Amdirlain's PoV - Ijmti - Cloister of the Fallen
Though his blows repeatedly knocked her down, he pushed at her capabilities without being overtly damaging. What injuries he inflicted, Phoenix's Rapture healed before she even reached her feet. He used different forms, techniques, and weapons to keep her on the back foot and force her to adjust. She endured nearly a half day of Silpar's surgically precise combat instruction before the hall became crowded again. As more members appeared in the hall, Silpar called a halt.
Silpar motioned for her to exit the area they'd been using and started to split the circle back into its original four platforms. While he moved between the points that would cause it to break apart, Xarlon approached Amdirlain.
"A few have been trying to return the materials found for you to the shelves. Someone will watch over them now," advised Xarlon.
A rise in hostility emerged from a few themes in the corridor alongside the library.
Amdirlain noted them even as she nodded thanks to Xarlon. "I'll try to get through the material quickly so I'm not cluttering the place. I finished the barrel chest with the primordial bestiary."
"Take the time you need. They're being petty," stated Xarlon, and he gave her a wide grin and raised his voice above an average conversation level. "If they could decide worthwhile goals to undertake themselves, they'd find others also helping them."
"I've learnt of some more worlds that might need help against the Eldritch, so I'll see if I can find a way for others to help in those battles," said Amdirlain. Her admission made her the focus of dozens of the Fallen. "I've contacted some pantheons, and one of them provided me names where there is an ongoing battle. While my allies can summon me, getting older Fallen out onto the civilised worlds will be more problematic."
Because I'm certainly not going to risk letting anyone besides Silpar know that it's done through crystals.
"Let's not mention the leeriness that most celestials have about working with some of us," added Silpar. "Perhaps they can point us to isolated battle fronts."
"They are an ongoing issue, so I expect opportunities to arise," replied Amdirlain. "I'll put that to them in any discussions I have in the future."
"Might I join your training?" asked Xarlon. "The others are scouring the shelves at present, and I don’t have the same inclination towards learning as them."
"Who do you mean?"
Xarlon tapped his clear pendant. "Though not all those who benefited from your aid are present, all but me are currently searching the shelves. However, we don't all speak primordial, so you might end up with some primordial texts that don't cover the areas you need."
"Translation spells don't handle primordial well?" asked Amdirlain.
"At all, is more to the point," replied Xarlon. "I take it you've never tried it."
"I had that primordial language poured into my brain, you could say, so I never needed to try translation spells on it," admitted Amdirlain ruefully.
"Though the simplest translation spells can handle basic texts and casual conversations, you need high-level ones to deal with complex, sophisticated, technical or specialised cultural jargon," stated Xarlon. “The concepts included within the primordial tongue aren’t translatable by any Spell I know.”
"The Spell List I know that has translation spells caps out at an affluent education level. I've got a few tricks, psionics amongst them, for learning to communicate quickly," advised Amdirlain.
Xarlon grimaced. "I need to learn more communication powers to access native tongues. While my powers let me talk to anyone, I've put people off previously when my mouth hasn't moved in sync with the words I've been speaking. That aside, since the primordial language is so complex, it causes even the best translation spells to curl up in a ball and whimper."
Silpar, who had just been standing quietly while the platforms changed, motioned Xarlon to move into the newly re-configured circle. "Am's made progress, but try your skills against her, Xarlon. Not being her opponent will allow me to assess her objectively."
"Happy to help," said Xarlon, and he moved into the area with a grace that looked strange given his long, gangly limbs and elongated torso and snout.
Amdirlain eyed the reach of his limbs, spindly taloned fingers and deceptively slow movements. When they started, Xarlon's strike blurred in but lacked the force to deliver damage. As his gaze narrowed, Amdirlain grabbed him by the wrist and flipped him towards the edge, only for Xarlon to twist his motion in midair and land beside her.
Ignoring his awkward leverage, Xarlon hooked a leg behind her knee and tumbled towards the ring's centre. Moving with him, Amdirlain pinned his wrist to the ground and lashed out with an elbow strike, only to clash against a forearm block. The advantage went back and forth, and Xarlon's theme bubbled with his enjoyment. As they continued to spin each other through tumbles and exchanged pins, Amdirlain began to understand the rhythms within his movements.
* * * * *
When Amdirlain returned to her study spot high in the library, she found a second table beside the first. Both tables had stacks of books piled high, giving the impression of being balanced precariously. Among the shelves, thirty Fallen from a wide range of species were scouring through the works in the planar section.
The closest of them was a raspberry-skinned Elf with grey eyes and stark white hair. Like the others nearby, his pendant was clear of any blemish. He gave her an assessing look before he continued to review a stone cylinder the length of her forearm covered in ideograms.
As Amdirlain picked up the top book from those stacked on the table, she noticed Silpar collect the next along the shelf where he had last been reading. Though she had expected him to remain close, the malicious themes nearby had her tilt her head towards a lower level. "Are you going to play bodyguard even here?"
"Especially here," replied Silpar as he checked which direction the book's text ran. "You're focused on learning, not in an alert training mode."
The elven Fallen nodded in agreement. "Even if some disagree with Rahka's beliefs about you, sometimes frustration can lead to heated and hurtful actions. You may call me Helch, Am. I was in the Summer Court until my path led me to call this place home. A few of us will stay nearby while you study and guard the table to prevent spite from robbing you of information you might find useful."
"Xarlon mentioned it. Thank you all," acknowledged Amdirlain.
Are they helping simply because I helped them? What sort of reception would I have received if I had asked them to deal with one of those abominations?
"Helch, like Dagrastûr, could have returned to the heavens millennia ago," offered Silpar. "He argued the longest to be allowed to mentor you."
Did I give myself away?
Amdirlain paused with her hand on a thick-scaled hide cover. The roughness of it felt similar to some of the primordial fish she'd caught up in the feeding frenzy.
"You spoke so passionately, Silpar, I had to give way," said Helch, and she heard his voice through the pendant. 'It is likely just as well Rahka is too angry to think, given that True Song made the enchanted clothing you wear and conceals not one but two auras. Though I don't know if she even took the time to learn the spell lists that detect True Song energies.'
'Thank you for advising me, Helch,' responded Amdirlain, schooling all emotion from her face. ‘I’ve benefited from my association with the Lómë.’
Helch nodded politely. 'You might want to abandon whatever gifts they’ve equipped you with. Rahka is rash and doesn’t need provocation. Even if you were once Orhêthurin, a petitioner who returns to the wheel of life is never the person who they were. Only fools believe it so.'
'Sarah, I'll need to plan a time to drive my primordial, cold, and mundane materials resistances higher. I'll also need to replace my shadow vines and get something to restrain my auras unrelated to True Song.'
Amdirlain attempted to send the thought through the Allegiance Bond and received a delighted response.
I didn't expect that to work across so many planes.
With the others focusing on their examination of works before them, Amdirlain focused on the book she’d picked up. The author had penned it in the high elven script, a constant language across aeons. One after another, she consumed more texts with barely more than a glance needed for each page. When she stopped eight hours later, the mound of texts that had awaited her return was a single small stack of untouched books. Unfortunately, the materials she covered in her most recent study stint had repeated the work she'd undertaken to read first. While some of it had been new observations and assessments, it was unfortunately also content that Analysis had provided her. It resulted in minimal notifications of recent growth in her knowledge.
"What should I do about putting these back?" asked Amdirlain softly. "If I return them to the shelves, someone coming to help might put them back among my to-do pile."
"Good point, we'll need to organise something," replied Silpar, gently closing the book he'd been reading.
"I've also got a few other matters I'll need to tend to, along with seeing how Sarah managed without me," advised Amdirlain.
As Silpar moved towards the table, Helch motioned to him. "I'll sort out storing the works Am's read through. I'll set up a dimensional vault to hold them in so they don't get mingled."
Thanking Helch for his assistance, the pair departed. Exiting the fortress, they headed down the valley until they were beyond the wards. Once there, Silpar's Gate took them directly to Limbo, and they hovered in the strange blackness, watching the swirling sky overhead as the Gate's energy faded.
"To the medical facility?"
"A training spot of my own. I don't want to meddle or show myself to any dragons that might still be present," replied Amdirlain, and she plane-shifted them to Foundry. They appeared on the walkway around the central pavilion. The crystals' golden glow provided a peaceful, warm illumination that pressed the darkness into the distance.
"Sarah, we're in Foundry."
With that, Amdirlain released the Message Spell and watched Silpar consider the golden glow from the crystals that formed the central pavilion.
"I've only seen a few True Song crystals. Is it usual for them to shine this way?" asked Silpar.
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Amdirlain smiled. "That's because it's not been done before, at least according to my old fragmented memories and the Lómë."
Silpar looked around at the hovering platforms and the heavily trapped paths connected to zig-zagging staircases.
"A strange and dangerous place," noted Silpar, and he flicked his tail towards the nearest trap Amdirlain had spotted.
Amdirlain took in the millions of traps along the pathways with a smile. "It's been set up to train my Perception and Disarm Device skills. Along with my resistances if I fail to handle the traps."
"You could just sing them out of existence," noted Silpar.
"Since there are spell lists to detect True Song, I've got reasons to develop other skills," observed Amdirlain.
Moving over to the path's junction, she created a set of the tools Erwarth had taught her to use when they were invading the Dao settlement. Closing off Resonance, she took in the slope they had added between the central pavilion and all the connected paths.
"Who set this up for you?"
"Some of Moradin's celestials," explained Amdirlain as she let her gaze roam over the engraving worked into the stone's grain. "The last time I visited, they were having fun."
"You asked them to set up traps in a dimensional pocket?" muttered Silpar in disbelief.
Did he just think it was Bahamut that I’d dealt with? I mentioned others.
Amdirlain smiled. "It's small, but it's my second demi-plane, the first I made for someone else."
Kneeling on the walkway, she peeked over the side and found every ten-metre stretch had a different name carved into the side in celestial.
When she snickered, Silpar huffed questionly. "Amused?"
"It was suggested that in case their traps kill me, they should leave their name in a spot where it could be determined who was responsible," laughed Amdirlain. "They've got marks along the side and names in tiny script."
"How many traps to a section?"
Amdirlain shrugged. "I heard many mechanisms and magical runes, but I deliberately didn't pay too close attention. I told them to start with traps that a new apprentice could handle disarming. I hope they stuck to that, or this could get unpleasant."
Spotting a deeper shadow in the pattern, she slipped a thin tool inside only to hear a click, and a blade exploded upwards at a slight angle that fortunately missed her. As she pulled the tool back, the blade retracted.
"This could prove amusing," observed Silpar, and he sat down in the pavilion to watch.
"I wonder if they were considering elven reach when they laid these out," murmured Amdirlain.
Half an hour of work later, the trap's panel lifted upwards without being triggered again, as Amdirlain managed to deactivate the trap.
[Disable Device [Ap] (2->3)]
She was working on a spike trap beyond it when Sarah arrived, accompanied by Cyrus.
He paused to look over Silpar. "Are you her mentor within the cloister?"
"I have that honour and duty," admitted Silpar. "Though for me, it is more to ensure she remains safe among the more hazardous of our members. Her care to ensure that mortals were rescued and returned home speaks to her progress."
"Would you care to get to know each other while Amdirlain plays with some traps?" asked Cyrus hopefully.
Silpar glanced at Amdirlain enquiringly.
"It's a custom to spar to learn of a person's nature. Cyrus is the Immortal I told you about who has been helping me," clarified Amdirlain.
"I'd be delighted," said Silpar.
Cyrus motioned to the platform he and Amdirlain had used in the past for sparring, and she saw someone had built up the stonework and added reinforcement.
Big deal if it got a little damaged.
Spotting another gap in the paving ahead, Amdirlain crouched and looked it over carefully. Catching a glimpse of what looked like a keyhole inside it, she drew out a different set of tools.
"Having fun playing with their toys?" asked Sarah.
"I got a Skill level up. Go me," laughed Amdirlain.
Sarah's brows lifted. "Training at the cloister, I would have thought you'd have gotten a few of them."
Amdirlain nodded energetically and drew her hands back. "I did, and then one of them detected that True Song had made my clothing and concealed my auras."
Sarah huffed. "That's annoying. I'll need to experiment a bit. The shadow vines are easy enough to duplicate. It's the aura suppression that will be more challenging."
"They are meant to be a warning," called Silpar as he and Cyrus squared off against each other. “Though there is a way to control them, it has consequences.”
Do I want to know what those are? Maybe I’ll let them feel the auras when I’m in the cloister’s fortress.
"Or attraction," grumbled Amdirlain. "Though letting them out, I did manage to avoid anyone wondering why I didn't look like a demonic species they recognised."
"Big-eared celestials, are they all like that?" asked Sarah.
"Yep, so they tend to use the pendants for conversations."
Sarah tilted her head towards Silpar. 'I hope you can hear their conversations.'
'Yep,' reassured Amdirlain. 'But I can't hear a crystal spire in the library.'
"Let's sit down while the boys play and I'll tell you about the rehabilitation work and bodyguards I've arranged for their trips home," proposed Sarah.
By the time Sarah had gone over all the dragons she'd invited to help and their progress with the patients, Silpar and Cyrus had made a mess of the reinforced platform. Silpar's speed and strength were noticeably higher than Cyrus's, but the blows that struck did not impact the Immortal. The barrier formed by Cyrus's Willpower shed them like water off Teflon, and he continued to twist loose from Silpar's attempts to grapple him. Nevertheless, Silpar appeared to be enjoying the exchange of pointers.
Cyrus gave Silpar a respectful bow when the session ended, and the Fallen returned the gesture.
"Most interesting," said Silpar.
"I believe if you used weapons, I wouldn't fare so well," observed Cyrus.
Silpar chuffed. "But we weren't using weapons, and seeing where Am's skills might take her is interesting."
"Her style is very different from mine," countered Cyrus.
"She uses powers like yours, correct?" asked Silpar.
Cyrus nodded in concession. "How do you believe we should progress her skills?"
"Am flows like water tossed about in a storm," commented Silpar. "Never quite landing where I expect her once she gets moving, but getting her to start moving sometimes appears an issue. I suggested she consider her opponents as dance partners, which seemed to have worked somewhat."
"There are performers that use martial arts for dramatic effect," allowed Cyrus, and he waved Amdirlain over.
"You're in trouble now," laughed Sarah.
"Have you been telling tales out of class?" asked Amdirlain as she rose.
Sarah snickered harder. "Absolutely."
Amdirlain reappeared on the platform, and Cyrus drew out a pair of quarterstaffs. She expected him to toss her one, but he handed the spare to Silpar instead. "She will move freely when outnumbered, but she likes to stand still one-on-one, even against Eldritch creatures. It's a bad habit."
"Or she likes to shapeshift instead of pushing her skills," said Silpar.
"Your goal is to avoid contact," advised Cyrus, and he lashed out towards her head.
Amdirlain leaned under the blow and spun her body sideways when Silpar swept a blow for her legs. The two split up and flanked her. They didn't take turns going high and low but mixed in strikes and thrusts as they constantly increased the pressure on her ability to avoid them. Though there wasn't the slightest cue in coordination between them, their sparring put them on the same page as they never once clashed despite the increasing pace of the attacks they launched at Amdirlain. Blows knocked her out of the air and shoved her along the ground, and Amdirlain rolled with them and sought to match the timing in her motions. With Resonance promising an edge to regain her balance, she kept it tightly restrained and tried to read their intentions through shifts in their balance and focused intent.
It was Cyrus who eventually called a halt. "I've other students to teach. I trust there won't be a gap of years before we train again?"
[Agile [S] (165->167)
Dance [S] (9->15)
Devouring Cacophony [S] (179->180)]
"I've some demi-planes to populate, and then we can proceed again," proposed Amdirlain.
"That will give the others time to scour through the racks and have more for you to ingest," agreed Silpar.
"Make her sing up demi-planes while you're attacking her," suggested Sarah.
"Whose side are you on?" grumbled Amdirlain.
"Yours," laughed Sarah. "Challenge yourself."
Amdirlain wrinkled her nose at Sarah before she let out a disgruntled huff. "I could create a circle of gates to demi-planes and target the songs through them."
Sarah laughed harder still. Amdirlain opened a Gate for Cyrus in the proximity of Xaos, and he stepped through with a wave.
As Amdirlain closed up the Gate, Silpar hummed thoughtfully. "You create the demi-planes so fast you'd need a lot of gates."
A framework of tiny gates formed a dome around the training platform, each barely palm-sized.
Silpar's eye ridges lifted. "How many can you do at a time?"
"I'll handle them individually," clarified Amdirlain, and she waved towards the far end of the hundred-metre platform. "But if I'm down that end, I'll target one nearby."
Silpar spun the staff in his hands that Cyrus had left behind and struck a whistling blow at Amdirlain that she barely avoided. She ducked beneath the blow and felt it tug at her hair's ends, only to quickly collapse ahead of it as Silpar brought the weapon's end towards her shoulder. A tumble across the ground took her out of its path, and Amdirlain began to sing. The effort of the music made it paradoxically easier for her to focus on flowing around him, and she turned Resonance back on.
Rolling from another strike, she instinctively pushed with an additional note to block its path and flowed behind him. Silpar swatted at her with his tail to sweep her legs, but the gathered note warned her to hop. Flight anchored a midair flip that turned into a long dive an instant before Silpar attempted to pull her from the air. With her eyes closed, Amdirlain focused on the music around her and repeatedly slipped beyond his reach. Whenever he managed to make contact, Amdirlain rolled with the blow and spun about like a leaf riding a brutal gust of wind.
As Amdirlain acrobatically evaded or recovered from Silpar's attacks, Sarah's smile widened
As she completed each demi-plane, Amdirlain closed that Gate. Despite the eight-hour training session, Amdirlain still had thousands of gates available in the framework when new guests arrived.
Gail came through the Gate first, accompanied by Roher, Isa, and Ilya. Despite their elven appearances, it was the last two whose presence caused Silpar to halt his pursuit of Amdirlain and, frozen, he eyed the two planetars warily.
"Don't mind us, Silpar. Sarah already filled us in," called Ilya. "Do you want someone else to help chase her around?"
"You have me at a disadvantage, Celestial," replied Silpar.
Amdirlain rolled her eyes at Sarah's surprise. "Silpar, the last blond who came through the Gate, answers to Isa and the ebony-haired one you can call Ilya. Gail and Roher are Anar and Lómë, respectively."
Silpar's eye ridges lifted. "After Bahamut having come to see you, I'm not sure why I find celestials visiting strange."
Roher brushed his fingers along the crystal support of the pavilion before he took a seat near Sarah. "You should become accustomed to the unexpected around Am. As she said, my name is Roher."
"I'm honoured, Roher. You are the first Lómë I've met," said Silpar, and he glanced towards Gail. "I had believed the Anar all deceased."
"They were. My reincarnation was a bit unusual," offered Gail. "I'm Gail, or Gailneth if you need to contact me."
"They? But you are an Anar, correct?" asked Silpar.
"I'm one of the new batches the Titan has allowed out to play," laughed Gail. "Just needed a Goddess to mother me."
Silpar tilted his head in surprise before he nodded happily. "I'm glad you have divine protection. I'm sure some would wish you gone."
"I've got save points," quipped Gail.
"What brings you four this way?" asked Amdirlain.
Gail plopped down next to where Sarah had been working at the pavilion's table and put her head on her shoulder. "Auntie Sarah said you were singing, so we thought we'd come to listen. You completely blew past the number of demi-plane seeds you needed."
"We can make the chains of demi-planes longer," proposed Amdirlain.
"Fine, you blew past the number you needed anytime soon," countered Gail.
Amdirlain smiled ruefully. "I didn't have much else to do for a week."
"Except for trying to keep up with me while flying, and you wanted to challenge both powers at once." corrected Silpar.
"A minor detail, and I was challenging three powers, not two," said Amdirlain.
Silpar snorted and turned to Ilya. "How are your sword skills?"
"I hope to get them to evolve, but only Grandmaster ranked," replied Ilya. "I'm a very young Celestial. I have a few swords that won't break her skin or yours."
"Then, if you'd join us while the others listen to the singing that I assume Am has still been undertaking," invited Silpar, pointing to the gaps in the framework.
Gail, Isa, and Roher listened to the complex melodies Amdirlain sang while she avoided the pair's weapons. The challenge only increased after Cyrus returned and joined the fray. When the three finally took a break from sparring, Sarah brought out her combat drones, and Amdirlain sought to keep ahead of them.