B 2 C 30: SAFETY AT THE END

I try to speak, but I’ve got a mouth and throat full of dirt. Since I wasn’t actually trying to consume it, it’s clogging up my esophagus. Normally consuming things teleports it to one’s stomach or whatever, but this is just manually packing my holes full of dirt. Dehlia taps her forehead and raises a brow at me. She also looks at me like she thinks I’m an idiot.

Dehlia beams a telepathic message into my mind, “Not necessarily an idiot. You did make the right choice. The choice of having me rather than your companions carve into your young draconic friend. I bear neither good nor bad news, but the young dragon wished me wait for you to deliver the news that your girls are within, and they won’t leave until you catch up. I can hardly fathom the love such a marvelous scalekin has for you softskins, but I could hardly begrudge them their request either, as the effort. Hm, let’s just say wasn’t as successful as we’d have liked.”

Choking back a sob, I send telepathic thanks to Dehlia, my eyes well with tears and they stream unbidden, unabated. I end up rambling, “Dehlia, thank you, thank you beyond words for what you tried to do, what you did, every last bit of aid you offered Lil, anything you’ve done so far. I can never express enough gratitude, no matter how this turned out. I’m sorry for every bit of this journey, and whatever life has taken from you. I’m sorry you had to deal with so many softskins when you seem to hate us so much. I cherish Lil in ways I cannot describe. I’ve never deserved their friendship, but they gave it freely, and I always tried to be better, open more doors, worlds, and possibilities for them, to earn that friendship.”

Dehlia interrupts me, “You weep for scalekind, not just your dragon, but, for me? What manner of softskin are you? Actually, are you even softskin at all? Hm, not quite scales. I’ve no recollection of any type of creature that you might be young friend, but I suppose if I simply stop thinking of you as softskin. No, no, I’m sorry, but no. As kind as you are, I cannot tolerate you or those other beings close to you. You should count yourself lucky if we never meet again. Should we meet again, it will likely be in the company of many more of my kind. Our magics would end your life before even a greeting was uttered. Goodbye, whatever you are.”

With that, Dehlia slithers away with a hypnotic sway, and I’m left literally eating dirt. I think I just made an enemy unintentionally. Or at least a hostile neutral party. If there were a faction conning, err consideration system, she definitely said her people regard me as kill on sight.

Lil, oh Lil, I’m so full of trepidation and nausea. I’m so worried about what I’ll find when I see you, but in such dire need to see you. I just need to get through this water, the great hall, the north section, and get to the meeting room that I’ve destroyed. I know that’s where my inner circle will be holing up. Oh hell how am I going to swim with only one limb. I guess I’ll have to just tendril thrust all the way to the bottom and along the bottom of the water.

This time, the guards only blink nervously as I pass them, they don’t escort or chase me into the dam at all. I make all the haste I can in my current condition, even still it feels like too much time passes before I’m greeted at the great hall by droves of beavers and beaverfolk. I have to sheathe my tendrils so I don’t hurt any of them, there isn’t any floor space to launch off of, but now I’ve just got one tired left leg to hop about on, in a throng of bodies. I’m about to summon my thunderstick when a loud bruxing occurs that draws the attention of all the other beaverkin present. Suddenly I’m sent toppling forward as the beaverfolk I’m unintentionally leaning on crushes to one side as if parting for me. In fact, the entire room seems to make just enough room for a straight shot to the north wing. I stand as best I’m able, using a combination of JT and FFS to lightly shove myself from prone to standing. I mutter a thanks that none of them can understand and hop and hobble my way through.

When I’m finally clear of the beaverkin, the spheres, the otters, the beaverfolk, and have an empty hallway, I resume tendril motion, flinging myself to and fro. Whatever was happening back there was serious business. Maybe the two factions were reconciling? I guess one can only hope.

My heart pounds with more intensity with each passing beat. It feels like the world slows to a crawl as I’m approaching the room. This alone is enough to get me to panic, as it seems similar to the time dilation of derezzing, but there is no accompanying sound. As I round the corner, I first spot Te in the back. Te’s eyes are glazed, blank, and far-staring. She’s shivering, shaking, her legs appear as wet noodles with chunky bits. I try not to vomit out of respect for what she put herself through. Lu sits in the opposite corner, sitting on her heels, rocking back and forth with her knees hugged to her chest. I don’t spot Lil at all.

Lil is okay, Lil has to be okay, they didn’t derez, they didn’t. They didn’t, they couldn’t, it’s, it’s not, their stats panel is still here. I look to Lu and Te, begging for absolution, resolution, answers, anything. They slowly notice my presence, at least Luni does. Luni rushes to Teuila to bring her to me. She shoves us both in one of the nearer corners as she sobs into my chest. Teuila looks stunned, dumbfounded, her fur along her cheeks is matted as if she’d been crying until she could cry no more.

Lu finally breaks the silence, but only telepathically, “We, we definitely cried ourselves out. I spent maybe half a year with Te in thinkspace, crying in there and out here. Reggie, the potion, the potion you gave Lil.”

I gulp, fearing the worst. My heart feels as if it’s going to explode as I await Lu’s continuance.

Lu continues, “It, it was for you, or, um, people like you. People, or well, any creatures that bleed.”

I pant, my vision tunnels as I struggle to gasp down air. My eyes are filled with sheer terror, I can’t see straight, everything blurs and doubles even in the tiny pinprick that is the tunnel of my vision.

Lu coos softly, stroking my cheek, trying to comfort me, “It’s not as bad as what you’re thinking. It’s just, the snake woman, the naga, Dehlia, when she realized that Lil wasn’t ‘of blood’ as she put it, she said the potion wouldn’t work, and not to waste it, that it’s a precious resource. She gave it back to us. She, well, she wasn’t kind, but she was honorable. She did everything she could for Lil. She knew about the types of wounds that never heal and drip away vitality, so she said we were right to ask her. She did her best, honest, I’m sure she did. If only because Lil’s a dragon. In the end, too much of Lil’s core was exposed though for safety. She, um, she taught Lil some scalekin magic as she put it. I, um, It’s kind of gruesome to think about, but Lil basically went inside out, they inverted into their core.”

Luni lifts her wrist flap to expose the beating crystalline heart that makes up Lil’s core. I want to hold the remnant of my dearest, oldest friend, but no words come forth. I want to ask so many questions, but no words come forth. I want to comfort Luni, to thank her, to comfort Teuila, to thank her, but no words come forth.

Luni knows however, Teuila finally perks up, but only barely just, and she too knows. Luni gingerly lifts Lil’s heart, their core, to me. I realize I don’t even have operable limbs to take it. I sag against the wall, but Lu helps me set my unresponsive legs in a fashion to form a crook between mine and Teuila’s, with hers loosely atop mine. Teuila has to be in utter agony. I think she had to shut her own brain off to deal with the pain, that’s why she has such a blank stare. I can’t blame her. I’m nearly ready to do the same. The funny thing is, right now, out of all the pains, my right wrist hurts the worst. I barely even have a right hand, and my right wrist hurts the worst. It’s not my pulverized rib cage, not the acid-eaten leg, not the broken arm. It’s the wrist that fractured and broke when wielding that ungodly dense greatsword.

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Lu starts to suggest that I drink the potion, but I shake my head. Teuila and I will heal, together. This was my mistake, I can live through it. Lu hands me the potion anyway, so I just claim it to my inventory, where it will be safe. Some day in the future, it will definitely save a life. Perhaps mine, perhaps another ‘of blood’ as Dehlia put it. That means there are more individuals out there that bleed. Maybe they’re like me? Was Dehlia ‘of blood’?

When Lu sets Lil’s core in my lap, something lights up in all of our mind’s eyes. Lil’s core has a timer, but that timer is nine thousand nine hundred ninety eight days. At first, I worry that it’s telling us Lil’s lifespan, but no, the timer is added to Lil’s stats page, and it’s definitely a hatching or rebirth timer.

That’s over twenty, over twenty five years. But Lil’s alive. I gaze around at the destruction I’d caused and sigh. Lil’s alive, but I’m basically a monster. Will they be able to forgive me, in three decades? Will they even remember me?

Lu says, “Before we let ourselves cry our eyes out, Te went around and got a bunch of lumber, and I did too. If you want to, you can still get some.”

I somberly nod. I ask, “Lu, are you alright for travel? Can you hold Lil’s core? We can’t stay here like this. I need to be able to care for Teuila properly. Te’s checked out dreadfully, and healing her legs is going to take months without radiant energy. Do you think we could, maybe, make an exception?”

Lu’s eyes shoot wide in terror as she virtually screams, “No, no, you can’t! Whatever you do, don’t use it up. Don’t use it, please, right now it’s toxic. Never use it again, until, until, you’ll know when.”

Lu’s terror confirms for me that the radiant energy is a limited resource, and that it’s corrupted. She wouldn’t want me to guess further though. When she rides my thoughtwaves, she calms down, knowing I trust her intrinsically. I gently angle myself to stand, when a fairly large time dilation hits, I panic, gazing about the room, worrying it’s one of us. The crashing, crackling cacophony comes from the great hall though. Luni and I gulp. We need to get out of here. I finish angling myself to gently stand in a way where Teuila ends up on my right shoulder. She’s light as a feather, thankfully.

Lu starts to fret, trying to offer to take Teuila for me, but I shake my head. She relents, and we begin our escape. I claim thousands and thousands of units of lumber on the way out of the dam, before and after the shrewdness in the great hall. I’d have called it an atrocity, but I don’t think I cared enough about the MCF that chose death over peaceful cohabitation.

It wasn’t everyone in the MCF, just the supposed true believers. The sane faction offered peace, as long as the MCF stopped trying to convert and subjugate members. When the MCF lost their leadership, they were rudderless, and rather than admitting defeat, they tried one last ploy to proselytize for their cause. The sane leader came up with a ploy in response. Since the MCF was all about the rebirth of their monstrosity, I mean, deity, then surely any true believers could die and it wouldn’t matter, for they could expect to be reborn. There was more subtlety to it, but that’s the gist I got from Luni. The MCF were backed into a corner, and so that’s when the sane faction weeded out the true believers, and put an end to them. Now there’s no more two factions. The ones that were subjugated, or just going along with the MCF for whatever reason, are all welcomed back to sanity as it were.

It’s a lot to take in in one conversation that occurs while running for what we thought was our lives. The sane faction is grateful, and even no longer hates me now, mostly. I’m not sure I want gratitude for having been a part of that.

We leave on fairly amicable terms, especially compared to what I thought would happen when I had gone berserk. I thought I’d just started an intersettlement war. I’m grateful that I didn’t.

We continue our journey home, regardless of their offer for us to stay. It’s too bad I can’t benefit from Luni’s travel song like this, her seven leagues song would get us home pretty quickly. The song however does not benefit tattoo tendrils, they’re intended as weapons, not a method of travel apparently. Just me being derpy using things for unintended purposes I guess.

We stop by to see Luna on our way home, she’s in decent spirits, but avoids getting physically close to us. I think she can tell we’re massively injured. I wonder if Luna understood the whole strife in the beaver dam. Or maybe she understood that one gross globule thing remained. Hm, that might even be why she’s avoiding me right now, if she can somehow sense it in my inventory.

While Luna is present, I pause our travel homeward to ask Lu, “Hey, Luni, um, you were in the pyramid. I’ve been barely maintaining my sanity about this thing, but I got a globule, that I’m pretty sure is like some kind of mind control rebirth resurrection seed for the Mind Blower. I want it destroyed, permanently. Do you know how to do that?”

The two Lu’s exchange a knowing glance, it’s a bit unnerving honestly.

Luni speaks up, “So, um, yeah, Luna can do the thing, she won’t need to do as big of one. Bring it to the pyramid, set it on top, make sure no one, and nothing, touches it, or we have to go through the whole thing again.”

I shudder, but I acquiesce. Exhaling, I ramble, “So, I guess we’ll continue heading home in the morning, but I think this is pretty massively important to handle too, don’t you Lu?”

Luni nods with quite a bit of fear behind her action.

We follow Luna back to the pyramid, and I get to witness her walking through walls. I’m about to whisper a thanks to Luna alone, when Luni tags along behind her, with a hand on Luna’s rump.

My heart pounds in terror. Luni was scared to go back in there. I thought she meant Luna could do it on her own. Luni, Luni come back, I’m sorry, I’ll hold onto this stupid ugly thing forever. I can’t lose you, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in danger again.

I gulp back as many tears as I’m able. I have to make sure we don’t waste whatever effort Luni is putting in inside this horrible mound of stone. I’ve been fighting terror about this whole ordeal for several days now. When I finally get home, I’ll take a day to panic, maybe a thousandfold day, then I’ll attend to Teuila with all my soul and being.

I summon the grotesque bulbous pustule of a thing from my inventory onto the top of the pyramid. I construct a stone box around it, so that nothing can come into contact with it save for the green light that traverses through walls. I stand a wakeful watch until noon when the light is finally released, and I hear the cracking, crashing of derezzing from within the box I’d constructed. I’m not even going to look to see if it dropped anything. I want this nightmare over with.

Now I just need to wait til Lu is free from this building once again at midnight. Well, until Lu and Lu are free of it. I have such a big apology to make. I stand on one foot, braced by my tendrils, with Teuila on my shoulders, from midnight til the next midnight. Teuila barely stirs, but I do my best to carefully feed her fish with a single tendril as I balance us.

Shortly after what must be midnight, Lu and Lu emerge, and I flood Luni with all the apologetic energy I have in my soul for having asked her to go in there again.

“Lu, Lu, I didn’t know, I didn’t know you had to go in with her, I thought, the way it sounded, Luna could just go in and hit a button or something, I’m so sorry, I’m so so so so so sorry.”

Luna swats me, which feels like it re-breaks several of my bones that had been starting to mend, and I whimper in pain. Luni absolves me, “It’s, um, it’s okay, sorta. I guess, just, just this one time, I had to kinda, maybe, be my hero, to put an end to this. I didn’t know I could. It, it was sort of nice. Like, I can see why I might become. Hm, can’t tell you yet. Sorry, Love.”

The fear and worry and pain and anger and sadness and sorrow and all other negative emotions flow from me like the oil off a duck’s back as they’re cared for by ecologists, being washed up, given a new lease on life. Again, weird analogy from my messed up memories. But the way Lu said that, with that accent, I swear I’ve heard it before.

Luni kisses my cheek. She then ushers me on as we say goodbye to Luna. She also tries to distract me with silly marching music. It mostly works, mostly. Thankfully, the rest of the way home is uneventful. I’m terrified of what Ag and Lao are going to think. We just came down here for wood.

Still, as scared as I am of their disappointment in me, there’s safety waiting for us at home, and I’ll do everything in my power to look after Teuila as she’d once done for me.