Tuesday's Disquiet — 10.2
"There's a lot I want to know."
Then ask, and I shall answer.
There was a tension in the air. He sounded eager, like he'd spent months waiting for this moment… no, she supposed it had been years, if not decades. Thinking about it, Tenman was a god of knowledge, so there was no surprise that he'd want to help her like this. Especially after being locked up for that long, without any way to act.
That was a hopeful way to think about it, but she figured she should at least
try to see things Dia's way. It had felt nice.
Her guilty conscience was nagging at her, first of all.
"Where exactly
am I? Where are Io and the others?"
Your ally, Yukari, has already proven her worth. She declined my hospitality, and is forcing her way outside. I have provided distractions. Rest assured, she will return unharmed.
"And Io?"
There is interference.
— — —
She didn't want to lose anyone ever again.
The world flickered, again and again. She was no longer watching anything describeable as a memory or fantasy, but neither was she conscious of that fact. Io had dredged her soul to its limits, then been subjected to a power acting to deny its own presence, and she lacked the faculty to recognise her situation. It wasn't very different from dreaming.
She wanted to be someone who could protect them.
The embers of her soul settled into a pattern. The damage done through reckless use of power was unrecoverable, but not necesarily fatal. She was still, potentially, sane. The channels burnt, though wide, were still survivable. There was enough data remaining.
She didn't want to helplessly stand by. She didn't want to gnash her teeth and wail.
It could hardly have been otherwise. She had remained awake, and lucid, until she had been forced asleep. If you set your mind against reality, it is rarely reality that bends, but she'd had help by way of Nicaea. Pure will and determination had taken her beyond where it could help her.
She wanted her normal life back. Her simple, joyful, sometimes boring life.
She had help right then and there.
— — —
"Io!"
Blink.
"Io? Are you awake?"
She was. She was…
Her tongue felt thick, and refused to move right when she tried to talk. She had trouble keeping her eyes open as well, but she'd gotten at least a glimpse of the world. Such as it was. The world was dark, and filled with pulsing reddish veins, and somehow she'd ended up in a much larger space than even the cave where they'd fought the kobolds, but she'd been able to see Teagan's worried face. She felt a little safer for having done so.
"Well, isn't this interesting." A woman's voice, cold, but rich with amused overtones. Who?
"
What did you do?"
"Do not make baseless accusations, youngling. I have done nothing." There was a creaking of roots as the woman moved around, and Io felt someone bending over her. Her presence loomed impossibly large. "I will abide by the agreement. This outcome is due to circumstances outside my control. If there is blame to be had, I would say it is yours, or do you not recognise this form?"
An invigorating chill filled her body, like she'd drunk from a cold, winter brook. She shivered.
"That should force her at least half-awake. She'll have to go the rest of the way on her own."
"…Half?" Io scraped out. Her mouth still felt like it was full of sandpaper, but the woman—okay, obviously demon—was right; she didn't quite feel like herself. The burning anger that had driven her for days had disappeared, and instead of the despair that she knew lurked beneath it… she felt surprisingly good, actually. It was still there, but it felt muted, like it was someone else's. Unfocused, anyway.
"What happened to me? Who're… Teagan?"
She opened her eyes. Teagan was right next to her, but
larger than her, and staring. The woman had felt large because she was a
giant, filling most of the—
this was still the same tunnel, she had just shrunk. She jumped to her feet, looking wildly around—she was
standing on her own chest, and—
Teagan grabbed her in a tight hug, squishing her wings. It felt…
Wings?
She gave them an experimental twitch. They felt like they were part of her.
Wings. Right. She hadn't been deaf for that conversation.
Too much, too fast.
Only her parents hugged her—she definitely wasn't supposed to have wings—but there was someone here whom she didn't trust at all yet, so she had to retain her composure and think. The hug felt good, but… painful. Slowly, wishing she didn't have to, she disentangled herself from Teagan and looked up at the woman.
At first glance, she was a normal businesswoman. Black suit, black hair, someone you wouldn't give a second glance if you saw her on the streets. Just a normal, Japanese salarywoman. Pretty, in a common sort of way; Io could have named three or four girls in her school who were prettier, and another half-dozen who thought they were.
If she hadn't remembered the touch of her power, from just moments ago, Io might actually have thought she was looking at a normal person. Even knowing that she wasn't, it was only the cold glint in her eyes that gave it away. If she hadn't been a thousand times their size, she supposed, but that was just her being… small. Pixie-sized.
"Satisfied?" The giant crouched down before them, a smile on her lips. "Now, let me think. What to do…"
Teagan gave a start, speaking hurriedly. "Io, the reason you're—"
"None of that."
—
What?
Teagan had frozen in mid-sentence. Only her eyes were moving; Io could see them, glancing quickly between her and the woman. Then they froze as well.
"Well, I promised I wouldn't be unfair, and it would be terribly unfair if the den mother gets to hear our negotiations when you couldn't hear hers. They call me Mab, by the way, and there are some things you should know. For example, your new form."
There was a thunder in her ears, which she distantly recognised as her heartbeat. They were under attack. Teagan had been frozen, and—she couldn't
do anything, her best fireball would be less than a matchstick—
She hadn't wanted that. Her hands fumbled at her side, as she took a wavering step backwards. Then she stumbled, on a bit of clothing, and almost fell over backwards—caught herself with a flap of her wings—and ended up on her hands and knees, after nearly going head over heels in the other direction.
"There's no need for that," Mab said, sadly. "I expect you will both be on your way soon enough. I am the queen of ice and darkness, guardian of the gates, and it does me no good to harm someone who's so conveniently putting herself in harm's way and doing my job for me. That goes for both of you."
She nodded at Io, who was just scrambling back to her feet. "Though I might indeed have resented the draw on my time, were you not the most interesting being I've stumbled across for years. Keep that in mind, should Teagan choose to repeat her gambit."
That made her feel a little better. She kept glancing at Teagan, though.
"I wonder what the Tenjin was going for," Mab mused. Frost condensed out of mid-air, forming a mirror in the air in front of her. "It can't have been this, useful as it is. See for yourself."
In it, she could see… someone. Not herself.
She was standing on top of her own chest. Her body was still breathing, a fact for which she was intensely grateful. That motion made her undulate upwards and downwards, while the mirror hovered in place, and so allowed her to see most of her body without moving a muscle.
I'm tiny. That was her first impression. She'd known that already, but she could probably fit in her own pockets. Well, Teagan had done that on occasion, and she was shorter than Teagan now. Next…
I look like Teagan.
Same insectile wings. Same monochromatic eyes, red where Teagan's were blue. No whites. Same clothing, almost; thicker and heavier, with metal insets, though it didn't feel heavy at all. There was a needle-like sword at her side, she noted; she'd almost drawn it earlier, even though she hadn't known it was there. She'd never touched it before in her life, but somehow she knew how to use it.
She still looked a bit like herself. The shape of her body was the same, as was her face, but everything else…
Mab's voice drew her out of her fugue.
"You've hatched nicely, I'd say. That body… your Teagan is a den mother, but I've seen its like in her knights. You should find it quite capable. As to the other, it will not wake anytime soon. I do not believe you need it. So, to business."
Mab grinned. It showed a few too many teeth.
"Teagan promised that, should I save your life, she would join the Winter Court with all of her flock, and with that body you certainly appear to be part of hers now. She did so without first consulting me, however, and I am disinclined to accept. I don't believe you would do well in my court, and aimless destruction gains me little. No, there is only one thing I want from you."
"…What?"
"Excellent question! So, I'm sure you noticed the end of the world. Fire, brimstone, sun going away, et cetera et cetera. That was something I'd seen coming, but had no way of preventing. I want to know why it didn't end all the way, and I'd like you to find out. Then, I'd like you to assist with the appropriate countermeasures." She smiled. "A small price for your life. Do we have a deal?"
The business suit-clad woman leant down towards Io again, holding out a single finger for her to shake. Even then, it looked too large for her to get her hands around.
"Don't worry about Teagan," Mab said, when Io glanced at her frozen body again. "I'll release her the moment we have an agreement."
This felt
far too much like making a deal with the devil. Though it wasn't like she hadn't already planned to figure all those things out.
[ ] …All right.
[ ] Write-in
— — —
"Interference? What kind?"
That information is privileged.
"Anything you can tell me?"
Many things. Relating to Io, nothing. Her status is restricted.
Drat. All right. She'd just have to hope that Io was doing well, she supposed, but this made her feel a little impatient. She'd better hurry up.
"What exactly do you mean, 'Catalyst'?"
The catalyst has existed for multiple cycles of the world. It is a pseudo-intelligent artifact whose purpose, assumedly, is to grant the wishes of the user, given that the user fits certain criteria.
But—
The specific criteria are unknown.
The
humpty lock was a wish-granting device? That didn't seem right.
Nyarlathotep and Philemon have each carried one half of the catalyst, which they used to—
Its voice broke off.
I cannot say.
Amu sighed, feeling every one of her ten years weighing down on her.
Of course not. She thought she had it figured out now: Tenjin wanted desperately to tell her, either to help her release it or just to teach anyone anything, but the seal put on top of it would stop it. She was even starting to get an idea how that had been made.
"What would happen to people's charas if you were released?"
Nothing. However, no more charas would be born.
Check. That would be a little sad.
"And when you're talking about granting knowledge? How exactly does that work?"
His not-voice grew some further emotional undertones as he answered.
In any strict sense, I do not. Knowledge given freely is a worthy gift, but I am the god of learning, not of gifts. I would ensure, for those who worship learning and to the limit of my power, that their quests for learning are not stalled for reasons not of their own. In the past, I have taken great joy in nudging children towards finding the books, or the teachers, that best suit their individual abilities.
Essentially, like every other god Amu had heard of. Wait…
"Three years ago." She gulped. "When I visited the shrine. Did you nudge me towards Yui, somehow?"
She was the best teacher I could arrange.
She… had been, hadn't she. Amu had been a complete wallflower before meeting Yui. And when she thought about it, Ran, Miki and Su were all modelled after aspects of her. If it hadn't been for Yui, she didn't know what would have happened… she wouldn't have been the same person at all.
I could not have done so, except for luck.
"…Thank you."
Silence, while she drew a deep breath. There was still one last confirmation to make.
"…What is the seal
for? Besides restricting you. Who made it? How does it work? And I suppose I should ask, what did Nyarlathotep and Philemon offer you?"
Many of those are the same question. I do not know its original maker.
She'd thought as much, and wasn't it
interesting that he could tell her that. She'd hear him out, to be sure, but there was someone else she should also ask. Something else. Specifically, she wanted to know what "protocol match" meant, when it had said so. It
was listening in, right?
Protocol match: Connection remote is running the same mediator codebase as you, differently configured; version 2.718.28 β182 "Sera". There are signs of an additional proxying layer. Attempting to compensate.
Lovely. So, the humpty lock that Tadase had gifted her with was quite possibly going to lock her up in the same way it had locked up Tenjin. Maybe not, though.
Exa?
There's no sign that it's attempting to restrict you, Exa said. It sounded… ashamed?
I will keep an eye on it, but there may not be much I can do if it changes its mind.
She rubbed her forehead.
Okay. That made it extra important to pay attention now.
"So, it's given you the ability to create Charas. More specifically, Philemon and Nyarlathotep's gift did that."
Correct. I can not, on my own, allow children to grow beyond the limits imposed by their own minds. After centuries watching the consequences of that, I was ready to take the opportunity when it was offered, and I did not pay close attention to the restrictions that Philemon added. I should have expected, given their nature, that anything which could make them cooperate would be of dubious value.
She perked up. "You know more about them? Oh, of course you do. I'll need to ask you about that later."
That would be acceptable.
She asked a few more probing questions, just to establish that the seal
was in fact the same thing as her lock and Ikuto's key—which, apparently, they'd
gotten from Nyarlathotep, one of the two—without making it too obvious that that was what she was doing. She wasn't sure she'd succeeded at that, but whatever; it was in Tenjin's best interest not to mislead her, and she was feeling rather good about him, overall.
Only, this probably meant she needed Ikuto's help to free him. He was the one with the literal key.
What to do…
[ ] Ask another few questions? (Write-in)
[ ] Tell him you need to leave.
- [ ] In order to get help to release him.
[ ] Write-in
A/N: Whee.
