Stormclouds loomed low overhead, pelting the lake with rain torrents cascading down the sides of jagged, rocky peaks. Two islands stood close enough to one another that their spires were visible from across the water. Near one island, a raging whirlpool churned violently, its strength growing with the storm. The other remained calm for the moment, but as time passed, the whirlpool drew closer, its pull undeniable.
On the quieter island, an abandoned elf cave sat nestled against the mountainside. When the winds quieted just enough, a low string of curses could be heard drifting from within.
Emily growled and grumbled as she stared up at the shadowy ceiling.
She hadn’t felt this lost in a long time. To her, her powers were merely a tool, something she’d lived with all her life.
In fact, there was never a time when she didn’t have her powers at her disposal. They had been a part of her for as long as she could remember, always there, always ready. They were the reason her grandfather had taken care of her, raising her in the absence of others.
They were hard to get control of at first, but over time Emily had trained her will to that of steel.
Every movement, every shift she had to do on her own. This meant that she’d learned to date, she had to figure it out by herself. Once she’d gotten the hang of it though, there was very little that she couldn’t do with the right image.
She had to control everything.
And it was that very thought that was holding her back now.
Her newest skill required that she give up some measure of control to ruby guardian to manage, but that meant she had to be willing to give up a part of what she had become.
Emily had worked far too hard for too long to do something like that, even if it was her own skill.
From the description, ruby guardian could passively alter how her blood acted.
Which sounded like a useful skill, but every time she tried to get it in place it would fall right back out of shape.
Emily created a blood bolt in each hand. One was larger and spun faster, but when she stopped diverting her focus, the larger one returned to normal.
Temporarily relaxing her control wasn’t the issue, if she put her mind to it she could push down her instinct to dominate, but it made her feel incredibly uneasy.
Perhaps the only thing Emily could equate it to was muscle memory. She’d trained herself and her power in a particular way, so when something happened, they reacted in a particular way. There was just no space for a skill to get in between this, at least not right now.
A soft whine filled the air, and Emily glanced over at Cupcake, who seemed to sense her frustration.
“Don’t worry girl, I’m good, just fighting with a skill.”
Cupcake cocked her head and that made Emily think of the skill Cupcake got from the stars, or paths as Alex liked to call them.
She understood how sentient beings got skills–well she didn’t, but that was a rabbit hole she wasn’t going down– but what about beasts like Cupcake? How did she read the skill, was there another way the star spoke to them? Did they just understand it? For that matter, why did Emily’s the stars write in English?
“Welp, add that to the list of mysteries I need to delve into.”
Emily leaned forward and scratched behind Cucpakes ear. She didn’t know why she was talking to the Rime wolf, it couldn’t understand her, but it felt good to voice her thoughts.
“I suppose we’d better get going soon, hadn’t we?”
Sadly, without a ton of practice, she wasn’t going to figure out this skill unless she was about to die…
Emily sat up straighter.
She couldn’t get her power to relinquish control of something she already did inherently, but what if she gave it something to do that wasn’t already set in stone in her mind?
Namely, when to start healing her.
Emily's natural healing was potent, but it was reactive. It required her attention to heal something in the heat of battle, but what if it didn’t?
What if her blood was always working to heal her?
The costs could be fairly large in the long run but her reserves were growing daily so she could spare a little extra, plus she would hit the third threshold pretty soon.
Deciding to run with this idea Emily relaxed her chest and triggered ruby guardian. She was purposeful in thinking of this as a new technique, even though she could still push the skill aside and heal herself manually, it would be something completely new that took care of her health.
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“Come on little guy, I’m leaving all the fixing to you…” she muttered as she gave up a minuscule measure of control.
The skill tentatively fell into place and when Emily was certain it had taken hold she pulled out her dagger and slashed across her forearm. The flesh separated and a fresh burning stink prickled her body. The wound began closing almost as soon as it was made and in a couple of seconds, it was sealed.
Emily smiled to herself but thought over the results.
To Emily, a cut in battle was as much a boon as it was a detriment. Healing every little wound was not necessary, what she did care about was internal damage, and mutilation, which could inhibit her ability to fight.
So, reining the skill in, Emily told it to only protect her internal organs and have it recover a wound above a certain size.
This meant that she could save her power for the things that mattered. Not the odd drunken stupor, or nick here and there.
She’d have to tap its full potential later when she was a little more used to it, but all in all, Emily was incredibly pleased she’d found a use for the skill. She might end up pushing it aside to take charge of the healing but at least it would work in the background. It would be especially useful in heavy combat.
Emily glanced out at the storm that had been raging all night. They had gotten here a good while ago and at that time it had been late afternoon.
It was now early morning and Emily could see the light beginning to dance behind the clouds as a faint fog rolled in.
She slowly rose, stretching as her joints popped and cracked, the sounds echoing the toll of a long night spent on the hard stone floor.
“Alright, let’s get our bearings girl,” Emily said, tying her cloak over her shoulders.
Her body heat now kept out the cold, but wet socks were still an unpleasant reality.
Cupcake snorted glanced out into the oncoming sheets of water and curled herself back into a ball. She’d been using Emily as a heater but the beast looked more than happy on her lonesome.
“Oh really now?” Emily said an edge of sarcasm in her voice.
Was this mutt telling her to go check it out and come back when she was done?
“Oi, what if there are dangerous things out there?” Emily tried, but Cupcake flipped on her back revealing her stomach like a pup.
Emily tapped her foot on the ground. Emily felt like this was Cupckae way of asking for five more minutes.
“Ah fuck it, do what you like, but just remember, if I disappear you’re in major shit.”
Cupcake was already snoring gently to herself and Emily’s shoulder drooped slightly.
“Well fuck.”
With that, she turned to the opening and headed out into the rain. Making her way down to the beach, she watched over the horizon. The land and lake were quiet under the drum of rain, and as Emily began searching through the perimeter of the island she kept an eye out for any surprises.
There were a few trees here and even some small vegetation, but not much else.
Elves were plentiful, but Emily had since gotten used to dodging this particular breed. When they passed she simply waited them out.
The one group she did have to deal with, she caught unawares. Five of them were dead to Emily's whip before the other five even knew what hit them.
After that, she continued to search the island until she had done a full loop around it. The further she got the worse her mood fell.
She couldn’t find what she was looking for.
Emily was tempted to take another lap around but she knew it would have been obvious the moment she saw it.
No matter where she searched, Emily could not find the stone arrow Atticus should have left behind.
That meant one of two things. The first was that he was dead, which she hoped was not the case, and the next was that in all the chaos she and Cupcake had gotten turned around and arrived at the wrong island.
If Atticus had taken a different route then finding his path would only get harder as time went on, but Emily was not willing to backtrack, not after all that.
That meant she would have to rely on her natural sense of direction, or in this case, her title.
When Emily got back to the cave, having gone full circle she caused as much disruption as she could without shouting out loud.
“Alrighty, Cupcake, looks like we’re down to good old-fashioned luck,” Emily muttered, squeezing rainwater from her curls. Of course, it was pure coincidence that she happened to be standing directly over the slumbering wolf, letting the drops fall right onto her.
Cupcake wrinkled her nose and bared her fangs at Emily, who smiled just as wide.
“Oh grow up, you’re about to take a shower anyway,” Emily said with probably too much joy in her voice.
The Rime wolf stood to her full height dwarfing the human female in front of her. Probably wondering if she could manage a bite before she got scolded, but Emily paid her no mind.
“Come one, let's get you saddled, girl.”
After that, Cupcake didn’t resist as much, though she looked longingly at the warm cave as they stepped out into the storm. Emily hadn’t even bothered drying off, but some of the water had evaporated due to her heightened body temperature.
Emily looked around the landscape and then toward the sky. She then tapped Explorer and waited to see what it thought. The title gave her what she was fairly certain was south, and with no reason to hesitate, Emily urged Cupcake onward. The wolf was slow to get going at first, but as they traveled downhill, their speed increased.
When they hit the shore, Cupcake’s speed doubled, and they were off, shooting across the lake with the same ease as running over solid ground. The clouds were still heavy in the sky, but Emily spotted a fog bank approaching from the direction they were headed.
At first, it was thin, but the longer they traveled, the thicker it became until a literal wall of fog stretched up in front of them.
“Great, just great. Anything else you wanna throw our way, you bastards?” Lightning flashed and rumbled overhead as if in answer.
Jeez, I suddenly miss home. At least there, you can blame the gods for everything, and they won’t do shit about it,” she muttered, pouting to herself.
The lightning was probably just lightning, but you never knew in this place.
When they entered the fog bank, a faint, earthy fragrance filled her nose. Emily's face twisted in disgust as the rain began to ease.
They kept moving forward, trying their best to stay on track, but soon Cupcake came to a standstill.
The rain and wind had slowed, but a thick layer of mist clung to everything. When they stopped, Emily noticed shifting reeds below the water’s surface. There were even patches of algae floating nearby—probably the source of the smell.
Emily hummed to herself.
“Okay, this is the part where I’d be yelling at the girl in a horror movie not to go into the creepy house. Cupcake, let’s head back.”
Cupcake lifted a paw and set it back down, cocking her head. The small ripple it made was far more pronounced in the stillness, making the world feel empty.
Emily turned her head, and the path back looked almost identical to the path ahead.
Explorer gave Emily the equivalent of a shrug, and she glanced up at the roof of mist.
“…Fuck…”
Blood points: 285