The locking mechanism clicked into place as the suppression cuff was placed on Nate’s left wrist. He felt his aura pull into himself, and his summoned quiver dissipated. An unexpected effect, at least to Nate, was the cancellation of the illusions put into his head by Spring Jack and Blackwing. Ellie, Krypdyr, Zeff, and Fuzzball all sat bound together, also wearing suppression cuffs.
“Did you really just Alice from Twilight me? Was it Alice? I only saw it twice.”
Relief flooded over Nate as he spotted them. The pirates dragged him to them, not giving him any answer. Then he noticed his journal had turned red and was blinking rapidly, and pulled up his notifications. After a time longer than Nate expected, Quilly flickered into his view looking pissed. A red notification window appeared next to Quilly.
I WILL NOT BE SUPPRESSED!
Suppression Cuff has negated all active spells cast by you, returned Vinebow to your inventory, locked your aura within yourself, and suppressed your Serendipitous Symbiosis, Vampiric, Familiar, and Lucky Sigil Stones. Suppression attempt on Interface Sigil Stone negated.
Nate watched as Quilly floated over to the timer for Terry’s respawn, which still showed around 7 hours left and had stopped ticking down. The representation of his first acquired sigil stone sprouted stick figure arms and legs and kicked the timer, which promptly resumed ticking down.
Suppression of Familiar Sigil Stone negated.
“How can you do this?” Nate mentally asked Quilly.
I like Terry. Would you like to remove other suppressions?
“I… Not yet.” Nate did not expect Quilly to display any kind of emotion. He’d never considered that Quilly may have a semblance of actual intelligence. “How can you negate magic suppression?”
The Interface Sigil Stone is designed to interface with many different objects and systems. This includes certain magic items like the Interface Podium and Suppression Cuffs.
“Can you remotely deactivate other cuffs?”
If they are within the range of your aura, yes.
Nate was led to where his friends were bound and he, too, was further secured. Tear tracks had cleaned the dust and blood in lines down each of their faces. Nate looked each of them in the eyes as he reconnected his chat interface with them.
“Don’t say anything out loud. Damn, I’m glad you’re all okay,” Nate said through chat. “I watched you die.”
“I saw Fezim and I froze as he killed you all and made you zombies that almost reached me before this cuff thing canceled the illusion.” Fuzzball shook his head.
“I’d rather not say what I saw,” Zeff shuddered. Ellisandra and Krypdyr said nothing.
“How is your chat still working?” Zeff asked.
“Later. We need to get on the airship.”
Spring Jack walked up to Nate as Blackwing landed, inspecting their bonds. “You are a tricky one, helping that minx Luma escape. You know she stabbed me once?”
“I can’t imagine why,” Nate said as he met Spring Jack’s gaze.
Spring Jack laughed, “Bring them aboard.”
Blackwing stopped the crew before they finished their second step, “Belay that. We only need that one.” He motioned to Nate.
“But just imagine how much fun you can have with the rest of them.”
“I’m not coming with you if we don’t bring them anyway,” Nate said.
Blackwing punched him hard in the face, a vicious smile spreading across his face. “You aren’t in a position to give demands.”
“Oh, duck man is sooo scary. Are you the terror that flaps in the n-?” Nate’s question was cut short as Blackwing pounced on him, punching him until he fell into unconsciousness.
----------------------------------------
Nate woke up inside of a cell, the thick bars close enough together that narrow strips of light shined down upon him. His face was still a little puffy and he saw that the timer for Terry to return had dropped to two hours. He stretched and sat up, holding his hand to his head with a light groan.
“Going unconscious this much can’t be good for my brain.”
He took several deep breaths and was happy to find that Fuzzball and company were still within the range of his party chat. Before he re-established the party chat, he looked over his interface.
Attack of the Carrot Crew Objective Complete. Reward: Novice Growth Orb has been added to your inventory.
Nate pulled both growth orbs from his inventory and looked them over.
Growth Orb (Novice). Type: Consumable. Weight: 1 lb. Value: 25,000 gold pieces. Effect: Add 10 points to a skill of your choice. Not usable for skills above Novice Rank. If used to cross the 25, 50, 75, or 100 skill levels, the user may choose their ability rather than being granted one based on the skill’s use at the time of crossing the threshold.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“So close,” he muttered to himself as he tucked them back into his inventory.
“Is that you, Nate?” Krypdyr said from a nearby cell.
“I’m here,” he said. “Have you seen the others?”
“Blackwing took Zeff and Fuzzball out maybe an hour ago. Ellisandra was taken to a different part of the ship.”
“That can’t be good.” Nate opened his map and saw that they were over the mountains that separated Gronwood and Tempeste. “We’re well on the way to Tempeste. We need to take control of the airship.”
“Luma’s whole crew couldn’t stop these guys. What makes you think we can?”
Nate grew contemplative. “Do you remember when you asked me why I never took control of my previous life?”
“I do. You side-stepped it.”
“Earth is a place where the majority of the control is held by a very small number of people, relatively speaking. Those people have little regard for those over whom they have said power. That said, many without any power decided to take control of the one thing they could without resorting to civil war.”
“What is that?”
Nate turned to look out between the bars and slowly touched them. Finding they didn't hurt, he grabbed them to steady himself. “Their own lives. The suicide rate on Earth is staggeringly high, because people lose hope, because people believe they can’t do anything about their situation. I… fell under that group. My life had felt hopeless, and I made plans to end it. I was able to eventually start getting help, but to my great surprise, I soon after found myself here, granted the possibility, and more importantly the freedom to choose my own fate. And my hope was renewed, and I want to bring that hope back with me. I will not let a pirate rabbit take that from me!”
“It is good that you so fully embrace your life now,” a strangely familiar voice said from behind him. An aura stronger by far than anything he’d ever felt washed over him and he nearly fell over.
Nate turned to see a tall woman wearing a flowing purple dress and shawl, a thin golden headband adorning her head. Blue streaks were visible throughout her dark hair.
“If you are who I think you are, I was talking about you a few days ago,” Nate said.
“I know, outworlder. I thought this form would be less stressful for you.”
“I totally didn’t have a crush on Gaia or anything,” Nate lied as the pain in his head increased. “I hate to ask, but I think your aura may be crushing my brain.”
“The pain will soon pass.”
“I…” Nate winced, “certainly hope so. What brings you here?”
“Your choices.”
“That’s… vague.”
Her laugh echoed through the airship’s brig. “I primarily oversee life, but aspects of freedom are also under my purview. Nature has the others. You have, time and time again, proven yourself a staunch defender of such.”
“I try to be helpful when I can.”
Another laugh, “One of your very first acts when you arrived was to free Fuzbalingralod from his frozen sleep. You freed the Astral Maw from its entrapment by breaking the Astral Collector, not fully knowing the consequences.”
“Yeah, but-”
“When you were threatened with capture yourself, rather than fight against your foe, you freed Skelwulf from his enslavement, even when you could have kept control over him.”
Nate shrugged his shoulders, “Recognition is not why I did those things.”
“I know. In the pursuit of the continuation of the reasons you do what you do, Nature and I have a gift for you.” She gently caressed his cheek. The pain in his head vanished for a moment before redoubling, dropping him to his knees to clutch his head. A bright white light began to emit from Nate’s entire body, and Quilly appeared in his vision, giving him a big smile.
You have received a gift from the goddesses Nature and Life. Your racial skill Adaptive Learning has been changed into Adaptive Transfiguration. Your Contact Identification perk has changed to Doppleganger. Terry has been returned to life before the full duration of the timer.
Adaptive Transfiguration, like Adaptive Learning before it, automatically activates during times of need, granting temporary increases to the skill most useful in the moment. Additionally, all other skills improve slightly faster. Improving this ability increases Fatigue on a 1 to 1 basis. You can now use your Interface Sigil Stone to change your race. Your racial skills do not change to match those of the chosen race, but you may gain certain physiological abilities such as the Mothkin ability to fly, or certain Chimeran traits such as thick skin or sharp claws and teeth.
Doppelganger. Novice Adaptive Transfiguration Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Touching a creature saves them to a list of choices you can access through your Interface Sigil Stone. When selected, your race changes to perfectly match them.
“Please tell me that wasn’t who I think it was. What was that glow?” Krypdyr asked.
Nate writhed on the ground as the pain slowly subsided. His sleek purple armor oozed back out to cover his body. “Life just touched me and changed one of my racial abilities.”
After a brief silence, “The goddess?”
“Indeed. I had no idea something like this was possible. But to be fair I’ve only been here a short time.”
“Are you okay? What changes?”
“I can shapeshift, essentially.”
“High level magic can do similar things, but I’ve never heard of it being a racial gift.”
“It uses my interface powers to do so. Maybe that’s a prerequisite? Similar to the reason I can still use my party chat, for example, is because my Interface Sigil Stone can, well, interface with the Suppression Cuff and isolate abilities or turn it off entirely.”
“That’s amazing! Can you unlock ours too?”
“So long as you’re within my aura.”
“What’s the plan to get out?”
Nate mentally called up his new ability, and a translucent mirror appeared in front of him. Familiar sliders appeared on the screen, and a new Doppelganger option was available. He tapped it and a list of people who he had touched, and who have touched him, dropped down. He found his own name on the list and saw that it was highlighted. He scrolled back up and selected Blackwing. The sliders on the right side of the mirror began to move on their own, and Nate watched himself change from his usual ginger haired head and beard into the extended beak of the duck-chimeran. His leathers stayed the same and were a little tight in the larger form. He gently touched his white feathers and orange beak.
“Now I am the terror that flaps in the night.”
Touched by the Gods Achievement Unlocked! You have been altered by the touch of a god. Reward? You can now shapeshift mostly at will. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
Pirate Prisoner Achievement Unlocked! You have been taken captive by pirates. Reward? Tricorn hat.
Shapechanger Achievement Unlocked! You have changed your race using your Interface Sigil Stone. Reward? Scaled Amulet.
Scaled Amulet. Type: Amulet. Weight: 0.5 lb. Value: 450 gold pieces. While wearing this amulet, your equipment will scale to match your size. This effect does not increase or decrease an item’s power based on size.
Disguise has increased from Novice 0 to Novice 10. Total Fatigue has increased by 10. Progression to Level 27 at 84%.
“This is wild!” Nate said, surprised that his voice was the same. “Aww. This is just like the polyjuice potion in Chamber. Not the one in Goblet that changed Moody’s voice to match. But maybe-”