Abby was sitting on the bench outside the room where Isabelle was being treated. Thankfully, this village's healer accepted cores as payment. Dungeon cores, not magic ones. Healing magic had to be focused, unlike what Abby had thought. There wasn’t one single spell for ‘heal everything’, however, there were separate spells that could heal everything independently. The furthest generalized case Abby had seen was ‘set bone’.
Isabelle screamed when that one was cast.
She could hear her breathing, even with the door closed and a whole wall between them. Even breaths, calm. Who knew if that would change if she saw Abby again.
Someone coughed, a few doors down. Abby’s ears flicked in response. An unconscious movement, done only to better focus on the source of the sound. She lowered her head into her hands, discreetly touching her ears with her fingertips. Even beneath her hair, she could feel that her ears were different now. Larger, pointed slightly at the top. Still passibly human, and distinctly not at the same time. The dungeon had probably taken inspiration from bat ears.
Her palms accidentally brushed against her cheek, and Abby could feel the slit in her skin. She brought her hands away from her face with disgust. The feeling was unnatural. She was unnatural. Without even thinking about it, she could pull a short spike out of her forearm, and just as easily retract it. As unconscious as waving her hand.
Abby distinctly felt her muscles moving, pushing the spike out a little. She brought it back in. Out a little again. Her eyes were drawn to her arm. Briefly, she wondered what it’d look like without her armor or clothes. But then she noticed the hole in the palm of her glove, and was disgusted again. She leaned back against the stone wall behind her. Best to think of something else.
How far away were they from the capital? Where were they anyway? It wasn’t like Abby could just ask people what this village was called, that would make her stand out. Something they really couldn’t afford. The church had their fingers in half of the villages and towns in the world, and Abby wasn’t stupid enough to believe that they’d be content to sit and wait for Abby and Isabelle to come to them. They’d probably be sending people after them, and with the knowledge that they were in Swift Brook just two days ago narrowed down the area where they had to search.
The church was big. Second largest standing army big, right after the kingdom itself. The only good news was that that army was spread out over several kingdoms, meaning only a portion of it was in this one. Not that it mattered, a hundred or a thousand soldiers, it was still too much for Abby to handle alone, let alone Isabelle.
“Abby?” Isabelle’s voice called out clearly from her room.
Abby froze. Thoughts of what Isabelle would think about her rushed back, along with the depressing feelings associated with them.
“Are you ok?” Isabelle asked.
Not a word about what happened. About Abby’s choice. Nothing about what she’d chosen to become.
Are you ok?
Isabelle continued talking through the wall. “Thank you for helping me. I mean, even if you were the one…” She took a deep breath. “I’m not going to say I understand what you did. Or why you did it. But I… I do understand you more than you think. So I know that right now you’re feeling guilty. Or like you’ve become some kind of monster.”
Knives formed in Abby’s heart, twisting with her words. She remained silent.
“But I also know that you’re still Abby. That you wouldn’t do something like that without a good reason. So could we talk about it? Please?”
Abby just sat there, waiting for more. Obviously she knew it would never come, but to just get up and confront Isabelle right away…
She was being stupid. She knew. So with a deep breath, Abby got to her feet and opened the door.
Isabelle was sitting upright in a bed with far too many pillows at her back. Both of her arms were in slings, which confused Abby. If they had paid all of their dungeon cores to heal her, she better be healed!
Isabelle smiled gently. “I’m fine. They just want to give it a night before I actually start using them. To let them heal naturally they said.”
“That’s stupid.” Abby blurted out. “Broken bones take months to heal naturally.”
Isabelle’s smile grew, and she giggled. “I know, but I’ll do as they say, just in case.”
Isabelle grew solemn. Abby remained in the doorway, somehow finding herself unable to approach her friend. Was that stupid? She had turned herself into a monster. Beat Isabelle to the point where she was defending herself with broken arms. She couldn’t consider herself a friend anymore and yet, Isabelle wasn’t yelling at her. Wasn’t calling her stupid.
“Close the door, you’re letting in a draft.”
“Oh! Right.” Abby quickly moved to close the door. With her back turned to Isabelle, she took a moment to collect herself.
“Are-”
“About-”
Both girls tried to speak at the same time. Abby flustered, offering for Isabelle to go first, but Isabelle managed to convince Abby to say her piece first.
Abby took a breath.
“Are we still friends?”
Isabelle looked surprised. “Of c- Abby! Is that seriously what you’re thinking? Come here!” Isabelle held up her hands for a hug. Which looked rather funny, considering she was still in the slings.
Abby didn’t move. She looked off to the side of Isabelle, ashamed. “I’m sorry for… you know.”
Isabelle dropped her hands into her lap, giving Abby that small, patient smile. “Did you feel guilty? Was I right?”
Of course. Abby nodded.
Isabelle nodded too, confidently. “Then that means you feel bad for what you did! And you wouldn’t feel bad for doing that if we weren’t friends!”
The logic was infallible. Abby couldn’t help but allow herself a small smile. “Yeah. I guess so.”
Isabelle held up her arms again, and this time, Abby walked into them. She gave Isabelle a gentle hug, ever acutely aware of her newfound strength. Especially since her hearing was apparently much better now too.
Abby stifled a giggle. “I can hear your heartbeat when I’m this close.”
Isabelle wiggled one hand out of her sling, grabbing Abby’s wrist as she stood upright again. She twisted Abby's hand around until she could see the hole in the palm of her glove. She tucked her fingers through the hole to get a better look, which tickled Abby a little. But she stood still, allowing the curious girl to have a good look.
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“It looks like a dick hole.”
Abby turned red, snatching her hand back. “It- NO! It doesn’t!” But now that the thought was there, it wouldn’t go away. Her hands burned. Abby wanted to do nothing more than somehow rub the hole off.
Rub it off. Oh goddess. Abby turned an even deeper shade of red, much to Isabelle’s enjoyment.
“Owyn is going to have a field day with you when we meet up again.”
With dirty thoughts already on her mind, the mention of Owyn was just too much for her. Abby crouched, hiding her face in her hands. But then she felt those holes again! She quickly shook her head into her elbows, roughly rubbing off the lingering feeling.
Isabelle laughed. A loud, cheerful sound. It was barely enough to help Abby calm down. She decided to remain where she was until she found the courage within herself to stand again.
Abby felt Isabelle’s eyes on her. Gentle.
“Did you two ever end up dating?” Isabelle asked.
“Dating?” Abby’s voice was barely a whisper.
“I don’t know why, but you two always had that feeling of ‘will they, won’t they’, so I just thought you were dating in secret or something. I couldn’t ever figure a reason why you wouldn’t, so I just thought that maybe you weren’t dating yet. Or maybe you hadn’t announced it yet?”
Abby gladly took to the turn in conversation. Anything to get her mind out of the gutter. “We weren’t dating. I don’t think Owyn ever thinks of stuff like that.”
“But you’d be interested if he offered?” Isabelle asked.
Abby sighed, falling to her butt to have a seat on the floor. “Maybe. Probably.”
Isabelle regarded her curiously. “So why didn’t you offer?”
“It doesn’t work like that.” Abby defended herself. “I’m a girl. I’m not supposed to ask a guy out! I’m supposed to make myself available, but not like… that, you know?”
“Even before, I’m not sure anyone but Owyn would have wanted you like that.”
Abby blushed, but smiled. She wished she had a pillow to throw or something. “Hey now, be nice. I’m not that ugly!”
Isabelle giggled, settling back into her mountain of pillows. “No, you’re not. I’m jealous actually. Dad has these little fuckin’... chicken legs, and I apparently got that from him. You on the other hand, have thighs that could crush a man's skull between them.”
Abby laughed. “I’m not sure how that’s attractive, but to each their own I guess. I’m certainly proud of them!”
“Atta girl!” Isabelle swung her arm in her sling to accentuate the saying. “But a little hand of advice I got from mom? Don’t just make yourself available. Give Owyn opportunity as well. It’s not enough to just be single, you have to let Owyn know that you want him to ask you out! Even better if he does that without you knowing!”
Abby smiled a little. “I don’t know. I don’t think I need to. I’m actually kind of happy with the way things are between us.”
Isabelle pouted. “Well that’s a rather lackluster ending. I was hoping for something a little more ‘sweep off the feet’, you know? Why do you gotta ruin that!”
Abby couldn’t smile at her teasing. She regarded her hand again. Back and front. If her glove didn’t have the hole in it, nothing would look different. She’d still be able to pass as perfectly human.
“Do you think this changes things between us?” She asked the much wiser, younger girl.
“Of course.” Isabelle's words sent another knife into Abby’s gut. “But that doesn’t mean much. Everything that happens to you two changes things between you two. Every conversation you have changes things, it’s no big deal. Owyn chose to follow you into Lucid’s dungeon. You chose to trust Lucid, and therefore, Owyn trusted him too. And then Owyn told you to escape, and you did, because you trust him. Every interaction between you two influences the choices of the other. This is just another part of that.”
“How’d you figure?”
Isabelle shrugged. “You tell me. Why did you choose to do that?”
Abby looked down, choosing a particularly interesting spot on the floor to focus on while she gathered her thoughts. “I don’t know. I mean, I figure that we needed to get stronger, and I’ve already seen how dungeons can just do that, so I thought, why not?”
“But why do you need to be stronger?” Isabelle pressed.
“To protect you.” Abby said quietly.
“And why did you think that was necessary?”
She knew why. Grant’s been dead for a while, and Barry was hardly a distant memory. “I have to be stronger.” She affirmed. “I’m not going to let anyone else get hurt.”
“And did you think that doing it like this wouldn’t change things?”
“It had to change things!” Abby got to her feet to make her point. “The church isn’t going to stop coming after us, and we need to be ready! We need to be stronger than them, otherwise they’re going to do things that we won’t like!”
Isabelle didn’t flinch away from her. She just held Abby's eyes with her calm demeanor. “I meant did you think it wouldn’t change anything between you and Owyn.”
Abby deflated a little. Looked away again. “No.”
“Exactly. Nothing is going to change between you and Owyn because of this. In fact, I’d say that if anything does change, it’ll be for the better! You’ll have protected me, which he’ll most certainly approve of, and he’s a nutjob for dungeon stuff anyways! He’ll probably faun all over you, wanting to know everything cool about you! And you have plenty of cool things about you, even without this dungeon stuff! You’re super strong, you’re reliable, and most importantly, you’re you! You always have been, and you always will be! And to Owyn, I’m sure that’s the most important thing!”
It wasn’t what Abby had meant when she said no, but… this felt nice. “Thank you, Isabelle.”
Isabelle smiled again, holding up her arms for another hug. Abby obliged.
“Oof! Careful there with that strength of yours!” Isabelle laughed.
“Sorry.” Abby smiled as she backed out of the hug.
Isabelle nodded, forgiving her in an instant. “So, what’s the plan now?”
Abby grinned. “My plan’s always been the same. Protecting you.”
Isabelle nodded. “Alright fine, but if you’re going to do that, we’re going to have to work together from now on. No more surprises like that, alright?”
That was an easy thing to agree to, so Abby nodded.
Isabelle looked thoughtful for a while. “Do you think… I mean…”
Abbycocked her head. “What?”
“Would you be willing to do it again?”
Abby should have been surprised by it, however, she wasn’t. She’d had the same thought herself, but silently she’d always held back on fully realizing the thought. She was having the same argument with herself about doing it for a second time as she had when she did it for the first time.
“You think that’d be ok?”
Isabelle nodded. “It’s like you said, we need to get stronger. And also like you said, this is the easiest, fastest way to do so. And between you and me, I’m sure we can do this much safer as well!”
Abby trusted Isabelle. She was smart. Therefore, this decision came very easily to her. “Fine. BUT! I have conditions!”
“Whatever they are, I’m certain we can accommodate!” Isabelle grinned.
Abby held up a finger. “One! I want to remain as human as possible!”
“I’m not sure I have any control over that, but fine. Next?”
“Two! Uh… we don’t go too far! Yeah! I don’t want to become addicted to anything, so if you ever see me acting out of character or whatever, just let me know I guess.”
“Deal.” Isabelle nodded.
“Oh! Three! No tails!”
Isabelle grinned. “I think that falls under wanting to remain as human as possible, right?”
Oh, right. “Uh, I can’t think of anything else then. What about you? Do you want to…?”
Isabelle shook her head. “I’m the magic guy, remember? If I get enthralled, I might lose the ability to use magic! And I don’t want to risk it.” Isabelle smirked. “Besides, if I was enthralled, I’d probably kick your ass.”
Abby snorted. “I doubt that!”
Isabelle waved a hand dismissively. “Oh please, the only reason I’m not dead already is because your fighting style is so straight forward it’s easy to counter! You didn’t even consider the fact that I had blank magic cores I could turn into new spells! That’s the whole reason I was able to break your core in the first place, because I think outside the box!”
Abby almost punched her shoulder in jest. She held back, and just pushed against her with a fist. “Alright smart guy, so how are we going to do this next time?”
Isabelle smirked. “I have a few ideas. But first, we’re obviously going to need to make a few new spells.”