I’m stunned at the tale, almost in disbelief. Yet, for some reason, I entirely believe that there are zones of reality that are vaguely connected to Rayileklia, that only certain people can enter. In fact, I vaguely feel like I remember experiencing one myself, or at least helping a group of people get to one while being chased by something. That’s an incredibly weird sensation though, recalling such a thing. Err, it’s odd since such a thing never happened either on Can’Z’aas or Rayileklia. I rattle my skull momentarily to shake loose the odd thoughts.
Teuila adopts an impressed expression before offering, “Sounds like you’re pretty handy in a fight Tiktik. How interested would you be in helping stop an apocalypse, or three?”
Tiktik blinks several times as she stares at Teuila before cleaning out her ears, and blinking yet again. I attempt to not laugh at the comical nature of Tiktik’s overly exaggerated approach to her display. Tiktik asks, “A what or a how many of what now?”
Teuila snorts with laughter and I struggle to keep from doing the same so that I can explain, “So, Teuila is the leader of our little two person party, uh, our duo I guess, but she’s asking if you’d be interested in tagging along to make it a trio. We, well, if you thought adventuring in the ‘Twixt was scary because of vampires, one of the three apocalypses has something to do with them. Another of the three involves the soul stealing shizzpit-lord that rules the imperium. Another one might involve dragons up at the Spine of the World. Our buddy Lilagni, who it sounds like you happened to be tracking, is up that way, and is a dragon, obviously. Lil is about the size that you guessed.”
Tiktik drops a low whistle of appreciation as she leans back to fall into her seat. She strokes her forehead as she brushes back her luxurious-and-massive ponytailed mane of orange hair. Teuila adds to my explanation, “So, yeah, my Airhead is right. I was offering. I don’t just offer a spot in our little party to anyone though babe. I mean, it’s just us two, ya know? Our, glp, our last friend, she um, she’s gone now. Our trio’s down to two. It hurt just to see it happening.”
Wetness looms on Teuila’s lashes, so Te pauses to rub her eyes furiously for a moment as she fights back tears before continuing. “And, well I wouldn’t want it to happen to you, I’m already fond of you. Just, just yeah. It’s real, it’s dangerous, and it’s what we have to do if we want our friends to survive, and if we want to survive long enough to ever possibly return home to our family. It sounds like maybe you’re kind of drifting, just starting out on your own, away from home for maybe the first time, by what you said about your job.”
Tiktik gnaws on her lips while she stares at us wide-eyed. Her mood continues to remain inscrutable beneath the shock apparent on her face for several seconds longer. Suddenly, Tiktik exuberantly exclaims, “Well, as my Brookian buddies would say, shid braddah, all you had to do was ask! Hah. I’m in! Tiktik Clocktok, Urban Bountyhunter Extraordinaire, aka Tee Tee Cee Tee U Bee Eee at your service madame Teuila!”
I snort, stifling a laugh at Tiktik referring to Teuila as a madame, since my Fakeworld, Earth memories give the word certain connotations. Teuila grins and slugs me in meatspace while her mental avatar tackles mine in our thinkspace.
Te almost mumbles as she indecisively offers, “You don’t have to say yes to this next part, it’s, and, well, maybe we, well, okay, I’ll put it out there for all of us to consider. Reggie and I are psychically bonded, telepathically, whatever. We were back home too, but then it got screwed up here, so we made a new bond with Rayileklian magic. We can add people to that bond, I think, right Airhead? Yep, nodding’s enough for me. So, um. We might maybe at some point offer to add you to ours, maybe, possibly, if we talk about it, if it’s something you’re interested in.”
Tiktik gnaws on the inside of her left cheek before responding, “Hm, I’ll have to give it some thought miss Teuila. I’m not sure that I want you guys to see, or that you guys would survive seeing, what’s all stored up inside my head, and the zaniness that goes on. All the clocks, all the time, all the time. Brr. Plus, now Bizzenblade. Brr.”
Tiktik shudders twice, once at each of the two mentions, which surprises me. I don’t think she’s pranking me, or us. I honestly believe that she suffers from something relating to time within her mind. I wonder if my presence on a psychic link would soothe, or complicate that. I’d prefer not to harm her. She seems like an endearing, talented woman. Hm, speaking about endearing, talented women, from the Fae’s Wilds as Tiktik puts it, I find myself thinking of Alanea. Our strange time together struck a chord deep within me. She taught me how to sense my inner changeling self.
I hesitantly ask, “Tiktik? Do you, um, perhaps know Alanea Whifflewillow?”
Tiktik rattles her head momentarily to return from whatever reverie she’d been caught in. She smiles brightly, widely as she answers, “Oh heck yeah, the Whifflewillow’s girl, the one-with-the-nice-pillows girl. The changeling that’s got all the peeps rearrange-ling. She’s a doll, for serious. Didn’t know her very well or anything, but she’d come check out books for the Enookie Buddies or whatnot.”
Teuila grins and triumphantly shouts, “See! Hah! I knew I wasn’t the only one that’d do that with the Enookie Buddies group name! Hah!”
Pft, Teuila you goon. Hahah. Fine, sure. I chuckle while shaking my head incredulously at Teuila, My Wings. Returning my attention to Tiktik, I ask, “Err, does that mean you didn’t spend much or any time in the Enochian Enclave?”
A strange lamentation spreads over Tiktik’s face as she responds, “I, uh. I was part of the, I mean, my whole family, was part of the courts. The courts are kind of like, I dunno, maybe like nobility in other humanoid cultures or something. Not like we were nobles or a noble family or anything, though we weren’t like servants either. It’s, um. It’s like being the poor kids living on the rich side of town is probably the best way I can put it. Doing anything to make your standing even worse by consorting with people from outside the courts would basically bring hell down on your family. Ya dig? Only, don’t, you’d get all muddy. Ah heck, I used that one already a few minutes back.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Hm, perhaps it’s a good thing we didn’t end up trying our hand at working our way up the courts to gain favors from Mab, Bastet, Oberon, or Anubis after all. I knew they were a capricious bunch in general, but that sounds like an awful environment to grow up in. Oh no, it sounds even more awful as an environment for a prankster like Tiktik to grow up in. Yeesh, the poor gal.
I continue practicing my runes in silence as I mull over what I’ve recently learned. We’ve still got a fair number of days until Noirdivinhoz, let alone Autumn Brook. The stop to pick up Tiktik took almost no time at all comparatively, so it’s not like it sets us behind any sort of schedule. Despite it feeling like we’ve suddenly had an entire age to get to know Tiktik, it has only been a few minutes. Rather mysterious that. Perhaps it’s just how open she was with her remorse map or whatever you’d call her explanation of her star map.
Despite wanting to continue to get to know her better, I’m trying to make up for a few runes since I spent several S P on a cleanliness cantrip earlier. That is to say, I might need a small power nap to complete all six runes mastered today that I’ve projected completion of. I wonder if picking Tiktik’s brain about Rayileklian sorcery would help or hinder my progress. It’s a curiosity to me that Tiktik was able to offer a name to my power, since, according to Jarrah Bettergrove, my crazy-eyed celestial mentor at the Enochian Enclave, my magic supposedly defies what he knew about magic.
Hm, the curiosity will drive me mad if I don’t attempt to sate it. I query, “Tiktik, what exactly is an absensorcerer? How did you know I am one?”
A pensive expression is drawn across Tiktik’s face as she gnaws on her bottom lip while gazing up-leftward in thought. She cheekily, happily responds, “No idea!”
My forehead meets my hand in rapid order, and I’m left chuckling, shaking my head in mildly humorous exasperation. Now I’m starting to wonder if she made it up, and was just goofing around.
A giggle from Tiktik draws my attention back to her before she decides to add, “Well, I mean, I was only guessing, and it’s hard to say what one is for sure, since you might be the only real one to ever exist. There’s children’s tales in several books or on several tablets that give off the impression that a character was a masterful sorcerer, but mysteriously seemed to have no origin to their magic. Lots of different tales interpret it differently, but the kids at the reading circles decided that all the interpretations were of the same type of person, if not the same person. They started calling that person the absensorcerer. It seemed to fit when you casted without a Mnemonic, and still managed to beat me.”
I flash Tiktik a half-sad smile. I suppose it was too much to hope that she had more pertinent information than Jarrah in the use of my powers. Still, she is a sorceress, and she has at least some mastery over the flow of time in a small area. I gnaw on my lip as I gaze her way, trying not to furrow my brow as I scrutinize Tiktik.
As I’m about to formulate another question, Tiktik suddenly interrupts my thoughts with, “Oh, hey, about earlier, like it sounding like I’m just starting out and stuff, I mean, it’s my first job outside of the Fae’s Wilds, since I only left a few weeks ago, and kinda wandered around til I found The Brook. I figured Aasimovia was a better place to run away to after all, I mean, compared to the other option.”
A grimace fights the otherwise upbeat expression on Tiktik’s face as she considers the other option, the Celestial Imperium. Tiktik rattles her head before continuing, “Uh, anyway, I was fairly accomplished in the ‘Twixt, I mean, over a century of adventure, ya know? I mean, sure I didn’t start off all that impressive, but who does? Anyway, my personal joint in the ‘Twixt is this sprawling massive city, lots of dirt and grit, crimes and capers and clues around every corner. I guess the ‘Twixt got into my head and saw what I’d be good at that I’d enjoy.”
Hm, pensiveness returns to my face as I’m struck with a new thought. Maybe a place like the ‘Twixt would give me the time I need to study all the spells available to me. Or I might just hasten my death by putting a strain on the expenditure of Kozzurth’s dragonforce. One way or another, I’d still be spending time, even if it was a realm that’s partially based on thought, and self-actualization. Time is the one commodity I don’t have much of to spare at the moment.
Heck, even though priority number one should be to stop the soul-stealing celestial dickweasel, we’re going to try to catch up with Lil in the hopes that their apocalypse is a bunch of evil dragons to fight or slay. It’s kind of messed up, isn’t it? I told Tiago and George that I’d never hunt, much less slay a dragon. I had to add the caveat, unless it were obviously evil and unrepentant. Still, who’s to say we’ll be able to tell which, if any, dragons are evil? Heck, can we even know if any remain at the Spine of the World?
Huff. Hm? Yeah Bud, I’m basically putting all my chips in an all or nothing gamble on our plan. Teuila and I agree, getting word out to the Aasimovians to evacuate, checking on our friends at The Gap, and then circling back around to take out the hydra that has been marauding the Jaggedfen Bogs is how we’ll start this leg of the adventure. After that, we’ll make a beeline for the Spine of the World in the hopes of finding either the dragons’ territory, or the triple L squad, Lil, Luni, and Lucky.
Yes Bud, that Lucky, the one that Luni and I worked through a strange series of events to create by combining energies into an egg. Yes, the egg I got from the creature on Day One—. Crap. Panic floods my senses as the nightmares of Day One overwhelm me. My vision tunnels to the faintest point, and I’m left hyperventilating while struggling to calm the active jackhammer within my chest. My pulse pounds so hard and loud within me that I fear it will burst my eardrums. The ever-present screeching ring of tinnitus grows louder than it has any right to be.
I think I may have fallen to the floor between Tiktik and Teuila. I think Te is trying to reach me telepathically, while filling in Tiktik on my traumatic stresses and panic attacks. Please brain, please just, just let me out of these nightmares. The front of it just opened up though, into an approximation of a jagged maw. A small, round, furry jelly creature with stark-red, pupil-less eyes nearly slew me three times on Day One. The day I started consciously existing. I was so helpless, so confused. Especially when nightmares of the attack flooded my dreams after I had fled and needed to rest.
The nightmares were unrelenting. They would conjure up images of every surface imaginable opening up into approximations of fanged maws, each of them rending into me as painfully as the furry jelly did when it gouged chunks out of me. I’d be sent tumbling, hurtling from one maw to the next as they chewed me up and spat me out.
My muscles spasm and seize during my panic attack as it nears its end. The spasms painfully lock muscle groups along the back left side of my neck, a frequent, agonizing occurrence with these episodes. I cough repeatedly as my heart rate slows significantly. My vision begins to return, and I sigh with relief. Between the spasms, and something that is bringing on another migraine behind my right eye, I’m feeling incredibly spent. Yet still I’ll persevere. Several runes to go, and quite a few hours yet before we even rest.