You stare aimlessly at the elaborate fractal edges of the Barrier entrance as you mentally debate the pros and cons of doing some experiments here and now, working through a quick outline to try and determine the difference between time inside and outside a Barrier and an extensive dissection of a Familiar and...
"Yeah, let's go," you say, shaking your head to clear away the gathered wool. You'll have enough time later, you figure. You can always find another Witch, even, it's not like Mitakihara doesn't have enough of them. And you think you know what the Barrier's structure
is, so you can try that too - later.
Weee
eell, you have a
little time, right now.
"Um," you say, as Mami and Homura line up behind you, ready to enter the Barrier. "Actually, one thing?"
"What is it, Sabrina?" Mami asks.
"I'd like to try something with a Familiar," you say, turning around to face your two friends. "Since, you know, they're made of Grief, and I control Grief, so I figure there might be something there?"
Mami smiles at you. "That sounds like it might be interesting."
Homura tilts her head very slightly to the side, and nods slowly. "It might," she allows, a hint of interest entering her voice.
"So, yeah," you say, smiling at their agreement. "And, well, after I'm done with that... you know, if there's anything you ever wanted to try, but couldn't, maybe we could try it now?" You wave a hand at yourself. "I'm here, so cost, well," you smirk depreciatingly, "-
and there's three of us to watch each other's backs if we need to. So... I'm thinking, if there's anything that was too big, too impractical..." You let your smile widen into a full grin.
Mami's eyes brighten a little, her back straightening. "That's a great idea, Sabrina," she says, giving you a warm, delighted smile.
Homura nods again.
"OK then!" you say, and turn back to the glowing slit in reality. You suck in a deep breath and step forward.
The second thing that hits you like a wet slap to the face is the overpoweringly...
earthy smell, rotting meat and dung and something sickeningly
sulphurous, like a million rotting eggs. The
first is the repulsive, nauseating sensation of a Witch's Grief, all around you.
"Ugh," you comment, looking around at the landscape. Rickety old wood decking, crusted with a gummy, dried layer of disturbingly organic looking gunk, creaks under your booted feet.
Mami's nose is wrinkled in a genteel displeasure, and even Homura looks faintly unhappy with the
smell, looking around the surroundings of the Barrier with an tiny scowl on her face.
"Buk."
You look in the other direction, to find what looks like a perfectly normal chicken peering at you. Perfectly normal, apart from the fact that it comes up to your waist. It's standing near a low wall, one made of the same rickety wood as the floor.
"Buk," the Familiar announces decisively, turning away to peck at the wall behind it.
"Umm, Sabrina?" Mami asks.
"Right, right," you say. It seems like the Familiars of this Witch aren't hostile - then again, most aren't, until you attack. "Watch my back?"
"Of course," Mami says. Homura just bobs her head in quick acknowledgement, a heavy pistol appearing in her hand with a sharp click. Mami, not to be outdone, removes her beret and waves it over the floor in front of her, muskets sliding out to thump against the floor, balancing on their muzzles in stark defiance of gravity.
Marbles drift out of your bag, twirling into concentric, spinning orbits around you - a defensive perimeter of your own, just in case. You start forward, trotting towards the chicken Familiar with your arms outstretched.
"Um... here, chicken chicken chicken?" you say, feeling more than a tad ridiculous. You reach out with your senses, examining the Familiar closely. It contains...
You frown to yourself.
There's something that
might be a Witch's core, albeit one so minute, so fractional that it's nearly imperceptible. It'd... be fair to say that this is a
nascent Witch, which, well, it is. It feels... incomplete, incredibly so, something
essential to it missing.
"Sabrina?" Mami calls, a hint of concern in her voice. You'd been standing still, staring at the Familiar which is in turn still pecking away at the wall, sharp beak tearing out splinters of wood from the wall.
"Yeah, one last thing!" you say. You take a deep breath and reach out with metaphorical fingers, steeling yourself to try and
grab that core. You pause for a moment- and
slam your will down.
Mine.
Pain.
Pain, raw and jagged,
rips into your mind in a flood of white-hot agony, pounding upon you in a tremendous, sledgehammer blow. Your back arches, your breath driven from your lungs in a single, harsh scream. The searing attention of something
vast upon you.
Distant screams.
You're on your knees.
You utter
failure.
Did you really think so highly of yourself?
Do you hear that?
That's Mami, screaming your name. Shaking you.
You reduced her to this.
She would have been better
dead than stuck to your side.
You
break everything you touch. Every
one you touch.
You bend them to your will
because you know better.
Put her in a gilded
cage, where she'll be
safe.
Because you want to
protect her.
These are not your thoughts.
You snarl, calling your powers to yourself.
And you
scream with what little breath is in your lungs, a thin, thready sound.
Grief from your Gem.
It pours out, a syrupy, rippling torrent that floods into the air and instantly crystallizes into razor shards you spin around you and the two human forms near you in a tight, protective barrier.
Your breath, coming in harsh gasps loud in the echoing, dead silence.
A familiar, solid form, clutching at you with desperate strength.
"Sabrina? Sabrina, please, talk to me!" Mami's voice, shaking.
"I-I'm here," you gasp.
"Sabrina!" her grip on you momentarily becomes a bonecrushing hug, warm arms holding you close to her in a shaking grip.
Homura pushes a Grief Seed into your hand. "Here," she says in her quiet voice, a humming undercurrent of worried tension singing under her calm facade.
[] Write-in
=====
Ouch.
