I stopped my tapping, shocked for a moment at the fact that I understood that. I had no clue what she was speaking yet understood it all the same.
Maybe this is part of that ‘knowledge’ from when I awoke?
It didn’t matter. I was excited to have my first conversation with another person in so long I had lost count, my face breaking into a wide smile. I took a deep breath, looking her in her eyes as- she looks rather pale, yes? She seems to be shivering. Is she...?
That was all I got out before she vomited on her shoes, blood and sickly sludge pooling at our feet as her head lolled.
Maybe the damage was worse than I thought.
I frowned at the pool of gunk spreading across the cavern floor. Some of it was blood, yes, but most of it was pale, the sight tickling the back of my mind faintly. It was... the stuff in the stomach, the stuff meant to break down food. That wasn’t supposed to leave the stomach though, so...
I shook my head. This girl needed help, and although now I couldn’t ask her questions nor properly heal her, I could clean her lungs and keep her safe until she recovered. I grunted, leaning over and picking her up, my ministrations careful to avoid the sickness spread across the floor and some of her clothes. I’d likely need to get her out of those, but given I had no replacements, it would need to wait. I had the most fascinating idea involving a particularly interesting type of glass I had made, but that would take too long compared to simple weaving using tree fibers.
I hefted her up on my shoulder, surprised at the ease with which I did so. Was she simply light, or did I become stronger than I thought? I navigated the ridge of the valley easily, my path down into the valley proper only barely hindered by my passenger. Although the lip of the valley was rough and rocky now, there existed clear paths to allow ingress with little strain. Perhaps I should make those official somehow? Now they were simply more flattened, cleanly sloping parts of the impromptu hillside, but I could turn them into routes in and out of the valley – if I needed such a thing. I gazed at my temporary guest.
Perhaps the routes would not be for me.
It was a simple affair to whip up a new place for her to rest, the mimicking of my liquid-glass-bed a minor effort of will. Placing her down into it, I watched as she sank minutely into the strange fluid glass, her body buoyed on the quicksilver pool of liquid. I began to mentally assemble a list, detailing all the items I felt she might need in the immediate future:
First, water. Life without water was not possible, as the Allmother taught me.Second, food. A lower priority than water, but food drove life, just less urgently than water. Third, the clothing she had was largely ruined. Either she needed replacements or those to be cleaned, preferably both. Fourth... something to do? I had kept myself busy during the years by teaching myself crafts and skills. I doubted I did them efficiently or effectively, but I tried to learn as best as I could with no teacher. Her, though? I knew I was an outlier for my drive for learning and loneliness, but what could she do to keep herself busy? She could collect glass for me, aid the garden, perhaps teach me what she knows. Maybe that was enough.
Turning my mind away from my unaware guest, I thought of my next goal. I did want to work with the strange glass-string I had accidentally made, but how much time could that fill? I suppose it only needs to fill the time until she wakes up – however long that might be.
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Amiri awoke with a gasp and a frantic flail for her dagger, her action rocking her and sloshing the… strange waters she laid in? The sight of the silver sap-like goo froze her panicking mind, thought screeching to a halt.
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What in the…?
Her sight fled from the silver stuff, her gaze widening as she viewed the room she lay in. Walls of perfect crystal surrounded her as if cut from the ground by a titan, their opaque dullness in contrast to the shimmering vat she lay in. Windows were made of simple translucent panes, each the exact same consistency as the walls. She couldn’t see a single seam, let alone the nuances that allowed such incredible crystal to stem from the same base material.
She coughed, her hand covering it before she drew it away. No redness stained her breath, a pleasant sign that jogged her memory, her mind reorienting at once.
How did I get here? I was in the cave, then…
A shadow of a memory arose, one of a towering figure that gazed down at her, eyes glimmering like glass. Glass.
Her breath hitched, her heart beginning to hammer as she remembered that figure. Its eyes were just like the fluid she floated in, which meant she was trapped in some lair. She briefly entertained the possibility that It – whatever it was – was just a weird kind of Jollen. She had seen weird tall Jollen in her journeys, their exact names escaping her. There were the sharp-eared ones, the flat-eared ones, all kinds of them. A tall one with oddly glassy eyes was possible…
But the room!
She had met two Touched in her entire life. Both were hopelessly mad. Touched were rare and typically estranged from their kin in peculiar ways, meaning encountering them was rare. Nobody agreed on what caused the Darkening, but the Touched only came about after it, so few ever risked that they were Tainted. With few Touched and even fewer non-Tainted, the chances of the Touched being ‘good’ wasn’t worth the risk, so they got killed almost anywhere they were found.
Jollen were an exception, of course, but using mana wasn’t on the same level as this. Shamans and Sages could make balls of fire or sling whips of water, but making a castle of crystal? That was far outside the boundaries of simple magic. More likely she had been captured by some mad Tainted who was planning to sacrifice her or worse.
Not gonna happen! Seeker ingenuity go!
She was still clothed, the faint smell of dried vomit wrinkling her nose but promising options. Her traveling robes were flush with tools and weapons even before she got exiled, so she was a veritable walking emporium now. Steadying herself with a hand on the rim of the ‘bed’, her other hand dove through pockets at a frightening pace. Kracklebombs, snippers, swellberries, the odd ‘whittling knife’, all were dumped out of her pockets as she searched for her ‘I need to not die’ item. She went through nearly three dozen pockets – half of which were concealed – before she found what she was looking for.
Gotcha.
Drawing out a browned roll of paper, Amiri pumped a fist in celebration before stashing most of the items back in their respective pockets. Except for a kracklebomb, the largest of the whittling knives, and a single whipwire, everything found its way back into a pocket.
Armed and prepared as she could be, she rolled from the pool-bed, her feet landing on the smooth crystalline floor cleanly. Six wide steps carried her to the doorway – the doorless doorway – wherein she braced herself against the frame, peeking out into the lair she found herself in.
What met her was sunlight.
Not natural sunlight, oh no – night bled through the windows and doors, the darkness of night battering against its enemy within the central chamber. That central chamber bore a pillar of the brightest light Amiri had ever seen, the act of staring at it singing her manasight and earning an involuntary wail.
Of all the shortcomings of my gift, this is the worst!
She slumped, the fight fading from her as she struggled to avoid breaking down in the face of such monumental power.
“Hm?”
A noise came from one of the rooms, a head peeking out from the doorway moments later. Glass eyes met her wet ones, her gasped reply enough of an answer. He – it, she reminded herself – was nearly made of mana! It pulsed and shifted within them like some sort of second half, the swirling vortex opposite their heart nearly as bright as the beam of sunlight.
“Oh,” the figure said, striding fully from the doorway, their impressive height once again on display. “You’re awake, good.”
Definitely not a Jollen.