bed. Sarah has to go back to school after two weeks, her parents are still paying her way contingent on her grades, so she can't just vanish for too long. She promises to be back for the ritual though. She still isn't entirely certain I won't regret what I'm giving up, but she's trying to be supportive anyway. Ku volunteers to take her back to L.A. and pick her up when the time comes for her to return.
My twenty-first birthday comes and goes while I'm confined to a bed. Very little drinking is done.
My one outlet aside from Pua, Thea, and Ku, is Asia. I can actually safely move my fingers enough to type so I spend a lot more time on emails to her than I have previously. It takes some work to convince her that what's wrong with me isn't something she can help with. Then even longer to assure her that doesn't mean she's done anything wrong, and it's in no way her fault. But the whole process is worth it.
Asia is a sweet girl and I like her a lot, though how she looks in the pictures she sends me made me worry that caon is coming very soon. I might have overreacted just a bit reminding her that she can always talk to me, and come to me for anything. She starts asking what's wrong again. Still it's nice talking to her more.
So by the time everything is done and ready, I'm beginning to go more than a little stir crazy. I can actually feel my muscles itching. I can't even fidget without hurting myself. It's a special kind of hell.
So when Ku comes to carry me down to the beach, I almost kissed him. Which is why he's a good choice beyond being able to carry me, if Pua came I probably would have kissed her. And that would have made Thea sad, which I don't really want. Thea's nice. She actually made and helped me eat things besides chicken life nutrient soup.
That's all behind me now as Ku picks me up princess style, very gently, and carries me out of the house. It's night outside, the sky is clear and the stars are bright. The sound of gentle waves fill the air, and as we come around the Ali'i's house in sight of the beach the sight takes my breath away.
The waves are glowing a gentle phosphorescent blue, providing a backdrop to the beach itself. In front of us a large section of the beach has been flattened, smoothed, and wetted. On the smoothed space the Script has been written out in the wet sand. The grooves of the Script are filled with some potion to help conduct the energy that will be required for a working of this magnitude. Around the edges of the flattened area are torches providing light to the whole scene.
What shocked me though, is the entire village has turned out for the ritual. Children are running about carrying messages from place to place. Older children and younger teenagers are comparing the Script drawn out in the sand against pieces of paper they all carry. Adults manage what looks like a buffet table off to the side, keeping those working hydrated and fed. Finally around Pua stand a number of people, all of whom I recognize from my time in the village, and at least a few of which I know are accomplished singers.
"What? Why...?" Is all I manage to get out.
Ku chuckles, "You lived with us for a year and a half. Why are you surprised?" He shrugs, "Now come on. I'm tired of you doing nothing but taking up the guest bed in my sister's house."
Why am I surprised? Because I haven't really done anything beyond following Pua around and finding things to do when I wasn't? Sure after a while the villagers got used to me and started asking me questions they normally asked Pua. I answered them as best I could, and pointed them in the right direction, usually at Pua, when I couldn't. I guess I also spent some time when I was waiting on Ku to be free helping out some of the kids with the basics of how to fight. I also told them about the future...
Huh, it sounds different when I lay it all out like that.
I am a little shocked really, I mean, I did all those things mostly to pass the time or learn more. Apparently the Ke'Kua'Okolani see it as something different. I can't really object to that, but do they know that sometime soon I'm going to leave? Am I going to be letting them down by vanishing?
My train of thought is broken as my ass hits wet sand. Ku has carried me out onto the beach, and set me down in my place in the Script circle. The teens are clearing away from the circle, and the singers are taking their places.
"Are you ready Ericka?" Pua calls from her place leading the ritual. Slowly and very carefully I raise a single trembling hand, and give a thumbs up before setting my arm back down at my side. I actually manage it with only a few twinges, "All right then. Let's get started."
I've never really been the subject of one of my own Script rituals before. Sure there's my tattoos, and those are technically a hung ritual. But those really only affected me for a moment or two right at the end. The rest of everything that happens is pointed somewhere else.
I'm honestly not sure what to expect.
Groaning in the circle I feel like I've just woken up, like the world has skipped or something, "Did it work?" Something happened, though what...
"Everything looked good from the outside." Pua says, "There's really only one way to be sure though."
Right. Out of habit I didn't move a muscle when I... came to I guess. Now though, carefully, I plant a hand on the sand, and slowly push myself up. Then roll to my feet. Then bounce on my toes. Then do a full front flip into a full back flip.
"I'd say that worked then." Pua say with a smile. I can't help grinning as well. A moment later I'm nearly tackled to the ground by Sarah happily babbling and trying to pick me up as she always used to.
I pick her up instead.
My smile turned a little savage, I have power and will get more. I have skills that will only grow. The only thing that I need now to feel like I'm ready to actually get out in the world is a weapon that will grow with me.
Luckily I have a few favors that will hopefully help me get one.
I open my eyes and immediately clench them shut again. Warm golden sunlight fills the room that's at least fifty percent windows. Where the fuck am I? The universe declines to answer.
I'm not going to get any answers by laying around so I push myself up, and immediately collapse back down with a scream. The last night comes rushing back about the same time Pua and Sarah come rushing into the room.
Oh. I'm back in Hawaii and the chirping is the house gecko chorus.
"What happened? What's wrong?" Sarah sounds a little frantic.
Pua on the other hand merely walks to the bed, checks me over, then smacks me on the shoulder, "Why were you trying to get up?"
I don't shrug, though I want to, "I was still waking up and couldn't figure out where I was. Figured the only way to get answers was to go looking for them."
"So you tried to sit up." Pua finishes for me.
"So I tried to sit up." I agree. Sarah, looking far less concerned now gets in on the action and smacks me as well, "Given how fucked up I appear to be should you two be hitting me like that?" Pua sighs and pulls up a chair while Sarah sits on the edge of my bed, "Well this doesn't look good."
"There's nothing wrong with you physically." Pua starts.
"The tearing pain whenever I try to move would indicate otherwise." I can't help myself. It get a grin out of Sarah and rolled eyes from Pua so mission accomplished.
"Other than when you fuck yourself up, there's nothing wrong with you physically. The problem is that you've been stuffing a lot of things into your soul that aren't supposed to be there, and neither of us considered that just randomly adding things might create conflict." Pua leans forward, setting her elbows on her knees, "Every time you add something it's like you're throwing a string into a box. With one string it isn't a problem, with two you're probably still okay. The more you add though, the more tangled everything gets. Until eventually everything is tangled with everything else. So when you do something, which would be pulling on one of the strings, everything else gets pulled as well. This is reflected in your body as things moving in ways and directions that they shouldn't, leading to tearing when you get insistent."
That... makes a kind of sense. When building a laptop making everything fit is a rather major part of designing it. What I've done is the equivalent of wiring everything together and trying to stuff it all in the case just hoping that it'll fit. So then, "What do we do about it? I'm effectively crippled right now, which I'd like to fix."
Pua groans, "The 'simplest'," She actually makes the finger quotes, "answer would be to craft a ritual compatible with what you've already done to make sure everything integrates better in the future... and a temporal aspect to fix this in a way that will also address what you've already done to yourself. As if all of that isn't enough, you've saturated yourself in the concept of 'sacrifice', both yours and others, that the ritual will pretty much have to be sacrificial in nature to integrate smoothly. So we need to figure out what to sacrifice, and exactly we're asking for." The Kahuna scrubs her face with her hands, "It'll have to be one hell of a sacrifice too. On the order of a few hundred people at least."
"What!" Sarah shrieks, making me flinch slightly, and regret it the second I do, "No! Killing one rapist and a bunch of monsters is one thing. I didn't like it but I understood the necessity after nothing else worked. I am not letting her become a mass murderer. That's not something that you can come back from!" Sarah is incensed, and not really exercising restraint as she vents herself on Pua.
For her part Pua takes the tirade in stride, "I'm not saying that she should, just giving that as an example of the degree of sacrifice that will be necessary."
"What the hell else is worth as much as a few hundred people?" Sarah demands. It's a fair question. All that potential, all those futures and histories, where else do you find that sort of thing?
"Self sacrifice generates more than the sacrifice of others, so it would theoretically take less..." Pua tries but Sarah isn't really listening any more.
"She's not killing herself either!"
"Sacrifice does not necessarily mean death." Pua is getting frustrated now, though she is sitting on it well. Do I have anything I could give up that's even worth even a dozen lives? Never mind the hundreds to make even the least version of this ritual work? I look down at my hands resting on my abdomen. An idea tickles at the back of my mind, just out of reach, maybe... My stomach grumbles and I flinch slightly, losing my train of thought.
Oh well, food is probably a good idea. If it's good, the idea will come back to me.
"Hey." I call trying to get their attention.
They don't appear to hear me though, "Oh what else could it be? That seems to be the only thing you people care about, death and power!" Oh, she's going to regret saying that when she's thinking clearly again.
"Hey!" I try louder, but Sarah has gotten her wish and finally cracked Pua's calm.
"Do not put me and Ericka in the same category as..."
"HEY!" Everybody snaps around to look at me, looking even more pissed than they had before I interrupted them. That vanishes when my stomach rumbles again. I also feel... empty in an odd way that I don't like, and haven't felt before.
"Right." Pua stands dusting off her sarong, "I'll get something for you to eat." She turns and strides out of the room, her back stiff with residual irritation.
I look up at Sarah, who seems ashamed of her outburst now that she isn't caught up in the moment. She lets out a sigh and sits back down on the bed, "How are you feeling?"
I restrain from shrugging, "As long as I don't move, or breath too hard, fine. If I do either of those I feel like I'm being torn in half."
Sarah winces slightly, "What do you think about this ritual that Pua wants to do." I take a moment to think about how to answer that. Apparently that moment is too long for Sarah though, "You're not actually going to kill a few hundred people are you?"
That... actually hurts, "What? Of course not! You don't really think that I...?"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Sarah curls up slightly and puts her face in her hands, "This whole thing is just freaking me out. It's just... You killed what, ten? Eleven, people?"
"Vampires. Their personhood is debatable."
"It's that debate that worries me." Sarah says quietly, "If it's a matter for debate, what else will you be able to talk yourself into? You've changed so much in just the last few months, never mind since you were that five year old girl that bounced into my jujitsu class. I can't help but wonder what else has changed?"
Before I can really generate a reply she stands and heads for the door. Sarah pauses, her hand on the doorknob but doesn't turn back to me when she speaks, "I'm glad that the idea of mass sacrifice still upsets you. I just... I liked that little girl that thought that gymnastics was the best idea ever. Don't lose her." She jerks the door open and slams it so hard behind her that it doesn't latch and bounces back open, letting me see her rushing down the hallway.
I... really don't know what to say to that.
###
When Pua comes back in she's carrying a cup and looking a bit concerned, "Sarah just went running past me looking like she was in tears. Is everything alright?"
I flinch slightly at the idea that I've somehow reduced Sarah to crying. Again. "I... don't really know." I admit, "The idea of us killing a few hundred people for this ritual really bothers her." After a moment I keep going, "The idea that she thinks I might actually do that bothers me."
Pua sighs and sets the cup on the bedside table and helps me sit up. And by help I mean that she warns me not to put any effort into moving myself and lifts me into a sitting position. She's stronger than I would have believed for such a tiny person, even having been a tiny person until very recently.
Once I'm upright-ish, she picks up the cup again, sits on my bed, and puts it to my lips, "Sip this. It'll feel odd right at first." I do as she instructs and the liquid, whatever it is, not only fills my stomach but that empty feeling I have as well. I quirk an eyebrow over the rim of the cup at her as I continue to sip. Pua smiles at me, "It's life energy distilled into a liquid along with protein, vitamins, and all the calories you need. A meal in a cup essentially."
"Where did you get the life energy?" I ask between sips, "Chickens?" I smirk at her.
"Of course. I love Hawaii, killing chickens is my civic duty." The now smaller woman smiles and sets the cup aside and puts on what I think of as her 'therapist face', "You do know that you adapted to the supernatural unusually quickly right? Even taking into account your unusual maturity, given your reincarnation, and your fore knowledge about what you were getting into, you accepted the more violent nature of our world with remarkable ease. Most people would have problems with that, much like Sarah is. Give her time, she'll adjust with more understanding and the time to actually think about things."
"What about me then?" I hate how small my voice sounds.
Pua raises an eyebrow, "What about you? You're doing fine. Just remember where your lines are. And make sure they are your lines. Things not natural to yourself will be much harder to keep to. Just make sure that you are happy with yourself. Everything else should be secondary."
I nod slowly mulling that over. I don't know what my lines should be, I've been so busy trying to get basic survivability that I haven't given much thought to the abstract. Maybe now, so close to attaining my first goals, I should?
"You don't have to work it all out right now." Pua says, breaking me out of my thoughts, "You have time, and it isn't something that should be rushed. Get some sleep for now, you're still healing."
I nod, Pua always gives good advice. And sleep does sound pretty good.
Yeah, everything else can wait until tomorrow.
###
Pua shows up minutes after I wake with another cup of tasty tasty chicken life. Once I've finished she gives me a checkup, "Well good news, your bruising is finally fading, which means your regeneration is finally catching up with the mess your insides turned into. How are you feeling?"
"I'm... Pretty much the same, I don't move, everything is fine. I'm getting really tired of not moving though. I don't think I've held still this long ever, and it's driving me nuts."
"I'm not surprised." Pua says with a small smile. Outside the door I can hear a familiar set of footsteps and Sarah's scent grows stronger, "So on that note, any thoughts about how to approach the ritual I proposed? Or any other ideas? I'll take those too."
Sarah stops outside the door, her breath catching as she gets within normal earshot, "Well... I start out slowly. As I understand this from what little you said about more abstract sacrificial rituals last time I was here, the more connected things are the better the ritual will work. We could burn a hundred dryad trees and use that as a sacrifice to make a bunch of gold or something. That sacrifice would work better if we used it to revitalize a field that had been sowed with salt though. Right?"
Pua nods, "I've never heard of a gold making ritual, that's usually more of an alchemy thing, but you have the basics."
"So wouldn't a large part of picking a sacrifice be knowing what we're trying to accomplish?" Sarah is still listening in, but given her earlier fears I'm inclined to let her, "Aside from fixing me I mean."
"Well... What you need is a way for everything you take in the future to settle as well as possible. As though they were natural to you. Luck?" Pua offers.
I grimace, "I'd rather not rely on luck. No matter how good, luck always runs out." How would I describe what I want if I were writing it in Script? There has to be a way for everything I've collected and more to fit. Plenty of critters have more powers than I do coexisting in the same soul and body, so it's possible. It just hasn't... fallen out that way for me. Is that what I need? To have what I take always settle the right way?
I can describe it better.
Probabilities?
No, that sounds too much like luck.
God, this is going to be frustrating. And if Pua does the ritual with local magic, how would it hold up between worlds? I guess it's always possible that I'll only go to worlds where magic is a thing, but I'd rather not depend on that...
Maybe that's the answer. Many worlds, an infinite number of possible futures, ways things could be. One of which is the way everything fits together perfectly in my soul. I just need to guarantee that I always get that one.
So I need to sacrifice many possible futures to let me always get the best one, and we're back to lots of human sacrifices. We could use animals or something, but futures of similar magnitude would be needed to get any kind of usable result. Where can I get that many human scale possibilities that wouldn't turn me into the mass murderer Sarah is afraid I'll become?
I look at my hands again, still folded on my stomach.
That... is an idea. One that initially seems like a great idea, which makes me cautious. To buy myself time to think I explain my idea for what to ask for to Pua.
The clever Kahuna narrows her eyes at me in suspicion. No doubt she can tell that there's something else on my mind that I'm not bringing up just yet, but she lets it be and considers what I said.
"It should work for what we want... But you'll need one hell of a trade." Pua points out and flicks her eyes at the door behind which Sarah is still hiding and listening.
Of course Pua knows she's there too.
I sigh, there's no real reason to hold back the idea, I just...
I'd have shaken my head to clear it, if that wouldn't have probably broken my neck or something... All I'm doing is stalling, "My ability to have children."
There's silence. Sarah speaks first, destroying whatever cover she might have thought she had, "What?"
Pu and I stare at the door at the outburst. There's silence for several moments, then the door to the room creaks open showing a slightly red faced Sarah. She takes in both my and Pua's unsurprised faces and huffs, "You both knew I was there, didn't you?"
"Bloodhound's sense of smell and bat's hearing." I point out.
At the same time Pua says, "Kahuna." Like somebody else might have said 'pirate'.
...Has that movie come out yet? I really haven't been paying attention to popular culture.
Sarah rolls her eyes, and plants her fists on her hips, "Very funny. Now explain."
"I sacrifice my ability to have children, all the potential lives and futures I could make. In return I get the best possible potential future every time for the integration of all future traits." I glance at Pua to see if she thinks this will work. I hope it does, but there's still some hesitation in me. I've never wanted kids, don't like most of them, but there is some small part of me that hopes the sacrifice won't be valid, so I won't have to go through with it.
Probably a good thing really, would make it a better sacrifice.
That doesn't make me feel any better about it though, which I suppose is the point.
Pua nods slowly, "'Potential lives and futures' would be better. That is certainly a great sacrifice... and a narrow enough gain to produce some spectacular results with that much given."
"Ericka, are you sure you want to give that up?" Sarah's looking a little shell shocked, and a lot worried, "It's possible to have kids without a guy involved with modern science, probably has been for even longer with all this magic around." Pua nods in the background, we ignored her, "You're even good with kids, when you let yourself be. You're still talking to that girl from the Vatican, aren't you?"
"Yeah and Asia's great, but she's an exception, not the rule. Look if I ever change my mind there are other ways to get kids than just popping one out myself." I shudder involuntarily at the idea, "I can adopt, there are even blood rituals that can make an adoptee genetically mine. I'm just... giving up on periods. We can make sure that's part of it right?" I ask Pua.
Sarah also looks over at the Kahuna, "Is she right?" she demands.
Pua nods to both of us, "Yes she is, and I'm sure we can."
My oldest friend stares at me for a long moment, then sighs, "Try to get some rest, Ericka. Just, make sure you don't regret what you do." That's about as close to approval as I'm likely to get.
"I won't." I assure Sarah as she steps through the bedroom door, leaving me and Pua alone in the room.
"You know depending on how firmly this sets, and how things are laid out, you might not even be able to adopt in the future." Pua points out.
I grimace, "I figured it could work out that way, given my luck. Still what choice do I have?" I look up at Pua without moving my head, mentally begging her to give me a better option.
I'm destined for disappointment, "I can't really think of anything better off the top of my head. I'll look... but my gut says you've hit on the best option we have." Pua admits sadly. I wasn't really expecting anything else, so it doesn't upset me too badly.
Pua stands to leave and has almost made it to the door when something occurs to me, "Hey Pua, did you use my transit Script to get to L.A. and me and Sarah back?" She looks over her shoulder and nods curiously, "How did you get that to work? I didn't leave an outgoing Script here?"
Pua smirks and shrugs, "My reputation is well deserved." With that she leaves, and I settle in for another nap.
###
Pua starts on the ritual almost immediately, and is kind enough to do most of the work on it in my room, so I can see what goes into this very different kind of sacrificial ritual. Mine sre pretty basic and straightforward, death for energy to get something that's solidly already there. What we're going to try now was far more conceptual in nature.
It's also untestable, as it's crafted for me and my specific situation. Pua assures me that I have nothing to worry about. I worry anyway, but I'm also mostly successful at distracting myself with the mechanics of what we're doing. Like every time I watch Pua work, I learn a lot, and get even more ideas. Things it would probably take me decades to figure out how to do.
The time of year, phase of the moon, positions of specific stars. What kind of tide (a phosphorescent one for best results) and a million other things go into the incredibly complex symbology and invocation she's crafting. There are so many variables that it makes my head spin.
During the first few days of work Sarah hovers over me, but after the third I call Ku and have him drag her out. She's in Hawaii, and already skipping classes for this, she should at least enjoy herself. So she spends most of her days out on the beach, or exploring the village, and comes back at night to regale me with what she's seen and done. Given the amount of time she spends with and talking about Ku, I have some hope that she might get more than just a vacation out of this. After all if Pua can make my Scripts work it isn't like Hawaii to L.A. is much of a commute.
In the second week of work I finally asked the question that has been bugging me since I came up with this idea, "Pua, if we do this in your magic how do we know it will keep working wherever I end up next?"
"Because after I'm done crafting this, we will translate it into Script." Pua answeres without looking up from where she's measuring the geometry of the beach where she intends to hold the ritual.
"...And how do we know that Script will work wherever I end up next?"
Pua stops and looks at me carefully, "You actually don't know what you've been working with do you?"
I blink, "Um... I guess not?"
"What you call World Script is the language by which reality defines itself." Pua explains in what I call her lecturing tone, "The reason there are so few people that work with Script directly is partially because it's difficult to use, and not really useful for blowing things up. Another part though, is that of the people in the know about what Script is, there are few that are willing to play with the source code of the universe. You were planning on using Script to leave right?" I nod stunned. Source code of the universe? Is that what I'd been playing with? Fuck! And how did devil's get plugged into it? Pua continues, so I put away these thoughts to go over later, "While other universes that use a different... dialect for lack of a better term probably exist, I doubt that Script could take you to a world where it doesn't work. So relax. Or if you can't manage that, be very specific on how you define your destination when you leave."
That seems like a really good idea.
###
Turns out that making a grand ritual from scratch takes time. Normally from what I'm told it takes anywhere from a year to decades to craft. Then however long you have to wait for everything to line up properly to actually perform it. Suffice it to say there's a reason a grand ritual actually being performed is a big deal.
Pua put one together in a month. Not only that but she decides when we'll perform the ritual, then crafts it to work perfectly at that time. It's equal parts encyclopedic knowledge of everything that could possibly affect a ritual, and sheer ungodly talent.
It takes another two months for us to translate her casual feat of genius into Script. It's an exercise in the use of Script that's new to me. As opposed to just trying to achieve an effect, we're trying to use Script to imitate the precise manner in which Pua's ritual would achieve the effect. On one hand that's good, I have some idea of how to begin to do this directly with Script, but it will take a lot of work before I'd be willing to try it on myself. On the other hand getting Script to imitate more conventional magic, while still altering things on the level that Script did... It's a feat of brain bending that sends me to sleep with a headache more nights than not.
Still it's three months during which I can barely turn my head, and certainly can't get out of bed. Sarah has to go back to school after two weeks, her parents are still paying her way contingent on her grades, so she can't just vanish for too long. She promises to be back for the ritual though. She still isn't entirely certain I won't regret what I'm giving up, but she's trying to be supportive anyway. Ku volunteers to take her back to L.A. and pick her up when the time comes for her to return.
My twenty-first birthday comes and goes while I'm confined to a bed. Very little drinking is done.
My one outlet aside from Pua, Thea, and Ku, is Asia. I can actually safely move my fingers enough to type so I spend a lot more time on emails to her than I have previously. It takes some work to convince her that what's wrong with me isn't something she can help with. Then even longer to assure her that doesn't mean she's done anything wrong, and it's in no way her fault. But the whole process is worth it.
Asia is a sweet girl and I like her a lot, though how she looks in the pictures she sends me made me worry that caon is coming very soon. I might have overreacted just a bit reminding her that she can always talk to me, and come to me for anything. She starts asking what's wrong again. Still it's nice talking to her more.
So by the time everything is done and ready, I'm beginning to go more than a little stir crazy. I can actually feel my muscles itching. I can't even fidget without hurting myself. It's a special kind of hell.
So when Ku comes to carry me down to the beach, I almost kissed him. Which is why he's a good choice beyond being able to carry me, if Pua came I probably would have kissed her. And that would have made Thea sad, which I don't really want. Thea's nice. She actually made and helped me eat things besides chicken life nutrient soup.
That's all behind me now as Ku picks me up princess style, very gently, and carries me out of the house. It's night outside, the sky is clear and the stars are bright. The sound of gentle waves fill the air, and as we come around the Ali'i's house in sight of the beach the sight takes my breath away.
The waves are glowing a gentle phosphorescent blue, providing a backdrop to the beach itself. In front of us a large section of the beach has been flattened, smoothed, and wetted. On the smoothed space the Script has been written out in the wet sand. The grooves of the Script are filled with some potion to help conduct the energy that will be required for a working of this magnitude. Around the edges of the flattened area are torches providing light to the whole scene.
What shocked me though, is the entire village has turned out for the ritual. Children are running about carrying messages from place to place. Older children and younger teenagers are comparing the Script drawn out in the sand against pieces of paper they all carry. Adults manage what looks like a buffet table off to the side, keeping those working hydrated and fed. Finally around Pua stand a number of people, all of whom I recognize from my time in the village, and at least a few of which I know are accomplished singers.
"What? Why...?" Is all I manage to get out.
Ku chuckles, "You lived with us for a year and a half. Why are you surprised?" He shrugs, "Now come on. I'm tired of you doing nothing but taking up the guest bed in my sister's house."
Why am I surprised? Because I haven't really done anything beyond following Pua around and finding things to do when I wasn't? Sure after a while the villagers got used to me and started asking me questions they normally asked Pua. I answered them as best I could, and pointed them in the right direction, usually at Pua, when I couldn't. I guess I also spent some time when I was waiting on Ku to be free helping out some of the kids with the basics of how to fight. I also told them about the future...
Huh, it sounds different when I lay it all out like that.
I am a little shocked really, I mean, I did all those things mostly to pass the time or learn more. Apparently the Ke'Kua'Okolani see it as something different. I can't really object to that, but do they know that sometime soon I'm going to leave? Am I going to be letting them down by vanishing?
My train of thought is broken as my ass hits wet sand. Ku has carried me out onto the beach, and set me down in my place in the Script circle. The teens are clearing away from the circle, and the singers are taking their places.
"Are you ready Ericka?" Pua calls from her place leading the ritual. Slowly and very carefully I raise a single trembling hand, and give a thumbs up before setting my arm back down at my side. I actually manage it with only a few twinges, "All right then. Let's get started."
I've never really been the subject of one of my own Script rituals before. Sure there's my tattoos, and those are technically a hung ritual. But those really only affected me for a moment or two right at the end. The rest of everything that happens is pointed somewhere else.
I'm honestly not sure what to expect.
The moment they begin, everything goes quiet. The sound of the waves vanishes, no sound of birds, trees, or the audience. I can't even hear them singing the Script. All I can hear is my own heartbeat and my breathing.
Laid out on my back like I am, I have a great view of the night sky. The village turned off all it's lights, so the light pollution is at a minimum. The sky seems to expand, consuming the world around me until it feels like I'm floating surrounded by nothing but stars.
Everything is so still, I'm not sure time is passing. Something... immense turns its attention to me. I can't see, or perceive anything, but that feeling that something is watching me is almost overwhelming. It... He... felt concerned? Curious. Both. He knows what I'm offering, what I want, and is asking me if I'm sure.
He knows what I'll say, but is asking anyway.
Of course I'm sure. I had plenty of time to think, to change my mind, find another option. This is what I've decided. Besides it's not like I can have a kid in my current state anyway.
The presence acknowledges my choice and then... gets out of the way. Time resumes and I can feel myself being rewritten. The Script that makes me up is altered, changed. Everything I've taken in is adjusted, fitted. Slotted together to not only not clash, but actually support each other. And from now on that's the only way they could be.
At the same time the ability to have children is... written out of me. All the possible futures where I could have created life are consumed by the ritual. I do note that Pua followed through on her promise and I won't have periods anymore either.
Everything settles and I blink...
Laid out on my back like I am, I have a great view of the night sky. The village turned off all it's lights, so the light pollution is at a minimum. The sky seems to expand, consuming the world around me until it feels like I'm floating surrounded by nothing but stars.
Everything is so still, I'm not sure time is passing. Something... immense turns its attention to me. I can't see, or perceive anything, but that feeling that something is watching me is almost overwhelming. It... He... felt concerned? Curious. Both. He knows what I'm offering, what I want, and is asking me if I'm sure.
He knows what I'll say, but is asking anyway.
Of course I'm sure. I had plenty of time to think, to change my mind, find another option. This is what I've decided. Besides it's not like I can have a kid in my current state anyway.
The presence acknowledges my choice and then... gets out of the way. Time resumes and I can feel myself being rewritten. The Script that makes me up is altered, changed. Everything I've taken in is adjusted, fitted. Slotted together to not only not clash, but actually support each other. And from now on that's the only way they could be.
At the same time the ability to have children is... written out of me. All the possible futures where I could have created life are consumed by the ritual. I do note that Pua followed through on her promise and I won't have periods anymore either.
Everything settles and I blink...
Groaning in the circle I feel like I've just woken up, like the world has skipped or something, "Did it work?" Something happened, though what...
"Everything looked good from the outside." Pua says, "There's really only one way to be sure though."
Right. Out of habit I didn't move a muscle when I... came to I guess. Now though, carefully, I plant a hand on the sand, and slowly push myself up. Then roll to my feet. Then bounce on my toes. Then do a full front flip into a full back flip.
"I'd say that worked then." Pua say with a smile. I can't help grinning as well. A moment later I'm nearly tackled to the ground by Sarah happily babbling and trying to pick me up as she always used to.
I pick her up instead.
My smile turned a little savage, I have power and will get more. I have skills that will only grow. The only thing that I need now to feel like I'm ready to actually get out in the world is a weapon that will grow with me.
Luckily I have a few favors that will hopefully help me get one.
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Book 1 - Lessons
- Location
- California
The rest of the night after the ritual is something of a celebration. After Pua holds me down and triple checks that nothing has gone wrong and that I haven't tripped into some new unforeseen problem, I'm released to enjoy the party. I think she takes that she didn't see the soul tangling coming personally.
Pulled pork, sweet bread, and a dozen other things make up the food offerings. There's music and dancing, and I actually get involved for a change. My recent brush with unexpected metaphysical doom has left me more introspective than I would normally be. So I decide to give in to Sarah's urging and actually socialize for a change.
So I dance and flirt awkwardly with pretty village girls. I can safely say I can see the appeal.
I don't do more than dance, though.
Morning finds me waking up in the same bed I've spent the last three months in. This time, though, I wake feeling great. I slept well, not waking up a dozen times during the night from the pain of trying rolling over.
I go through my morning exercises, noting that I'll either need a new routine or some other way to make this one harder, and start packing. My body and soul are working again, and would continue to, and it's time to get back to work. Canon is right around the corner, and for the first time I think I might actually be minimally ready for it when it happens.
I take a few moments to write an email to Asia telling her that I'm much better, and that the problem has been fixed. She's been worrying enough, I'd have felt terrible if I waited too long. I send one off to Cait as well. She worries about me too but, both as a Sidhe and as someone with more knowledge about what's going on, is more laid back about it. Of course, I also ask some pointed questions and call in the favors she said she owes me from my encounter with the Sidhe in Briton.
Then it's downstairs. I plan on a quick breakfast and then using a transit Script to head back to the mainland.
That plan dies the moment I enter the kitchen. Pua, Ku, and Sarah are waiting for me when I step in, all sitting around the table waiting for me. Behind them I see Thea, who glances at me, mouths 'good luck' and leaves.
Well, that's ominous.
"Um... Good morning?" Nobody responds, "Ah... I was just going to tell you that I was going to be heading back to the mainland..."
"Sit!" Pua barks and my legs almost give out underneath me in my haste to comply. I manage to make it to the chair though.
"Is... this an intervention?" I'm trying to be funny but I sound more hesitant than anything else.
"Yes," Sarah says flatly, and I flinch.
"Ericka," Pua's voice was much gentler now that she isn't keeping me from bolting, "we understand you feel you're under a lot of pressure. And recent events have legitimately required you to move quickly. However that's no longer true, and even in a rush only so much recklessness can be excused. Now that you aren't rushing to solve problems, you can take the time to do things right."
"I'm not..." I try again, only to be interrupted by Ku.
"How were you planning to feed your vampiric nature?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Um..." My first instinct is to say that I'll just keep killing things. A glance at Sarah though reminds me of her fear that I'll become some sort of mass murder, so that can't be the answer. I'm not sure I really have another one. I'm not going to keep making Pua distill life energy for me, and I doubt chickens have enough life energy without Pua's help to keep me going.
"What were you planning to do next?" Pua asks in the tone of somebody proving a point.
"Uh... I'm going to use a few favors Cait owes me to see if she can put me in touch with a really good fae smith to get arms and armor."
"At least she thought of armor," Ku murmurs.
"What were you planning to pay the smith with?" Pua continues.
"Uh... I don't know. I figure that could be negotiated. Once I knew what they wanted." I know even as I say it, it isn't a great plan.
"And you were planning to ask me for help with that, right? Seeing as it is part of my job to negotiate with ancient supernatural powers and get the better of Faustian deals?" the Kahuna continues inexorably.
"Ah..." all of them frown at my hesitation, "I didn't want to ask for more? You've already helped me a lot, and I figured I'd used up what favor I got from you for the help I've already given."
Pua stands, calmly leans across the table and smacks me upside the head, then sits down again, looking at me expectantly. I'm getting really tired of people hitting me in the head, "Pua would you help me negotiate with whatever fae Cait finds for me?" I scowl at her and rub my head where she smacked me.
"Of course!" Pua says happily, "Don't worry, you'll pay us back in the future for it." She drops the cheer and leans forward to put a hand on mine, "We're worried about you, and how casually you've been risking yourself. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to help you get a handle on your powers, Ku is going to teach you how to handle your new physical capabilities and some other useful things, and until we're satisfied, you're not leaving."
I scowl harder. I'm twenty one, dammit. I do not like the idea of people controlling me, and this is starting to set me off. It isn't mind control, but it certainly looks like the curtailing of my choices, "Don't I get a say in this?" I demand flatly.
"No," Sarah replies just as flatly. My teeth grit and I'm about to start yelling at them when Sarah scoots her chair next to me and hugs me tightly, "I know you're going to leave as soon as you can, but please take care of yourself so that you only leave when you're ready." Not because you're dead.
She doesn't say it, but I hear it anyway. I slump in my chair, "Fine."
God dammit, Sarah.
Ku gets me first and starts immediately after breakfast, while Pua heads to the beach muttering something about people panicking, thinking that there are sharks inside the reef. To my surprise, instead of dragging me down to the beach where most of our fighting practice happens, Ku takes me inland to a grove of Koa trees and sits me down.
"The first thing we need to do is take care of your feeding problem," Ku explains, "otherwise, practicing is going to be very hard for you. You can't really work on something if you collapse in exhaustion after a few hours. You also need to know how long you can go on one tank of gas so to speak. Before any of that, though, you need to be able to feed yourself."
I make a face at the phrasing, but I can't really argue that it's been Pua feeding me thus far, and I can't really do it myself. So I nod, "I assume you have a solution?"
"I'm going to teach you something that we call Mana Breathing. It's a technique that's been developed in a lot of places under various names. Cultivation, Bodhisattva Enlightenment, Senjutsu, all are names for pretty much the same thing," Ku explains, sitting cross legged in front of me.
I frown. I've looked into Senjutsu briefly before, during my frantic scramble to keep from starving. I tossed it out because it looks remarkably like what I had tried to do for the first several years of my life and failed at, and because I'm not sure I'll be able to use it everywhere I go in the future. "Doesn't that draw on some sort of field of 'natural universal energy'?" I ask doubtfully.
"It's not the Force," Ku deadpans, "Mana is an interesting word in Hawaiian. Before fantasy authors co-opted it to mean 'magic' generically, it meant... there's no really good English translation. Power, sort of. Everything has mana, it's what you take from food to nourish you, it's what parents try to gather throughout their lives and leave to their children so that each generation is greater than the last. Among many other things, it's life."
My eyes widen as I listen. Mana sounds a lot like life energy, "And Mana Breathing is...?"
"The art of taking in the mana of the world around you, and controlling your own mana," Ku says with a smile that's more than a little smug. Bastard.
"So how do we start." I'm a little eager now.
"Fortunately for you, meditation."
After a few hours of meditation, I learn that feeling the mana around me is easy. The only reason I've never pulled it off before is because I was metaphorically looking in the wrong direction. That's embarrassing. I haven't managed to do anything else with it yet, but finding the mana isn't hard.
Ku then starts helping me get used to my new capabilities by beating the crap out of me until lunch. We break an hour before it's time to eat and he helps me rework my exercises so I can continue to get some benefit out of them.
Lunch is quiet. I'm exhausted already and slightly depressed about how close I'd been to a much simpler solution to my power problems that I just walked right past. I have a sneaking suspicion that Pua isn't going to make things any better.
Pua has two tasks for me to begin with.
The first is to run an analysis Script on myself and go through it with a fine-tooth comb. Honestly, I don't learn a lot, but what I do learn is good to know. My muscles and bones are made of the same stuff that troll's are. Some sort of advanced carbon allotrope that I'd need a degree in molecular engineering or something to really make sense of. They consume a lot of energy, and with the life energy fuel they are getting now, they're actually working as well as they can.
My voice box is a complex structure with a range that I can barely hear at the top end, and can't hear at all at the bottom end. In addition, with the more supernatural aspects now receiving power from my vampire energy network, I'm capable of all sorts of sound feats that I have no idea how to perform. Matching resonance frequencies, sonic impactors, focused sound beams that can cause anything from the feeling of burning, to just punching a hole in whatever it's aimed at. The mesmerism works almost like The Voice from Dune. Some general influence is possible from just sound and intent, but the really impressive things will require me to tune into an individual's specific... frequency isn't really the right word, but it's as close as I'm going to get. Unfortunately, knowing what that frequency is, is something that Sirens apparently have some apparatus to figure out instinctively. I do not. So while most sound tricks I'll be able to figure out with time and training, more than the basic mesmerism will probably be beyond me unless I go hunting for Sirens again. Assuming instinct is something I can steal at all, I haven't actually tried that. Not that it's something I really want to do in either case.
The vampire stuff is really very straightforward. I have a network that pumps life energy around my body to saturate and power everything attached to it. Which is great. On the other hand, while I have the network, I still only have about as much life energy production as a normal very in-shape person. Nothing is improved, yet, and I have a very limited amount of power to work with. Sadly, the only solution to that will be time. I'll be able to hold more as I use and stretch my network, but until then I'll have to budget power carefully.
The best thing I learn is what I had taken from the Sidhe. After looking over my analysis and the knife a dozen times, I finally figure out what happened and what I'd taken. The knife receiving no direct input from me about what to take, took whatever power he was using at the time. In this case I had acquired the Tuatha De Denan glamor. Which is awesome. The only downside is that it's a power hog of truly spectacular magnitude. How long I can keep something up will probably depend on the size and complexity of the illusion, but I can't imagine keeping it up for more than five minutes. At best. If I'm lucky. I'm probably being optimistic.
The second thing Pua wants me to do is to socialize.
I can't quite believe it when she says it, "Why?"
"First, because it's healthy. Humans aren't made for isolation, even if it's just social. So as your friend, and your Kahuna, I'm making you interact with people as a stabilizing influence." She leads me out of her house where I've been reading the results of my analysis, "Second, even if you don't intend to socialize here, you will probably want to at some point. Your life will be easier if you learn how to deal with people now."
"You do remember that I lived an entire life before this one, don't you?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"And how much do you remember of your last life?" I open my mouth to answer, then slowly close it, frowning. Pua has mercy on me and keeps going, "Third, the more connections you have to people and the world around you, the less likely you are to just jump into things without thinking." She glares at me slightly, I just roll my eyes back at her. Pua stops at the edge of one of the open grassy areas of the village that are used like parks.
"Pua, where are we going?" I sigh.
"Here. I've volunteered you to look after the village kids twice a week for a few hours." She waves a hand at the field.
Slowly, I turn my head to look at the grassy expanse and find it populated by children aged between eight and thirteen, moving about in an approximate mush. "Pua," I mutter trying not to be overheard by the swarm in front of me. It feels a little like staring down the pixies again. "Pua!" I say a little louder when I get no response. "Pua!" I finally look over, and find that Pua has snuck away and left me here!
That bitch.
I turn back to the field.
Okay.
I can do this.
Just remember, they can smell fear.
I need some way to keep them focused, and more importantly, here. If they start running around the village I'll never find them all. So I need to keep them interested and engaged.
What did I like at that age?
I'm not sure I ever was that age in this life... but I do remember the first time I went to gymnastics and saw the older girls practicing. It was enthralling to watch them move and spin, fly through the air as though gravity was a mere suggestion.
That was the first time I really wanted to be a good gymnast. Before that I was determined to take the classes just enough to get my body to do what I wanted it to, and have a safe way to build balanced muscle. Afterwards, though, I wanted that freedom. Both physically, the ability to move however and over anything I want, and after I really started, there was a kind of freedom in the total focus required.
For a little while I wasn't rushing to outpace some oncoming supernatural disaster, and I didn't feel more pressure afterwards, because my escape was still helping.
But most of all, I remember seeing the older girl doing her routine and being enthralled.
I can work with that.
The kids are everywhere, but for the moment still sort of central to the park. I aim myself just past the edge of the swarm, and start with a short run up. I really hope that my new strength won't screw this up too much. I start with a series of handsprings, using as little force as possible, and still go through them faster than I ever have before. It's one of the most intense series of tumbles I've ever done. Each action being recalculated on the fly to not be too forceful, and to adjust to avoid disaster when I am anyway, or I'm not forceful enough. I actually get enough air on a front flip to rotate all the way through twice before landing too far forward. I manage to save myself by going into what I think is a pretty smooth forward roll.
I finish my impromptu floor routine as we'd been taught, legs together arms flung high. Sticking the landing is so much easier with cat balance and reflexes and troll's strength. The extra height is more than a little awkward, though. It messes with me more than the extra strength, honestly. I turn to look at the Swarm to find them all staring at me wide eyed and open mouthed.
I wink at them with a smile, "Who wants to learn how to do that?"
The cacophony of positive responses turns my smile into a grin.
Victory is mine.
It isn't until a couple of hours later that I get the full scope of Pua's evil plan to socialize me. Because that's when the kids get picked up. Parents, older siblings, they all want to talk to me. Some of them actually try hitting on me, fortunately only women. Someone, Pua, must have let my sexuality be quietly known. I eventually decide to be grateful for it as nobody gives me a hard time. Which really shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, given Pua. I still have to deal with kids and adults in a friendly fashion twice a week.
Well played, Kahuna, well played.
That establishes my pattern for the next several weeks. Mornings with Ku, afternoons with Pua when she has time, apparently the shark problem is more serious than she first assumed, and twice a week I'm socialized.
Ku guides me through meditative exercises to gain control of my own life energy and to reach out to the mana of the world around us.
Manipulating my internal mana is something that I'm slowly getting a handle on, in the most crude sense. I can make the energy circulate faster or slower, and I'm starting to be able to pull it away from things that I'm not using, like my voice. I'm not there yet, but this sort of manipulation is coming easily, if slowly. The techniques that most use to boost themselves don't really work for me, though. The channels of the vampiric network are too rigid to be adjusted the way the more free-form flows that other users have can be. And for some reason, I can't reach outside myself to draw mana in for the life of me.
I can feel it there. Pua has checked me over and there's no physical or metaphysical reason for my difficulty. The conclusion that Pua and Ku have reached is that I have some sort of mental block.
Which is a rather large problem.
So I do what I always do when I run into a problem. I write a Script for it. The idea is to create a zone of increased mana pressure around myself. Not too high a pressure, just enough so that I won't have to reach out to get it, I can just let it in, and the pressure will force the mana into me. With the right amount of pressure and a way to open myself to the energy, it should work out fine.
I make a note that as soon as I have the free time, to get started on that. I'm planning out what the Script will look like in my head when I remember that I don't have to do this on my own. I have two people who, in theory, know what they are doing with Mana Breathing, and can probably tell me if this is a good idea or not.
I hesitate.
Normally I would proceed on my own best judgment, and deal with the problems as they come up. Now though... I'll continue to work on the Script and show it to Pua and Ku when I actually have something to show. I don't even know if this is possible or not just yet. Better to have something solid before bringing it up.
After meditation and beatings with Ku, I'm given over to Pua.
What we can do is limited while I'm dependent on her alchemical chicken life. It's enough to keep me going but it isn't the most efficient medium for absorbing energy. Still, we learn a few things.
Most importantly, the glamor is the next best thing to useless. Tuatha De Denan glamors are some of the best illusions in the world. They can account for sight, touch, hearing, everything including supernatural senses. There are stories of faerie lords making entire cities complete with populations that people lived in for years, without ever knowing that what was around them wasn't real.
The problem comes in with the amount of detail that one has to keep track of in order to make even the most basic of illusions. Fae brains are built to keep track of all of that.
Mine isn't.
We start with me trying to make an apple, just the image, with an apple there in front of me for reference. I start with a red sphere and try to add details one at a time. While whatever I'm focused on at the moment looks good, everything else basically vanishes. I give it shape, then try for the shine on the apple skin, which makes the shape vanish. Then I try to give it texture, which means the shine vanishes, and so on. The glamor ability is literally too powerful and versatile for me to use, I physically can't focus on enough things at once to make it work. Which doesn't even get into how much lower fidelity a human's imagination is compared to a fae's.
Trying to do the image all at once is almost worse. It's like seeing an apple in a dream, as in you have to be in an altered state of consciousness for it to be at all believable.
However, there is one illusion that I manage almost perfectly right off the bat. The illusion of my absence. For whatever reason, the concept, 'I'm not here', is easy to hold in my mind, and it's impressive as hell. I can't be seen, heard, or touched, which isn't to say I became incorporeal. People just won't notice or feel anything if they touch me. Even supernatural senses won't pick up anything. The only real problem with it is how much power it takes. With my current life energy I can keep it up for thirty seconds. Maybe a minute if I'm not doing anything else.
It isn't as useful as it could be, but I'll take it. After all, just like everything else hooked up to my vampiric mana network, it'll only improve with time.
It's almost a month later that I'm working with Pua, when one of the village men bursts into her house and into the room where we're working on my ability to reach outside of myself. He's breathless, pale, and gasping for air. Which is impressive because there isn't anybody in the village who isn't in fantastic shape. Ku makes sure of it, as most of the adults have at least some combat training under him. The stench of terror is what really gets my attention though.
"Kahuna!" He manages to get out with his first steps into the room, "So-Something... at the... at the parking lot..." He fights to get words out through his gasping, "asking for..." He gestures at me, unable to get any more words out as he tries to breath.
"Something?" Pua asks, demands, her voice full of tension. I glance over at her, her face is in her professional mask, nothing but comforting certainty. I can smell how worried she is though. Something that only gets worse as the man's only reply is to pale and nod.
We glance at each other and head for the parking lot at a fast walk. Pua's in the lead, and I follow just behind her to back her up. I hope somebody is getting Ku as well, I don't like my chances against anything that can just stroll past Pua's protections.
When we reach the lot I almost attack on sight. Waiting for us is an impossibly beautiful woman, with midnight black hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, complemented by eyes the dark blue of deep water, and pale porcelain skin. Except for her lips which are blood red and set into a serious frown. It's the kind of enthralling beauty that I've only seen once before, in what turned out to be a bog in England.
The woman is a fae, a Sidhe.
What stops me from immediately lunging for her are two things. The first is the sense for the mana around me I've gained with Mana Breathing. The Sidhe radiates power like a volcano radiates heat. It's almost oppressive, and I have to remind myself that there's actually no physical reason I should be having trouble breathing. That if I hadn't been learning Mana Breathing, I never would have even noticed the power, and that the feeling of pressure is all in my head.
As if to drive home just out-classed I am here, she's leaning against an old steel-framed truck, waiting for us. Showing not only no discomfort, but no awareness that she's so close, and in fact touching, a great deal of iron. True, it's iron in steel, but for most fae that wouldn't matter. Even greater fae would be weakened and harmed by steel, if not nearly as much.
The other reason I hesitate, though, is because of what she's wearing. It isn't a fancy dress made of spiderwebs and dew or some such. It isn't bright shining armor made of the silvery metal that the fae are known for. Instead, she's wearing work boots, jeans that look like they've seen a lot of hard use, a tank top, and denim jacket.
Her clothes, casual as they are, do nothing to reduce the noble and refined bearing of not just a Sidhe noble, but a Sidhe noble with power. Power that has nothing to do with her title or position.
As we approach, she stands up from the truck to meet us. Pua and I both bow politely, mine deeper than hers, and the fae after studying us both for a moment nods to Pua in some form of acknowledgement.
Before Pua can ask any questions, the Sidhe lady speaks. "I look for Ericka Rhostana," she declares, her voice far from the bells or music I expect. Instead it rings like a hammer on an anvil, and carries the crushing weight of deep water.
I step forward, even with Pua, where she grabs my wrist to keep me from advancing further. She doesn't need to worry though. I'm not getting any closer to the Sidhe than I have to, and I'm certainly not going to leave the side of the nominal powerhouse on our side.
The Sidhe examines me again with greater interest than she had before. I feel her power wash over me, no doubt performing an examination that would leave me feeling violated if I had any idea how much information she got from it.
"I have come because Caitríona, the Queen of Cats asked that I do so. I am Vivain, Lady of the Lake, and I am here to see if you might be worthy of one of my blades."
Cait... What did you do?!
Pulled pork, sweet bread, and a dozen other things make up the food offerings. There's music and dancing, and I actually get involved for a change. My recent brush with unexpected metaphysical doom has left me more introspective than I would normally be. So I decide to give in to Sarah's urging and actually socialize for a change.
So I dance and flirt awkwardly with pretty village girls. I can safely say I can see the appeal.
I don't do more than dance, though.
Morning finds me waking up in the same bed I've spent the last three months in. This time, though, I wake feeling great. I slept well, not waking up a dozen times during the night from the pain of trying rolling over.
I go through my morning exercises, noting that I'll either need a new routine or some other way to make this one harder, and start packing. My body and soul are working again, and would continue to, and it's time to get back to work. Canon is right around the corner, and for the first time I think I might actually be minimally ready for it when it happens.
I take a few moments to write an email to Asia telling her that I'm much better, and that the problem has been fixed. She's been worrying enough, I'd have felt terrible if I waited too long. I send one off to Cait as well. She worries about me too but, both as a Sidhe and as someone with more knowledge about what's going on, is more laid back about it. Of course, I also ask some pointed questions and call in the favors she said she owes me from my encounter with the Sidhe in Briton.
Then it's downstairs. I plan on a quick breakfast and then using a transit Script to head back to the mainland.
That plan dies the moment I enter the kitchen. Pua, Ku, and Sarah are waiting for me when I step in, all sitting around the table waiting for me. Behind them I see Thea, who glances at me, mouths 'good luck' and leaves.
Well, that's ominous.
"Um... Good morning?" Nobody responds, "Ah... I was just going to tell you that I was going to be heading back to the mainland..."
"Sit!" Pua barks and my legs almost give out underneath me in my haste to comply. I manage to make it to the chair though.
"Is... this an intervention?" I'm trying to be funny but I sound more hesitant than anything else.
"Yes," Sarah says flatly, and I flinch.
"Ericka," Pua's voice was much gentler now that she isn't keeping me from bolting, "we understand you feel you're under a lot of pressure. And recent events have legitimately required you to move quickly. However that's no longer true, and even in a rush only so much recklessness can be excused. Now that you aren't rushing to solve problems, you can take the time to do things right."
"I'm not..." I try again, only to be interrupted by Ku.
"How were you planning to feed your vampiric nature?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Um..." My first instinct is to say that I'll just keep killing things. A glance at Sarah though reminds me of her fear that I'll become some sort of mass murder, so that can't be the answer. I'm not sure I really have another one. I'm not going to keep making Pua distill life energy for me, and I doubt chickens have enough life energy without Pua's help to keep me going.
"What were you planning to do next?" Pua asks in the tone of somebody proving a point.
"Uh... I'm going to use a few favors Cait owes me to see if she can put me in touch with a really good fae smith to get arms and armor."
"At least she thought of armor," Ku murmurs.
"What were you planning to pay the smith with?" Pua continues.
"Uh... I don't know. I figure that could be negotiated. Once I knew what they wanted." I know even as I say it, it isn't a great plan.
"And you were planning to ask me for help with that, right? Seeing as it is part of my job to negotiate with ancient supernatural powers and get the better of Faustian deals?" the Kahuna continues inexorably.
"Ah..." all of them frown at my hesitation, "I didn't want to ask for more? You've already helped me a lot, and I figured I'd used up what favor I got from you for the help I've already given."
Pua stands, calmly leans across the table and smacks me upside the head, then sits down again, looking at me expectantly. I'm getting really tired of people hitting me in the head, "Pua would you help me negotiate with whatever fae Cait finds for me?" I scowl at her and rub my head where she smacked me.
"Of course!" Pua says happily, "Don't worry, you'll pay us back in the future for it." She drops the cheer and leans forward to put a hand on mine, "We're worried about you, and how casually you've been risking yourself. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to help you get a handle on your powers, Ku is going to teach you how to handle your new physical capabilities and some other useful things, and until we're satisfied, you're not leaving."
I scowl harder. I'm twenty one, dammit. I do not like the idea of people controlling me, and this is starting to set me off. It isn't mind control, but it certainly looks like the curtailing of my choices, "Don't I get a say in this?" I demand flatly.
"No," Sarah replies just as flatly. My teeth grit and I'm about to start yelling at them when Sarah scoots her chair next to me and hugs me tightly, "I know you're going to leave as soon as you can, but please take care of yourself so that you only leave when you're ready." Not because you're dead.
She doesn't say it, but I hear it anyway. I slump in my chair, "Fine."
God dammit, Sarah.
###
Ku gets me first and starts immediately after breakfast, while Pua heads to the beach muttering something about people panicking, thinking that there are sharks inside the reef. To my surprise, instead of dragging me down to the beach where most of our fighting practice happens, Ku takes me inland to a grove of Koa trees and sits me down.
"The first thing we need to do is take care of your feeding problem," Ku explains, "otherwise, practicing is going to be very hard for you. You can't really work on something if you collapse in exhaustion after a few hours. You also need to know how long you can go on one tank of gas so to speak. Before any of that, though, you need to be able to feed yourself."
I make a face at the phrasing, but I can't really argue that it's been Pua feeding me thus far, and I can't really do it myself. So I nod, "I assume you have a solution?"
"I'm going to teach you something that we call Mana Breathing. It's a technique that's been developed in a lot of places under various names. Cultivation, Bodhisattva Enlightenment, Senjutsu, all are names for pretty much the same thing," Ku explains, sitting cross legged in front of me.
I frown. I've looked into Senjutsu briefly before, during my frantic scramble to keep from starving. I tossed it out because it looks remarkably like what I had tried to do for the first several years of my life and failed at, and because I'm not sure I'll be able to use it everywhere I go in the future. "Doesn't that draw on some sort of field of 'natural universal energy'?" I ask doubtfully.
"It's not the Force," Ku deadpans, "Mana is an interesting word in Hawaiian. Before fantasy authors co-opted it to mean 'magic' generically, it meant... there's no really good English translation. Power, sort of. Everything has mana, it's what you take from food to nourish you, it's what parents try to gather throughout their lives and leave to their children so that each generation is greater than the last. Among many other things, it's life."
My eyes widen as I listen. Mana sounds a lot like life energy, "And Mana Breathing is...?"
"The art of taking in the mana of the world around you, and controlling your own mana," Ku says with a smile that's more than a little smug. Bastard.
"So how do we start." I'm a little eager now.
"Fortunately for you, meditation."
###
After a few hours of meditation, I learn that feeling the mana around me is easy. The only reason I've never pulled it off before is because I was metaphorically looking in the wrong direction. That's embarrassing. I haven't managed to do anything else with it yet, but finding the mana isn't hard.
Ku then starts helping me get used to my new capabilities by beating the crap out of me until lunch. We break an hour before it's time to eat and he helps me rework my exercises so I can continue to get some benefit out of them.
Lunch is quiet. I'm exhausted already and slightly depressed about how close I'd been to a much simpler solution to my power problems that I just walked right past. I have a sneaking suspicion that Pua isn't going to make things any better.
Pua has two tasks for me to begin with.
The first is to run an analysis Script on myself and go through it with a fine-tooth comb. Honestly, I don't learn a lot, but what I do learn is good to know. My muscles and bones are made of the same stuff that troll's are. Some sort of advanced carbon allotrope that I'd need a degree in molecular engineering or something to really make sense of. They consume a lot of energy, and with the life energy fuel they are getting now, they're actually working as well as they can.
My voice box is a complex structure with a range that I can barely hear at the top end, and can't hear at all at the bottom end. In addition, with the more supernatural aspects now receiving power from my vampire energy network, I'm capable of all sorts of sound feats that I have no idea how to perform. Matching resonance frequencies, sonic impactors, focused sound beams that can cause anything from the feeling of burning, to just punching a hole in whatever it's aimed at. The mesmerism works almost like The Voice from Dune. Some general influence is possible from just sound and intent, but the really impressive things will require me to tune into an individual's specific... frequency isn't really the right word, but it's as close as I'm going to get. Unfortunately, knowing what that frequency is, is something that Sirens apparently have some apparatus to figure out instinctively. I do not. So while most sound tricks I'll be able to figure out with time and training, more than the basic mesmerism will probably be beyond me unless I go hunting for Sirens again. Assuming instinct is something I can steal at all, I haven't actually tried that. Not that it's something I really want to do in either case.
The vampire stuff is really very straightforward. I have a network that pumps life energy around my body to saturate and power everything attached to it. Which is great. On the other hand, while I have the network, I still only have about as much life energy production as a normal very in-shape person. Nothing is improved, yet, and I have a very limited amount of power to work with. Sadly, the only solution to that will be time. I'll be able to hold more as I use and stretch my network, but until then I'll have to budget power carefully.
The best thing I learn is what I had taken from the Sidhe. After looking over my analysis and the knife a dozen times, I finally figure out what happened and what I'd taken. The knife receiving no direct input from me about what to take, took whatever power he was using at the time. In this case I had acquired the Tuatha De Denan glamor. Which is awesome. The only downside is that it's a power hog of truly spectacular magnitude. How long I can keep something up will probably depend on the size and complexity of the illusion, but I can't imagine keeping it up for more than five minutes. At best. If I'm lucky. I'm probably being optimistic.
The second thing Pua wants me to do is to socialize.
I can't quite believe it when she says it, "Why?"
"First, because it's healthy. Humans aren't made for isolation, even if it's just social. So as your friend, and your Kahuna, I'm making you interact with people as a stabilizing influence." She leads me out of her house where I've been reading the results of my analysis, "Second, even if you don't intend to socialize here, you will probably want to at some point. Your life will be easier if you learn how to deal with people now."
"You do remember that I lived an entire life before this one, don't you?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"And how much do you remember of your last life?" I open my mouth to answer, then slowly close it, frowning. Pua has mercy on me and keeps going, "Third, the more connections you have to people and the world around you, the less likely you are to just jump into things without thinking." She glares at me slightly, I just roll my eyes back at her. Pua stops at the edge of one of the open grassy areas of the village that are used like parks.
"Pua, where are we going?" I sigh.
"Here. I've volunteered you to look after the village kids twice a week for a few hours." She waves a hand at the field.
Slowly, I turn my head to look at the grassy expanse and find it populated by children aged between eight and thirteen, moving about in an approximate mush. "Pua," I mutter trying not to be overheard by the swarm in front of me. It feels a little like staring down the pixies again. "Pua!" I say a little louder when I get no response. "Pua!" I finally look over, and find that Pua has snuck away and left me here!
That bitch.
I turn back to the field.
Okay.
I can do this.
Just remember, they can smell fear.
I need some way to keep them focused, and more importantly, here. If they start running around the village I'll never find them all. So I need to keep them interested and engaged.
What did I like at that age?
I'm not sure I ever was that age in this life... but I do remember the first time I went to gymnastics and saw the older girls practicing. It was enthralling to watch them move and spin, fly through the air as though gravity was a mere suggestion.
That was the first time I really wanted to be a good gymnast. Before that I was determined to take the classes just enough to get my body to do what I wanted it to, and have a safe way to build balanced muscle. Afterwards, though, I wanted that freedom. Both physically, the ability to move however and over anything I want, and after I really started, there was a kind of freedom in the total focus required.
For a little while I wasn't rushing to outpace some oncoming supernatural disaster, and I didn't feel more pressure afterwards, because my escape was still helping.
But most of all, I remember seeing the older girl doing her routine and being enthralled.
I can work with that.
The kids are everywhere, but for the moment still sort of central to the park. I aim myself just past the edge of the swarm, and start with a short run up. I really hope that my new strength won't screw this up too much. I start with a series of handsprings, using as little force as possible, and still go through them faster than I ever have before. It's one of the most intense series of tumbles I've ever done. Each action being recalculated on the fly to not be too forceful, and to adjust to avoid disaster when I am anyway, or I'm not forceful enough. I actually get enough air on a front flip to rotate all the way through twice before landing too far forward. I manage to save myself by going into what I think is a pretty smooth forward roll.
I finish my impromptu floor routine as we'd been taught, legs together arms flung high. Sticking the landing is so much easier with cat balance and reflexes and troll's strength. The extra height is more than a little awkward, though. It messes with me more than the extra strength, honestly. I turn to look at the Swarm to find them all staring at me wide eyed and open mouthed.
I wink at them with a smile, "Who wants to learn how to do that?"
The cacophony of positive responses turns my smile into a grin.
Victory is mine.
###
It isn't until a couple of hours later that I get the full scope of Pua's evil plan to socialize me. Because that's when the kids get picked up. Parents, older siblings, they all want to talk to me. Some of them actually try hitting on me, fortunately only women. Someone, Pua, must have let my sexuality be quietly known. I eventually decide to be grateful for it as nobody gives me a hard time. Which really shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, given Pua. I still have to deal with kids and adults in a friendly fashion twice a week.
Well played, Kahuna, well played.
That establishes my pattern for the next several weeks. Mornings with Ku, afternoons with Pua when she has time, apparently the shark problem is more serious than she first assumed, and twice a week I'm socialized.
Ku guides me through meditative exercises to gain control of my own life energy and to reach out to the mana of the world around us.
Manipulating my internal mana is something that I'm slowly getting a handle on, in the most crude sense. I can make the energy circulate faster or slower, and I'm starting to be able to pull it away from things that I'm not using, like my voice. I'm not there yet, but this sort of manipulation is coming easily, if slowly. The techniques that most use to boost themselves don't really work for me, though. The channels of the vampiric network are too rigid to be adjusted the way the more free-form flows that other users have can be. And for some reason, I can't reach outside myself to draw mana in for the life of me.
I can feel it there. Pua has checked me over and there's no physical or metaphysical reason for my difficulty. The conclusion that Pua and Ku have reached is that I have some sort of mental block.
Which is a rather large problem.
So I do what I always do when I run into a problem. I write a Script for it. The idea is to create a zone of increased mana pressure around myself. Not too high a pressure, just enough so that I won't have to reach out to get it, I can just let it in, and the pressure will force the mana into me. With the right amount of pressure and a way to open myself to the energy, it should work out fine.
I make a note that as soon as I have the free time, to get started on that. I'm planning out what the Script will look like in my head when I remember that I don't have to do this on my own. I have two people who, in theory, know what they are doing with Mana Breathing, and can probably tell me if this is a good idea or not.
I hesitate.
Normally I would proceed on my own best judgment, and deal with the problems as they come up. Now though... I'll continue to work on the Script and show it to Pua and Ku when I actually have something to show. I don't even know if this is possible or not just yet. Better to have something solid before bringing it up.
After meditation and beatings with Ku, I'm given over to Pua.
What we can do is limited while I'm dependent on her alchemical chicken life. It's enough to keep me going but it isn't the most efficient medium for absorbing energy. Still, we learn a few things.
Most importantly, the glamor is the next best thing to useless. Tuatha De Denan glamors are some of the best illusions in the world. They can account for sight, touch, hearing, everything including supernatural senses. There are stories of faerie lords making entire cities complete with populations that people lived in for years, without ever knowing that what was around them wasn't real.
The problem comes in with the amount of detail that one has to keep track of in order to make even the most basic of illusions. Fae brains are built to keep track of all of that.
Mine isn't.
We start with me trying to make an apple, just the image, with an apple there in front of me for reference. I start with a red sphere and try to add details one at a time. While whatever I'm focused on at the moment looks good, everything else basically vanishes. I give it shape, then try for the shine on the apple skin, which makes the shape vanish. Then I try to give it texture, which means the shine vanishes, and so on. The glamor ability is literally too powerful and versatile for me to use, I physically can't focus on enough things at once to make it work. Which doesn't even get into how much lower fidelity a human's imagination is compared to a fae's.
Trying to do the image all at once is almost worse. It's like seeing an apple in a dream, as in you have to be in an altered state of consciousness for it to be at all believable.
However, there is one illusion that I manage almost perfectly right off the bat. The illusion of my absence. For whatever reason, the concept, 'I'm not here', is easy to hold in my mind, and it's impressive as hell. I can't be seen, heard, or touched, which isn't to say I became incorporeal. People just won't notice or feel anything if they touch me. Even supernatural senses won't pick up anything. The only real problem with it is how much power it takes. With my current life energy I can keep it up for thirty seconds. Maybe a minute if I'm not doing anything else.
It isn't as useful as it could be, but I'll take it. After all, just like everything else hooked up to my vampiric mana network, it'll only improve with time.
###
It's almost a month later that I'm working with Pua, when one of the village men bursts into her house and into the room where we're working on my ability to reach outside of myself. He's breathless, pale, and gasping for air. Which is impressive because there isn't anybody in the village who isn't in fantastic shape. Ku makes sure of it, as most of the adults have at least some combat training under him. The stench of terror is what really gets my attention though.
"Kahuna!" He manages to get out with his first steps into the room, "So-Something... at the... at the parking lot..." He fights to get words out through his gasping, "asking for..." He gestures at me, unable to get any more words out as he tries to breath.
"Something?" Pua asks, demands, her voice full of tension. I glance over at her, her face is in her professional mask, nothing but comforting certainty. I can smell how worried she is though. Something that only gets worse as the man's only reply is to pale and nod.
We glance at each other and head for the parking lot at a fast walk. Pua's in the lead, and I follow just behind her to back her up. I hope somebody is getting Ku as well, I don't like my chances against anything that can just stroll past Pua's protections.
When we reach the lot I almost attack on sight. Waiting for us is an impossibly beautiful woman, with midnight black hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, complemented by eyes the dark blue of deep water, and pale porcelain skin. Except for her lips which are blood red and set into a serious frown. It's the kind of enthralling beauty that I've only seen once before, in what turned out to be a bog in England.
The woman is a fae, a Sidhe.
What stops me from immediately lunging for her are two things. The first is the sense for the mana around me I've gained with Mana Breathing. The Sidhe radiates power like a volcano radiates heat. It's almost oppressive, and I have to remind myself that there's actually no physical reason I should be having trouble breathing. That if I hadn't been learning Mana Breathing, I never would have even noticed the power, and that the feeling of pressure is all in my head.
As if to drive home just out-classed I am here, she's leaning against an old steel-framed truck, waiting for us. Showing not only no discomfort, but no awareness that she's so close, and in fact touching, a great deal of iron. True, it's iron in steel, but for most fae that wouldn't matter. Even greater fae would be weakened and harmed by steel, if not nearly as much.
The other reason I hesitate, though, is because of what she's wearing. It isn't a fancy dress made of spiderwebs and dew or some such. It isn't bright shining armor made of the silvery metal that the fae are known for. Instead, she's wearing work boots, jeans that look like they've seen a lot of hard use, a tank top, and denim jacket.
Her clothes, casual as they are, do nothing to reduce the noble and refined bearing of not just a Sidhe noble, but a Sidhe noble with power. Power that has nothing to do with her title or position.
As we approach, she stands up from the truck to meet us. Pua and I both bow politely, mine deeper than hers, and the fae after studying us both for a moment nods to Pua in some form of acknowledgement.
Before Pua can ask any questions, the Sidhe lady speaks. "I look for Ericka Rhostana," she declares, her voice far from the bells or music I expect. Instead it rings like a hammer on an anvil, and carries the crushing weight of deep water.
I step forward, even with Pua, where she grabs my wrist to keep me from advancing further. She doesn't need to worry though. I'm not getting any closer to the Sidhe than I have to, and I'm certainly not going to leave the side of the nominal powerhouse on our side.
The Sidhe examines me again with greater interest than she had before. I feel her power wash over me, no doubt performing an examination that would leave me feeling violated if I had any idea how much information she got from it.
"I have come because Caitríona, the Queen of Cats asked that I do so. I am Vivain, Lady of the Lake, and I am here to see if you might be worthy of one of my blades."
Cait... What did you do?!
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jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Cait: Step one to win the Fate Stay Night cosplay contest with you as the contestant. I have the hair dye and dress/armor already; we just needed a proper sword.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
...kinda annoyed that at no point during this long period has MC thought about trying to figure out what she got from the Fey.
Also, since this magic isn't interdimensional, that means the presence was... what, Michael?
No, that makes sense actually, given the heaven system is probably related to script.
Yeah, my bet's on Michael.
EDIT: Didn't reload page, and all of a sudden a chapter appeared that was posted 8 hrs ago
Also, since this magic isn't interdimensional, that means the presence was... what, Michael?
No, that makes sense actually, given the heaven system is probably related to script.
Yeah, my bet's on Michael.
EDIT: Didn't reload page, and all of a sudden a chapter appeared that was posted 8 hrs ago
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jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
She already knows what she got from the fae.
It's the whole 'not here' thing that she does now. It's a power hog but a very good invisibility power.
Actually script magic is interdimensional in a sense. In that if you are in a reality, world script works.
What she's using is far more primal than the creations of the Christian God etc.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
When I wrote that post, I did not see that chapter was up, due to me not refreshing the tab before I started writing, even though I had loaded the tab a while ago.
Okay, yeah, but what I'm considering here is that it's not something that originates in another dimension. The reason that's relevant is because Great Red judges what's allowed in and out IIRC, so His Redness would make a lot of sense here if it WAS a power working through dimensions.
I'm saying that the stuff God made is related to it in the same way Java is related to binary. Sure, one's more primal, but that doesn't mean that it 'trumps' the other.
- Location
- france
Before anyone start on guessing, it can't be any of the blades associated with Arthur:
So no Caliburn or Excalibur. Beside, in Highschool DxD, they are holy swords forged from magic and alchemyby those whao attained the domain of God and used mainly by various churches. They are also forged from pieces of the True Excalibur.
... I grant you, Vivian is a top artificer, but she's a fae and not a divine being.
So, it must be a Fae blade or... perhaps a blade forged by others and gifted to Vivian for either safekeeping or to be gifted back as appropriate for a particular blade (in fact, the original Excalibur from the legend outside Highschool DxD should be in that case as she was given back to Vivian until King Arthur came back from Avalon).
Another possibility would be that Vivian could forge a blade exclusively for the character.
Book 1 - Learned
- Location
- California
Both Pua and I stare at the fae. Pua throws off her surprise faster than I do, which is good, because I have no idea what to say. The only Lady of the Lake I know of is the one that's responsible for giving Arthur Excalibur, and this woman certainly doesn't look like any of the depictions I've ever heard of her. Of course, a lot of those descriptions are nothing more than an arm sticking out of a lake holding a sword.
"So you wish to begin negotiations?" Pua asks carefully.
"You are mistaken," Vivain says with a smile, as though she ran into this mistake a lot, "I have come to observe young Ericka. From these observations I will determine both if I am willing to give her a sword, and what sort of blade would most compliment her. Only once these have been determined, will there be negotiations. As of this moment, there is no obligation on either side."
Both Pua and I let loose small sighs of relief and relax slightly, "Then would you accept hospitality?"
Behind us I hear the sound of somebody moving at a dead sprint towards us. Every so often the sounds would vanish for half a second only to reappear a large distance closer. I turn my head to see Ku arriving at a run with a broad-bladed sword, its brief crosspiece and pommel almost the same width, which looks a little odd. It's the pattern on the steel that almost looks like wood grain that really stands out, though.
At least until the mana rolling off the blade hits me.
We all freeze. Ku looks at his sister, then at me, and finally at the Sidhe standing examining him much like she examined Pua.
It's the Sidhe that breaks the silence, "Is that Vili's sword?" She sounds surprised and fascinated.
Ku glances down at the naked blade in his fist and slowly moves it behind himself. He looks like he's trying to pretend it's not there, "Um... yes. Pua?"
The Kahuna suppresses the giggles trying to escape with an iron will, and is mostly successful, "Hospitality?" The Lady of the Lake also looking faintly amused, nods, "Bread and salt."
Ku blinks, "What?"
"Bread and salt, brother dear. Now."
"Oh..." Ku starts backing up, "I'll just go get that then, shall I?"
Twenty minutes later all four of us have partaken of bread, salt, and water, and established hospitality. Which means we can all relax with some form of protection for everybody involved.
At first, not a lot changes. My schedule remains the same, mornings with Ku working on Mana Breathing, then learning how to fight with my new body, and how to fight better in general. Though Ku does start spending more time on my swordsmanship.
In the afternoons I spend my time on my new powers, split evenly between illusions, on which I make no progress, and sound tricks, on which I make small progress. For example, I do discover the resonance frequency for the bones in the human ear. Pua's pretty upset with me when I stumble on that one. Probably more than she otherwise would have been since my bones are troll bones now, so I escape unscathed.
Ku laughing at her can't have helped, either.
These sessions get less and less frequent, though, as whatever shark problem Pua has been watching has escalated. It's gone past concerning and she's spending more time trying to do something about it. I manage to use one of the days when both she and Ku aren't busy to show them the work I've done on the Mana Pressure Script.
I'm expecting them to have a long list of reasons why this is a terrible idea. I can certainly think of a litany of potential problems. So I'm surprised when they both agree it's a pretty good idea. Ku starts teaching me how to open myself passively and Pua starts helping me to adjust the pressure my Script will produce. We're trying to find the perfect balance between enough pressure to fill me up quickly and not so much that I damage myself.
Through all of this, there's Vivain, Lady of the Lake. Between one day and the next, a small forge appears by the stream that ran through the village, right next to one of the fish ponds. She spends her nights there, but otherwise spends all her time following me around. She watches me meditate and spar with Ku, sits in on my lessons with Pua, and looks over my shoulder when I work by myself. She even follows me to my enforced socializing time, which has turned into an intro to gymnastics class.
She examines my Scripts and asks permission to look at my analysis results. What really throws me, though, is when I turn around from adjusting my Mana Pressure Script and find her examining my prototype trait theft knives.
My iron prototype trait theft knives.
I'm reduced to staring, eyes wide and mouth opened. Leaning against a steel truck is one thing, but handling actual cold iron is just... "How?"
She glances up at me and smirks slightly, "I would be a poor smith if I could not handle iron."
"Well... I guess... but," I point at where she's testing the edge of the knife against her thumb, "how?"
"It's called being iron blooded. Sometimes one of us is born immune to iron's touch. Much like when on occasion a vampire is turned to a daywalker, immune to their racial weakness. We are highly desired by other fae, often to our detriment. We tend to stick together because of this, the elder helping to protect and hide the younger until they have the power to protect themselves," she explains, putting one of the knives down. "You use a great deal of the World's Script. Would it not be easier to have Pua enchant things for you?"
I shrug, processing the idea of iron blooded fae, and why I've never heard of them before, "Easier? Yes. Right now, anyway, I don't plan on staying in this universe any longer than I have to. Any equipment I plan on keeping will have to work anywhere I end up, as well as here. And ideally work in the same way everywhere, as well. Nobody I've talked to knows any way to do that aside from Script."
"Truly." She turns to look at me, "How do you plan to survive the Gap?"
"The what?" I have a horrible feeling I've forgotten something important.
"The Dimensional Gap." Vivain raises an eyebrow, then sighs disappointed at my continued blank look, "The place between universes. The place you must traverse in order to accomplish your ambitions. Anything that enters there unprotected is immediately reduced to its base concepts, coming apart under the lack of physics. Something you may wish to address before you journey forth."
I blink, then settle back down into my chair with a groan. Of course, I scrub my face in frustration. Of course that place is hostile, it doesn't matter what you call it, the Blind Eternities, the Warp, or whatever the hell it is in Bleach, it's always lethal without precautions. How the hell did I forget that?
"What will you do?" the Sidhe asks me, her face blank, but her tone interested, "What will you do to solve this problem?"
I don't think my first instinct, reaching for my Script dictionary, will help me here. If Script is, as Pua said, and I have no reason to doubt her, the source code of the universe, would it even work in a place that was defined as where the universe isn't? I don't think any kind of Script will help me here. Unfortunately, I only have one other tool in my tool box, which is to find something that is unbothered by the Gap, kill it, and steal that immunity.
Only problem is, as far as I know, the only thing that's native to the Gap is Ophis. Dragon god of Infinity and uncontested holder of the title of 'most powerful thing in the world'.
Yeah, I really don't think that trying to pick a fight with her is a great plan. It isn't even a bad plan. It's a suicidal plan. It's a dumb suicidal plan. Just no.
I have no real other ideas though, so for the moment...
I glance up at her with a sigh and shrug, "Right now? Nothing. One problem at a time. I'm nowhere near ready to try leaving, and have way too many other things on my plate. Which doesn't even count what you're going to charge me for my commission."
Strangely, that earns me a small smile and an approving nod. Not really sure why, but I'll take it.
It takes me another two days to get the mana pressure tuned correctly for my Script. Or at least tuned closely enough for me to be willing to try it. With Ku or Pua watching, of course. So the morning after I finish, I grab the reference sheet for the new Script and head off to the field where I spend my mornings meditating and getting the shit beat out of me.
Ku really enjoys the fact he could do pretty much anything to me shy of breaking bones in practice and I'd be ready to go again the next day.
To my surprise, I hear Pua there before I see either of the siblings, "...Kamohoali'i says they're not his."
I slow down to a walk to listen. Kamohoali'i, isn't a word I've heard before. I wonder if it's a name or a title?
"If they're rogue sharks we'll have to deal with them ourselves," Ku points out as I come around the bend in the path to be able to see them, "at least if they've tasted blood already, they can't have had much. They'd be attacking us already if they were too far gone."
"I'll try to figure out where we can pin them down on the beach. I know you can swim like a sea turtle but my Aumakua are more intellectual." As I approach, Pua turns to look at me over her shoulder, one eyebrow raised, "And don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?"
I shrug, "You knew I was there and didn't stop talking, so I figure you didn't mind. Besides, if you really didn't want to take the chance of my overhearing, you'd be talking in Hawaiian. Or some other language that the two of you speak that I don't, it's not like you're lacking for choice. What's an Aumakua?" I say the last word slowly to make sure I pronounce it correctly.
Pua grinned at me, agreeing with my reasoning with a nod, "An Aumakua is a guardian spirit. They can be animal spirits, ancestor ghosts, mo'o, or even gods. Mostly they just provide advice or spiritual protection, but sometimes they'll teach their person some things."
"My childhood Aumakua was the sea turtle," Ku explains, "they taught me how to swim. I can hit twenty-two mph in the water if I really work at it." The big man shrugs and then moves on, "You're a bit early, what's up?"
I grin, I'm going to ask about Kamohoali'i as well, but I don't really care about sharks that aren't hurting anybody. If I need to know anything more about this, they'll tell me. My new Script is far more exciting, "I think I've got the pressure Script ready to try!" I bounce on my toes, for a moment I'm distracted by the still unfamiliar movement on my chest, but I move past that easily, "I was hoping that we could give it a shot." I hold out the paper to Pua who takes it, examining what I've written out carefully. "I know the pressure is still on the high side, but since it should be supercharging my regeneration while I'm using it I think I'll heal the minimal damage faster than it'll happen."
"That will hurt, you know," Pua points out, looking up at me.
I blink at her, "And?"
Ku leans back staring at the sky, laughing as though he can't quite believe what he just heard. Pua puts her face in her hands and groans.
I don't know what their problem is. A little temporary pain is well worth shaving fifteen minutes off my projected charge time. The difference between forty-five minutes, and thirty could be huge.
"Fine," Pua groans, having finished despairing of me, "You two get a piece of particle board big enough for this, I'll grab the bone chalk from my workshop."
Ku, still laughing at me, heads off to get the plywood. I look after the two of them before turning to look at where Vivain is still following me around, "What?" Vivain shakes her head at me, with what's probably the most subtle barely there smile I've ever seen, then shoos me after Ku.
The feeling of actually taking in the life of the world is an experience. The pressure Script works just about perfectly, so all I have to do is relax in the right way and the universe comes pouring into me, becoming me. Energy thunders through the channels I'd stolen from the vampires, filling my entire body with life. Powers that have only been barely working, like my regeneration and strength, explode into full bloom, working to a degree that I've only experienced when I first stole them. Little aches and pains that I hadn't even noticed vanish, and a lethargy that I haven't been aware I'd been fighting against, vanishes as well. I feel powerful for the first time in my life.
I kinda want to go find a stray devil and punch it in the face just for the hell of it.
Everything just feels better the longer I let the energy in. It fills me up, and up and up, until I start to feel stretched. The channels of my mana network swelling with the amount of power that's being forced into them. At first the stretch feels good, like a muscle that hasn't moved in far too long, being exercised at last. Then I start to feel a strain, then it starts to hurt. I grit my teeth and hold on as long as I can.
Finally, I can't take it anymore and slam myself shut, becoming separate from the universe once again. My breaths come in great shuddering gasps. My whole body aches, and then my revitalized healing soothes the damage I did to myself, and I feel better than I ever have before. I bounce to my feet, grinning at my observers.
"It worked?" Pua asks, stepping forward to check me over, "How do you feel?"
"It worked great, and I feel great!" I chirp. God, I'm still chirping. I'll grow out of that someday. I hope.
My cheer fades as I see the growing grin on Ku's face, "So now we have a reliable way to heal you completely? And we don't have to worry about you exhausting yourself if you work too hard?" I swallow hard and Ku's smile turns downright evil, "We are going to get so much more done now!"
What have I done?
Any sense of restraint that the Ke'Kua'Okolani siblings may have had, vanishes like smoke in a strong breeze. As it turns out, they've been taking it easy on me for fear of my starving to death from working too hard. Now that I can feed at least my metaphysical needs with half an hour of meditation, they start pushing me hard.
The new pace does produce results, though, and not just in improved skill. We learn that if I fill up on mana in the morning I can just about make it to dinner before I need to fill up again. As long as I'm not doing anything strenuous. So I need to 'feed' about twice a day with a fairly normal low activity level.
Sparing and working with my powers, though, I run through my meager reserves of mana, a term I decide I liked better than 'life energy', distressingly quickly. Which is a serious problem.
Learning to budget my mana is the only solution we have besides just waiting for my capacity to grow. So I learn to only use as much as I need when I need to, and rely on the skill that Ku is so cheerfully pounding into me, for as much as I can.
My pleasant routine is interrupted when I arrive at the training field and find both Ku and Pua there. The two are engaged in a discussion of some intensity, in what sounds like German? Whatever it is, this time they clearly don't want anybody else listening in. Ku spots me the moment I step onto the grass.
I head in their direction and Ku addresses me the moment I'm in earshot, "Ericka, today's training is going to be called off. Pua and I have a meeting we have to get to, no idea how long it'll last, but it's entirely possible that we won't be back until this evening."
I sigh at that. It's not that I begrudge them other duties, they've already spent a huge amount of time helping me out. Mostly it's that I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. Work on Script or find something to help out with around the village, I guess.
"I will teach her." I nearly jump out of my skin at the inhuman voice behind me. "For this morning at least." I totally forgot that the Lady of the Lake is still following me around. She isn't really hiding herself, she just doesn't do anything other than watch, quietly. It's easy to forget about her entirely, which I have no doubt is the idea. Ku and Pua glance at each other and Pua steps forward. Before she can speak though, Vivain holds up a hand, "No debt will be incurred. This will allow me to further assess Miss Rhostana, and she will continue to learn at her current pace. When both parties benefit, there is no debt."
I glance at Pua, who after a moment's thought, nods. So I turn to the Lady of the Lake and bow properly, "Then I'm happy to accept, th-" No, you don't thank fae, "I'm great-" No, gratitude is thanking by another name, "I look forward to your instruction." That works.
Vivain has a small smile as she watches my verbal flailing but doesn't say anything, she simply nods. Ku and Pua glance at each other again and shrug in unison.
"In that case, we'll get out of your way," Ku says as the two head for the parking lot, "Good luck, Ericka!"
"Well then," Vivain tosses me a dull steel two-handed European sword which I caught easily. Where the hell did that come from? "Shall we begin?" Her own one handed sword is flying at my head before she finishes speaking.
Fighting the Lady of the Lake is surreal. I imagine it kind of looks like bad fight choreography, because no matter what I do, she's always in position waiting for me. She never takes a stance, never hurries, never puts any effort into her actions, and she still hits like a truck, and always gets to position before I do. And through it all she lectures. They're informative lectures, she critiques my style, form, footwork, posture, everything. It's really good advice too, but she really can't have made it any clearer that batting me around takes absolutely no effort on her part.
By the time she lets me go I'm sweating, empty of mana, and ready to call it a day and just go to bed. Unfortunately, it's socialize Ericka day, so I don't really have that choice. I run back to Pua's house, shower, and spend half an hour meditating with my new Script to both remove the strange, gnawing, hollow feeling having no mana gives me, and to calm down after getting worked over so hard by Vivain.
I'm not really upset or angry, but going from fighting Ku, who I've never beat, to fighting Vivain who is an infinitely more difficult opponent, makes it hard to believe I'm making any progress. Intellectually, I know that I have to be getting better, and Ku is nothing but complementary about my progress. Still, it's hard to see in the moment.
After my half-hour break, I head back out to the central park where my unofficial gymnastics class waits for me. They're rolling and tumbling and cart wheeling all over the place. Though they've at least taken enough of my admonishments to heart that they are sticking to lanes and all going in the same direction, so they aren't running into each other.
I clap twice to get their attention and start them on their warmups. Rolls across the field, then cartwheels back, then back rolls across again. Back and forth until they've performed all the basics I've taught them over the last few weeks to my satisfaction.
Then it's time for something new. I make sure I have all their attention and start demonstrating how to perform one tumble into another. To start with we're going to do cartwheels into forward rolls. I demonstrate a few times, then set the older kids to work as I help the younger ones not hurt themselves.
I still don't like kids, but there is something hilarious about watching a five year old trying to coordinate all four limbs during dynamic movement and failing. It's adorable, kind of like watching a puppy fall on its face. Undeniably cute, but you still feel somewhat guilty for being so amused...
A sound, like being inside a huge bell that's just been struck, rattles the village.
I freeze along with everybody else as we all try to determine what the sound has been. A moment later it comes again, and this time I'm looking in the right direction. From the north side of the village, in between the road and the beach, the sound is accompanied by a flash of light, then an invisible dome around the village ripples into visibility, starting from where that flash of light had come from. Moments later the dome fades out again, only for the bell to sound again and the dome to once more appear.
Something is striking the village wards, and striking them hard. From how much longer the shield takes to fade every time it's struck they won't hold forever. Or possibly even very long, given how recently Pua put up the extra protections around the village.
The children huddle together around me looking up at the rippling sky. "Ericka? What's going on?" one of the younger boys asks, clinging to my leg.
Unfortunately the only answer I can give him is, "I don't know."
"So you wish to begin negotiations?" Pua asks carefully.
"You are mistaken," Vivain says with a smile, as though she ran into this mistake a lot, "I have come to observe young Ericka. From these observations I will determine both if I am willing to give her a sword, and what sort of blade would most compliment her. Only once these have been determined, will there be negotiations. As of this moment, there is no obligation on either side."
Both Pua and I let loose small sighs of relief and relax slightly, "Then would you accept hospitality?"
Behind us I hear the sound of somebody moving at a dead sprint towards us. Every so often the sounds would vanish for half a second only to reappear a large distance closer. I turn my head to see Ku arriving at a run with a broad-bladed sword, its brief crosspiece and pommel almost the same width, which looks a little odd. It's the pattern on the steel that almost looks like wood grain that really stands out, though.
At least until the mana rolling off the blade hits me.
We all freeze. Ku looks at his sister, then at me, and finally at the Sidhe standing examining him much like she examined Pua.
It's the Sidhe that breaks the silence, "Is that Vili's sword?" She sounds surprised and fascinated.
Ku glances down at the naked blade in his fist and slowly moves it behind himself. He looks like he's trying to pretend it's not there, "Um... yes. Pua?"
The Kahuna suppresses the giggles trying to escape with an iron will, and is mostly successful, "Hospitality?" The Lady of the Lake also looking faintly amused, nods, "Bread and salt."
Ku blinks, "What?"
"Bread and salt, brother dear. Now."
"Oh..." Ku starts backing up, "I'll just go get that then, shall I?"
Twenty minutes later all four of us have partaken of bread, salt, and water, and established hospitality. Which means we can all relax with some form of protection for everybody involved.
###
At first, not a lot changes. My schedule remains the same, mornings with Ku working on Mana Breathing, then learning how to fight with my new body, and how to fight better in general. Though Ku does start spending more time on my swordsmanship.
In the afternoons I spend my time on my new powers, split evenly between illusions, on which I make no progress, and sound tricks, on which I make small progress. For example, I do discover the resonance frequency for the bones in the human ear. Pua's pretty upset with me when I stumble on that one. Probably more than she otherwise would have been since my bones are troll bones now, so I escape unscathed.
Ku laughing at her can't have helped, either.
These sessions get less and less frequent, though, as whatever shark problem Pua has been watching has escalated. It's gone past concerning and she's spending more time trying to do something about it. I manage to use one of the days when both she and Ku aren't busy to show them the work I've done on the Mana Pressure Script.
I'm expecting them to have a long list of reasons why this is a terrible idea. I can certainly think of a litany of potential problems. So I'm surprised when they both agree it's a pretty good idea. Ku starts teaching me how to open myself passively and Pua starts helping me to adjust the pressure my Script will produce. We're trying to find the perfect balance between enough pressure to fill me up quickly and not so much that I damage myself.
Through all of this, there's Vivain, Lady of the Lake. Between one day and the next, a small forge appears by the stream that ran through the village, right next to one of the fish ponds. She spends her nights there, but otherwise spends all her time following me around. She watches me meditate and spar with Ku, sits in on my lessons with Pua, and looks over my shoulder when I work by myself. She even follows me to my enforced socializing time, which has turned into an intro to gymnastics class.
She examines my Scripts and asks permission to look at my analysis results. What really throws me, though, is when I turn around from adjusting my Mana Pressure Script and find her examining my prototype trait theft knives.
My iron prototype trait theft knives.
I'm reduced to staring, eyes wide and mouth opened. Leaning against a steel truck is one thing, but handling actual cold iron is just... "How?"
She glances up at me and smirks slightly, "I would be a poor smith if I could not handle iron."
"Well... I guess... but," I point at where she's testing the edge of the knife against her thumb, "how?"
"It's called being iron blooded. Sometimes one of us is born immune to iron's touch. Much like when on occasion a vampire is turned to a daywalker, immune to their racial weakness. We are highly desired by other fae, often to our detriment. We tend to stick together because of this, the elder helping to protect and hide the younger until they have the power to protect themselves," she explains, putting one of the knives down. "You use a great deal of the World's Script. Would it not be easier to have Pua enchant things for you?"
I shrug, processing the idea of iron blooded fae, and why I've never heard of them before, "Easier? Yes. Right now, anyway, I don't plan on staying in this universe any longer than I have to. Any equipment I plan on keeping will have to work anywhere I end up, as well as here. And ideally work in the same way everywhere, as well. Nobody I've talked to knows any way to do that aside from Script."
"Truly." She turns to look at me, "How do you plan to survive the Gap?"
"The what?" I have a horrible feeling I've forgotten something important.
"The Dimensional Gap." Vivain raises an eyebrow, then sighs disappointed at my continued blank look, "The place between universes. The place you must traverse in order to accomplish your ambitions. Anything that enters there unprotected is immediately reduced to its base concepts, coming apart under the lack of physics. Something you may wish to address before you journey forth."
I blink, then settle back down into my chair with a groan. Of course, I scrub my face in frustration. Of course that place is hostile, it doesn't matter what you call it, the Blind Eternities, the Warp, or whatever the hell it is in Bleach, it's always lethal without precautions. How the hell did I forget that?
"What will you do?" the Sidhe asks me, her face blank, but her tone interested, "What will you do to solve this problem?"
I don't think my first instinct, reaching for my Script dictionary, will help me here. If Script is, as Pua said, and I have no reason to doubt her, the source code of the universe, would it even work in a place that was defined as where the universe isn't? I don't think any kind of Script will help me here. Unfortunately, I only have one other tool in my tool box, which is to find something that is unbothered by the Gap, kill it, and steal that immunity.
Only problem is, as far as I know, the only thing that's native to the Gap is Ophis. Dragon god of Infinity and uncontested holder of the title of 'most powerful thing in the world'.
Yeah, I really don't think that trying to pick a fight with her is a great plan. It isn't even a bad plan. It's a suicidal plan. It's a dumb suicidal plan. Just no.
I have no real other ideas though, so for the moment...
I glance up at her with a sigh and shrug, "Right now? Nothing. One problem at a time. I'm nowhere near ready to try leaving, and have way too many other things on my plate. Which doesn't even count what you're going to charge me for my commission."
Strangely, that earns me a small smile and an approving nod. Not really sure why, but I'll take it.
###
It takes me another two days to get the mana pressure tuned correctly for my Script. Or at least tuned closely enough for me to be willing to try it. With Ku or Pua watching, of course. So the morning after I finish, I grab the reference sheet for the new Script and head off to the field where I spend my mornings meditating and getting the shit beat out of me.
Ku really enjoys the fact he could do pretty much anything to me shy of breaking bones in practice and I'd be ready to go again the next day.
To my surprise, I hear Pua there before I see either of the siblings, "...Kamohoali'i says they're not his."
I slow down to a walk to listen. Kamohoali'i, isn't a word I've heard before. I wonder if it's a name or a title?
"If they're rogue sharks we'll have to deal with them ourselves," Ku points out as I come around the bend in the path to be able to see them, "at least if they've tasted blood already, they can't have had much. They'd be attacking us already if they were too far gone."
"I'll try to figure out where we can pin them down on the beach. I know you can swim like a sea turtle but my Aumakua are more intellectual." As I approach, Pua turns to look at me over her shoulder, one eyebrow raised, "And don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?"
I shrug, "You knew I was there and didn't stop talking, so I figure you didn't mind. Besides, if you really didn't want to take the chance of my overhearing, you'd be talking in Hawaiian. Or some other language that the two of you speak that I don't, it's not like you're lacking for choice. What's an Aumakua?" I say the last word slowly to make sure I pronounce it correctly.
Pua grinned at me, agreeing with my reasoning with a nod, "An Aumakua is a guardian spirit. They can be animal spirits, ancestor ghosts, mo'o, or even gods. Mostly they just provide advice or spiritual protection, but sometimes they'll teach their person some things."
"My childhood Aumakua was the sea turtle," Ku explains, "they taught me how to swim. I can hit twenty-two mph in the water if I really work at it." The big man shrugs and then moves on, "You're a bit early, what's up?"
I grin, I'm going to ask about Kamohoali'i as well, but I don't really care about sharks that aren't hurting anybody. If I need to know anything more about this, they'll tell me. My new Script is far more exciting, "I think I've got the pressure Script ready to try!" I bounce on my toes, for a moment I'm distracted by the still unfamiliar movement on my chest, but I move past that easily, "I was hoping that we could give it a shot." I hold out the paper to Pua who takes it, examining what I've written out carefully. "I know the pressure is still on the high side, but since it should be supercharging my regeneration while I'm using it I think I'll heal the minimal damage faster than it'll happen."
"That will hurt, you know," Pua points out, looking up at me.
I blink at her, "And?"
Ku leans back staring at the sky, laughing as though he can't quite believe what he just heard. Pua puts her face in her hands and groans.
I don't know what their problem is. A little temporary pain is well worth shaving fifteen minutes off my projected charge time. The difference between forty-five minutes, and thirty could be huge.
"Fine," Pua groans, having finished despairing of me, "You two get a piece of particle board big enough for this, I'll grab the bone chalk from my workshop."
Ku, still laughing at me, heads off to get the plywood. I look after the two of them before turning to look at where Vivain is still following me around, "What?" Vivain shakes her head at me, with what's probably the most subtle barely there smile I've ever seen, then shoos me after Ku.
###
The feeling of actually taking in the life of the world is an experience. The pressure Script works just about perfectly, so all I have to do is relax in the right way and the universe comes pouring into me, becoming me. Energy thunders through the channels I'd stolen from the vampires, filling my entire body with life. Powers that have only been barely working, like my regeneration and strength, explode into full bloom, working to a degree that I've only experienced when I first stole them. Little aches and pains that I hadn't even noticed vanish, and a lethargy that I haven't been aware I'd been fighting against, vanishes as well. I feel powerful for the first time in my life.
I kinda want to go find a stray devil and punch it in the face just for the hell of it.
Everything just feels better the longer I let the energy in. It fills me up, and up and up, until I start to feel stretched. The channels of my mana network swelling with the amount of power that's being forced into them. At first the stretch feels good, like a muscle that hasn't moved in far too long, being exercised at last. Then I start to feel a strain, then it starts to hurt. I grit my teeth and hold on as long as I can.
Finally, I can't take it anymore and slam myself shut, becoming separate from the universe once again. My breaths come in great shuddering gasps. My whole body aches, and then my revitalized healing soothes the damage I did to myself, and I feel better than I ever have before. I bounce to my feet, grinning at my observers.
"It worked?" Pua asks, stepping forward to check me over, "How do you feel?"
"It worked great, and I feel great!" I chirp. God, I'm still chirping. I'll grow out of that someday. I hope.
My cheer fades as I see the growing grin on Ku's face, "So now we have a reliable way to heal you completely? And we don't have to worry about you exhausting yourself if you work too hard?" I swallow hard and Ku's smile turns downright evil, "We are going to get so much more done now!"
What have I done?
###
Any sense of restraint that the Ke'Kua'Okolani siblings may have had, vanishes like smoke in a strong breeze. As it turns out, they've been taking it easy on me for fear of my starving to death from working too hard. Now that I can feed at least my metaphysical needs with half an hour of meditation, they start pushing me hard.
The new pace does produce results, though, and not just in improved skill. We learn that if I fill up on mana in the morning I can just about make it to dinner before I need to fill up again. As long as I'm not doing anything strenuous. So I need to 'feed' about twice a day with a fairly normal low activity level.
Sparing and working with my powers, though, I run through my meager reserves of mana, a term I decide I liked better than 'life energy', distressingly quickly. Which is a serious problem.
Learning to budget my mana is the only solution we have besides just waiting for my capacity to grow. So I learn to only use as much as I need when I need to, and rely on the skill that Ku is so cheerfully pounding into me, for as much as I can.
My pleasant routine is interrupted when I arrive at the training field and find both Ku and Pua there. The two are engaged in a discussion of some intensity, in what sounds like German? Whatever it is, this time they clearly don't want anybody else listening in. Ku spots me the moment I step onto the grass.
I head in their direction and Ku addresses me the moment I'm in earshot, "Ericka, today's training is going to be called off. Pua and I have a meeting we have to get to, no idea how long it'll last, but it's entirely possible that we won't be back until this evening."
I sigh at that. It's not that I begrudge them other duties, they've already spent a huge amount of time helping me out. Mostly it's that I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. Work on Script or find something to help out with around the village, I guess.
"I will teach her." I nearly jump out of my skin at the inhuman voice behind me. "For this morning at least." I totally forgot that the Lady of the Lake is still following me around. She isn't really hiding herself, she just doesn't do anything other than watch, quietly. It's easy to forget about her entirely, which I have no doubt is the idea. Ku and Pua glance at each other and Pua steps forward. Before she can speak though, Vivain holds up a hand, "No debt will be incurred. This will allow me to further assess Miss Rhostana, and she will continue to learn at her current pace. When both parties benefit, there is no debt."
I glance at Pua, who after a moment's thought, nods. So I turn to the Lady of the Lake and bow properly, "Then I'm happy to accept, th-" No, you don't thank fae, "I'm great-" No, gratitude is thanking by another name, "I look forward to your instruction." That works.
Vivain has a small smile as she watches my verbal flailing but doesn't say anything, she simply nods. Ku and Pua glance at each other again and shrug in unison.
"In that case, we'll get out of your way," Ku says as the two head for the parking lot, "Good luck, Ericka!"
"Well then," Vivain tosses me a dull steel two-handed European sword which I caught easily. Where the hell did that come from? "Shall we begin?" Her own one handed sword is flying at my head before she finishes speaking.
Fighting the Lady of the Lake is surreal. I imagine it kind of looks like bad fight choreography, because no matter what I do, she's always in position waiting for me. She never takes a stance, never hurries, never puts any effort into her actions, and she still hits like a truck, and always gets to position before I do. And through it all she lectures. They're informative lectures, she critiques my style, form, footwork, posture, everything. It's really good advice too, but she really can't have made it any clearer that batting me around takes absolutely no effort on her part.
By the time she lets me go I'm sweating, empty of mana, and ready to call it a day and just go to bed. Unfortunately, it's socialize Ericka day, so I don't really have that choice. I run back to Pua's house, shower, and spend half an hour meditating with my new Script to both remove the strange, gnawing, hollow feeling having no mana gives me, and to calm down after getting worked over so hard by Vivain.
I'm not really upset or angry, but going from fighting Ku, who I've never beat, to fighting Vivain who is an infinitely more difficult opponent, makes it hard to believe I'm making any progress. Intellectually, I know that I have to be getting better, and Ku is nothing but complementary about my progress. Still, it's hard to see in the moment.
After my half-hour break, I head back out to the central park where my unofficial gymnastics class waits for me. They're rolling and tumbling and cart wheeling all over the place. Though they've at least taken enough of my admonishments to heart that they are sticking to lanes and all going in the same direction, so they aren't running into each other.
I clap twice to get their attention and start them on their warmups. Rolls across the field, then cartwheels back, then back rolls across again. Back and forth until they've performed all the basics I've taught them over the last few weeks to my satisfaction.
Then it's time for something new. I make sure I have all their attention and start demonstrating how to perform one tumble into another. To start with we're going to do cartwheels into forward rolls. I demonstrate a few times, then set the older kids to work as I help the younger ones not hurt themselves.
I still don't like kids, but there is something hilarious about watching a five year old trying to coordinate all four limbs during dynamic movement and failing. It's adorable, kind of like watching a puppy fall on its face. Undeniably cute, but you still feel somewhat guilty for being so amused...
A sound, like being inside a huge bell that's just been struck, rattles the village.
I freeze along with everybody else as we all try to determine what the sound has been. A moment later it comes again, and this time I'm looking in the right direction. From the north side of the village, in between the road and the beach, the sound is accompanied by a flash of light, then an invisible dome around the village ripples into visibility, starting from where that flash of light had come from. Moments later the dome fades out again, only for the bell to sound again and the dome to once more appear.
Something is striking the village wards, and striking them hard. From how much longer the shield takes to fade every time it's struck they won't hold forever. Or possibly even very long, given how recently Pua put up the extra protections around the village.
The children huddle together around me looking up at the rippling sky. "Ericka? What's going on?" one of the younger boys asks, clinging to my leg.
Unfortunately the only answer I can give him is, "I don't know."
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jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Well that is the story as far as the devils and (mostly junior/low ranking) exorcists in canon DxD know in regards to the Excaliburs and the sword they were made from. But one has to remember that the Catholic Church has done a bit of, shall we say historical revisionism on various subjects in order to...smooth over problems and de-empathize certain things that are best left forgotten. It's all true.....from a certain point of view.
You'll see in a couple of chapters.
Book 1 - New Friend's Old Enemies
- Location
- California
By the third apocalyptic ringing sound adults have started to arrive, running to their children from all over the village. Kids rush to parents, parents rush to kids, and suddenly I'm surrounded. Once the kids are mostly taken care of by their parents, I wade through the crowd looking for the people who know what the hell is going on.
I find the Ali'i and several more of the older clan members and, again since they were talking in English, slide myself into a place where I can listen in.
"There appear to be five of them." One of the villagers reports to the Ali'i.
"And you're sure they're from Kauai?" The Ali'i asks, not sounding like he has much hope.
"I don't know where else you'd find dragon mo'o." I've gotten quite the crash course on Hawaiian mythology staying here for the majority of the last few years. 'Mo'o' technically means 'dragon' or anything overly lizard like that isn't mundane. It has come to refer to all Hawaiian shapeshifters though, and they come in far more flavors than just 'dragon'. Old Hawaiian has a lot of words for different kinds of water, and each has their own mo'o. The dragons are only found on Kauai, and are associated with sea caves. They're also all black widows. Every Kauaian dragon is, in human form, a beautiful woman. They also tended to eat men after sleeping with them. Which they do as often as they can get away with. Perhaps more important to our current situation is the very long enmity between Kauai and the Big Island. All attempts to unify the islands started on the Big Island, and Kauai is the only island they'd never conquered. Not for a lack of trying though. This results in a not insignificant amount of hate between traditionalists and the longer lived beings on both islands.
Something about mo'o keeps bugging me, though what it is I can't put my finger on. Something about different kinds of mo'o? There are turtle mo'o in lagoons, really creepy kind of spidery ones in the lava tunnels, deep water has squid like ones with way too many arms, and sh... Shark mo'o associated with crashing waves. "Shit." I murmure to myself as several things suddenly line up.
"Ericka?" I jerk my head up to find the Ali'i and all the elders looking at me, "Something to add?" The Ali'i asks.
"Uh... just that Pua has been talking about problems with sharks over the last few weeks." I tell the leader of the village feeling more than a little nervous. I've never talked to him directly before, even though he's been responsible for a lot of my good fortune with the village, "I remember that I heard her talking about having spoken to a... Ka... Ka... Kamohoali'i, that's it, about them and him saying that the sharks aren't his. Both Pua and Ku took off this morning for some meeting, which I'll bet has something to do with sharks, and the moment they're gone we get hit by Kauaian Mo'o? They were deliberately lured out of the village, and out of the way."
The Ali'i nods slowly, "This is good news, if the Kauaians are unwilling to attack us while Pua and Ku are still here that means that the dragons don't believe they could pull this off with them here. That means we only need to buy time until they can return."
"We could hide in the training grounds but..." The elder speaking glances at me and the children, "The protections there will keep out anybody not known to them, and without the Kahuna to adjust them neither the children nor our guest will be able to enter."
Lua is the traditional martial art of Hawaii, each clan, village, or family has their own unique style of it, which is a closely guarded secret. The place it's taught is hidden and the art is only practiced at night to make things harder on any spies. Even though I'm treated like one of the village by most of the people here, I'm not, so can't know anything about the Ke'Kua'Okolani Lua. Apparently, in order to help keep everything a secret, Pua has done something that would keep out the children too young to learn, as well as outsiders.
"I will keep the children safe." Everybody pauses to look at where Vivain has been watching the goings on silently, "I will protect no others, but the young ones I will keep safe."
The Ali'i studys the Lady of the Lake then, to my shock, glances at me. I can't imagine what he wants. Normally it would be the job of the Kahuna to advise the Ali'i on supernatural dealings, but Pua isn't here. So why... it hits me like a lightning bolt. I'm the most supernaturally knowledgeable person here at the moment, and I'm being taught by their Kahuna and chief warrior. Almost their apprentice if we're being generous, and the Ali'i is treating me like I am.
I swallow hard. Fae love children, it's the reason why changelings like Cait exist, because they can't stand by and watch a child suffer. So the idea of a powerful Fae like the Lady of the Lake volunteering to keep a bunch of kids safe isn't that unreasonable. I nod to the Ali'i, and he nods back at me.
Wha...?
Oh.
Right.
Only the Kahuna talks to greater powers to avoid anybody else saying something unexpectedly dumb. Like thanking a fae which would be most humans' first impulse.
So how do I... got it.
"The Ke'Kua'Okolani will remember your generosity." I say with a bow. There, I acknowledged that she's doing us a favor, and simultaneously saying that there's no debt as she volunteered. This act is a gift, one that would be remembered but requires no response from the village.
Vivain bows shallowly to me, and slightly deeper to the Ali'i, before turning and getting the adults with kids to help shepherd the children off. Given the direction they're headed in, Vivain probably plans on keeping the kids in the forge she set up next to the fish pond.
I turn back to the Ali'i and the elders, "The rest of you should hide in the training grounds." I tell them.
The Ali'i raises a single bushy white eyebrow, "And what will you do?"
I... I'm not really sure. I can probably hide pretty successfully on my own. Set up my pressure Script and use that to fuel my invisibility indefinitely since with the Script, taking in energy takes no focus on my part. If I set up somewhere out of the way they'll never find me.
But that idea doesn't really sit well with me. I'd drive myself nuts in minutes, and then probably do something stupid.
So instead I'll skip the middle steps, and jump straight to doing something stupid? That does sound more like me. Besides, I glance up at where the wards around the village are now constantly visible from the strain.
"I'll try to slow the invaders down." I tell him turning back to the group, "If they can find and break down the protections around the village, they can probably do the same to the wards around the training grounds given enough time. No idea how much time that is, but I can insure that they'll have less than they want."
The Ali'i studies me carefully for a long moment, then nods, "We go to the training grounds." He shouts over the din of the gathered villagers. They immediately quiet, "Take nothing. Go quickly, and do not tarry." He turns back to me then, "Laki maikaʻi, Koa." Good luck, Warrior.
I make a brief stop by my room in Pua's house for a knife. I almost take the last knife that hasn't been tested yet, but I remember how much I've been screwed over by the malfunctioning knife I'd used on the vampires. So instead I take the one I used on the Sirens, the one I know works as intended.
More or less.
Thus armed I head for where my new targets are pounding their way through Pua's wards. It isn't hard to find, I just head to where the noise is the loudest. Next to the barrier the sound of the wards being struck is literally deafening. If not for my regeneration I'd be looking at some serious hearing loss.
The edge of the village is marked by a line of trees that hold Pua's growing spells tied to living trees. When I arrive I can see the trunks of several of those trees beginning to crack and splinter from the repeated impacts on the spells tied to their lives. They'll break in moments and then I'll be out in the open staring down five dragons, whatever their current shape.
That sounds like a terrible place to be, so I sprint for the nearest house. Like most houses in the village it's a two story plantation style building with a red tea plant at each of it's four corners. The front door isn't locked, honestly locks were so infrequently used in the village I wonder why the doors still have them, so I let myself in.
As quickly and quietly as I can, I sprinted up the stairs. Halfway up the steps I hear the sound of several tree trunks exploding like popping popcorn. I slow down immediately, having no idea how good a dragon mo'o's senses are.
Carefully I creep up to a window on the second floor that overlooks where the mo'o have been assaulting the wards. Outside the line of trees that mark the edge of the village is the black rock and sand of a young volcanic island. The tree's mark a hard line where the blasted wasteland suddenly becomes a green paradise. Three of the border trees have exploded. Splinters of wood lay everywhere, and their leafy crowns have dropped forming an odd break in the otherwise solid barrier.
Just inside of the tree line stand five women. They all look remarkably similar, like they could be sisters. There's little variation in height, all of them being near to six foot. They all have the same darkly tanned skin, the same long dark hair done up in the same warriors knot. They all ware the same coconut fiber cloth skirts and bark cloth chest wraps. They carry the same wooden knives edged in sharks teeth hanging from their wrists, and the same long cord with a cloth sack holding a single fist sized stone tied to the end, wrapped around their waists like a belt. Their tattoos are different but I honestly don't care enough to use those as identifiers, and one of them wore a red cape.
The one in the cape seema to be the one in charge, as I watch she starts barking out orders in old hawaiian, which I unfortunately don't know enough of to really understand what they're saying. It becomes clear pretty quickly though, the five split up and spread through the village. Searching for villagers I assume. Hopefully all the adults have gotten out to wherever the training grounds are. I'm not really too worried about the kids. If these people want to pick a fight with the Lady of the Lake that's their prerogative.
For now though I need to get to work. As soon as they start moving away I scramble out of the window and onto the roof of the house. I'm hoping that mo'o are as unlikely to look up as humans are. The houses are fairly well scattered, but I think that with my new strength I'll be able to make the distance between at least the closer ones.
Picking out one of the mo'o to follow I get a running start and fling myself into the air. I flicker my invisibility, I'm not here, when I take off and again, I'm not here, when I land rendering both actions silent. Or at least unnoticed by my target. I'm not following the one with the cape, but other than that I still really can't tell them apart.
I follow along behind my target as she starts to, apparently, do a lap around the outside of the village. Every so often she'll stop, tilt her head back and sniff the air. I always vanish, I'm not here, whenever this happens to make sure she won't catch an active close by scent.
Otherwise the next five minutes are very uneventful as I wait for the mo'o women to get far enough apart that they won't be guaranteed to hear me attacking one of them. Finally though, I judged enough time had passed for sufficient distance to be acquired.
All I'm waiting for now is for my target to stop and sniff the air again. As I wait I consider. Is there anything they have that I want? I don't know a lot about what powers dragon mo'o are supposed to have, so I can't really think of anything, besides the obvious, off the top of my head. I know they're shapeshifters, and that they can breath underwater.
That's about it.
Being able to turn into a dragon does sound pretty cool though. I wonder if I'll turn into the same kind of dragon they do, or if my shape will be influenced by my very different ethnic background and what I've done to myself. Either way I'm looking forward to finding out.
Finally the mo'o I've been following stops to sniff the air again. Which is good. Between being invisible whenever I jump, or land, and whenever she scents the air, and whenever I feel more nervous than normal about being discovered, I'm beginning to run a little dry.
Even so I vanish again, I'm not here, and launch myself off my current roof. I plummet through the air undetected until I land on the shapeshifter knife first. The blade crunches through the woman's currently human skull without issue, and the both of us hit the ground. Her face down, and myself kneeling over her body.
I frown confused as I don't feel the rush of my gaining the power to turn into a dragon, or anything else rushing into me. That's...
HOLY SHIT!
I jerk backwards as a tiny dragon the size of my hand erupts out of the woman's back like a fucking chestburster! It's growing rapidly enough that by the time it has pulled its way half out of the human body and sank its teeth into my wrist, which took only moments, it's as long as my arm.
I grit my teeth against the scream of pain that wants to escape them. Fortunately it grabbed my left wrist, leaving my knife hand unimpaired. Using it's grip on my arm I yank the still growing dragon out of the chest cavity it emerged from, and managed to slam the snaky lizard into the ground hard enough to jar it.
Reminding myself that I'll heal, I pin the top of its head to the ground by leaning on where it's biting me. Driving it's teeth deeper into my flesh and tearing at the edges of the wounds. My knee pins it's back end to the ground just above its hind legs, and without a moment's hesitation I drive the knife into the smaller scales just under its jaw. The thing spasms once, twice. Then lies still.
For a long moment I'm cautious, as I still haven't felt the knife activate, but then I realize that I hadn't been focusing on anything. Glancing back at the human corpse that's now boiling away into a rapidly dispersing vapor, I decide that I've dodged a bullet.
If chest bursting is how they shape shift, I want none of it.
On the other hand, I'm still low on mana. Note to self, on the final version of the knife make sure that it'll steal life energy for me if I don't tell it to do anything else.
Still that's one down, four more to go.
I feel more than a little hollow, the feeling that tells me I'm just about out of mana, so I'm not willing to go roof to roof again. Without my fae glamor to render that method of travel silent, I'm unwilling to risk it. Moving on the ground feels less safe, but it's much easier to do quietly.
It also means I almost get caught when I find my second target. This one is searching house to house. Probably making sure that there's nobody hiding in an attic or something. I'm running as quietly as I can when she comes out of a house a door down from where I am. If she looks in my direction I'm screwed, but she's looking the other way for the moment. That gives me just enough time to slide under the house I'm next to, taking advantage of standard Hawaiian construction lifting the base of the house a couple of feet or so off the ground to deal with the inevitable flooding.
I'm so glad that Pua's wards keep dangerous animals like poisonous spiders out of the village. I'm from California, I'm more than familiar with the preferred habitats of both Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders. I'd have definitely pissed off at least a couple of widows with my desperate slide under the house, if any had been here.
I carefully move to the edge of the house and peer through the vegetation planted all along the edge of the house, to watch the mo'o. She's looking in the direction of my slide, causing me to hold my breath. She moves with determination in my direction, I grip my knife with a sweating hand. I'm not really sure if I can take a dragon, even in human form, in a straight fight. Straight fights are absolutely off the agenda for this afternoon.
She pauses, almost right in front of me, and bends down to peer under the house. I'm not here, I'm not here, I think frantically, feeling the hollow empty feeling increasing rapidly. Her gaze sweeps the underside of the house several times. She scents the air wrinkling her nose at whatever she smells. After far too long she stands looking around again, and I let my invisibility fall again. I'm trembling slightly and sweating from the exertion.
The mo'o woman turns a circle in the road in front of my hiding place. Scenting the air again and trying to find something. I can't bring myself to activate my glamor again, so I'm unsurprised when she spins to look at the house, smelling the air again. She moves towards the house with a determined stride almost sending me into a panic that I'm about to be discovered.
I nearly sigh with relief when the mo'o heads up the front steps and into the house. I can hear her moving around through the floor until her footsteps fade around the middle of the house. I assume because she headed up stairs to search there.
I take a moment to think then. I can probably take her by surprise when she leaves the house, if I'm careful and lucky. Should I try to take something from this one? Last time it didn't work because, apparently, a head shot isn't lethal to these things. It only died once I killed the dragon body. If the dragon body doesn't spontaneously generate then there's a tiny dragon curled up in each of these women's chest cavity somewhere. I'm betting near the heart, because that's just how these things work. Maybe I can bring them down quicker by killing both bodies at once?
So, a stab to the heart like I'm killing a vampire, instead of to the head or throat. And if I'm wrong? I kill the dragon separately, again.
Still, stealing something. I don't want chestburster shape shifting, that leaves water breathing. I could go for it, but I can't quite shake the feeling of the near miss when I discovered how my brand new dragon shape would have manifested.
New rule, no stealing anything until I know how it'll manifest in me. For all I know I'll end up with a really obvious set of gills that I'll never be able to get rid of. That would make blending in rather difficult, not to mention I just started feeling attractive, and don't want to stop so soon. So no stealing traits from mo'o for now. I'm still running on fumes, so this target can at least give me some mana to work with.
I keep listening for the mo'o, and finally hear it coming back down the stairs. It moves around the bottom floor for a little while longer, then heads back to where it had entered the house. It exits the front door again and stands on the path looking around. I kind of wonder what she's thinking about, but not enough to slow me down.
I gather the last dregs of mana I have, and creep out from under the house, I'm not here, and move up behind her. The Kauaian dragon is none the wiser as I take a moment to psych myself up, and focus on her mana. Then in one motion I wrap an arm around her throat, pulling her backwards, and drive my knife forward between her ribs. I try to catch a lung at the same time to keep her from crying out, while at the same time getting the little dragon I suspect is curled up in her chest cavity.
I must have gotten a lung, as all she lets out is a gasping wheeze, but there's no rush from the knife activating. So I stab her a few more times rapidly, trying to shred everything in her chest without ever fully removing the knife from her body, just changing my angle. On the fourth stab I finally get what I'm after, and my knife rips the mana, life energy, out of the mo'o and feeds it into me.
It almost hurts. The mo'o has so much life that my mana network almost can't hold it. As it is I feel stretched to just below the point of pain. Almost bloated. Fortunately I have a way to burn off the excess energy quickly.
Keeping myself vanished from all senses, I take to the roof tops again, I just feel more comfortable high up, and go looking for my next target.
Two down, three to go.
With full, over full really, mana I don't expect the rest of them to be too difficult. I have a better idea of where to stab them to kill them quickly after the last one, and sneaking up on them will be easier now. Still I make sure to ration my mana as dearly as I can, just because I have plenty right now is no reason to get into bad habits.
I find the third at the stacked stone temple at the top of the village. The one that only Pua and the Ali'i are allowed up. I still have no idea what was up there, but apparently Pua's serious about not letting anybody else up top given how violent the wards are being. The temple is a stacked stone step pyramid, it never comes to a point. That leaves plenty of open space at the top, it being just tall enough to make sure that there's no place in the village where one can see the top of it. The area surrounding it is bare grass, which makes it easy to see the mo'o pounding her way through the wards set around the temple. Wards which are doing their level best to kill her back.
The mo'o is making progress, but not much. The spells around the temple are apparently more powerful than those around the village. Probably older, so they've had more time to grow and more generations laying them down.
Pua mentioned once that rededicating the temple after it's been violated requires a voluntary human sacrifice, so I should probably stop the mo'o before she gets much further.
Wrapping myself in my I'm not here illusion again, I creep up behind the mo'o. Or try to. The bolts of power that the shape shifted dragon is throwing at the temple wards are creating backwash that isn't easy to avoid, never mind the retaliatory blasts from the wards themselves. Reflected and evaded bits of destructive energy fly every which way in unpredictable patterns.
Still I manage to weave my way through the impromptu bullet hell, and slide into the safe zone immediately behind the Kauaian shape shifter. I line up my knife to try and kill the woman with my first hit, as opposed to having to search for the weak spot, when the mo'o twists and suddenly all I can see is the sky.
I have the brief feeling of being airborne, then crash to the ground. I gasp for air, and only then does twelve different flavors of agony radiate from my upper arm. A quick glance at how my arm above the elbow has twisted and flopped, literally bonelessly, tells me that the problem is more than a simple break. The trouble I'm having breathing tells me that I have at least one cracked rib as well.
If my skeleton hadn't been troll bone, that one back hand from the dragon in human skin might have torn me in half. At least I know that ambush tactics are absolutely the right way to go with these. Which begs the question, what went wrong?
It only takes me a few moments, with the clarity of thought that only adrenaline combined with desperation can provide, that I come up with a potential answer. I remember that the illusion failed when I'd been, overly focused shall we say, watching the Sirens as well. Apparently while easier, 'I'm not here' is still too much for me to keep going if I'm paying attention to anything more complicated than moving at the same time.
The mo'o saying something in Old Hawaiian gives me the impetus to focus my wandering thoughts on the present again. She's walking towards me at a slow casual walk as she unwraps the cord with a stone on the end from around her waist, and begins to spin the weight.
That looks like it would hurt.
Frantically, I search for where my destroyed right arm lost my knife. At the last moment I spot it, surprisingly not too far away, off to my right, and fling myself at it in a desperate dodge. I scream through gritted teeth as my arm jolts in response to my movement, but I manage to get my good hand on the knife and vanish again. I'm not here! As just behind me the weighted end of the cord hits the ground where my head had been a moment before. The damn thing strikes hard enough to raise a cloud of dust, and leave a small crater from the impact.
Troll bone or not my head would have exploded from that sort of impact.
I keep moving as I have no doubt that she'll hit where the knife had been next. I'm not here. I'm nearly sobbing from the pain, but keep myself moving from nothing but pure stubbornness. I'm pretty sure that my humerus has been turned into gravel from that first hit.
I'm more than a little afraid of what will happen next. If the mo'o just starts blanketing the area with attacks in an effort to get lucky, I'll have to focus too much on dodging to keep up the illusion. I'm not here. Which would make hitting me much easier.
Luck is with me for once, the mo'o seems surprised by my vanishing act and pauses looking around her. Apparently she hadn't been aware of my appearing out of thin air behind her, or just wasn't expecting me to pull the trick again. Or she saw me coming early enough that she was willing to try and bait me in close with her supposed ignorance of my presence, and I'd been visible the entire time. I'm not quite sure when I lost focus on the illusion after all.
I have no idea which theory is true and it hardly matters now. I'm not here. With her doing nothing but turning in a circle, her weighted cord at the ready, I have no trouble staggering my way over to her and plunging the knife through her stomach and up. Luckily, again, I do something right and the Script immediately activates, and I again suck down a dragon shifters life force.
I haven't really used up all the mana I'd gotten from the last mo'o, which had nearly over filled me. This time there's far more energy than I can hold. It fills my network to bursting, and then starts to leak through into the rest of my body as the channels it should flow through begin to tear... rupture? Describing how a metaphysical circulatory system fails is hard, and at least decent at distracting me from the pain. I feel stretched, like an overfull balloon, as the mana pounds against the inside of my skin, straining to find somewhere to go. It feels like I'm about to get ripped to pieces.
My rib fractures fusing and my regeneration beginning to do something with my arm drains mana quickly, but not quickly enough. Even trollish regeneration can only work so fast, and will only use up mana at the speed it works. While I haven't lost a limb, with a shattered bone I might as well have. A month to regrow an arm, hopefully since I haven't actually lost any mass it will go faster, but I'm not holding my breath.
In fact I'm panting, I feel like my skin is paper thin and brittle. I glance down at myself and my eyes widen in horror. My arms and legs are riddled with faintly glowing cracks, like glass in the process of shattering. In places my skin has split open wider, in larger wrents letting an almost neon blue light escape. Hesitantly I pass my fingers through the narrow jets of light shining from the tears in my flesh, and have to bite my lip to keep any noise I might make inside. The light feels like mana. My mana newly absorbed, forcing its way free of my body which has no more room for it.
I shudder, if the force of excess mana inside me can rip my skin open to relieve the pressure... if I over charge by too much would I just explode?
Not something I want to find out, but it seems likely given what's happening to me already.
I take a deep shuddering breath, watching with some amount of relief as the cracks begin to shrink, my regeneration starting to overcome my internal mana pressure. The larger wounds slowly started to glow less, though they aren't closing yet. There's nothing I can do about that right now, save making sure my mana doesn't go too high again, in addition to making sure it doesn't drop too low.
With gritted teeth I force myself to my feet, and to focus on what I can affect right now past the burning thrum just under my skin.
Still I have a job to do.
Three down, two to go.
I find the Ali'i and several more of the older clan members and, again since they were talking in English, slide myself into a place where I can listen in.
"There appear to be five of them." One of the villagers reports to the Ali'i.
"And you're sure they're from Kauai?" The Ali'i asks, not sounding like he has much hope.
"I don't know where else you'd find dragon mo'o." I've gotten quite the crash course on Hawaiian mythology staying here for the majority of the last few years. 'Mo'o' technically means 'dragon' or anything overly lizard like that isn't mundane. It has come to refer to all Hawaiian shapeshifters though, and they come in far more flavors than just 'dragon'. Old Hawaiian has a lot of words for different kinds of water, and each has their own mo'o. The dragons are only found on Kauai, and are associated with sea caves. They're also all black widows. Every Kauaian dragon is, in human form, a beautiful woman. They also tended to eat men after sleeping with them. Which they do as often as they can get away with. Perhaps more important to our current situation is the very long enmity between Kauai and the Big Island. All attempts to unify the islands started on the Big Island, and Kauai is the only island they'd never conquered. Not for a lack of trying though. This results in a not insignificant amount of hate between traditionalists and the longer lived beings on both islands.
Something about mo'o keeps bugging me, though what it is I can't put my finger on. Something about different kinds of mo'o? There are turtle mo'o in lagoons, really creepy kind of spidery ones in the lava tunnels, deep water has squid like ones with way too many arms, and sh... Shark mo'o associated with crashing waves. "Shit." I murmure to myself as several things suddenly line up.
"Ericka?" I jerk my head up to find the Ali'i and all the elders looking at me, "Something to add?" The Ali'i asks.
"Uh... just that Pua has been talking about problems with sharks over the last few weeks." I tell the leader of the village feeling more than a little nervous. I've never talked to him directly before, even though he's been responsible for a lot of my good fortune with the village, "I remember that I heard her talking about having spoken to a... Ka... Ka... Kamohoali'i, that's it, about them and him saying that the sharks aren't his. Both Pua and Ku took off this morning for some meeting, which I'll bet has something to do with sharks, and the moment they're gone we get hit by Kauaian Mo'o? They were deliberately lured out of the village, and out of the way."
The Ali'i nods slowly, "This is good news, if the Kauaians are unwilling to attack us while Pua and Ku are still here that means that the dragons don't believe they could pull this off with them here. That means we only need to buy time until they can return."
"We could hide in the training grounds but..." The elder speaking glances at me and the children, "The protections there will keep out anybody not known to them, and without the Kahuna to adjust them neither the children nor our guest will be able to enter."
Lua is the traditional martial art of Hawaii, each clan, village, or family has their own unique style of it, which is a closely guarded secret. The place it's taught is hidden and the art is only practiced at night to make things harder on any spies. Even though I'm treated like one of the village by most of the people here, I'm not, so can't know anything about the Ke'Kua'Okolani Lua. Apparently, in order to help keep everything a secret, Pua has done something that would keep out the children too young to learn, as well as outsiders.
"I will keep the children safe." Everybody pauses to look at where Vivain has been watching the goings on silently, "I will protect no others, but the young ones I will keep safe."
The Ali'i studys the Lady of the Lake then, to my shock, glances at me. I can't imagine what he wants. Normally it would be the job of the Kahuna to advise the Ali'i on supernatural dealings, but Pua isn't here. So why... it hits me like a lightning bolt. I'm the most supernaturally knowledgeable person here at the moment, and I'm being taught by their Kahuna and chief warrior. Almost their apprentice if we're being generous, and the Ali'i is treating me like I am.
I swallow hard. Fae love children, it's the reason why changelings like Cait exist, because they can't stand by and watch a child suffer. So the idea of a powerful Fae like the Lady of the Lake volunteering to keep a bunch of kids safe isn't that unreasonable. I nod to the Ali'i, and he nods back at me.
Wha...?
Oh.
Right.
Only the Kahuna talks to greater powers to avoid anybody else saying something unexpectedly dumb. Like thanking a fae which would be most humans' first impulse.
So how do I... got it.
"The Ke'Kua'Okolani will remember your generosity." I say with a bow. There, I acknowledged that she's doing us a favor, and simultaneously saying that there's no debt as she volunteered. This act is a gift, one that would be remembered but requires no response from the village.
Vivain bows shallowly to me, and slightly deeper to the Ali'i, before turning and getting the adults with kids to help shepherd the children off. Given the direction they're headed in, Vivain probably plans on keeping the kids in the forge she set up next to the fish pond.
I turn back to the Ali'i and the elders, "The rest of you should hide in the training grounds." I tell them.
The Ali'i raises a single bushy white eyebrow, "And what will you do?"
I... I'm not really sure. I can probably hide pretty successfully on my own. Set up my pressure Script and use that to fuel my invisibility indefinitely since with the Script, taking in energy takes no focus on my part. If I set up somewhere out of the way they'll never find me.
But that idea doesn't really sit well with me. I'd drive myself nuts in minutes, and then probably do something stupid.
So instead I'll skip the middle steps, and jump straight to doing something stupid? That does sound more like me. Besides, I glance up at where the wards around the village are now constantly visible from the strain.
"I'll try to slow the invaders down." I tell him turning back to the group, "If they can find and break down the protections around the village, they can probably do the same to the wards around the training grounds given enough time. No idea how much time that is, but I can insure that they'll have less than they want."
The Ali'i studies me carefully for a long moment, then nods, "We go to the training grounds." He shouts over the din of the gathered villagers. They immediately quiet, "Take nothing. Go quickly, and do not tarry." He turns back to me then, "Laki maikaʻi, Koa." Good luck, Warrior.
###
I make a brief stop by my room in Pua's house for a knife. I almost take the last knife that hasn't been tested yet, but I remember how much I've been screwed over by the malfunctioning knife I'd used on the vampires. So instead I take the one I used on the Sirens, the one I know works as intended.
More or less.
Thus armed I head for where my new targets are pounding their way through Pua's wards. It isn't hard to find, I just head to where the noise is the loudest. Next to the barrier the sound of the wards being struck is literally deafening. If not for my regeneration I'd be looking at some serious hearing loss.
The edge of the village is marked by a line of trees that hold Pua's growing spells tied to living trees. When I arrive I can see the trunks of several of those trees beginning to crack and splinter from the repeated impacts on the spells tied to their lives. They'll break in moments and then I'll be out in the open staring down five dragons, whatever their current shape.
That sounds like a terrible place to be, so I sprint for the nearest house. Like most houses in the village it's a two story plantation style building with a red tea plant at each of it's four corners. The front door isn't locked, honestly locks were so infrequently used in the village I wonder why the doors still have them, so I let myself in.
As quickly and quietly as I can, I sprinted up the stairs. Halfway up the steps I hear the sound of several tree trunks exploding like popping popcorn. I slow down immediately, having no idea how good a dragon mo'o's senses are.
Carefully I creep up to a window on the second floor that overlooks where the mo'o have been assaulting the wards. Outside the line of trees that mark the edge of the village is the black rock and sand of a young volcanic island. The tree's mark a hard line where the blasted wasteland suddenly becomes a green paradise. Three of the border trees have exploded. Splinters of wood lay everywhere, and their leafy crowns have dropped forming an odd break in the otherwise solid barrier.
Just inside of the tree line stand five women. They all look remarkably similar, like they could be sisters. There's little variation in height, all of them being near to six foot. They all have the same darkly tanned skin, the same long dark hair done up in the same warriors knot. They all ware the same coconut fiber cloth skirts and bark cloth chest wraps. They carry the same wooden knives edged in sharks teeth hanging from their wrists, and the same long cord with a cloth sack holding a single fist sized stone tied to the end, wrapped around their waists like a belt. Their tattoos are different but I honestly don't care enough to use those as identifiers, and one of them wore a red cape.
The one in the cape seema to be the one in charge, as I watch she starts barking out orders in old hawaiian, which I unfortunately don't know enough of to really understand what they're saying. It becomes clear pretty quickly though, the five split up and spread through the village. Searching for villagers I assume. Hopefully all the adults have gotten out to wherever the training grounds are. I'm not really too worried about the kids. If these people want to pick a fight with the Lady of the Lake that's their prerogative.
For now though I need to get to work. As soon as they start moving away I scramble out of the window and onto the roof of the house. I'm hoping that mo'o are as unlikely to look up as humans are. The houses are fairly well scattered, but I think that with my new strength I'll be able to make the distance between at least the closer ones.
Picking out one of the mo'o to follow I get a running start and fling myself into the air. I flicker my invisibility, I'm not here, when I take off and again, I'm not here, when I land rendering both actions silent. Or at least unnoticed by my target. I'm not following the one with the cape, but other than that I still really can't tell them apart.
I follow along behind my target as she starts to, apparently, do a lap around the outside of the village. Every so often she'll stop, tilt her head back and sniff the air. I always vanish, I'm not here, whenever this happens to make sure she won't catch an active close by scent.
Otherwise the next five minutes are very uneventful as I wait for the mo'o women to get far enough apart that they won't be guaranteed to hear me attacking one of them. Finally though, I judged enough time had passed for sufficient distance to be acquired.
All I'm waiting for now is for my target to stop and sniff the air again. As I wait I consider. Is there anything they have that I want? I don't know a lot about what powers dragon mo'o are supposed to have, so I can't really think of anything, besides the obvious, off the top of my head. I know they're shapeshifters, and that they can breath underwater.
That's about it.
Being able to turn into a dragon does sound pretty cool though. I wonder if I'll turn into the same kind of dragon they do, or if my shape will be influenced by my very different ethnic background and what I've done to myself. Either way I'm looking forward to finding out.
Finally the mo'o I've been following stops to sniff the air again. Which is good. Between being invisible whenever I jump, or land, and whenever she scents the air, and whenever I feel more nervous than normal about being discovered, I'm beginning to run a little dry.
Even so I vanish again, I'm not here, and launch myself off my current roof. I plummet through the air undetected until I land on the shapeshifter knife first. The blade crunches through the woman's currently human skull without issue, and the both of us hit the ground. Her face down, and myself kneeling over her body.
I frown confused as I don't feel the rush of my gaining the power to turn into a dragon, or anything else rushing into me. That's...
HOLY SHIT!
I jerk backwards as a tiny dragon the size of my hand erupts out of the woman's back like a fucking chestburster! It's growing rapidly enough that by the time it has pulled its way half out of the human body and sank its teeth into my wrist, which took only moments, it's as long as my arm.
I grit my teeth against the scream of pain that wants to escape them. Fortunately it grabbed my left wrist, leaving my knife hand unimpaired. Using it's grip on my arm I yank the still growing dragon out of the chest cavity it emerged from, and managed to slam the snaky lizard into the ground hard enough to jar it.
Reminding myself that I'll heal, I pin the top of its head to the ground by leaning on where it's biting me. Driving it's teeth deeper into my flesh and tearing at the edges of the wounds. My knee pins it's back end to the ground just above its hind legs, and without a moment's hesitation I drive the knife into the smaller scales just under its jaw. The thing spasms once, twice. Then lies still.
For a long moment I'm cautious, as I still haven't felt the knife activate, but then I realize that I hadn't been focusing on anything. Glancing back at the human corpse that's now boiling away into a rapidly dispersing vapor, I decide that I've dodged a bullet.
If chest bursting is how they shape shift, I want none of it.
On the other hand, I'm still low on mana. Note to self, on the final version of the knife make sure that it'll steal life energy for me if I don't tell it to do anything else.
Still that's one down, four more to go.
###
I feel more than a little hollow, the feeling that tells me I'm just about out of mana, so I'm not willing to go roof to roof again. Without my fae glamor to render that method of travel silent, I'm unwilling to risk it. Moving on the ground feels less safe, but it's much easier to do quietly.
It also means I almost get caught when I find my second target. This one is searching house to house. Probably making sure that there's nobody hiding in an attic or something. I'm running as quietly as I can when she comes out of a house a door down from where I am. If she looks in my direction I'm screwed, but she's looking the other way for the moment. That gives me just enough time to slide under the house I'm next to, taking advantage of standard Hawaiian construction lifting the base of the house a couple of feet or so off the ground to deal with the inevitable flooding.
I'm so glad that Pua's wards keep dangerous animals like poisonous spiders out of the village. I'm from California, I'm more than familiar with the preferred habitats of both Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders. I'd have definitely pissed off at least a couple of widows with my desperate slide under the house, if any had been here.
I carefully move to the edge of the house and peer through the vegetation planted all along the edge of the house, to watch the mo'o. She's looking in the direction of my slide, causing me to hold my breath. She moves with determination in my direction, I grip my knife with a sweating hand. I'm not really sure if I can take a dragon, even in human form, in a straight fight. Straight fights are absolutely off the agenda for this afternoon.
She pauses, almost right in front of me, and bends down to peer under the house. I'm not here, I'm not here, I think frantically, feeling the hollow empty feeling increasing rapidly. Her gaze sweeps the underside of the house several times. She scents the air wrinkling her nose at whatever she smells. After far too long she stands looking around again, and I let my invisibility fall again. I'm trembling slightly and sweating from the exertion.
The mo'o woman turns a circle in the road in front of my hiding place. Scenting the air again and trying to find something. I can't bring myself to activate my glamor again, so I'm unsurprised when she spins to look at the house, smelling the air again. She moves towards the house with a determined stride almost sending me into a panic that I'm about to be discovered.
I nearly sigh with relief when the mo'o heads up the front steps and into the house. I can hear her moving around through the floor until her footsteps fade around the middle of the house. I assume because she headed up stairs to search there.
I take a moment to think then. I can probably take her by surprise when she leaves the house, if I'm careful and lucky. Should I try to take something from this one? Last time it didn't work because, apparently, a head shot isn't lethal to these things. It only died once I killed the dragon body. If the dragon body doesn't spontaneously generate then there's a tiny dragon curled up in each of these women's chest cavity somewhere. I'm betting near the heart, because that's just how these things work. Maybe I can bring them down quicker by killing both bodies at once?
So, a stab to the heart like I'm killing a vampire, instead of to the head or throat. And if I'm wrong? I kill the dragon separately, again.
Still, stealing something. I don't want chestburster shape shifting, that leaves water breathing. I could go for it, but I can't quite shake the feeling of the near miss when I discovered how my brand new dragon shape would have manifested.
New rule, no stealing anything until I know how it'll manifest in me. For all I know I'll end up with a really obvious set of gills that I'll never be able to get rid of. That would make blending in rather difficult, not to mention I just started feeling attractive, and don't want to stop so soon. So no stealing traits from mo'o for now. I'm still running on fumes, so this target can at least give me some mana to work with.
I keep listening for the mo'o, and finally hear it coming back down the stairs. It moves around the bottom floor for a little while longer, then heads back to where it had entered the house. It exits the front door again and stands on the path looking around. I kind of wonder what she's thinking about, but not enough to slow me down.
I gather the last dregs of mana I have, and creep out from under the house, I'm not here, and move up behind her. The Kauaian dragon is none the wiser as I take a moment to psych myself up, and focus on her mana. Then in one motion I wrap an arm around her throat, pulling her backwards, and drive my knife forward between her ribs. I try to catch a lung at the same time to keep her from crying out, while at the same time getting the little dragon I suspect is curled up in her chest cavity.
I must have gotten a lung, as all she lets out is a gasping wheeze, but there's no rush from the knife activating. So I stab her a few more times rapidly, trying to shred everything in her chest without ever fully removing the knife from her body, just changing my angle. On the fourth stab I finally get what I'm after, and my knife rips the mana, life energy, out of the mo'o and feeds it into me.
It almost hurts. The mo'o has so much life that my mana network almost can't hold it. As it is I feel stretched to just below the point of pain. Almost bloated. Fortunately I have a way to burn off the excess energy quickly.
Keeping myself vanished from all senses, I take to the roof tops again, I just feel more comfortable high up, and go looking for my next target.
Two down, three to go.
###
With full, over full really, mana I don't expect the rest of them to be too difficult. I have a better idea of where to stab them to kill them quickly after the last one, and sneaking up on them will be easier now. Still I make sure to ration my mana as dearly as I can, just because I have plenty right now is no reason to get into bad habits.
I find the third at the stacked stone temple at the top of the village. The one that only Pua and the Ali'i are allowed up. I still have no idea what was up there, but apparently Pua's serious about not letting anybody else up top given how violent the wards are being. The temple is a stacked stone step pyramid, it never comes to a point. That leaves plenty of open space at the top, it being just tall enough to make sure that there's no place in the village where one can see the top of it. The area surrounding it is bare grass, which makes it easy to see the mo'o pounding her way through the wards set around the temple. Wards which are doing their level best to kill her back.
The mo'o is making progress, but not much. The spells around the temple are apparently more powerful than those around the village. Probably older, so they've had more time to grow and more generations laying them down.
Pua mentioned once that rededicating the temple after it's been violated requires a voluntary human sacrifice, so I should probably stop the mo'o before she gets much further.
Wrapping myself in my I'm not here illusion again, I creep up behind the mo'o. Or try to. The bolts of power that the shape shifted dragon is throwing at the temple wards are creating backwash that isn't easy to avoid, never mind the retaliatory blasts from the wards themselves. Reflected and evaded bits of destructive energy fly every which way in unpredictable patterns.
Still I manage to weave my way through the impromptu bullet hell, and slide into the safe zone immediately behind the Kauaian shape shifter. I line up my knife to try and kill the woman with my first hit, as opposed to having to search for the weak spot, when the mo'o twists and suddenly all I can see is the sky.
I have the brief feeling of being airborne, then crash to the ground. I gasp for air, and only then does twelve different flavors of agony radiate from my upper arm. A quick glance at how my arm above the elbow has twisted and flopped, literally bonelessly, tells me that the problem is more than a simple break. The trouble I'm having breathing tells me that I have at least one cracked rib as well.
If my skeleton hadn't been troll bone, that one back hand from the dragon in human skin might have torn me in half. At least I know that ambush tactics are absolutely the right way to go with these. Which begs the question, what went wrong?
It only takes me a few moments, with the clarity of thought that only adrenaline combined with desperation can provide, that I come up with a potential answer. I remember that the illusion failed when I'd been, overly focused shall we say, watching the Sirens as well. Apparently while easier, 'I'm not here' is still too much for me to keep going if I'm paying attention to anything more complicated than moving at the same time.
The mo'o saying something in Old Hawaiian gives me the impetus to focus my wandering thoughts on the present again. She's walking towards me at a slow casual walk as she unwraps the cord with a stone on the end from around her waist, and begins to spin the weight.
That looks like it would hurt.
Frantically, I search for where my destroyed right arm lost my knife. At the last moment I spot it, surprisingly not too far away, off to my right, and fling myself at it in a desperate dodge. I scream through gritted teeth as my arm jolts in response to my movement, but I manage to get my good hand on the knife and vanish again. I'm not here! As just behind me the weighted end of the cord hits the ground where my head had been a moment before. The damn thing strikes hard enough to raise a cloud of dust, and leave a small crater from the impact.
Troll bone or not my head would have exploded from that sort of impact.
I keep moving as I have no doubt that she'll hit where the knife had been next. I'm not here. I'm nearly sobbing from the pain, but keep myself moving from nothing but pure stubbornness. I'm pretty sure that my humerus has been turned into gravel from that first hit.
I'm more than a little afraid of what will happen next. If the mo'o just starts blanketing the area with attacks in an effort to get lucky, I'll have to focus too much on dodging to keep up the illusion. I'm not here. Which would make hitting me much easier.
Luck is with me for once, the mo'o seems surprised by my vanishing act and pauses looking around her. Apparently she hadn't been aware of my appearing out of thin air behind her, or just wasn't expecting me to pull the trick again. Or she saw me coming early enough that she was willing to try and bait me in close with her supposed ignorance of my presence, and I'd been visible the entire time. I'm not quite sure when I lost focus on the illusion after all.
I have no idea which theory is true and it hardly matters now. I'm not here. With her doing nothing but turning in a circle, her weighted cord at the ready, I have no trouble staggering my way over to her and plunging the knife through her stomach and up. Luckily, again, I do something right and the Script immediately activates, and I again suck down a dragon shifters life force.
I haven't really used up all the mana I'd gotten from the last mo'o, which had nearly over filled me. This time there's far more energy than I can hold. It fills my network to bursting, and then starts to leak through into the rest of my body as the channels it should flow through begin to tear... rupture? Describing how a metaphysical circulatory system fails is hard, and at least decent at distracting me from the pain. I feel stretched, like an overfull balloon, as the mana pounds against the inside of my skin, straining to find somewhere to go. It feels like I'm about to get ripped to pieces.
My rib fractures fusing and my regeneration beginning to do something with my arm drains mana quickly, but not quickly enough. Even trollish regeneration can only work so fast, and will only use up mana at the speed it works. While I haven't lost a limb, with a shattered bone I might as well have. A month to regrow an arm, hopefully since I haven't actually lost any mass it will go faster, but I'm not holding my breath.
In fact I'm panting, I feel like my skin is paper thin and brittle. I glance down at myself and my eyes widen in horror. My arms and legs are riddled with faintly glowing cracks, like glass in the process of shattering. In places my skin has split open wider, in larger wrents letting an almost neon blue light escape. Hesitantly I pass my fingers through the narrow jets of light shining from the tears in my flesh, and have to bite my lip to keep any noise I might make inside. The light feels like mana. My mana newly absorbed, forcing its way free of my body which has no more room for it.
I shudder, if the force of excess mana inside me can rip my skin open to relieve the pressure... if I over charge by too much would I just explode?
Not something I want to find out, but it seems likely given what's happening to me already.
I take a deep shuddering breath, watching with some amount of relief as the cracks begin to shrink, my regeneration starting to overcome my internal mana pressure. The larger wounds slowly started to glow less, though they aren't closing yet. There's nothing I can do about that right now, save making sure my mana doesn't go too high again, in addition to making sure it doesn't drop too low.
With gritted teeth I force myself to my feet, and to focus on what I can affect right now past the burning thrum just under my skin.
Still I have a job to do.
Three down, two to go.
Book 1 - Price
- Location
- California
I'm not here.
In an effort to bleed off excess mana as quickly as possible I keep my illusion of absence up. Which is more than a little tricky as I also try to do other things. First I have to do something about my arm. My right humerus is gravel, something that will take even my trollish regeneration a noticeable amount of time to fix. So for the moment I have to do something to keep it from getting worse as I move around.
Looking around, the only thing I can find that could serve to keep my arm immobile, is the cord from the mo'o's fighting rope. Doing anything with that will be awkward as hell with only one arm, but I don't have an abundance of other options.
I manage to cut the weight off the cord by standing on one end of the cord, putting the other in my teeth, and using my one good arm to use my knife to make the cut. The easy part done, I manage to wrap the cord around my fore arm and torso several times and tie a... I'll be generous and call it a serviceable knot that... sort of immobilizes my injured arm.
Honestly it sucks, but I can't think of how to do it better, and there are still two mo'o running around my friends' home that have appointments with my knife. So with the illusion keeping me silent, I sprint back into the village from the temple. I'm tempted to take a flying leap onto the roofs again, but at the speed I'm moving at, I'm afraid that I'll break something. Like a building. No matter how convincing the illusion, it is just an illusion, I am still here after all.
My illusion flickers at the thought, and I slow down to give myself a moment to refocus, I'm not here, and disappear from the senses of the world again. Illusion reestablished I take a moment to reassess. I'm next to the stream that cut through the middle of the village. Across and just upstream of me is the forge Vivain constructed next to the fish pond.
Standing in front of the forge, is the mo'o in the red cape. Opposite her in the doorway of the forge is Vivain. She's planted herself feet shoulder width apart filling up the doorway. In each hand she has a hammer, one resting on the thigh of her forward leg, the other hooked over her shoulder. Behind her I can just make out the small forms of children trying not to attract attention.
So glad I read her right. There wasn't much of a chance of her not protecting the kids being the fae responsible for Excalibur, but there's knowing and knowing.
I stop moving to see how things are going. No fighting yet, obviously, but if they're going to start, or headed in that direction I want to know about it before the fur... or scales I guess, starts flying. I make sure I'm still invisible, and listened in.
"...can not argue that removing our memories of this place is an aggressive act!" The mo'o is speaking loudly and passionately. Some part of me is surprised that they're speaking in English. Though I suppose that between an ancient English fae, and an old Hawaiian dragon, modern English might very well be the only language they shared in common.
"I argue nothing." Vivain's deep water and hammer on anvil voice sounds downright bored, and maybe just a little like she resents the mo'o for wasting her time. "I care not about whatever petty squabbles brought you to this village. I care not what you do to it while you are here. Or to any of the other villagers that you manage to find." Ouch, just in case you forget that the Lady of the Lake is a fae, "I only protect the children. The rest is not my concern."
The mo'o growls, "In spite of your claims to the contrary, you seem to be very concerned."
"With the lives of children? Yes." Vivain smirks, "Do not growl at me little dragon. I might take offense."
"Little!" The mo'o shrieks her hand flying to the shark tooth knife, "I'm over ten feet tall!"
"As I said," Vivain's voice dripped condescension, and from deeper in the village I hear the sound of running feet, "little. 'Asides I think you have larger concerns."
The red caped mo'o spins to look behind her as the sound of running becomes audible to her, and then is quickly revealed to be the last unaccounted invader. The new mo'o is pale and breathing hard, eyes wide, and the faintest scent of panic is carried to me on the ocean breeze.
The red caped leader quickly runs to meet her soldier, catching her as the newcomer collapses to her knees. The new mo'o speaks in Old Hawaiian, but panicked babbling transcends the language barrier to a certain extent. I think I may have been discovered. I haven't exactly been hiding the bodies after all. I figured that if they're found then the remainder would move slower from caution.
Frankly, I didn't think I'd get as many of them as I did.
I glance back at Vivain only to find the fae looking right at me. I panic for a moment, checking to make sure my glamor hasn't lapsed while I haven't been paying attention. It's still there though, I suppose a faerie of the Lady of the Lake's power and age seeing through my illusions isn't that unreasonable. Thinking about it, I'd be more surprised if she couldn't see through it.
Vivain winks at me with a pleased smile, then turns her attention back to the two mo'o when the red caped one surges back to her feet with a roar that's decidedly inhuman. The smell of rage fills the air, and the red caped woman spins and glares at the fae standing in her way.
"Mele, forget the rest of the village. Find where the Ke'Kua'Okolani are hiding!" She hisses. Why the hell is she talking in English? This is the first time any of the mo'o have spoken anything but Old Hawaiian to each other.
"Ae Nalani, but how will we get them out?" The other mo'o's voice still shakes slightly, and her accent is thick, "Their refuge will be well warded."
"Simple." Red cape, Nalani I guess, I really don't want to know the names of the people I'm killing. Afterwards, sure, but when I'm trying to do it I don't want anything humanising them, making what I'm doing harder, "They will come out on their own, because we will have hostages." She snarls.
That's why she's talking in English. She wants Vivain to know what she has planned, wants her to worry about the other villagers, and what they'll do to the kids as hostages. She still thinks that the fae cares about the rest of us, in spite of what she's been saying and the mo'o is trying to take advantage of that.
Vivain really doesn't care about the rest of the village. The implied threat won't bother her at all. I care though. I care a great deal, but they don't know I'm here. So all they've done is give me a heads up.
My internal mana pressure has finally evened out. My body is still swamped with excess mana, but it isn't pressing on the inside of my skin any more. The tears in my skin are no longer glowing and have rapidly started to pull themselves shut. Some small part of me absently notices that the wounds hadn't bled at all.
Looking up from my self assessment, the last remaining mo'o aside from the leader has started off into the village. Right, I'll follow her out of sight of her boss and ambush her like I did the others. Then...
I glance back at where the red caped mo'o is stalking towards Vivain snarling. She said she was more than ten feet. That's over a story tall. Sure the female troll I killed was bigger, but trolls are dumb. Really really dumb, and don't have anything but brute strength and staying power to work with. Mo'o on the other hand are dragons. They're smart, very smart, and they have power beyond the physical. Sure they're small for dragons, but to a certain extent that hardly matters.
Dragons are dragons.
I have no idea what the Lady of the Lake can do with her power, but given the intensity of the mana radiating off of her, it has to be significant. Any fight between the two will be spectacular, both in terms of spectacle, and collateral damage. I'm sure that Vivain will protect the kids, she said she would after all, but fighting a dragon and shielding almost fifty panicking kids? That's a risk no matter how you look at it.
On the other hand if I can draw the mo'o off...
I'm not here...
With nothing more than a thought to reinforce my glamor, I clear the stream with a single bound and sprint for the mo'o heading back into the village. God damn it... someday I'll stop doing stupid things.
Some day.
Not today though.
The mo'o is moving at a walk, a fast walk, but still a walk, allowing me to catch up almost immediately. I pass her on the right side, my knife in my left hand, I drive the sharp iron blade into the mo'o's back with all the force of my body weight and sprint behind it. After doing this three times I have a pretty good idea where to aim to get the little dragon in the mo'o's chest.
Still best to be sure.
I ride the body to the ground and slam the knife into her back a few more times, just to be sure. Sitting back I examine the mo'o under me for a moment to see if I actually killed her. After a few seconds of no movement I let out a large breath. Another breath fortifies me for what's coming next, and I turn back towards the stream, the forge, and the last pissed off dragon.
Vivain is watching me with an expression I can only call pleased, but it's hard to pay attention to her when she's standing next to the red cloaked mo'o. That one is looking at me in shock. Shock that's quickly being replaced by fury.
"You." The mo'o hisses. Actually hisses, what looked like steam is leaking from between her clenched teeth, "You killed my friends."
I cock my head to one side, "You brought them to attack an enemy village, essentially to war, what did you think was going to happen?" I'm beginning to think that this is not an official attack given how this one is talking and how young they looked, how shaken the one I just killed had been. They aren't really warriors, more like some clever teenagers that snuck out to do something they thought of as really fun, and is actually really stupid, and had no idea what they were getting into. Of course these particular teenagers think that mass murder is fun, so my sympathy is limited. "I'd say you're at least as responsible for their deaths as I am. I may have stuck the knife in, but you're the one who dragged them in front of that knife. I mean, how many of them did you have to talk into coming here? How many would have been here without you? How many would be dead if you all just stayed at home?"
Normally taunting an already pissed off supernatural powerhouse, like a dragon, is a terrible idea. It probably still is, but I want her pissed off and focused on nothing but me. Pissed is stupid and if she's fighting me she won't be trying to get at the kids.
Granted I'm shooting blind for my taunts, but if she's anything even vaguely resembling a good leader, she feels responsible for the people who follow her. Even if I'm way off base for why they're here, she had to be feeling guilty. I hope at least.
Hope not in vain, something I said must have struck a sore spot. The noise that she producers is somewhere between a scream and a roar. Her chest dragon erupts through her rib cage in a spray of blood and bone fragments. This one grows in size almost explosively, going from cute little hand sized dragon to horse sized in the space of a breath.
Then the dragon wraps itself around the human body, and eats it in three large bites.
I'm stunned, I mean what the fuck? So glad I didn't take that shape shifting.
After eating her own body, her growth increases in speed again. I blink and the horse sized dragon is the size of a single story house. The look of the thing isn't anything like European dragons, but wasn't the classic Asian snake dragon. Though more like the latter than the former. Just not nearly as long.
A wedge shape head leads into a long sinuous body that's covered in sea green, and foam white scales. A fur crest runs from head to tail, which has a tuft of fur on the end. No antlers but bird-like feet dig into the ground with talons that are worryingly long and sharp. Overall she looks like something from a Miyazaki film.
The entire transformation, from beginning to end, takes maybe the space of a few heartbeats. Which is the only reason I see any of it, because as soon as I register what's happened I spin on the ball of my foot and run like hell.
There is no way I can fight this thing. I can't fight them in human form, the armored supernatural tank behind me is way out of my league. Of course I don't have to fight her, I just need to stall. I have to believe that Pua and Ku are on their way back here just as quickly as they possibly can. So all I need to do is keep in front of this thing until they get here.
Behind me comes the sound of huge lungs pulling in air quickly. I fling myself behind the nearest cover, a tree on the edge of the open space around the fish pond, failing to hold in the scream from jarring my still shattered arm. Deep breaths plus dragon only equals one thing. I'm proven right when a moment later the air is filled with high pressure steam.
The steam curls around the tree trunk, which is only barely large enough to provide any cover at all, and burns any exposed flesh it can find. Which means the outside of my arms and legs, my face and neck manage to escape with nothing worse than a mild first degree burn. Blisters are already forming on my arms and legs though.
I force myself to get ready to keep moving through the pain, which is fortunately temporary. First the taught too hot feeling on my neck and cheeks fades, then the blisters covering my limbs swell, and start shrinking again just as fast.
Troll healing for the win. So far definitely the best investment I've made.
A moment later the blast of steam stops and I take off running again. Behind me a roar indicates that the dragon is still pissed and focused on me. The stream runs through the middle of the village, so it only takes a few moments at my sprinting speed to get in among the buildings for cover. It'll no doubt cause some property damage, but better that than child damage.
Behind me I can hear the air rushing across scales, and the occasional foot fall that's both too light and too large. The angry dragon noises, and my bat enhanced hearing, let me form a pretty detailed image of what's behind me.
The sinuous dragon flows like water through the scattered trees, flying across the ground rather than running on it. The dragon's only nod to gravity is the occasional foot pushing against the ground. The sound behind me changes, and there's another large inhale, which prompts me to leap to one side behind a house. Moments later another rush of steam clips the house and I wince.
I don't know what a high pressure steam will do to the building, but it can't be good for the paint job. With more cover to hide behind I don't suffer any injuries, which is good. I'm not about to run out of mana, but I just don't have the experience to know what I have left will translate to practically. Especially not with my arm in its current state.
After what feels like an eternity, but can only have been a few moments, the roar of the fast moving steam stops.
I hold my breath, listening as hard as I can to try and determine which way the mo'o is moving so I can keep running. The human shape of one of these has kicked my ass with a casual back hand, the dragon is utterly beyond me.
With a sound like the world ending the dragon smashes through the house and sends me flying. Why I thought some wooden walls would slow down the house sized dragon, I have no idea in retrospect. I twist in mid air using everything that years of gymnastics have hammered into my muscle memory to avoid landing on my shattered arm. I succeed, but landing jarrs the injury anyway, squeezing a strangled shriek from between my clenched teeth.
For just a moment I white out from the pain, or I think it's a moment. I reengage with the world just as something slams down on top of me, pinning me to the ground and pressing down on my arm. The pressure on my mangled limb fills my vision with stars, when they clear I'm staring up at the face of a dragon.
It has a fore claw pressing me into the ground. Above me hoveres a narrow muzzle filled with serrated shark like teeth. Solid black eyes manage to project focused hate in a way I've never experienced before. It's long fur crest thrashes and snaps as though caught in rough seas.
Worst of all? It's too far away for me to punch in the eye.
It growls something in old Hawaiian, and after a moment or two of my uncomprehending stare it loses patience with me. I frantically scramble for anything that might be able to save me as it leans in close, still too far to punch, and begins to inhale deeply.
I inhale with it, an unconscious action caused by the expectation of painful death, readying myself to scream...
Scream...
As fast as I can using my crude control of my own mana, I channel as much as I can in what little time I have to my throat. I force as much as I can, for as long as I can, to the part of me that represents what I stole from the sirens. Then I don't have any more time, the mo'o above me having taken in as much air as it can. I expel all that mana through my voice box, and I scream.
Every pain of glass in range shatters, exploding into jagged shards. Then the stone follows it cracking, popping apart almost like it's been heated too far too fast. Then the wood that I can see comes apart into splinters. The scales on the dragon's leg holding me down crack, and the mo'o rears back letting out the air it had taken in, in a high pitched almost metallic shriek of pain.
The leg pinning me down goes up with the rest of the dragon and I gasped for air. With the weight off of me, and having emptied my lungs with the scream, my throat is sore like an overworked muscle. Rolling over I try to push myself back to my feet with my one working arm so I can keep running.
I manage to make my knees when the sound of thunder fills the air. Looking up I find Pua striding across the grass looking thunderous. She has almost a dozen gourds of various sizes hanging from her belt and wrists. What really makes me nervous though is the gourd strapped to her back, it's the size of a steamer trunk. In her hands she carries a gourd that she holds with its mouth pointing at the mo'o. From it pours lightning, filling the air with the smell of ozone. The python of actinic white lightning strikes the dragon right in the thick banded scales along it's chest. The bolt of lightning splits apart into tiny arcs of electricity that crawl across its body, causing its mussels to spasm and twitch visibly under it's scales.
Seeing how much lightning is in that small gourd makes me wonder idly what she has in the others.
Next to his sister Ku walks with purpose. As they approach, a faint white aura collects around Ku's body. When the lightning runs out Ku moves. He vanishes in a burst of red mist, the only sign of his passage a rapidly dissipating trail of the same.
Turning to follow the trail I find him standing at the mo'o's back leg, an open palm pressed against the dragon's scaled hind leg. The mo'o roars in pain again as the leg collapses dropping the dragon to the ground. For a moment it looks like the mo'o will catch itself, but it's still twitching muscles can't take the impact, dropping it face first into the ground.
The displaced air from its landing almost knocks me on my ass again, but Pua catches me, helping me to stay upright. When I manage to blink the tears the sudden rush of wind forced from me, Ku stands at the dragon's head, his hand pressed flat against the side of it's skull. Blood pours out of its nose and mouth, and leaks from its eyes like bloody tears. Though there isn't any visible damage to its scales that I can see.
Ku steps back, the faint white aura around him fading as he shakes out his hands, flexing them slowly. As soon as her brother is clear of the dragon corpse Pua eyeballs the body, uncorks another gourd, and pours a carefully measured amount of black and red flickering energy on to it. The energy dissolves the body like Hollywood acid until there's nothing of its body left, by which time the energy had been used up.
I stare at where the giant lizard that had been kicking my ass until a few moments ago has just vanished. After a few more moments I turn to the tiny kahuna, "What was that?" My voice is both flat and incredulous. I know what I think it was, but that would be ridiculous.
"Power of Destruction." She answers as though that's a perfectly normal thing to just keep in a gourd, and that's in fact exactly what I thought it was.
What the hell?
Literally!
I can't do much beyond stare at her for a few moments longer as I try to process that. While I reboot she starts to examine my crudely immobilized arm making very unhappy noises. After a few moments of this I can't restrain myself any longer, "What's in the big one?"
"You mean this?" She glances up at me and jerks a thumb over her shoulder at the huge gourd on her back. I just nod, and she winks at me, "A hurricane."
It takes three days for everything to be sorted out. Not for the village to get back to normal. That will take a while just from the damage done by the mo'o while I was looking for them, not to mention the house that had been barled through by the last dragon shaped mo'o. What my scream had done to the surroundings didn't bear mentioning. There isn't an intact piece of glass in the village, stone and wood suffered within a good few hundred feet. Things are running as normal as they can though.
Pua treated my arm while extracting my account of what had happened while they had been away. She'd wrapped it in a cast/bandage made of coconut fiber cloth and some large fresh green leaves that I don't recognize, then put it in a sling and gave me strict instructions. I'm not to touch or disturb the bandaging in any way, and use that arm as normally as I can, which isn't very. The thing will fall off when I'm done healing, and until then I'm mostly one armed.
I just shrug and go with it. I know from exposure that Kahuna healing magic is all about how to get warriors back to fighting as quickly as possible without weakening them. Never mind whatever else Pua's managed to find scattered about the world.
I also manage to extract some of what happened to Pua and Ku wherever they'd ended up. Apparently Ku had spent several hours trying to coral some half dozen belligerent shark mo'o in the water, while Pua had gone to find and have a talk with Kamohoaliʻi. Kamohoaliʻi as I then learn is the king of sharks, and a major sea deity of the Hawaiian pantheon. With no small amount of work they manage to get the mo'o and Kamohoaliʻi in the same place at the same time. After a lot of yelling from the shark king, they learn that the sharks had been put up to everything by some dragons.
Pua and Ku knowing a setup when they see one immediately came sprinting back to the village just as quickly as they could. Arriving just in time to save my ass from the rampaging dragon mo'o. What happened to the sharks is conspicuously not mentioned, but from what I've managed to dig up on him, as Pele's big brother Kamohoaliʻi isn't the nicest of people when you get him riled up. I rapidly come to the conclusion that I really don't want to know.
I also spend a lot of time talking to Pua about what I did. I've killed people before, even if you don't count the vampires, which some folks don't, the Sidhe definitely counts, as does the rapist. For some reason the mo'o bothers me more though. The nightmares of stabbing a human shaped mo'o to death and turning them over only to find I've stabbed myself to death makes sleeping hard. Pua does what she can, but this doesn't seem like something that can be fixed quickly. Time will be required, and I'll just have to live with poor sleep until my subconscious does it's work.
On the third day though, Pua and I are told that Vivain wants to speak to me in her forge. Pua isn't included in the invitation, but neither of us care much, and she comes along anyway. I haven't been in Vivain's forge before, so I'm somewhat eager to look around.
What I find isn't that exciting. A forge, unlit at the moment, tools of various sorts that I can't really identify beyond 'hammer' hang on the walls. Under the tools are bins with ingots of various metals waiting to be used. Next to the forge are several large tanks filled with several different fluids. I think one is water, and another is oil. What the other seven are, I have no idea. All of this in easy reach of the anvil that stands in the middle of the space. The anvil is raised up to about waist height on a log of some sort, and is currently being used as a table or desk by Vivain, who is seated behind it on a simple wooden stool.
As we enter I have the jarring experience of expecting the space to be dim. It isn't, and why I thought it would be is a mystery since one entire wall of the space is open. It still throws me enough that I don't notice the two additional stools standing on the opposite side of the anvil from her, until Vivain gestures for the both of us to sit.
It isn't exactly comfortable, but comfort isn't really all that essential. Honestly the simple surroundings and lack of typical host behavior make me more comfortable with the situation. My last encounter with a Sidhe may have left me more than slightly paranoid.
The three of us sit quietly, Pua studying Vivain, Vivain studying me, and I study the surroundings, for what feels like forever.
"I have decided that I will arm you." Vivain finally breaks the silence, "I have seen you in battle, and in peace, and know what you need. I have also determined my price, negotiation will determine exactly what you get for that price. Once negotiations are complete, you will swear to me thrice to pay my price, and you will receive what is agreed upon."
That's unusual, I'm pretty sure. Pua's raised eyebrow indicates that she agrees with me, "Negotiations will determine more than just that, but first what is your price?"
Vivain leans forward rising half out of her chair planting her hands on the anvil, and suddenly any pretense that the being in front of us is in any way human vanishes like smoke. Her hair turns a deep blue, and floats around her head as though she's underwater. Her skin tinted just slightly an attractive shade of green, even as her eyes are consumed by light like the moon reflecting off water. Her fingernails carve divots in her anvil as The Lady of the Lake leans forward and hisses, the inhuman qualities of her voice rendering her almost unintelligible.
"I want my Excalibur back!"
In an effort to bleed off excess mana as quickly as possible I keep my illusion of absence up. Which is more than a little tricky as I also try to do other things. First I have to do something about my arm. My right humerus is gravel, something that will take even my trollish regeneration a noticeable amount of time to fix. So for the moment I have to do something to keep it from getting worse as I move around.
Looking around, the only thing I can find that could serve to keep my arm immobile, is the cord from the mo'o's fighting rope. Doing anything with that will be awkward as hell with only one arm, but I don't have an abundance of other options.
I manage to cut the weight off the cord by standing on one end of the cord, putting the other in my teeth, and using my one good arm to use my knife to make the cut. The easy part done, I manage to wrap the cord around my fore arm and torso several times and tie a... I'll be generous and call it a serviceable knot that... sort of immobilizes my injured arm.
Honestly it sucks, but I can't think of how to do it better, and there are still two mo'o running around my friends' home that have appointments with my knife. So with the illusion keeping me silent, I sprint back into the village from the temple. I'm tempted to take a flying leap onto the roofs again, but at the speed I'm moving at, I'm afraid that I'll break something. Like a building. No matter how convincing the illusion, it is just an illusion, I am still here after all.
My illusion flickers at the thought, and I slow down to give myself a moment to refocus, I'm not here, and disappear from the senses of the world again. Illusion reestablished I take a moment to reassess. I'm next to the stream that cut through the middle of the village. Across and just upstream of me is the forge Vivain constructed next to the fish pond.
Standing in front of the forge, is the mo'o in the red cape. Opposite her in the doorway of the forge is Vivain. She's planted herself feet shoulder width apart filling up the doorway. In each hand she has a hammer, one resting on the thigh of her forward leg, the other hooked over her shoulder. Behind her I can just make out the small forms of children trying not to attract attention.
So glad I read her right. There wasn't much of a chance of her not protecting the kids being the fae responsible for Excalibur, but there's knowing and knowing.
I stop moving to see how things are going. No fighting yet, obviously, but if they're going to start, or headed in that direction I want to know about it before the fur... or scales I guess, starts flying. I make sure I'm still invisible, and listened in.
"...can not argue that removing our memories of this place is an aggressive act!" The mo'o is speaking loudly and passionately. Some part of me is surprised that they're speaking in English. Though I suppose that between an ancient English fae, and an old Hawaiian dragon, modern English might very well be the only language they shared in common.
"I argue nothing." Vivain's deep water and hammer on anvil voice sounds downright bored, and maybe just a little like she resents the mo'o for wasting her time. "I care not about whatever petty squabbles brought you to this village. I care not what you do to it while you are here. Or to any of the other villagers that you manage to find." Ouch, just in case you forget that the Lady of the Lake is a fae, "I only protect the children. The rest is not my concern."
The mo'o growls, "In spite of your claims to the contrary, you seem to be very concerned."
"With the lives of children? Yes." Vivain smirks, "Do not growl at me little dragon. I might take offense."
"Little!" The mo'o shrieks her hand flying to the shark tooth knife, "I'm over ten feet tall!"
"As I said," Vivain's voice dripped condescension, and from deeper in the village I hear the sound of running feet, "little. 'Asides I think you have larger concerns."
The red caped mo'o spins to look behind her as the sound of running becomes audible to her, and then is quickly revealed to be the last unaccounted invader. The new mo'o is pale and breathing hard, eyes wide, and the faintest scent of panic is carried to me on the ocean breeze.
The red caped leader quickly runs to meet her soldier, catching her as the newcomer collapses to her knees. The new mo'o speaks in Old Hawaiian, but panicked babbling transcends the language barrier to a certain extent. I think I may have been discovered. I haven't exactly been hiding the bodies after all. I figured that if they're found then the remainder would move slower from caution.
Frankly, I didn't think I'd get as many of them as I did.
I glance back at Vivain only to find the fae looking right at me. I panic for a moment, checking to make sure my glamor hasn't lapsed while I haven't been paying attention. It's still there though, I suppose a faerie of the Lady of the Lake's power and age seeing through my illusions isn't that unreasonable. Thinking about it, I'd be more surprised if she couldn't see through it.
Vivain winks at me with a pleased smile, then turns her attention back to the two mo'o when the red caped one surges back to her feet with a roar that's decidedly inhuman. The smell of rage fills the air, and the red caped woman spins and glares at the fae standing in her way.
"Mele, forget the rest of the village. Find where the Ke'Kua'Okolani are hiding!" She hisses. Why the hell is she talking in English? This is the first time any of the mo'o have spoken anything but Old Hawaiian to each other.
"Ae Nalani, but how will we get them out?" The other mo'o's voice still shakes slightly, and her accent is thick, "Their refuge will be well warded."
"Simple." Red cape, Nalani I guess, I really don't want to know the names of the people I'm killing. Afterwards, sure, but when I'm trying to do it I don't want anything humanising them, making what I'm doing harder, "They will come out on their own, because we will have hostages." She snarls.
That's why she's talking in English. She wants Vivain to know what she has planned, wants her to worry about the other villagers, and what they'll do to the kids as hostages. She still thinks that the fae cares about the rest of us, in spite of what she's been saying and the mo'o is trying to take advantage of that.
Vivain really doesn't care about the rest of the village. The implied threat won't bother her at all. I care though. I care a great deal, but they don't know I'm here. So all they've done is give me a heads up.
My internal mana pressure has finally evened out. My body is still swamped with excess mana, but it isn't pressing on the inside of my skin any more. The tears in my skin are no longer glowing and have rapidly started to pull themselves shut. Some small part of me absently notices that the wounds hadn't bled at all.
Looking up from my self assessment, the last remaining mo'o aside from the leader has started off into the village. Right, I'll follow her out of sight of her boss and ambush her like I did the others. Then...
I glance back at where the red caped mo'o is stalking towards Vivain snarling. She said she was more than ten feet. That's over a story tall. Sure the female troll I killed was bigger, but trolls are dumb. Really really dumb, and don't have anything but brute strength and staying power to work with. Mo'o on the other hand are dragons. They're smart, very smart, and they have power beyond the physical. Sure they're small for dragons, but to a certain extent that hardly matters.
Dragons are dragons.
I have no idea what the Lady of the Lake can do with her power, but given the intensity of the mana radiating off of her, it has to be significant. Any fight between the two will be spectacular, both in terms of spectacle, and collateral damage. I'm sure that Vivain will protect the kids, she said she would after all, but fighting a dragon and shielding almost fifty panicking kids? That's a risk no matter how you look at it.
On the other hand if I can draw the mo'o off...
I'm not here...
With nothing more than a thought to reinforce my glamor, I clear the stream with a single bound and sprint for the mo'o heading back into the village. God damn it... someday I'll stop doing stupid things.
Some day.
Not today though.
The mo'o is moving at a walk, a fast walk, but still a walk, allowing me to catch up almost immediately. I pass her on the right side, my knife in my left hand, I drive the sharp iron blade into the mo'o's back with all the force of my body weight and sprint behind it. After doing this three times I have a pretty good idea where to aim to get the little dragon in the mo'o's chest.
Still best to be sure.
I ride the body to the ground and slam the knife into her back a few more times, just to be sure. Sitting back I examine the mo'o under me for a moment to see if I actually killed her. After a few seconds of no movement I let out a large breath. Another breath fortifies me for what's coming next, and I turn back towards the stream, the forge, and the last pissed off dragon.
Vivain is watching me with an expression I can only call pleased, but it's hard to pay attention to her when she's standing next to the red cloaked mo'o. That one is looking at me in shock. Shock that's quickly being replaced by fury.
"You." The mo'o hisses. Actually hisses, what looked like steam is leaking from between her clenched teeth, "You killed my friends."
I cock my head to one side, "You brought them to attack an enemy village, essentially to war, what did you think was going to happen?" I'm beginning to think that this is not an official attack given how this one is talking and how young they looked, how shaken the one I just killed had been. They aren't really warriors, more like some clever teenagers that snuck out to do something they thought of as really fun, and is actually really stupid, and had no idea what they were getting into. Of course these particular teenagers think that mass murder is fun, so my sympathy is limited. "I'd say you're at least as responsible for their deaths as I am. I may have stuck the knife in, but you're the one who dragged them in front of that knife. I mean, how many of them did you have to talk into coming here? How many would have been here without you? How many would be dead if you all just stayed at home?"
Normally taunting an already pissed off supernatural powerhouse, like a dragon, is a terrible idea. It probably still is, but I want her pissed off and focused on nothing but me. Pissed is stupid and if she's fighting me she won't be trying to get at the kids.
Granted I'm shooting blind for my taunts, but if she's anything even vaguely resembling a good leader, she feels responsible for the people who follow her. Even if I'm way off base for why they're here, she had to be feeling guilty. I hope at least.
Hope not in vain, something I said must have struck a sore spot. The noise that she producers is somewhere between a scream and a roar. Her chest dragon erupts through her rib cage in a spray of blood and bone fragments. This one grows in size almost explosively, going from cute little hand sized dragon to horse sized in the space of a breath.
Then the dragon wraps itself around the human body, and eats it in three large bites.
I'm stunned, I mean what the fuck? So glad I didn't take that shape shifting.
After eating her own body, her growth increases in speed again. I blink and the horse sized dragon is the size of a single story house. The look of the thing isn't anything like European dragons, but wasn't the classic Asian snake dragon. Though more like the latter than the former. Just not nearly as long.
A wedge shape head leads into a long sinuous body that's covered in sea green, and foam white scales. A fur crest runs from head to tail, which has a tuft of fur on the end. No antlers but bird-like feet dig into the ground with talons that are worryingly long and sharp. Overall she looks like something from a Miyazaki film.
The entire transformation, from beginning to end, takes maybe the space of a few heartbeats. Which is the only reason I see any of it, because as soon as I register what's happened I spin on the ball of my foot and run like hell.
There is no way I can fight this thing. I can't fight them in human form, the armored supernatural tank behind me is way out of my league. Of course I don't have to fight her, I just need to stall. I have to believe that Pua and Ku are on their way back here just as quickly as they possibly can. So all I need to do is keep in front of this thing until they get here.
Behind me comes the sound of huge lungs pulling in air quickly. I fling myself behind the nearest cover, a tree on the edge of the open space around the fish pond, failing to hold in the scream from jarring my still shattered arm. Deep breaths plus dragon only equals one thing. I'm proven right when a moment later the air is filled with high pressure steam.
The steam curls around the tree trunk, which is only barely large enough to provide any cover at all, and burns any exposed flesh it can find. Which means the outside of my arms and legs, my face and neck manage to escape with nothing worse than a mild first degree burn. Blisters are already forming on my arms and legs though.
I force myself to get ready to keep moving through the pain, which is fortunately temporary. First the taught too hot feeling on my neck and cheeks fades, then the blisters covering my limbs swell, and start shrinking again just as fast.
Troll healing for the win. So far definitely the best investment I've made.
A moment later the blast of steam stops and I take off running again. Behind me a roar indicates that the dragon is still pissed and focused on me. The stream runs through the middle of the village, so it only takes a few moments at my sprinting speed to get in among the buildings for cover. It'll no doubt cause some property damage, but better that than child damage.
Behind me I can hear the air rushing across scales, and the occasional foot fall that's both too light and too large. The angry dragon noises, and my bat enhanced hearing, let me form a pretty detailed image of what's behind me.
The sinuous dragon flows like water through the scattered trees, flying across the ground rather than running on it. The dragon's only nod to gravity is the occasional foot pushing against the ground. The sound behind me changes, and there's another large inhale, which prompts me to leap to one side behind a house. Moments later another rush of steam clips the house and I wince.
I don't know what a high pressure steam will do to the building, but it can't be good for the paint job. With more cover to hide behind I don't suffer any injuries, which is good. I'm not about to run out of mana, but I just don't have the experience to know what I have left will translate to practically. Especially not with my arm in its current state.
After what feels like an eternity, but can only have been a few moments, the roar of the fast moving steam stops.
I hold my breath, listening as hard as I can to try and determine which way the mo'o is moving so I can keep running. The human shape of one of these has kicked my ass with a casual back hand, the dragon is utterly beyond me.
With a sound like the world ending the dragon smashes through the house and sends me flying. Why I thought some wooden walls would slow down the house sized dragon, I have no idea in retrospect. I twist in mid air using everything that years of gymnastics have hammered into my muscle memory to avoid landing on my shattered arm. I succeed, but landing jarrs the injury anyway, squeezing a strangled shriek from between my clenched teeth.
For just a moment I white out from the pain, or I think it's a moment. I reengage with the world just as something slams down on top of me, pinning me to the ground and pressing down on my arm. The pressure on my mangled limb fills my vision with stars, when they clear I'm staring up at the face of a dragon.
It has a fore claw pressing me into the ground. Above me hoveres a narrow muzzle filled with serrated shark like teeth. Solid black eyes manage to project focused hate in a way I've never experienced before. It's long fur crest thrashes and snaps as though caught in rough seas.
Worst of all? It's too far away for me to punch in the eye.
It growls something in old Hawaiian, and after a moment or two of my uncomprehending stare it loses patience with me. I frantically scramble for anything that might be able to save me as it leans in close, still too far to punch, and begins to inhale deeply.
I inhale with it, an unconscious action caused by the expectation of painful death, readying myself to scream...
Scream...
As fast as I can using my crude control of my own mana, I channel as much as I can in what little time I have to my throat. I force as much as I can, for as long as I can, to the part of me that represents what I stole from the sirens. Then I don't have any more time, the mo'o above me having taken in as much air as it can. I expel all that mana through my voice box, and I scream.
Every pain of glass in range shatters, exploding into jagged shards. Then the stone follows it cracking, popping apart almost like it's been heated too far too fast. Then the wood that I can see comes apart into splinters. The scales on the dragon's leg holding me down crack, and the mo'o rears back letting out the air it had taken in, in a high pitched almost metallic shriek of pain.
The leg pinning me down goes up with the rest of the dragon and I gasped for air. With the weight off of me, and having emptied my lungs with the scream, my throat is sore like an overworked muscle. Rolling over I try to push myself back to my feet with my one working arm so I can keep running.
I manage to make my knees when the sound of thunder fills the air. Looking up I find Pua striding across the grass looking thunderous. She has almost a dozen gourds of various sizes hanging from her belt and wrists. What really makes me nervous though is the gourd strapped to her back, it's the size of a steamer trunk. In her hands she carries a gourd that she holds with its mouth pointing at the mo'o. From it pours lightning, filling the air with the smell of ozone. The python of actinic white lightning strikes the dragon right in the thick banded scales along it's chest. The bolt of lightning splits apart into tiny arcs of electricity that crawl across its body, causing its mussels to spasm and twitch visibly under it's scales.
Seeing how much lightning is in that small gourd makes me wonder idly what she has in the others.
Next to his sister Ku walks with purpose. As they approach, a faint white aura collects around Ku's body. When the lightning runs out Ku moves. He vanishes in a burst of red mist, the only sign of his passage a rapidly dissipating trail of the same.
Turning to follow the trail I find him standing at the mo'o's back leg, an open palm pressed against the dragon's scaled hind leg. The mo'o roars in pain again as the leg collapses dropping the dragon to the ground. For a moment it looks like the mo'o will catch itself, but it's still twitching muscles can't take the impact, dropping it face first into the ground.
The displaced air from its landing almost knocks me on my ass again, but Pua catches me, helping me to stay upright. When I manage to blink the tears the sudden rush of wind forced from me, Ku stands at the dragon's head, his hand pressed flat against the side of it's skull. Blood pours out of its nose and mouth, and leaks from its eyes like bloody tears. Though there isn't any visible damage to its scales that I can see.
Ku steps back, the faint white aura around him fading as he shakes out his hands, flexing them slowly. As soon as her brother is clear of the dragon corpse Pua eyeballs the body, uncorks another gourd, and pours a carefully measured amount of black and red flickering energy on to it. The energy dissolves the body like Hollywood acid until there's nothing of its body left, by which time the energy had been used up.
I stare at where the giant lizard that had been kicking my ass until a few moments ago has just vanished. After a few more moments I turn to the tiny kahuna, "What was that?" My voice is both flat and incredulous. I know what I think it was, but that would be ridiculous.
"Power of Destruction." She answers as though that's a perfectly normal thing to just keep in a gourd, and that's in fact exactly what I thought it was.
What the hell?
Literally!
I can't do much beyond stare at her for a few moments longer as I try to process that. While I reboot she starts to examine my crudely immobilized arm making very unhappy noises. After a few moments of this I can't restrain myself any longer, "What's in the big one?"
"You mean this?" She glances up at me and jerks a thumb over her shoulder at the huge gourd on her back. I just nod, and she winks at me, "A hurricane."
###
It takes three days for everything to be sorted out. Not for the village to get back to normal. That will take a while just from the damage done by the mo'o while I was looking for them, not to mention the house that had been barled through by the last dragon shaped mo'o. What my scream had done to the surroundings didn't bear mentioning. There isn't an intact piece of glass in the village, stone and wood suffered within a good few hundred feet. Things are running as normal as they can though.
Pua treated my arm while extracting my account of what had happened while they had been away. She'd wrapped it in a cast/bandage made of coconut fiber cloth and some large fresh green leaves that I don't recognize, then put it in a sling and gave me strict instructions. I'm not to touch or disturb the bandaging in any way, and use that arm as normally as I can, which isn't very. The thing will fall off when I'm done healing, and until then I'm mostly one armed.
I just shrug and go with it. I know from exposure that Kahuna healing magic is all about how to get warriors back to fighting as quickly as possible without weakening them. Never mind whatever else Pua's managed to find scattered about the world.
I also manage to extract some of what happened to Pua and Ku wherever they'd ended up. Apparently Ku had spent several hours trying to coral some half dozen belligerent shark mo'o in the water, while Pua had gone to find and have a talk with Kamohoaliʻi. Kamohoaliʻi as I then learn is the king of sharks, and a major sea deity of the Hawaiian pantheon. With no small amount of work they manage to get the mo'o and Kamohoaliʻi in the same place at the same time. After a lot of yelling from the shark king, they learn that the sharks had been put up to everything by some dragons.
Pua and Ku knowing a setup when they see one immediately came sprinting back to the village just as quickly as they could. Arriving just in time to save my ass from the rampaging dragon mo'o. What happened to the sharks is conspicuously not mentioned, but from what I've managed to dig up on him, as Pele's big brother Kamohoaliʻi isn't the nicest of people when you get him riled up. I rapidly come to the conclusion that I really don't want to know.
I also spend a lot of time talking to Pua about what I did. I've killed people before, even if you don't count the vampires, which some folks don't, the Sidhe definitely counts, as does the rapist. For some reason the mo'o bothers me more though. The nightmares of stabbing a human shaped mo'o to death and turning them over only to find I've stabbed myself to death makes sleeping hard. Pua does what she can, but this doesn't seem like something that can be fixed quickly. Time will be required, and I'll just have to live with poor sleep until my subconscious does it's work.
On the third day though, Pua and I are told that Vivain wants to speak to me in her forge. Pua isn't included in the invitation, but neither of us care much, and she comes along anyway. I haven't been in Vivain's forge before, so I'm somewhat eager to look around.
What I find isn't that exciting. A forge, unlit at the moment, tools of various sorts that I can't really identify beyond 'hammer' hang on the walls. Under the tools are bins with ingots of various metals waiting to be used. Next to the forge are several large tanks filled with several different fluids. I think one is water, and another is oil. What the other seven are, I have no idea. All of this in easy reach of the anvil that stands in the middle of the space. The anvil is raised up to about waist height on a log of some sort, and is currently being used as a table or desk by Vivain, who is seated behind it on a simple wooden stool.
As we enter I have the jarring experience of expecting the space to be dim. It isn't, and why I thought it would be is a mystery since one entire wall of the space is open. It still throws me enough that I don't notice the two additional stools standing on the opposite side of the anvil from her, until Vivain gestures for the both of us to sit.
It isn't exactly comfortable, but comfort isn't really all that essential. Honestly the simple surroundings and lack of typical host behavior make me more comfortable with the situation. My last encounter with a Sidhe may have left me more than slightly paranoid.
The three of us sit quietly, Pua studying Vivain, Vivain studying me, and I study the surroundings, for what feels like forever.
"I have decided that I will arm you." Vivain finally breaks the silence, "I have seen you in battle, and in peace, and know what you need. I have also determined my price, negotiation will determine exactly what you get for that price. Once negotiations are complete, you will swear to me thrice to pay my price, and you will receive what is agreed upon."
That's unusual, I'm pretty sure. Pua's raised eyebrow indicates that she agrees with me, "Negotiations will determine more than just that, but first what is your price?"
Vivain leans forward rising half out of her chair planting her hands on the anvil, and suddenly any pretense that the being in front of us is in any way human vanishes like smoke. Her hair turns a deep blue, and floats around her head as though she's underwater. Her skin tinted just slightly an attractive shade of green, even as her eyes are consumed by light like the moon reflecting off water. Her fingernails carve divots in her anvil as The Lady of the Lake leans forward and hisses, the inhuman qualities of her voice rendering her almost unintelligible.
"I want my Excalibur back!"
- Location
- Attempting to cast animate object on a black hole.
It looked like a couple of sentences had been split up, so I tried to make it flow a little better with as few changes as possible.
The changing tenses from present to past and back still seem a little weird, but it's a bit cleaner than it was before.
Book 1 - Fae Deals
- Location
- California
I'm in something like shock.
Excalibur.
As in Excalibur.
The Sword of Promised Victory.
Broken into seven pieces, and each of those forged into seven new holy swords, each of which carried one power of the original... at least that's what I recall from my halfhearted watching of Highschool DxD. Which doesn't really match anything like what I recall from my understanding of Arthurian Myth.
Honestly the Excaliburs of the anime were kind of underwhelming. The original Excalibur would have been even more so if all it had were the accumulated powers of the modern Excaliburs. Especially here in High School DxD, I really don't see how destruction, shape shifting (of the weapon mind), speed, and invisibility, even all together could add up to promised victory. Sure it might make somebody very dangerous in a duel. My understanding of 'Promised Victory' though, is more that when a leader takes the field carrying this sword their army wins, not them. Arthur ended up dead and Camlen after all, his army won, but he sure as hell didn't. It just didn't...
"Can I speak with Ericka for a moment before we keep going?" Pua's question cuts through my thoughts, jerking me back to the present. Not quickly enough to hear or see Vivain's response, but Pua beckoning me to follow her pretty much told me what it was.
I follow her out of the forge and a little ways down stream. Once I catch up with her, Pua reaches into a pocket and pulls out a glass vial of some powder that she spills in a circle around us. A few muttered words in what I think is Greek and suddenly all the sound from outside her circle vanishes. It feels kinda like I have to pop my ears, and just can't for whatever reason.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Pua asks me seriously, "Now that you have an idea of what she's asking for?"
I sigh, honestly on some level I expected something like this since Vivain had shown up. Maybe not this specifically, but something to do with one of the swords attributed to her. Prying all the pieces of Excalibur away from those who have them at the moment is definitely not on any hypothetical list of payments I came up with. Though now that oversight seems kind of foolish. Still, "It's a tall order, maybe not as tall as she thinks it is, but still tall. Do you think you can get something that'll be worth the effort out of her?"
Pua snorts, "Don't worry about that, worry about whether or not you'll be able to deliver." She hisses the last at me, "You do not want to default on a debt with any fae, but especially not an old and powerful one. Which the Lady of the Lake most certainly is. So do you think you can pull it off?"
I scratch my eyebrow as I think, "Well I know where five of the pieces will be in about two years. They'll be involved in enough chaos that just picking them up shouldn't be too hard. If I can live through what's happening. Hell I might be able to convince the exorcists that have the things when the dust settles to just give them to me. They'll be pretty disillusioned with the church at that point. Pretty sure they both end up as devils actually." I frown as I try to dredge up details about something I'd watched halfheartedly a literal lifetime ago, "I know where the sixth one is, though getting it will be more challenging."
"Which leaves only the seventh unaccounted for." Pua said deep in thought, "Who's got number six?"
"Arthur Pendragon." I admit and Pua winced.
"Any idea how to get it away from him?" Which is a fair question. Pendragon is considered a candidate for the title of 'strongest human alive' for a reason.
"Off the top of my head? Challenge him to a duel for it. Make sure he has the thing where we fight. Then cheat like a mother fucker, and run like hell." The wry twist to my lips shows what a high opinion I have of that plan. Pua arches an eyebrow at me and I shrug, "Honor is for picking battles, not fighting them."
Pua pulls another face that shows she agrees with me. Both with my sentiment about honor and the quality of that plan, "Are you sure you want to do this? You'll piss off a lot of people."
"I was always going to piss off a lot of people, but I don't think it'll be as bad as you think it'll be. Of the three biblical factions, I think only the church will be really mad at me, and if I have to pick one of the big three factions to piss, off the church is the one I'd pick. The devils will probably throw me a party for making six or seven of the most powerful holy swords in the world disappear, and I can't see where the Fallen would give a shit. Added to that, the church's soldiers are almost entirely Exorcists. I think I can take an Exorcist or two, at least they're human. I'm not so sure about fighting a fallen angel, never mind a peerage of devils." I shrug, "Also remember that I'm leaving. My plan always involved pissing off everybody I'm going to as close together as possible, and then ditching the universe before they can catch up with me." Pua just stares at me for a long moment or two, so I keep going, "And aside from all of that, where else would I get weapons and armor of the quality and power being offered here? Not to mention with the unusual properties that I need?"
Pua groans, "All I can think of is either the dwarves of Svartálfaheimr, though I have no idea how you would get there, or what you could offer them. That or Buddhist Asuras Titans, who are supposed to forge their weapons out of elemental destruction, and I'm not even sure they exist. Hephaestus could probably do the work, but you're even less likely to be able to afford him than the dwarves. There may have been a cyclops or two that could pull it off, but nobody's seen one of them in centuries." I cock my head in question at her and Pua grimaces, "They kept on pissing off gods by out performing them."
"What about whoever forged Kusanagi?" I ask trying to think of other magic swords in the world and who made them.
"Susano'o found Kusanagi in an eight headed snake's ass. Nobody knows where the hell it came from."
I sigh, "So this is it."
"This is it." She agrees with a very put upon sigh of her own, "All right, lets go get the better end of this deal."
Listening to an experienced and powerful Kahuna and an ancient Fae negotiate is the auditory and intellectual equivalent of an Escher painting. I can mostly track what's going on at any given moment but how it's happening, I have no idea.
Still when all is said and done, I think it turns out pretty well. In layman's terms what's agreed upon is this:
For three shards of the True Excalibur, I will receive a sword with the potential to equal The Sword of Promised Victory. Explicitly what the Lady of the Lake had forged, and not the replicas that the Church is so proud of. This blade will be one that will continue to function as intended no matter where I end up, will be unable to be permanently destroyed, damaged or lost, and will always be a boon to me in combat. Never a hindrance, no matter what powers I gain or how powerful I become.
For two shards of the True Excalibur, I will receive a suit of armor. Armor that will, similarly to the sword, continue to function as intended no matter where I go, will be unable to be permanently destroyed, damaged or lost, and will always be a boon to me in combat, never a hindrance, no matter what powers I gain or how powerful I become.
For one shard of the True Excalibur, I will receive an Athame made to the highest standards of fae forging. It will contain the perfected version of the Script I've been testing with my knives, be unable to be permanently destroyed, damaged or lost, and be usable in combat.
For one shard of the True Excalibur I will receive some trinket of equal value to the Athame. Exactly what that trinket will be will be determined, and delivered, when and if I can actually find and retrieve the last damn shard.
None of these will have any backdoors built into them, nor would any form of control be added to their nature. What is delivered to me will be loyal to me and me alone.
On my end, upon the agreed upon items being completed, examined, and vouched for by a third party, in this case Pua, I will swear thrice to deliver the shards owed. So six of them at least. Then I'll then get the weapons and armor.
There's no time limit on delivery as long as I'm making some reasonable effort to pay my debt. Waiting for specific circumstances to occur counted, as long as there's an actual definite event I'm waiting for. Planning and gathering information are also considered reasonable efforts.
I am not required to do anything that will be guaranteed to result in my death or permanent maiming. Nor is paying off my debt required to be my only activity during this time, again as long as I'm still making an effort to do so.
At the same time I'm not allowed to stall, or artificially delay delivery. Waiting for the best opportunity is fine, making up reasons to delay payment is not.
All in all a pretty sweet deal.
I sort of expect forging to begin immediately after the agreement is made, but that's not what happens. First measurements are taken, to make the armor fit perfectly. I also have to actually make the finished version of the trait theft script. Something that takes me another week with Pua, and surprisingly Vivain's help.
Once all that is done we find ourselves back in Vivain's forge. The Lady herself looks over the notes she's made about my proportions, and what each item will be required to actually do. Something she hasn't let me look at, but Pua assures me it will be everything promised.
Finally Vivain sets the notes aside, "Very well, well let us begin." She turns to me looking very serious, which makes me more than a little nervous, "I'm going to extract two portions of your soul. These pieces will be forged into the sword and armor making them part of you. They will repair themselves, and even regrow in your soul should they be destroyed entirely. You may even be able to learn a way to store them in your soul so they will always be at hand."
I turned to look at Pua trying to project my the only thought in my head, 'Are you fucking serious?' at her as hard as I can.
Her only response is to nod.
I sigh to hide the small kernel of panic that's growing in me and nodded at Vivain, "All right. Let's do this." Before I come to my senses and think better of this.
Vivain nods back to me, and steps forward. Without warning she plunges both her hands into my chest like I'm a pool of water. Only Pua grabbing my shoulder keeps me from jerking away from her. Vivain's face screws up in concentration, as she pushes her arms deeper into my chest, almost up to her shoulders. Deep inside me I feel her grab something that I bet most people would never recognize. I know what it is though, because it's the same thing that's altered every time I steal a trait.
The Lady of the Lake solidifies her grip and begins to feel up my soul, looking for something specific. I would have felt profoundly violated if I hadn't agreed to this, or hadn't been told what's happening. As it is I just feel profoundly uncomfortable. Finally she finds what she wants, she grips harder, and pulls.
The feeling is a literally soul deep ache that only gets worse as whatever part Vivain has a hold of pulls free. One of her arms comes out of my chest holding something that shines in colors that don't exist and is a shape that simply isn't.
At the same time it looks so very much like me that I almost reach for it, only Pua pushing my arm down stops me. As Vivain slips that piece of me into a gourd that Pua offers to her I feel like I'm losing something precious. The moment the gourd is corked, the fae turns back to me and plunges her arm back into my chest to start the whole process over again.
The second piece takes less time to find, and removing it only makes me ache worse. The moment Vivain finishes and removes her arms from me exhaustion lands on me like a ton of bricks. I just feel so much less than I was a moment ago. My legs buckle, and my vision fuzzes as I become too tired to focus. The only reason I don't collapse entirely is Pua catching me. The tiny Kahuna grunts in strain as my large form collapses against her, but she manages to brace me enough for me to keep my feet.
"Come on." Pua grunts, "Let's get you someplace to lie down." It's all I can do to nod and stagger towards not here with her help.
"Before you go!" Vivain calls out behind us and I nearly brake down into tears, I'm so tired, "Were you planning on any major physical changes in the near future?" The fae asks, "On the same scale as your increase in size?"
Changes?
Right, I had plans for things I would kill and steal traits from. Would any of them change me physically now that I've gotten the Script right? I don't think so... Plans have changed though. I'm stealing Excalibur bits, so I'm going to be hanging around at least a few acceptable targets with wings for a while. Just the thought of everything I'm going to have to do in the near future makes me even more tired.
Still, that is the plan.
"Wings." I mutter trying not to slur my words, "I'm going to get a pair of wings."
"From?" Vivain prompts.
"Angel." I manage to get out, swaying on my feet even with Pua bracing me, "From a fallen angel."
I wake from the sun hitting me in the face. Which is unusual, normally I'm up and working long before the sun gets to the point where it can get through my window. I roll over with a groan wishing I could sleep longer. Whatever happened yesterday really took it out of me.
I groan again and try to get out of bed, and instead hit the ground with a thud. My legs are made of water, and refuse to hold me up without sufficient warning. My everything is sore, which is something I haven't experienced since getting my troll healing.
Still habit drags me through my morning workout routine, refilling my mana, and into the shower. The closest to dressed I can bring myself to achieve though are sweat pants and a tank top. I stumble down the stairs to find Pua, Ku, and Thea sitting around the breakfast table.
All three of them have various flavors of concern painted across their expressions. Thea has the general look of concern that she actually has a lot while looking at me. It's almost kind of motherly, like she's worried that I'm not eating enough. As though reading my mind she pops to her feet as I come in and starts fussing and getting me something to eat.
Ku's concern smells more like dread... sort of. Like he's watching a train wreck and is waiting for the body count.
Pua is more resigned, she knows what's wrong and is getting ready to deal with the fall out, rather than worry about what has already happened.
I slump into a chair at the table, and plant my forehead on the table top, "How are you feeling?" Pua asks.
"I'm sore, which I thought I wasn't capable of being any more, so I'm also a little upset about that. I'm tired, and I'm hungry..." A plate of food is placed in front of me, "Thank you, oh goddess of the kitchen." I mutter and dig into the full English breakfast Thea has given me.
"You slept in," Ku says cautiously, prompting me to look up at him curiously, "After you eat, are you going to want to get in some practice? You've got a new sword coming, focusing on your swordsmanship might be a good idea. Especially since I bet that we could get Vivain to at least admit what kind of sword it'll be."
I open my mouth to agree, then pause as what that would involve hits me. Ku would beat the crap out of me until I'm out of mana from my regeneration working. Then I'd overfill my network to just shy the point of damage to try and speed up it's growth, which would also hurt. Then we'd start the process all over again. I know I'm improving, but right now it just doesn't seem worth it. I'm already sore, and avoiding pain seems like a great idea right now.
"Not really?" Everybody stares at me. Which is fair, I don't think I've ever not jumped at training before. Never mind actively avoided it, "What? I had two pieces of my soul ripped out yesterday." Even as I say it, it sounds wrong.
This really isn't like me at all.
Nobody says anything as I finish eating. I stand to put away my dishes, but Thea steals them out of my hands with a smile, "So what are you going to do if you're not training?" Pua asks as I'm left standing with my hands still outstretched where they'd had a plate a moment ago.
"I'm..." I stall out again. What am I going to do? Training and exercising are right out. Both sound like work and I just don't have the energy for it. I could try to figure out some of the holes in my future plans, like how to survive the Gap... but that sounds like work too. The only thing I do that sounds even vaguely like a hobby is drawing, and Sarah was right all those years ago. Drawing isn't really a hobby, I don't do it for fun, "...I don't know..."
Feeling more than a little bit lost I wander upstairs to change into something more appropriate for a nice Hawaiian day, then back down stairs, out of the door and then I just keep wandering.
I end up on the beach after almost an hour of going everywhere else. The field where I practice with Ku, the larger field where I taught munchkins how to fling themselves through the air and at the ground without dying. I even pause for several long minutes by the fish pond, where I stare at the forge and listen to the ringing sounds of hammer on steel. Or whatever more exotic material Vivain is actually using. I can't imagine soul alloying well with mundane metals.
But eventually I find myself on the beach. The sun warm, and the sands pale, the smell of salt water filling the air. The waves crashing on the reef in the distance provide a constant low roaring background to the shrill cries of sea birds.
Gentle swells roll onto the beach, lapping against the feet and legs of the younger members of the village playing in them. The kids have already bounced back from the invasion, and are splashing and playing in the relative safety of the shallows of the shielded bay.
A gaggle of somewhat older kids are being taught how to surf by a woman who looks about my age. She's wearing a very brief bikini showing off her dark pacific islands complexion, and softly defined feminine muscle.
She gives me something very nice to look at while my mind runs in circles. From the occasional glance in my direction, and shy smiles she doesn't really seem upset about my ogling her. Still, I try to keep my staring to the environment she happens to be in rather than at her specifically.
My mind is in turmoil though. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that I haven't done anything but drive myself into preparing for the supernatural world, and escaping it, since literally the day of my birth. When was the last time I read a book or seen a movie that wasn't required for a class? Have I ever watched TV or played a video game?
I don't think I ever have, not in this life.
I used to.
In my last life I'd been a nearly obsessive reader. My friends used to joke that I had a book addiction from the pace I went through them. Apparently a full length novel a day is unusual.
I'd watched movies, and TV, it's how I know anything about where I am now at all. Since I've been reborn though...
Nothing but driving myself at a goal that's probably impossible. Anything that might have even the slightest chance of working, I pursue and damn the consequences.
God, the only time I slowed down is when I've been injured, and I only stopped when Sarah made me. Even then it was more for her than because it was something I enjoyed.
I should really go visit her at some point. Suddenly the idea of taking a break to go to a club and actually try to enjoy myself doesn't sound so bad. It would be different at least. It occures to me that right now I'm not actually much of a person. I'm more a biological machine and that...
"Hey!" I'm yanked out of my thoughts and look up to find the pretty surfing instructor, looking even better fresh from the sea, standing over me with a slightly awkward smile, "Um... I noticed you sitting here and you seem kinda upset," I'm sure we've been introduced before, what is her name? "and I don't really know you well enough to ask you what's wrong, but surfing always makes me feel better, so I thought I'd see if you wanted to join us, and maybe it would help you at least feel better even if it doesn't actually help solve whatever the problem is?" She speaks in a rush, her decidedly run on sentence ends in a squeak. Like she ran out of air at the end there, and had been determined to finish before she took a breath anyway.
Her name is... "Leimomi right?"
Leimomi beams at me and nods her head, "That's right." She sounds thrilled, "You can call me Lei though. Leimomi is kind of a mouthful for constant use." She visibly snaps her mouth shut to keep from continuing on.
"I don't really have a swim suit..." Which is kind of odd now that I think about it. Who the hell comes to Hawaii without a swimsuit?
Somebody who has no idea what fun is that's who. Wow, that's depressing. I'm not the only one who thinks so either.
Lei gapes at me as though I just told her that I keep my extra head in my room, and normally just walk around with the two.
"You what?" She squeaks, "Why don't you have..." Lei shakes herself, "Not important. Here stand up." She holds out her hands, and without really thinking I take them, then carefully get myself up without pulling her down on me. I may not weigh as much as I did just after killing the trolls, when I was at nine feet tall, but I'm still six foot plus of super dense bone and muscle. Even if them being mostly made of carbon means I'm not as heavy as one might think, if I just pull on her she'll end up in my lap.
...
Something to think about later.
The top of Lei's head is even with my collarbone, so she ends up face to chest with me. Swallowing hard she takes a quick step back, and looks me over, "Well I don't think anything of mine is going to fit you." No kidding, not only am I taller than her, but broader in both the shoulders and the hips, "Well... Do you have a sports bra on?" She asks looking down at the shorts I threw on before leaving Pua's house. I actually ended up owning a few pairs of board shorts simply because they're the easiest and cheapest thing to find in Hawaii. So after being in the islands as long as I have I ended up with a lot of them.
"Yeah..." I nod wondering where she's going with this.
"Well in this case of emergency you could just take your shirt off and use the sports bra as a top, assuming it won't turn transparent." Lei offers with a smile.
I think about that for a moment, looking back at the beach and the water. The water does look pretty nice. With a shrug I pull my tank top over my head, tossing it onto a spot out of the sun where I'll be able to find it again easily. When I look back at her, Lei is staring at my stomach with her mouth open slightly. A cough from me is enough to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, and when she looks back up at my face, which takes a moment longer than I would have expected, she's blushing hard enough for me to see the red through her complexion.
After a moment of awkward silence I decide to point out something that might end up being important pretty soon, "I have no idea how to surf. Never done it before."
Lei's blush fades slightly as she gives me the brightest smile I've seen since the first time I called Sarah my best friend when we were six.
"That's okay! I'll teach you!"
Surfing ends up being a lot of fun and not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Granted I have excellent balance and an unreasonable degree of kinesthesia. Balancing on the board isn't exactly hard, and I don't try anything too difficult. Between the two I think I do pretty well for a first time.
My instructor giving me so much personal attention can't have hurt either. I'm worried that she's neglecting her other students for a few moments. Looking at the teen's she had been teaching though, they're either ignoring us or watching with big smiles and copious giggles.
They seem fine, so I just shrug and ignore them, focusing instead on following the advice that my surfing instructor is giving me. Lei really is very attentive, even when I'm not doing anything wrong.
Lei and I finally called it quits long after the rest of her students have given up and wandered off to do other things, and only then because the sun began to set. She's tireless and could have clearly kept going longer, proving she's a born and bred surfer girl. I can only keep up for so long because I have more endurance than is probably good for me. An artifact of giving up anything that might resemble a life for more training time.
Lei definitely wants to stick around on the beach longer, and invites me to go night swimming with her while she blushes hard enough to be visible even in the fading light. I turn her down, swimming has become an adventure for me since my muscles and bones became stupidly dense. I don't really float all that well any more, it's something that's on my list of things to find a way to work around. In all that copious free time I have.
Honestly I'm kind of surprised the surfboard floated with me on it.
Lei seems disappointed but not really upset. So bid her goodnight, and get a shy hug for my troubles, which I gently return. Then I head back to Pua's house. I'm still sore, but the day surfing has proven that it isn't really a physical soreness.
Probably something to do with getting a couple of chunks of my soul torn out.
Still, a diner that Thea had left out for me, feeding my mana needs, and a shower, and I'm ready to crash.
Much later that night I sit bolt upright in bed as several things about the day line up and snap together into a complete picture.
"Holy shit... Lei was hitting on me!"
Excalibur.
As in Excalibur.
The Sword of Promised Victory.
Broken into seven pieces, and each of those forged into seven new holy swords, each of which carried one power of the original... at least that's what I recall from my halfhearted watching of Highschool DxD. Which doesn't really match anything like what I recall from my understanding of Arthurian Myth.
Honestly the Excaliburs of the anime were kind of underwhelming. The original Excalibur would have been even more so if all it had were the accumulated powers of the modern Excaliburs. Especially here in High School DxD, I really don't see how destruction, shape shifting (of the weapon mind), speed, and invisibility, even all together could add up to promised victory. Sure it might make somebody very dangerous in a duel. My understanding of 'Promised Victory' though, is more that when a leader takes the field carrying this sword their army wins, not them. Arthur ended up dead and Camlen after all, his army won, but he sure as hell didn't. It just didn't...
"Can I speak with Ericka for a moment before we keep going?" Pua's question cuts through my thoughts, jerking me back to the present. Not quickly enough to hear or see Vivain's response, but Pua beckoning me to follow her pretty much told me what it was.
I follow her out of the forge and a little ways down stream. Once I catch up with her, Pua reaches into a pocket and pulls out a glass vial of some powder that she spills in a circle around us. A few muttered words in what I think is Greek and suddenly all the sound from outside her circle vanishes. It feels kinda like I have to pop my ears, and just can't for whatever reason.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Pua asks me seriously, "Now that you have an idea of what she's asking for?"
I sigh, honestly on some level I expected something like this since Vivain had shown up. Maybe not this specifically, but something to do with one of the swords attributed to her. Prying all the pieces of Excalibur away from those who have them at the moment is definitely not on any hypothetical list of payments I came up with. Though now that oversight seems kind of foolish. Still, "It's a tall order, maybe not as tall as she thinks it is, but still tall. Do you think you can get something that'll be worth the effort out of her?"
Pua snorts, "Don't worry about that, worry about whether or not you'll be able to deliver." She hisses the last at me, "You do not want to default on a debt with any fae, but especially not an old and powerful one. Which the Lady of the Lake most certainly is. So do you think you can pull it off?"
I scratch my eyebrow as I think, "Well I know where five of the pieces will be in about two years. They'll be involved in enough chaos that just picking them up shouldn't be too hard. If I can live through what's happening. Hell I might be able to convince the exorcists that have the things when the dust settles to just give them to me. They'll be pretty disillusioned with the church at that point. Pretty sure they both end up as devils actually." I frown as I try to dredge up details about something I'd watched halfheartedly a literal lifetime ago, "I know where the sixth one is, though getting it will be more challenging."
"Which leaves only the seventh unaccounted for." Pua said deep in thought, "Who's got number six?"
"Arthur Pendragon." I admit and Pua winced.
"Any idea how to get it away from him?" Which is a fair question. Pendragon is considered a candidate for the title of 'strongest human alive' for a reason.
"Off the top of my head? Challenge him to a duel for it. Make sure he has the thing where we fight. Then cheat like a mother fucker, and run like hell." The wry twist to my lips shows what a high opinion I have of that plan. Pua arches an eyebrow at me and I shrug, "Honor is for picking battles, not fighting them."
Pua pulls another face that shows she agrees with me. Both with my sentiment about honor and the quality of that plan, "Are you sure you want to do this? You'll piss off a lot of people."
"I was always going to piss off a lot of people, but I don't think it'll be as bad as you think it'll be. Of the three biblical factions, I think only the church will be really mad at me, and if I have to pick one of the big three factions to piss, off the church is the one I'd pick. The devils will probably throw me a party for making six or seven of the most powerful holy swords in the world disappear, and I can't see where the Fallen would give a shit. Added to that, the church's soldiers are almost entirely Exorcists. I think I can take an Exorcist or two, at least they're human. I'm not so sure about fighting a fallen angel, never mind a peerage of devils." I shrug, "Also remember that I'm leaving. My plan always involved pissing off everybody I'm going to as close together as possible, and then ditching the universe before they can catch up with me." Pua just stares at me for a long moment or two, so I keep going, "And aside from all of that, where else would I get weapons and armor of the quality and power being offered here? Not to mention with the unusual properties that I need?"
Pua groans, "All I can think of is either the dwarves of Svartálfaheimr, though I have no idea how you would get there, or what you could offer them. That or Buddhist Asuras Titans, who are supposed to forge their weapons out of elemental destruction, and I'm not even sure they exist. Hephaestus could probably do the work, but you're even less likely to be able to afford him than the dwarves. There may have been a cyclops or two that could pull it off, but nobody's seen one of them in centuries." I cock my head in question at her and Pua grimaces, "They kept on pissing off gods by out performing them."
"What about whoever forged Kusanagi?" I ask trying to think of other magic swords in the world and who made them.
"Susano'o found Kusanagi in an eight headed snake's ass. Nobody knows where the hell it came from."
I sigh, "So this is it."
"This is it." She agrees with a very put upon sigh of her own, "All right, lets go get the better end of this deal."
###
Listening to an experienced and powerful Kahuna and an ancient Fae negotiate is the auditory and intellectual equivalent of an Escher painting. I can mostly track what's going on at any given moment but how it's happening, I have no idea.
Still when all is said and done, I think it turns out pretty well. In layman's terms what's agreed upon is this:
For three shards of the True Excalibur, I will receive a sword with the potential to equal The Sword of Promised Victory. Explicitly what the Lady of the Lake had forged, and not the replicas that the Church is so proud of. This blade will be one that will continue to function as intended no matter where I end up, will be unable to be permanently destroyed, damaged or lost, and will always be a boon to me in combat. Never a hindrance, no matter what powers I gain or how powerful I become.
For two shards of the True Excalibur, I will receive a suit of armor. Armor that will, similarly to the sword, continue to function as intended no matter where I go, will be unable to be permanently destroyed, damaged or lost, and will always be a boon to me in combat, never a hindrance, no matter what powers I gain or how powerful I become.
For one shard of the True Excalibur, I will receive an Athame made to the highest standards of fae forging. It will contain the perfected version of the Script I've been testing with my knives, be unable to be permanently destroyed, damaged or lost, and be usable in combat.
For one shard of the True Excalibur I will receive some trinket of equal value to the Athame. Exactly what that trinket will be will be determined, and delivered, when and if I can actually find and retrieve the last damn shard.
None of these will have any backdoors built into them, nor would any form of control be added to their nature. What is delivered to me will be loyal to me and me alone.
On my end, upon the agreed upon items being completed, examined, and vouched for by a third party, in this case Pua, I will swear thrice to deliver the shards owed. So six of them at least. Then I'll then get the weapons and armor.
There's no time limit on delivery as long as I'm making some reasonable effort to pay my debt. Waiting for specific circumstances to occur counted, as long as there's an actual definite event I'm waiting for. Planning and gathering information are also considered reasonable efforts.
I am not required to do anything that will be guaranteed to result in my death or permanent maiming. Nor is paying off my debt required to be my only activity during this time, again as long as I'm still making an effort to do so.
At the same time I'm not allowed to stall, or artificially delay delivery. Waiting for the best opportunity is fine, making up reasons to delay payment is not.
All in all a pretty sweet deal.
###
I sort of expect forging to begin immediately after the agreement is made, but that's not what happens. First measurements are taken, to make the armor fit perfectly. I also have to actually make the finished version of the trait theft script. Something that takes me another week with Pua, and surprisingly Vivain's help.
Once all that is done we find ourselves back in Vivain's forge. The Lady herself looks over the notes she's made about my proportions, and what each item will be required to actually do. Something she hasn't let me look at, but Pua assures me it will be everything promised.
Finally Vivain sets the notes aside, "Very well, well let us begin." She turns to me looking very serious, which makes me more than a little nervous, "I'm going to extract two portions of your soul. These pieces will be forged into the sword and armor making them part of you. They will repair themselves, and even regrow in your soul should they be destroyed entirely. You may even be able to learn a way to store them in your soul so they will always be at hand."
I turned to look at Pua trying to project my the only thought in my head, 'Are you fucking serious?' at her as hard as I can.
Her only response is to nod.
I sigh to hide the small kernel of panic that's growing in me and nodded at Vivain, "All right. Let's do this." Before I come to my senses and think better of this.
Vivain nods back to me, and steps forward. Without warning she plunges both her hands into my chest like I'm a pool of water. Only Pua grabbing my shoulder keeps me from jerking away from her. Vivain's face screws up in concentration, as she pushes her arms deeper into my chest, almost up to her shoulders. Deep inside me I feel her grab something that I bet most people would never recognize. I know what it is though, because it's the same thing that's altered every time I steal a trait.
The Lady of the Lake solidifies her grip and begins to feel up my soul, looking for something specific. I would have felt profoundly violated if I hadn't agreed to this, or hadn't been told what's happening. As it is I just feel profoundly uncomfortable. Finally she finds what she wants, she grips harder, and pulls.
The feeling is a literally soul deep ache that only gets worse as whatever part Vivain has a hold of pulls free. One of her arms comes out of my chest holding something that shines in colors that don't exist and is a shape that simply isn't.
At the same time it looks so very much like me that I almost reach for it, only Pua pushing my arm down stops me. As Vivain slips that piece of me into a gourd that Pua offers to her I feel like I'm losing something precious. The moment the gourd is corked, the fae turns back to me and plunges her arm back into my chest to start the whole process over again.
The second piece takes less time to find, and removing it only makes me ache worse. The moment Vivain finishes and removes her arms from me exhaustion lands on me like a ton of bricks. I just feel so much less than I was a moment ago. My legs buckle, and my vision fuzzes as I become too tired to focus. The only reason I don't collapse entirely is Pua catching me. The tiny Kahuna grunts in strain as my large form collapses against her, but she manages to brace me enough for me to keep my feet.
"Come on." Pua grunts, "Let's get you someplace to lie down." It's all I can do to nod and stagger towards not here with her help.
"Before you go!" Vivain calls out behind us and I nearly brake down into tears, I'm so tired, "Were you planning on any major physical changes in the near future?" The fae asks, "On the same scale as your increase in size?"
Changes?
Right, I had plans for things I would kill and steal traits from. Would any of them change me physically now that I've gotten the Script right? I don't think so... Plans have changed though. I'm stealing Excalibur bits, so I'm going to be hanging around at least a few acceptable targets with wings for a while. Just the thought of everything I'm going to have to do in the near future makes me even more tired.
Still, that is the plan.
"Wings." I mutter trying not to slur my words, "I'm going to get a pair of wings."
"From?" Vivain prompts.
"Angel." I manage to get out, swaying on my feet even with Pua bracing me, "From a fallen angel."
###
I wake from the sun hitting me in the face. Which is unusual, normally I'm up and working long before the sun gets to the point where it can get through my window. I roll over with a groan wishing I could sleep longer. Whatever happened yesterday really took it out of me.
I groan again and try to get out of bed, and instead hit the ground with a thud. My legs are made of water, and refuse to hold me up without sufficient warning. My everything is sore, which is something I haven't experienced since getting my troll healing.
Still habit drags me through my morning workout routine, refilling my mana, and into the shower. The closest to dressed I can bring myself to achieve though are sweat pants and a tank top. I stumble down the stairs to find Pua, Ku, and Thea sitting around the breakfast table.
All three of them have various flavors of concern painted across their expressions. Thea has the general look of concern that she actually has a lot while looking at me. It's almost kind of motherly, like she's worried that I'm not eating enough. As though reading my mind she pops to her feet as I come in and starts fussing and getting me something to eat.
Ku's concern smells more like dread... sort of. Like he's watching a train wreck and is waiting for the body count.
Pua is more resigned, she knows what's wrong and is getting ready to deal with the fall out, rather than worry about what has already happened.
I slump into a chair at the table, and plant my forehead on the table top, "How are you feeling?" Pua asks.
"I'm sore, which I thought I wasn't capable of being any more, so I'm also a little upset about that. I'm tired, and I'm hungry..." A plate of food is placed in front of me, "Thank you, oh goddess of the kitchen." I mutter and dig into the full English breakfast Thea has given me.
"You slept in," Ku says cautiously, prompting me to look up at him curiously, "After you eat, are you going to want to get in some practice? You've got a new sword coming, focusing on your swordsmanship might be a good idea. Especially since I bet that we could get Vivain to at least admit what kind of sword it'll be."
I open my mouth to agree, then pause as what that would involve hits me. Ku would beat the crap out of me until I'm out of mana from my regeneration working. Then I'd overfill my network to just shy the point of damage to try and speed up it's growth, which would also hurt. Then we'd start the process all over again. I know I'm improving, but right now it just doesn't seem worth it. I'm already sore, and avoiding pain seems like a great idea right now.
"Not really?" Everybody stares at me. Which is fair, I don't think I've ever not jumped at training before. Never mind actively avoided it, "What? I had two pieces of my soul ripped out yesterday." Even as I say it, it sounds wrong.
This really isn't like me at all.
Nobody says anything as I finish eating. I stand to put away my dishes, but Thea steals them out of my hands with a smile, "So what are you going to do if you're not training?" Pua asks as I'm left standing with my hands still outstretched where they'd had a plate a moment ago.
"I'm..." I stall out again. What am I going to do? Training and exercising are right out. Both sound like work and I just don't have the energy for it. I could try to figure out some of the holes in my future plans, like how to survive the Gap... but that sounds like work too. The only thing I do that sounds even vaguely like a hobby is drawing, and Sarah was right all those years ago. Drawing isn't really a hobby, I don't do it for fun, "...I don't know..."
Feeling more than a little bit lost I wander upstairs to change into something more appropriate for a nice Hawaiian day, then back down stairs, out of the door and then I just keep wandering.
###
I end up on the beach after almost an hour of going everywhere else. The field where I practice with Ku, the larger field where I taught munchkins how to fling themselves through the air and at the ground without dying. I even pause for several long minutes by the fish pond, where I stare at the forge and listen to the ringing sounds of hammer on steel. Or whatever more exotic material Vivain is actually using. I can't imagine soul alloying well with mundane metals.
But eventually I find myself on the beach. The sun warm, and the sands pale, the smell of salt water filling the air. The waves crashing on the reef in the distance provide a constant low roaring background to the shrill cries of sea birds.
Gentle swells roll onto the beach, lapping against the feet and legs of the younger members of the village playing in them. The kids have already bounced back from the invasion, and are splashing and playing in the relative safety of the shallows of the shielded bay.
A gaggle of somewhat older kids are being taught how to surf by a woman who looks about my age. She's wearing a very brief bikini showing off her dark pacific islands complexion, and softly defined feminine muscle.
She gives me something very nice to look at while my mind runs in circles. From the occasional glance in my direction, and shy smiles she doesn't really seem upset about my ogling her. Still, I try to keep my staring to the environment she happens to be in rather than at her specifically.
My mind is in turmoil though. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that I haven't done anything but drive myself into preparing for the supernatural world, and escaping it, since literally the day of my birth. When was the last time I read a book or seen a movie that wasn't required for a class? Have I ever watched TV or played a video game?
I don't think I ever have, not in this life.
I used to.
In my last life I'd been a nearly obsessive reader. My friends used to joke that I had a book addiction from the pace I went through them. Apparently a full length novel a day is unusual.
I'd watched movies, and TV, it's how I know anything about where I am now at all. Since I've been reborn though...
Nothing but driving myself at a goal that's probably impossible. Anything that might have even the slightest chance of working, I pursue and damn the consequences.
God, the only time I slowed down is when I've been injured, and I only stopped when Sarah made me. Even then it was more for her than because it was something I enjoyed.
I should really go visit her at some point. Suddenly the idea of taking a break to go to a club and actually try to enjoy myself doesn't sound so bad. It would be different at least. It occures to me that right now I'm not actually much of a person. I'm more a biological machine and that...
"Hey!" I'm yanked out of my thoughts and look up to find the pretty surfing instructor, looking even better fresh from the sea, standing over me with a slightly awkward smile, "Um... I noticed you sitting here and you seem kinda upset," I'm sure we've been introduced before, what is her name? "and I don't really know you well enough to ask you what's wrong, but surfing always makes me feel better, so I thought I'd see if you wanted to join us, and maybe it would help you at least feel better even if it doesn't actually help solve whatever the problem is?" She speaks in a rush, her decidedly run on sentence ends in a squeak. Like she ran out of air at the end there, and had been determined to finish before she took a breath anyway.
Her name is... "Leimomi right?"
Leimomi beams at me and nods her head, "That's right." She sounds thrilled, "You can call me Lei though. Leimomi is kind of a mouthful for constant use." She visibly snaps her mouth shut to keep from continuing on.
"I don't really have a swim suit..." Which is kind of odd now that I think about it. Who the hell comes to Hawaii without a swimsuit?
Somebody who has no idea what fun is that's who. Wow, that's depressing. I'm not the only one who thinks so either.
Lei gapes at me as though I just told her that I keep my extra head in my room, and normally just walk around with the two.
"You what?" She squeaks, "Why don't you have..." Lei shakes herself, "Not important. Here stand up." She holds out her hands, and without really thinking I take them, then carefully get myself up without pulling her down on me. I may not weigh as much as I did just after killing the trolls, when I was at nine feet tall, but I'm still six foot plus of super dense bone and muscle. Even if them being mostly made of carbon means I'm not as heavy as one might think, if I just pull on her she'll end up in my lap.
...
Something to think about later.
The top of Lei's head is even with my collarbone, so she ends up face to chest with me. Swallowing hard she takes a quick step back, and looks me over, "Well I don't think anything of mine is going to fit you." No kidding, not only am I taller than her, but broader in both the shoulders and the hips, "Well... Do you have a sports bra on?" She asks looking down at the shorts I threw on before leaving Pua's house. I actually ended up owning a few pairs of board shorts simply because they're the easiest and cheapest thing to find in Hawaii. So after being in the islands as long as I have I ended up with a lot of them.
"Yeah..." I nod wondering where she's going with this.
"Well in this case of emergency you could just take your shirt off and use the sports bra as a top, assuming it won't turn transparent." Lei offers with a smile.
I think about that for a moment, looking back at the beach and the water. The water does look pretty nice. With a shrug I pull my tank top over my head, tossing it onto a spot out of the sun where I'll be able to find it again easily. When I look back at her, Lei is staring at my stomach with her mouth open slightly. A cough from me is enough to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, and when she looks back up at my face, which takes a moment longer than I would have expected, she's blushing hard enough for me to see the red through her complexion.
After a moment of awkward silence I decide to point out something that might end up being important pretty soon, "I have no idea how to surf. Never done it before."
Lei's blush fades slightly as she gives me the brightest smile I've seen since the first time I called Sarah my best friend when we were six.
"That's okay! I'll teach you!"
###
Surfing ends up being a lot of fun and not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Granted I have excellent balance and an unreasonable degree of kinesthesia. Balancing on the board isn't exactly hard, and I don't try anything too difficult. Between the two I think I do pretty well for a first time.
My instructor giving me so much personal attention can't have hurt either. I'm worried that she's neglecting her other students for a few moments. Looking at the teen's she had been teaching though, they're either ignoring us or watching with big smiles and copious giggles.
They seem fine, so I just shrug and ignore them, focusing instead on following the advice that my surfing instructor is giving me. Lei really is very attentive, even when I'm not doing anything wrong.
Lei and I finally called it quits long after the rest of her students have given up and wandered off to do other things, and only then because the sun began to set. She's tireless and could have clearly kept going longer, proving she's a born and bred surfer girl. I can only keep up for so long because I have more endurance than is probably good for me. An artifact of giving up anything that might resemble a life for more training time.
Lei definitely wants to stick around on the beach longer, and invites me to go night swimming with her while she blushes hard enough to be visible even in the fading light. I turn her down, swimming has become an adventure for me since my muscles and bones became stupidly dense. I don't really float all that well any more, it's something that's on my list of things to find a way to work around. In all that copious free time I have.
Honestly I'm kind of surprised the surfboard floated with me on it.
Lei seems disappointed but not really upset. So bid her goodnight, and get a shy hug for my troubles, which I gently return. Then I head back to Pua's house. I'm still sore, but the day surfing has proven that it isn't really a physical soreness.
Probably something to do with getting a couple of chunks of my soul torn out.
Still, a diner that Thea had left out for me, feeding my mana needs, and a shower, and I'm ready to crash.
Much later that night I sit bolt upright in bed as several things about the day line up and snap together into a complete picture.
"Holy shit... Lei was hitting on me!"
- Location
- france
Well... Lady, when you want something, you want something.
Still... "My Excalibur"... So she really forged HDXD True Excalibur and then the blade was broken... by the Church, of course... Either they used the descendants of Arthur or they managed to steal it from Vivian (maybe tricked her?).
Huh... Could mean the various big dragons have a sword in their ass... Would explain MANY things about their personalities.
The dwarves are rather easy to reach... Provided she knows about some obscure Norse ritual and runes.
The Asuras..? Doesn't that mean that you ARE actually the reincarnation of one if you can use one of their weapons?
A surf and a silver armor in the future..? Naaaaah.
Most probably Raynare.
Huh... A water-aspect creature... A Kelpie?
Book 1 - Dreams and Stories
- Location
- California
The tea is quite good, which is odd as I'm normally not much for tea. Or coffee for that matter. Definitely a hot chocolate girl. Still, Sarah has always wanted to have a tea party but I'd never really gone for it, so it's the least I could do for her now. Besides, the tea is good.
The rest of my friends sit with us, their own cups either held or on the table in front of them. Ku, Pua, Cait, even Leimomi has joined us looking nervous and cute.
"So he starts giving this speech, about how I would never be allowed to succeed, and how the Light would always stand against me!" We're all laughing at Pua's story about how she ran into a young self taught mage, who had decided that she was a dark witch of some sort, and he was the one destined to defeat her, "So then he starts in on how his friends stood with, him even if they weren't there, and he carried their hopes and dreams with him, and so could not fail!"
I'm holding my sides gasping for air. I'm laughing so hard that I'm sure the only reason I haven't cracked a rib is because of my troll bones. I'm snapped out of my laughter by the sound of a wet cough.
I glance up and find blood dribbling out of the corners of Ku's mouth, bruises and lacerations cover him, but nobody else seems to notice. Pua keeps telling her story, and the others continue laughing and listening. Even Ku still has a smile on his face as he coughs up more blood trying to laugh.
"Pua!" I scream as I frantically try to stop some of the bleeding, but my hands keep passing through him as though he's a ghost.
"Ericka." Pua's calm voice pulls my attention away from her brother as he shudders once, then goes still. I look up at her tears running down my face, "Everything's fine." She smiles at me in a way that's normally comforting, but becomes horrifying as her flesh blackens and cracks exposing a deep red glow, and burns away, "Everything went just how you wanted them to." Her smile never wavers.
I lunge to try and put her out, even though I can't see the flames, but as with Ku my hands just pass through her.
"Pua?" My voice cracks as Pua dies, reduced to ashes with a smile on her face.
"What's wrong, Kitten?" Cait's voice sounds rough but still cheerful, and I'm afraid to look up. Afraid of what I'll see happening to her. For some reason I look anyway. Black veins crawl across her flesh, the rest of her skin having turned a pallid grey.
Something is poisoning her.
Iron, it has to be iron. I just have to get it out of her and she'll be fine.
She has to be fine...
I run to her side, patting her down to find whatever she's been stuck with. Again, to me she might as well have been made of air. She reaches up with a trembling hand giving me the bright smile she has when she's proud of me and pats my cheek, wiping away a few of my tears. "Don't cry, Kitten. It all went just like you wanted." She sounds so happy as her hand drops and she stills.
"I shouldn't have wasted my time on you." I jerk my head around to see Lei glaring at me. Blood runs down her arm from where it looks like something with large jaws and sharp teeth has taken a bite out of her. As I watch, another bite vanishes from her torso. I flinch but she just keeps glaring at me. "We could have been so good together, but you had plans."
"Lei..." I move to try and help her, somehow, but by now I'm not even surprised when I can't touch her. Sliding through her like one of us isn't even there.
"Don't call me that." She snaps at me as more bites are taken out of her, blood gushing from the wounds, "If I'd known this is how your plans would end I'd have avoided you like the plague you are." She hisses, then goes silent as the next bite crunches through her neck.
I scream, sobbing, looking down at my hands covered in blood. The only part of any of them I've been able to touch, "Why can't I help them?"
"Of course you can't help." As much as I try not to, I look up. Sarah sits just where she has the entire time, watching me, calmly drinking her tea. Except she looks older now. Creases line her face, and grey streaks her hair. She gets older and older as I watch, withering away.
"Of course you can't help." Sarah repeats, "You left, just like you planned, remember?"
I jerk upright in my bed, tears running down my face, covered in sweat and gasping for air.
It was a nightmare.
Just a nightmare.
I take a deep breath and let it out again shuddering.
Well I'm never sleeping again.
With more effort than it should take, I roll out of bed and drag myself to my feet. My body still hurts, though by now I'm certain that the pain has nothing to do with my body. So I force myself through my morning exercise routine, though I find it harder than it should I have, and not just from the lingering pain. As I reach the point of feeling the workout I find it harder to make myself continue on.
By the time I finish, which takes a good half an hour longer than it normally does, the sun still isn't up. I also still haven't shed the lingering effects of the nightmare. If everything works like I thought it would, once I'm gone I'll never see any of these people again. People that, in spite of myself, I've come to care about.
Maybe I can do something though?
With that lingering thought I head over to my desk and pull my Script Dictionary to me to start designing a new Script. Maybe I'd be able to keep some hope of seeing someone from here again after all.
An hour later Pua finds me on the couch in her living room staring blankly at her big screen TV as I idly press the channel change button over and over again. I'd managed to work on my new Script for maybe fifteen minutes before I found I just couldn't any more. It was like when the task grew difficult my mind just... shut down.
After staring at the Dictionary and a blank sheet of paper for another fifteen minutes, I gave up and came down stairs. Unsurprisingly in spite of Pua having what seems like every channel known to man, there's still nothing on. Not that it stops me from looking, I seem capable of at least that much of a task.
"Couldn't sleep?" Pua asks gently sitting on the far side of the couch from me. She's wearing sleep shorts and a tank top, her legs curled under her as she leaned back against the arm rest.
I shake my head, "Nightmares."
"You want to talk about it?"
I pause for a long moment, "I've recently realized that outside of training I don't have much of a life. Or much of a personality." Which of course has nothing to do with my nightmares. I think Pua realizes that as well, but she doesn't call me on it. Which is nice of her.
"So what are you doing about it?" My Kahuna asks mildly.
"I started learning how to surf yesterday?" I offer fighting to keep a blush off my face. Given the way she narrows her eyes at me I don't think I pull it off. I cough once, and keep going before she can start digging into that. The last thing I want to do is set Pua off on Lei and what I'd realized before I went to sleep the night before. I swear my social life is some sort of pet project for her. I don't want to know what she'll do if she thinks she has the opportunity to set me up on a date, "I started thinking about what I used to enjoy doing, from my last life." I stop changing the channel and stare at the screen. There's something on but whatever it is doesn't register, "I remember reading, though nothing specifically sticks out. I remember watching TV..." I refocus on the screen, it's an infomercial, "but aside from the one about this place I can't remember much of any shows I might have watched." Pua says nothing, just watching me, "I don't know what I like any more." I refocus on my companion, "I don't suppose you have a recommendation...?"
I trail off as I get a look at Pua. There's a manic light in her eyes and her grin has become slightly insane, "Oh... I might have one or two..."
In the end I don't leave that couch for the rest of the day. We end up binge watching something that Pua sold to me as a Magical Girl anime. And it is, it even starts off looking like any other Magical Girl show I've ever heard of. Has all the necessary parts, mysterious animal companion handing out powers and wishes, monster of the week, it's cute.
Then it takes a turn towards existential horror on the order of 'Soylent Green is people'.
When I figure this out Pua laughs at me and I beat her with a pillow, then we get on with watching.
The show is good. Though I'm not sure exactly how it's supposed to help me sleep at night.
I do manage the night without nightmares. I force myself through my morning routine again and head down stairs.
Ku is waiting for me with a look of determination on his face that makes me want to turn around and go back to bed before it's too late. Unfortunately as good as my senses have become Ku is somehow still more aware of what's going on around him.
"Ericka," He calls just as I'm about to start slowly backing out of the room, "come in here and eat. You're going to need it."
With a groan of resigned suffering, I comply with the order and start in on breakfast. After getting a good start I glance up at where Ku is still waiting for me, "So what are we doing today that necessitates forced nutrition?"
"I spoke to Pua, and she says that there's nothing wrong with your body. Furthermore, that there's nothing you could do physically that will make your condition worse."
"Condition?" I think I know what he's talking about but it's always better to not take chances.
"Your soreness." So, about what I figured, "Given that we're going to start training again this morning. So as soon as you're done eating we'll get out there."
Well damn.
Twenty minutes later I've finished eating, rinsed off my plate, changed into training gear, and at that point, run out of things to stall with. So with obvious reluctance I jog my way out to the field where we practice.
We start out with drills, which are fun and mindless. They get us moving and warmed up. Then a new technique is demonstrated and we drill that a few times, then we get to sparing.
Which is when things go wrong.
I feel pressured the moment we start in a way I haven't experienced before. My blocks all seemed to come at the last moment, and my dodges are always frantic. I can see opportunities to attack, but they would require me to move a lot faster than I have been up until then. I just can't make myself go for them, which is something I've never had a problem with before.
Granted normally I get punished for taking those chances. with a dull sword upside the head or planted in my ribs. Still I took my shots, nobody ever won with pure defense after all. Now though... pattern recognition tells me that trying for those shots will only end in pain, and that they won't succeed anyway, so what's the point?
I twist my hips to put up a block that even I can't call anything but half hearted. The feint I just fell for let Ku plant his sword in my ribs almost without opposition. Come to think of it even when I don't take false openings all I get is pain.
At least it doesn't last long as my troll healing takes care of bruises in moments.
Frustrated, mostly with myself and the way I've been half assing things, I throw caution to the winds and take a shot, trying to capitalize on Ku's recovery from hitting me in the ribs. There's a flash of motion and then I'm on the ground with my skull ringing staring up at the clear blue sky.
Ku's face interposes itself into my view with a frown, "What the hell was that?"
The only answer I can give him is to close my eyes and groan. I don't know what to tell him, I don't even know what's going on in that fight. I can't focus, too busy trying to figure out what's so off with me.
"Right." Ku says with a sigh, "Let's stop there for the day, I think you've had enough, and I need to talk to Pua about something." He helps me haul myself to my feet and we head back towards the Kahuna's house.
A short walk delivers us to the door and I follow Ku inside. He immediately goes looking for his sister. Finding her quickly coming out of the kitchen to see what we're doing. To compound my feeling of failure I don't even require a shower, I hadn't worked hard enough to sweat. So I just drag myself to the closest comfortable seat I can find.
I flop down onto the couch and throw an arm over my face. Through cracked eyes I watch Ku start to say something only to be interrupted by his sister. Moments later they're having a rather intense conversation in what I think is German, while taking frequent furtive glances in my direction.
Clearly they're talking about me.
Just as clearly they don't want to actually tell me anything about what they're saying about me. Which is more than a little frustrating and annoying. After several long minutes Ku looks concerned and heads back in my direction, "Pua's convinced me that pushing training right now won't do you much good. So we'll leave it be for the time being."
He looks very worried, as though he expects me to self immolate or explode or something. When I don't he just nods awkwardly and shuffles off. That was kind of amusing, I'd never seen Ku shuffle before. It's sort of what I imagine he looks like after he's been scolded by his mother when he was little.
I stand with a groan and wander my way out of the house, I don't particularly want to stick around and be subject to their worried looks. It isn't even noon yet, the sun still climbing in the sky. Still, I can already hear the sounds of the village going about its business. Lei is probably down at the beach, already looking after the kids and trying to infect them with her love of surfing. I'm not really in the mood though, too distracted by what has already happened. So instead I just wander thinking about what went wrong that morning.
It isn't that my skills have faded, or that I've somehow lost knowledge or practice. I don't think that I'm less intelligent than I had been. Somehow I just had a harder time doing things.
Even if I could see how to do them.
At some point while I had been lost in my own thoughts I stopped walking. I find myself standing next to the fishpond looking at Vivain's forge. I feel a strange kind of melancholy staring into the shade of the interior. I can see the forge fire, glowing a pale straw color. I can see and hear Vivain working the metal of my artifacts, the ringing of her hammer filling the air.
In between me and her is a long table mostly empty, there's a breastplate sitting out on it though. Made of a metal that shines an off white, it's plain and unadorned and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Unable to help myself I'm drawn to the protective sheet of metal, my hand rises almost of its own accord towards the breastplate.
Vivan appears from nowhere slapping my hand away from the armor piece.
"Not yet." She tells me sternly, "You'll not touch anything until I'm done and have given them to you." She glares at me and I nod hurriedly. The last thing I want is to accidentally find myself in breach of contract with a fae. If touching them early would violate some term or clause I'd missed in the deal we struck, I'd leave it all the hell alone.
No matter how much I want to just touch it, even once.
Vivain, after examining me intently for a long moment, nods, satisfied by something. "You can come in then. Just sit on your hands."
I'm not inclined to argue, and follow her into her workspace. Strangely the ache that has been with me since the beginning of this, fades slightly inside of the forge. I follow the fae smith's advice though and find an out of the way workbench that doesn't seem to be in use, and sit on it.
And very firmly sit on my hands at the same time.
Vivain turns back to her work, the regular beat of her hammer is almost soothing. The silence fills the space like darkness in a deep cave, the sound of her hammer ringing out like a single flash of light. Those brief moments cutting through the quiet make the silence surrounding them feel all the more oppressive.
Eventually I can't take being quiet with my own thoughts spinning around in my head any longer, "Why do you want Excalibur back?"
It's a dumb question, but one that's been bothering me since she named her price. Vivain acts like the sword was stolen from her, but she gave it away, right?
There's the feeling of a pause in Vivain even though her hammer never falters in its rhythm, "Because the Excalibur is mine." She answers easily.
I frown at this simple yet entirely uninformative answer, "But didn't you give it away? Wouldn't that make it... well not yours anymore?"
Vivain snorts, "It was only a loan."
"What?" It slips out before I can stop myself and I get a rather impressive glare from the smith for my trouble. I shrug slightly embarrassed, "It's not what the stories say."
Vivain continues to glare at me for a long moment before turning back to her work with a sigh, "During one of the wars Arthur fought," I start to ask a question, only to be cut off before I can really get the question properly formed, with the answer and another glare, "I never really paid attention to the specifics." She growls then turns back to her work, "Humans fight wars constantly, keeping track of them is a waste of time. As I was saying during one of the wars that Arthur fought he found something that Caliburn, as powerful as it is, could not fight. Unsurprising really. I forged Caliburn to primarily identify who would be the best ruler for a country. Anything else it does is more of a side effect." I blink.
Was Caliburn even a thing in High School DxD? I don't remember anything about it, but it could easily be in some part of the series that I never saw... And isn't Caliburn just a step along the way of the corruption of the sword's name? It starts out as Caledfwlch or something like that, right?
Then Caliburn.
Then Excalibur.
Vivain glances over her shoulder at me as though daring me to say something. I, wisely in my opinion, elected to keep my confusion and questions to myself.
"So Merlin came to me to ask for something more battle worthy. After some back and forth and payment from the wizard, I agreed to give Arthur Excalibur on the condition that it would be returned to me upon Arthur's death. When Arthur fell at Camlin he ordered one of his knights to throw the sword back into the lake. The knight... Gawain I think, took the sword, but being devout Christian he apparently decided that the church deserved my sword more than I did, no matter what promises had been made. So he lied to his king while Arthur lay dying, saying he'd done as ordered." Vivain pauses then and sighs, gazing into the distance with a winsome little smile, "I'd like to think that Arthur would have seen through his knight's lies, and forced him to do as was promised." She sighs again, her head dropping, "Arthur died before he could though, and Gawain took Excalibur to the church."
Vivain turns back to her forge with a sort of forced determination that to me says that she's done talking. So I quietly take my leave, with one last longing gaze at the breastplate that still sits out. I force myself to keep going though. I've been given plenty to think about.
That night at dinner I eat slowly, thinking hard about many things. What's wrong with me, because I'm becoming increasingly certain that something is. My new Script that I can think about just fine, as long as I don't try to put pencil to paper. About...
"A girl came by looking for you today, Ericka." Thea comments to me.
Horror seizes my tattered soul as I look up at Thea, and then with mounting dread turned to look at Pua. The Kahuna has a brilliant smile on her face as she locks eyes with me, and I find myself unable to look away.
"Oh, who was it?" Pua asks innocently, which I know damned well is a lie, without ever looking away from me.
"Leimomi, I think her name was." Thea says, focusing on her plate, having no idea what she's doing to me, "She looks after the village kids sometimes, teaches surfing I think."
"Oh. Does she?" Pua's smile has turned down right evil, "Is she cute?"
Thea ponders for a moment, "I'd say so. Sporty I think is the best word to describe her."
I groan softly. I'm doomed.
Doomed I say.
"Ericka," Here it comes, "you should ask her out. Since you're taking something of a break right now."
"I'm not sure I..."
"If you don't ask that girl out," Pua tells me seriously, "I will do it for you."
Normally I'd have told her to go fuck herself, for trying to dictate what I should do with my nonexistent love life. I just don't have the energy to fight against the force of nature that is Pua though. Especially not while she's arranging something that she thinks is good for me. Just thinking about it leaves me so tired that I can't even work up the energy to be mad about it.
So apparently I have to figure out how to ask a girl out.
I think I'd rather fight some monster that could kill me with a casual swat again.
The rest of my friends sit with us, their own cups either held or on the table in front of them. Ku, Pua, Cait, even Leimomi has joined us looking nervous and cute.
"So he starts giving this speech, about how I would never be allowed to succeed, and how the Light would always stand against me!" We're all laughing at Pua's story about how she ran into a young self taught mage, who had decided that she was a dark witch of some sort, and he was the one destined to defeat her, "So then he starts in on how his friends stood with, him even if they weren't there, and he carried their hopes and dreams with him, and so could not fail!"
I'm holding my sides gasping for air. I'm laughing so hard that I'm sure the only reason I haven't cracked a rib is because of my troll bones. I'm snapped out of my laughter by the sound of a wet cough.
I glance up and find blood dribbling out of the corners of Ku's mouth, bruises and lacerations cover him, but nobody else seems to notice. Pua keeps telling her story, and the others continue laughing and listening. Even Ku still has a smile on his face as he coughs up more blood trying to laugh.
"Pua!" I scream as I frantically try to stop some of the bleeding, but my hands keep passing through him as though he's a ghost.
"Ericka." Pua's calm voice pulls my attention away from her brother as he shudders once, then goes still. I look up at her tears running down my face, "Everything's fine." She smiles at me in a way that's normally comforting, but becomes horrifying as her flesh blackens and cracks exposing a deep red glow, and burns away, "Everything went just how you wanted them to." Her smile never wavers.
I lunge to try and put her out, even though I can't see the flames, but as with Ku my hands just pass through her.
"Pua?" My voice cracks as Pua dies, reduced to ashes with a smile on her face.
"What's wrong, Kitten?" Cait's voice sounds rough but still cheerful, and I'm afraid to look up. Afraid of what I'll see happening to her. For some reason I look anyway. Black veins crawl across her flesh, the rest of her skin having turned a pallid grey.
Something is poisoning her.
Iron, it has to be iron. I just have to get it out of her and she'll be fine.
She has to be fine...
I run to her side, patting her down to find whatever she's been stuck with. Again, to me she might as well have been made of air. She reaches up with a trembling hand giving me the bright smile she has when she's proud of me and pats my cheek, wiping away a few of my tears. "Don't cry, Kitten. It all went just like you wanted." She sounds so happy as her hand drops and she stills.
"I shouldn't have wasted my time on you." I jerk my head around to see Lei glaring at me. Blood runs down her arm from where it looks like something with large jaws and sharp teeth has taken a bite out of her. As I watch, another bite vanishes from her torso. I flinch but she just keeps glaring at me. "We could have been so good together, but you had plans."
"Lei..." I move to try and help her, somehow, but by now I'm not even surprised when I can't touch her. Sliding through her like one of us isn't even there.
"Don't call me that." She snaps at me as more bites are taken out of her, blood gushing from the wounds, "If I'd known this is how your plans would end I'd have avoided you like the plague you are." She hisses, then goes silent as the next bite crunches through her neck.
I scream, sobbing, looking down at my hands covered in blood. The only part of any of them I've been able to touch, "Why can't I help them?"
"Of course you can't help." As much as I try not to, I look up. Sarah sits just where she has the entire time, watching me, calmly drinking her tea. Except she looks older now. Creases line her face, and grey streaks her hair. She gets older and older as I watch, withering away.
"Of course you can't help." Sarah repeats, "You left, just like you planned, remember?"
###
I jerk upright in my bed, tears running down my face, covered in sweat and gasping for air.
It was a nightmare.
Just a nightmare.
I take a deep breath and let it out again shuddering.
Well I'm never sleeping again.
With more effort than it should take, I roll out of bed and drag myself to my feet. My body still hurts, though by now I'm certain that the pain has nothing to do with my body. So I force myself through my morning exercise routine, though I find it harder than it should I have, and not just from the lingering pain. As I reach the point of feeling the workout I find it harder to make myself continue on.
By the time I finish, which takes a good half an hour longer than it normally does, the sun still isn't up. I also still haven't shed the lingering effects of the nightmare. If everything works like I thought it would, once I'm gone I'll never see any of these people again. People that, in spite of myself, I've come to care about.
Maybe I can do something though?
With that lingering thought I head over to my desk and pull my Script Dictionary to me to start designing a new Script. Maybe I'd be able to keep some hope of seeing someone from here again after all.
###
An hour later Pua finds me on the couch in her living room staring blankly at her big screen TV as I idly press the channel change button over and over again. I'd managed to work on my new Script for maybe fifteen minutes before I found I just couldn't any more. It was like when the task grew difficult my mind just... shut down.
After staring at the Dictionary and a blank sheet of paper for another fifteen minutes, I gave up and came down stairs. Unsurprisingly in spite of Pua having what seems like every channel known to man, there's still nothing on. Not that it stops me from looking, I seem capable of at least that much of a task.
"Couldn't sleep?" Pua asks gently sitting on the far side of the couch from me. She's wearing sleep shorts and a tank top, her legs curled under her as she leaned back against the arm rest.
I shake my head, "Nightmares."
"You want to talk about it?"
I pause for a long moment, "I've recently realized that outside of training I don't have much of a life. Or much of a personality." Which of course has nothing to do with my nightmares. I think Pua realizes that as well, but she doesn't call me on it. Which is nice of her.
"So what are you doing about it?" My Kahuna asks mildly.
"I started learning how to surf yesterday?" I offer fighting to keep a blush off my face. Given the way she narrows her eyes at me I don't think I pull it off. I cough once, and keep going before she can start digging into that. The last thing I want to do is set Pua off on Lei and what I'd realized before I went to sleep the night before. I swear my social life is some sort of pet project for her. I don't want to know what she'll do if she thinks she has the opportunity to set me up on a date, "I started thinking about what I used to enjoy doing, from my last life." I stop changing the channel and stare at the screen. There's something on but whatever it is doesn't register, "I remember reading, though nothing specifically sticks out. I remember watching TV..." I refocus on the screen, it's an infomercial, "but aside from the one about this place I can't remember much of any shows I might have watched." Pua says nothing, just watching me, "I don't know what I like any more." I refocus on my companion, "I don't suppose you have a recommendation...?"
I trail off as I get a look at Pua. There's a manic light in her eyes and her grin has become slightly insane, "Oh... I might have one or two..."
In the end I don't leave that couch for the rest of the day. We end up binge watching something that Pua sold to me as a Magical Girl anime. And it is, it even starts off looking like any other Magical Girl show I've ever heard of. Has all the necessary parts, mysterious animal companion handing out powers and wishes, monster of the week, it's cute.
Then it takes a turn towards existential horror on the order of 'Soylent Green is people'.
When I figure this out Pua laughs at me and I beat her with a pillow, then we get on with watching.
The show is good. Though I'm not sure exactly how it's supposed to help me sleep at night.
###
I do manage the night without nightmares. I force myself through my morning routine again and head down stairs.
Ku is waiting for me with a look of determination on his face that makes me want to turn around and go back to bed before it's too late. Unfortunately as good as my senses have become Ku is somehow still more aware of what's going on around him.
"Ericka," He calls just as I'm about to start slowly backing out of the room, "come in here and eat. You're going to need it."
With a groan of resigned suffering, I comply with the order and start in on breakfast. After getting a good start I glance up at where Ku is still waiting for me, "So what are we doing today that necessitates forced nutrition?"
"I spoke to Pua, and she says that there's nothing wrong with your body. Furthermore, that there's nothing you could do physically that will make your condition worse."
"Condition?" I think I know what he's talking about but it's always better to not take chances.
"Your soreness." So, about what I figured, "Given that we're going to start training again this morning. So as soon as you're done eating we'll get out there."
Well damn.
Twenty minutes later I've finished eating, rinsed off my plate, changed into training gear, and at that point, run out of things to stall with. So with obvious reluctance I jog my way out to the field where we practice.
We start out with drills, which are fun and mindless. They get us moving and warmed up. Then a new technique is demonstrated and we drill that a few times, then we get to sparing.
Which is when things go wrong.
I feel pressured the moment we start in a way I haven't experienced before. My blocks all seemed to come at the last moment, and my dodges are always frantic. I can see opportunities to attack, but they would require me to move a lot faster than I have been up until then. I just can't make myself go for them, which is something I've never had a problem with before.
Granted normally I get punished for taking those chances. with a dull sword upside the head or planted in my ribs. Still I took my shots, nobody ever won with pure defense after all. Now though... pattern recognition tells me that trying for those shots will only end in pain, and that they won't succeed anyway, so what's the point?
I twist my hips to put up a block that even I can't call anything but half hearted. The feint I just fell for let Ku plant his sword in my ribs almost without opposition. Come to think of it even when I don't take false openings all I get is pain.
At least it doesn't last long as my troll healing takes care of bruises in moments.
Frustrated, mostly with myself and the way I've been half assing things, I throw caution to the winds and take a shot, trying to capitalize on Ku's recovery from hitting me in the ribs. There's a flash of motion and then I'm on the ground with my skull ringing staring up at the clear blue sky.
Ku's face interposes itself into my view with a frown, "What the hell was that?"
The only answer I can give him is to close my eyes and groan. I don't know what to tell him, I don't even know what's going on in that fight. I can't focus, too busy trying to figure out what's so off with me.
"Right." Ku says with a sigh, "Let's stop there for the day, I think you've had enough, and I need to talk to Pua about something." He helps me haul myself to my feet and we head back towards the Kahuna's house.
A short walk delivers us to the door and I follow Ku inside. He immediately goes looking for his sister. Finding her quickly coming out of the kitchen to see what we're doing. To compound my feeling of failure I don't even require a shower, I hadn't worked hard enough to sweat. So I just drag myself to the closest comfortable seat I can find.
I flop down onto the couch and throw an arm over my face. Through cracked eyes I watch Ku start to say something only to be interrupted by his sister. Moments later they're having a rather intense conversation in what I think is German, while taking frequent furtive glances in my direction.
Clearly they're talking about me.
Just as clearly they don't want to actually tell me anything about what they're saying about me. Which is more than a little frustrating and annoying. After several long minutes Ku looks concerned and heads back in my direction, "Pua's convinced me that pushing training right now won't do you much good. So we'll leave it be for the time being."
He looks very worried, as though he expects me to self immolate or explode or something. When I don't he just nods awkwardly and shuffles off. That was kind of amusing, I'd never seen Ku shuffle before. It's sort of what I imagine he looks like after he's been scolded by his mother when he was little.
I stand with a groan and wander my way out of the house, I don't particularly want to stick around and be subject to their worried looks. It isn't even noon yet, the sun still climbing in the sky. Still, I can already hear the sounds of the village going about its business. Lei is probably down at the beach, already looking after the kids and trying to infect them with her love of surfing. I'm not really in the mood though, too distracted by what has already happened. So instead I just wander thinking about what went wrong that morning.
It isn't that my skills have faded, or that I've somehow lost knowledge or practice. I don't think that I'm less intelligent than I had been. Somehow I just had a harder time doing things.
Even if I could see how to do them.
At some point while I had been lost in my own thoughts I stopped walking. I find myself standing next to the fishpond looking at Vivain's forge. I feel a strange kind of melancholy staring into the shade of the interior. I can see the forge fire, glowing a pale straw color. I can see and hear Vivain working the metal of my artifacts, the ringing of her hammer filling the air.
In between me and her is a long table mostly empty, there's a breastplate sitting out on it though. Made of a metal that shines an off white, it's plain and unadorned and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Unable to help myself I'm drawn to the protective sheet of metal, my hand rises almost of its own accord towards the breastplate.
Vivan appears from nowhere slapping my hand away from the armor piece.
"Not yet." She tells me sternly, "You'll not touch anything until I'm done and have given them to you." She glares at me and I nod hurriedly. The last thing I want is to accidentally find myself in breach of contract with a fae. If touching them early would violate some term or clause I'd missed in the deal we struck, I'd leave it all the hell alone.
No matter how much I want to just touch it, even once.
Vivain, after examining me intently for a long moment, nods, satisfied by something. "You can come in then. Just sit on your hands."
I'm not inclined to argue, and follow her into her workspace. Strangely the ache that has been with me since the beginning of this, fades slightly inside of the forge. I follow the fae smith's advice though and find an out of the way workbench that doesn't seem to be in use, and sit on it.
And very firmly sit on my hands at the same time.
Vivain turns back to her work, the regular beat of her hammer is almost soothing. The silence fills the space like darkness in a deep cave, the sound of her hammer ringing out like a single flash of light. Those brief moments cutting through the quiet make the silence surrounding them feel all the more oppressive.
Eventually I can't take being quiet with my own thoughts spinning around in my head any longer, "Why do you want Excalibur back?"
It's a dumb question, but one that's been bothering me since she named her price. Vivain acts like the sword was stolen from her, but she gave it away, right?
There's the feeling of a pause in Vivain even though her hammer never falters in its rhythm, "Because the Excalibur is mine." She answers easily.
I frown at this simple yet entirely uninformative answer, "But didn't you give it away? Wouldn't that make it... well not yours anymore?"
Vivain snorts, "It was only a loan."
"What?" It slips out before I can stop myself and I get a rather impressive glare from the smith for my trouble. I shrug slightly embarrassed, "It's not what the stories say."
Vivain continues to glare at me for a long moment before turning back to her work with a sigh, "During one of the wars Arthur fought," I start to ask a question, only to be cut off before I can really get the question properly formed, with the answer and another glare, "I never really paid attention to the specifics." She growls then turns back to her work, "Humans fight wars constantly, keeping track of them is a waste of time. As I was saying during one of the wars that Arthur fought he found something that Caliburn, as powerful as it is, could not fight. Unsurprising really. I forged Caliburn to primarily identify who would be the best ruler for a country. Anything else it does is more of a side effect." I blink.
Was Caliburn even a thing in High School DxD? I don't remember anything about it, but it could easily be in some part of the series that I never saw... And isn't Caliburn just a step along the way of the corruption of the sword's name? It starts out as Caledfwlch or something like that, right?
Then Caliburn.
Then Excalibur.
Vivain glances over her shoulder at me as though daring me to say something. I, wisely in my opinion, elected to keep my confusion and questions to myself.
"So Merlin came to me to ask for something more battle worthy. After some back and forth and payment from the wizard, I agreed to give Arthur Excalibur on the condition that it would be returned to me upon Arthur's death. When Arthur fell at Camlin he ordered one of his knights to throw the sword back into the lake. The knight... Gawain I think, took the sword, but being devout Christian he apparently decided that the church deserved my sword more than I did, no matter what promises had been made. So he lied to his king while Arthur lay dying, saying he'd done as ordered." Vivain pauses then and sighs, gazing into the distance with a winsome little smile, "I'd like to think that Arthur would have seen through his knight's lies, and forced him to do as was promised." She sighs again, her head dropping, "Arthur died before he could though, and Gawain took Excalibur to the church."
Vivain turns back to her forge with a sort of forced determination that to me says that she's done talking. So I quietly take my leave, with one last longing gaze at the breastplate that still sits out. I force myself to keep going though. I've been given plenty to think about.
###
That night at dinner I eat slowly, thinking hard about many things. What's wrong with me, because I'm becoming increasingly certain that something is. My new Script that I can think about just fine, as long as I don't try to put pencil to paper. About...
"A girl came by looking for you today, Ericka." Thea comments to me.
Horror seizes my tattered soul as I look up at Thea, and then with mounting dread turned to look at Pua. The Kahuna has a brilliant smile on her face as she locks eyes with me, and I find myself unable to look away.
"Oh, who was it?" Pua asks innocently, which I know damned well is a lie, without ever looking away from me.
"Leimomi, I think her name was." Thea says, focusing on her plate, having no idea what she's doing to me, "She looks after the village kids sometimes, teaches surfing I think."
"Oh. Does she?" Pua's smile has turned down right evil, "Is she cute?"
Thea ponders for a moment, "I'd say so. Sporty I think is the best word to describe her."
I groan softly. I'm doomed.
Doomed I say.
"Ericka," Here it comes, "you should ask her out. Since you're taking something of a break right now."
"I'm not sure I..."
"If you don't ask that girl out," Pua tells me seriously, "I will do it for you."
Normally I'd have told her to go fuck herself, for trying to dictate what I should do with my nonexistent love life. I just don't have the energy to fight against the force of nature that is Pua though. Especially not while she's arranging something that she thinks is good for me. Just thinking about it leaves me so tired that I can't even work up the energy to be mad about it.
So apparently I have to figure out how to ask a girl out.
I think I'd rather fight some monster that could kill me with a casual swat again.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
...wait, does this mean that part of the reason she's been so single-minded is because she's been absorbing souls?
Book 1 - A Date or Something Like It
- Location
- California
Asking a girl out is hard.
On some level I knew that, but...
Well, as much as my memories of my last life are getting fuzzier, I'm pretty sure that I only ever had one girlfriend, and I'm equally sure that she asked me out.
So this is a very new experience.
I don't think I like it.
It's been a few days since Pua delivered her ultimatum, and during that time I've done all right in general. I've been sleeping mostly okay, the nightmares haven't stopped, but none of them have had the punch of the first one. They're getting easier to ignore.
The ache that has pervaded my everything similarly hasn't faded, but gotten easier to ignore. That makes it easier to move like I used to, though my body hurts more when I stop. Still meant that spending days at the beach learning how to surf are easier. Not that spending time with Lei is that difficult to begin with.
Thanks to my unfair advantages I pick up a very basic competence on a board very quickly. I can't do any of the tricks or more spectacular things that Lei does, but I'm happy enough just being able to ride a wave next to her.
I haven't asked her out though. There are no dates. Just surfing trips to different beaches. It's fun but I still haven't asked her.
Which is why I'm doing what a lot of people do when confronted with a difficult task.
I'm procrastinating.
Something about Vivain's forge calls to me. What it is I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect the missing pieces of my soul are responsible. Whatever it is, I frequently find myself standing outside the forge staring in. Or even just gazing in the direction of the forge whether I can see it or not.
Fortunately Vivain doesn't seem to mind my hovering. Or even my questions when I work up the guts to ask them. As long as I don't sound like I'm doubting her, or interrupting her she's actually pleasant company, and a very good conversationalist.
"That's a lot of Script." I'm once again sitting on my hands this time on a stool I've brought myself so I can sit in a place where I can watch her work.
At the moment she's working on the sword, and sitting on my hands is a spectacular idea. Even with the metal glowing a deep cherry red, even feeling the heat from where I'm sitting several feet away, I still want to touch it more than I've wanted anything before in my life.
What prompts my comment though is that Vivain is covering the blade in Script symbols in between every fold of the metal. Creating layers upon layers of Script into a three dimensional working. How she manages this without destroying the previous layer I have no idea, but she seems pleased with how things are going.
The comment earns me a small smile, "Which surprises you, how much... Script as you call it, I use, or that I use it at all?"
I squirm slightly, "The second actually. From what I can tell, anybody can use script, but I got my Script dictionary because nobody else wanted it. Sort of implies a lack of use."
Vivain nods her hammer rising and falling as she begins to fold the metal again, "In my experience most that have any experience with Script share two qualities. At least a thousand years of age, and spending most of that time trying to figure out the how of magic, instead of just the what." I blink and pause for a moment to see if she's going to add anything before I ask my questions. Instead of speaking she places the head of her hammer against my chest and pushes me back to my stool.
I didn't even notice standing up.
With a swallow I sit down and grip the seat of the stool to try and keep myself there. The damn sword is red hot, troll healing is notoriously bad with burns, and yet something inside of me is absolutely certain that the likely permanent maiming I would get from touching the sword would be worth it.
Fortunately I have more than enough discipline to ignore that little voice.
When I'm paying attention.
"How does magic do what it does, as opposed to what it can do." I blink and it takes me a moment to find the thread of the conversation again, "Eventually pursuing the how leads one to underpinning after underpinning. More and more fundamental magic, the foundation that everything is built on. Script is frequently described as the 'language by which reality defines itself'. Things don't get more fundamental than that."
"Is that how you started studying it?"
"No, I was taught by the same man who taught me smithing." Vivain smiles faintly, "At the same time actually. Nuada was skilled in many arts, that he decided that I might equal him in the crafting of magic and metal is still the greatest compliment I have ever received."
"Did you?" I have to ask, "Equal him, I mean?"
Vivain snorts, "No. The man who killed Balor by standing in his gaze, shielding the rest of his people until the Fomori fed its life into the effort to strike him down, that man is unique." The smith seems to be on the edge of tears, though her smile said she isn't upset, "Airgetlám, The Silver Hand, has no equal."
"Ericka!" I wince slightly and start looking for an escape. Pua's tone indicates nothing good for me. I'm flopped across her couch with a book. In my efforts to find things I like that don't involve hitting people, or more accurately getting hit. It's about a girl who wants to be a knight so swapped places with her twin brother pretending to be a boy. It's a fun...
"Ericka! Focus!" Pua is standing at one end of the couch looking across it at me, hands on hips, and frown on her face. Behind her I can just make out Thea laughing at my predicament in the kitchen, "Have you asked Lei out yet?" Instead of answering I try to hide behind my paperback, "I didn't think so. Up! She's going on a supply run, you're going with her."
"Why?" I ask weakly.
Pua narrows her eyes at me, "Because you can pick up heavy things and put them down again. And while you're out there you can ask her to dinner." Yeah. Because there's absolutely no chance of me panicking and losing the power of speech, "Don't you think at me with that tone!"
...
How the hell?
The sky is a dark grey overcast, that in any other state of the union would have meant chilled air and cool temperatures. This however is Hawaii and that means that all the marine layer does is crank the humidity up to one hundred percent.
It's miserable.
There are however advantages. Leimomi walking around in cut off jean shorts and a bikini top chief among them. She seems to be having fun too, which just makes everything better. We're walking through a hardware store, her with a list and me pushing one of those orange, flat, heavy load cart things behind her. She points when we find something on the list, and I dutifully load it. The little pirouette and smile she does every time she finds something pretty much makes my afternoon.
The ache... doesn't feel as bad around her. It isn't gone, just much much easier to ignore.
We collect paint, cement mix, and a lot of wood. Repairs around the village are still ongoing. I think they've decided to take the chance to do some renovations at the same time.
In short, as in shape as Lei is, she either needs me or a lot more hands to move all of this.
Knowing now that Lei is hitting on me, it's easier to spot. Her smirk as she watches me in a tank top load the village truck we've taken to get here is kind of obvious.
"Enjoying the show?" Oh dear god, that came out of my mouth.
"Only as much as you did." Lei shoots back with a grin. I think my face is in danger of igniting my hair, I'm blushing so hard. My smile won't go away either though, "I'm going to get us some shaved ice." Lei smirks at me, "After you finish up here I think you'll deserve a treat." She heads off throwing a smile over her shoulder and deliberately putting some extra sway in her hips.
Not that I'm looking.
Dear god, Pua is right. I need to ask this girl out, or we'll end up skipping the step all together. I mull that idea over as I keep my hands busy finishing moving the wood into the truck. By the time I'm done Lei still isn't back, which is odd. There's a shaved ice cart next to the entrance to the hardware store. Granted we are parked a little ways back in the lot but not that far.
I take a moment to make sure that my sunglasses are still on and the tops of my slightly pointed ears are still covered by my now shoulder length hair, and go looking for her. It doesn't take long. She's standing just a little ways away from the shaved ice cart, her back against the outer wall of the hardware store. Standing in front of her with one hand on the wall next to her head is a rather tall man, with another leaning up against the wall next to her. Between the two they have very effectively trapped Lei.
I can smell both their interest, and her fear. My lips peeled back in a snarl, and I start forward. The two are well muscled and tall, clearly not locals.
Tourists.
...No, their build, clothes, stance, something, or maybe everything all together makes me think soldier. No uniform's so on leave. Fair enough, that isn't uncommon. I think the Hawaiian islands are something like forty five percent military base by area. Doesn't change what I'm going to do next. It does change how I'll go about it though.
Details don't really become clearer as I approach, literal eagle eyes mean I can pick out details at a truly ridiculous distance. What I do gain as I get closer is perspective. I think I have a couple of inches on these guys.
I don't know why, but that strikes me as very amusing.
Without really acknowledging either of the men I elbow them aside and take Lei by wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and immediately pivoting to leave. The look of relief on her face when she sees me is almost enough to make me turn around and punch them as hard as I can. Only knowing that if I do that their heads would pop like overripe grapes, and cleaning that up would be a pain, stops me.
"There you are." I force a smile and some cheer into my voice as I scoop her away from the wall and the two off duty soldiers. That this puts my body in between them and Lei is a complete coincidence as well. I push her a little ways in front of me, just so that if the two idiots behind me try something she'll have a little bit of safety by distance.
I really hope they don't do anything. I really don't want to get into a fight with these two. I don't have much hope if they're willing to pin a girl against a wall though.
"Hey. HEY!" Low and behold. I don't respond, just kept walking and when Lei starts to turn, a hand on her shoulder keeps her moving forward, "Aw, don't be like that. Come on, there's two of you now, two of us. We'll have a great time." We keep walking. My hearing maps what's going on behind me. Both of them are moving after us, one in front of the other by half a step.
The one in the lead reaches for my shoulder. I let him get close enough to actually feel the weight of his hand, just so there would be no doubt as to who the aggressor is, before I spin and push his arm to the outside, before I snap my own arm down and grab his wrist. I squeeze. I squeeze until I feel the bones in his arm begin to flex just a hair, then stop.
"Don't. Touch. Me." I growl. I can hear Lei's breath speed up and the smell of fear is back. I really hope that I'm not the one that's scaring her this time.
Message delivered I let him go and he staggers backwards clutching his wrist, "Fuck! What the fuck!"
The soldier that I haven't bruised catches his friend. He looks pissed, face red with anger, "We just wanted to talk, bitch! What are you, some kinda dike?"
I blink, I honestly hadn't expected that. Behind me Lei's scent gains an undertone of anger, "First off, the idea that the only reason we might not be interested in you is that we're gay is just... staggering arrogance. Second, as it happens, yes. I am. Now will you leave us alone?"
The second soldier's red face pales.
Well shit.
The punch comes with little warning aside from that change in blood flow. A lean and a sliding half step back put me just out of range of the straight. The follow up hook is slapped past me unbalancing the soldier forward slightly. It's enough though for me to plant a hand on his face and shove him backwards into his friend.
This... is kinda weird. I'm pretty sure that I could have taken the both of them even back when I was still short. Sure these guys are fast, strong, and trained in the finest tradition of... whatever branch of the military they belong to. Close quarters combat has been my life since I was five years old though. Give everybody involved guns and I'd be in trouble, but in a fist fight I'm hard to beat. Then I grew more than a foot and put on a whole lot of troll muscle.
It's just... the only people I've really fought since I got all my enhancements working the way I want them to, is Ku and the goddamned Lady of the Lake. Aside from anything else, these two are mundane humans, compared to Ku these guys are moving half speed at best.
So I stay on the defensive, weaving through their punches, deflecting attempts at a grapple or two, and maneuvering or pushing them into each other's way. They keep up a pretty impressive pace for almost two minutes, which any real fighter will tell you is a god damned eternity in combat, before they break off and create distance to reassess.
They're breathing hard, their skin has taken on a light sheen of sweat. Which is not a great thing in this heat and humidity. I, on the other hand, am still breathing calmly, like I've just taken a casual walk along the beach.
"You know, guys, I can literally do this all day. I won't have to, but I could. I won't have to because in another three minutes, six at the outside, the cops will be here. At which point I will be sent on my way with a pat on the back for not escalating the situation, and acting in self defense and defense of another. You on the other hand will be arrested and subsequently have to explain to your commanding officer exactly why you were attempting to assault two women in a public parking lot." The two blink and look around, it seems to dawn on them only then where they are, "Somehow I don't think that the excuse, 'they told us no' will fly very well." I give them a moment for that to sink in. To imagine how that conversation would go, "Or, we can all go our separate ways right now."
I wait for several beats to see if they have anything to add. When they don't move or speak I turn back around, keeping a very careful ear on what they do, and escort Lei back to the truck.
It only takes about fifteen minutes to get back to the village, the entire ride is silent, neither of us speaking a word. I figure Lei needs the time to calm down, an idea backed up by the fear slowly leaking out of her scent.
I need the time to think.
What had happened back there could barely be called a fight, the idiots had been so out classed it was funny. What's occupying my mind though is how I felt during the whole thing.
The ache had almost vanished altogether. For some reason during that entire fight I felt great. For those few minutes I felt empowered in a way that I haven't felt for a while. What I can't figure out was why. Why did fighting with Ku do nothing for me, but dancing around those two assholes make me feel, just a little, like my old self again.
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
What was it about this fight?
...Was it the fight at all?
Going over the afternoon again that feeling of rightness hadn't started with the fight. It had started the moment I realized Lei was missing, and had hit full force when I saw her trapped against the wall.
Now if I can just figure out what the hell that means.
"Ericka." I blink. Somehow while I haven't been paying attention, I managed to drive the truck back to the village and park it on autopilot. Once my brain has caught up with the present I turn to look at Lei. She's looking up at me with a small smile flitting around her lips, "Thank you. For saving me. I feel kinda bad you never got your shaved ice."
"Don't worry about it." I smile at her, "You were kinda distracted."
"No." She shakes her head, "Let me make it up to you. Come to my place tonight, around seven? I'll make you dinner. We can watch a movie afterwards."
I swallow hard, "Um... if you insist?" She nods solemnly, "Then I'd love to, I'll see you at seven."
"Great!" She chirps and leaned across the bench seat of the truck to kiss me gently on the cheek, "It's a date!" Lei hops out of the truck and skips off into the village as I sit where she left me, stunned.
Lei kissed me.
On the cheek, but still!
Wait... did she say date?
She did, didn't she.
I have a date with Lei.
I have a date with Lei.
I have a date!
What do I do? WhatdoIdo?
...
"Sarah!" I burst into existence in her dorm room in a panic.
Sarah is there, which is fortunate. What's less fortunate is that she's in just her bra and pants, laying on her bed, with some shirtless guy laying on top of her.
Sarah shrieks nearly knocking the guy off of the bed. She scrambles to cover herself for a moment before she figures out what's going on, "Ericka? What the hell! This is why we call before visiting!"
"How did she even get in here?" The guy asks but we both ignored him.
"Sarah you have to help me IhaveadateandIdon'tknowwhattodo!" I'm almost dancing in place and wringing my hands.
"I mean, she's hot so she could join in, but seriously, how?" The guy keeps talking.
We keep ignoring him.
"I don't care, you're supposed to call... Did you say you have a date?" I nod, "You. Ericka Rhostana. Miss I'm too busy learning how to break people to actually interact with them, have a date." I nod again, "Ohmygodyouhaveadate!" Sarah squeaks, and pushes the guy off the bed and onto the floor, before hopping off the bed herself and running up to give me a hug.
...I've had a few dreams that start this way.
"Right." She pulls away from me gripping my shoulders and looking up at me, "I'd pick you up and swing you around but I don't think I can do that anymore." Spinning around on the ball of her foot she finally addresses the guy, "You need to go."
"What?" He blinks, then blinks again when Sarah beams him in the face with his shirt.
"Come on, up!" Sarah levers him to his feet by an arm and ushers him out the door.
"But...!" Is all he gets out before she slams the door in his face.
"Um... who was that?" I'm feeling a little guilty now that I've had the chance to calm down a little.
"I have no idea, don't worry about it." Sarah says dismissing the whole thing, guy and all, with a wave of her hand.
"What?! Sarah..." Now I'm worried.
"Oh relax. Midterms are right around the corner, and I needed the stress relief, it's not something I do a lot." Before I can even start to speak she holds up a hand and reaches under her pillow, "I'm being completely safe." She flicks her wrist and something hits me in the forehead with a plastic sound, "And if he tried anything I didn't like, you of all people know I could break him in half."
I catch the thing she tossed at me as it bounces off my head and find it's a condom.
Ew.
I toss it back at her and sigh, "Fine. It's none of my business anyway. As long as you're being safe."
Sarah catches the bit of plastic and stuffs it back under her pillow, "Nah. I'm never going to complain about you looking out for me. But that's not why you're here. Let me get a shirt and we can get you ready for your date!" She finishes with a squeal and a more than slightly manic smile, "It's your first after all. I'm going to make sure you at least are perfect."
Oh god what have I gotten myself into?
I stand at the foot of the path to Leimomi's front door trying not to have a panic attack. Or another panic attack, if my bout of hyperventilation in the changing room counts. Sarah had managed to calm me down, and for the rest of the several hours we spent shopping muttered about how troll's and dragons are no problem, but the pretty girl has me beat.
I didn't argue with her.
She's right after all.
The dress she found for me was sleeveless, not low cut in the slightest, but does hug my chest and stomach enough that Sarah said it would still show me off well. The skirt flares and drops to just above my knees, and the entire thing is covered in delicate white on white embroidery. No sooner had Sarah found it than she forced me to put it on, declared me adorable, made me buy it, and took me back to her dorm to put makeup on me and do my hair.
When she was done and pointed me at a mirror. I looked... well I'd date me. The dress shows off the muscles in my arms very well while still looking feminine. I managed to fend off Sarah's attempts at high heels. They're uncomfortable, and I don't think my legs need the help. The makeup is subtle and minimal which I appreciate, but the most impressive thing is that Sarah had done something that really brought out the red in my hair that's usually too dark to see outside of direct bright light.
I couldn't really take my eyes off my reflection, even as a sun could have been setting in my cheeks from the intensity of my blush. I look good, I've never worn a dress before, and it feels odd, but given the results I could see myself doing it again.
So given that I know I look good, that Lei likes me, she asked me here after all, why am I freaking out so badly? Probably something to do with inexperience. I take a deep centering breath and forced myself up the path.
Before I have a chance to really think about what I'm doing I knock on the door. From inside I hear a squeak, and then the sound of somebody moving quickly on bare feet. Moments later the door is yanked open and I come face to face with Lei in something other than a swimsuit and casual clothes. Her dress is low cut, providing a spectacular view, and seems to be wrapped around her. The cloth crosses over itself along her front, and slides open by a little every time she takes a step, giving tantalizing glimpses of her legs. The dress never shows anything it shouldn't, but successfully creates the illusion that it's always on the edge of doing so. She has her hair in a french braid draped over one shoulder with a large pink flower tucked behind one ear just improves things. All in all, she looks good enough to eat.
Her own eyes rake me up and down, and I find that I don't mind the look. With a smile she waves me inside, pointing to where I can leave my sandals. In a place like Hawaii where rain is seen year round, avoiding mud on the floors is achieved more by planning than cleaning.
Lei's house is small, a kitchen/dining room, where something good smelling waited. A living space which is set up more like an office, with a desk covered in papers, open books and a laptop, than a more traditional living room. Though there is a big screen TV hanging on one wall, a small bookshelf filled with DVDs standing under it and a small couch facing that wall. Opposite the kitchen is an open doorway through which I can catch a glimpse of a hastily, and not at all well, cleaned bedroom. I assume there's an attached bathroom where I can't see it.
I'm ushered into the kitchen, and sat down at a small table off to one side as Lei flitts about finishing up cooking. Vases filled with wild growing flowers are crammed onto every flat surface where they won't be in the way, which creates the feel that Lei had raided a flower shop and just run off with everything she could carry.
It comes off as kind of haphazard, honestly.
A minute or two later Lei serves two plates with a fairly simple chicken dish, rice, and mixed vegetables. A candle is placed between us on the table and lit and the lights dimmed, before she finally sits opposite me with a nervous smile.
I can't really help but smile back at her. Especially when she only then remembers that she has wine to go with the meal and jumps up again to get it. The food is simple and good, though not fantastic, the wine is something that neither of us know enough about to judge, and the flowers are a clear example of trying too hard.
I can't help but find that over abundance of effort adorable though.
Conversation in the beginning is more than slightly awkward. We've spent enough time around each other the last week or so, that most of the initial getting to know you conversations have already happened. At the same time having more personal conversations seems wrong for a first date.
We work past it quickly though. I learn that she wants to study marine conservation and, once she has enough education, wants to work with Pua to find a way to revitalize the reefs around the islands. Though I understand maybe half the words she uses, I can keep up mostly from context, and her enthusiasm is infectious enough that I don't mind being a little lost.
I tell her a little about my magic in the most general terms, and talk about some of the people and beings I've met in my work for the little spirits. She laughs at my awkwardness during my first meeting with the dryads, and finds Asia as adorable as I do.
Which reminds me, I need to send her another email soon.
With the conversation flowing, dinner passes quickly. Plates are dumped into the dishwasher, candle snuffed, and we settle onto her slightly worn couch for a movie or two. As it turns out, Lei is an action movie buff, so we settle in for an evening of mindless explosions.
Though I'm warned that I'm not allowed to mock the fight scenes.
No matter how ridiculous they are.
Apparently she's been to a movie with Ku before, and nobody has managed to keep him from heckling the 'martial arts' displayed on the screen. As Lei carefully and casually slides across the couch to lean into me, and pull one of my arms around her slim shoulders, I find myself wondering if there isn't some way I could stay here after all.
It doesn't seem like it would be too bad.
It's the screams that wake me.
Pain and terror carry on the wind, and dig under my skin like fishhooks. Everything is dark, no lights are on, no moon or stars are in the sky. I can only just make out the houses and paths of the village. Trees loom out of the darkness, my mind turning them into monsters and attackers in my rush, and surrounding me I can hear the screams.
Some voices I can pick out and recognize, the children I taught to tumble, or the older children that Lei taught to surf. Villagers that I've helped with advice on some supernatural issue, or that helped me learn to live in the village.
I can even hear Sarah. She must have come to visit me, and now she's caught up in whatever this is.
I have to find them.
Lei...
From behind me I hear Leimomi's pained cry. I spin on the ball of my foot and run in the direction that I came from.
Why had I left her? I knew what would happen if I left them, so why did I do it?
Before I find Lei's house again in the dark, I'm stopped by a figure lying in the path. I run forward and find Ku struggling to sit up. He's battered and bruised, clearly having been in a fight, and not one he had won.
I run to help him up, and though he takes my hand he seems surprised to see me, "Ericka?" He coughs, "Why are you here? They're looking for you, you have to leave! Run!"
"I can't leave you!" I try to tell him, but he doesn't listen.
Regaining his feet he pushes me forward, "Go!" He hisses at me, then vanishes into the darkness to continue his fight.
I flinch when his voice joins the screams.
I try to follow him, but I can't find anything in the darkness. Not even the houses or the path. Blindly I stumble through the black, now not even able to see the ground under my feet.
The ache that never left me pervades everything.
How long I wander is impossible to tell. Time loses all meaning with no reference, so all I can do is chase after the screams in the dark.
The screams never seem to end.
Finally in front of me I can see a light. With a sob of relief I stumble into the lit circle.
I should have stayed in the dark.
On the far side of the lit space is Ku's body lying face down on the ground. Standing in the center of the lit space is a man in leather armor holding a sparking and arcing rapier. Kneeling in front of him are Pua and Sarah. Both look beaten, and standing behind them is the nightmare and the dwarf with the hammer, obviously keeping the two women where they are.
It's the devil that hunted the stray through my school when I was eight, though I'm glad that Yasu, the Yuki Onna, doesn't seem to be here. The minotaur, though, is I discover as hands big enough to cover my arms from wrist to shoulder wrap around me and lift me off the ground.
The bull man carries me fully into the light and holds me in front of the devil king. The king smiles at me in the same way I've seen other men smile, when they're trying to be charming to Sarah.
"Ericka!" He cheers when he sees me, "I've been looking for you. If I'd known when I first saw you what you'd grow up to be, I'd have taken you then! You have grown up to be very pretty after all." I shiver in disgust.
"What are you going to do with us?" Pua demands, voice hard.
The devil laughs, "Me? To you? Nothing. Her on the other hand?" He raises a hand and in it is a chess piece, a queen. My blood runs cold. I thrash trying to escape the minotaur's hold on me, but I may as well have been trying to move a mountain. I try to kick him, but he's just out of range. Finally for lack of anything else to do, I spit at him.
It doesn't faze him in the slightest.
Closer and closer the chess piece comes as I hyperventilate. Finally with a bright shining light escaping around the edges of the chess piece, it slides into my chest. The piece vanishes into my body, and there's a beat, and another. Then my breathing calms and the minotaur lets me go.
I try to punch the still smiling devil in front of me, but my arm won't move.
I try to run, but my legs won't obey me.
"How are you feeling Ericka?" He asks, his smile widening.
"Much better my King." I hear my voice answer, feel my mouth move, but I'm not... I didn't intend to speak.
"Good!" He seems pleased, "Now get rid of the extras my Queen, then we can go."
"Of course, My King." I turn without hesitation, first to Pua. The kahuna doesn't look at me, just keeps glaring at the King.
My punch shatters her skull, dropping her to the ground.
I step to the side, standing now in front of Sarah. She looks up at me with tears running down her cheeks, "You saw this coming." She says in a voice that's far too calm for the situation at hand, "You knew what they would do. Why didn't you leave?"
Then my fist strikes her and Sarah is gone.
"Good job my Queen." My King says from next to me. I turn to him, my lips curving into a smile, even as tears spill from my eyes and run down my face, "Now now, none of that. Come here and let me reward you for a job well done." He wraps an arm around my waist, and pulls me flush against him before pressing his lips against mine.
Something inside me brakes.
Trapped behind my eyes I scream and scream andscreamandscreamandscream...
I wake with a jerk, almost panicking at the weight on my chest. I bite my lips and swallow a scream. After a moment though my mind catches up with reality. I'm laying on Leimomi's couch, one of my legs is on the floor the other is stretched along the back of the couch. Lei is laying between my legs, her back pressed up against my front, her head pillowed on my chest. The both of us are covered in a blanket. The TV displaying the DVD's main menu provides more than enough light for me to see that I'm still in Lei's house. We'd fallen asleep watching the movie.
Then I had a nightmare.
I shudder at what I remember, feeling nauseous and glad that it's already fading.
Though the ache is worse than ever.
I lay back against the couch and close my eyes again, trying not to think about the nightmares.
This is going to be a thing now isn't it?
On some level I knew that, but...
Well, as much as my memories of my last life are getting fuzzier, I'm pretty sure that I only ever had one girlfriend, and I'm equally sure that she asked me out.
So this is a very new experience.
I don't think I like it.
It's been a few days since Pua delivered her ultimatum, and during that time I've done all right in general. I've been sleeping mostly okay, the nightmares haven't stopped, but none of them have had the punch of the first one. They're getting easier to ignore.
The ache that has pervaded my everything similarly hasn't faded, but gotten easier to ignore. That makes it easier to move like I used to, though my body hurts more when I stop. Still meant that spending days at the beach learning how to surf are easier. Not that spending time with Lei is that difficult to begin with.
Thanks to my unfair advantages I pick up a very basic competence on a board very quickly. I can't do any of the tricks or more spectacular things that Lei does, but I'm happy enough just being able to ride a wave next to her.
I haven't asked her out though. There are no dates. Just surfing trips to different beaches. It's fun but I still haven't asked her.
Which is why I'm doing what a lot of people do when confronted with a difficult task.
I'm procrastinating.
Something about Vivain's forge calls to me. What it is I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect the missing pieces of my soul are responsible. Whatever it is, I frequently find myself standing outside the forge staring in. Or even just gazing in the direction of the forge whether I can see it or not.
Fortunately Vivain doesn't seem to mind my hovering. Or even my questions when I work up the guts to ask them. As long as I don't sound like I'm doubting her, or interrupting her she's actually pleasant company, and a very good conversationalist.
"That's a lot of Script." I'm once again sitting on my hands this time on a stool I've brought myself so I can sit in a place where I can watch her work.
At the moment she's working on the sword, and sitting on my hands is a spectacular idea. Even with the metal glowing a deep cherry red, even feeling the heat from where I'm sitting several feet away, I still want to touch it more than I've wanted anything before in my life.
What prompts my comment though is that Vivain is covering the blade in Script symbols in between every fold of the metal. Creating layers upon layers of Script into a three dimensional working. How she manages this without destroying the previous layer I have no idea, but she seems pleased with how things are going.
The comment earns me a small smile, "Which surprises you, how much... Script as you call it, I use, or that I use it at all?"
I squirm slightly, "The second actually. From what I can tell, anybody can use script, but I got my Script dictionary because nobody else wanted it. Sort of implies a lack of use."
Vivain nods her hammer rising and falling as she begins to fold the metal again, "In my experience most that have any experience with Script share two qualities. At least a thousand years of age, and spending most of that time trying to figure out the how of magic, instead of just the what." I blink and pause for a moment to see if she's going to add anything before I ask my questions. Instead of speaking she places the head of her hammer against my chest and pushes me back to my stool.
I didn't even notice standing up.
With a swallow I sit down and grip the seat of the stool to try and keep myself there. The damn sword is red hot, troll healing is notoriously bad with burns, and yet something inside of me is absolutely certain that the likely permanent maiming I would get from touching the sword would be worth it.
Fortunately I have more than enough discipline to ignore that little voice.
When I'm paying attention.
"How does magic do what it does, as opposed to what it can do." I blink and it takes me a moment to find the thread of the conversation again, "Eventually pursuing the how leads one to underpinning after underpinning. More and more fundamental magic, the foundation that everything is built on. Script is frequently described as the 'language by which reality defines itself'. Things don't get more fundamental than that."
"Is that how you started studying it?"
"No, I was taught by the same man who taught me smithing." Vivain smiles faintly, "At the same time actually. Nuada was skilled in many arts, that he decided that I might equal him in the crafting of magic and metal is still the greatest compliment I have ever received."
"Did you?" I have to ask, "Equal him, I mean?"
Vivain snorts, "No. The man who killed Balor by standing in his gaze, shielding the rest of his people until the Fomori fed its life into the effort to strike him down, that man is unique." The smith seems to be on the edge of tears, though her smile said she isn't upset, "Airgetlám, The Silver Hand, has no equal."
###
"Ericka!" I wince slightly and start looking for an escape. Pua's tone indicates nothing good for me. I'm flopped across her couch with a book. In my efforts to find things I like that don't involve hitting people, or more accurately getting hit. It's about a girl who wants to be a knight so swapped places with her twin brother pretending to be a boy. It's a fun...
"Ericka! Focus!" Pua is standing at one end of the couch looking across it at me, hands on hips, and frown on her face. Behind her I can just make out Thea laughing at my predicament in the kitchen, "Have you asked Lei out yet?" Instead of answering I try to hide behind my paperback, "I didn't think so. Up! She's going on a supply run, you're going with her."
"Why?" I ask weakly.
Pua narrows her eyes at me, "Because you can pick up heavy things and put them down again. And while you're out there you can ask her to dinner." Yeah. Because there's absolutely no chance of me panicking and losing the power of speech, "Don't you think at me with that tone!"
...
How the hell?
###
The sky is a dark grey overcast, that in any other state of the union would have meant chilled air and cool temperatures. This however is Hawaii and that means that all the marine layer does is crank the humidity up to one hundred percent.
It's miserable.
There are however advantages. Leimomi walking around in cut off jean shorts and a bikini top chief among them. She seems to be having fun too, which just makes everything better. We're walking through a hardware store, her with a list and me pushing one of those orange, flat, heavy load cart things behind her. She points when we find something on the list, and I dutifully load it. The little pirouette and smile she does every time she finds something pretty much makes my afternoon.
The ache... doesn't feel as bad around her. It isn't gone, just much much easier to ignore.
We collect paint, cement mix, and a lot of wood. Repairs around the village are still ongoing. I think they've decided to take the chance to do some renovations at the same time.
In short, as in shape as Lei is, she either needs me or a lot more hands to move all of this.
Knowing now that Lei is hitting on me, it's easier to spot. Her smirk as she watches me in a tank top load the village truck we've taken to get here is kind of obvious.
"Enjoying the show?" Oh dear god, that came out of my mouth.
"Only as much as you did." Lei shoots back with a grin. I think my face is in danger of igniting my hair, I'm blushing so hard. My smile won't go away either though, "I'm going to get us some shaved ice." Lei smirks at me, "After you finish up here I think you'll deserve a treat." She heads off throwing a smile over her shoulder and deliberately putting some extra sway in her hips.
Not that I'm looking.
Dear god, Pua is right. I need to ask this girl out, or we'll end up skipping the step all together. I mull that idea over as I keep my hands busy finishing moving the wood into the truck. By the time I'm done Lei still isn't back, which is odd. There's a shaved ice cart next to the entrance to the hardware store. Granted we are parked a little ways back in the lot but not that far.
I take a moment to make sure that my sunglasses are still on and the tops of my slightly pointed ears are still covered by my now shoulder length hair, and go looking for her. It doesn't take long. She's standing just a little ways away from the shaved ice cart, her back against the outer wall of the hardware store. Standing in front of her with one hand on the wall next to her head is a rather tall man, with another leaning up against the wall next to her. Between the two they have very effectively trapped Lei.
I can smell both their interest, and her fear. My lips peeled back in a snarl, and I start forward. The two are well muscled and tall, clearly not locals.
Tourists.
...No, their build, clothes, stance, something, or maybe everything all together makes me think soldier. No uniform's so on leave. Fair enough, that isn't uncommon. I think the Hawaiian islands are something like forty five percent military base by area. Doesn't change what I'm going to do next. It does change how I'll go about it though.
Details don't really become clearer as I approach, literal eagle eyes mean I can pick out details at a truly ridiculous distance. What I do gain as I get closer is perspective. I think I have a couple of inches on these guys.
I don't know why, but that strikes me as very amusing.
Without really acknowledging either of the men I elbow them aside and take Lei by wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and immediately pivoting to leave. The look of relief on her face when she sees me is almost enough to make me turn around and punch them as hard as I can. Only knowing that if I do that their heads would pop like overripe grapes, and cleaning that up would be a pain, stops me.
"There you are." I force a smile and some cheer into my voice as I scoop her away from the wall and the two off duty soldiers. That this puts my body in between them and Lei is a complete coincidence as well. I push her a little ways in front of me, just so that if the two idiots behind me try something she'll have a little bit of safety by distance.
I really hope they don't do anything. I really don't want to get into a fight with these two. I don't have much hope if they're willing to pin a girl against a wall though.
"Hey. HEY!" Low and behold. I don't respond, just kept walking and when Lei starts to turn, a hand on her shoulder keeps her moving forward, "Aw, don't be like that. Come on, there's two of you now, two of us. We'll have a great time." We keep walking. My hearing maps what's going on behind me. Both of them are moving after us, one in front of the other by half a step.
The one in the lead reaches for my shoulder. I let him get close enough to actually feel the weight of his hand, just so there would be no doubt as to who the aggressor is, before I spin and push his arm to the outside, before I snap my own arm down and grab his wrist. I squeeze. I squeeze until I feel the bones in his arm begin to flex just a hair, then stop.
"Don't. Touch. Me." I growl. I can hear Lei's breath speed up and the smell of fear is back. I really hope that I'm not the one that's scaring her this time.
Message delivered I let him go and he staggers backwards clutching his wrist, "Fuck! What the fuck!"
The soldier that I haven't bruised catches his friend. He looks pissed, face red with anger, "We just wanted to talk, bitch! What are you, some kinda dike?"
I blink, I honestly hadn't expected that. Behind me Lei's scent gains an undertone of anger, "First off, the idea that the only reason we might not be interested in you is that we're gay is just... staggering arrogance. Second, as it happens, yes. I am. Now will you leave us alone?"
The second soldier's red face pales.
Well shit.
The punch comes with little warning aside from that change in blood flow. A lean and a sliding half step back put me just out of range of the straight. The follow up hook is slapped past me unbalancing the soldier forward slightly. It's enough though for me to plant a hand on his face and shove him backwards into his friend.
This... is kinda weird. I'm pretty sure that I could have taken the both of them even back when I was still short. Sure these guys are fast, strong, and trained in the finest tradition of... whatever branch of the military they belong to. Close quarters combat has been my life since I was five years old though. Give everybody involved guns and I'd be in trouble, but in a fist fight I'm hard to beat. Then I grew more than a foot and put on a whole lot of troll muscle.
It's just... the only people I've really fought since I got all my enhancements working the way I want them to, is Ku and the goddamned Lady of the Lake. Aside from anything else, these two are mundane humans, compared to Ku these guys are moving half speed at best.
So I stay on the defensive, weaving through their punches, deflecting attempts at a grapple or two, and maneuvering or pushing them into each other's way. They keep up a pretty impressive pace for almost two minutes, which any real fighter will tell you is a god damned eternity in combat, before they break off and create distance to reassess.
They're breathing hard, their skin has taken on a light sheen of sweat. Which is not a great thing in this heat and humidity. I, on the other hand, am still breathing calmly, like I've just taken a casual walk along the beach.
"You know, guys, I can literally do this all day. I won't have to, but I could. I won't have to because in another three minutes, six at the outside, the cops will be here. At which point I will be sent on my way with a pat on the back for not escalating the situation, and acting in self defense and defense of another. You on the other hand will be arrested and subsequently have to explain to your commanding officer exactly why you were attempting to assault two women in a public parking lot." The two blink and look around, it seems to dawn on them only then where they are, "Somehow I don't think that the excuse, 'they told us no' will fly very well." I give them a moment for that to sink in. To imagine how that conversation would go, "Or, we can all go our separate ways right now."
I wait for several beats to see if they have anything to add. When they don't move or speak I turn back around, keeping a very careful ear on what they do, and escort Lei back to the truck.
It only takes about fifteen minutes to get back to the village, the entire ride is silent, neither of us speaking a word. I figure Lei needs the time to calm down, an idea backed up by the fear slowly leaking out of her scent.
I need the time to think.
What had happened back there could barely be called a fight, the idiots had been so out classed it was funny. What's occupying my mind though is how I felt during the whole thing.
The ache had almost vanished altogether. For some reason during that entire fight I felt great. For those few minutes I felt empowered in a way that I haven't felt for a while. What I can't figure out was why. Why did fighting with Ku do nothing for me, but dancing around those two assholes make me feel, just a little, like my old self again.
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
What was it about this fight?
...Was it the fight at all?
Going over the afternoon again that feeling of rightness hadn't started with the fight. It had started the moment I realized Lei was missing, and had hit full force when I saw her trapped against the wall.
Now if I can just figure out what the hell that means.
"Ericka." I blink. Somehow while I haven't been paying attention, I managed to drive the truck back to the village and park it on autopilot. Once my brain has caught up with the present I turn to look at Lei. She's looking up at me with a small smile flitting around her lips, "Thank you. For saving me. I feel kinda bad you never got your shaved ice."
"Don't worry about it." I smile at her, "You were kinda distracted."
"No." She shakes her head, "Let me make it up to you. Come to my place tonight, around seven? I'll make you dinner. We can watch a movie afterwards."
I swallow hard, "Um... if you insist?" She nods solemnly, "Then I'd love to, I'll see you at seven."
"Great!" She chirps and leaned across the bench seat of the truck to kiss me gently on the cheek, "It's a date!" Lei hops out of the truck and skips off into the village as I sit where she left me, stunned.
Lei kissed me.
On the cheek, but still!
Wait... did she say date?
She did, didn't she.
I have a date with Lei.
I have a date with Lei.
I have a date!
What do I do? WhatdoIdo?
...
###
"Sarah!" I burst into existence in her dorm room in a panic.
Sarah is there, which is fortunate. What's less fortunate is that she's in just her bra and pants, laying on her bed, with some shirtless guy laying on top of her.
Sarah shrieks nearly knocking the guy off of the bed. She scrambles to cover herself for a moment before she figures out what's going on, "Ericka? What the hell! This is why we call before visiting!"
"How did she even get in here?" The guy asks but we both ignored him.
"Sarah you have to help me IhaveadateandIdon'tknowwhattodo!" I'm almost dancing in place and wringing my hands.
"I mean, she's hot so she could join in, but seriously, how?" The guy keeps talking.
We keep ignoring him.
"I don't care, you're supposed to call... Did you say you have a date?" I nod, "You. Ericka Rhostana. Miss I'm too busy learning how to break people to actually interact with them, have a date." I nod again, "Ohmygodyouhaveadate!" Sarah squeaks, and pushes the guy off the bed and onto the floor, before hopping off the bed herself and running up to give me a hug.
...I've had a few dreams that start this way.
"Right." She pulls away from me gripping my shoulders and looking up at me, "I'd pick you up and swing you around but I don't think I can do that anymore." Spinning around on the ball of her foot she finally addresses the guy, "You need to go."
"What?" He blinks, then blinks again when Sarah beams him in the face with his shirt.
"Come on, up!" Sarah levers him to his feet by an arm and ushers him out the door.
"But...!" Is all he gets out before she slams the door in his face.
"Um... who was that?" I'm feeling a little guilty now that I've had the chance to calm down a little.
"I have no idea, don't worry about it." Sarah says dismissing the whole thing, guy and all, with a wave of her hand.
"What?! Sarah..." Now I'm worried.
"Oh relax. Midterms are right around the corner, and I needed the stress relief, it's not something I do a lot." Before I can even start to speak she holds up a hand and reaches under her pillow, "I'm being completely safe." She flicks her wrist and something hits me in the forehead with a plastic sound, "And if he tried anything I didn't like, you of all people know I could break him in half."
I catch the thing she tossed at me as it bounces off my head and find it's a condom.
Ew.
I toss it back at her and sigh, "Fine. It's none of my business anyway. As long as you're being safe."
Sarah catches the bit of plastic and stuffs it back under her pillow, "Nah. I'm never going to complain about you looking out for me. But that's not why you're here. Let me get a shirt and we can get you ready for your date!" She finishes with a squeal and a more than slightly manic smile, "It's your first after all. I'm going to make sure you at least are perfect."
Oh god what have I gotten myself into?
###
I stand at the foot of the path to Leimomi's front door trying not to have a panic attack. Or another panic attack, if my bout of hyperventilation in the changing room counts. Sarah had managed to calm me down, and for the rest of the several hours we spent shopping muttered about how troll's and dragons are no problem, but the pretty girl has me beat.
I didn't argue with her.
She's right after all.
The dress she found for me was sleeveless, not low cut in the slightest, but does hug my chest and stomach enough that Sarah said it would still show me off well. The skirt flares and drops to just above my knees, and the entire thing is covered in delicate white on white embroidery. No sooner had Sarah found it than she forced me to put it on, declared me adorable, made me buy it, and took me back to her dorm to put makeup on me and do my hair.
When she was done and pointed me at a mirror. I looked... well I'd date me. The dress shows off the muscles in my arms very well while still looking feminine. I managed to fend off Sarah's attempts at high heels. They're uncomfortable, and I don't think my legs need the help. The makeup is subtle and minimal which I appreciate, but the most impressive thing is that Sarah had done something that really brought out the red in my hair that's usually too dark to see outside of direct bright light.
I couldn't really take my eyes off my reflection, even as a sun could have been setting in my cheeks from the intensity of my blush. I look good, I've never worn a dress before, and it feels odd, but given the results I could see myself doing it again.
So given that I know I look good, that Lei likes me, she asked me here after all, why am I freaking out so badly? Probably something to do with inexperience. I take a deep centering breath and forced myself up the path.
Before I have a chance to really think about what I'm doing I knock on the door. From inside I hear a squeak, and then the sound of somebody moving quickly on bare feet. Moments later the door is yanked open and I come face to face with Lei in something other than a swimsuit and casual clothes. Her dress is low cut, providing a spectacular view, and seems to be wrapped around her. The cloth crosses over itself along her front, and slides open by a little every time she takes a step, giving tantalizing glimpses of her legs. The dress never shows anything it shouldn't, but successfully creates the illusion that it's always on the edge of doing so. She has her hair in a french braid draped over one shoulder with a large pink flower tucked behind one ear just improves things. All in all, she looks good enough to eat.
Her own eyes rake me up and down, and I find that I don't mind the look. With a smile she waves me inside, pointing to where I can leave my sandals. In a place like Hawaii where rain is seen year round, avoiding mud on the floors is achieved more by planning than cleaning.
Lei's house is small, a kitchen/dining room, where something good smelling waited. A living space which is set up more like an office, with a desk covered in papers, open books and a laptop, than a more traditional living room. Though there is a big screen TV hanging on one wall, a small bookshelf filled with DVDs standing under it and a small couch facing that wall. Opposite the kitchen is an open doorway through which I can catch a glimpse of a hastily, and not at all well, cleaned bedroom. I assume there's an attached bathroom where I can't see it.
I'm ushered into the kitchen, and sat down at a small table off to one side as Lei flitts about finishing up cooking. Vases filled with wild growing flowers are crammed onto every flat surface where they won't be in the way, which creates the feel that Lei had raided a flower shop and just run off with everything she could carry.
It comes off as kind of haphazard, honestly.
A minute or two later Lei serves two plates with a fairly simple chicken dish, rice, and mixed vegetables. A candle is placed between us on the table and lit and the lights dimmed, before she finally sits opposite me with a nervous smile.
I can't really help but smile back at her. Especially when she only then remembers that she has wine to go with the meal and jumps up again to get it. The food is simple and good, though not fantastic, the wine is something that neither of us know enough about to judge, and the flowers are a clear example of trying too hard.
I can't help but find that over abundance of effort adorable though.
Conversation in the beginning is more than slightly awkward. We've spent enough time around each other the last week or so, that most of the initial getting to know you conversations have already happened. At the same time having more personal conversations seems wrong for a first date.
We work past it quickly though. I learn that she wants to study marine conservation and, once she has enough education, wants to work with Pua to find a way to revitalize the reefs around the islands. Though I understand maybe half the words she uses, I can keep up mostly from context, and her enthusiasm is infectious enough that I don't mind being a little lost.
I tell her a little about my magic in the most general terms, and talk about some of the people and beings I've met in my work for the little spirits. She laughs at my awkwardness during my first meeting with the dryads, and finds Asia as adorable as I do.
Which reminds me, I need to send her another email soon.
With the conversation flowing, dinner passes quickly. Plates are dumped into the dishwasher, candle snuffed, and we settle onto her slightly worn couch for a movie or two. As it turns out, Lei is an action movie buff, so we settle in for an evening of mindless explosions.
Though I'm warned that I'm not allowed to mock the fight scenes.
No matter how ridiculous they are.
Apparently she's been to a movie with Ku before, and nobody has managed to keep him from heckling the 'martial arts' displayed on the screen. As Lei carefully and casually slides across the couch to lean into me, and pull one of my arms around her slim shoulders, I find myself wondering if there isn't some way I could stay here after all.
It doesn't seem like it would be too bad.
###
It's the screams that wake me.
Pain and terror carry on the wind, and dig under my skin like fishhooks. Everything is dark, no lights are on, no moon or stars are in the sky. I can only just make out the houses and paths of the village. Trees loom out of the darkness, my mind turning them into monsters and attackers in my rush, and surrounding me I can hear the screams.
Some voices I can pick out and recognize, the children I taught to tumble, or the older children that Lei taught to surf. Villagers that I've helped with advice on some supernatural issue, or that helped me learn to live in the village.
I can even hear Sarah. She must have come to visit me, and now she's caught up in whatever this is.
I have to find them.
Lei...
From behind me I hear Leimomi's pained cry. I spin on the ball of my foot and run in the direction that I came from.
Why had I left her? I knew what would happen if I left them, so why did I do it?
Before I find Lei's house again in the dark, I'm stopped by a figure lying in the path. I run forward and find Ku struggling to sit up. He's battered and bruised, clearly having been in a fight, and not one he had won.
I run to help him up, and though he takes my hand he seems surprised to see me, "Ericka?" He coughs, "Why are you here? They're looking for you, you have to leave! Run!"
"I can't leave you!" I try to tell him, but he doesn't listen.
Regaining his feet he pushes me forward, "Go!" He hisses at me, then vanishes into the darkness to continue his fight.
I flinch when his voice joins the screams.
I try to follow him, but I can't find anything in the darkness. Not even the houses or the path. Blindly I stumble through the black, now not even able to see the ground under my feet.
The ache that never left me pervades everything.
How long I wander is impossible to tell. Time loses all meaning with no reference, so all I can do is chase after the screams in the dark.
The screams never seem to end.
Finally in front of me I can see a light. With a sob of relief I stumble into the lit circle.
I should have stayed in the dark.
On the far side of the lit space is Ku's body lying face down on the ground. Standing in the center of the lit space is a man in leather armor holding a sparking and arcing rapier. Kneeling in front of him are Pua and Sarah. Both look beaten, and standing behind them is the nightmare and the dwarf with the hammer, obviously keeping the two women where they are.
It's the devil that hunted the stray through my school when I was eight, though I'm glad that Yasu, the Yuki Onna, doesn't seem to be here. The minotaur, though, is I discover as hands big enough to cover my arms from wrist to shoulder wrap around me and lift me off the ground.
The bull man carries me fully into the light and holds me in front of the devil king. The king smiles at me in the same way I've seen other men smile, when they're trying to be charming to Sarah.
"Ericka!" He cheers when he sees me, "I've been looking for you. If I'd known when I first saw you what you'd grow up to be, I'd have taken you then! You have grown up to be very pretty after all." I shiver in disgust.
"What are you going to do with us?" Pua demands, voice hard.
The devil laughs, "Me? To you? Nothing. Her on the other hand?" He raises a hand and in it is a chess piece, a queen. My blood runs cold. I thrash trying to escape the minotaur's hold on me, but I may as well have been trying to move a mountain. I try to kick him, but he's just out of range. Finally for lack of anything else to do, I spit at him.
It doesn't faze him in the slightest.
Closer and closer the chess piece comes as I hyperventilate. Finally with a bright shining light escaping around the edges of the chess piece, it slides into my chest. The piece vanishes into my body, and there's a beat, and another. Then my breathing calms and the minotaur lets me go.
I try to punch the still smiling devil in front of me, but my arm won't move.
I try to run, but my legs won't obey me.
"How are you feeling Ericka?" He asks, his smile widening.
"Much better my King." I hear my voice answer, feel my mouth move, but I'm not... I didn't intend to speak.
"Good!" He seems pleased, "Now get rid of the extras my Queen, then we can go."
"Of course, My King." I turn without hesitation, first to Pua. The kahuna doesn't look at me, just keeps glaring at the King.
My punch shatters her skull, dropping her to the ground.
I step to the side, standing now in front of Sarah. She looks up at me with tears running down her cheeks, "You saw this coming." She says in a voice that's far too calm for the situation at hand, "You knew what they would do. Why didn't you leave?"
Then my fist strikes her and Sarah is gone.
"Good job my Queen." My King says from next to me. I turn to him, my lips curving into a smile, even as tears spill from my eyes and run down my face, "Now now, none of that. Come here and let me reward you for a job well done." He wraps an arm around my waist, and pulls me flush against him before pressing his lips against mine.
Something inside me brakes.
Trapped behind my eyes I scream and scream andscreamandscreamandscream...
###
I wake with a jerk, almost panicking at the weight on my chest. I bite my lips and swallow a scream. After a moment though my mind catches up with reality. I'm laying on Leimomi's couch, one of my legs is on the floor the other is stretched along the back of the couch. Lei is laying between my legs, her back pressed up against my front, her head pillowed on my chest. The both of us are covered in a blanket. The TV displaying the DVD's main menu provides more than enough light for me to see that I'm still in Lei's house. We'd fallen asleep watching the movie.
Then I had a nightmare.
I shudder at what I remember, feeling nauseous and glad that it's already fading.
Though the ache is worse than ever.
I lay back against the couch and close my eyes again, trying not to think about the nightmares.
This is going to be a thing now isn't it?
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
More that she's been hyper focused on getting stronger, figuring out script etc etc for a big chunk of her life. And the yanking out of those soul pieces sort of short-circuited her disicion making etc so she's going around wonder why she focused so hard on XYZ when it's just.....so hard.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
I interpreted it as 'removing pieces of soul took away her determination', so adding pieces of soul should increase it.
- Location
- The Restaurant at the end of the universe
I think it was a bit more direct than that, when it was first posted ages ago I think the general feel was that Vivian needed specific aspects of her soul for the things she's making, ie the will to fight for the sword, something like her determination for the armour etc..
Vivian searched around for specific bits.
With these removed, till the forging is complete Erika is missing those aspects of her personality.
Book 1 - And We're Back in Buisness
- Location
- California
I wake biting back a scream, and falling off my bed. I'm lunging for...
For...
The details of the nightmare are already fading, leaving me with a vague feeling of despair. Moments later though that fades too leaving me with only more pleasant memories.
In the few days since Lei and my first date, we've been out twice more. Which doesn't count our general hanging out time outside of 'dates'. What our relationship is exactly is unclear and we largely avoided talking about it. Theoretically I'm still going to get my artifacts and leave, not to mention that I'm arguably not in my right mind at the moment. Lei is amazingly understanding about the whole thing, so instead of defining terms we focus on having as much fun as we can with each other before it all stops for whatever reason.
Kissing is something that I hope never gets old.
During the sunset walk along the beach the night before Lei had explained that proper Hawaiian night swimming is done in the nude, and when the bio-luminescent algae are plentiful. Which they had been that night. A smirk and waggled eyebrows on Lei's part led to some time indulging in said proper Hawaiian night swimming, and an enthusiastic several hour long good night. The whole experience leaves me with some very pleasant memories, which I gladly focus on instead of whatever I'd been dreaming about.
Really it's good that Lei is willing to spend so much time with me, as over the last several days I've become less and less able to indulge in my visits to the forge. The closer Vivain gets to finishing the pieces she's making for me, the less I'm able to resist the siren call to just touch one of them. So several days ago Vivain was forced to banish me from the smithy, just to keep me from doing something I'd regret while not paying attention.
I'm beginning to understand how addicts must feel.
The constant temptation to head to the forge, just to look, is getting harder and harder to resist when I'm not occupied by anything else. Lei is more than happy to give me something else to focus on.
I also find that my morning workout gets easier to get through the less I think about what I'm doing. Another reason I'm glad last night's memories linger on, I smile to myself as I finish going through the routine on autopilot.
I head down stairs in shorts and a tank top with a slight bounce in my step and a smile that I can't get rid of on my lips. Not that I try very hard. I actually find myself happy recently in ways that I can't remember having ever been before, and my soul ache while not gone, is something that I can go almost an entire day without thinking about. As long as I keep my mind off certain things, like carefully not looking at or thinking about the barely started Script on my desk, or Script at all really.
In the kitchen is a sight eerily similar to the start of my most recent stay on the islands right after the ritual. Pua and Ku are waiting for me at the breakfast table looking serious, Thea is moving around the kitchen with a pleasant smile on her face quietly humming something. The only differences really are Sarah's absence, and that they aren't quite as grim.
I pause in the door, "Is this another intervention?" Thea chokes softly, swallowing a laugh as Pua and Ku blink then sighe. I wish I could say I'm surprised to see the siblings pull out several bills each to hand over to Thea, but this is exactly the sort of thing I've learned to expect from them. Thea takes the money with a gracious smile before putting a plate of breakfast down in front of my usual seat, "Not an intervention then." I snicker and take my seat, quickly digging in, and enjoying the siblings misfortune.
Pua sighes again and Ku faceplants into the table, "No it's not another intervention. Vivain sent a message over this morning." I pause looking up at the Kahuna, "She's nearly finished, and wants to talk to you. After the conversation she'll present you with the finished artifacts."
I stall out completely. They're done. Or nearly. Close enough. Now though I have to wonder if I'll be capable of using them. I haven't practiced at all since that first abortive attempt with Ku. The closest I've come was the scuffle with the soldiers in the parking lot of the hardware store. Any other time I try I just... can't.
Can't really fight.
Can't really make new Scripts.
Can't really do anything that I used to be so good at, had worked so hard for.
With every thought the ache grows worse.
Would I be able to accomplish any of my goals at all any more?
The last idea has me curling up in my chair, arms wrapped around my body, with a moan of pain. The ache is almost as bad as it had been when the pieces of my soul were first removed. I feel Pua's hand on my shoulder and faintly hear her voice calling me to focus on her.
Slowly as I manage to shift my attention, put my previous worries out of my mind, and the pain fades to a dull throb. Finally I manage to actually focus on Pua and she sighs, relieved.
"Right. No more waiting, lets go." She pulls me to my feet out of my chair, which is impressive given our relative heights.
"But my breakfast." I whine reaching for it as I'm dragged away. All I get for my troubles is Pua rolling her eyes and Ku and Thea laughing at me.
Traitors.
"What did the Excalibur do exactly?"
"Really? You wait till now to find out what standard your own sword will be held to?"
I shrug, "I trust Pua. And right now I need the distraction." I'm sitting in the forge for the first time in three or four days. I'm sitting on my stool again, with one of Pua's hands on my shoulder to help keep me there. After a moment's pause I manage a small grin, "And I want to know what the standard my sword will be held to is."
Vivain snorts. The forge is cold, and the quench tanks are pushed out of the way. Vivain sits in the middle of her smithy putting the finishing touches on what has to be my sword. The sword is two handed, the blade an odd off white color that doesn't look like it could possibly be sharp, no matter how sharp it actually is. The cross piece is a silvery metal, the pommel a perfectly clear crystal or stone that I don't recognize.
Behind her on a table is a suit of armor, the same off white color as the sword blade. It's a full suit of plate and chain, with plenty of cloth as well. A skirt drapes over the leg armor and would drop to just brush the floor if the armor was upright, and instead of a more traditional helm it has a hood and what looks like a cloth face mask that could be pulled up from the gorget over the nose. Both pieces of cloth and the skirt were the same off white color as the armor. It makes me wonder if they are actually cloth at all.
Lastly a sheathed foot long knife lay next to the armor's left gauntlet.
The Lady of the Lake holds the sword point down, pinched between her knees as she wraps black ray skin around the hilt for grip. She's silent for a few moments, looking down while her hands continue without pause, "Excalibur is the Sword of Promised Victory, and that is what it does. The sword, when powered, warps fate and destiny, skews probability, to bring about what the wielder defines as victory. The more power the wielder puts into the blade, the larger an area is affected, and the more dramatic those effects are. When Arthur held it, nothing went right for his enemies, food spoiled, horses went lame or fled, allies were delayed or never appeared at all, and equipment was ruined. All before the armies ever set foot upon the field.
"Once they did it all got worse. The term for it now is Murphy's Law, and Murphy lived in the enemies camp, and marched with his troops. Meanwhile Arthur's troops would spot problems before they could become such, the enemy's plans would be obvious, his generals would always be in the right place at the right time, and always get the inspiration they needed. Once a supply caravan was lost, and fresh fish fell like rain on his camp."
I blink several times.
So Excalibur was weaponized bad luck? No, she said it herself, it was weaponized Murphy's Law. If Murphy was biased for the home team.
"So how did Arthur lose?" I ask trying to imagine what the effects of Excalibur would look like, and how you could possibly fight such a thing? When everything you try is guaranteed to go wrong in the worst possible way, I don't think anybody really could, which I suspect is the point.
Sword of Promised Victory, no shit.
"What makes you think he did?" I jerk my head up at that idea only to find Vivain watching me with a smirk.
"Um... he died?" I offer.
"When Arthur took the field at Camlen all of his focus was bent on preventing Mordred from taking his throne, and he was willing to give anything to see that happen. As Mordred never sat the throne of Britain, he achieved what he set out to. His willingness to give anything for his goal though meant his survival was not a condition of victory." The fae lady finishes wrapping the hilt and lays the sword down next to the armor, on the opposite side of it from the knife, "Honestly I think that the Excalibur's ability to twist probability into a pretzel is the only reason why those alchemical knock offs hold together." She snorts and grumbles to herself something about real swords not coming from test tubes, then shakes herself, refocusing.
The fae smith waves me forward and I approach with caution. Oddly the burning need to touch any of the pieces in front of me has largely vanished. I can still feel a pull towards them, but I no longer need them like a starving man needs food. As soon as I stand next to her she stops me.
"You have noticed that in the last few weeks, since we began this project, that things have been much more difficult for you. Things that you used to take pleasure in or found easy you no longer do, or seem beyond your abilities now." I flinch wondering if she would take away the artifacts now, if I have somehow become unworthy of them, "Do not fret, these phenomena are no fault of yours. What most do not know is that a soul is not homogeneous. That, like the brain, certain parts of it are responsible for certain things."
I haven't really thought about it but, "That's why my trait theft Script works. I remove the part of a things essence, or soul I guess, that is responsible for a certain power or ability, and graft it onto my own. Making whatever I've taken available to me."
Vivain nods, "Exactly. When I took pieces of your soul to forge into your weapons and armor, I removed parts of you. The armor is forged of your drive to succeed. That part of you that kept you fighting even when broken, that part of you that let you try, even for what most would call impossible.
"The sword is forged of your drive to improve. The part of you that looked at yourself and knew you could be more. That knew that your life, your skills, everything could be better tomorrow, if by however little, if only you worked for it. That however little that progress is, it would be worthwhile because then you could push further the day after.
"The knife was forged with a bit of your intellect, which is likely why you did not realize what removing several pieces of your soul would mean on your own."
I stare at the... the parts of me on the table. No wonder it got harder and harder to stay away, to not touch them. No wonder I can't accomplish anything, I'm crippled.
"Before you take them up, you have a choice to make." Vivain says and pushes me gently back a step, "When you take these missing parts of yourself up, you will once again be as you were. The drive and focus that you lack will be returned to you."
"What's the question then?" I'm a little frustrated, after all this she's stalling?
"Will you take them up?" Vivain answers.
What? "Why wouldn't I?"
"Are you not happy now? You have a woman that could come to love you, and that you could come to love. You have a place if you stay here in this village, you are accepted and welcomed. Perhaps you could even become Pua's apprentice in truth, as opposed to just by default. Would you be happy with this village, trusting others to keep you safe from what you know is coming if you become as you were?"
I stare at Vivain. Then I turn back to the armor and blades on the table. It's true I'm largely happy now, as long as I avoid certain things. Leimomi is always fun, and I'm enjoying the time I spend with her a great deal. Pua is great, she makes learning easy, and even if I haven't been actively studying with her I've absorbed a great deal of lore just by osmosis. I can easily see myself spending more time on that and becoming a Kahuna like her. I can't learn her magic, but there are plenty of Kahuna out there that aren't sorcerer's themselves. After all a Kahuna's primary responsibility is to the mental, physical, and spiritual health of the people of her village; supernatural powers are not required.
They do help though.
I glance back at Vivain, who simply watches me with no expression on her face to indicate any sort of opinion, "This... ache?"
"Would eventually heal. You would never be as you were, but you would regain the parts of yourself that you lost eventually. Even if they would be different from how they were." Vivain tells me, voice showing nothing but mild interest.
I nod, that does make the prospect more appealing. I could explore my relationship with Lei, find out if we would be as good together as it appears, if we could last. I could hang out with Sarah, do all the things that she always wanted to but I never had time for. When the parts of my soul were removed, I had the thought that I wasn't really a person. That's slowly changing and I find that I enjoy it.
On the other hand...
On the other hand through the last several weeks there has been one pervasive feeling that has never left.
I feel... helpless.
I can do nothing unless it's easy or I have somebody holding my hand. I can't protect myself, can't protect others. I doubt I could even run away from a real threat. If the mo'o were to invade now, I would die without even being able to fight back. The first injury would have crippled me unable to push through the pain. I would have probably been caught quickly unable to use each ambush as a learning experience. No ability to make each successive ambush more successful than the last.
I hate this feeling. If I had been comfortable with it I would have joined a peerage, and let some devil take care of me. Or just gone on about my mundane life like I had in my last one, ignoring the supernatural altogether.
Instead on the day of my birth I'd decided that the only thing acceptable to me is to become more than I am, more than I'm slated to be.
That inability to tolerate my own helplessness hasn't changed, and the method of overcoming that state is sitting in front of me.
I reach forward and touch the sheathed knife, and my mind speeds up, my thoughts clearer, my memory sharper. Things snap into focus... I still don't know why the fight in the parking lot was so different though. Even so my mind is firing on all cylinders again and it's fantastic.
I touch the armor, and my determination returns. The off white color of the armor starts darkening, slowly fading to a deep matte black. To me though it's as if unnoticed walls that had surrounded me, hemmed me in, have all fallen away. Pain is something to be ignored, it would fade. Impossible is a term for things that I haven't done yet. I can almost feel the armor wrapping around my soul as the piece that I've been missing slot back into place. I once again have the determination to stride through all that would seek to stop me, ignoring them with the disdain they deserve. Now that drive would protect my body as much as it will ward off any thoughts of 'I can't'.
Finally I touch the sword. The off white blade, like the armor, fades to black, and then becomes an even deeper shade than the armor. The armor is still a thing, the sword is a cutout in the world. A light eating black that consumes all that touches it, like if Vivain had somehow pounded a black hole into the shape of a sword. That absolute blackness is only broken up by a series of faintly shining iridescent Script symbols, They almost seem to float in the void produced by the flat of the blade. As I watch, vapor begins to waft from the blade as it consumes even the ambient heat around it. At the same time the clear crystal pommel piece begins to shine with a pure white light.
As it slots into my soul the world stretches around me, my horizons pulling away. All things are possible, and I can see a path to them, how ever long that path will be, and every day is just another step along it. The impossible is only so because I do not have the growth today that I will have tomorrow. Like the sword I can once again take in everything around me, and use it to make myself more than I have been before.
I stagger backwards with a shuddering gasp. The ache in my soul is gone. Not faded, or easier to put out of mind, but gone. My body moves like I expect it to again with no soreness, and all I can think is that my last spar with Ku had been pathetic, and I'll kick his ass next time. That there's a Script begun on my desk, that would potentially mean I don't really have to leave everybody behind forever, just waiting on me to take the time to finish it.
Now though Pua and Vivain catch me as I almost fall backwards, dizzy from all that has changed in my world again. It actually kind of feels like when the Lady removed the parts of myself that I just reclaimed, only instead of the disorientation leaving me weak, this time it leaves me strong.
"Are you all right?" Pua asks, sounding worried, "Do you need..."
"I'm fine. Better than fine actually. I feel fantastic." I grin down at my friend, looking forward to testing out my new gear.
"Good." Vivain nods with a smile, "Now though, I should tell you what you have gained." I blink and nod. Probably best to not go into battle with something assuming it's a rocket launcher only to discover it's a pistol.
"Yeah..." I say, feeling a little sheepish, "That would probably be a good idea."
Pua groans, "She's back. Ready to run off and get into trouble with only the briefest thought as to the potential issues."
I glare at Pua and Vivain is polite enough to ignore our byplay. Instead she moves around the table to the knife, and holds it out to me. I take it carefully and draw the knife, revealing a foot long single edged blade made of the silvery metal typical of fae smithing. The edge of the knife has a subtle double curve to it, and the first quarter of the back edge from the point is sharpened as well to facilitate better stabbing. It has a small crosspiece that curves forward towards the blade along the back, and around my fingers on the opposite side. Ever so gently I touch the edge of the knife and my finger splits open. I hadn't felt anything, no pain, no sensation at all. Even while I watch the cut close, pain never hit.
I glance up at Vivan who's watching me with a proud smile, "Your athame." Athame nothing, it's a goddamned short sword, and I love it, "Forged with a touch of your intellect, it should be much better about finding what you want in a thing when you kill it, now that it has the intelligence to help. Not that it's smart... more like a search engine."
I nod, and put the knife back in its sheath, stroking it gently, "Your armor." Vivain lays a hand on the full suit, "It may be a bit difficult to put on or take off until you learn to call it back to the rest of your soul, and push it out again, but it will be excellent protection. The color changed because the armor will consume most energy that touches it that is not yours. It appears black because the light that touches it does not reflect. All the energy it takes in will be changed to mana within the armor, and fed to you to keep you fighting, though that is not its purpose. The armor will also act as a pressure valve, first storing a small amount of mana that would normally begin to overload you, then venting mana when it would otherwise do you harm. It sounds powerful, and it is, but bare in mind that it can only vent so quickly and store so much. If you take a strong enough blow, that would feed you too much energy too quickly, it will instead take the blow as normal armor does. It will still protect you, but you will feel the difference of the weight of the blow and what the armor absorbs. Also the armor does not consume all energy, it must ignore some so that you may interact with the world. The hood in addition to protecting you by lessening the energy of anything that hits you, will react to anything not yourself as though it is inch thick plate, not cloth. The hood has also been crafted so that most of your face, when it is up, will always be hidden in shadow. If you pull up the half mask attached to the gorget no one will see anything but darkness under the hood. I thought that given how some will no doubt react to your powers, it may be best to not be easily identifiable while unarmored." She finishes with a slight smirk.
I smile back at her, I hadn't even thought of that. It's a nice addition, and having the... helmet substitute act like cloth to me means much more flexibility, and that my senses would be less impaired, "So if I understand you, the armor will protect me from a lot, but I may still be knocked around some, and if I take a hard enough hit I'll still be injured." Vivan nods with a smile, "So like any other suit of armor, just better."
The Lady laughs, "Exactly. Now for the best." Unlike the other two pieces she doesn't touch the sword, and instead waves me forward, "This is Sclamhaire, the Devourer. Like the armor it consumes energy, unlike the armor it consumes all that it touches... all that is not you, and with the potential for more flexibility in that consumption. Sclamhaire holds the largest portion of your soul, and the part most prone to change. What that will allow in the future is for you to discover." She waves for me to take it up and with a small amount of hesitation, I do.
The moment I lift the sword it connects to my tattoos and she sings to me. The light from the crystal pommel piece vanishes the moment I pick Sclamhaire up, and I can feel a small trickle of mana being fed into my network, feeding and revitalizing me. Getting a closer look at the absolute blackness of her blade, only broken only by the faintly iridescent Script symbols that seemed to float on her flats.
"No other will ever again be able to touch her without at least losing a hand, as Sclamhaire will attempt to devour them as well. For you though, as a part of you, it should act as an excellent conduit for your power."
Taken with the thought, I feed my mana into the sword. After a moment, though she sings joyously at the touch of my power, and freely circulates the mana as though she's an extension of my arms, nothing else occurs.
Something to play with later then.
"Is she intelligent?" I have to ask, Sclamhaire feels so much like a part of me, and the way she sings and feels eager in my hand is nothing like either the armor, the athame, or anything else I'd ever held.
"No. Or not yet. In time... who knows?" The fae smith smiles mysteriously.
"Now how about you try it all on?" Pua asks.
My smile has to be more than a little manic.
Pua and Vivain help me into the armor for the first time, and it is, in fact, awkward to put on. As Vivain explains it to me, when I learn to call it to and from my soul it will simply manifest on me, and vanish again when I don't need it. Handy that, but it's something I'll have to learn. When I do though, the lack of extra joints and seams to facilitate the easy donning or removal of the armor will make it more protective. Until then it's simply also slightly more of a pain.
Once I get it on though, and get the athame and Sclamhaire settled, and get to look at myself in the mirror, well it's breathtaking.
I can't help but straighten to my full height. The solid black armor covers me completely, boots, gauntlets, and hood. The only skin showing is the tip of my nose, my lips and my chin. With the half mask up, even those vanish and nothing appears to be under the hood. Sclamhaire's scabbard hangs on my back at an angle so that I can draw her over my right shoulder, and the athame lays across the back of my hips so that I can draw it with my left hand, in either a forward or back handed grip.
Imagining how I'll look with the black Fallen Angel's wings I intended to acquire... well I can hardly wait.
I can't wait to give my new toys a test drive, though. On my back I can imagine feeling Sclamhaire vibrate with anticipation. Even better I have the perfect cathartic target to start out on.
The ability to speak all languages will come in very handy for all the traveling I'm going to be doing after all.
Somewhere out there, is a stray devil with my name on it.
For...
The details of the nightmare are already fading, leaving me with a vague feeling of despair. Moments later though that fades too leaving me with only more pleasant memories.
In the few days since Lei and my first date, we've been out twice more. Which doesn't count our general hanging out time outside of 'dates'. What our relationship is exactly is unclear and we largely avoided talking about it. Theoretically I'm still going to get my artifacts and leave, not to mention that I'm arguably not in my right mind at the moment. Lei is amazingly understanding about the whole thing, so instead of defining terms we focus on having as much fun as we can with each other before it all stops for whatever reason.
Kissing is something that I hope never gets old.
During the sunset walk along the beach the night before Lei had explained that proper Hawaiian night swimming is done in the nude, and when the bio-luminescent algae are plentiful. Which they had been that night. A smirk and waggled eyebrows on Lei's part led to some time indulging in said proper Hawaiian night swimming, and an enthusiastic several hour long good night. The whole experience leaves me with some very pleasant memories, which I gladly focus on instead of whatever I'd been dreaming about.
Really it's good that Lei is willing to spend so much time with me, as over the last several days I've become less and less able to indulge in my visits to the forge. The closer Vivain gets to finishing the pieces she's making for me, the less I'm able to resist the siren call to just touch one of them. So several days ago Vivain was forced to banish me from the smithy, just to keep me from doing something I'd regret while not paying attention.
I'm beginning to understand how addicts must feel.
The constant temptation to head to the forge, just to look, is getting harder and harder to resist when I'm not occupied by anything else. Lei is more than happy to give me something else to focus on.
I also find that my morning workout gets easier to get through the less I think about what I'm doing. Another reason I'm glad last night's memories linger on, I smile to myself as I finish going through the routine on autopilot.
I head down stairs in shorts and a tank top with a slight bounce in my step and a smile that I can't get rid of on my lips. Not that I try very hard. I actually find myself happy recently in ways that I can't remember having ever been before, and my soul ache while not gone, is something that I can go almost an entire day without thinking about. As long as I keep my mind off certain things, like carefully not looking at or thinking about the barely started Script on my desk, or Script at all really.
In the kitchen is a sight eerily similar to the start of my most recent stay on the islands right after the ritual. Pua and Ku are waiting for me at the breakfast table looking serious, Thea is moving around the kitchen with a pleasant smile on her face quietly humming something. The only differences really are Sarah's absence, and that they aren't quite as grim.
I pause in the door, "Is this another intervention?" Thea chokes softly, swallowing a laugh as Pua and Ku blink then sighe. I wish I could say I'm surprised to see the siblings pull out several bills each to hand over to Thea, but this is exactly the sort of thing I've learned to expect from them. Thea takes the money with a gracious smile before putting a plate of breakfast down in front of my usual seat, "Not an intervention then." I snicker and take my seat, quickly digging in, and enjoying the siblings misfortune.
Pua sighes again and Ku faceplants into the table, "No it's not another intervention. Vivain sent a message over this morning." I pause looking up at the Kahuna, "She's nearly finished, and wants to talk to you. After the conversation she'll present you with the finished artifacts."
I stall out completely. They're done. Or nearly. Close enough. Now though I have to wonder if I'll be capable of using them. I haven't practiced at all since that first abortive attempt with Ku. The closest I've come was the scuffle with the soldiers in the parking lot of the hardware store. Any other time I try I just... can't.
Can't really fight.
Can't really make new Scripts.
Can't really do anything that I used to be so good at, had worked so hard for.
With every thought the ache grows worse.
Would I be able to accomplish any of my goals at all any more?
The last idea has me curling up in my chair, arms wrapped around my body, with a moan of pain. The ache is almost as bad as it had been when the pieces of my soul were first removed. I feel Pua's hand on my shoulder and faintly hear her voice calling me to focus on her.
Slowly as I manage to shift my attention, put my previous worries out of my mind, and the pain fades to a dull throb. Finally I manage to actually focus on Pua and she sighs, relieved.
"Right. No more waiting, lets go." She pulls me to my feet out of my chair, which is impressive given our relative heights.
"But my breakfast." I whine reaching for it as I'm dragged away. All I get for my troubles is Pua rolling her eyes and Ku and Thea laughing at me.
Traitors.
###
"What did the Excalibur do exactly?"
"Really? You wait till now to find out what standard your own sword will be held to?"
I shrug, "I trust Pua. And right now I need the distraction." I'm sitting in the forge for the first time in three or four days. I'm sitting on my stool again, with one of Pua's hands on my shoulder to help keep me there. After a moment's pause I manage a small grin, "And I want to know what the standard my sword will be held to is."
Vivain snorts. The forge is cold, and the quench tanks are pushed out of the way. Vivain sits in the middle of her smithy putting the finishing touches on what has to be my sword. The sword is two handed, the blade an odd off white color that doesn't look like it could possibly be sharp, no matter how sharp it actually is. The cross piece is a silvery metal, the pommel a perfectly clear crystal or stone that I don't recognize.
Behind her on a table is a suit of armor, the same off white color as the sword blade. It's a full suit of plate and chain, with plenty of cloth as well. A skirt drapes over the leg armor and would drop to just brush the floor if the armor was upright, and instead of a more traditional helm it has a hood and what looks like a cloth face mask that could be pulled up from the gorget over the nose. Both pieces of cloth and the skirt were the same off white color as the armor. It makes me wonder if they are actually cloth at all.
Lastly a sheathed foot long knife lay next to the armor's left gauntlet.
The Lady of the Lake holds the sword point down, pinched between her knees as she wraps black ray skin around the hilt for grip. She's silent for a few moments, looking down while her hands continue without pause, "Excalibur is the Sword of Promised Victory, and that is what it does. The sword, when powered, warps fate and destiny, skews probability, to bring about what the wielder defines as victory. The more power the wielder puts into the blade, the larger an area is affected, and the more dramatic those effects are. When Arthur held it, nothing went right for his enemies, food spoiled, horses went lame or fled, allies were delayed or never appeared at all, and equipment was ruined. All before the armies ever set foot upon the field.
"Once they did it all got worse. The term for it now is Murphy's Law, and Murphy lived in the enemies camp, and marched with his troops. Meanwhile Arthur's troops would spot problems before they could become such, the enemy's plans would be obvious, his generals would always be in the right place at the right time, and always get the inspiration they needed. Once a supply caravan was lost, and fresh fish fell like rain on his camp."
I blink several times.
So Excalibur was weaponized bad luck? No, she said it herself, it was weaponized Murphy's Law. If Murphy was biased for the home team.
"So how did Arthur lose?" I ask trying to imagine what the effects of Excalibur would look like, and how you could possibly fight such a thing? When everything you try is guaranteed to go wrong in the worst possible way, I don't think anybody really could, which I suspect is the point.
Sword of Promised Victory, no shit.
"What makes you think he did?" I jerk my head up at that idea only to find Vivain watching me with a smirk.
"Um... he died?" I offer.
"When Arthur took the field at Camlen all of his focus was bent on preventing Mordred from taking his throne, and he was willing to give anything to see that happen. As Mordred never sat the throne of Britain, he achieved what he set out to. His willingness to give anything for his goal though meant his survival was not a condition of victory." The fae lady finishes wrapping the hilt and lays the sword down next to the armor, on the opposite side of it from the knife, "Honestly I think that the Excalibur's ability to twist probability into a pretzel is the only reason why those alchemical knock offs hold together." She snorts and grumbles to herself something about real swords not coming from test tubes, then shakes herself, refocusing.
The fae smith waves me forward and I approach with caution. Oddly the burning need to touch any of the pieces in front of me has largely vanished. I can still feel a pull towards them, but I no longer need them like a starving man needs food. As soon as I stand next to her she stops me.
"You have noticed that in the last few weeks, since we began this project, that things have been much more difficult for you. Things that you used to take pleasure in or found easy you no longer do, or seem beyond your abilities now." I flinch wondering if she would take away the artifacts now, if I have somehow become unworthy of them, "Do not fret, these phenomena are no fault of yours. What most do not know is that a soul is not homogeneous. That, like the brain, certain parts of it are responsible for certain things."
I haven't really thought about it but, "That's why my trait theft Script works. I remove the part of a things essence, or soul I guess, that is responsible for a certain power or ability, and graft it onto my own. Making whatever I've taken available to me."
Vivain nods, "Exactly. When I took pieces of your soul to forge into your weapons and armor, I removed parts of you. The armor is forged of your drive to succeed. That part of you that kept you fighting even when broken, that part of you that let you try, even for what most would call impossible.
"The sword is forged of your drive to improve. The part of you that looked at yourself and knew you could be more. That knew that your life, your skills, everything could be better tomorrow, if by however little, if only you worked for it. That however little that progress is, it would be worthwhile because then you could push further the day after.
"The knife was forged with a bit of your intellect, which is likely why you did not realize what removing several pieces of your soul would mean on your own."
I stare at the... the parts of me on the table. No wonder it got harder and harder to stay away, to not touch them. No wonder I can't accomplish anything, I'm crippled.
"Before you take them up, you have a choice to make." Vivain says and pushes me gently back a step, "When you take these missing parts of yourself up, you will once again be as you were. The drive and focus that you lack will be returned to you."
"What's the question then?" I'm a little frustrated, after all this she's stalling?
"Will you take them up?" Vivain answers.
What? "Why wouldn't I?"
"Are you not happy now? You have a woman that could come to love you, and that you could come to love. You have a place if you stay here in this village, you are accepted and welcomed. Perhaps you could even become Pua's apprentice in truth, as opposed to just by default. Would you be happy with this village, trusting others to keep you safe from what you know is coming if you become as you were?"
###
I stare at Vivain. Then I turn back to the armor and blades on the table. It's true I'm largely happy now, as long as I avoid certain things. Leimomi is always fun, and I'm enjoying the time I spend with her a great deal. Pua is great, she makes learning easy, and even if I haven't been actively studying with her I've absorbed a great deal of lore just by osmosis. I can easily see myself spending more time on that and becoming a Kahuna like her. I can't learn her magic, but there are plenty of Kahuna out there that aren't sorcerer's themselves. After all a Kahuna's primary responsibility is to the mental, physical, and spiritual health of the people of her village; supernatural powers are not required.
They do help though.
I glance back at Vivain, who simply watches me with no expression on her face to indicate any sort of opinion, "This... ache?"
"Would eventually heal. You would never be as you were, but you would regain the parts of yourself that you lost eventually. Even if they would be different from how they were." Vivain tells me, voice showing nothing but mild interest.
I nod, that does make the prospect more appealing. I could explore my relationship with Lei, find out if we would be as good together as it appears, if we could last. I could hang out with Sarah, do all the things that she always wanted to but I never had time for. When the parts of my soul were removed, I had the thought that I wasn't really a person. That's slowly changing and I find that I enjoy it.
On the other hand...
On the other hand through the last several weeks there has been one pervasive feeling that has never left.
I feel... helpless.
I can do nothing unless it's easy or I have somebody holding my hand. I can't protect myself, can't protect others. I doubt I could even run away from a real threat. If the mo'o were to invade now, I would die without even being able to fight back. The first injury would have crippled me unable to push through the pain. I would have probably been caught quickly unable to use each ambush as a learning experience. No ability to make each successive ambush more successful than the last.
I hate this feeling. If I had been comfortable with it I would have joined a peerage, and let some devil take care of me. Or just gone on about my mundane life like I had in my last one, ignoring the supernatural altogether.
Instead on the day of my birth I'd decided that the only thing acceptable to me is to become more than I am, more than I'm slated to be.
That inability to tolerate my own helplessness hasn't changed, and the method of overcoming that state is sitting in front of me.
I reach forward and touch the sheathed knife, and my mind speeds up, my thoughts clearer, my memory sharper. Things snap into focus... I still don't know why the fight in the parking lot was so different though. Even so my mind is firing on all cylinders again and it's fantastic.
I touch the armor, and my determination returns. The off white color of the armor starts darkening, slowly fading to a deep matte black. To me though it's as if unnoticed walls that had surrounded me, hemmed me in, have all fallen away. Pain is something to be ignored, it would fade. Impossible is a term for things that I haven't done yet. I can almost feel the armor wrapping around my soul as the piece that I've been missing slot back into place. I once again have the determination to stride through all that would seek to stop me, ignoring them with the disdain they deserve. Now that drive would protect my body as much as it will ward off any thoughts of 'I can't'.
Finally I touch the sword. The off white blade, like the armor, fades to black, and then becomes an even deeper shade than the armor. The armor is still a thing, the sword is a cutout in the world. A light eating black that consumes all that touches it, like if Vivain had somehow pounded a black hole into the shape of a sword. That absolute blackness is only broken up by a series of faintly shining iridescent Script symbols, They almost seem to float in the void produced by the flat of the blade. As I watch, vapor begins to waft from the blade as it consumes even the ambient heat around it. At the same time the clear crystal pommel piece begins to shine with a pure white light.
As it slots into my soul the world stretches around me, my horizons pulling away. All things are possible, and I can see a path to them, how ever long that path will be, and every day is just another step along it. The impossible is only so because I do not have the growth today that I will have tomorrow. Like the sword I can once again take in everything around me, and use it to make myself more than I have been before.
I stagger backwards with a shuddering gasp. The ache in my soul is gone. Not faded, or easier to put out of mind, but gone. My body moves like I expect it to again with no soreness, and all I can think is that my last spar with Ku had been pathetic, and I'll kick his ass next time. That there's a Script begun on my desk, that would potentially mean I don't really have to leave everybody behind forever, just waiting on me to take the time to finish it.
Now though Pua and Vivain catch me as I almost fall backwards, dizzy from all that has changed in my world again. It actually kind of feels like when the Lady removed the parts of myself that I just reclaimed, only instead of the disorientation leaving me weak, this time it leaves me strong.
"Are you all right?" Pua asks, sounding worried, "Do you need..."
"I'm fine. Better than fine actually. I feel fantastic." I grin down at my friend, looking forward to testing out my new gear.
"Good." Vivain nods with a smile, "Now though, I should tell you what you have gained." I blink and nod. Probably best to not go into battle with something assuming it's a rocket launcher only to discover it's a pistol.
"Yeah..." I say, feeling a little sheepish, "That would probably be a good idea."
Pua groans, "She's back. Ready to run off and get into trouble with only the briefest thought as to the potential issues."
I glare at Pua and Vivain is polite enough to ignore our byplay. Instead she moves around the table to the knife, and holds it out to me. I take it carefully and draw the knife, revealing a foot long single edged blade made of the silvery metal typical of fae smithing. The edge of the knife has a subtle double curve to it, and the first quarter of the back edge from the point is sharpened as well to facilitate better stabbing. It has a small crosspiece that curves forward towards the blade along the back, and around my fingers on the opposite side. Ever so gently I touch the edge of the knife and my finger splits open. I hadn't felt anything, no pain, no sensation at all. Even while I watch the cut close, pain never hit.
I glance up at Vivan who's watching me with a proud smile, "Your athame." Athame nothing, it's a goddamned short sword, and I love it, "Forged with a touch of your intellect, it should be much better about finding what you want in a thing when you kill it, now that it has the intelligence to help. Not that it's smart... more like a search engine."
I nod, and put the knife back in its sheath, stroking it gently, "Your armor." Vivain lays a hand on the full suit, "It may be a bit difficult to put on or take off until you learn to call it back to the rest of your soul, and push it out again, but it will be excellent protection. The color changed because the armor will consume most energy that touches it that is not yours. It appears black because the light that touches it does not reflect. All the energy it takes in will be changed to mana within the armor, and fed to you to keep you fighting, though that is not its purpose. The armor will also act as a pressure valve, first storing a small amount of mana that would normally begin to overload you, then venting mana when it would otherwise do you harm. It sounds powerful, and it is, but bare in mind that it can only vent so quickly and store so much. If you take a strong enough blow, that would feed you too much energy too quickly, it will instead take the blow as normal armor does. It will still protect you, but you will feel the difference of the weight of the blow and what the armor absorbs. Also the armor does not consume all energy, it must ignore some so that you may interact with the world. The hood in addition to protecting you by lessening the energy of anything that hits you, will react to anything not yourself as though it is inch thick plate, not cloth. The hood has also been crafted so that most of your face, when it is up, will always be hidden in shadow. If you pull up the half mask attached to the gorget no one will see anything but darkness under the hood. I thought that given how some will no doubt react to your powers, it may be best to not be easily identifiable while unarmored." She finishes with a slight smirk.
I smile back at her, I hadn't even thought of that. It's a nice addition, and having the... helmet substitute act like cloth to me means much more flexibility, and that my senses would be less impaired, "So if I understand you, the armor will protect me from a lot, but I may still be knocked around some, and if I take a hard enough hit I'll still be injured." Vivan nods with a smile, "So like any other suit of armor, just better."
The Lady laughs, "Exactly. Now for the best." Unlike the other two pieces she doesn't touch the sword, and instead waves me forward, "This is Sclamhaire, the Devourer. Like the armor it consumes energy, unlike the armor it consumes all that it touches... all that is not you, and with the potential for more flexibility in that consumption. Sclamhaire holds the largest portion of your soul, and the part most prone to change. What that will allow in the future is for you to discover." She waves for me to take it up and with a small amount of hesitation, I do.
The moment I lift the sword it connects to my tattoos and she sings to me. The light from the crystal pommel piece vanishes the moment I pick Sclamhaire up, and I can feel a small trickle of mana being fed into my network, feeding and revitalizing me. Getting a closer look at the absolute blackness of her blade, only broken only by the faintly iridescent Script symbols that seemed to float on her flats.
"No other will ever again be able to touch her without at least losing a hand, as Sclamhaire will attempt to devour them as well. For you though, as a part of you, it should act as an excellent conduit for your power."
Taken with the thought, I feed my mana into the sword. After a moment, though she sings joyously at the touch of my power, and freely circulates the mana as though she's an extension of my arms, nothing else occurs.
Something to play with later then.
"Is she intelligent?" I have to ask, Sclamhaire feels so much like a part of me, and the way she sings and feels eager in my hand is nothing like either the armor, the athame, or anything else I'd ever held.
"No. Or not yet. In time... who knows?" The fae smith smiles mysteriously.
"Now how about you try it all on?" Pua asks.
My smile has to be more than a little manic.
###
Pua and Vivain help me into the armor for the first time, and it is, in fact, awkward to put on. As Vivain explains it to me, when I learn to call it to and from my soul it will simply manifest on me, and vanish again when I don't need it. Handy that, but it's something I'll have to learn. When I do though, the lack of extra joints and seams to facilitate the easy donning or removal of the armor will make it more protective. Until then it's simply also slightly more of a pain.
Once I get it on though, and get the athame and Sclamhaire settled, and get to look at myself in the mirror, well it's breathtaking.
I can't help but straighten to my full height. The solid black armor covers me completely, boots, gauntlets, and hood. The only skin showing is the tip of my nose, my lips and my chin. With the half mask up, even those vanish and nothing appears to be under the hood. Sclamhaire's scabbard hangs on my back at an angle so that I can draw her over my right shoulder, and the athame lays across the back of my hips so that I can draw it with my left hand, in either a forward or back handed grip.
Imagining how I'll look with the black Fallen Angel's wings I intended to acquire... well I can hardly wait.
I can't wait to give my new toys a test drive, though. On my back I can imagine feeling Sclamhaire vibrate with anticipation. Even better I have the perfect cathartic target to start out on.
The ability to speak all languages will come in very handy for all the traveling I'm going to be doing after all.
Somewhere out there, is a stray devil with my name on it.