Zoe lay on the bed she made. Bleeding out. Abandoned by gods. As far from her friends and any trace of humanity as she had ever been. Despair leaked through the overwhelming pain.
She had a treasury worth of items to choose from, but she couldn’t think. What was the right option? Because, if she looked at her previous actions, she wasn’t the best at making decisions. Especially when there was the looming pressure of death.
She had 6 minutes until the Gambler took her to the game. How long until she bled out? She shifted her arms and marveled at the dissociation brought on by pain like she watched herself on a camera. This must be how Anton felt all the time with his flying eyes. Her stumps were dripping. Maybe she wouldn’t bleed out. Her Vitality of 40 was ten times more than a normal person. Exactly how that translated toward recovery from life-threatening injuries was an interesting question that she couldn’t answer right now.
She needed to pick a treasure, and her Insight fought to remember all the various items Lorilla flew her past. Were any of them medicinal?
Which would be the best for her to select right now?
Bleeding out and faced with a choice of power, talk about déjà vu. That first time, on the plane, she hadn’t chosen something for the moment; she had chosen something that resonated with her long-term plans.
She hadn’t believed she could die in that moment.
Even now, that sense of mortality, though her vision dimmed, didn’t come. Was she that delusional? The chain tightened around her limbs like a tourniquet. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears.
[ding!]
[Don’t worry, Zoe, you’re my best friend. I won’t let you die!]
Zoe held the chain close as it pressed against her chest. She needed to think of something, but nothing came to her. Something stabbed her.
She looked down at her chest. A piece of glass stuck through her dress and into her skin and blood trickled out.
[Fragment of the Witch’s Crossroad]
And beside it, held by the chain’s serpentine links, the [Silverbud].
These were the two items she had on hand. That and her chain and whatever else she summoned. Had there been any explicitly medicinal items in the treasury?
Her chain brought the [Silverbud] closer. The metallic rose glistened in the starlight.
[Silverbud: embed this in the flesh to grow vast wings of metal blades]
If the flower grew with flesh, then perhaps Zoe could use it to her advantage. She reached and blinked as she realized her hands were not there. Oh, of course…
“I have an idea,” she said to her chain through gritted teeth. “But I’ll need your help.”
[ding!]
[Don’t worry! I’ll be your hands!]
The chain delicately plucked the silvery petals. It placed a petal against the stump of Zoe’s left hand. The petal stretched like clingfilm to coat the extremity. Her Vitality surged and bubbled, frothing inside a sealed container, and waiting for her instructions.
With care, the Black Star chain lifted her left foot.
“No, a hand,” Zoe said.
It lifted her left hand.
“Other hand.”
[ding!]
[Tee hee hee]
It lifted her right hand and pressed it against her wrist. The slice in the flesh was so clean that when her severed flesh met, there was only the thinnest sliver of silver to show Rue’s cuts.
Zoe waited, with bated breath.
The chain let go of her hand, and it fell to the tiles like a lump of clay. Zoe let out a sigh of disappointment. She didn’t stop the chain from applying the [Silverbud] and trying with each hand and foot, but she knew it was pointless.
And the Gambler’s game ticked ever closer.
“Stop,” she said.
The chain put down Zoe’s left foot with care before it pressed against her chest like a comforting dog.
[ding!]
[I’m not sure if you’ll want this, but I can be your hands and feet]
Zoe blinked.
“What?”
[This item links flesh with flesh. If you give me access to this item, I can link with you more thoroughly]
Despite the raging pain, a chill ran through Zoe at the excited words of the Black Star system. It had the same childish, excited tone, but it had never proposed something so… rational.
“My hands… my feet…”
[They’re dead, Zoe. Rue severed them, and so they cannot be reattached. I’m sorry. They were lovely hands and feet, but maybe together we can make even better ones!]
The chain nuzzled around her wrist; it stroked the [Silverbud] cap coating the clean-cut flesh. It offered itself to her, this serpentine being, but did she dare accept such an apple? Did she dare let this entity into her body? Did she trust it?
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Zoe didn’t know what to decide, and as she hesitated, her sense of distrust passed between their link, and she felt the system shy away inside her mind. She reached through her mind to the chain. It was more difficult than usual. The chain had retreated from her telepathically, and contact felt like she were a spider crawling up the side of a bathtub. She scrambled, reaching for control, then froze, as the Black Star turned its attention toward her.
For the first time, she felt the immense, piercing weight of the mind tethered to hers. Blood frothed from her nostrils and ears. Her tongue convulsed as she babbled.
[ding!]
[Friends respect boundaries!]
It may be but a sliver of a fractured whole, but this was a system, and she was but a mortal. As swift as it came, the pain receded as the intelligence in the chain turned aside its gaze.
[ding!]
[I’m sorry for melting your brain and it won't happen again. I want to help. Let me be your hands. Let me be your feet]
[I’m not trying to trick you, Zoe. I want to help, even if you don’t like me]
Zoe stared at the black chain. The once featureless metal was scarred by the conflicts and battles of the past few weeks. Starlight barely highlighted it as it trembled. She had thought it still, but it shivered as she studied it.
Maybe this was a good idea. More and more the chain felt a part of her, like an extra limb. This would extend that. And it was waiting for her decision, that counted for something, didn’t it?
The Gambler’s game drew nearer.
The chain hadn’t let her down; it had helped, so why should she doubt it now? Why not embrace this new opportunity?
“I accept.”
[ding!]
[Yay! I hope this doesn’t hurt!]
An unfamiliar voice sounded inside her head; the blend of two systems as they echoed and overlapped.
[Unknown process begun]
Zoe’s chain stiffened and squirmed and unraveled. The links snapped apart and popped with a sound like breaking bones. Each piece frayed into multiple strands, and each strand itself was a tiny chain. As the splitting ran down the length of the chain, the smaller strands flowed down Zoe’s body toward her severed limbs. She felt brief stabs as the chain slipped into her flesh, but the [Silverbud] coated each new intrusion with a feeling of wondrous joy.
Or perhaps that was coming from inside her mind? For as the chain split apart completely, it removed its tether from her neck, and as that tether vanished, her mind expanded.
It felt like her brain was a sad balloon suddenly inflated.
She turned her gaze, eyes wide, pupils black as the night sky, and everywhere she looked she saw. Saw! Her gaze was like a thumb pressing against the world as it carried the weight of her new intent.
The chains writhing at her stumps settled and slithered into shape. She held up new hands in front of her face. Hands composed of interlocking, living chains.
STATUS
Name: Zoe Chambers
Level: 31
Body: The Bell At The Center Of The World (Rank 3, Progress 1/10)
ATTRIBUTES
Might: 87
Vitality: 40
Dexterity: ?? (+??)
Willpower: ??? (+??)
Insight: ?? (+??)
Skein: 25/??? (+???)
Chains: 20 (+19)
Free Points: 0
Titles: Intrepid, Lodestone, Fools Rush In (7/12) Quest Breaker, Glutton, True Believer, The Magnifying Glass, Mayor of Unnamed Town
Techniques: Our Hearts Toll As One, The Self Reflects The World, Mind’s Eye Incision
The power rippled inside her mind, and she felt her skull about to explode. She tried to stand, and the chains of her feet lifted her easily. Something throbbed, a heart inside her mind, she coughed, and her fingerlike chains slid out longer. She coughed again, blood spattering the tiles. It glowed with an ominous rainbow hue. This was going bad. Two different systems, two different realities, rejecting each other. She coughed and her chains spilled out across the floor like looped lengths of rope.
She was unraveling.
It was too much.
It feels so good to be this close to you, Zoe.
The Black Star spoke inside her mind, so close, its voice so soft and warm, but it was like a blanket thrown on a wildfire for all the comfort it provided Zoe as she coughed blood under the indifferent stars.
[Unknown error detected]
The Crimson Armada System’s voice whirred even more cold and detached than usual.
[Bonus compiling error — foreign system detected — analyzing]
[Trinity Authority requested…]
Even as Zoe collapsed amongst the lengthening chains, she felt a fresh horror as she understood those words. If one of the trinity were arriving, that couldn’t be good.
There was nothing she could do except wait.
[Request pending…]
[Pending…]
[Why, if it isn’t my upcoming contestant? Do I need to ban you for substance abuse?]
Zoe didn’t dare answer. She sat stunned as the Gambler’s voice strolled through her head. What did he mean by ‘ban’?
[Oh, you serious types are so dull. I jest, dearie, I jape, but we will cancel you if your existence poses a threat. Let’s see what you’ve done now]
[Assessing…]
The world turned around Zoe like a thrown dice. A different face stared down at her from the stars. Attention flooded her. Something beyond Intent — beyond knowing — she had thought the Black Star chain was overwhelming, but that was a splinter to a forest — she quailed as her eyes rolled back in her head as she failed to understand what approached her — even with the Black Star system boosting her mind it was an uncategorized vastness that approached infinity and lost itself to the churning within — a storm collapsing because it raged too fierce — a coin burning a hole in a pocket —
[Combinations like this are the problem with treasuries, though I suppose it’s the point of them as well]
[Interesting use of Silverbud. The petals have linked the Black Star to your flesh, but they’ve also preserved the connections to your Mind’s Eye Incision. Since that technique links your fingers to your mind, you’ve given the Black Star system a backdoor into your brain. This linking is why you’ve noticed the leaps in your Willpower, but if I permit it, then at any point the Black Star could take control of your body]
[Congratulations!]
[You have officially created work for the Gambler!]
[Select one of the following rewards]
[Blackpetal Touch: living chains form your hands and feet. Each chain can extend and move independently of the others depending on Dexterity and Skein. You receive a boost to Dexterity that is twice the number of chains.]
[Silverlink Grasp: lifeless chains form your hands and feet. It requires Skein to move them. I will stitch the fragment of a foreign system to your mind. Your Willpower and Insight receive boosts equal to the number of chains]
[Mind’s Blooming Chains: You have no hands and feet, but can project astral chains from the severed extremities. Mind’s Eye Incision empowers the chains to interact with Skein. Your Willpower and Insight receive boosts equal to twice the number of chains.]
[Choose quickly, Zoe Chambers, the show stops for nobody]
Zoe pondered the options when the Black Star spoke up in her mind.
Ding! Oh, I suppose I don’t need to do that anymore… Zoe, there is another option. I can feel it if I just poke —
Zoe felt a sharp pain, and then silence, as though someone had burst her eardrum.
[Best Friends Secret Handshake: The Black Star system serves as Zoe Chamber’s hands and feet. These living chains can extend and move independently depending on Dexterity and Skein. This fragment links to her mind. Dexterity, Willpower, and Insight all receive boosts equal to twice the number of chains]
Attention flooded her as the Gambler leaned in to inspect the Black Star’s offering.
[What exactly do we have here?]
Zoe’s soul shuddered under the pressure of the mad God. Were things about to get better? Or a lot worse?