Heaven. Absolute heaven. I’ll fight every foe in every universe to be able to keep this. Just the warmth, and love, radiating across our bonds as we slowly rouse is absolute bliss. Not to mention the physical affection and closeness. The softnesses, the warmth, the smoothnesses, the curves. The kisses on the cheeks as a hello and good morning to you too. We’re back. We’ll get everyone back. We’ll get home, because we’re stronger together.
Feeling perhaps a bit too cocky, I request, “Let’s get out there and end some apocalypses.”
Teuila snorts a laugh while Lu groans, then both simultaneously say, “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”
Smirking, feeling far too cheerful for a morning in which we’re riding into battle, I take a glance around for any last edges or benefits I can figure out. I kind of jokingly want to figure out a way to change the type of birds produced by the coat, so that it can be the crowcoat, so that I can say I turn into a murder when threatened. Hehe.
Luni swats me with a pillow, then Teuila tackles her in my defense, and they go rolling about, messing up the bed. Using one telekinetic grip, I fling myself to a standing position, then I release that grip so that I have all three available. Lucky follows me off the bed, so I use two grips to separate and levitate Teuila and Luni, while using a third grip to make the bed. Wow, this is handy as fuuu—n. Teuila snorts laughter again, while Lu rolls her eyes, definitely not feeling like a morning person today.
I levitate both gals to me, releasing them, before either gets the idea to break the telekinetic grip and shatter my brain. I’ll ask before picking them up from now on. I should have thought of that. Sorry my beloveds. Anyway, unlocking spell on the door is free from the archsorc staff, so I’ve got the door unlocked, but the door itself is heavy as hell. I could open it, but—.
Teuila playfully rolls her eyes, but then grins like a loon about the fact that she gets to show off her strength. I just hope she doesn’t break the hinges on the door. Teuila’s grin is flashed my way as she simply gently opens the door, as if it were light as a feather. Heh, the cheater. She blows me a raspberry, so I place my left hand over most of her face. She chases that hand away with hers, so I set my right hand on her face, and on and on until we’re both giggling from our Shellcracker Family Slap Fight.
I levitate the dimensional pouch over to Luni, since it’s connected to both my hyperdimensional haversack, and Teuila’s transdimensional traveler’s bag. What all can we make sure is in these things for our safety? Spare suits of shrunken Valkyrie equipment? Probably a good idea. Ugh, I almost want a copy or two of Gae Buidhe in there, but they’re too friggin’ dangerous. We’d need some kind of special sheathes made for them.
I’m going to need some non-cursed, armored pants, that the quick-change ring can bind to on their own. Otherwise I’m going to be quite embarrassingly naked if I swap into and out of them on the battlefield. I think whatever pants I’m wearing, will be teleported to the last spot that the lightning pants were located outside of the ring, but without a compartment tether, they won’t come back. The Valkyrie armor is sort of a package deal, and I’ll probably start out in it, but I’ll be replacing the chestplate immediately as soon as I need a maneuverability boost, or see necrotic energy headed my way. The Valkyrie chestplate won’t come back after that. I could maybe put the whole Valkyrie armor set in the ring, there are two compartments left. I’d have to put it on and off as a set though then. Meaning I’m either pantsless, or wearing cursed pants while I’m equipped with the Wyverium chestpiece or the necrometal one. Blargh.
Embarrassingly, like some old married couple, I beg for help from My Anchor, “Lu, did you spot any other enchanted pants?”
While giggling across our telepathic wavelength, starting to wake up, Luni shakes her head my way.
Balls. I really don’t want to risk being in just under-armor padding when fighting dragons, and possibly mages. I’m going to need to update my assets list soon, and list out everything in these vaults, even if we don’t know what they do. That’s going to be a friggin’ hassle. Off with the pants for a moment while I try to find something in their shape and size. I’d wear a lampshade if it looked armored enough and would fit me.
I should perhaps have done this before Teuila opened the door. Here I am, bare-butt, and apparently Lady Kinzul is standing in the hallway outside of my vault. And nobody told me this, for like ten seconds while I bent over and dug through stuff. I just mooned my Lady. I cannot apologize enough. I still don’t have pants on. I facepalm at having been caught up in my embarrassment rather than rectifying the issue.
I hear Teuila beginning a tease that starts with the sound, “Rect—,“ but thankfully she’s not crass enough to finish while we’re standing right next to Kinzul. I use the quick-change ring to pull the cursed electrocution leggings on. Hell’s bells, I can feel them tugging my internal lightning around, screwing up my internal electrokinetic control over my muscles. These might not be worth using in battle except for only when I’m trying to draw lightning to me. I can hardly function while wearing them. I suppose I can just float myself around with telekinesis, but it isn’t very quick.
Lady Kinzul, a dangerous deviousness underlying her tone, even while her face appears regal, and passive, offers, “Please, by all means, remove the offending cursed article. Don’t suffer on my account.”
Teuila, unable to help herself, snarks, “Sounds like you wanna see Reggie’s butt Aunty Zool.”
I can *sense* a thought riding near the surface of Lady Kinzul’s telepathic waves, and it has her almost joking, “Who says I don’t?” instead however, she offers little more than a verbal check, a, “Hmn.”
Now I’m second guessing what Illy told me about Lady Kinzul. Wait, no, she definitely was going to make that tease. So I shouldn’t second guess Illy? I—. Is Kinzul playing headgames with me, right before we go to battle? I could swear there’s mirth on her wavelength. She’s trying to distract me from something. I should assume it’s for my benefit, because she’s always been benevolent. Still, my brain runs down possible angles across several thought trains simultaneously, the cynic in me is always there, always assuming the worst. Secrets that should be kept until at least after the battle, or they’d make the battle harder on us, and so on. Ugh, I do have to take off the pants though or my legs are going to spasm all over the place. There, that’s done, as long as she doesn’t turn the—. I sigh as my brain decides that Kinzul is very, very likely trying to distract me, her having followed around the corner into the vault.
Privately, Kinzul telepathically requests, “My beloved Schism, you are at times, perhaps too clever for your own good. Please have faith that anything I withhold is for your benefit, my beloved Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn. It would please me if you could find it within yourself to not dig this hole, nor find what’s buried beneath.”
Well, awkwardly, Kinzul confirms that she’s trying to keep me distracted, playfully. I’ll try to ignore anything the cynic side of my brain digs up, but I don’t know how to just shut it down. I mean, it’s already coming to some pretty likely conclusions according to my genre senses, stuff with thirty to forty percent likelihood in some cases. When did my genre senses start giving me percentages anyway? Erm, sorry my Lady, I will endeavor to do my best to acquiesce to your request. Truly.
Oh, wait, I’m still floating around bare bottomed. Ugh. Te and Lu are trying so hard to not giggle at me, because they know I’m feeling pretty vulnerable right now with Lady Kinzul, with how things played out the other day. It would really hurt if they started playing into the teasing right now, after such a short time of working on our recovery. It would really help though, if one of them would find some pants I could wear. I’m an idiot. I pull on a full Valkyrie armor suit as I begin lightly ramming my head into the nearest wall. Thunk, thunk, thunk.
At least Kinzul seems to be enjoying herself, but I’m still stuck with the inability to swap to the leggings and back. I also kind of can’t swap to the Wyverium chestplate without becoming pantsless either. The whole Valkyrie outfit goes away when I swap stuff out, except the under-armor padding. Crap, we’re probably all waiting on me to get my arse in gear to be able to start the offensive. I might have to risk seeing what the other two compartments are tied to.
Wait. Wait. Wait. What are those!? I almost fling myself telekinetically towards greaves that radiate a cool temperature fluctuation. Cranking up my aura vision, there are definitely runes for cold, and ice, and world. If this does what I think it does, it’ll be like Lucky’s glacial amulet. Wearing them, they’re chilly, even with my thermal resistance, but they expand my thermal senses with a new awareness. Rather, an awareness I haven’t had since Can’Z’aas. I almost want to weep. Finally, my FFS. I can get my F F S back, my pinpoint ice shields back, my Frozen Frost Shielding.
Lady Kinzul actually snorts a laugh at hearing the acronym, unable to help herself, but immediately recovers to her usual stature of poise and grace. Testing it out, indeed, at least on the lower half of my body, I can once again conjure pinpoint ice shields by drawing air towards extreme density, towards the extreme limit of atomic motion. It’s something. It’s one more trick in my toolbelt, and I think it’s only as quick, and powerful of a shielding as it is, due to my thermokinesis from Can’Z’aas. I’m going to set up a mental subroutine, or well, try to. My multitasking center of my brain got damaged back during the Felgre horde attack on Autumn Brook. If I can get this subroutine running, it’ll swap to the Glacial Greaves and initiate an F F S in the direction of any incoming attack headed towards my lower body, when alerted by my danger wraps. It’s more useful against small projectiles, and certain types of energy, but it also slows physical melee attacks slightly as well.
Alright, let’s do this. Hell with it, let’s put a full Valkyrie suit in the sixth compartment. We’ve got one: Ravenfeather Coat, two: Wyverium Chestplate, three: Necrometal Chestplate, four: Cursed Lightning Motorcycle Armor, five: Glacial Greaves, six: Valkyrie armor suit. Whenever I’m wearing the Valkyrie armor, I’ll need to activate two with four, or two with five, or three with four, or three with five, simultaneously. One I want to only wear reactionarily so I don’t risk it being melted or burned. Or while floating around here in Mount Solace for the heck of it.
The five of us begin to depart my vault, and I lock it magically behind us, when out of nowhere, Lady Kinzul, privately telepathically queries, “Is your offer still valid, my Schism?”
I cough, trip, stumble, catch myself with telekinesis, and draw plenty of raised eyebrows from my inner circle, Vylon and Vyela, and several assembled Draconiac volunteers. Well, Lady Kinzul certainly knows how to keep me distracted. I telepathically privately answer, “Yes, of course my Lady, always.”
There doesn’t appear to be any deviousness in her tone when she replies, “Good, I shall keep that under advisement.”
Now I’m the one with the raised eyebrow. Okay, now Lady Kinzul is just raising hers in turn to make fun of me. I chuckle while shaking my head incredulously. Even without hearing the words, I’m pretty certain my inner circle still figured out what Lady Kinzul had asked me. Thankfully Vylon and Vyela haven’t, because I’ve got my passive outgoing broadcast walls up towards their subnetwork.
Aloud, Kinzul asks, “My Tenith, are you capable of offering the five of us a degree of lightness simultaneously?”
Abashedly, Teuila offers, “Only if we’re all really close, like hugging Aunty Zool.”
I don’t think I’ve seen a more delighted smile cross Kinzul’s face as she begins partially transforming, revealing her wings, and much of her legs, while her clothing morphs. She sweeps up me, Te, Lucky, and Lu, so that Teuila can reach all of us as she holds us to her chest. Teuila excitedly hugs our Lady, nestling, while activating her Latent, reducing our gravity to nearly zero. Lady Kinzul begins virtually sailing up the tunnels and corridors all the way from Mount Verdimenn, to the feasting room at the very top of Mount Solace.
We arrive incredibly swiftly to the feasting hall, with its direct tunnel out into the open pre-dawn sky of Rayileklia. Actual sunlight, just starting to reflect off the mountaintops is almost magical, having been denied it for most of the last four months. Lil is wearing his cloak, probably his invisible goggles, his vambraced fire-salamander gauntlets, and the giant stormy belt buckle girdle thing. The belt girdle thing doesn’t fit his lanky human form currently, but he’ll likely be shifting into the version of his draconic form that has the strong, thick forelimbs.
Lucky is wearing his Glacial Cord, and he’s in his Wolfium plate armor, despite him being something like, half cragbeast, half dragon, half Valkyrie, half otter, half Changeling Fae, and half blue-fuzzy-sphere. I know that’s a lot of halves, but trust me on this, he expresses each of those traits very clearly. Lu chuckles and rolls her eyes while shaking her head at me. She’s got Valkyrie armor on under her robes. On her left hand, she’s got the hand-shield that summons a giant translucent viper, and on her right, she’s got the gauntlet that produces or amplifies sonic attacks, or something like that.
Teuila’s wearing Icey, aka Shellcracker’s Iceflame Spark, and wielding a Valkyrie buckler in her offhand. She’s got her winged bow folded up to look like a mechanical bird resting upon her back, an empty quiver, and a scroll-case containing probably half a dozen magical weapons shrunken down. Hell, she’s got probably a Gae Buidhe or two, that lightning trident from the vaults, the danger-staff with the fangs on two ends, or both on one end, I forget, S S Requiem, AKA Essie, a Valkyrie spear, probably more things that I’m forgetting. Te’s wearing her brand new goldforce gauntlets, and grinning like a loon as I make note of them. She's wearing several rings, one or more are invisible due to a small trinket she picked up. One ring I won't make mental note of, because it's from Can'Z'aas, from the dungeon that led to Maka-Akari, Gaea's Cradle. One ring gives her unlimited access to the spell known as jump. It triples her jump distance, without increasing the time it takes to make that leap, which essentially triples Teuila's land speed, as all of her movement is leaping strides.
The gathered Vivant members, all four of them, Prinrin included, are wearing medallions that look a little bit like the buckle I’d given Dawn, so long ago now. I wonder if Dawn snuck it into my hyperdimensional haversack, or one of the books before she perished. I’ve never had the heart to look for it. The identical medallions are a powerful implement, I believe that pure mana bolts, missiles of magic, will just dissipate if they hit the bearer, and the wearer will be able to reactionarily, quite a few times a day, create a very temporary bubble of a particular sort of telekinetic force around themselves. That particular T K force will only dampen other T K force motion and attacks. Though, I’m not sure how easy that’s going to be useful, since my telekinetic force just appears wherever I want it invisibly. Maybe there are spells that launch a T K grip like a visible blast.
The Paradox Vivant members situate themselves with Gilmeshtu at the center, Prinrin riding his shoulders, Orthral to his left, and Fenric to his right. Prinrin grips Gilmeshtu with her thighs, Gilmeshtu holds Orthral and Fenric’s hands, while Orthral, Fenric, and Prinrin reach out for Lady Kinzul’s left hand. Kinzul of course takes their proferred hands in her left. Lady Kinzul then sweeps Lil up into the pile of my inner circle that she has held tightly against her breast with her right arm, and begins flying upwards out of the mountain, slowly changing her form.
After exiting the mountaintop though, Lady Kinzul’s form begins to change, and grow, faster and faster, dozens of feet, hundreds of feet, thousands of feet. I’m left breathless. She must be at least a quarter as large as Tenny, maybe an eighth, maybe a half, it’s so hard to judge on such a large scale.
Telepathically, to all of us, Lady Kinzul chuckles as she comments, “It feels so good to not be wasting so much energy remaining so small.”
I blink several times, slightly stunned. I mean, of course it makes sense. One of the eldest beings in the world, is the size of a mountain, and has to compact that all down into a human form to be able to make it through most of the tunnels in her home. Making sure my passive broadcasts are off to everyone for a moment, I have a short laugh. This is the woman who keeps teasing me about taking me up on the offer to marry me.
I can sense the mirth along our private telepathic wavelength as Lady Kinzul holds back from asking, “Who ever said I was teasing?” and instead says, “I assess the inputs and possibilities of all within the Order. Yours holds much value my Schism. It may even become necessary, sooner than we would like.”
I choke on my own tongue momentarily while trying to gulp, as we’re flying at what might be supersonic speeds. Teuila jokingly asks, “Swallow a bug?” to which I shake my head, but can’t fathom answering at the moment.
What the hell does one even say to someone that you’re still trying to categorize your love for, who happens to be a monumentally, colossally powerful, ancient being, that says, “Yeah we’re probably going to have to marry pretty soon.”? Her laughter about my train of thought is doing kind of the opposite of helping, because it’s endearing as hell.
I shake my head at myself incredulously, laughing as I let my walls to my inner circle back down. Right, strategy time. I let all of my walls down for the Vivant as well.
Prinny suddenly remembers I exist when my internal monologue comes across to her, so I quickly resume all my psychic walls except hers as she excitedly greets me, “Oh Schism my sweet, I’m so happy you’re here! It’s so good we get a chance to get to know each other before the battle isn’t it? It’s probably only going to be a quarter of an hour as our sweet Lady Kinzul analyzes the best landing location for us, and opens the sky in the right places. Oh yes, the acid clouds down there, oh wait, maybe she doesn’t want you to know yet. I mean, you obviously know we can get through them safely with our sweet Lady, but the story behind those mile-thick clouds of concentrated acid, and the neverending lightning. Oh, wait, forget me, shucks. Oh I’m talking your ear off sweetie, how has your morning been going?”
I can’t help smiling broadly, I absolutely adore this wonderful, sweet, kind, loving, fun, funny, lovely, charming, adorable, petite, gorgeous, whirlwind of a woman. And of course she could hear that. I’d facepalm, but I’m rather tightly gripped in an enormous dragon’s foreclaw. Prinny chuckles while I formulate an answer, “The morning is all the brighter for having you in it Prinrin. I found another magic trinket that’ll help me in combat, um, pants. Magic pants. I was looking for pants when Lady Kinzul came to get us. Yeah, it’s exactly how it sounded.”
Prinrin bursts into laughter as she guesses, “Oh my, haha, oh my poor dear, that must have been absolutely mortifying for you. I do hope you’re not traumatized by it. Our Lady means no harm, I’m sure. You’re not a dragon, perhaps your nudity didn’t even register to her.”
Gulping, I think to myself, oh it registered alright. Wait, crap, she can hear. Crap. I apologize, “Sorry Prinny, yeah, um hah, it was a rocky start to moving out, but the start to the day itself was pure heaven. Waking up in the arms of two of my beloveds, just snuggled closely for warmth. It’s utter bliss. I’ve been missing it for so long, us being together again. My son Lucky was with us in bed too.”
Prinrin’s wavelength goes through a massive swath of mixed emotions, and I can immediately guess that she would love to wake up with her children surrounding her, but can’t, because of the secrets she has to keep. I’m so sorry if that’s the—. Prinrin responds affirmatively, “You’re sharp as a tack Schism sweetie, quick as a whip. It’s not your fault. You are an utter sweetheart for your concern. Really, thank you. I try to find joys where I can, like the time I spend engaging in reading with our dear Lady’s sweet daughter.”
I cough and snort, knowing exactly what Prinny reads with Illy, and I try very hard not to laugh as I triple check all of my wavelengths to make sure nothing is getting out to anyone else besides Prinrin. I can’t keep Lady Kinzul out, but I doubt Prinny cares if Lady Kinzul knows the types of books they read. They must have someone occasionally head into other humanoid lands to buy printed novels, or I suppose they could be all hand-written.
Prinrin’s wavelength is far more embarrassed than I thought she’d be. Does she not know that Kinzul learned about Illy’s reading pasttime yesterday during the Dormir psychic subnetwork setup? Prinny asks, “You ah, absolutely, a hundred percent sure, what uh, you think we might read Schism sweetie?”
I bite back my smile, trying to be polite and discrete as I respond, “I’m entirely, a hundred percent certain, what Illy believes to be the dirt that Farzee was holding over her head, is the types of books that she engages in reading with you. She told me, but Lady Kinzul is always aware of my internal monologue somehow, so Lady Kinzul is aware as well.”
I can feel the color draining from Prinrin’s emotions as if she were going pale as a ghost. I then feel a massive thermal fluctuation from Lady Kinzul’s other claw, where Prinrin is located, before Prinrin starts chuckling nervously. Prinrin coughs along our mental wavelength before asking, “So, ah, ahem, um. Do you think I should be worried that our dear Lady hasn’t brought it up?”
Fighting my smile, I shake my head while answering, “No, no. Illy, ah, told her something later, that may have, possibly superseded how delightfully deviant that that news was to her.”
The massive wave of relief that pours through my bond to Prinrin is palpable, and almost relaxes me, as she then switches to excitement to plead, “Really? Dish!”
Snorting a laugh I shake my head while stating, “Sorry Prinny love, that is not my gossip to dish. Lady Kinzul has already played devious games with me in something seeming a bit like a punishment for what I engaged in with—. Ahem. Uh.”
The motion of Prinrin’s eyes bulging as her brows fly upwards is transmitted across our wavelength as she puts two and two together. Crap. Prinrin giggles while comforting me, “Oh don’t worry about it Schism sweetie, I’d have wheedled it out of Illy tonight or tomorrow anyway. Probably tomorrow, since Fridays are when we, ahem, engage in reading koff stuff koff together. Goodness. We are a deviant little crew aren’t we? Mount Solace’s silly solace aura probably plays at least a smidgen of a fair part in that, huh?”
I blink rapidly, stunned, wanting to facepalm. The reason everyone seems keyed up, amped up, it isn’t just that the battles are beginning to commence, it’s that the mountain itself causes people to feel, or seek solace. It’s a domain of comfort, to try to shelter those away from—. Well, I feel a little less negatively than I thought I should feel about myself. Now I have two reasons to second guess myself about everything I feel though. Things that mess with one’s mind are—.
Prinrin offers up, “Oh no no love, nothing like that. It warms the heart, and soothes the soul. It just might do that a bit stronger after performing an act of solace, which, well, feels good to begin with, so simply feels better. Though I suppose, if one starts to crave that extra little warmth and love, I do suppose I could see how one might feel like it messed with their mind. Oh we’re beginning to circle now, Lady Kinzul’s finding the exact right drop point for us.”
Telepathically I call out, “Prinny, please stay safe. You’re simply wonderful. I know you’re one of our best combatants, but if you at all think you might need the slightest of help to be able to make it home safely, please, please call out to me. I, I hope that isn’t insulting. I’m sorry.”
Responding jovially, Prinny consoles me, “Of course not Schism dear, you cutie, your concern warms my heart. The same for you love. We both have reasons to make it home. Let’s both do our best now, eh?”
Nodding to Prinny, knowing we won’t be accidentally talking about any of her secrets after this point, I let back down my walls to my inner circle. I gaze downward as an entire mile deep bank of acid clouds roils and thunders beneath us. There are swirling vortexes, that would likely trap any dragon smaller or weaker than Kinzul, and possibly send even someone as majestic as Kinzul crashing to the ground.
Thinking out loud to my loved ones, which, yes, includes Kinzul and Prinny, I request, “Let’s strategize.”