Chapter 17:
Mia hadn't been able to stay awake for the whole story, but she’d stayed awake for enough important points to ask some very uncomfortable questions. The one that had nearly ripped a hole in my heart was, “Does that mean you're not really my Sister?” Which I assured her in every way possible, I absolutely was. That out Mother and my Father were absolutely my parents and I would do anything to protect any of them.
I don't know if she believed me, but the more I talked, the more she relaxed, and the [Terror Aura] seemed to hold less of a sway on her. She wasn’t acting like the strong, confident sister I had come to know. It was almost like she was a four year old, lost in the dark. When the Terror Aura had tried to grip me, it had taken me back to the place where I was the most frightened i had ever been - the moments before I died in my last life. What if th aura was doing the same to Mia? What if she was stuck in the mind of the girl she used to be when she was truly terrified - the moment the Giant Scorpion on my fifth birthday had nearly killed my father when he had tripped over Mias’ Sand Rabbits? She was acting like a little kid in this place, when over the last three and a half years, she had in reality grown to nearly adulthood by the concept of Axis - ready to gain a class, or enter an apprenticeship and start making her way in the world. Eventually, food eaten and warm from the campfire rune, she managed to fall into real sleep, where I held onto her so she would know she was safe, and pondered what was being done to her.
I knew for a fact that having an undeveloped brain had severely limited my thinking for years - it wasn’t until I was six that i felt even remotely like my old self. It was as though a lot of me was being tempered to fit the body I was in, and it had severely changed my personality. I can’t say it was a bad experience - I had grown up mostly safe and very happy, but now that I could think like an adult again, the thought of being trapped with a child's mind again sent a shudder down my spine. I could only hope that when we got her out from under the [Terror Aura] effects, she would return to normal. For now, I was going to have to protect both of us and help her fight to win this Trial. I simply refused to accept the Lions’ offer, and the very fact that he had offered it to me told me everything I needed to know about him. It was all mind games with him and this place. Still, if this was a Trial of survival, we’d need to do a lot. Take down the towers, kill the zombies, secure supplies, and stay alive. That would be a lot for anyone - let alone a kid. There had to be a trick to it somewhere. I only hoped we discovered it sooner rather than later.
Because Mia was a lot more…innocent…in this place than she usually was, I didn't let her see the three zombie snakes and the undead giant rat that Boone had killed with telekinesis as they tried to invade the warm and dry cave. They only registered as [Wood 1] monsters, and even at only [Wood 4], they were trivial for Boone to bludgeon with a rock.
I honestly didn't know how Mia would take the story when she was in a good enough state of mind to process it. Right now, she was exhausted, terrified, and desperate for a lifeline in this horrible place. I was giving answers to two of them - and a possible answer to the third. We had grown up together, trained together, bathed together and slept in the same bed since we were babies. But now she knew there were secrets. That I'd been lying to her and our parents our entire lives. If nothing else, I would have to come clean to them as well now, there was no way even if she agreed that Mia could keep my secret. An old world phrase popped into my head, most likely from a book of movie. Two people could keep a secret if one of them was dead. The secret would come out and pretty soon everyone would know. Having my parents in my corner about it beforehand would be immensely helpful to that…I hated how mercenary that sounded.
I had really loved just being a kid.
I mourned, briefly, for the death of my innocent life travelling the Divide.
I ate the last of the soup before it congealed, and I think, for a while, I slept, and Boone kept watch. I do not know for how long, but one moment I was trying to figure out what we should do next, and the next Mia was stirring awake against me and I realised I had been asleep. I checked the timer on my dispel of the [Terror Aura] found that 24 hours hadn't yet passed, so we hadn't slept as long as either of us probably needed - especially Mia - but we can't always choose the optimum choice in less than optimum situations.
As it often does, reality returned to the sleeping through a dream in the last seconds of waking up, and Mia stirred fitfully in my arms before waking with a shout and a start, once again reaching for the nearest shadow. Once again, it took a few minutes to calm to girl down and convince her that she wasn't about to be mauled.
When she was calm, though, and when she had gotten over the disconnect of her younger sister acting like the mature caregiver in a small cave in a nightmare, we were able to talk about what to do now. Unsurprisingly, now that she had been offered a tiny hope of getting out of here alive, Mia grasped onto it like a drowning woman. “So what do we need to do?”
“According to the message that turned up on my Soul Card, the spell that is making us scared is controlled by four towers, and we need to blow them up or knock them down before we can leave this part of the trial.” Mia looked at me funny, and I realised I had slipped back into ‘kid speak’ automatically when talking to her, and now she knew the truth, it didn't sit right with her.
I smile a sad smile before continuing. “We also need to think about supplies. I saw that you'd managed to gather some small things and keep food in you. And clean water is obviously not a problem. But I'd imagine if there are better sources of food available in these woods, they are probably guarded. That will go double for the towers.” I looked properly at my sister now she was awake and lucid. She was sitting opposite me with a handful of nuts and berries, slowly making her way through the pile. I was in the process of boiling some mushrooms and the tree bark that Mia had food on the Campfire Rune, before it ran out of power. They were exceptionally basic sources of nutrition, but Mia had done well to think of them considering she didn't have my knowledge of another world, fuzzy as it was, to draw from.
She was thinner, and she twitched constantly, like a mouse, always looking for the next threat. If Kintsujis’ domain was the breaking and reforging of things and people, then Mia was definitely in the broken stage right now. Starvation, constant terror, and sleep deprivation had made of my funny, training mad sister a ghost of a person.
The thing about broken people, though, was they usually didn't get better without help, and I have the feeling that if I hadn't of got here when I did, this particular breaking would have been the end of Mia. But I was here now, and I was going to help her come out of this; and one day, when I was strong enough, I swore there would be a reckoning with both the Namean Lion and with Kintsuji herself.
“The core of what we need to do here is get you stronger, strong enough to fight these monsters on your own - not that you will be, I promise. Boone and I are going to get you through this.” I looked her in the eye and tried to pass along as much sincerity as I possibly could with my words and eyes. I was never leaving her in this state again, I swore it. Boone felt exactly as I did, and after their introduction, and now that Mia had had a little time to get used to the fluffball, she had let him get closer to her. To make his point, he laid his head in her lap and let his tongue loll, puppy-like. The fox may have been hamming the cute routine as much as possible, but it seemed to be exactly what Mia needed to help her work through the horrible, pervasive terror this place exuded. She was still terrified, but in this small space, her logical mind knew she was safe. She very tentatively reached down and ran a hand through the thick fur at Boones’ neck ruff, digging her fingers in as he let his pleasure at the contact show.
“So you need me to fight the monsters. I've…I've killed a few of the smaller ones, the snakes and the rats. They can climb, and get into my hiding spots. They always found me.” Mia looked haunted for a moment, and Boone redoubled his efforts to be an adorable distraction until she came back to herself. “I even got a bunch of those rocks that Mum and our Dads always collect when they kill an especially bad monster.” she looked around in a sudden panic for her stuff, but I'd made sure all of it was in hands reach and plainly visible. She clutched a pouch that had been made from the torn remnants of her overshirt.
I noticed with a start that her clothing was in an even worse state than mine, and I wondered how I had not realised till now. If this carried on, both of us would be naked by the time we exited the trial. I made a note to add ‘find clothes’ high up on the list. If this was a trial of survival, I had little doubt that supplies like clothing weren't available somewhere in this wood - most likely guarded, but still. Humans weren't like the monsters that ran these trials, we couldn't survive without warm clothing to protect us from the elements. While I was distracted from Mia, though, she pulled out several small ability stones, and my eyes lit up.
“Mia, you absolute gem! Those are ability stones. They're what out parents use to make themselves stronger. You have to eat them.” I mimed putting one in my mouth and biting down. “But be careful. They turn into liquid and fill your mouth quickly. Try not to spit any out.” She held one of the apricot sized stones up doubtfully, and I threw a quick [Identify] at it.
Ability stone: Wood 1
Only a first level stone, but it was a start. And if the monsters here dropped stones with any regularity, even small gains would build quickly with time. I made a mental note to find the corpses of the wolves, rats and snakes that we had killed the night before and check them for stones. Every little would help, and the wolves had been higher level.
Mia blew out a breath, shoved the stone in her mouth, and bit down. Instantly she clamped her hands over her mouth as her cheeks ballooned and her eyes went wide, before with a struggle she swallowed and started coughing.
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I was able to see the light of the Ability stone pass into her, experiencing it from the outside for the first time as I saw the river of energy flow towards the core near her navel, be gathered by the spinning ball of power, and then be sent…somewhere else. The light didn't vanish, not precisely, but it moved in an angle my eyes didn't know how to process, and was gone.
Mias’ eyes focused on her Soul Card and grinned, for the first time since I had found her. The visible evidence of oneself becoming stronger was a heady rush. “My Body Attribute increased! It says it's at one of three! Does that mean I'm a third of the way to leveling it up?” She asked me, her eyes shining. It seemed even an all pervasive terror couldn't take away the magic of childhood wonder. I smiled at my sister and congratulated her with a hug.
“Yes, it does. Well done! How many stones do you have, total? And what do you have unlocked on your Soul Card?” I asked, beginning to form a plan in my mind. If we could get Mia even one level in an attribute or useful skill right now, then it would be a start towards what I thought Kintsuji was after. A strong reforging. It didn't mean in any way that I forgive her for what she had done to Mia or me, but I could see it from her perspective.
“Um, when that dumb Goddess gave me a stone, it unlocked my Body Attribute, and gave me one Ability and a Talent. They're both pretty similar though. Both have to do with shadows and doing stuff with them. Even my…race change. It says I'm now an ‘Umbra Foxkin’ and they are seen as bad if they have a shadow affinity.” She looked down, glumly, and her ears dropped to her shaggy white hair. My heart swelled at how adorable they made her look, but I didn't let any of that show on my face.
“Who cares what your Soul Card says about you. Just because you have an affinity doesn't mean you're bad. You’re my Sister and that is all that is ever going to matter to me. Besides - that shadow power I saw you use looks really useful. Could you show me it again?” Mia smiled a wan smile, and put down her ragged pouch of Ability Stones. I could see that she had another six in there. If they were all Wood 1 or Wood 2 stones, with three possible paths she could upgrade, there were excellent odds that she’d be able to raise one Ability or attribute to Wood 2, and quite possibly two different abilities with what she had there. And if that category was her Body Attribute, that would make her a lot stronger and less likely to get hurt.
Mia looked around for the nearest shadow in the cave and her hand became indistinct when she reached for it and sank into the shadow - and seemingly into the wall. When she pulled back, the small shadow shrank and pulled away from the wall with her like ink, revealing her hand holding a wicked looking, black bladed dagger clutched in her pale fist.
Mia had always been good with her knives, to the point where I fully believed if she had gone for a normal Quickening - or Awakening as the Temples called it on Axis - she would have been gifted stones by our parents that would have led to a warrior class.
Shadow daggers fit both Mia, and also Kintsuji, as I remembered how she had shaped the nothing between the stars into furniture and wine glasses. When Mia flipped the blade and caught it by the tip, before flicking her wrist and launching it across the cave, I actually flinched. The blade actually sank into the stone of the wall by a few inches, before becoming indistinct and fading away. Looking back at where the shadow had disappeared on the wall, I saw that it was back to how it had been before Mia touched it.
She looked pleased with it, if you ignored the constant sheen of fear in her eyes, and I was suitably impressed. If the ability to make the knives was just a passive talent, like my tail or illusions, it was a strong one that only reinforced my Sisters learned talents with blades. When I told her that, she smiled, and then went back to choking down the Ability Stones. Of them, four were Wood 1 stones, and the last two, fractionally bigger, were Wood 2.
As she swallowed them, one by one, I followed the visible energy every time, watching it be drawn to her core and speed off to what I assumed was her spiritual body and the location of her receptacles and constellations, like mine inside me. Each time, she seemed to grow more solid in my eyes.
I saw the moment her Body Attribute grew to Wood 2. Her form filled out, no longer looking pale and emaciated, over the space of a few seconds it took on a healthy glow, and her muscle definition she'd had from endless training drills with my father came back. Her hair looked healthier, and her strange, black and gold eyes seemed to glow with inner light. When she was done, she sat back against the cave wall and gasped down lungfuls of air.
Rather than a drink of water, I passed Mia the jug of healing concoction. While she wasn't hurt, even a basic healing concoction promoted the health of the drinker, staving off infection and refilling needed compounds, minerals, and vitamins. I drank a portion myself, and then poured the last of it into my cleaned bowl for Boone. While he drank his fill, I refilled the glass bottle with rainwater and began to recharge the enchantment with 20% of my essence. The enchantment wasn't permanent, and would break down after a few recharges, but while we had it, it was best to keep it full. I'd need the skills of a Runesmith to make a truly permanent healing bottle, and the way my Constellations were coming together so far, I doubted that was in the cards for me any longer.Still, the skills Papa and my mother had taught me would keep us alive. I'd make sure of it.
When Mia finished all of the stones, she informed me that, against all expectations, the nine total levels of essence had been distributed pretty much evenly. All three of her receptacles had levelled up to Wood 2, and her ability with shadow and her knives was deadlier as a result.
The campfire rune had long run out of it duration by that point, and I couldn't recharge it without basically making one from scratch, but the eight hours of heat and the mostly closed off stone room had warmed the small space enough that the heat lingered, though I had had to re-summon my tail so that we could have light.
Mia seemed fascinated by the tail, and spent a long time examining it - closer even than I had dared to do myself yet. The bright green scales on top were hard and ridged, with little give, and the sense of touch through them was dulled to little more than pressure. The pink feathers were deep rooted, however, and they were much more sensitive if yanked in the wrong way. Strangely though, with Mia pointing it out, I found I could raise or flatten the feathers much like a bird could raise the ruff around its neck. It looked like a threat display, honestly, and I was fascinated for a few minutes lifting them up and down.
The cream scales on the underside seemed the most sensitive, and I could actually feel it when Mia ran scratching nails over the hardened, leather-like skin of the bands there. I was just amazed by the whole thing, especially how it didn't freak me out, like Mias' ears did her: She still wouldn't let me touch them. My tail just felt…right. Like it was just another piece of my identity that I had thrown on, like a favourite sweater or distinctive piece of jewellery.
Eventually, our catching up and calming down came to a close. I let Boone sleep, and I took a watch at the door while Mia slept on and off, fitfully. I managed to make the last of the food in my pack split between us so that we had something in our bellies, and before the timer ran out, I used my [Dawnslight] to reset the the dispel effect keeping me safe from feeling the same horror that Mia was being subjected to.
While I was on watch, I was restricted to kneeling by the rock covering most of the entrance, and spying out of the gap near the ceiling. It was pouring with rain again, and Mia had said that the rain was the safest time to travel. The zombies - a word I remembered from my old life - didn't like the heavy downpour, as while it was painful to us, it could slough the rotten flesh from their waterlogged bones if they were out in it for long enough.
Likely, the only reason Mia had been attacked when I found her was that she had passed a place where three of them were hiding away from the brain and had decided to risk attacking my sister.
After a couple of hours, the rain stopped again, with no gradual lessening of the torrent. One moment the world was a sheet of falling water, an eyeblink later the world was clear.
As Mia said, the monsters came back soon after. I saw several packs of wolves pass by, and one or two came up to the cave and scraped at the rock, but even if the entrance was clear, their bloated and ragged bodies would have had a hard time squeezing themselves into the crevice we had made as homely as we could.
Besides, the first one to try seriously at shifting the rock received a fully charged sling stone in the eye, powered up with both blue fire and the yellow speed enchantment from the catapult itself. The stone pulped its eye like an overripe plum, and snapped through to its mushy brain before the overloaded stone exploded with a muffled crack and I had to duck away from the spray of fetid gore.
There were other attempts to get at us from dry and papery snacks and green, bloated rats, but while they could, with difficulty and damage, squeeze themselves into the crack, it didn't end well for them.
The spear I had gained in the last trial was supernaturally sharp, and a quick thrust would skewer whatever was trying to get at us. My hardest task of those ones, though, was getting the damn things off the blade after. The snakes were easy enough, but the rats required me to force the rat back through the gap and wiggle it off using the rocks at top and bottom as a brace. They left a horrible odour of rotting meat and spilled bowels behind, and I grimaced as I was forced to sit through it in silence.
Eventually, though, I knew we had stayed in this place as long as we reasonably could, and it was time to gather some proper insight into this forest and these towers that were here somewhere.
When Boone and Mia both perked up their ears and informed me a single wolf was making its way past us, with nothing else in hearing distance, I made the decision that it should be the start of Mia trying to pass this trial properly.
She complained, and the fear came back in full force, but I talked her through it, reassured her that we would be right there with her, and made her wear the tiger skin cloak and take the spear, both of which adjusted themselves to fit her slim frame.
Even more, the stripes of black on the tiger cloak bled toward each other until they had completely obscured the orange, and the shadows under the cloak seemed to become even deeper.
With no visible face, a silver spear and the ragged black cloak, my sister didn't look like a scared girl lost in the woods anymore. She looked like the shadow of the reaper. I grinned a fierce grin, which I felt her return the best she could, before I asked Boone to move the stone and we made our way outside. I stopped Mia with one hand, just before she passed through, though, and held my other hand out to her, pinky extended. “I know you are scared, and I know you know you are not a coward. But trust me, Boone and I will come for you. We’ll be there, Anywhere, Always.”
After a second, I saw her head bob in a nod in the shadows of the cloak, and a pale hand extended out and clasped my own, pinky to pinky in the multi-universal sign of an unbreakable vow. She raised her spear, crouched down as low as she could, and slinked out of the cave, with me on her heels.
It was time to turn the tables on Hunter and Hunted, and get my sister back to normal. I just hoped i wasn't already falling into a trap.