Boon retracted: Iron Will removed
Debuff added: Malleable Will. Will loses power for 24 hours
Mellies body was delicately arranged where she lay, with her arms folded across her chest, gold coins on her eyes. Around her body were the childrens toys they gifted her. She had created stuffed animals and little wooden soldiers for the children, and they wanted her to have something to play with in the afterlife. A cloth covered her ruined face as passengers came up to pay their respects.
The blood that was pooled about the deck was magic itself. Jackson had struggled with himself. So many things could be made with this. Demonkin blood had been used for rituals for centuries. Could he protect the blood as he was right now? He scraped a little in a small vial and kept it around his neck as a memory.
If anyone had looked closely they would have seen Mellie's pool of blood slowly shrinking back into her body. The cloth covering her face hid the fact that her caved in nose had already reshaped itself, and her facial bones reformed. Once bloodstained, the folded white sheet was now as clean as it was when Linda placed it over her.
Resurrection lvl 1 countdown: 7 hours 53 minutes
Mellie willed away the screen covering her vision and embraced the silence. When Mellie was a little girl she would dream about what her life would be. Some kids dreamed of being astronauts or presidents. Mellie dreamed of running soup kitchens and nursing the weak. She chose to volunteer at the local shelter every Sunday. As she grew into adulthood she felt just as committed to helping the needy, but she didn't have the free time she used to. To her mothers' delight, Mellie got accepted to college and decided to focus on social work. Her life goals all lined up like dominoes. Until fate smacked them over and took her mother.
When her mother was alive she had lived for her daughter. Lori Adams was a hometown beauty. She reigned supreme throughout high school and fell in love with the prettiest boy in school, Mellie's dad. Mellie had his bronzed skin tone and his round eyes. Mellie loved the warm summer nights and catching lightning bugs in jars off the back porch. Grandma would make a jug of sweet tea and leave it on the kitchen counter and they would sit on the rocking chairs listening to the crickets, music quitely playing in the backyard. Her father passed when she was 13. One minute he was mowing the lawn, the next he was lying in the grass, lifeless. Mellie remembered how dust was blowing in those open eyes that wouldnt blink again. Thankfully she wasn't the one who found her mother.
Mellie hadn't even had time to process it. She was the only one left with these memories of them, of the jokes they told, the lives they lead. She had been on autopilot for so long trying to enjoy the good times and ignoring the bad.
And then there was Alanor. And magic. So much could be expected from her. Her powers were overwhelming. She had turned more than one persons' brother, father, or son into pantry ingredients. Was it heartless to prefer a bottle of shampoo to rape and murder? No body no crime, Mellie decided. She had to be more responsible with her powers. She had now exposed her magic to everyone on the ship. And by the time she would resurrect, however horrifying that might be, will they even accept her?
When Mellie had willed the ship she wasn't sure if it could work. She knew she couldn't defeat a level 50 Kraken. She would probably turn into a kraken herself and the thought was scary. Mellie was lucky she hadnt faced a will stronger than she couldn't beat. She would have to face a full day without her strongesf power.
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+1 Intelligence!
Jackson had been quite a surprise. Not only did he give her answers, he served them up on a plate of hotness. In the week they had been together Mellie had been pretty quiet and he had been outright confrontational. They still shared a fire, slept together, protected eachother. She heard his story and felt his heart behind him. Their relationship had been volatile. They were reacting to eachother in a combination of fear and longing. When they finally decided to trust eachother, longing won out in the end. His coal black eyes bored into her soul when he kissed her and touched her like she was some precious thing. Did he like her, or her power? How is he right now?
It was nearing the end of eight hours since the ship took flight escaping the Elder Krackens' mighty tenticles. The passengers had wrapped Mellies' body in a sheet, preparing to send her off to her watery grave. Instead of having a eulogy, the bards had gathered around, crying for loss of their muse, and began playing the song of her people. Jackson began singing the words, and those who could joined in quietly.
When the song ended, Jackson kissed Mellies' forehead and whispered goodbye. George and Linda followed, saying their goodbyes. They pushed Mellie to the plank extending from the side of the boat and with one final goodbye, pushed her to land in the watery depths.
As Mellie's timer hit 0 she was startled awake to the feeling like she was falling. Her hands and arms were constricted in cloth. She muffled a yell and started struggling, falling faster. The sheet billowed in the wind after the falling body. Millie started to spin unwinding the sheet, her body now spinning head over feet. Normal people would have blacked out from the g-force but not Mellie. +1 Dexterity! +1 Endurance! She struggled up until the last moment when her head hit the ocean and the world went black. And the screens flashed.
[Curse of the Ancients] applied!
Resurrection Lvl 2!
Debuff added: Malleable will. Cannot use will for 48 hours
Curse granted! Curse of Crushed Will! Protecting your life is protecting your will! Losing your life in quick succession has crushed your will! You are now capable to defeat targets up to ten levels below skill!
Skill Level lost! Skill Level lost! Skill Level lost! .... Test of Wills lvl 20!
Spell: Test of Wills lvl 20
Can create or destroy with intent. Be warned, the stronger will prevales. Curse of Crushed Will: Capable of defeating targets ten levels below skill. Debuff Malleable Will: Skill inactive for 48 hours. Range: touch
"Fuck. I died again." Mellie thought.
Mellies' body sunk into the depths, dragged down by the wet sheet as the tides pulled her towards Nort. As a large creature passed by pulling against the sheet roped around her legs, her body rolled freeing her from its grasp and she began to float to the surface.
The black nothingness that she was confined to for the next seven hours began to felt suffocating. She couldnt eat, sleep or rest. Nor was she wasn't hungry, tired or cold. Not seeing, hearing or feeling her body put her in a constant state of panic. The only thing she could feel was the fear and anxiety blaring in her mind as her life was restored. Being left alone to face your own thoughts for so long was awakening and frightening.
Fear Resistance Gained!
+1 Intelligence!
By now Mellie had figured out the falling had been her being sent off the ship. She could understand not wanting to be next to a corpse. She would have preferred a burial but Jackson probably didnt want her body harvested. It had to be him. She wished they would have waited a few more minutes. Could she wake up at thr bottom of the ocean only to drown and be reborn again and again, forever stuck in the blackness? Would she wake up in the belly of a whale? Or get torn apart by sharks reforming over and over again? Mellie and waited for the timer to count down, wondering where, or how much of her would wake up. Mellie had some plans.