The system isn’t any less unpleasant than I remember, that’s for sure. It’s the tiniest stain on my excitement to go back to the other world, but if Fleur can somehow cross worlds with me, I’ll have another monstrously powerful being on my side. As long as she didn’t get too weakened by my screwup.
I press my fingers through the system’s message. It dissipates like a reflection lost in the ripples, and all that’s left in its wake is a simple keyboard and glittering empty spaces. Going as slow and carefully as I can to ensure I get the spelling right, I tap the letters one by one until the name I chose and Fleur accepted fills that empty space.
The Halsia.
Details; majority unknown.
Recognized members of this species: Fleur, Shelby.
…What? Wait, why am I listed as a Halsia? I’d understand being listed as a shellraiser or a painted dane, but why the hell am I a Halsia?
Name accepted.
System updated to use the proper terminology.
Your stain will linger forevermore.
Yeah, yeah, sure–be a sassy asshole. Hey, let’s circle back to how I apparently became a part of another species without realizing it?! Did Fleur, like, take over all my body’s salts while I was sleeping? Is that even possible? Shouldn’t I have… I don’t know… noticed?
A choir of glassy harmony softly rings in my head. Breaths filled with ecstasy and relief gently reach my ears, sobs and happy disbelieving laughter joining in as the moments stretch on. I send my Class Card away and just listen to Fleur as I approach the mech, her quiet joy contrasting heavily against the deep silence that surrounds the mech like a poisonous fog.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Fleur shakily whispers. “I’m alive. I’m okay. And I’m free to do whatever I want, unbound by the krarig or even a duplicate lovingly made for me back at the resort. Pearl, please let me out. I want to see Shelby in the flesh. Touch her with my own limbs. Thank her with my own voice, echoing through real air, not this marriage of thoughts and emotions.”
A very beautiful way to say she wants the hell out. I close my eyes and gently press my hand against Pearl’s shell, feeling the salt crystals on it dig slightly into my palm. They’re nowhere near sharp enough to hurt me, but I know how much damage the stuff can do under Fleur’s control.
“Whenever you’re ready, Fleur.”
“Then now shall suffice.”
Warmth trickles down the side of my head, sticking to me like a sweltering summer heat as it makes its way down my body. It feels different–not like the strangeness in the krarig, but not quite like Pearl either. The image of a waterlogged underground cave, with a temperature so high I couldn't survive more than a few minutes inside, pushes to the forefront of my mind.
And inside of that cave are beautiful, massive salt formations. A natural garden of minerals and shapes. It changed and shifted over time, normal crystal formations replaced by facsimiles of countless different plants. Then, with a flash, all I see is a deluge of filth. Oil, grease, and metallic debris.
Through the debris steps someone I’ve known all my life. Me. And the soundless world, denoted only by mild sensations and primitive understanding, starts to unravel. Time zips by, and the pictures become far clearer. I see everything that happened on the krarig, but from Fleur’s perspective.
I feel her fear.
I taste her despair.
And now, I see myself reflected in the eyes of a figure of molten black salt. Where Pearl looks sticky and cosmic, Fleur is glassy and clean. Lines of orange-y light shoot through her entire body, like a nervous system of her own, but far more artistic. The light swirls and flourishes without a care for function.
It brightens when she locks eyes with me. Her many arms–now floating close to her body as if suspended with magnetism–all shake with utter joy. The serpentine tail is still there, too, stretching out a little longer than I remember and with far more defined ‘scales’ outlined in orange light. She searches my eyes for something.
I don’t know what it is. But she seems to find it, anyway.
“Hey again.” I say with a smile. “Haven’t seen you in a few weeks. Did you do something with your hair?”
Fleur’s light brightens considerably, and the two arms connected to her body press to her hips. Or, to be more specific, where her body melts into her tail.
“Connecting with… you know who… had a very positive effect on my body’s composition. I no longer have a core I need to protect, as my entire being is now both core and body.” Two of Fleur’s floating arms turn and motion at the mech. “Can I be the one to deal with this? I wish to test how much of my strength I have retained, even without salt to fuel my abilities.”
“You heard the conversation I had with Noland?”
Fleur nods.
“Then I don’t have a problem with it. I’ll be right here just in case you didn’t keep as much strength as you were hoping.”
One of Fleur’s arms gives me a thumbs–up, and as I walk past her, she turns and slithers a half-step behind me. I almost pipe up to say something, but something in her posture tells me that she’s exactly where she wants to be.
“She’s a little smaller than before, but that can easily be changed.” Pearl leans in as if she’s going to whisper something. “We made her body a lot more like mine, but without sacrificing anything that made her ‘her’. Since she’s all core now, she can get bigger or smaller depending on how much salt she has.”
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I raise an eyebrow and glance at Fleur. “Can you get as big as Illumisia?”
Fleur slightly shakes her head. “I can only grow slightly larger than this. There is a sort of mental limit in place that I do not wish to break through. Does that displease you?”
“Does it…” I shake my head and laugh. “Fleur, I don’t give a shit how big you are. That’s already kind of Illumisia’s schtick, anyway. Just be you, with all the beautiful destructive shit you can do.”
“Thank you for the compliment. I plan on being as destructive and as beautiful as possible for you.” Fleur laces the fingers together on her two connected arms, magic beginning to radiate from her like a blazing furnace. “I already know I am weaker than before. But that environment was tailor-made to artificially strengthen me beyond reason. From now on, any strength I gain will be permanent. And it will be for you, my god.”
That… kind of gives me the ick. “Please don’t call me that. It feels a little too… real, now that you’re out here with me. Keep calling me Shelby, please.”
“Then it shall be done, my god.” Fleur says, and her light flares impishly. Not sure how I know that, but I do. “Oh, please excuse me–I meant to say Shelby. This should be close enough; are there any lifesigns in the limbs?”
I shrug. “No idea. I don’t think there’s a risk of anyone being in there, but just in case, try ripping them off instead of slicing. There’s a way lower chance of unintended casualties that way.”
“I understand. Now please stand back, and do not interfere unless I seem to be proving inadequate.” Fleur steps past me, positioning herself between me and the mech. “If I collapse due to magical exhaustion during this attempt, please gather my body and keep it safe. I am assured it will stay in one piece.”
Fleur’s myriad floating arms twitch as one. They weave intricate shapes with their fingers, salt crystals dancing on their fingertips like blackened snowflakes. With every motion the crystals grow a little larger, and with every pause, they glimmer with increasing magical power. It only takes a few moments for Fleur to make two human-sized crystal flowers to either side of her.
She raises one connected arm and gently pushes a hand towards the mech. Two petals from the salt flower on her right rip free in a violent spray of crystals to swirl around her hand. Another small motion sends them careening towards the mech, leaving an extremely thin vine of salt in the air behind it.
The mech, silent and motionless for the last few minutes, suddenly raises its arms. Sickly green flashes between them, and a dome of coloured light pops into being. I half expect whoever was on the comms before to open them and taunt us with their ‘impenetrable’ shield, but the silence stretches on as Fleur’s two transformed petals brush against the shield.
Like a massively fast-forwarded time lapse of ivy growing, the masses of salt explode into countless vines that snake up the shield without even trying to break it. The mech panics and waves just its arms–trying to brush off the salt, but thwarted by its own preventative measures. Fleur lowers her arm and watches proudly as the vines sprout tiny thorns, just enough to dig into the shield and take root, as they completely overtake the mech’s attempt at defense.
“They misjudged my attack.” She states matter-of-factly. “Now, as long as they must drop their shield to attack, they will be ensnared. And all it took was two petals–a very good showing, if I do say so myself.”
Pearl nods vigorously in agreement. “No huge structures, no extreme waste of magical power, and no pointlessly flashy presentation. Just like we practiced.”
I can’t help but stare at the intricate and jaw-droppingly gorgeous salt flowers. But hey, if Pearl says they’re not pointless or a waste, then I guess I just have to believe her. Just means I get to look at them more often.
As Fleur’s vines dig in deeper, the mech makes more and more unnecessary movements. It’s obvious that whoever’s in the pilot seat right now is panicking. That’s perfect for us–means they’re one step away from running away like cowards. Noland made their metaphorical coffin, so now all we have to do is hammer in the very last nail.
“Can you break the shield, Fleur?”
“I can. Would you like me to do so?”
I nod. “That I would. And when you start ripping off limbs, go for the arms first.”
“Of course, Shelby.” Fleur says. “Does it matter which arm is the first to go?”
“Nope. Rip away.”
With a flare of light, Fleur does exactly that. Her vines flicker with a core of molten orange and tighten all at once, squeezing the sickly barrier like an overripe grape. It squishes and contorts for a split second before popping in a spray of magical light that rains down on the landscape around it like pebbles thrown by a dust devil.
The mech wildly flails its arms. Fleur’s vines close in around both of them at the same time like merciless snakes, choking the movement out of the thing as a sickly green liquid drips out from underneath. She must’ve hit a hydraulic cable–or the magical equivalent of that.
“Wait!” Another different voice, this one distinctively feminine, emerges from the mech. “You don’t know how valuable this piece of machinery is! I’ll have your grandchildren paying back triple for whatever you break today!”
I knit my eyebrows together and turn to Fleur. “Did she just threaten me with having to pay damages?”
“It would seem so, yes.”
“Does… does she understand what’s going on right now?”
“That is far less clear. Or perhaps it is an extremely clever attempt to shock us into the pitfalls of conversation instead of finishing what we started.”
“Huh. Good point.” I nod at the mech. “Rip its arms off.”
“No, wait, please! Think of the scientific–”
Pearl snarls as Fleur’s vines sink in. She laughs triumphantly as green liquid sprays from freshly orphaned joints, two arms ripped away from the main body wrapped in vines hovering just inches from where they once fit perfectly.
“Serves them right for screwing with our tech!” She puffs out her chest and steps up on something invisible. “Do the legs next! Make it so they can’t run, no matter how hard they try! They’ll pay for creating such a crappy forgery!”
I shoot her a stern glance. Pearl stops, blushes, and steps down from whatever was she was standing on.
“Um, I mean, good job Fleur.”
Before I can say anything, the sky cracks. Sickly green light pours through the tear in the sky like a broken, magical faucet as huge mechanical fingers poke through into reality. Fleur tenses and rips two more petals from her salt flower, but I hold out a hand to stop her. Depending on if it’s reinforcements or an extraction crew behind those cracks, our response needs to be drastically different.