Oresus was flying. Of course it wasn’t true flight, but the distinction didn’t affect his feelings too much. Gloe tasted his euphoria, then left it alone. True it was affecting his judgment, but that was probably fine. They were fairly safe here, so it was okay for Oresus to get carried away for a while.

After their rather intensive raid into demon territory they’d run long and fast to escape any possible pursuit. Once they passed through a heavy rainstorm they felt safe enough to slow down, so they’d found a likely spot just outside the deep wyld and set up camp. Emokha and Oresus were going to head north, but there had been time for a rest first. Besides, waiting for Oresus to learn basic movement imbuing would make their journey much easier.

“Is he enjoying that as much as it seems likhe he is?” At Gloe’s smiling shrug Emokha hissed out a brief laugh. “For such a happy-go-lucky person you khan be very guarded.” Her mandibles flicked in an expression Gloe couldn’t interpret. “I would like to askh you for two favors.”

“I’ll hear you out.”

“Ah. The first is this. I would likhe to try using my ability, here, right now. Would you use your ability to deal with any…emotional fallout?”

Gloe grinned. “I’m still not admitting anything. But I think you’ll probably be okay.”

“Heh.” Emokha gave a soft answering smile, then she sat down, leaning against a tree. All of her eyelids flickered shut, then emotions began pouring out of her like a dam had broken. Grief, resentment, disappointment, outrage and a host of others. All mere streams in a torrent of rage though. Gloe duly ate it all up, and still it came.

After a moment he nonchalantly stood and grabbed an axe from their makeshift tool storage. Sitting down himself he began breathing on the tool. It was one they had liberated from the garrison, and was decent enough. Hardwood handle with a milled steel head. Not a lot of sympathy to magics he knew, but he could push some durability in, and that wouldn’t hurt at all.

Before Emokha was finished he’d managed to max out the axe as well as a pickaxe and shovel. That was good. Even with imbue it was possible to get over-enthusiastic and damage a tool by using too much strength. Especially after leveling up recently, when you didn’t have a clear concept of your newfound strength.

“Thankh you. That was very helpful.”

“No worries.” They shared another faint smile.

“Now for my more signifikhant reqhuest. I would likhe you to makhe a khontrakht with me.”

That raised an eyebrow. “A contract? I’m not certain…”

“I will exhplain. Please, bear with me. As you likely have ascertained I am a sojourner. My…new form and culture are different enough that I don’t show it as khlearly as some others, but the fakht remains.”

“I was shockhed to diskhover the Divine Bazaar. I was somewhat unlikhe most of those there, and although I wanted a second chance at life I did not find most of the packhages appealing.” She smiled again. “Perhaps you understand.” Gloe shrugged and her smile broadened.

“Very well. To continue, I was eventually approached by an agent of Gavikhas. He offered me something I actually did want- my ability, Unchained. In my previous life I was very khonstrained, very khareful. I worked hard and never stood out. Did well in school, did well at work. I was an Operational Facilitator at a large logistikhs firm if you can believe it.”

“Unchained was my chance to actually live. I was always so worried about the rules, about what people would thinkh, what they would say. I wanted to just be me- do what I thought was right and accept the khonsequences.”

“Of course I wasn’t so naïve that I thought there wouldn’t be a khatch. The bazaar itself was extremely suspicious given how hard they were trying to sell the whole idea to us. On top of that I did a little digging and the other representatives were very eager to tell me that Gavikas was a trickster god. So I knew another shoe was going to drop, and I looked for it.”

“I underestimated his khunning though. Which I guess was foolish of me, but given that my only choices were playing their game or oblivion…what’s so funny?” She blinked at Gloe, but he just waved for her to continue. She frowned but complied.

“So I accepted the khonditions. At first I thought the trickh was having to become a Viluota. Being a humanoid bug would bother a lot of girls but I figured growing into one from an egg would allow me to akhlimate, and I was right. Akhtually, in some ways I prefer it…but that’s neither here nor there.”

“After I got old enough to get a sense of my new society I thought that perhaps the jokhe was sexism. I’d dealt with it for my whole previous life, and now I was seeing it again but from the other side. We Viluota are a naturally female-dominant species, and that has impakhted our society. Males are smaller, weaker and less ferocious on average. Although we do find them to be very khute.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“We’ve been trying to enakht reforms since long before I was born, but it’s a slow process. Being on the dominant side but still having to fight sexism felt likhe a sick jokhe at times. Still, my people are decent enough, so I khan’t khomplain too much.”

She made a complex balancing motion using all four hands. “Or I wouldn’t, if I hadn’t found the real trickh. My ability is incredibly powerful but effekhtively unusable. I found this out the hard way, but I won’t bother you with the details. My point is…” she paused, visibly changing tracks.

“Who do you thinkh would win if you and I fought?” she asked suddenly.

“Hmm.” Gloe squinted for a minute. “All things being equal, probably you. I’m probably a bit higher in level, but your ‘natural’ advantages offset that. I would avoid a direct confrontation if I could help it.”

“Heh. You forgot to mention that your weapon skills are virtually nonexistent.”

“Are they?” Gloe raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Inkredibly so, yes. I will show you later. All you do is lash out while holding a weapon. Khlean strikes, but no finesse. I bring this up in order to put all my khards on the table. As a promising fighter I’ve been trained in martial arts since a young age. My ability, Unchained, has three applikhations. The first is passive, removing all natural ceilings on my khapabilities. I khan train, grow, indefinitely. Before we met I had very few khills. Most of my progress was due to training.”

“That’s pretty good.” Gloe studiously avoided stating the obvious rejoinder, instead continuing to listen.

“Yes. We khan pass over the second application for now. I wanted to tell you about the first so you’d know I’m not proposing to use you to help me grow in power. The third is the real reason I want to form a khontract with you.”

“It allows me to surpass limitations temporarily. I khan become faster or stronger than my body actually is. I khan defy gravity or other laws of physics. I khan ignore injuries and damage to my body like a bersekher or krackhhead of legend. The effekht is of khourse limited, but becomes more effekhtive as I level up.”

“Huh. That does sound like a pretty powerful ability. But you said there’s some sort of tradeoff?”

Emokha hissed. “Yesss. Too late I realized that unchained could be a synonym for unhinged, or unmoored. I detach from limitations, inkhluding my own. My impulse khontrol virtually disappears. I khannot khontain myself.”

“So you become a berserker in truth?”

“That is more recent.” She smiled wryly. “As of late I’ve had khause to be qhuite angry. When I was a child I used my ability to surpass my own fighting abilities during a khontest. I wound up fighting everyone present. I didn’t blindly lash out at people, but I was overkhome by my desire to test myself against others.”

“When I used my ability to reduce gravity’s effekht on me I ended up flying until I passed out from exhaustion. I was enjoying myself too much, and I khouldn’t make myself stop, even as I realized I was growing weak. Once I akhtivate my ability I lose the self-khontrol to tell myself to turn it off, even though doing so is qhuite easy.”

Something clicked behind Gloe’s eyes. “So when you used your ability to fight in the deep wyld you assumed you were going to fight to the death?”

“Yes. I was…am angry. Once I akhtivated my ability my rage and desire to rend our pursuers asunder khonsumed me. I was khompletely aware, khompletely in khontrol, at least in one sense. I simply didn’t want to stop, bekhause nothing was more important than my feelings.”

“Until they faded. Out of nowhere my emotions just…shrankh. I khould still feel them, they weren’t changed, but they were no longer overwhelming. I was free to really thinkh, and I realized my anger would be better sated and served if I survived to slay again. So I leapt khlear.”

“Interesting.”

“That’s what I thought. I wasn’t qhuite certain what had happened, but I had a lot of time to thinkh while I was an invalid. I put my theories to the test several times since, and I believe it is essentially khorrect. The details are inkhonseqhuential though. My khonkhlusion is that your ability allows me to use my ability with impunity. I am even able to akhtivate and deakhtivate it in rapid succession, thus using it to eskhape successive limitations in one engagement.”

“Huh. So just now…?”

“I used my ability to exceed my mental limitations so I khould thinkh this through. I realized I have something of value to offer you- a fakhtion you khan trust.”

Gloe frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“Sojourners are very rare among the Viluota, for many reasons. Chosen are not all that khommon either. If I grow in power and return to try to rally my people in the fight against the demons I will almost certainly be at least somewhat successful. After that I would need to rely on vikhtories, but if they okhurred my following would likely grow.”

“Some of your short-term goals involve…takhing steps regarding certain war-khrimes you observed. This is something you khannot achieve alone, but you do not trust any of the existing fakhtions. But as I’ve just explained, your aid would be invaluable to me, and as I level up using my ability will bekhome even more tempting. Self-interest would kheep me from betraying you, even if I wanted to. You khould turn on me at any point, allowing my ability to sweep me away, so I would have to kheep you on my side or go backh to never using it.”

“But reavers are far more powerful than I feared when I was training. I need to have akhcess to my ability. So if you makhe a khontrakht with me you khan be fairly certain I will honor it.” She made another complicated four-armed gesture. “Of khourse I would anyway. We Viluota takhe khontrakhts very seriously. But you khannot be certain of that.”

“Interesting. I’ll have to think about this.”

“Takhe your time. Of khourse I…”

“Sounds good. Let’s draw up a contract.”

Emokha stared. “Are you certain? That was very qhuickh.”

Gloe clicked his tongue and aimed a finger gun at her. “Tch. You’re not the only one whose processing speed has increased lately. As long as we draw it up carefully and there’s some reasonable exit clauses I don’t see too much of a downside.” He looked up. “Don’t you need to talk to Oresus about this?”

“No. We drew up a verbal khontrakht in the khamp, but it has been superseded. We are friends now.”

Something faintly flickered in Gloe’s eyes, then he smiled. “Well that’s good. Let’s head to the old drawing board, eh?”