Ruth opened his eyes, the blackness situated around his irises seemed strained as he focused on the armored woman standing over him. The healing woman with the brown eyes was talking excitedly to Merriweather. Her breathing was all over the place, like she had just run a great distance. Ruth tried to focus on what she was saying but it was hard. Maybe the healer was getting tired and hadn’t done a good job?
The voice seemed really far away…
“I think he needs a dedicated healer. It’s overkill for a Paintaker but I’m not sure an intern could handle it! He could have dieeeeeed a couple times!”
Ruth wondered why she sounded so happy.
“I suppose you are volunteering?”
“Well… I mean, i-if that’s okay with you?”
Ruth wanted to sleep but a look to the side revealed that Jeanne was doubled over in the sparring area with his hands resting lightly on his knees. The other man’s eyes were full of unwillingness when he saw that Ruth was giving him the quick once over.
Weakness! Finally!
Ruth rolled over and tried to push himself upward. For a moment nothing happened. He stayed in that position for a long moment as he did a long inventory of his body. Everything felt… sun scorched. Like he had been out on a rock during a particularly hot summer afternoon and hadn’t rolled over in his sleep enough. Not only that, but he had a general awareness of his limbs but they were slow and reluctant to heed his command.
He staggered upright and, with an effort, raised his head and bared his teeth. Jeanne, from where he was, shook once and a loud snort came out of his mouth as he returned the baring of teeth.
Everyone kept showing their teeth. It was kind of weird, but Ruth was starting to get the hang of it. You just pulled your lips back and left out the actual sound of a snarl and that was enough to get people to treat you with respect, camaraderie, or fear. It was pretty universal.
“Rest your mind, return tomorrow.” Merriweather reached out hesitantly and clapped him a couple times on the shoulder. Whether in a weird sort of support or encouragement, Ruth didn’t know. All he did know was the lesson he had learned repeatedly throughout the day. People touching him with seemingly kind intentions were all bad!
Ruth snarled and turned on her, leaning forward and using a trick he’d learned that had worked on Jeanne once. Twisting his neck to the right he dropping his shoulder to body check her before she could do whatever gods awful terrible thing she was about to do.
Futile. He had been too slow. Merriweather’s eyes had widened briefly, no doubt because she hadn’t expected him to see so easily through her ruse of kindness, and then… did something.
Ruth wasn’t entirely sure what happened but his vision warped from right side up to upside down and he had just enough awareness left to realize that everyone was becoming smaller in his vision.
When he hit the small building that separated the training area from the street he paused for a moment as his entire body pancaked against the wall next to the door. There was a slight groan as the wall depressed and compacted around him before it began to collapse slowly inward. Ruth felt like he was gliding over a bunch of small stones as he slid into the building's interior, barely able to make out the darkening shapes of several people who were staring at him with fearful faces as he slowly slid into their work area.
The last thing he heard before he blacked out was a shrill girlish shout from somewhere far away.
“Eeeeeh? I’ll be right there! No one else heal him! I’ll do it!”
*************
“...and that is how I got here!” Ruth said to Tamara as he leaned against the wall. He looked around briefly and realized that the cave he was standing in wasn’t a place he recognized. “Where is here?”
Tamara was crouching down and had her hands loosely placed over her ears. She growled and stood up. “I just asked how your day was? I didn’t need a blow by blow of your whole freaking day! Not only that, but you can’t say you ‘blacked out’ and use that as an explanation of you moved from there to here. Do you have any concept of directions? Maps?”
“I know what all those words mean,” Ruth scowled. BECAUSE YOU BURNED THEM INTO MY MIND.
Tamara turned her back on him and stretched out her hands in front of her. She was trembling all over. Ruth tilted his head, wondering what she was doing. She was grasping something invisible in front of her with both hands. Veins were throbbing out of her arms. She was fighting?! Something was attacking her!? Delicious!
Silently Ruth began rooting for the invisible foe. Get her! Kill her! Bite her!
**************
When Tamara had finished the very satisfactory quiet daydream about strangling Ruth to death she turned back with a smile. It was good that she vented her frustrations before she talked to him. She definitely shouldn’t kill him.
Tamara studied the almost gleeful expression on Ruth’s face that was almost instantly turning into a slow look of disappointment. What… what had he been thinking there?
Definitely...probably...shouldn’t…
“You are in a spot that I carved out under the Archives, you know? That place where you reside? When you enter the door at the end of your day I’ll just transport you here so you can continue your study before bed time.” Tamara decided that ignorance was bliss. Whatever he’d been thinking would be detrimental to her sanity, and was therefore, to be avoided.
“How does the building stay upright if you are digging around underneath it?” Ruth immediately frowned and questioned.
It irritated Tamara because it wasn’t such a stupid question.
She had placed a number of supports in various places behind the stone walls to prevent such a thing from happening. She had also set up a magical formation to hold everything above them up temporarily in the event that something catastrophic happened. The ceiling would hold and the ground above would be fine for several kilometers in every direction.
“Shut up, that’s why!” Tamara shouted and then closed her eyes, doing her best to count as fast as she could for less than a minute. She got up to nine hundred before the minute ended and felt a little better. “When you’re here I will teach you magical theory and have you expend all of your spell slots. When you return tomorrow, the slots will be refreshed because your spell slot regeneration for all five slots is less than a day.”
“Why can’t I use magic at the sparring center?” Ruth immediately objected.
“You can’t even beat up a common foot soldier from the castle without magic,” Tamara explained patiently. “The experience is good for you. Not only that but there are people there you can learn from. Merriweather in particul--”
“I hate her! Just because she’s a little bit good looking…” Ruth actually turned his back on Tamara and began ranting about Jeanne, the strange healing, the trip through the city, being poisoned by Sikes, and every little thing that had been bothering him that he had been holding back inside of himself for the entire day.
Tamara watched his back with a blank look as the venting continued. “So what you’re saying is… out of all the things that happened to you today, you think this is a safe space? That… somehow… I’m not going to be worse than all that? That's why I have to listen to this?”
Ruth paused in his rant, suddenly feeling a danger at his back. He looked back and dropped his hands guiltily. Her shoulders were shaking and there was a weird sort of laughter coming from her mouth. Her behavior was starting to remind him of some of the animals in the forest that were sick and went crazy. He lifted his hands and took a step back, thinking of what to say.
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Double down, he decided. Fighting wasn’t good and he couldn’t escape.
“No, no! You are absolutely the worst. I hate you more than anything. You’re needlessly cruel, mercurial, contradict yourself all the time, you don’t seem to have any companions, and honestly -- I don’t think anyone here wants you around?” Ruth scratched his head as Tamara froze in place, wild eyes staring at him now.
Maybe, maybe… he needed to go the extra mile to assure her that the place she held in his heart wasn’t simple.
“I wasn’t going to say anything about it, but I also think you might be a slight bit more ugly than Solace?”
Tamara smiled at him after a long moment of crazed staring. Ruth reacted by returning the baring of teeth, his shoulders started to lower slightly in relief.
“Good, good, good…”
************************
Ruth pressed himself back against the wall and held both of his arms up in front of him to cover his face. His once immaculate deadly killer clothing was ripped and torn and sagging off his body, even now sluggishly trying to pull itself back together. Which, honestly, was an improvement. Originally when the horror had started the clothing had tried to retreat to his ring but seemed to give up after the first moment like it had been struck dumb. Ruth was crouched and as low as he possibly could be as he stared at the terrifying entity in the room.
The last half hour was something he would never forget. It was like something huge and sinister had entered the room. Something sinister should be black or dark or be a big shadow or something equally obvious!
Instead, a giant golden bird shape was trying to press into the cave walls from the center of the area. A creature of its size should never have been able to fit into this space in the first place! Then it had howled and screamed in a voice that made his ears bleed. The good news? He went completely deaf moments later. Good news because Ruth felt like if he hadn’t gone deaf the next and last sensation he would have ever felt was his brain leaking out his nose. Then the lightning attacks had started.
It was like watching a particularly fierce dust storm scour the surface of the cave walls. Rough edges were sanded smooth. The floor became almost glassy and shining as it was gently eroded further downward. The ceiling started to visibly disappear and sand started to whirl around the room, but only until it melted and turned into a weird sort of black glass rock. Of course, the black glass rocks were all sharp enough to slip into his flesh just deep enough that they didn’t dislodge themselves when he moved but still caused him to bleed.
Rush, who Ruth guiltily admitted he had sort of forgot about, had appeared to see what the hell was going on and had immediately taken a stray lightning bolt directly to his face. The small and heroic figure had turned shakily toward Ruth with his eyes wide and alarmed. Black smoke wisped off the top of his body and he narrowed his eyes at Ruth.
We Figh--
Then a second stray bolt had struck him in the back and his mouth opened wide in shock and horror as the lightning actually licked from the base of his tail all the way to his face. He gave Ruth a last pitying look and disappeared!
Ruth didn’t have it in him to blame Rush. If he could disappear then he would definitely do so!
Wait! There had been that one time when he’d appeared in the Soul Space, right? Had that just been his consciousness or his body? He wasn’t sure and didn’t remember. Any place was better than here, even if it was just his mind.
Ruth closed his eyes and tried to focus on the safety of his Soul Space.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING? I THOUGHT THIS WAS YOUR HAPPY PLACE?”
The pressure in the room bore down on him and broke the tenuous connection that Ruth had chanced into making for the second time. Ruth grit his teeth and made himself small. He would just have to wait for his chance…
********
When it was finally over, Tamara… felt a little sheepish. She smiled shyly as she walked over the quiet room that looked like it had been worn smooth into an oval shape by some sort of natural wind or water feature.
“Hey, sorry about that… I can’t be doing that and scolding Arathan for her treatment of Rush now can I? Truthfully, I got a little mad. I’m really sorry, Ruth, I should treat you better.” Tamara crouched down and watched the golden slitted pupils following her movements. His hands were held up defensively and he didn’t move from his small shape.
Tamara kept her hands at her sides and tried to lower herself a bit more to look less threatening.
“The truth is… your happiness is important to me. Someday, you’ll understand everything. You’ll have power over your own life. I’ll…” Tamara paused and then her mouth made a thin line. “Ruth?”
Ruth was still watching her, his breathing was heavy and he was bleeding from just about everywhere. There was sand in and around his eyes and it was a little bit tragic that the tears running down his face had left dirty little lines down his blood and sand covered face.
“Here… I am…” Tamara lowered her head and her shoulders began to shake in dark laughter once more. “...baring my heart to you… and you’re deaf! Aren’t you? You didn’t hear a damn word I said!”
“WHAT?” Ruth finally shouted, the confusion showing through the pain on his face.
Tamara didn’t lift her head. She just lifted a finger and pointed to her right.
Ruth looked over and saw the Immortal and Deadly Text appear next to her.
> Use Lightning Wings.
>
> Cancel Lightning Wings.
>
> Repeat until you are out of spell slots.
Ruth staggered to his feet gingerly and slowly circled around Tamara with a great deal of caution. When he was on the other side of her he backed up to put as much space between them as he possibly could.
Tamara was almost grateful when he didn’t try to backtalk her or do anything else. It also hurt her feelings a little bit, but she supposed she couldn’t just blast the crap out of them and expect them to react kindly.
Baby steps… I’ll be nicer… tomorrow.
Ruth spread his arms and closed his eyes. Energy filled the room with light as red mana based wings sprouted from his back. He looked behind him and struggled to stay upright.
Tamara noted that his wings were actually well-shaped for his body size. Most people, when forming wings for the first time instinctively made them too small. Ruth’s wingspan was about four meters from the base of his back to a wingtip. They flexed up and down in different shapes for a moment before disappearing.
Ruth’s excited expression faded somewhat when he realized the wings had been lost.
“You have to hold the image… they’re not like a one-off spell that you’re used to… Imagine…” Tamara grunted disgustedly and turned, spinning the tendril of her will that Ruth cutely referred to as the ‘immortal and deadly text box’ across the room.
> Imagine Wings. Hold Image.
>
> Not like shooting energy.
Ruth studied the words and glanced up warily at Tamara before closing his eyes and trying again.
When the wings appeared this time, the tendrils of lightning that formed the wings were more nebulous and frantic than before, actually making Tamara frown. For a moment she considered saying something, or rather making the words appear before him, but decided to hold off.
The lightning danced in the shape of wings in more and more chaotic and complex patterns. Instead of the orderly shape of scaled or feathered wings there didn’t seem to be any fixed shape to these wings. Yet, as Tamara narrowed her eyes, such a complicated, chaotic, and disorderly array was actually thicker in terms of power and control than the patterns others usually chose when they were starting out. The wings would adapt to a situation. Eventually they would be flexible, adaptable, perhaps even capable of shapes other than a wing.
Tamara silently considered this prospect. Maybe forcing his intelligence roughly down the path wasn’t such a dangerous idea after all…
The rest of the spell slots were used in similar fashion and Ruth slowly opened his eyes. He seemed to sag in place, staring at her for the first time with a somewhat defeated look.
Guilt was somewhat of an uncommon feeling for Tamara.
“That’s… fine… for now…” She waved her hand.
> Rest.
The moment after Ruth read the message he looked up in confusion. He seemed to be about to say something but Tamara waved a hand again. His eyes glazed and then closed. He collapsed bonelessly to the cave floor.
Tamara moved and stood over him, wringing her hands for a long moment before reaching down to grab him by the shoulder. She grimaced when she felt how dirty he was…
A smile slowly crossed her face as she prepared to pull him through the space between the cave and the Archive…
Arathan… It took him five spell slots to get the Lightning Wings… For ordinary people it would take four… Normally, this would not be a good thing. Taking longer to learn from a template is the sign of an idiot. In this case, I think it was because his image from the template was much stronger than the concept I gave him.
Okay, okay, shut up. Some of us enjoy resting…
Tamara bit her lip and refused to be baited by the reply. She’d already lost her temper enough for one day.
> Planar Tiefling: Ruth (Level 14) (Feeble Winged Tiefling/Lord Rush) (Lightning Specialized)
>
> 0 of 5 spell slots
>
> Languages: Draconic, Under Common(Evil Races - Mastered)
>
> ★★★★ Limited Electrical Immunity
>
> Mana / Regeneration Rate: (20/20) (2HR)
>
> ★Lightning Ward: 50%
>
> ★Lightning Chain: 50%
>
> ★Lightning Wings: 100%
>
> Conversion >
>
> ★★★Lightning Wings: (Mana Consumption 4, Upkeep 4)
>
> ★★ Shock: (Mana Consumption 2)
>
> ★★Thunder Struck: (Mana Consumption 10)
>
> ★★Magnetic Field: (Mana Consumption 1, Upkeep 1)
>
> ★★★★★Devouring Plasma Wave: (Mana Consumption MAX) Effects: ???
>
> Lord Rush: ★★★★★ Innate: SHAKE SHAKE