- Location
- PA
[X] Try to help Zahira. Between the broken crown, Egon's ring and jewelry, Ant's prison, and the potions, there's something to be learned by studying your magical items.
What's our character's deal? That he's good at management and logistics. Part of that, is knowing what all we have, and we have a high need for taking inventory.
What's our character's deal? That he's good at management and logistics. Part of that, is knowing what all we have, and we have a high need for taking inventory.
[x] Try to help Zahira. Between the broken crown, Egon's ring and jewelry, Ant's prison, and the potions, there's something to be learned by studying your magical items.
A single cup of water
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You take a deep breath. "You're right, Dawn. We do need to make good use of the time."
Dawn nods. "Maybe training, trying to get someone new to break into the realm of heroes, like we did with Kalju?"
"Right. I have a feeling that we'll get more success again today." Doing it for your own sake, instead of pushing your body to its limit for the honor of dying for someone else, is appealing. You've had to skulk around too much so far, not standing up to anyone with power. The fight with Egon, where you came within a hair's breadth of losing your sword arm, was the first time you were able to do that, and there it was Kalju's superhuman strength that let you overcome him. No more. Now it will be your turn to gain power. You turn to Zahira. "Can you let Samir know that we'll be doing another training session? I don't want him to think he's too forgotten while he's doing door duty." She shrugs and sets off to do that.
Dawn looks down at the arm Ant was just controlling. "I'm going to be a little less than my best right now. Ant is a bit... energetic, so my arm's almost sore."
"That's okay. I'm sure you'll still present a good foe for me, and of course Kalju's going to be able to use his strength to challenge me."
"Oh." Dawn looks away and doesn't meet your eyes. She's disappointed.
- -
The first thing you discover is that, sense of purpose or no, this dehydration technique is terrible. It's incredibly unpleasant to sit too close to a too-strong fire, swaddled in thick, itchy fabrics that wick away sweat and still feel like a thousand spiders are rubbing stiff legs against you. You hate that analogy, but it's the first one that comes to mind, and it's the only thing distracting you from the fact that you really want a cup of water.
After telling Samir what was going on, Zahira returned, carrying two earthenware cups, filled with clear, cool water. One, she placed on the floor some ten meters from you. That one is the goal. Once you are sufficiently dehydrated, you'll need to fight past Dawn and Kalju. You take some comfort in the fact that you're going to get at least one cup before the gradually increasing resistance makes it too difficult, because right now, with your tongue dry enough to stick to the roof of your mouth and your forehead dripping salty sweat into your eyes, you just feel bad.
Kalju and Dawn rest, for the moment, between you and the cup. Zahira lounges on a chair further back. She dragged over the padded chair of a high-ranking priest, and is draped over both armrests, feet dangling off one while her head hangs off the other, observing you three upside-down, her long, dark hair pooling on the ground. The other cup she holds close, just observing.
Finally, you stand up. It's enough. It has to be enough. The point of this is to push you, after all, not to actually make you collapse. Dawn and Kalju stand, too, facing you shoulder-to-shoulder. They have training weapons, something that probably won't hurt you unless it hits just wrong. You do, too. You pick at your tunic, peeling it away from your body to allow some cool airflow.
As happened with Kalju, the opposition isn't too rough the first time. Your squadmates are fighting at half capacity, and not trying to cooperate. You are under no such restraint, since the entire point is to develop crushing individual superiority. You charge with a wordless snarl. Kalju lowers his center of gravity and thrusts his polearm straight at you. You sidestep it. Dawn comes at you next, padded training mace held ready. You ruthlessly exploit the speed difference, hooking the forward curve of your sword around her shield's rim, then pulling back. The opposite side swings the other direction, turning in her handgrip like a lever. It almost hits her in the face.
You're between them. You have to split your attention. Kalju comes at you with another lazy thrust. You try to deflect it with your shield, but pulled in two directions at once, you misjudge the angle and it impacts you hard. Your hand tingles. It gives you a moment, though. You're past them. You spin around and take a couple more steps backward, but on this side of them that only gets you closer to the water.
You bend down to pick up the cup of water.
It explodes into steam. You recoil, and Kalju and Dawn both stop, too. In a couple of seconds, the steam cloud has cleared, leaving a now-empty earthenware piece glowing with heat.
You whirl. Zahira is now sitting bolt upright in her chair, the other cup clutched tightly in both of her hands. That one is still full, so full that it's almost brimming over. You glare at her. She looks back at you impassively. You have to work your jaw a few times to find the saliva to talk. "Zahira! That was--"
"--That was too easy." Zahira cuts you off as she looks down at you imperiously. "If you're going to challenge your limits, you can't do it exactly in a way you expect. It won't work. You'll relax, you'll assume it'll work again, and you'll miss the mark."
You snarl. You're thirsty, so thirsty that it's almost dizzying. You fought for that water. You won it. "Zahira, you can't just--"
Slurrrrp. You cut yourself off this time, as Zahira raises this cup to her lips and loudly drains some portion of the cup. She's not even looking at you any more. It's as if you don't even matter, but you get exactly what's going to happen if you don't play by the rules she's decided to add.
After a long twenty seconds' silence, Zahira stands, her point made. She walks away from the chair, takes a space some twenty meters away from you, and sets the slightly less-full cup on the floor, with an echoing click. She turns to look at you, holding her hands together at the small of her back. "You have one new rule, if you want to win this fight, break your shell, enter the realm of heroes, and slake your thirst. That rule:
"Impress me."
The fire mage stalks away from the cup.
Dawn and Kalju take their places between you and the water. You glare at them almost as fiercely as you had just glared at Zahira. "Did you two know about this?"
Kalju nods slightly, and Dawn more forcefully. She is the one to speak up. "She talked to us while you were sitting at the fire. Kalju agreed with her idea. This isn't something we can just assume we've got a perfect road map for. We need to play it by ear, and... remember? Ant said Kalju had a stronger affinity for enlightened martial traditions than you do. I don't think this is going to work if we just do the same thing. So Kalju and I are going to fight for real now. Including using Kalju's strength."
You take a deep breath, and let it out in a slow, unsteady shudder. "Fine." You take a ready stance, your weight low and poised forward, your shield in front of you and your sword behind you, using your body to obscure your first motion.
The other two wait for you to attack. The world narrows down to a corridor, with you only aware of the ground between you and the cup of water and the two you have to beat to get there. Dawn with her prideful pose, so assured. She's always stood with you before, her large shield protecting you as much as her, but now it's a bulwark you have to break. Her mace never needed the skill and swiftness your sword did. It's a simple, brutal weapon, and even a training mace could beat you down. Kalju's with her. Kalju, with his self-righteous quiet take, and his annoying perfect washboard abs that he always cuts his shirts and tunics to show. Kalju, with a spear that's now pushed by muscles even stronger than ever before, stronger than you could ever hope to match with mere traditional strength training.
None of that is going to matter. You're going to break past them, you're going to get that drink of water. As you steady yourself, you see Dawn gesturing with her mace. It's saying come on. You launch yourself at her, as fast as you can go. She steps forward to meet you. Sword, mace, and shields clash. You're a little taller, a little stronger. Before you can exploit that, Kalju is there. This thrust is not half-hearted or half-speed. He strikes you as hard as he can. You've been hit by it before, when he first found this strength, kin to the Bear's Mantle school. That time you recovered.
This time, you're not in near as good of shape. You're distracted, thirsty, and off-balance. He knocks you down, splintering your shield as you fall. You land on your back. The wind goes out of you. You slide, further away from the water cup. Once you stop, you push yourself up, discarding the remains of the shield as you try to get up. You fail. The back of your head hits the polished marble floor again. The room spins as your dizziness intensifies.
Dawn and Kalju are standing over you. They still look harsh. You haven't given up, after all, so that means that right now you're still the enemy. They won't give unless you give up or are truly incapacitated.
And they're right to. For all your misery, for all the stink of sweat and miserable clinging clothes, for all the frustration and anger they've built in you, there's something more. Something is within your grasp, but still heart-stoppingly ephemeral. If you can just pull yourself together, if the room will either steady up or fade away, there's something.
Hesitatingly, something inside you reaches for it...
[] You see something, with a sight-beyond-sight.
[] ...Water! Water water water...
[] I'm too weak. I can't do it alone. ANT!
Dawn nods. "Maybe training, trying to get someone new to break into the realm of heroes, like we did with Kalju?"
"Right. I have a feeling that we'll get more success again today." Doing it for your own sake, instead of pushing your body to its limit for the honor of dying for someone else, is appealing. You've had to skulk around too much so far, not standing up to anyone with power. The fight with Egon, where you came within a hair's breadth of losing your sword arm, was the first time you were able to do that, and there it was Kalju's superhuman strength that let you overcome him. No more. Now it will be your turn to gain power. You turn to Zahira. "Can you let Samir know that we'll be doing another training session? I don't want him to think he's too forgotten while he's doing door duty." She shrugs and sets off to do that.
Dawn looks down at the arm Ant was just controlling. "I'm going to be a little less than my best right now. Ant is a bit... energetic, so my arm's almost sore."
"That's okay. I'm sure you'll still present a good foe for me, and of course Kalju's going to be able to use his strength to challenge me."
"Oh." Dawn looks away and doesn't meet your eyes. She's disappointed.
- -
The first thing you discover is that, sense of purpose or no, this dehydration technique is terrible. It's incredibly unpleasant to sit too close to a too-strong fire, swaddled in thick, itchy fabrics that wick away sweat and still feel like a thousand spiders are rubbing stiff legs against you. You hate that analogy, but it's the first one that comes to mind, and it's the only thing distracting you from the fact that you really want a cup of water.
After telling Samir what was going on, Zahira returned, carrying two earthenware cups, filled with clear, cool water. One, she placed on the floor some ten meters from you. That one is the goal. Once you are sufficiently dehydrated, you'll need to fight past Dawn and Kalju. You take some comfort in the fact that you're going to get at least one cup before the gradually increasing resistance makes it too difficult, because right now, with your tongue dry enough to stick to the roof of your mouth and your forehead dripping salty sweat into your eyes, you just feel bad.
Kalju and Dawn rest, for the moment, between you and the cup. Zahira lounges on a chair further back. She dragged over the padded chair of a high-ranking priest, and is draped over both armrests, feet dangling off one while her head hangs off the other, observing you three upside-down, her long, dark hair pooling on the ground. The other cup she holds close, just observing.
Finally, you stand up. It's enough. It has to be enough. The point of this is to push you, after all, not to actually make you collapse. Dawn and Kalju stand, too, facing you shoulder-to-shoulder. They have training weapons, something that probably won't hurt you unless it hits just wrong. You do, too. You pick at your tunic, peeling it away from your body to allow some cool airflow.
As happened with Kalju, the opposition isn't too rough the first time. Your squadmates are fighting at half capacity, and not trying to cooperate. You are under no such restraint, since the entire point is to develop crushing individual superiority. You charge with a wordless snarl. Kalju lowers his center of gravity and thrusts his polearm straight at you. You sidestep it. Dawn comes at you next, padded training mace held ready. You ruthlessly exploit the speed difference, hooking the forward curve of your sword around her shield's rim, then pulling back. The opposite side swings the other direction, turning in her handgrip like a lever. It almost hits her in the face.
You're between them. You have to split your attention. Kalju comes at you with another lazy thrust. You try to deflect it with your shield, but pulled in two directions at once, you misjudge the angle and it impacts you hard. Your hand tingles. It gives you a moment, though. You're past them. You spin around and take a couple more steps backward, but on this side of them that only gets you closer to the water.
You bend down to pick up the cup of water.
It explodes into steam. You recoil, and Kalju and Dawn both stop, too. In a couple of seconds, the steam cloud has cleared, leaving a now-empty earthenware piece glowing with heat.
You whirl. Zahira is now sitting bolt upright in her chair, the other cup clutched tightly in both of her hands. That one is still full, so full that it's almost brimming over. You glare at her. She looks back at you impassively. You have to work your jaw a few times to find the saliva to talk. "Zahira! That was--"
"--That was too easy." Zahira cuts you off as she looks down at you imperiously. "If you're going to challenge your limits, you can't do it exactly in a way you expect. It won't work. You'll relax, you'll assume it'll work again, and you'll miss the mark."
You snarl. You're thirsty, so thirsty that it's almost dizzying. You fought for that water. You won it. "Zahira, you can't just--"
Slurrrrp. You cut yourself off this time, as Zahira raises this cup to her lips and loudly drains some portion of the cup. She's not even looking at you any more. It's as if you don't even matter, but you get exactly what's going to happen if you don't play by the rules she's decided to add.
After a long twenty seconds' silence, Zahira stands, her point made. She walks away from the chair, takes a space some twenty meters away from you, and sets the slightly less-full cup on the floor, with an echoing click. She turns to look at you, holding her hands together at the small of her back. "You have one new rule, if you want to win this fight, break your shell, enter the realm of heroes, and slake your thirst. That rule:
"Impress me."
The fire mage stalks away from the cup.
Dawn and Kalju take their places between you and the water. You glare at them almost as fiercely as you had just glared at Zahira. "Did you two know about this?"
Kalju nods slightly, and Dawn more forcefully. She is the one to speak up. "She talked to us while you were sitting at the fire. Kalju agreed with her idea. This isn't something we can just assume we've got a perfect road map for. We need to play it by ear, and... remember? Ant said Kalju had a stronger affinity for enlightened martial traditions than you do. I don't think this is going to work if we just do the same thing. So Kalju and I are going to fight for real now. Including using Kalju's strength."
You take a deep breath, and let it out in a slow, unsteady shudder. "Fine." You take a ready stance, your weight low and poised forward, your shield in front of you and your sword behind you, using your body to obscure your first motion.
The other two wait for you to attack. The world narrows down to a corridor, with you only aware of the ground between you and the cup of water and the two you have to beat to get there. Dawn with her prideful pose, so assured. She's always stood with you before, her large shield protecting you as much as her, but now it's a bulwark you have to break. Her mace never needed the skill and swiftness your sword did. It's a simple, brutal weapon, and even a training mace could beat you down. Kalju's with her. Kalju, with his self-righteous quiet take, and his annoying perfect washboard abs that he always cuts his shirts and tunics to show. Kalju, with a spear that's now pushed by muscles even stronger than ever before, stronger than you could ever hope to match with mere traditional strength training.
None of that is going to matter. You're going to break past them, you're going to get that drink of water. As you steady yourself, you see Dawn gesturing with her mace. It's saying come on. You launch yourself at her, as fast as you can go. She steps forward to meet you. Sword, mace, and shields clash. You're a little taller, a little stronger. Before you can exploit that, Kalju is there. This thrust is not half-hearted or half-speed. He strikes you as hard as he can. You've been hit by it before, when he first found this strength, kin to the Bear's Mantle school. That time you recovered.
This time, you're not in near as good of shape. You're distracted, thirsty, and off-balance. He knocks you down, splintering your shield as you fall. You land on your back. The wind goes out of you. You slide, further away from the water cup. Once you stop, you push yourself up, discarding the remains of the shield as you try to get up. You fail. The back of your head hits the polished marble floor again. The room spins as your dizziness intensifies.
Dawn and Kalju are standing over you. They still look harsh. You haven't given up, after all, so that means that right now you're still the enemy. They won't give unless you give up or are truly incapacitated.
And they're right to. For all your misery, for all the stink of sweat and miserable clinging clothes, for all the frustration and anger they've built in you, there's something more. Something is within your grasp, but still heart-stoppingly ephemeral. If you can just pull yourself together, if the room will either steady up or fade away, there's something.
Hesitatingly, something inside you reaches for it...
[] You see something, with a sight-beyond-sight.
[] ...Water! Water water water...
[] I'm too weak. I can't do it alone. ANT!
- Location
- United States
[X] You see something, with a sight-beyond-sight.
InterstellarHobo
Cosmic Vagrant
- Location
- No Fixed Planetary System
[X] You see something, with a sight-beyond-sight.
[X] You see something, with a sight-beyond-sight.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Hmm? I am not sure I understand that exchange, or rather, her reaction.
[x] ...Water! Water water water...
Second wind? Missing the forest for the trees? Only one way to find out!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Azer didn't notice in-character, either, so that's okay.
She wanted to go first.
Teloch
ಠ_ಠ
- Location
- The middle of nowhere
She wanted to be the next for heroic shtick training but MC, apparently, isn't a gentleman
An eye opened
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The room snaps into focus, several times. You see Dawn and Kalju standing above you. You see yourself, as if from a high vantage. You see a beat from now, dodging a 'finishing blow' from Dawn. Dawn's attack isn't one that would actually hurt you further, but it would signal the end of the training, with your failure.
You roll away, matching 'now' with what you saw. It seems right and proper to you, but Dawn is surprised. She's right on top of you, now, as she was attempting to strike while you were down, and now you're inside her guard. You strike with the butt of your sword against the inside of her wrist. She loses hold of her shield and backs up.
This time it's easier to get up; you manage to pull yourself to your feet. The room is still duplicated, but it's an advantage. Your physical body, your embodied eyes, are still dizzy from banging against the floor.
Kalju comes at you. Possibilities fork. One has him slice at you, using his longer reach to swing down with crashing force. The other has him choke up the polearm and fight with it as a quarterstaff. Which will happen? You blink. You can force it. You step in close. Kalju's hands shift, and it's the quarterstaff option.
He was hoping to take you off guard, as this is not usually his preferred style. Instead, you're ready for it, and block his first two attacks, one per end, with your sword and shield. You're close. You tangle your feet in his, and he trips.
Kalju is down. It's not that he can't fight, or that Dawn can't fight. They were only thrown off, just long enough for you to get past. You stride towards the cup of water. It explodes into steam. You head that off by throwing your shield like a discus at Zahira. She ducks, even though you missed her anyway, but it's enough of a distraction. You grab the cup, and whet your tongue with a single long draught.
All of maybe ten seconds have passed since you were flat on the ground. Your vision snaps back to normal.
The other three are on the ground, groaning. You join them, flopping down on the floor, lotus-style, almost hard enough to jolt precious water out of your cup.
"What the hell was that?" Dawn asks. "Was that that Untouchable Blade technique?" She looks at Kalju for confirmation; he actually faced it.
Kalju shakes his head. "No. Different."
You drink a little more. "I think it's how I avoided it, actually. I think I was seeing the future. Maybe?"
Zahira snorts. She's puling her hair back, trying to make herself presentable again after throwing herself to the floor. "So you're a seer, and like an idiot you never noticed until just now?"
"...Maybe." You think back over it. "This does seem like the Stroke of Midnight tradition, doesn't it?" Stroke of Midnight is an unusual enlightened martial tradition that blends divination magic with swordplay, focusing all the user's extrasensory gifts on controlling the next minute of close combat.
The priesthood of Tal-Roshath never cared if their burgundy tunic sacrifices were seers. It didn't help. Instead of building a powerful soul worth sacrificing, something like Stroke of Midnight or other applications of divination just made an equally powerful warrior more annoying to sacrifice in combat.
"Well, if you're a seer, how does tomorrow go?" Zahira, ever practical, immediately wants to put your newly discovered gift to work.
You shake your head. "I don't think it works that way. You know seeing the future was never reliable. None of the old seers in the seer network saw the Great Dying happening, for instance. For anything beyond the next few minutes, I understand it's more like... see a possibility at random sometimes, then work to either make it happen or stop it." You drain your cup, then look dubiously at the bottom of it. "I'm going to go draw some more water."
- -
Samir crinkles up his nose as you step out to join him on the temple's front door. "Boss. You look like shit and smell like sweat."
"Better than the reverse." You're still rehydrating, and Kalju produced a little fruit from who-knows-where that was still in decent shape, so you have that with you, too. "Turns out I'm a seer."
"Huh. Didn't see that coming," Samir says, deadpan, before continuing more seriously. "Not something all that good for squad fighting, is it?"
"I'll have to think about it. Not right away, at least. Right now, I'm just going over our training and thinking about how to... move into the state I was in there. Reacting precisely to things with precision and before they happen would have a lot of utility, even if I don't have anything else I can do with it."
"Right." Samir nods. "It's not invincible, though, is it? Even if you do pull that out, you'd be vulnerable to... let's see. Being overwhelmed: too much power, speed, or numbers. An attack from outside of the range you're currently looking at. Taking a hostage." He looks like he's still fishing for more.
You crack a tired grin. "I don't get a 'good work, that's nice' or anything, huh? Straight to figuring out how to kill me."
He grins back, with more energy than you have right now. "We normal humans are getting outnumbered here, boss. It's just me and Dawn now." He suddenly loses focus, looking at something only in his imagination. "Oh, gods, it is just me and Dawn now. When did the world get so screwy?"
"I think it was when everyone stronger than us died."
"That could do it. And here we are, having grabbed just about everything we can from their corpses." Samir hops up to his feet, spreading his arms wide to encompass the entire city around you both. "Magic items, techniques, bending the ear of leaders and nobility... it's great. Boss, I know I had my downturns, but I'm eager to see tomorrow, now. You've got things wrapped up that I never would've imagined we could do. Whatever you've got to dazzle 'em tomorrow, I want to see it."
You look down at your again-empty cup. "More than anything else, right now, I just want to rest."
"That's fine! Do that first."
- -
The night is not a restful one for you. While your body is drained, your mind is still afire, trying to process what you've learned and hopes for what you can achieve in the future, especially with a new revelation about what you can do. Thoughts and hopes and half-baked plans rise up, mostly garbage and all too ill-formed to have any use.
After much tossing and turning, however, you do eventually drift off, and find that the dreaming world is no more relaxing. Unbidden, your foresight kicks in. You recognize this is no random dream, but the possibility of an unwanted future, where you're about to fight to the death with...
[] Dawn
[] Samir
[] Kalju
[] Zahira
- -
As an aside, I'm pleased that so many of you picked this option, but the question is burning me up: for those who did vote it, did you pick up on Azer's prior psychic revelations and play along, or just think it the best option at the moment?
You roll away, matching 'now' with what you saw. It seems right and proper to you, but Dawn is surprised. She's right on top of you, now, as she was attempting to strike while you were down, and now you're inside her guard. You strike with the butt of your sword against the inside of her wrist. She loses hold of her shield and backs up.
This time it's easier to get up; you manage to pull yourself to your feet. The room is still duplicated, but it's an advantage. Your physical body, your embodied eyes, are still dizzy from banging against the floor.
Kalju comes at you. Possibilities fork. One has him slice at you, using his longer reach to swing down with crashing force. The other has him choke up the polearm and fight with it as a quarterstaff. Which will happen? You blink. You can force it. You step in close. Kalju's hands shift, and it's the quarterstaff option.
He was hoping to take you off guard, as this is not usually his preferred style. Instead, you're ready for it, and block his first two attacks, one per end, with your sword and shield. You're close. You tangle your feet in his, and he trips.
Kalju is down. It's not that he can't fight, or that Dawn can't fight. They were only thrown off, just long enough for you to get past. You stride towards the cup of water. It explodes into steam. You head that off by throwing your shield like a discus at Zahira. She ducks, even though you missed her anyway, but it's enough of a distraction. You grab the cup, and whet your tongue with a single long draught.
All of maybe ten seconds have passed since you were flat on the ground. Your vision snaps back to normal.
The other three are on the ground, groaning. You join them, flopping down on the floor, lotus-style, almost hard enough to jolt precious water out of your cup.
"What the hell was that?" Dawn asks. "Was that that Untouchable Blade technique?" She looks at Kalju for confirmation; he actually faced it.
Kalju shakes his head. "No. Different."
You drink a little more. "I think it's how I avoided it, actually. I think I was seeing the future. Maybe?"
Zahira snorts. She's puling her hair back, trying to make herself presentable again after throwing herself to the floor. "So you're a seer, and like an idiot you never noticed until just now?"
"...Maybe." You think back over it. "This does seem like the Stroke of Midnight tradition, doesn't it?" Stroke of Midnight is an unusual enlightened martial tradition that blends divination magic with swordplay, focusing all the user's extrasensory gifts on controlling the next minute of close combat.
The priesthood of Tal-Roshath never cared if their burgundy tunic sacrifices were seers. It didn't help. Instead of building a powerful soul worth sacrificing, something like Stroke of Midnight or other applications of divination just made an equally powerful warrior more annoying to sacrifice in combat.
"Well, if you're a seer, how does tomorrow go?" Zahira, ever practical, immediately wants to put your newly discovered gift to work.
You shake your head. "I don't think it works that way. You know seeing the future was never reliable. None of the old seers in the seer network saw the Great Dying happening, for instance. For anything beyond the next few minutes, I understand it's more like... see a possibility at random sometimes, then work to either make it happen or stop it." You drain your cup, then look dubiously at the bottom of it. "I'm going to go draw some more water."
- -
Samir crinkles up his nose as you step out to join him on the temple's front door. "Boss. You look like shit and smell like sweat."
"Better than the reverse." You're still rehydrating, and Kalju produced a little fruit from who-knows-where that was still in decent shape, so you have that with you, too. "Turns out I'm a seer."
"Huh. Didn't see that coming," Samir says, deadpan, before continuing more seriously. "Not something all that good for squad fighting, is it?"
"I'll have to think about it. Not right away, at least. Right now, I'm just going over our training and thinking about how to... move into the state I was in there. Reacting precisely to things with precision and before they happen would have a lot of utility, even if I don't have anything else I can do with it."
"Right." Samir nods. "It's not invincible, though, is it? Even if you do pull that out, you'd be vulnerable to... let's see. Being overwhelmed: too much power, speed, or numbers. An attack from outside of the range you're currently looking at. Taking a hostage." He looks like he's still fishing for more.
You crack a tired grin. "I don't get a 'good work, that's nice' or anything, huh? Straight to figuring out how to kill me."
He grins back, with more energy than you have right now. "We normal humans are getting outnumbered here, boss. It's just me and Dawn now." He suddenly loses focus, looking at something only in his imagination. "Oh, gods, it is just me and Dawn now. When did the world get so screwy?"
"I think it was when everyone stronger than us died."
"That could do it. And here we are, having grabbed just about everything we can from their corpses." Samir hops up to his feet, spreading his arms wide to encompass the entire city around you both. "Magic items, techniques, bending the ear of leaders and nobility... it's great. Boss, I know I had my downturns, but I'm eager to see tomorrow, now. You've got things wrapped up that I never would've imagined we could do. Whatever you've got to dazzle 'em tomorrow, I want to see it."
You look down at your again-empty cup. "More than anything else, right now, I just want to rest."
"That's fine! Do that first."
- -
The night is not a restful one for you. While your body is drained, your mind is still afire, trying to process what you've learned and hopes for what you can achieve in the future, especially with a new revelation about what you can do. Thoughts and hopes and half-baked plans rise up, mostly garbage and all too ill-formed to have any use.
After much tossing and turning, however, you do eventually drift off, and find that the dreaming world is no more relaxing. Unbidden, your foresight kicks in. You recognize this is no random dream, but the possibility of an unwanted future, where you're about to fight to the death with...
[] Dawn
[] Samir
[] Kalju
[] Zahira
- -
As an aside, I'm pleased that so many of you picked this option, but the question is burning me up: for those who did vote it, did you pick up on Azer's prior psychic revelations and play along, or just think it the best option at the moment?