Planar Shift

Conditions for this skill have not been met.

Long voyage

You have died.

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Chapelle Notre Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse

Fields of Gregory- Albert III

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++

Random

I woke up in my bed, and was happy to find that I was only gone just over an hour, which fit with my previous uses of the skill. It seemed it took me the same time to return as it took me to go to wherever I had used the skill from.

I went in to check on Cain, who had fallen asleep in the meantime. Either that, or he’d become much better at faking it.

After checking that his heater was still on, I quietly headed to the bathroom and undressed. The bruising around my ribs was gone, and so were the deep marks on my arm. I double checked my ISW:

Laura Emilie Geneviève Dubois de la Sablonnière

S

Courier

Social stealth adept

Luck

51/100

MP

94/100

Strength

15 = 11+ 4 (item effect : blade of Namura)

Dexterity

17

Constitution

12 = 8 + 4 (item effect : blade of Namura)

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

13

Charisma

11

A Mind Stop [Pa]

S+ Planar Shift [Ac] (upon death)

S Short voyage [Pa] (0 MP)

S- Long voyage [Ac] (upon death; min radius 5 km)

A Backtrack [Pa]

A Dark Vision [Pa]

A Environmental Awareness [Pa]

A- Black Trail [Pa]

B Dragon eye [Pa]

B+ Mirror [Pa]

B+ Starlight [Ac]

B+ Walk [Pa]

B Faintness [Pa]

B Fitness [Pa]

B Speech Comprehension[Pa]

B- Memoire [Ac]

B- Run [Pa]

C+ Second breath [Pa]

C Mocking bird [Ac]

C Restoration [Pa]

D+ Traitor’s Lament [Pa]

D+ Black Square White Square [Ac]

D+ Data Analysis [Pa]

D+ Holding Void [Ac]

D+ [Microsoft Office Suite] [Pa]

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D Outsider [Ac]

D+ R [Pa]

D Straight Blades [Pa]

D Metamorph [Ac]

E+ Warm Heart [Pa]

E Bones of Ice [Pa]

E Marksmith [Pa]

E Platinum Skin [Pa]

E- Blackout [Ac]

E- Runes of Jericho [Ac]

++ more skills to display ++

And was shocked to find that my stats had increased. The wisdom debuff was gone, lords know why, because I hadn’t done anything about that. Perhaps that was linked to me learning about the Church of Corinth, although I doubted that accounted for 3 whole points.

The other mildly concerning thing was that even butt-naked, and without holding it, my sword still gave me a buff. I wondered how I never noticed that before, its omniscient presence in my life. I shivered, thinking about how it might have erased those memories from me, and all the other things it could make me do without my knowledge.

Or maybe that was just the cold.

I turned on the shower, and very quickly found myself wondering if I had accidentally mixed hair bleach into my shampoo. After a thorough rinse-out, my eyes finally stopped itching, and I landed the guilty shampoo bottle in the bin.

A few minutes later, I found myself in my bedroom, kneeling by my bed, just like I had all those months ago when I first picked up my sword.

Holding Void

Blade of Namura

Soul Mirror; Paired – TM - LD

++ add item ++

MP - 2

A black vortex briefly opened, dropping the short katana onto my bed. It didn’t look much different in the artificial yellow light than it had that summer afternoon. The blade was a cold white, that merged into a dark, warm to the touch, wooden handle; its red veins of resin having closed up, like old wounds.

The eyes that looked back at me from within the blade were an icy grey.

“What are you?” I asked.

Predictable. And complicated.

I could not quite describe how I knew what the woman in the sword, Namura, was saying. When I tilted the blade, I did not see her lips move. Nor did a system window appear before my eyes. Perhaps she was talking directly into my mind, but that wasn’t really the issue at hand.

I waited another short minute, hoping to get more of a reply, and when I realised that I wasn’t going to get one, I continued:

“Do you know who I am?”

That too is complicated, child. Despite no blood shared with my Nathalie, you have qualities of hers I seek. You are flexible, evolving.

My partner would have liked you too.

It alarmed me ever so slightly the way she’d referred to Nathalie, but I had more pressing matters to clarify.

“Who would that be?”

She didn’t respond right away. And when she did, she deflected the question.

Child, our connection has improved, but it is not yet perfect. I strive towards this perfection, and I believe it would benefit us both. You lack clear purpose, which forces me to guide you.

“That’s not true…” I tried to argue, but I felt the hilt of the sword going colder in my hand. “We’re running out of time, aren’t we?”

The grey eyes in the blade blinked in a silent nod.

I sighed, setting aside the dozen or so of questions about mind control, magic, and Nathalie I had for her.

“What do you want? Will you keep on helping me fight? What do you know about Huang Fu and his quest for immortality at the Vanished Mountain? What was your connection, if any, to the Church of Corinth?”

I did not expect her to answer all the questions, and I figured with her mannerism she’d give me a one word answer for three, and maybe elaborate on one. Unfortunately they were all important in different ways to me. Beyond the obvious reasoning behind the first two, I needed to know if shared my memories about the novel and Huang, or is she was in any way connected to the much more tangible threat that Nathalie’s old lover had pointed out to me.

It truly is a pity when the objectives of a master and her servant do not align.

Of course, she deflected. And the hilt did not get any warmer.

As a gesture of goodwill, I inform you that I shall regain more of my power at the longest night. Until then, you will only use part of my strengths.

The eyes in my reflection turned a familiar shade of green.

I know not of your man, but I know of the place where Lord Qhapaq rests. He has been known to offer immortality to those who find him, yes.

The hilt was getting colder and colder; a sharp contrast to the warm room.

I have also served the Church in the past. Child, know that I hold no allegiance other than to she who wields me. Politics bore me, and ethics elude me.

Provide me with blood, and we will be one. Goodbye.

And just like that, she was gone. Dormant, waiting to take control of me again. I got up, and came up to the window, pulling the curtains open just enough to see the thick, and thickening layer of snow reflecting the yellow streetlights.

I could have opened the window in that moment, and thrown the cursed thing out. I could, but I couldn’t.

Truth was, I would have been long dead without Namura. Well, maybe not dead thanks to my skills, but in a much worse position for sure. Without Namura I would feel too scared to eave my house, with monsters quite literally around every corner of Paris.

I shook my head and closed the curtains. Has she made me trust her before? Was she making me trust her now? And if I was willing to cross that line into symbiose with her – that’s what she wanted, right? – was I any better than Huang and his quest for eternal power? I mean, I already had the immortality…

“Who were you talking to? Your phone is on the dresser.” Cain’s voice came from the doorway.

“How long were you listening for?” I scoffed, bemused.

“I heard the shower, came in to check that you were alive.”

“What else would I be?” I asked with a soft smile.

MP - 2

The short katana vanished from my hand.

“Not talking to yourself about people you should know nothing about.” Cain scoffed in reply.

“Huang, or the Church?” I asked, taking a seat on the edge of my bed, and patting the space next to me.

“The latter, no one cares about your ex.”

“For the last time, he’s not my ex.” I rolled my eyes. “Also please don’t say his name in public, I don’t want trouble.”

He took a seat, and I began an unprompted summary of who Huang was. By the end of it, we had migrated under a duvet. Cain made it very clear he also had information he wanted to share, but he’d all but fallen asleep by the time I’d started summarising the third tome of ‘immoral immortality’, so we decided to save it for another day. I, on the other hand, struggled to fall asleep. There were just too many things to process, between the talking sword, the living dungeon, me and Etienne becoming official, my stats changing, …

Instead of an alarm, Cain woke me up at midday by placing my overheating phone under my cheek.

[https://i.imgur.com/OHMyQo0.png]