Anywhere else, I’d be afraid of waking the neighbors with a somnambulance-shattering din. Here, next to Victo, on Rayileklia, in the Imperium? Here I wish they’d wake up. That their bodies would wake up to their souls in the morning. It’s only a wish though. Those souls are trapped in some Babylonian tower in Navica. We really need to permanently disable that tower at some point. We’re probably not ready for whatever guardians the Celestial Emperor has managed to drag into his service though. Even if we were, Dawn’s soul is still in jeopardy, and all the Aasimovian Ancestors with it. I also slightly worry that; even though we resisted our souls being pulled out here, that getting closer to something as large, as soul-hungry, as wide-ranged as that tower, might be a risk.
I spare a furtive glancing smile towards Dawn, unsure how she’s feeling at the moment. There’s a mild hope that we’re all holding on to, but I don’t know if that’s enough. Still, she’s sitting fairly comfortably, and playing with her cloak to make it randomly billow. I suppose she might be trying to live in the moment. Anyway, since Percy and her are situated, Teuila and I will get in after we hook up whatever creature this thing summons. Otherwise I might have to try lassoing a fireball or using it as rocket propulsion. We’ll get to that in a bit though, when Teuila’s done having her fun.
Teuila continues to assault the tower from alternating angles, easily shifting back and forth with leaps and dives. At this very moment however, she’s standing on one of the higher remaining floors, launching haymakers at the walls. I bite my lips at the humorousness of it, but also because I’m slightly nervous that anyone who still has their soul could be nearby enough to show up and get clobbered in the skull by a fast-flying brick when Teuila hits them from the inside. I suppose the sounds would clue people in not to get closer though, since she’s punching in a circle.
I’m mostly waiting until Teuila finishes having her fun so that we don’t spook whatever creature we summon. I’m slightly anxious to get at those books, papers, and tomes. I don’t recall reading anything at all in this life, or my Can’Z’aasian life, other than my own memory logs. Even though I don’t recall, somehow I believe that I have a fondness for reading. My brain says that I used to enjoy reading. When? Stupid mysterious memories. It certainly wasn’t enjoyment whenever I had to reread my own logs to simply avoid forgetting important things.
Hm, lost in thought. Teuila’s already down to the ground floor. If she caves that in, the acid should mostly dissolve the stone that falls in, and the foundation. Hopefully it doesn’t make its way to ground water. I think we’re on a bit of a hill, so it’s probably not an issue. Yup, there she goes, one last leap to cave in a bunch that she’d knocked down to the ground floor. Now she’s simply floating upwards gently while laying lazily in the air, waiting for the dust to settle. I shake my head and roll my eyes while laughing.
I’m pretty certain I hear Dawn exclaiming, “Holy shid Boss.”
Chuckling, I wave Teuila on over so we can get this show on the road. Teuila saunters my way, so I flick the the token towards the front of the carriage as I whisper my intent for it to activate. What pops forth is a tad unexpected, and now I’m sorry I didn’t save the token for an emergency. A fairly impressive creature that looks a tad like a miniature wingless roc appears. Ah, I should have waited for Teuila to get here, what if it bolts?
Te admonishes me, “Dink, you airhead, what if it, oh hey, I like that. Dink, can I start calling you airhead instead?”
She tries to admonish me at least, hah. I nod as she moves on to a new nickname for me. She hadn’t been using Dink all that long, a few days, maybe a couple of weeks. Still, I love pretty much anything that comes out her mouth. And suddenly I’m once again grateful Luni is not currently in my head. Phrasing.
Still, despite that, the creature simply stands almost perfectly still. I swear it has glowing runes floating about it. Hm, the aura vision spell shows digits counting down as a repeating pattern of runes. Perhaps that’s how long it lasts. When Teuila waves to draw its attention to her, it turns its head. When it turned its head, the digits counted down ever so slightly faster. Seems like it’s some sort of power source limit. Running will probably drain it faster than walking, possibly even disproportionately so, but we want to make all-haste towards the other magical societies. Any chance to save Dawn.
I raise an eyebrow, but Teuila motions me to stay put, and quiet. She all-too-cautiously circles the creature, and then carefully begins to attach it to the yoke and reins. It makes no move to stop her, it just watches her curiously. The summoned steed continues standing placidly, and continues. Teuila orders it to begin moving, and it continues standing placidly. She tries the reins, yet it still continues to just stand there. Is it stubborn? Or, wait. Magic items.
I call out, “Friend, would you mind heeding Teuila’s commands? Hers, that one right there. Please.”
You probably don’t have to ask your magic items politely, but it never hurts. Who knows which ones are sentient or sapient. Our quarteroc nods to my request, and then looks to Teuila for orders. The magic in the token didn’t conjure a living creature, or even an avatar for a celestial creature. Rather, it sort of temporarily made a construct from the mana nearby. That construct apparently comes preprogrammed to do nothing other than follow the orders of its summoner. Huh.
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Well I’m glad for that. I’d have felt guilty if I was temporarily summoning someone from their home or something, then being all like, pull us around. Yeah I don’t think I could do it. Let’s change topics. Hup, up on into the cart, with Teuila driving. I’d have asked if Dawn would want to drive, since she can stay up all day and night, but, well, we’re all worried about when her senses will come and go. She has everything back for now.
Teuila calls down to us in the cab, “Hey Airhead, Percy says one of those books only opens for a magic hand. I think he’s being literal too. Thinking what I’m thinking?”
I smile as I chuckle, “Yup.” I’ll save it for a bit later though. One with a magical lock is all the more likely to contain runes or scripts I don’t know yet. Let’s start small. Hm, this book seems slightly enchanted on its own. Copper plates are a bit of a weird binding, and the pages of the libram itself appear to be linen rather than paper. What an odd bookbinding method. Caeuscosylil's Folio, Libram Lingua. That sounds promising for someone like me who has been balked by language barriers most of both of my lives.
It seems like I’ll be studying this quite a while. There are words that flow from the runes into my mind as I read it. The outer edges are all runes, while the core body of the writing seems to be senseless drivel. It’s likely essentially the raw translations of all the runes and runotypes. Thankfully, it’s not overloading my mind, even though I sense the bulk of the knowledge flowing towards me as I read. It doesn’t seem to teach itself to me in understandable segments though. Everything is jumbled. I think it will take absorbing the whole book to understand. We’re in for a bit of a boring ride aren’t we now Reggie? Yep.
Oogh, have I been reading all morning? Teuila is pulling up to a stop, and telling the quarteroc to rest up. Huh, through the slat, it appears as if the quarteroc’s countdown is paused while it’s resting up. Neato. Hm, we still won’t get all the way to the Hidden Heart though, based on those values. It’ll take us another six days to get there at these rates, but the creature will only last five. Still, we can enjoy not having to mudcamp while it lasts. We’ll ditch the carriage somewhere when we run out of.. Horsepower. Sigh. I huff as I glance around. I’m only somewhat glad that no one’s riding around my telepathic thoughts right now. I’m sure I’d be teased for the accidental wordplay.
Even though we don’t have to mudcamp though, it’s going to be quite snug with the four of us in here, taking a nice long snooze together. I hope Dawn doesn’t think that I planned this part. I didn’t think this far ahead. I also didn’t know we’d be adopting a shrub into the party. Percival the Potted- Sonnova. Plant. My brain just blue-screened so hard. Something about evil in the tri-state area, and a catchy jingle? Ugh, ow my head.
Dawn elects to shuffle around so that she shares a side of the cabin with “Boss.” That’s fair. I won’t begrudge her her comfort zone. Still, Percy and I don’t exactly make grand bedfellows. I don’t know if he sleeps, so it’s just really awkward with him hovering in the same position he always does, slightly leaned over towards me. I also can’t tell if his leaves rustle because of our breath and the slight breeze, or if he’s talking to one of us. Despite the awkwardness, the four or five of us, depending on the magical construct counting or not, get a fairly decent lengthy rest in. I find myself yawning for quite a while through the majority of the early ride so far. Teuila has a compass orb, and the directions I gave her are pretty simple. East along the mountain range, cut north when necessary to make it through a pass, then southeast along the range til the forest with the big river.
Still not certain how I suddenly have a decent memory of Rayileklia’s Geography from here to Jeegoobotstan. Bluh, a mystery. Also, those poor people. Such a terrible name, and such a terrible thing, an entire country razed to the ground. My memories say it’s more of a city-state, like four closely-linked suburbs of a capital city. Still, even if it’s not the largest body count, a death toll is still a death toll. Come on Reggie, keep focusing on this book, we should be able to finish it the day the mount is scheduled to disappear. It’ll be a lot harder to read through these during the journey without riding in a carriage.
Herk, hoy. I raise an eyebrow as Dawn rocks back and forth holding my arm, sniffling. An arm she yanked me across the seats to be able to grab. Oh Dawn. Sight gone again? Oh, and it looks like touch too. At least she has the density sense. Anyone else, I’d get affectionate with for this to try to comfort them. Dawn doesn’t want or need that though. I can be a scratching post. Something to keep her muscles and mind occupied with a stationary presence. It’s not like I was going anywhere. Not like I could converse with Percival or anything either.
I have to get through this book so I can understand the other books, and I need to hurry. We might be able to use the carriage as a raft if Teuila cuts the shortest route across the foothills. That would add one more day of possible study, and we might not have to permanently lose the carriage once we get to the Hidden Heart along the river. My mind is rolling over in its grave with the monotony of travel and study. I’m so grateful to Teuila for the opportunity though, since she is the only one of us really qualified to drive. At least, compared to my or Dawn’s limitations. Plus, I have to study.
I’m getting used to Dawn snagging me, then embarrassedly shoving me away when her senses return now. It’s a daily occurrence. We’re nearing July, and the lease on both our lives is pending closer and closer. I inhale a gasped, shuddered breath. The breath leaves as a sigh that becomes a yawn. Percival apparently amuses himself by listing off flora that we pass, so Teuila’s getting a biology lesson. Possibly genealogy if Percival is related to any of the plants he spots.
Tinpu Mambo only shows up for short stints when Percy desperately wants to communicate with all of us. That’s almost sad. He sort of only exists when Percy summons him, so he’s missing out on, well, not much at the moment. A monotonous ride along a mountainside, fleeing the country of an utterly evil soul-stealer.