Well, the answer is less than I’d like, but more than I’d expected. Err, oh wow, the answer was a lot longer than I realized. It’s extremely late on the twenty first, almost going on the twenty-second. Errissa delays donning her cloak as she saunters away, making a game of flaunting her physique as her hips sway in her sashay. I’m unsure whether to continue remarking her gloriously toned calves and thighs situated between the supple, tight-fitted, padded leather, or for my gaze to lift higher. Let’s just assume the smirk I got across the mental wavelength is fine with either. I think I’ll stick to watching her tail, ahem, the moving one, erm, ahem, the whip-like one, as it flicks side to side, cat-like, graceful, mesmerizing.
We know I haven’t broken free of the whammy, but that experience over the last couple of hours was marvelous. To me, it cements that the attraction itself is real, beyond the whammy. Still though, this might be the last I see of her for a very long time. She’s going to be out scouting with the spy network to figure out where the next move of our offensive needs to be, starting tomorrow, while I’ll be in the offensive in an entirely different location. It’ll continue like that, quite possibly until this thing reaches its conclusion. We’ll likely be hundreds of miles apart on any given day.
I guess, I guess this really was the buildup of everyone gearing up to go off to war. I need to sleep so that I can prepare for the offensive, but first, my third telekinesis grip, and square. I’ll also try growing the organ for a breath weapon before going to sleep. Ugh, calculations for layered enchantments suck so hard. Erm, koff. Glad no one’s in range to—. Okay, yep, several smirks across my telepathic wavelengths, because I’d let some walls down. Thank you for not making a big deal about it. Anyway, walls are going back up now.
A human-form dragon with flowing emerald tresses, a fantastic fashion sense, and an impeccable physique that mixes voluptuousness and slenderness, is walking this way, flanked by two Draconiac women. The Draconiacs are dressed in similarly fantastic fashions, and also incredibly lovely, but my genre sense is telling me that, while these ladies are all incredibly beautiful, they’re probably going to be rather mean spirited.
As I T K Surf on by, I hear the queen bee of the trio scoff in disgust and mutter, “Ugly little troll flying around here like he owns the place.”
Well, at least I know my Duende score doesn’t automatically charm people into thinking I have good looks or anything like that. That’s good. Her misgendering me was annoying, but whatever. I’m sure she said more, but I honestly don’t care. T K Surfing along the halls tonight actually means I have to surf crouched near the ceiling, or angled along the upper walls tonight.
There are more people out this evening, in these late hours. I think they’re all returning to their chambers from dalliances and stuff like that. They’d caved in to the fever-pitch of the worry building about the upcoming battles, and many of them decided to seek or give comfort in one way or another. I get several more dirty looks, snorts of disgust, and comments about having been asked to be alone with Luni, and having been seen with the Dormir, and Spymaster. I’m a bit worried about the rumors about Errissa, because I don’t want her to have her feelings hurt by stupid schoolyard drama nonsense.
As far as I can tell, Spymaster is a bit above the crowd as it were. She can literally go unnoticed at will. She can listen to, and chuckle at rumors about herself, or leave vaguely threatening notes about rumors being incorrect, and so on. I probably should have gotten confirmation about my theory that I was just a convenient person, having spotted her, and been obviously fascinated with her gorgeous appearance, when we only had a few days before the fated battle. I’m pretty certain I’m correct. It doesn’t mean there’s nothing there, but it means she wasn’t looking for anything more than some amusement and comfort that would have to last her a very long time. I wonder if there’s anything I could do for her, or get her, before we end up not seeing each other again until likely the end?
I’m tempted to try to figure out more of the electronics from the various shops. Could you imagine me putting up lightning-powered cell towers all around Rayileklia so that we had instant communication between allies everywhere? Unrealistic, but funny to imagine. I should however actually purchase lab equipment, textbooks, whatever else I can from the shops, to try to refine this gem-dust and such for the other levels of various enchantments that I want boosted. There are so many things that I’m just brute forcing my way through, and I think I’m breaking my brain a little bit every time I do. If only I could just blame my discoveries for my emotional wellbeing, or lack thereof.
Huff, anyway, let’s get T K Surfing down to Mount Verdimenn, calling out to our inner circle telepathically all the way down, in case they’re up here somewhere. Gosh, it’d suck to have to just curl up somewhere without them, not knowing where they are on the day before the battle. I don’t even know if I could sleep, and that would go extremely poorly.
I’m going to have to spend a long while inside a use of retrocognition trying to figure out the correct ratios for my third telekinetic grip enchantment. It’s worth it though. I could also possibly seek out ratios for increasing the range on the telekinesis, rather than the number, but until I have a solid enough number of grips or telekinetic force squares to make a large shield, quantity comes first.
Okay, diving into paused time, into the non, the absence of time, the space between moments. Phew, so many calculations. So much math and chemistry that I barely come close to even comprehending. I’m mostly winging it with like-values, treating everything as similar variables. Balancing these solutions is a challenge, but I think this one’s done. Yep. There, and this calculation should be approximately this ratio. Thankfully the margin of error so far has been a bit forgiving. Unless I’ve been botching all these, and they’re all going to come down tomorrow or something stupid. That would be annoying as hell.
Oh hey! I could also increase the maximum lift capacity of the telekinetic grips. The increased strength might also increase the impact durability of the telekinetic squares of force. Oof, those calcs would be far, far harder, and require some sophisticated runework adjustments. Anyway, back to reality once again, but this time don’t forget gravity exists Reggie. Right. Just keep T K Surfing, we’re almost back to Mount Verdimenn and the vaults.
Is that Illy and Teuila in a new warren? Or, well, rather, an expansion to the far end of the cavern wall. Have they been punching their way through stone? Wow, okay, I knew Illy was powerful, but holy friggin’ crap. I guess if her human form basically has all of her dragon form’s muscles compressed down into it or something, magically she’d seem like she has super strength. Still, the flow, the grace, it’s remarkable. Her motions aren’t telegraphed, they just flow smoothly into one another, until one of them is suddenly a strike. I think the remarkable thing here is that, without her gauntlets, Teuila is still creating equally, or more, devastating craters to Illy, with each blow. I wonder how they isolated the tremors those punches should be causing.
Is this the sort of opponent I’m going to be facing from here on out? People who’ve had centuries of experience to perfect their own fighting styles, styles that probably counter amateurs like me with ease. Still, if I treat melee, or close quarters, combat as a last resort, they’re about as effective as, what’s the phrase? Bringing a knife to a gun fight? More or less. I’d admonish myself for comparing myself to a gun, but I could literally fire thousands of spears from my inventory near the end of my life on Can’Z’aas. I wasn’t just a gun, I was an entire artillery battery.
Let’s see, twenty three hundred times the space skill, times the stamina modifier, yeah, like two hundred thousand or something. Oh, wait, was Duende a part of my magical skill use? Another one point seven times multiplier apparently. Holy friggin’ crap. For fifty five hundred mana, I could produce and fire over four hundred eighty eight thousand duplicates of small sharp objects from my inventory. The larger the item, the fewer I could produce, but when umbral copies are as dense and durable as they are, it hardly pays to go much bigger than a knife.
Wait. Could I do that here? With Kinzul’s help? Could I snag something expensive to my inventory, then make almost half a million umbral duplicates of it, while claiming those back to my inventory an instant later, so that they’d become permanent? Wow. We might not need the respawning warrens after all. Or, wait. I forget. Did we try selling umbral duplicate stuff to the shops back on Can’Z’aas already? Hm, even if the shops wouldn’t buy the duplicated stuff, we could still make a massive quantity of really useful things, like that giant adamantine vault door and its frame. I think adamantine is more durable than umbral duplicates honestly. Umbral duplicates seemed nearly indestructible, up until we started running into creatures that were far stronger than we had been.
I wonder why my bludgeoning resistance was so much higher than my other resistances for a moment, then I have to facepalm. Every time I punched, I was doing bludgeoning damage to my own hand. I forgot that resistance was raised at the same time as offense, plus all the times I’d fallen, or been smacked by stuff. It’s why I can punch a rock wall a few times before I shatter my hand, instead of it immediately becoming a broken mess. Speaking of, is Illy teaching Teuila how to isolate the tremors and make sure that all the force flows outwards, so she doesn’t break her hand? ‘Cause they’re going at it, hard.
Oh, the gals are just sitting there, giggling, while I’ve been floating here lost in thought. Waving, chagrined, I greet them, “Hey guys. Te, Illy. Are Lu and Lucky already in bed? No one was responding on mental wavelengths for a while, and then I got distracted.”
Teuila rolls her eyes and smirks as she announces, “Only you my Airhead, only you. Lu’s still looking through stuff, I think you distracted yourself before you got in range. Lucky’s with her. Lil came down for a while, but went back up and I think he’s spending the night with his mom. I, I think dragbutt might be worried about what’s going to happen to her tomorrow. I can’t say I blame him.”
Nodding along to the reasonable assumptions, I start to get lost in thought again when Illy adds, “Tenith here is an impressive package Schism. Tomorrow’s going to be a breeze. If it was just you two, and maybe Sun, I’d think you wouldn’t even need backup if it were just going to be a brawl. They’ll have tricks though.”
Sighing worriedly, Illy continues, “I wish mom had time to train you guys how to resist dragonfright. Still, any time they spend doing that, is time they’re focusing on keeping you out of the fight. If you can handle the breath weapons they charge up during that time, you should maybe be fine. If they come at you to eat you, maybe less fine, but apparently Schism already has a handle on how to deal with being eaten.”
There’s smirks and giggling passed between Illy and Teuila before Illy finishes, “There’s other things too, and some of them might have magic that we don’t know about. Just keep your wits about you. None of us want to see any less than the ten of you make it home safely. It’s only the start of the very long, very uphill battle that lies ahead.”
Teuila and I nod somberly. As much as I said we’ve never done anything like this before, we do know a thing or two about long uphill battles. My main priority keeps shifting around to include more things that I find precious to me. I want to make sure the Aasimovian refugees are safe, Tiktik especially. I want everyone in Mount Solace to be safe in a sustainable way that could withstand a siege. I specifically want several of the wonderful people I’ve met here to remain safe. I do still dearly desire revenge on our manxome foe, and those under his influence, but protection of others always comes first.
I try to keep my heart rate from going out of control and struggle to control my breathing as I imagine our manxome foe bringing a soul-stealing light to a battlefield with any of my new family on it. I— I can’t let it happen. I’m tempted to rocket away to Navica right now to try to find the manxome foe and destroy him. Him entering a battlefield with his light just can’t be allowed to happen. My vision’s getting blurry, and my sight’s growing dim. I feel so alone against our manxome foe. No one else can stand against him without either losing their souls, or being paralyzed, or both. My, my rage and hatred for him boil and—.
Luni telepathically soothes me, cooing, “Shhh, it’s okay Hero, my Hero. Somehow, we’ll find a way to take him down together, when we get through all these other battles. It sucks that he’ll remain on the board for so long, but it’s all we can do for now, and it’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. You’ve got this. Always have, and always will.”
My eyes droop sleepily as I feel wearily exhausted from the sudden crash from the nearly built enraged state. Panting for breath, I still manage to sigh as wearily as I feel. I wanted to maybe check for some more things, see if Lu and Lucky found anything, maybe verbally spar with Illy, get some private time with Te for the first time in a while, and just, huff, get stuff done. I’ll have to settle for setting up this third telekinetic grip before letting myself just go ahead and pass out.
Teuila’s telepathic avatar shows up in my mindscape, and she holds her right hand up parallel with her nose, left of her lips, as if speaking conspiratorially while conjecturing, “Y’know, I don’t know if Illy realizes it, but her heart goes cookoo for cocoa puffs whenever the topic of conversation rolls around to you my Airhead. What’d you even do to that gal to go from hesitant of romance, to head over heels?”
Coughing and sputtering, I try my best to not lie telepathically to Te, “Erm, well, we, uh, had a moment. Um. It’s why I had you cover the orb. It, uh, yeah. Sorry Te. If she’s willing to talk about it, we can, but not without her permission. You know me and consent.”
The telepathic avatar of My beloved Wings nods affirmatively, understandingly. Consolingly, she offers, “If it helps any, she did admit about stringing me, us, along and stuff, to you earlier, and then to me while training. Not sure if she realized we heard your brain about that while you two were making out in the library, but she felt the need to apologize to me too. I guess that’s progress, maybe? Like you, I don’t really feel bad about it. Romance, rejection, whatever. I’ve always got my Air, my Lu, my Dragbutt. Right?”
I want to nod emphatically but instead I offer a sleepily regal smile and a slight tilt of my telepathic avatar’s head towards Teuila’s avatar in agreement. I’m also trying not to grin at the fact that Illy is blushing to high heaven at just realizing, or recalling, that the others of my inner circle could hear my thoughts while we were in private. I did try to warn her about that, though I will put up temporary walls at her request. Still, Teuila could have maybe been a little more subtle or sensitive about it. Hah, Teuila and subtle in the same sentence. Sensitive? Sure. Subtle? I’m trying not to be an ass about giggling to myself.
Teuila while pouting, and Illy while blushing simultaneously say, “Too late,” in response to my thought train, then giggle with each other.
Hopefully I didn’t actually hurt Teuila’s feelings. She knows that she’s a force to be reckoned with, and that her modus operandi usually isn’t stealthy or subtle. She’s glorious in all her ferocity and power, and I wouldn’t change anything about her, for anything. There she is, beaming me that closed-eyed mile-wide grin where her head rocks side to side.
Illy comments, “Yeah, that is pretty effin’ cute. An-anyways, um. I know that you guys all, and stuff, in the bed or whatever. One day just, it, it isn’t enough time for me to prepare and get used to, well, this, all this. I’m, I’m not trying to get between anyone, but, Schism, if you uh, wanted, my quarters are in the--. Hell what am I doing? Not trying to get between you, but almost begging one of you to--. I’m sorry. Look, I’m just going to go. I’ll be fine, but you’d both better get your asses back safely after the battle.”
While offering a sympathetic smile at Illy, I nod understandingly, until her parting statement. I waggle my brow at her for her parting statement, and start, “That fixation again—.”
Illy huffs, starts blushing, and stomps away. She then stomps back, shaking her finger, before she rolls her eyes and starts chuckling. She mutters, “You ass. Gremlin munchkin crimson smurf ass ass. I, oo I hate that I love you so much you ass. And you’re just eating this up, aren’t you? I’m too flustered to make the obvious joke. I’m, argh, I’m going to go. You better effin’ make it back Schism, you ass. You too Tenith.”
Despite sounding relatively upset, Illy’s smile is incredibly wide and her eyes are crinkled in mirth. It’s a beautiful expression of joy on her equally beautiful face. Ah, there’s the blush again, and now she’s leaving. I should probably refrain from letting my brain start commenting on her favorite body part as she turns to leave. The four of us near in my telepathic wavelength are unable to hold in our chuckles at my brain’s train of thought, Iylynila included.
Slightly refreshed due to the humor, I continue working another telekinetic enchantment into my brain. Falling asleep during this could be awkward. I wonder if I timed it right, if that would link the telekinetic grip to my subconscious. Would that just be a grip that does whatever some part of my id or ego wants or something? The ramifications and implications could be horrifying, depending on what it did. Let’s just avoid that, shall we? I don’t need some b-horror movie subplot about an evil limb happening.
Teuila giggles at me and follows me as I go collect some textiles to make a bed in my vault. Te snags some lumber from some passing Draconiacs so that we can get a little elevation and a nice even surface, what with the logs’ perfect hemispherical cuts and all. The Draconiacs have been thankfully cultivating more and more glow-lichen. It simultaneously keeps the air fresh, and provides that pleasant, well, glow. That felt a bit redundant. I snag a small pot of it so that I can cultivate more for myself in my vault. It being the biggest, and the only one with a door on it, I telepathically ask Lu and Lucky to meet me there.
After tonight, I’m going to start locking it with magic every time I leave. For now, I’ll lock us inside with magic. Lucky and Lu could always dig out or shape the stone out of their way if we somehow got trapped. It doesn’t take long to clear a nice spot at the back, and set the little pot of glow-lichen on an end table near where we set up a fairly decent approximation of a bed. I suppose I could have just asked Lucky or Lu to shape one out of a wall, but I don’t want to feel like I’m using either of them, after how long we spent apart.
While I’m finishing my current telekinesis enchantment, and applying the permanency enhancement enchantment, Lu and Te catch up, and I fill them in on the rumors circulating the hallways. They share an uneasy chuckle, because I can sense both of them simmering with a mild rage in defense of me. While I’m honored by their worry for my emotional wellbeing, I can at least assure them that most of my vanity isn’t about my physical appearance. Te knows that already, so it doesn’t really do anything to my ego to hear someone call me ugly, even if it was like five or six someones in a row. Or, a few dozen. My point is, it was fine. The only thing I worry about is if people start treating Errissa, Illy, Luni, or Te poorly.
If people started bullying Xayla due to Xayla hanging out with me? I’m not sure which would happen first, me trying to kill the bully, Ixeyla trying to kill the bully, or Ixeyla trying to kill me for causing the situation. I suppose I wouldn’t go for the kill, maybe. Depending on how bad it was. Ugh, definitely not thoughts I want to be drifting off to sleep to.
I mean, do I want to drift off to sleep thinking about anything that happened today? There was some fun stuff, some lovely stuff, some nice stuff, some horrid stuff. It was— a day. I like the phrase, “A day unlike any other,” as if any day was ever not unique. Every single day is something new, even if it’s the monotony of your everyday life. You’re a day older, the world’s a day colder, something, somewhere is happening that’s different, despite the similarities, the days are different as snowflakes.
Hey Lucky, are you able to shapeshift into a small size like your sphere form? Want to come up and cuddle? We might need to figure out a method to get you into and out of your armor more easily. Probably a series of hooks hung on specific blocks that you can walk past, such that they’ll snag and pull in the right directions. Anyway, My Wings, and My Anchor, and My Son, all beside me in bed. I’m in heaven. I can drift to sleep happily during this quiet night, so that I’ll be ready for whatever new day awaits me after the dawn.