Seed 9

June 11th, 2032.

I rolled my wrists. Cutting away at a sample of tissue I had acquired from yesterday’s trip to the Skylands above our heads. I prepared it just like in a biology class. Placing it under a glass slide and then under the scrutiny of a microscope. I was interested in the physiology of Titans, so I brought my microscope from home.

“Crystalline,” I murmured as I focused on it. The membrane appeared to be made out of interlocking fractals, repeating patterns like snowflakes, linking together to form a cohesive layer of tissue. “Reminds me of a diatom, differentiation is hard to measure, though there does appear to be hints of a continuous lining of plate-shaped crystals.”

The crystal matter was dense, and organic, based on how it would and had decayed into detritus over time. Consisting of protein, nitrogen, humic acids and complex hydrocarbons bound up with heavy metal ions naturally found in their bodies. Something like a mix between humus and marine snow, but rich in metals and exotic minerals.

Their biology was a seamless mix of organic and inorganic, proteins and lipids coexisting with inorganic metal alloys, carbon-silicon crystal matrices, natural plastics, held together by strange energies and forms of transuranic exotic matters.

Ultima was far smarter than she let on, she had managed to break down their composition using human equipment and her own tools for the more exotic aspects of their biology. Titan biology was utterly terrifying, and didn’t even account for the fact it likely extended into other realities.

Her ability to traverse other realities went crazy around intact Titan flesh. It was well known the smaller Realms within the confines of the land had their own fragments of the dead Titans. So their biology was likely multidimensional which in every sense of the word was both fascinating and horrifying.

How much of their mass was folded away into other layers of reality. Aross the planes of the Spirit and the Material, when even this single slice of their body was comparable to landmasses?

Titans were apparently cosmic beings representing the darkness, which made me think they had some connection to dark matter. But honestly I had no clue and their physiology was so alien I had no idea where to go with how they worked.

This was mostly a passing curiosity. The Titans had been dead since the late Permian, when my ancestors were scurrying around in the dirt. Then again if they were living manifestations of cosmic objects. Then they had been around for billions of years. Maybe some remained, out there in the stars, in the greater universe, waiting to be found.

…

God that actually sounded rather fucked now that I think about it.

Also Ultima had only allowed me to acquire the outer layers of intact Titan flesh. Said they were much safer to handle than the inner layers far richer in strange energies.

Which I was fine with. I didn’t want to explode.

Something fluttered into my room. I perked up at the sight of Luna, the strange cat-sized silk moth casually bouncing up and down in the air.

She was my teacher’s familiar. A supernatural creature that has been joined to Ultima in a lifelong, exclusive bond. Any non-witch otherkind or spirit could become a familiar, sharing power and skills and life to fuel their Craft.

Having a familiar was an important aspect of becoming a witch. They were meant to be friends, allies, proof of their connection to the Spirit World. Guardian and assistant, a thousand roles to play as friend and family and more. If I had one, I’d be able to draw on their power to fuel spells.

But you had to find or make a familiar that was right for you, who could connect with your soul. And I needed a focus, a method of defining my Craft before I would be able to have a familiar.

Luna landed on my face, and I huffed, smiling into her very soft fur. She had a lovely texture, so I didn’t mind.

She was a quiet magic bug. “So I’m guessing my… my friend is here then?” She nodded, and I smiled as I looked out the window as the sun began to drop from the sky.

Having friends felt strange, but good.

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“Celia!” I stiffened when I heard Althea call out my name. The werewolf offering a fanged smile with her arms open. I took a step back, just a tad hesitant.

“Sorry.” I said and she took it in stride. “I’m not much of a hugger most of the time.” But maybe that was a problem I needed to deal with. Not now.

Althea shook her head. “That’s fine. I guess hugging isn’t our thing.” She sounded a bit disappointed, but also understanding so an alternative came to me.

I offered my sleeve, lifting my right arm into her personal space. Her straw yellow eyebrows lifted for a moment. To my surprise she understood the gesture. Extending her hand to grab onto my sleeve, claws gently tugging and pulling at the loose fabric. My skin shivered where her warm hands touched. I could feel the odd sensation of dimpled fingertips and curling claws raking softly along my covered veins. Why did this feel more intimate?

I smiled anyway. “It’s good to see you again, hopefully this time we won’t get interrupted by a princess.”

“Clanheirs can be a handful, at least the Frazoiyo clan is rather kind despite how they act.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, do you know how the Clans are structured? I know not everyone is in a clan, so how does that work?” Arali has been busy so I haven’t been able to get answers out of him. The local library was a bit overwhelming.

Althea lit up, continuing to pull me by my sleeve as we moved away from the house towards our destination. “You want me to tell you?”

“Yes.” I said bluntly.

Althea started at my answer. “Well among the taifa of Calafia, there are Clans and Families. The nobles and the commoners, though the latter used to be called Clanless until surnames became standard. It’s very regulated, rules and laws established over centuries.” She explained it easily and I wonder who had taught her about this. “The Clans and the Families under their rule are the base level of Calafia, with dozens to a few hundred people.”

“Fascinating.” We don’t really have that kind of structure anymore, it was less… overt?

“On top of the Clans are the tribula, the tribe. Usually made of several clans led by a cabdillo, a chieftain. The taifa are a collection of tribula, ruled over by a ré, a king. Selected from one of the cabdillo. The other tribula submitting themselves as vassals to the ré. For the entire kingdom, we have the réu in King Salian. Who earned his kingship when his brother was killed two years ago by Magister Thorsten.”

“Sometimes I forget you guys have a very different societal structure.” I shook my head at her casual admission of one of their leaders being murdered. “So you’re from a Family right, not a clan?”

“I am, though one of my great grandparents was part of an old werewolf Clan that fell apart about a century ago. Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

“I’d like to ask about the Clans that live in the tribula of Cruorpool?” A population of over five thousand was definitely enough to have several clans.

“I can do that, Cruorpool has four main clans. The Frazoiyo, the Mau, the El-Baz, the Weyl clan, each with a clan head.” She counted them up on her fingers with a warm grin that I enjoyed looking at. “The Frazoiyo is the clan of the king and chieftain. They beat out the nine tribula that make up our taifa for the throne. They’re the smallest clan with about thirty members. While the other local clans have around two hundred members.”

“So are the clans heavily tied to the land with the chiefs owning it? Or do they have a more distinct role?” I asked, curious about the answer.

“Well, we have rights every member of the taifa is entitled to. Which does vary from taifa to taifa. The land itself is common property, belonging to the tribula as a whole. The Clans are the trustees of the tribe, with the duties of acting as lord and protector of their people, their Families.”

Hmm… so the Families were likely conceptually similar to the septs of Scottish clans, families that follow another family’s chief, part of the greater clan system.

“So do different families follow different clans?”

“Yep, though occasionally they might owe loyalty to another clan if they marry into another family under that clan’s rule. My family follows the Weyl clan, who work with nature and life. Plants and beasts, commanding crops to grow, revitalizing soil, taming and husbandry, and learning to take on their traits to help others.”

“And the Frazoiyo?”

Althea giggled. “Interested in the princess?”

I blushed. “Shut up.”

She just curled her claw deeper into my sleeves and pulled me over a small stream. “No. The Frazoiyo are a clan of warriors and scholars. War and battle is in their blood alongside writers, philosophers and polymaths.”

“So they have the arms and the skills to manage the other clans, and the other tribula on top of that. What about the Mau and the El-Baz?”

“The Mau are often Seers and gatekeepers of the ethereal realms, keeping us safe from dangerous beings. The El-Baz are the foremost crafters and creators of technology and magical items, and are close with the Frazoiyo clan. I’m guessing humans don’t have clans like that?”

I nodded to my friend. “Nothing so codified outside remnants like the Scottish clans, we barely even have kings anymore outside a few countries.”

Her eyebrows lifted up. “How?”

“Revolution, some beheadings. Complete and utter disruption of the old ways of life due to immense paradigm shifts in technology and political structures. Most noble titles are basically worthless nowadays.”

Althea leaned forward, a curious look on her rounded features, wide lips pulled into a crooked smile. I was frazzled by her scent, like earth and pine, of fragrant flowers with just a wisp of copper like fresh blood. “We don’t get much information from the Human Realm outside of the junk that makes its way here.”

“I’d say it’s the same on my end. Ultima says many of our myths come from your world. But I only knew the stories told by the Kumeyaay and the Cahuilla.”

“Some of your people?” Althea asked.

I grimaced. “More like the people my ancestors conquered and committed atrocities against. Though we lost that land to the Americans who committed even more murder and atrocities.”

Althea blinked several times, paling slightly. “Oh.”

“Some still survive of course. But they’re why I know anything about the strange happenings, people vanishing only to reappear, monsters in the night, glimpses of red skies and strange trees in mirrors and pools of water.” I was a very curious child and used to freak kids out by telling them about how they could get pulled into mirrors.

Their fear was funny.

Althea nodded to herself. “We’re here.”

I stopped, and realized I had stopped focusing on my surroundings beyond following my friend into the woods. I worked my jaw, fidgeting in place at my lack of awareness.

Breathe in, breathe out.

It was a rather distinct clearing surrounded in charm hazels. A tree species well known for being used in charms and talisman, as well as protections against malicious spirits, or used for the core of a focus, and hydromancy.

As in clairvoyance using water, not elemental manipulation. I could sense the swell of magic and energy in the air. The sensation of unreality encroaching on reality.

“There are always a lot of spirits here,” Althea didn’t sound fully present, a melancholy in her voice I didn’t remotely like. “They keep me safe, making this place hard to find with their power. I never understood why.”

“Because you’re a good person.” Was all I offered. Remembering what I had heard her say about how spirits are meant to be contained, controlled, imprisoned within machinery and weaves of magic.

“Hmm.” There was doubt in her reply.

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Neither have noticed that I’m stalking them, Dinah thought triumphantly as she flew overhead. The air shimmering around her as her wings cut through it.

Dinah paused for a moment, as she analyzed her own thoughts. Wondering if she came off as creepy to others. Perhaps this is why I have so many… incidents.

Her expression shifted but she did not cease her pursuit of her rightful prey. An audience with her mother and father was required for the human. The apprentice of The Wandering Abyss. Her uncle, the King of Danab had warned her that the Chantry was growing impatient and wanted progress on the status of the lawless witch. She would not fail her clan, she would succeed.

Her focus was so intense she never did notice how the shadows of the forest below shifted and twisted in strange patterns as the day star gradually dipped below the horizon.

Even the hunter could become the hunted in this world.

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It took a few minutes for the awkward air to part from the clearing. For a basic ‘plan’ to be set up on hanging out.

A lot of which was actually playing a lot of games so the two of us could compare differences between witches and humans. One of them was longer feet, and the ability to easily run and walk on their toes. It gave them a lot of interesting skills.

I threw myself forward, racing forward as I threw myself into a horizontal long jump, and I hissed as Althea easily surpassed my record.

I blinked at the distance measured using some tape. “Okay… so my record for the standing long jump is about six feet… you managed thirteen,” Which was slightly over the world record, and I laughed. “I can jump about two feet. You can jump about five.” Which was not remotely fair in any way.

Althea huffed, brushing back her bangs. “Yeah but you’re barely even winded after an hour. You're better at jogging too.”

I shrugged. “I have noticed that you're better at burst power. I can manage a fifteen second hundred meter dash, you can manage eight. That would be a world record back home.”

“One of my moms could do this in six seconds flat, if she doesn’t use her internal energy. Werewolves do have better endurance than the average witch. Also I don’t think humans can move khi right?”

“Not consciously?” But I had noted some rather strange things before. Like the one time my mom punched through bulletproof glass. “We don’t seem to be notably less durable though. Or I’d have been dead a long time ago. Ultima says anyone can learn to move khi, at least within their own body. She’s been teaching me how.”

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It had gotten easier to feel magic with her exercises, careful breathing exercises, and movements. Trying to make a connection with the stagnant energies within my soul. It was likely I would never cast magic like anyone else. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t become stronger. I could feel the power writhing under my skin. What was once dormant now dreaming, growing and twisting to the shape I was molding it into.

Althea flushed. “Umm, do you want me to demonstrate what you can do when moving khi inside?”

“Yes.” I was curious, I had seen only hints of Ultima’s strength. How effortlessly she could lift both Arali and me at the same time. Almost three hundred pounds of weight.

Althea walked over to a loose plank covered in a layer of stone, she placed her hand against it.

Exhaled, and pushed.

Stone and wood shattered.

“Oops, was that a bit much?” Althea said with a growing dark blush I found oddly mesmerizing.

“How did you do that?”

Althea tilted her head, nervously using her claws to unravel her curls. “Breathed,” she said almost anxiously. “Instead of pushing out your energy as a spell, you keep it inside. It’s a little more strength, a little more speed. Anyone can do it.”

I swallowed. That was enough force to fold someone in half back home. It was intriguing.

“That’s cool.” I said with a jerking nod, and I saw Althea’s expression shift.

“I never got to ask, how did you end up in the Woven Realm?” Her soulful eyes caught me under their spell.

“Ultima, she has her ways of traversing the realms. I convinced her to bring me here and teach me, so I’ve been here ever since.” Her eyebrows knit together at my response, nodding quietly. “She’s a good Mentor, she gives me what I need.”

“It’s nice to see some of the Old Ways still exist,” there was a lilt of sadness I despised seeing in my friend. “Most witchlings learn the Craft through the Katecheo system. Educating children on the right way to use magic. The best way to pay respect to the Titans. Which isn’t me.”

I worked my jaw, clenching and unclenching my fists. “Althea… if you want, I can see if Ultima has any textbooks on your form of magic. Give you space to practice?

She blinked rapidly. “You would do that for me?”

I tilted my head, puzzled. “Why wouldn’t I? Your educators are clearly failing you. I… understand what that’s like. Your ability to work with the spirits is incredible, that kind of talent should be nurtured, not stifled.”

I didn’t understand the look she was giving me. But I did understand the smile she gave soon after, wiping away that strange first expression.

“Thank you, you…” She trailed off, eyebrows knitting together in concern, pale gold fading to burnished yellow as they swirled. “There’s something here, I can feel it.”

My blood chilled, and my teeth buzzed with sensation. There was an unnerving feeling of wrongness in the air. The sun was setting, casting shadows across the forest. I reached out for glyph papers, keeping them at hand to sling spells.

The bluegrass rustled with a shi-shi-sish that made my skin crawl. I saw Althea’s eyes glow faintly in the dark, orbs of pure reflective gold.

“Spirits of darkness and destruction, spirits of secrets-kept-in-death. Oscura. The dark watchers, people… disappear when they come out.” I swallowed, the horror in her voice unnerving. At the corner of my vision I saw something in the shadows.

I saw a black figure, emerging from behind a ridge, a silhouette blending into the surrounding dark. A too-large smile widened on its face. As it walked it appeared two, three, four times over.

Four spirits, billowing humanoid masses of darkness, jaws and teeth and eyes, folding and clinking against one another like fragile glass. I moved in an instant, casting not spells but something… easier.

I tossed as one shadowy mimic lunged, body unfolding into blades of hardened dark flesh and gnarled bones, and it let out a shriek.

It screamed. “Salt! Salt!” As I threw the mineral right in its face.

I ignored the horror as its flesh bubbled and boiled at the purifying element touching its skin. The other malevolent spirits took steps back, but did not retreat, teeth whirling within their bright eyes, spinning like rusted gears.

I seamlessly slid my hand down to a glyph, and fire whirled around my limbs. I threw an aggressive punch, shaping and compressing the flames down to a single point.

I gagged at the smell of burning flesh. A second spirit let out a haunting nightmarish cry. But I didn’t let the sensory overload get in my way of living.

Althea let out a war cry, fangs flicking forward as she whispered a halting howl. To my shock, the charm hazels came to life, branches forming into needles to stab into the dark spirits. All four burst into flames, and my nose picked up an aromatic, earthy, and woody scent.

The first spirit to be attacked didn’t die, more resilient than the others, and its face melted like pudding, a broken jaw unhinging at it let out a sound of death.

“Ooooh child, foolish, old ways, lost and forgotten, buried under bodies and blood and bones. Shaman, spirit-raiser, oak-seer, dreamspeaker, Shifter lost to the lies of the False King. Wise wise being, human, child of void and dead heavens, you who speak to long forgotten things. You do not see, we have a greater feast, a dragon-child to satisfy our NEED.”

A blast of dust and the spirit had burrowed out of sight.

…

“The princess followed us and is about to get eaten by dark spirits isn’t she?” I said aloud.

Althea bobbed like a pretty fish. “Err. Probably?”

“We should probably help her then?” She was strong and I suspect had an advantage but spirits were dangerous and intelligent.

There was a whisper in the wind from the trees. Althea smiled at one of the larger and older ones, which revealed an outline of a face. The elder tree was happy to see Althea, a branch reaching out to drop hazelnuts in her hands.

“Thank you babushka, for the gift.” Althea glided over the ground with confidence, the golden shine of her eyes growing brighter as she passed a handful of the seeds into my hands. “Let’s go.”

I swallowed at how the faint starlight painted her attractive features and nodded.

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We arrived at a scene of hellfire battling against the murky shadow. I damn near shat myself.

The spirit was gigantic, spanning thirty feet in every direction, a garden of flesh, a stretch of limbs and heads and fingers, each splitting into iterations of the same obscura spirit. Which were in an instant utterly annihilated by golden flames, and then torn in half by bolts of lightning.

Althea looked horrified. “Spirits… What kind of monster is this?”

I noticed something at the center of the radial creature’s body, a strange glint of metal, and my senses screamed that it was vital.

“It seems to be drawing power from some type of artifact.” I pointed out and Althea’s gaze sharpened at the glint of metal.

“I see…” she trailed off, eyes shifting towards a certain princess, a slight flush on her cheeks. I turned.

Oh.

Dinah basked in fire, in gold and violet and green which cast her in strange shadows, lips pulled back into a snarl to reveal sharp fangs, dark gold eyes flashing dangerously as she sang.

It was a frenetic song, ordered, swaying, just a touch neurotic. It was the sound of sword striking against sword. Adramatic backdrop of violins and clashing piano keys. It was a song of battle and war, of fire and lightning and thundering steps.

A tentacle of darkness lashed out like a whip, with a crack of the sound barrier shattering. Dinah moved before it struck, arm swinging and claws cloaked in fire.

The spirit let out a scream as its corpus was eviscerated, losing the entire limb as bloodied claws and hungering flame devoured its flesh and bone and all.

Dinah’s tail swung and cut an ambushing spirit in half with a careful application of wind around her tail feathers.

“Woah.” I said and Althea agreed with a meek nod. But I knew she couldn’t beat this thing on its own. It was an instinct at the back of my mind.

I carefully circled my fingers around a glyph. Felt the void seep around my skin, forming a careful film of inertial stillness. One use, each inked glyph can withstand three uses.

I swept another circle around the same sifra glyph, and with an index finger swept a line of pure kinetic force. The dark watcher let out a haunting almost human shriek as it suffered impact damage, limbs shattering, and spirit corpus spilling out in rivulets of blood.

Dinah’s eyes widened, homing in on me like a hawk before… launching forward in a mass of flame and wind.

“What—” I was cut off when I was pushed behind the dragon. She charged head on against another dark watcher, lashing out with her claws. I flinched as dark blood splattered across my face as she gutted the shadowy entity.

She opened her mouth to breathe out a pure blast of blue-white flame which reduced the spirit to a shadow of ash on the ground.

“Foolish, to get distracted while dealing with malevolent spirits,” Dinah criticized, cocking a hip as she glared down at me. “I expected more from the human who caught me off guard.”

I stiffened and my lips pulled into an uncertain grimace, and I ignored the sensation of blood dripping down my face. “Well excuse me princess, for being a tad inexperienced.”

“No time for this!” Althea called out as she tossed a hazelnut. Whispering something under her breath. The seed burst apart into a little storm of twisting, twining roots and branches, seven gods in a grain of rice.

The spirits launched themselves in droves against the dark spirit, and it roared as the skin was torn apart by roots and bloodied branches, as flashes of green and blue tore at vulnerable flesh.

“You think these paltry things can kill me little witchlings!” It screamed and roared and distorted. “We are the secrets held to the grave, every little indiscretion, every hallowed lie, masked under shadows and darkness! You are no chamán, simply food for our maw! And what delicate flesh it is.” I felt the hundred pustules it called eyes directed towards me, as the spirit took on a more cephalopodic shape, a hundred limbs splitting off to form shadow figures, its minions and limbs in both respects.

I swallowed. “It wants me, why?” I said under my breath and Althea glanced at me in shock. I continued to grip my glyph paper. Narrowing my eyes as I activated the paper again.

Void swept into my grasp, and the Obscura blinked hungrily. Oh.

“I’m going to act as bait. I think my glyph magic is acting like a dinner bell.”

“Are you… sure?” Althea asked and I nodded.

“Your powers seem to work well against it. You just need to figure out how to wield them against the spirit.” I replied honestly. “Why else would it speak to you of how you’re lost, if you didn’t have a way to hurt it?”

The werewolf blinked. “Oh.”

Dinah rolled her eyes and a spear flickered into existence around her right hand. “If you’re going to help then help!” The spear was like living lightning, etched in runes and sweeping patterns and she stabbed it forward, the weapon extending onward to stab into the spirit’s flesh.

I nodded and expanded the ball of void in my hand, pulsing it like a flashlight.

“You wish to be a meal human? Then a meal you shall be!”

There came a scream and a wash of black light, and I ran flat out as it chased after me with wild eyes of whirling teeth.

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I ducked under a sweeping limb of shadow which felled half a dozen trees in a single swing. The dark spirit cackled, as it hunted with glee and I pulled out a glyph and cast it aflame into a spear of compressed heat and concussive force that sent the spirit lurching.

C’mon c’mon and pull off what I know you can, Althea.

More and more of the corpus of the Obscura was being torn asunder by the ambush tactics of Althea and Dinah. Slowly draining away at the powerful spirit’s might. But it wasn’t enough.

Thirty minutes of acting like a lure was exhausting and my legs were burning, but I refused to stop. So I smiled when I saw Althea step in from the animated branches, bridging her down into the forest floor.

Dinah added her own power, chanting a warsong that fed power into our veins, keeping us moving, and using her spear to fire bolts of an ever-shifting light to tear at the Obscura.

Althea looked nervous and I shouted back at her, offering a thumbs up. She giggled… and nodded, and opened her mouth, fangs flicking forward as she began.

She opened her left hand which was filled with a light not of this world.

Indomitable Earth, immovable object, unbreaking shield, invulnerable chain;

Gear of Confinement.

As heavy as a world and absolute as entropy. To that which raised a hateful claw;

BIND!

I smiled while Dinah boggled as verdant green spirits reached up into the naked night sky trailing with stars, lashing out to form chains around the dark spirit. The scream of the spirit began to die out.

As it strikes against those it sees as prey and mere meat;

CONTAIN!

As it struggles to lash out against the innocent;

DENY!

The thing struggled in bondage as the earth spirits formed a chain around the beast. Refusing to budge even an inch. But I knew we were running out of time, so I used my sifra glyph for a third time.

Void swept into my hands once more as I rocketed forward, and Dinah added extra force, casting a torrent of wind to carry me.

Void was everything and nothing, All and None, outside. If it made the rules what they are…?

“Denial. Negation. Consume.” I spoke as I swept the void onward. Subtle warps in spacetime flashing bright silver as I commanded them into the shape I desired. The energy raced into the dark spirit, and lattices of cracks formed in its body as it let out a halting shriek.

I could feel the phantom sensation of pain, of lightning racing down my veins, or my own body rotting and yet not rotting, the faint sweet metallic scent of emptiness bearing down on my senses.

I jumped up and onto the scrambling spirit, grateful for my barrier as limbs and claws were repelled by the spell. I looked down at the strange artifact at its radiating center. A pendant with a silver-gold chain and a gem of black diamond reflecting stars, covered in a strange gunk of magic clinging to it like a parasite.

I pulled out a second sifra glyph, with a spell already in mind as I reached down to the depths of the void.

Unravel, remove, negate.

I cast it down, and it struck like a hammer, dissipating the strange gunk… and utterly disincorporating the spirit I stood upon, falling to the ground as nothing more than a pile of rotting limbs and flakes of hard shadow.

I grabbed the pendant as I fell, and for a moment… I saw stars and figures dancing among the firmament.

I passed out.

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Althea watched her first friend in years hug herself. Her jaw working itself up and down, plump lips tightened into a firm line as she stood at the boundary of her Mentor’s domain.

After dealing with the nightmarish malevolent spirit intrusion, along with the rather obsessive attention of Clanheir Dinah Frazoiyo. They had managed to part ways from the exhausted but still living princess and into the territory of Celia’s mentor. Or more accurately Althea had lugged her friend's prone body away from the concerned gaze of the warrior princess.

The human in front of her was so very strange to her eyes, so much like her own kind and… not of her kind. Two legs, two arms and two eyes, hairless skin and a head of hair. But her hands and feet lacked claws. Her smile was harmless and adorable, with blunt teeth instead of threatening fangs.

She was pudgy, with curves and soft features under bundles of silk and cloth and gold and starscapes. Black wavy hair cascaded down her back, curling over round ears. An oval light skinned face stared back at her with a blank look, with eyes so dark they seemed to devour the light, storming with traces of unidentifiable emotion.

Her friend was a tad enigmatic. Most people had a hard time reading her, blunt and socially unconscious, averse to touch and people. Yet gripped by a borderline psychotic need to understand them and anything else that caught her interest. Her neutral expression didn’t help, but her eyes were another story.

They were a thousand words in those dark mirrors, widening when excited. Delicate subtle twitches when angered or frustrated, a sheen of reverence and joy for what interested her. Topics objects, games, hobbies or people. Her body showed it too, a slight vibration when impatient, hands flapping and folding together when happy, knee bouncing when hopped up on caffeine or energized by knowledge, little flourishes and dances that were just Celia.

To be frank there was a lot she still didn’t know about the human. But the werewolf wanted to know more about her. Especially when she had given her the courage to use her strange gifts to unmake the monstrous spirit of darkness. Using herself as bait and tearing away the strange artifact giving it power.

She was slow but enduring, she had outpaced the dark watchers, refusing to stop, refusing to fall to the allure of exhaustion and sleep that had begun to press down on them while battling the spirit.

“You okay?” So she asked her friend a question.

Celia blinked up at her with the dark depths of her eyes. “I’m coping, I have a lot of anxiety so the adrenaline is… kinda negative.” She was jittering, a knee bouncing up and down without stopping.

Althea flashed a fanged smile, knowing it would fluster and distract her friend. It worked when Celia flushed an attractive pink, eyes filling with fascination and curiosity. Hands and fingers twitched and curled, as if they wanted to reach out to touch her fangs.

“I think it’s a bit late to be walking home isn’t it?” Celia asked, worried.

“You asking for a sleepover?”

Celia blushed and nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, I think I can spend the night, I just need to tell my parents.”

I can trust someone this kindhearted, that’s something precious in this world.