They’re both so beautiful. One, my best friend for as long as I can remember, her smile is the thing I most want to protect in all the world. The other, a woman who went out of her way to get to know me, despite the challenges, despite me being a wreck. I think I’m losing consciousness though. The migraine hit hard this time, and my head struck the corner of this brick building as I doubled over. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a concussion and I’m simply having a flash of rapid thoughts on my way to passing out. I’m definitely falling at least. I'm fairly certain blood is flowing rapidly down over my right eye from a wound in my forehead from the strike. I may have already blacked out for a moment on the way down.
Some time has passed, but familiar, wonderfully tonal voices are calling out to me. I can’t quite make it out. Actually I can’t feel or see anything. I can’t move. I’m not even sure I’m breathing. I begin to feel a painful pressure where my chest should be. Repeatedly.
The voices pause momentarily before resuming as the painful pressure returns. They’re calling out something. It sounds vaguely ironic. They’re saying, “You need to breathe air, breathe.” Isn’t air—
Teuila is virtually screaming into my face as she pleads, begs, “Please, please Airhead breathe, breathe air, breathe please. Dawny, Dawny help me, please help me, they were drowning, they, but they’re wearing the neck thingy, they shouldn’t be able to drown. Please, someone please help! My Airhead, my Reggie, my, my love is, isn’t breathing.”
Tears splash hotly upon my face as Teuila continues compressions and rescue breaths. Somehow I’m accepting her oxygen through an esophagus full of blood and bile. The neck-chain working its magic I imagine. Perhaps the only reason I’m even alive enough to notice what’s happening. Everything hurts. I want to reassure Teuila I’m fine now, but I barely have perception, let alone control of my senses or anything else.
Teuila growls tearfully, “Allie, you, you did this! You. I. I’m sorry Alanea. Thank you for rushing to get me. Thank you. Thank you. Flint thank you for staying and trying to get this gunk off of Reggie. It’s so heavy, it, it’s heavy even for me.”
Flint mumbles, “It, it shouldn’t do this. It reacted differently. To, to them, or the artifact, Lullaby. I don’t know. I’m sorry. I didn’t know this could even happen.”
I feel further tears splash hotly upon my face that aren’t mine, but then I feel my own tears leaving the corners of my eyes and traveling down my taut reptilian cheeks. Teuila notices the new tears between rescue breaths and compressions.
Teuila exclaims in a mixture of worry and surprise, “They! Their eyes are bleeding. They’re crying blood. My, my Reggie is crying blood again.”
Oh, well that’s disconcerting. I struggle to fight whatever has left me almost completely paralyzed. This is going to suck, but I think I know what to do. I gather a sense of what’s happening. Yeah, the foam had been slightly absorbed into my skin, and it’s not expanding enough to straight up cause me to explode from the inside, but it has hardened every inch of me. None of my muscles are working, the only thing keeping oxygen flowing through me right now is Teuila. I just hope she understands the signal I’m about to send, and keeps breathing for me.
I call out to Can’Z’aas, begging my inventory powers to isolate the foam particulate all throughout my system. Oh hell that’s friggin’ agony, but keep focusing on it Reggie. Blood and mana begin pouring forth from me, and my gathered friends gasp momentarily. Teuila stops the rescue breathing in surprise. Sh$%! Sh$%! Sh$%! Te, Te I need you to keep breathing for me long enough for this to work! My, my brain needs oxygen. Can’t, can’t focus.
Dawn somehow catches on. She worriedly asks, “Boss, hey, hey Boss! Doesn’t that glow mean something? Something like, like your home and stuff? Rej aint breathing, can’t breathe, they’re like a friggin’ statue.”
Teuila gasps and exclaims, “You’re right! Hang in there Air, a few more minutes. Whatever plan you’ve got, whatever you’re doing, you’ve got this. Always have, always will.”
Teuila resumes rescue breathing for me a bit on the late side. I hope my focus hasn’t been broken in the mental subroutine I tried to set up to guide the inventory claiming magic. I just keep focusing on that one subroutine, not ready to start over. I’m not sure if I’ll live through another eight minutes of Teuila’s chest compressions. My ribs are cracked to hell. The migraine building behind my eyes is so distracting, but maybe it’s a good sign. Can’t have migraines if you’re dead, right?
Or maybe it’s the sign of a, I don’t know, embolism, and these are my last seconds. Shut up with those thoughts! Focus Reggie, focus! Keep it together, a few more minutes. Gosh I’m so slick with blood that Teuila’s starting to slide around as she struggles to compress my scaly chest. Huh, something else is happening. I can’t feel my wings or tail at all any longer. Also Teuila’s hands feel larger across my chest.
The magic finally completes its task, and all the blood and bile in my throat is now begging for release. So I quickly roll my head to the side to let my esophagus eject all the inappropriate fluid. There’s rounds of gasps and shocked gratitude and people attempting to hug or comfort me, but I scrabble away from everyone for a moment so I can continue to gush a torrent of blood and bile. Apparently I haven’t yet even paid the price for the spelliform. Unconsciousness takes me once more.
I awaken to a pounding headache, in bed, being fretted over by Teuila and, oddly enough, Alanea as well. I can sense Dawn and Flint outside, standing guard I think. By the looks of everyone according to my danger wraps’ senses, they must have been taking turns sleeping in shifts while watching over me worriedly. No one notices I’m awake quite yet though since I’m silently nursing this headache. Not to mention some rather heavily cracked ribs. Teuila probably had to fight petrified scales to put enough pressure onto my sternum to keep my organs pumping. I bet she was terrified of punching a hole right through me the entire time.
I groan, “Ugh, training is going to be a friggin’ bugger today with this headache. What a bummer and a half. Ow my effing brain and eyes. Urgh. But um, thanks everyone. Team effort saved my arse. Seriously, needed every last one of you. Dawn if you hadn’t told Teuila to keep breathing for me when I started my spell, that was it. Flint and Alanea, you have my gratitude, obviously. Being crushed to death or leaving this mortal coil without Teuila at my side would have sucked. She might have been the only one strong enough to compress my petrified chest.”
Alanea nods tearfully as she claims, “She, she is, was. Flint and I tried, to, to do anything.”
Flint apologizes, “I hope you can forgive our part in this. We’re still trying to track down this accursed influence within the Heart, and, well, we’re not warriors, we were in over our heads as we got closer to the truth.”
I flash a smile vaguely in Flint’s direction as I ask, “You heard my story, right?”
I can sense a knowing smirk cross his face as he nods ever so slightly.
As everyone begins to crowd around me now that I’ve awoken, I grumble, “Alright, alright, alright, I love all of you, but I need some space to breathe for a sec or ten. Seriously have a massive migraine, probably some brain damage from extended lack of oxygen. Te, without the neck thing, your breath wouldn’t have reached my lungs. My esophagus was full of blood and stuff the whole time.”
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Teuila’s eyes flash wide in understanding. I nod with a mixed expression. I flex my various muscle groups, and I’m surprised when I have no tail, wings, chromatophores or iridophores to flex. Blinking, I gaze at myself. I’ve dropped down to Cherubic Reggie. Did my inventory magic have to claim my entire form to get rid of the paralytic agent? Firstly, confusing as hell, secondly, my powers are smarter than I’d ever given them credit for. I knew they’d prevent spontaneous displacement of living matter when apparating from my inventory, and that they took care of a lot of the nuances of math and electroscopic sensing and such. But this is something else entirely. It’s like my magic decided whatever function I was trying to do wasn’t going to work, so it substituted the right ability for me.
I glance about the room, and when my gaze meets Alanea’s, it turns out she’s staring at me. Alanea blushes wildly and suddenly glances about, attempting to evade eye contact. I blush and fight back laughter as I try not to smile too goofily. I’m flattered. Hell, she’s an earnest, caring, gorgeous woman working as a counterspy in a devilish operation for seemingly good people. Anyone would be lucky for her interest. I’m leaving the Heart in four’ish days though. I don’t know if I’ll ever be back. If I fail Dawn, I don’t know if I could ever face anyone I’d met with Dawn ever again. Then again, if she’s wiped from our memories, maybe none of us will even realize how I failed.
Flint quietly asks me, “Were you certain slaying them was necessary? They’ve done despicable things as a group, but I think they were simply after your weapon.”
I shake my head, sighing, “I’m not certain, no, but I know Lullaby wouldn’t leave me while I’m alive. I’m not sure how, but it would struggle to stay connected to me somehow. They’d have found out immediately when they tried to take him. Killing me would get the weapon away, so I was almost certain it was imminent. Fat lot of good it would do them though unless they have another use for him. He can simply refuse to partner with or serve anyone he dislikes.”
I shrug as I further conjecture, “Not sure if that really mattered to them, since I don’t know what they wanted him for. If he just needs to be at a location at some point for a ritual or something, then we stopped that plan from occurring. For example.”
Flint strokes his chin then rubs along his cheek, where I now realize he’s sporting a nasty bruise in the shape of an open handed slap. He notices my gaze making note of it and wears a lopsided grimace, half a cheeky smile.
He coughs as he explains, “Your, erm, Teuila, was a tad upset when she learned of our involvement. I took the brunt of that, thankfully for Ms. Whifflewillow.”
Teuila blushes as she grumbles, “I knew my Airhead already knew something was up with All—, Alanea. Sorry, still a bit pissed at you, but that doesn’t mean I should disrespect you, sorry. Anyway, I knew Air knew something fishy was going on with Alanea, but you being there was a surprise. Also you have to admit, you have a really creepy way of staring my dude.”
My dude? More slang from Teuila that sounds so reminiscent of contemporary Earth. Alanea laughs momentarily at Flint’s expense, just for the briefest of moments. Flint agrees with chagrin, “I’ve, erm, been told as much, yes. My apologies, I get caught up when I gaze upon beauty so much that I forget myself and am prone to ogling.”
Teuila adopts the face of someone who has been offered prunes when they wanted candied yams, and accompanies it with the blech sound. I hear Dawn make a similar sound from somewhere, but casting my senses about, I can’t find her nearby.
I grunt in pain, accidentally calling attention to myself. May as well make use of it while I have it. I ask, “Do any of you know, or have any of you learned of the extent of the powers of Mab, Oberon, Bastet, and Anubis? Are they keeping the massive forest enchantment running? Do they have more powers than that?”
There’s a mixed murmur that amounts to almost nothing before Flint offers, “It’s my understanding that, well, certain elder, powerful beings can bring forth some sort of major effect within their domain. I do believe our lords and ladies are such elder beings. I’ve seen no proof that they’ve anything else besides parlor tricks however. The courts are a conspiratorial mess. I imagine if they had any sort of additional power, they’d clean up their messes.”
I huff a sigh and groan, “Well crap. I need a lead, any lead. Jarrah’s going to kill me, or at least chew me the hell out, for almost killing myself after what we just agreed to. Friggin’ hell I hope he keeps me on as his student. Ugh.”
Teuila pouts and frowns as she gazes my way with a furrowed, questioning brow. She asks, “What’s that worry for? Why would Jarrah not keep you on? You’re his apt pupil or whatever, right?”
I huff another sigh as I blush before admitting, “Erm, well, he made me agree to not risk myself as much. He threatened that if I didn’t take his order seriously, and stick to it, he would drop me from his tutelage, and even withhold any hints on how to find Lil.”
Teuila’s frown takes on much angrier qualities as she grits her teeth, growling, “How dare he even threaten to keep—! Wait. He’s kinda right Airhead. You sorta do risk yourself way too much. You should have asked for backup or something.”
I glance around avoiding eye contact, blushing as I admit, “I, I know. I knew I was walking into a trap. I thought I could handle it. I didn’t want to get Alanea hurt if she couldn’t deliver on her betrayal that I knew was coming. I was positive that betrayal required me to be alone. Am I wrong Alanea?”
Alanea blushes furiously while shaking her head and avoiding eye contact. She rubs her eyes fiercely and sniffles. It’s obvious she regrets leading me into what was almost my doom. The mood in the room drops to its lowest point since my waking.
Dawn appears as if from nowhere after sensing the mood shift. She changes topics lightheartedly, “Hey Rej, pal, it’s a good thing you were wearing those magic clothes. Boss stripped you down but good, down to your bottoms looking for what was keeping you from breathing. Woulda been even more naked after transforming all of a sudden if the clothes didn’t shift with you.”
There’s a round of light, anxious chuckling as each of us struggles to let the mood lift. We all go about beginning our day, though it’s apparently noon at this point. Hellspit. Less time to practice and learn. What was it Jarrah wanted me to do? Bring every weapon, tool, or implement that I’ve ever resonated with? I’m not sure if I’ve resonated with any of them, though the semi-broken thunderstick is one of my oldest, proudest possessions. I sort of think of it as having claimed it during that first encounter with Octorochi. Technically I didn’t claim it until months later during our final encounter with the blasted serpent. But we still lost a potential friend that day, that first encounter. Their will though carried on to make up the essence of TQ in the temple of time, and that will wanted us to have the staff.
I grumble as I go about making sure I’ve got everything that might be in Teuila’s bags, or scattered about anywhere, or in my own Can’Z’aas inventory. When I’m sure I’ve got it all, I shove it in my hyperdimensional haversack, and some of it barely fits. Heck, the top of this staff pokes out up against the lid of the sack. Definitely less space than Luni’s extradimensional bag. Hm. Extradimensional. Extrads. That sounds familiar somehow. Ah well, no time to get lost in pointless thoughts, have to go train. Even if Jarrah drops me as a pupil, I have to at least practice runes. What the hell day is it again? My brain aches. Right, the eighth of July.
We’ve arrived, and Jarrah seems ready for my admittance, “I’m, I’m sorry Jarrah. On the way home, there was an attack. I. Glp. I took five lives, as I felt I had no other option for survival. Even to do that, I risked, well, my life I guess. I used the frost rune empowered to its fullest. I didn’t risk three or five runes or anything, just that one, but I was almost already almost paralyzed by the time I decided to use it. More so when I used it. I figured it was my only chance.”
Jarrah nods along with my tale, Alanea and Flint avoid his crazy gaze but they nod as well. Teuila fidgets, trying not to crack her knuckles. Dawn is probably fidgeting, wherever she has disappeared to again.
Jarrah doesn’t address me, which is disheartening. Turning to Alanea and Flint, he asks, “Well, Ms. Whifflewillow, Mr. Darklace, are we any closer to the truth after this little fiasco?”
Both gulp and shake their heads. Instead of being angry, Jarrah drops his forehead wearily into his right palm. Jarrah actually apologizes to me, “Huff. I’m sorry child of another world. It seems you were caught up in some plot by our mutual manxome foe. One that may not even have had you as its intended target, simply that which you wield. I’m glad you heeded my words. I’m not exactly pleased to hear you spilled blood within the Heart however. That may cost us.”
Alanea and Flint look as if they’re both about to say -wellll-. Alanea actually does, “-Wellll-, Reggie didn’t actually spill any blood, first, they were completely frozen solid, all the way through, then by the time we revived Reggie, I hardly noticed but their bodies were gone. Erm, well, I’m pretty sure I saw the tree roots drinking them. Well, I think that’s what I thought I saw.”