As various patients and volunteers groan in pain, Teuila begins pacing around the infirmary, and slowly blows a calming blaze across the patients herein, causing Kagired to panic. I quickly explain, “Don’t worry, they’re magical flames, they’ll never harm allies, it’s like a gentle massage more than anything else. Te can only do it a couple of times per day, but, well, yeah, there’s nothing to fear.”
Sponge asks the logical question, “Why hadn’t she used this before or told me about it before now?”
Blushing, Te scratches the back of her head as she admits, “I—, I kinda forgot I had the ability. I got it by eating an enchanted platinum scale shard after reading a book called the Apex of Divinity or something like that.”
I stifle my grin at Teuila’s abashedness, trying to not feel amused at her expense. Kagired raises a brow beneath his hooded robe, but shrugs feebly in response to Teuila’s assertion. Huffing a sigh, he continues making rounds, checking on each individual that had participated in his Latent’s distribution of the injuries. Surprisingly, as Kagired is making his way around the infirmary, the sound of claws scraping in the cadence of a trot reaches my ears.
Lucky bounds into thinkspace, tackling my mental avatar, as he physically trots into the infirmary. My son sits in front of Kagired, wagging his tail. I roughhouse with Lucky in thinkspace while walking over to stroke his skull in meatspace. Kagired similarly scritches behind Lucky’s left ear while taking in the state of his infirmary. I nod solemnly, realizing that this is the worst state it has been in since the start of the war, with the most unconscious individuals suffering the most pain and damage. Kneeling down, I kiss Lucky’s skull roughly before returning to my position between Prinny, Lu, and Lil.
A voice I hadn’t expected to hear telepathically reaches me, “Came. When I heard. Hi. Sorry for earlier.”
Unable to decide how to respond, I wave feebly across the telepathic wavelength towards Xayla. Gulping, I await anything further Zayzi has to say, and thankfully they continue, “Accident, right? Didn’t want that, don’t want that, right? Didn’t like it?”
Well crap. It was definitely an accident, and I’m not seeking or trying to push for it, but if I tell Zayzi I didn’t like it, I’d be lying. I don’t want to lie to them. I like kissing. I know however that Zayzi absolutely does not want romance, now or ever, and me answering that I liked it might make them avoid me. I gaze towards Teuila who shrugs helplessly at my conundrum. Gnawing on my lip, I try to quickly decide how to respond so I don’t leave Zayzi hanging.
Going for honesty as best as I can, I start out, “It was definitely an accident. I’m really sorry. I couldn’t see your face. I shouldn’t have even been going to kiss your forehead. I’m sorry. I’m not seeking that, I wasn’t seeking it. I don’t like lying though. I don’t want to hurt you, or scare you into thinking I’m trying to manipulate you or trying to get you to do things you don’t want. I do like kissing in general. Um. If I said I didn’t like kissing you, it would partially be a lie. I didn’t like doing it, because it felt bad that I was intruding on a boundary of yours. I don’t like that I did that. I’m really sorry. Physically it was nice, but emotionally I felt like crap.”
Zayzi’s telepathic response is, “Lot of words. No kissing. ‘Kay?”
Breathing a sigh of relief, I nod emphatically across our telepathic wavelength, which earns me a subtle telepathic smile in response. Phew. Unsure where to go from here, I find myself surprised when Xayla continues, “Was going to smooch cheek, glad you were safe. You’re safe. Good. Lot of ways. Sucks less with you. Want it to stay that way. Saw you save us. Saw you win. I know you’ll do it. You’ll get them all. Thank you.”
My breath catches in my throat and I weep several tears. I’m touched at the sentiment, and glad that Xayla isn’t upset with me. Teuila walks my way to brush my tears away with her thumb while cupping my cheek. She kisses me softly and holds me close. Xayla waves from around the edge of a corner where they’re leaning their lanky form up against the wall, their back towards the interior of the infirmary.
Hopefully Zayzi told Ixeyla about the misunderstanding so that Ixeyla doesn’t try to kill—. Ixey sends across our wavelength, “Don’t worry about it Schism. I know it was an accident. Sorry I got pissed. Thanks for saving us. Thanks for getting Lil here right away. What even happened? How’d he get so hurt?”
Ixey hugs Zayzi once tightly before striding into the infirmary to stand next to me, watching over Lil. Leezahna looks ill, hanging back around the corner a few steps from Xayla. I’m not sure what happened yet at Laotzxhi that could have caused this. I can only ramble, “I’m not really sure yet. Have you seen Lil’s original form before now? His spherical form, this one? To be so hurt that he reverted, with as powerful as he’d gotten, it must have been pretty bad, especially to take out the entire Vivant, Lil, Lu, and nearly Kinzul. I’m scared for him Ixey. I never thought I’d see him back in this form against his will.”
Ixey jabs me firmly in the chest, punching me rather roughly, but even though she’s a dragon, and has a fair amount of strength belaying her gangly form, it barely adjusts my balance at all. She punches me again and again, and Teuila begins to glare at her, but I shake my head. Eventually Ixey leans against me and growls through tears, “This sucks! I wanna kill the bastards that did this! He’s your best friend right? Don’t you want to too?”
Drawing a shuddered, half-sobbed breath, I nod as I respond, “Yeah, yeah I do. They’re already dead though.”
To which Ixey responds lamely, “Oh,” she then adds, “Sorry.”
I try not to smirk or chuckle as I let Ixeyla stand against me. She hides her tears in my shoulder for a while longer, before sniffling and blowing her nose on me. I grimace, but I don’t begrudge her it as she shoves off of me harshly. She kneels next to Lil’s bed, and keeps one hand resting on it, her extremely long digits tenderly touching Lil’s tail. I don’t even recall doing it, but apparently I fished the soapstone out of Luni’s belongings and tapped everyone with it enough times to clear up the blood. They all still have shallow wounds and deep bruises, despite Sponge’s Latent.
This war is only going to get harder from here on out. I need to start pressing harder for every single advantage, but at this very moment, I can’t imagine abandoning my loved ones before they awaken. I couldn’t forgive myself if I wasn’t the first thing they saw when they awoke. Lucky sits dutifully at my side, and whuffs once quietly in agreement.
Since he’s here, I remove the dimensional scarf from my neck, and wrap the supremely long, dark, woolen object around Lucky’s, covering up his glacial amulet. I could swear he flashes me a grin. Lucky immediately begins experimenting with the magics of the scarf. It takes him no time at all to master the magic of controlling the ends of the scarf as if they were hands, limbs of his very own. I whisper a tiny, quiet, low note of appreciation. I also attach one of the bicep bangles to his left forelimb. We’ll need to figure out which clips and accessories best befit each of us at some point.
Speaking of, Teuila blushes and mumbles, “I um, kinda don’t need the one with flying and lightning. Between the lightning-chain spear, Mjolnir, Icey, my powers, and a bunch of other stuff, it’s beyond redundant. It’d be really good for Lucky or Lu to have, so that neither of them ever have to fear falling, but I can’t figure out how to get it out of this bangle, and I’ve been trying for the last half an hour.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Oh, crap. I guess that’s why they were in a separate box. Te quickly adds, “Not to be ungrateful, it’s awesome, free-flight was super cool, being able to go get to Aunty Zool while she was incoming, and all that, but I’ve got enough tricks that are close enough to flying anyway. I just, I think like, if maybe Lu had had this, maybe she wouldn’t be laying here like this right now, all beat up.”
Realizing an implication of what she said, in a hoarse whisper, Te hastily corrects, “Not—! Glp! Not to blame anyone! We didn’t know these things were even in our piles of stuff before now, or maybe they came from one of the hoards we looted, I don’t even know. I just mean in the future. I know they have to go to a Shellcracker, but the two Lus are the only ones that can’t fly on their own, and the only ones that don’t have some sort of protection against zappin’.”
Luni groans nearby, and as we turn to her, she mutters, almost slurring, “*Soooo* loud. Unnn. Love you jerkface, but shuu’-up Te. Head hurts so bad.”
Leaning down to kiss her forehead, I’m about to speak, but Luni plaps her left hand over my mouth, requesting that I remain silent. I’d engage in an SFSF with her, but she seems too weak, exhausted, tired, and in pain to enjoy it. Instead, I simply hold her hand for a long moment between mine. Teuila boops Lu on the nose, and Lucky changes shape to become large enough to rest his face across the bed and Lu’s legs. Lu groans for half a second at the attention, but then chuckles and scritches Lucky’s snout with her free hand.
Now that she’s awake, I slip one of the bangles on Luni’s left bicep as well, up under the sleeve of her robe. Lu catches my hand there with her right hand, keeping it beneath her robe, holding it to the bare flesh of her arm. She looses a murmur of pleasure, which sets me blushing, despite there being nothing all that sensual about my action. Lu grins at my reaction though, having apparently achieved her desired effect. The butt. Her head then slumps towards her left shoulder as she falls back to sleep, leaving me to fish my hand out from within her robe carefully so as not to disturb her. She looks so peaceful laying there with her right arm crossed over her chest, though she happened to ‘accidentally’ create a shelf for her—. Yeah, that was probably entirely on purpose.
Ixeyla hip checks me roughly, and brings my attention to Lil. Lil stirs and his eyes comically roll around in their sockets as he groans out, “Wh— what even hit me? Owwww. Oh. Oh, glp, hi.”
Suddenly noticing Ixey’s presence, Lil clams up completely as his eyes drift to her face and his gaze locks upon hers. He immediately begins glowing as he starts to engage an energy tether to regain his second stage evolution. Smirking, I roll my eyes and lightly shake my head twice. Lil’s going to be fine then, if he can overreact like a giddy schoolboy upon seeing his crush. I lean down to roughly kiss him on the forehead, and stroke his tail’s dorsal ridge, before turning my attention to Prinrin.
Prinrin hasn’t awoken, and she’d suffered one of the worst injuries. There were gaping wounds through her already previously broken arm, her jaw hung slack, far too far to the left. Her legs hung loose at awkward angles from her knees. There were huge gouges across her abdomen. For a biologic entity, a normal living creature, I’d be surprised she was still living if she weren’t also an ancient dragon. As is, I’m still terrified for her recovery. The rest of the Vivant were pretty beat up, but it seems like Prinny took the brunt of it, as she apparently always does, being a runt.
I think she willingly puts herself out there, knowing the enemies will go after her first and hardest, trying to take out the “easiest” target first. Hell, I know she does, because she refused to back down so that Orthral wouldn’t get himself killed. She’s one tough “little old lady,” but even still, I don’t want her to be hurt, I don’t want her to need to spend time recovering. I love the little old gal. I don’t want any of us to be getting injured of course, but, but seeing her so roughed up, it’s—. I rub my eyes on the sleeve of my right forearm.
Prinrin’s eyelids flicker, but don’t manage to open. I gulp in hesitant anticipation. I’d be planting my lips on hers if it weren’t one of our few boundaries and taboos. Instead, I quickly take her right hand between both of mine, and kneel next to her bed, so that my face is on level with where her gaze will be when she opens her eyes. Her head is limply lolled towards her right shoulder, and so much of her muscle structure seems slack and weak.
I can sense Teuila roughly giving Lil a noogie, apparently to Ixeyla’s and Sponge’s dismay, but my attention remains transfixed on Prinny, and her barely flickering eyelids. My breath catches for several long moments, maybe even minutes, when Prinrin seems to stop breathing. A lump catches in my throat and my wide-eyed gaze turns partially towards Sponge, who can hear my internal monologue. He rushes over to check on Prinrin, taking her pulse, and removing her clothing to see if she has any other injuries that went untreated.
Unfortunately, we see traces of powerful necromantic magic in Prinrin’s armpits, inner thighs, behind her ears, and at her tailbone. Dark webs are spreading from small spots in all the otherwise hidden locations. Sponge shakes his head in disbelief, his own eyes wide in terror, in helplessness. No. No no no.
Coughing, Prinrin opens her eyes to gaze into my own terror-stricken ones. She flashes me a weak smile as she sends telepathically, “Sounds, koff, pretty bad Schism my sweet. I guess this old gal’s little runt ticker won’t be seeing many more beats then huh? I’m sorry dearie. Wish I’d gone ahead and been a little more frivolous in the end there after all dearie. Poor Schism sweetie, left with all these weights and hurts. Sorry to add one more to your pile my dear.”
No! No no no no! Begging Sponge, I hiss, “Kagired! Are there any Ice’s in the Order? Any Ice civvies? Can anyone preserve her!? Pawn! Miraina! Can you hear me!? Please, bring an Ice to the infirmary!”
Kagired is too stunned to answer, I can sense the loss welling up within him, the idea that one of his patients is going to die, perhaps the first ever. Gulping, I gaze around frantically, and everyone avoids my wild-eyed stare. Everyone save Prinrin, who takes in my gaze calmly, acceptingly.
Prinny teases, “I don’t mind breaking my rule now Schism sweetie. I’d rather not go with such a regret.”
Frowning at Prinrin, I can’t even contemplate the idea of giving in to her request right now, because it would mean accepting her fate. I refuse. I haven’t mastered the gorram fugging dispellation magic yet! Hellspit and fel fires! If, if I can just preserve her, I can do it, I can dispel this curse upon her when I finish learning it.
Prinrin coughs, and weakly attempts to shake her head. She fails at the motion, but mutters, “You don’t have to give an old gal hope Schism sweetie. It’ll be okay. Knowing you has been, it’s been, well, delightful dearie. It’s okay if you don’t want to fulfill my last request. I can see it tearing you up inside. I’m sorry I put such a weight on you.”
Gruffly I chastise, “Gorrammit woman of course I want to! But I refuse to accept it being your last request, and I won’t do something that you’ll regret when you wake up! I won’t lose you! I refuse! Okay? I love you, you crazy little old lady, and I won’t let this be your end. Do you hear me!?”
Prinny offers me a weak smile as she coughs. There’s forgiveness in her gaze as I basically curse her repeatedly. Miraina shows up, trailed by a young man whose snivelling appearance mirrors Yisstendahl, leaving me a bit shocked. A relative? A son? Kagired and Miraina nod at my mental narrative guesses. Hoisting Prinny out of bed carefully, I grab Miraina under one arm, and lift myself, Kagired, and the son of Yisstendahl with my telekinesis as I zip the five of us down towards Mount Verdimenn.
Calling back to Ixeyla and Zayzi telepathically I plead, “Can you two check Lil for necrotic splotches, and then either you or Lil check Lu for them as well? Then the rest of the Vivant as well.”
I apologize to Miraina for grabbing her, and plead, “Pawn, can you go get the Spellknight twins, and bring them to my vault? Please, as absolutely fast as possible, every bit of speed you can muster. I owe you everything for this.”
Pawn takes off like a rocket, and is gone in an instant. I beg Lucky to follow quickly, and thankfully he does. Teuila leaps into my arms as well. Lucky even speeds our descent, by grabbing the rest of us with the ends of his scarf as he grows to a giant size, sprinting along. The scarf has a weight limit to its limbs, but with my telekinesis and Teuila’s gravity Latent reducing our weight to zero, Lucky’s able to zip along while dragging us behind like a trailing ribbon.
At the back of my Vault, I point to a wall, and Lucky knows implicitly what to do, as he begins excavating a small chamber for Prinrin. Kagired looks confused as hell, but I begin picking up a host of abjurative potions that I’d had stored in my vault, or various hyperdimensional bags and spaces, for quite some time.