Another bit. Been a while in coming, but at least it's got some length to it. Hope you all enjoy.
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I finish repowering the stones of Cleansing and Karma. I keep my life-flows pretty clean anyway, so Cleansing isn't too bad, but the backlash that Karma slaps me with gives that same horrible trapped feeling it always does. It'll fade in a little while, but for the moment, it's time to get out of the basement. I close down the workspace as hastily as I can without hurting anything, and book it up the stairs.
Okay. Okay. It's not so bad. I'm in the house proper now. There are windows. There are doorways - multiple doorways. There isn't any more of the entrapping Stone or grasping runework. I'm okay. I'm going to be okay.
I think I'll just step outside for a moment.
After fifteen minutes or so of breathing in the fresh air, I've shaken off enough of the effect that I can go back inside the house. I'm still not going to want to head back into the basement any time soon. That's okay, though. It's about time to start dinner anyway. I have a guest, which calls for something special, but there's not time to do chili properly. I'll throw some spaghetti together.
About half an hour of cooking later, the waif comes murfling down the stairs, making appreciative food-smelling noises. I let her help chop, while providing a lecture on the proper preparation of spaghetti. She lets me, which is nice of her, I suppose. It's also rather nice having an assistant. Everything becomes so much less... frantic.
Finally, then, the sausage is cooked, the vegetables are sauteed, the sauce constructed, the pasta boiled, and the cheese and grater are in their proper places. We, we admire, and then we eat, and the air is filled with chewing noises for a good solid fifteen minutes. Life is good. Life is very good. Still, I have some questions, and now's at least as good a time as any.
"Hethia told me that did some gentle healing on me while I was asleep. Thank you. I feel much better for it."
She beams at me, then swallows quickly. "You're welcome. It wasn't all that much. I just poured a bit of life into you."
The blood drains from my face. "You tapped yourself? For me?"
"Well, I guess you could put it that way. It wasn't really that big a deal. I did it all the time for my teammates back home."
I shake it off, hopefully before she notices. The ideas of karmic balance must be really warped where they come from. Still, that's okay. No reason to upset her, and every reason not to.
"Oh. Well, I thank you regardless. It did bring up a question, though, that I realized I hadn't asked yet. What do you do? What sort of powers do you have?"
She looks at me suspiciously for a moment, inhales, then sits with her mouth open for a moment before shaking her head and letting the breath back out again. "I hate to say this. I really hate to say this, but how do I know that you're not an elaborate shadow construct designed by one of the Lords of Darkness to try to get information out of me? They did this sort of thing all the time back home"
I stare at her for a solid minute. "Kid, there is something terribly wrong with the world you come from."
She shrugs apologetically. Fine, then.
"Listen, you're a Magical Girl, right? You look like you're a pretty experienced one, too. I'd be willing to be that you've got some sort of tremendously powerful purely magical attack."
She nods, cautiously.
"We'll finish the spaghetti real quick, step outside, and you can hit me with it. I'd bet there isn't a shadow construct on your world that can withstand even close to your best. I'd also bet that I can survive it pretty well. Fair trial?"
She gets a horrified look on her face. "No. Wait. I didn't mean..."
I cut her off. "Kid. Stop. I refuse to have you live in my house and doubt my reality. You asked how to be sure I wasn't a shadow construct. This is a way to be sure."
She doesn't look real happy. That's okay. I ain't real happy either.
Fifteen minutes later, we've cleaned up the meal. I'm standing outside, barefoot, wearing paint-spattered work shorts and nothing else. Let it never be said that I can't learn. I'm also standing on the grass, because the flagstones are a pain to get replaced, and I've spoken a few brief words of gentle greetings and explanation to the nearby Wood and Earth spirits. The girl is standing a short distance away, clad in her combat uniform, looking vaguely unhappy. Then she takes a deep breath and centers herself. I get ready to take the blow that I know is coming.
She gestures, and a shimmering ball appears in her right hand. She tosses it into the air, it homes in on me, and it shatters. I feel nothing.
"Kid, I know how magical girls work. That wasn't your limit. That one didn't even take an audible. Don't insult me. Be serious."
"Fine. You want an audible? You get an audible. Life's defender! Verdant strike!"
A bolt of green brightness launches from her outstretched hands and plows into my chest. That one I can feel, but it wouldn't slow me down in a fight. She's still holding back.
"Better, but still not your best. Try again."
She gets a serious look in her eyes. Right. *Here* it comes.
"Power of Light! Power of Truth! Lend me your strength! Searing Flames of Purity! Cleanse the Taint of the World!"
Okay. That sounds pretty strong, but hopefullly won't be *too* bad. I can deal with being violently cleansed. I think. The backlash from forging that runestone should mean that my flows are especially clean right now, and this might even help with the unwelcome passenger.
She draws into a classic "Channeling mighty forces" position - legs braced, hands together, body hunched over, eyes closed. I brace myself to take it.
Nothing happens.
Nothing.
After a moment, she pops one eye open. "Where is the Pillar? Why can't I touch the Pillar?"
...And that's when the previously mentioned wood and earth spirits tap gently on my metaphorical shoulder and ask me how I'm intending to *pay* for the nonconsensual channeling she just did.
Okay. Two entirely different crises about to happen here. Put one off, deal with the other one. First, to the spirits.
"I'll get back to you on that. For now, know that Vincent Keddington swears to make amends and be thou satasfied."
They are. I've always been scrupulously fair in my dealings with the spirit world. Being able to say things like that and have them mean something when I have to is more than worth the cost. I still can't believe how *stupid* some of the guys at school were. Anyway, next crisis.
I've been moving since the spirits gave me the nod, and I'm ready to catch her in case she pulls a repeat of that "collapse weeping" thing. My arms are even out to either side, for better reaction time. I'm ready.
She's just standing there. She looks up at me, with a somewhat rueful expression on her face.
"Well, I guess that's it, then. Without the pillars to call on, Verdant Strike really *is* my best."
Okay. No collapsing. That's good, I suppose.
"...and the forces of darkness already know a fair amount about my other powers, since I got them before Shadow Kamen left, so I guess I might as well tell you too."
"That wasn't the point, and you know it."
"Fine, then." She pouts a little. "You're not a shadow construct. They're all pretty weak, and would have been destroyed by the Verdant Strike. You're not an evil dream. Evil dreams always involve either more suffering or more direct temptation anyway. You're off the hook. Happy?"
"Thank you." I would have given her a bit of grief about it at this point except, well, there were more important things to talk about. "I do have to ask you a favor, though. Don't use Verdant Strike either. The tree spirits don't like it when you steal life from them."
"Steal? I didn't steal anything! The Forestlord gave me the right to call on that power!"
"...and the Forestlord you know is about as far away from here as your Pillars are, I suspect."
She is speechless for a moment. I let her recover.
"Right. Yeah, I guess he is. Okay. Tell me what I need to do to make it up to them."
I think I'm going to like this girl.
Well, it's late, anyway, and forest spirits always prefer to do business during the day, so we trundle on inside to sit down. It turns out that her powers are pretty much in channeling. She connects to a well of mystical energy and channels it for effect. She can do little stuff off of her own life, but anything impressive takes a donor, and she's fresh out of donors here. That, then, segues neatly into my next question.
"So now what?"
"Now what?"
"Yeah. Where do you go from here?"
She looks down and sighs.
"I go back home. Lord Trayal is dead, and they still need me. I wait for you do figure out what you're going to do about the Inheritance, and I go home."
She looks so tired as she says that. Then she lifts her head again - looks me straight in the eye.
"Any chance you might come with me?"
Oh, ow. I'm not going to enjoy saying this.
"Sorry, kid. I can't. I swore an oath to protect this place with everything I have. I don't break my oaths. Erath comes first."
"Could you... could you promise me that you will if somehow it turns out that you can?"
My mind churns. How am I supposed to answer that? How am I supposed to answer that with no warning, no prep time, asked point blank, answer right now? I've got a life here. I've got one Covenanted spirit and I'm about to bind to another. I've got the Force - they depend on me. Well, really I guess "depend" is a bit too strong. I'd be awfully hard to replace perfectly if I were gone, and it's real handy to have a guy like me around from time to time (Omega 5 being a perfect case in point.) but it's not like they couldn't deal with those sorts of issues in other ways if they had to. I've got a sister. She needs me. Might need me. Well... honestly, it's more like "needed"... and the last time she *really* needed me was a bit over ten years ago... and she's taken up the study of Krav Maga since then. I think she even married one of her instructors. It's been a while since the last time we talked. I've got.... I've got.... No, really, that's it I guess. It looks like mostly I've just got my spirits. Who could come with me, easily enough, since there's nothing tying *them* here but me. I guess....
"Okay. I promise. If somehow it turns out that my oaths let me go with you when the time comes, I'll go."
She goes from pleading to beaming in a heartbeat. An instant later the fabric of reality itself ripples. I just did something huge - something that was enough to reshape That Which Is strongly enough that I could *feel* it, and I have no idea what. I tense up - it's way too late, whatever it is, but I tense up anyway - and so I am *completely* unprepared when she tacklehugs me back into the chair. After another moment of paralysis, I gently hug back. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? And really, this is.... No. Stop that.
*Sigh*.
It's a few minutes later. She's nestled in with me in the chair. Our arms are still wrapped around each other. This... this really just won't do. I clear my throat. She looks up at me, all happy looking.
"Hmmm?"
She's *really*.... No. Stop that. I regather my near-shattered resolve. She waits patiently, still beaming at me.
"Okay. Right. Can we go back to the talking bit now?"
"Sure!"
She makes no move to... well... move. I take another moment to re-center myself.
"I mean, the bit where we were sitting in different chairs."
"But I like it here. It's nice. Feels good." She gives me an extra squeeze. "Doesn't it feel good to you?" She snuggles in a little closer, and keeps looking up at me, now with puppy-dog eyes.
"Well... I mean... that is...." Right. I obviously just can't deal with the two-front war right now. I close my eyes, and try to re-center myself *again*.
"Listen, just.... Please? For me? And please, please don't ask me to explain."
She's still using the puppy-dog eyes. I know she is. I can feel them through my eyelids. Then, suddenly, the warm, soft contact all along my left side is broken. I.... No. It's better this way.
"Well, okay. If you put it that way." I feel her lips brush my forehead. When I finally do manage to open my eyes again, she's back to sitting in her original chair, looking like nothing has happened. I stare at her for a bit, utterly failing to come up with anything meaningful to say, before I notice with a rush of relief that it's gotten late enough that I really *should* be getting ready for the ritual.
"But you said you wanted to go back to talking."
I cobble together some miserable excuse for an excuse and make good my escape.
Behind me, I could swear I hear giggles.
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As always, feedback of all kinds much appreciated.
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I finish repowering the stones of Cleansing and Karma. I keep my life-flows pretty clean anyway, so Cleansing isn't too bad, but the backlash that Karma slaps me with gives that same horrible trapped feeling it always does. It'll fade in a little while, but for the moment, it's time to get out of the basement. I close down the workspace as hastily as I can without hurting anything, and book it up the stairs.
Okay. Okay. It's not so bad. I'm in the house proper now. There are windows. There are doorways - multiple doorways. There isn't any more of the entrapping Stone or grasping runework. I'm okay. I'm going to be okay.
I think I'll just step outside for a moment.
After fifteen minutes or so of breathing in the fresh air, I've shaken off enough of the effect that I can go back inside the house. I'm still not going to want to head back into the basement any time soon. That's okay, though. It's about time to start dinner anyway. I have a guest, which calls for something special, but there's not time to do chili properly. I'll throw some spaghetti together.
About half an hour of cooking later, the waif comes murfling down the stairs, making appreciative food-smelling noises. I let her help chop, while providing a lecture on the proper preparation of spaghetti. She lets me, which is nice of her, I suppose. It's also rather nice having an assistant. Everything becomes so much less... frantic.
Finally, then, the sausage is cooked, the vegetables are sauteed, the sauce constructed, the pasta boiled, and the cheese and grater are in their proper places. We, we admire, and then we eat, and the air is filled with chewing noises for a good solid fifteen minutes. Life is good. Life is very good. Still, I have some questions, and now's at least as good a time as any.
"Hethia told me that did some gentle healing on me while I was asleep. Thank you. I feel much better for it."
She beams at me, then swallows quickly. "You're welcome. It wasn't all that much. I just poured a bit of life into you."
The blood drains from my face. "You tapped yourself? For me?"
"Well, I guess you could put it that way. It wasn't really that big a deal. I did it all the time for my teammates back home."
I shake it off, hopefully before she notices. The ideas of karmic balance must be really warped where they come from. Still, that's okay. No reason to upset her, and every reason not to.
"Oh. Well, I thank you regardless. It did bring up a question, though, that I realized I hadn't asked yet. What do you do? What sort of powers do you have?"
She looks at me suspiciously for a moment, inhales, then sits with her mouth open for a moment before shaking her head and letting the breath back out again. "I hate to say this. I really hate to say this, but how do I know that you're not an elaborate shadow construct designed by one of the Lords of Darkness to try to get information out of me? They did this sort of thing all the time back home"
I stare at her for a solid minute. "Kid, there is something terribly wrong with the world you come from."
She shrugs apologetically. Fine, then.
"Listen, you're a Magical Girl, right? You look like you're a pretty experienced one, too. I'd be willing to be that you've got some sort of tremendously powerful purely magical attack."
She nods, cautiously.
"We'll finish the spaghetti real quick, step outside, and you can hit me with it. I'd bet there isn't a shadow construct on your world that can withstand even close to your best. I'd also bet that I can survive it pretty well. Fair trial?"
She gets a horrified look on her face. "No. Wait. I didn't mean..."
I cut her off. "Kid. Stop. I refuse to have you live in my house and doubt my reality. You asked how to be sure I wasn't a shadow construct. This is a way to be sure."
She doesn't look real happy. That's okay. I ain't real happy either.
Fifteen minutes later, we've cleaned up the meal. I'm standing outside, barefoot, wearing paint-spattered work shorts and nothing else. Let it never be said that I can't learn. I'm also standing on the grass, because the flagstones are a pain to get replaced, and I've spoken a few brief words of gentle greetings and explanation to the nearby Wood and Earth spirits. The girl is standing a short distance away, clad in her combat uniform, looking vaguely unhappy. Then she takes a deep breath and centers herself. I get ready to take the blow that I know is coming.
She gestures, and a shimmering ball appears in her right hand. She tosses it into the air, it homes in on me, and it shatters. I feel nothing.
"Kid, I know how magical girls work. That wasn't your limit. That one didn't even take an audible. Don't insult me. Be serious."
"Fine. You want an audible? You get an audible. Life's defender! Verdant strike!"
A bolt of green brightness launches from her outstretched hands and plows into my chest. That one I can feel, but it wouldn't slow me down in a fight. She's still holding back.
"Better, but still not your best. Try again."
She gets a serious look in her eyes. Right. *Here* it comes.
"Power of Light! Power of Truth! Lend me your strength! Searing Flames of Purity! Cleanse the Taint of the World!"
Okay. That sounds pretty strong, but hopefullly won't be *too* bad. I can deal with being violently cleansed. I think. The backlash from forging that runestone should mean that my flows are especially clean right now, and this might even help with the unwelcome passenger.
She draws into a classic "Channeling mighty forces" position - legs braced, hands together, body hunched over, eyes closed. I brace myself to take it.
Nothing happens.
Nothing.
After a moment, she pops one eye open. "Where is the Pillar? Why can't I touch the Pillar?"
...And that's when the previously mentioned wood and earth spirits tap gently on my metaphorical shoulder and ask me how I'm intending to *pay* for the nonconsensual channeling she just did.
Okay. Two entirely different crises about to happen here. Put one off, deal with the other one. First, to the spirits.
"I'll get back to you on that. For now, know that Vincent Keddington swears to make amends and be thou satasfied."
They are. I've always been scrupulously fair in my dealings with the spirit world. Being able to say things like that and have them mean something when I have to is more than worth the cost. I still can't believe how *stupid* some of the guys at school were. Anyway, next crisis.
I've been moving since the spirits gave me the nod, and I'm ready to catch her in case she pulls a repeat of that "collapse weeping" thing. My arms are even out to either side, for better reaction time. I'm ready.
She's just standing there. She looks up at me, with a somewhat rueful expression on her face.
"Well, I guess that's it, then. Without the pillars to call on, Verdant Strike really *is* my best."
Okay. No collapsing. That's good, I suppose.
"...and the forces of darkness already know a fair amount about my other powers, since I got them before Shadow Kamen left, so I guess I might as well tell you too."
"That wasn't the point, and you know it."
"Fine, then." She pouts a little. "You're not a shadow construct. They're all pretty weak, and would have been destroyed by the Verdant Strike. You're not an evil dream. Evil dreams always involve either more suffering or more direct temptation anyway. You're off the hook. Happy?"
"Thank you." I would have given her a bit of grief about it at this point except, well, there were more important things to talk about. "I do have to ask you a favor, though. Don't use Verdant Strike either. The tree spirits don't like it when you steal life from them."
"Steal? I didn't steal anything! The Forestlord gave me the right to call on that power!"
"...and the Forestlord you know is about as far away from here as your Pillars are, I suspect."
She is speechless for a moment. I let her recover.
"Right. Yeah, I guess he is. Okay. Tell me what I need to do to make it up to them."
I think I'm going to like this girl.
Well, it's late, anyway, and forest spirits always prefer to do business during the day, so we trundle on inside to sit down. It turns out that her powers are pretty much in channeling. She connects to a well of mystical energy and channels it for effect. She can do little stuff off of her own life, but anything impressive takes a donor, and she's fresh out of donors here. That, then, segues neatly into my next question.
"So now what?"
"Now what?"
"Yeah. Where do you go from here?"
She looks down and sighs.
"I go back home. Lord Trayal is dead, and they still need me. I wait for you do figure out what you're going to do about the Inheritance, and I go home."
She looks so tired as she says that. Then she lifts her head again - looks me straight in the eye.
"Any chance you might come with me?"
Oh, ow. I'm not going to enjoy saying this.
"Sorry, kid. I can't. I swore an oath to protect this place with everything I have. I don't break my oaths. Erath comes first."
"Could you... could you promise me that you will if somehow it turns out that you can?"
My mind churns. How am I supposed to answer that? How am I supposed to answer that with no warning, no prep time, asked point blank, answer right now? I've got a life here. I've got one Covenanted spirit and I'm about to bind to another. I've got the Force - they depend on me. Well, really I guess "depend" is a bit too strong. I'd be awfully hard to replace perfectly if I were gone, and it's real handy to have a guy like me around from time to time (Omega 5 being a perfect case in point.) but it's not like they couldn't deal with those sorts of issues in other ways if they had to. I've got a sister. She needs me. Might need me. Well... honestly, it's more like "needed"... and the last time she *really* needed me was a bit over ten years ago... and she's taken up the study of Krav Maga since then. I think she even married one of her instructors. It's been a while since the last time we talked. I've got.... I've got.... No, really, that's it I guess. It looks like mostly I've just got my spirits. Who could come with me, easily enough, since there's nothing tying *them* here but me. I guess....
"Okay. I promise. If somehow it turns out that my oaths let me go with you when the time comes, I'll go."
She goes from pleading to beaming in a heartbeat. An instant later the fabric of reality itself ripples. I just did something huge - something that was enough to reshape That Which Is strongly enough that I could *feel* it, and I have no idea what. I tense up - it's way too late, whatever it is, but I tense up anyway - and so I am *completely* unprepared when she tacklehugs me back into the chair. After another moment of paralysis, I gently hug back. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? And really, this is.... No. Stop that.
*Sigh*.
It's a few minutes later. She's nestled in with me in the chair. Our arms are still wrapped around each other. This... this really just won't do. I clear my throat. She looks up at me, all happy looking.
"Hmmm?"
She's *really*.... No. Stop that. I regather my near-shattered resolve. She waits patiently, still beaming at me.
"Okay. Right. Can we go back to the talking bit now?"
"Sure!"
She makes no move to... well... move. I take another moment to re-center myself.
"I mean, the bit where we were sitting in different chairs."
"But I like it here. It's nice. Feels good." She gives me an extra squeeze. "Doesn't it feel good to you?" She snuggles in a little closer, and keeps looking up at me, now with puppy-dog eyes.
"Well... I mean... that is...." Right. I obviously just can't deal with the two-front war right now. I close my eyes, and try to re-center myself *again*.
"Listen, just.... Please? For me? And please, please don't ask me to explain."
She's still using the puppy-dog eyes. I know she is. I can feel them through my eyelids. Then, suddenly, the warm, soft contact all along my left side is broken. I.... No. It's better this way.
"Well, okay. If you put it that way." I feel her lips brush my forehead. When I finally do manage to open my eyes again, she's back to sitting in her original chair, looking like nothing has happened. I stare at her for a bit, utterly failing to come up with anything meaningful to say, before I notice with a rush of relief that it's gotten late enough that I really *should* be getting ready for the ritual.
"But you said you wanted to go back to talking."
I cobble together some miserable excuse for an excuse and make good my escape.
Behind me, I could swear I hear giggles.
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As always, feedback of all kinds much appreciated.