Alisson walked through the snowy blizzard, a heavy dead weight on his back. That deadweight was his apprentice. Or at least, some visage of her. Alisson knew that she wasn’t dead, but also didn’t have the heart to abandon a puppet that had her appearance. He’d found his way out of the maze, at some point a distant light led him out onto the streets. When he looked back, there was nothing indicating a large, underground complex, just an empty road. Alisson was sure then that he was in some sort of loopy-land. Nevertheless, he trudged forward through the streets as snow rained down and winds threatened to push him over.
He was mustering all of his will, but no matter what he thought, nothing changed. He that perhaps, with pure willpower, he could break this spell, as he did with one of the occurrences in Freigat.
So, instead, he decided to target the supposed source. That voice he heard, that fiend, she must be the orchestrator, the charlatan, behind all this. Alisson could make a pretty safe bet that she was in that tower from whence the purple light came from; and that this whole event of splitting up and disorientating both Alisson and his apprentice was method of defense. Alisson had an inkling that whoever this was, wasn’t some undefeatable force of nature, but another humanoid, bound by the same rules as he – Meaning, it was all the work of magic. Such powerful spells, such as directed teleportation, surely that fiend could only use them once, and the casting time beyond that should be long enough to where Alisson could make an approach, and neutralize the source.
Alisson’s will was steeled on this, and he knew well that he’d make better time without this dead weight on his back.
So, you’re coming toward me once more. Are you so set on killing me? What lies has Sidonia taught you?
The fiend suddenly spoke to him telepathically. She must be close. Alisson glanced around, but she was no where in sight.
But, what she said was brow raising. She mentioned Sidonia.
…What do you know of the Lady? How can you tell we’re Sidonians?
Oh my…oh my…
She didn’t seem scared, just perplexed. Alisson frowned.
The fiend didn’t reply for a long while, and Alisson walked in silence as the blizzard only intensified in snowfall as the time dragged.
Alisson’s eye twitched.
Answer me! Are you deaf? How come someone in the most remote part of the continent knows of Sidonia, what have you to say?
But, no reply came. Alisson frowned. Instead, a moment later, he heard a gurgle behind him, and sudden wave of movement on his back. His eyes widened. He turned to look at Celis laying over him, thinking for a moment that she had suddenly been resuscitated. However, when he laid eyes on what was on his back, he knew right away that that was not the case. A juvenile Roamer barred its teeth at him.
Alisson let go of it and dived forward, rolling over the snow, turning, and raising Enhérejär at the suddenly materialized threat. By the time he did so however, it was already gone. Nothing was behind him. It was all a lie. A fake. A piece of stage play.
“What tricks will you continue to play! You fiend!”
“Friede.”
He heard a voice on the wind.
The peace spell!? But how!? So far away and with no forewarning!
He glanced around, but couldn’t find the source of the cast. He was already falling unconscious. It was over.
“Y-you…dare…play me for a fool…until…the end-!”
Alisson crumpled to the snow.
Oh my…what should I do with the two of you…
…
Alisson stirred, stretching his back, and letting out sigh. When he heard howling winds, as well as a chuckle from a familiar voice, his eyes shot open in realization. What greeted him was the barrel of his own magic weapon. That imbued item he’d snatched from one of the thugs at Scratskoslovotskaya, it’d evidently been pilfered from him. His view cleared and the smug face behind the barrel came into focus. She had a finger on the trigger of the weapon and was thumbing it with devious expression.
Alisson’s eyes widened.
“Do you know what this is?”
She asked in that familiar, motherly tone, and it was then that Alisson knew for sure that the person before him was indeed the same one who’d knocked him out. She was speaking in Sidonian. Judging from the supposed powers she had however, Alisson chocked it up to some translation power.
However, she was dangerously close to blowing Alisson’s brain all over the bedding he was on.
“D-don’t pull that trigger-!”
But Alisson was too late. His scared exclamation only seemed to make her pull the trigger. Alisson cringed, but all that rang out was a click. Alisson cautiously peered open his eyes, to find that nothing had happened.
The woman sighed, and lifted away the barrel from Alisson’s forehead.
“These need ammunition to fire you know…So I can say for sure you have no clue what you were carrying.”
Alisson, no longer threatened with a magic weapon pointed at his head, took a moment to gauge his surroundings.
He was laying horizontally on what seemed to be a bed of furs and pelts. They were evidently in one of the structures of the city, seeing by the surrounding stone walls. A few windows were dotted here and there throughout the room, which, lead to only clouds – They were up off the streets, and in an elevated position. The room was completely cramped other than the windows, every inch of space was bursting with trinkets and collections of unidentifiable objects.
The woman before him was of odd appearance. She was clad in simple robes. She had long purple hair, and bright purple eyes, there was something about her motherly face that reminded him of Sidonia. However, she didn’t have a mask, something that Marmel had told him that any other humans in the Deadzone would be wearing. With a sudden gasp, Alisson realized that he wasn’t wearing a mask either.
“M-my, my mask!”
He fumbled to clamp his mouth and nose shut, but when he tried to move his arms, he realized they were bound. Not with any material in particular, they just felt petrified, as if Alisson’s brain had no connection to the nerves in the rest of his body.
“Oh, that thing, don’t worry, here in this place with me you don’t need to worry about the radiation. Masks just get in the way if you don’t have any filters anyway.”
Alisson narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the woman before him. Radiation? She must be referring to Black Energy.
“Who are you? Where is my companion?”
The woman tilted her head with a smile. “Oh my…You’re in no position to ask any questions, boy. That’ll be my job. So,” She lifted a finger up, closing her eyes with a smile. This expression broke into a serious stare when she next opened her mouth, “What are your orders?”
Alisson furrowed his brow, confused. “M-my orders? Why would you want to know?”
The woman frowned. “Because if they pertain to me, I’ll have to throw the both of you children off of this building, and be sure, you’ll be but a red cloud when you hit the bottom.”
Her serious stare sent shivers down his spine. There was something primal in him that commanded him to obey, and to fear, whoever this was.
“My orders are confidential. But they do not entail anything having to do with some fiend in this death-scape.”
The woman’s expression broke into a smile when she heard that. “You shouldn’t be calling me that, child.” Once more, she broke into a serious frown, and bore her purple eyes through him. “Answer the question.”
Alisson’s eyes widened in fear, and he averted his eyes. “I-it’s a long story…”
“Tell it then. I have time.” She leaned back, and took a sip of some liquid from a steaming mug.
“We…we…”
She extended her arm and laid a finger on Alisson’s lips, “Before that though, I still need to know a few things: How many are in your unit?”
“J-just me and my…my apprentice.”
“Oh my, oh my…Not only is there only two of you, we have a little apprentice as well.” She shot a glance at Alisson. “You’re a bad master for leading your apprentice into a place like this.”
Alisson was momentarily stunned about the fact this woman knew about the Sidonian apprentice system, but quickly shook it from his head.
“She can handle it.” Alisson began to growl, but in the presence of this intimidating woman, his tone immediately softened into submission as the words left his mouth.
“Is that so…According to what I saw, neither of you can handle yourselves. You can’t even resist weak H.O magic…But I digress…Why are you here then, if you have no business with me and have no backup? It’s a miracle you even made it this far.”
The way this woman spoke, it was so familiar. She spoke with terms that his fratello would use, she seemed to be well informed of Sidonian military terminology and norms…Who the hell was she?
She asked another question off hand, “You are kin of Vixsen Nuam, are you not? I can see a little bit of Vicky in you…and your apprentice there is kin of Audstine Reginworth…Such powerful blood, and yet you have no comrades from your houses by your side, surely your families haven’t fallen that far from grace?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Alisson’s eyes were wide and he was in shock to say the least.
Vixsen Nuam was the progenitor of the Nuam house. It’s where the ‘Vi’ in Alisson’s name came from. Audstine Reginworth, was someone Alisson hadn’t heard of, but the ‘Aud’ and ‘Reg’ in their name was similar to the Regadonian house. Rickard’s full name was Rickard Aud Regadonia since he was the heir, and Celis would have had the ‘Aud’ in her name if it weren’t for the fact she had no house left to inherit the rule of.
Vixsen Nuam. That Nekomata was alive thousands of years before Alisson’s time. They were founder of his family. Alisson didn’t much about Sidonia’s history, but that much he did know.
Whoever this was just casually dropped the name of someone who had already been dead longer than every living being Alisson knew other than Sidonia. Who was this woman? Who would know about those people and yet not be under the jurisdiction of Sidonia?
The woman tilted her head with concern, Alisson was simply staring off into space, sweat on his forehead, in a daze.
“Did I say something wrong? Answer me, child.”
Her voice compelled him to snap out of his confusion and speak. “W-we’re the only ones here because our mission is of clandestine nature. T-that’s all…”
The woman looked at him smugly, “Really now? Do tell what’s so important that Sidonia sends two children on their own to the most derelict location in the world…”
Alisson averted his eyes, refusing to answer. The woman’s glare only intensified. “Boy, don’t act tongue-tied with me. I’ll just throw you out the window and ask your little apprentice instead. I’m sure she’d be more willing to talk, and if not, there’s always the truth serum.”
Alisson squinted. “’Truth serum’?”
“Why yes, Sidonia uses it all the time. But, I’d sooner torture you than violate your mind, don’t worry.”
Alisson was even more confused than before, but nevertheless, he got the message. He was in no place to resist or ask questions about this woman. Perhaps she’d be more lenient after Alisson had explained himself. She knew that he was Sidonian. She knew his family, thus, that he was a Nekomata. And, she seemed to know about Sidonia herself, on some intimate level, and not simply as an outsider. Alisson couldn’t formulate any explanations about why she had general knowledge of Sidonia and Nekomata, despite being in such a isolated place.
She seemed to be concerned with the fact that Sidonia was out to get her, as she asked about if Alisson was with an organized strike group out to get her or something.
Celis was probably nearby, but at the moment he couldn’t see her. However, from the woman’s words, she was probably alright.
Alisson sighed. He would have to tell the truth. He just didn’t have any cards to play. He couldn’t even fight back. Cooperation had the only chance of allowing him and Celis to survive.
“It all started when I received orders down in the south of Aleeze…”
Alisson spoke for a long while. The woman sat, intently listening. She seemed interested, her eyes fixated on him, and at times Alisson had to avert his gaze because she was staring at him so intently. He spoke broadly of where they had went, and what they had to go through to get to Freigat’s door. He then finished his explanation by saying that he was here because of the presumption that there was a way through that door located here.
After Alisson finished, the woman remained silent for a long while, before finally breaking the silence with a sigh, “My…my…” She locked eyes with Alisson playfully. “Sidonia must adore you…You are so receptive to her power, you must be.”
Alisson squinted his eyes, and the woman continued, “Are you so dense? Any sane person wouldn’t just walk in here because of technicality in their orders. You, my child, are completely blinded, your mind twisted and controlled, I’m sorry to say.”
“What?”
Alisson asked, confused.
The woman smiled deviously. “I can sense it now, yes, my, you might very well be next in line to be the next Meowskers, boy.”
“M-meow what now?”
Alisson asked without thinking, but his eyes widened when he realized what the woman was referring to. The first Sidonian. Sidonia’s only lover, whom had existed centuries and centuries ago, his pet name that Sidonia called him, was Meowskers. It was just a tidbit of trivia in Alisson’s head, and he hadn’t expected anyone to utter such a, stupid, name, with such seriousness.
The woman tilted her head at him. “You don’t know? My, that tradition must be well and dead in this modern era then…Don’t worry about it then, it doesn’t concern you.”
More and more questions assaulted his mind, and more confusion clouded his thoughts. He didn’t understand half of what this lady was talking about.
“Well, I suppose the times have changed since I last step foot outside of this, as you call it, Deadzone. Unfortunately, that name is false.” She motioned to herself. “But, so many new countries and wars and turmoil…Andes, -tine, was it? My, they’ve really rebranded themselves.”
Alisson just couldn’t catch a break. What the hell was she talking about? Apparently noticing his increasingly confused expression, the woman sighed with a smile,
“Okay, okay…Let me ask you this. You don’t know what a firearm is, you don’t know the position of Meowskers, there seems to be a very large cut off in your knowledge of history…” She dug around beneath her for a moment, “…But do you know what this is?”
She lifted Enhérejär.
“My weapon, Enhérejär.”
“And, explain to me what it is.” She smiled expectantly.
“It’s a Legendary weapon.”
The woman scoffed. “Has the world become so ignorant? I swear it hasn’t been that long.” She took a deep breath, her face and tone straightening into seriousness. “This is a Variable Weapons System. A rogue nanoswarm tamed with insurmountable lives. There were many such swarms that once the H.O system was made operable, found out that they could feed off of mana to power themselves.”
Alisson only understood this last part. Enhérejär feeds off of mana. Although this was not common knowledge, Alisson thought this to be the case, due to the fact that it expanded and operated better in places of higher mana concentration. However, all legendary weapons were like this? Why didn’t they all have the same abilities as Enhérejär? Were they all sentient as this woman described? What did she mean by saying that they were ‘tamed’?
Alisson’s head spun; once more, this woman had only created more questions.
“Normally I’d vaporize such creations, they are very dangerous, but this one, this one is quite amiable.”
Alisson saw his chance. “And it doesn’t take kindly to it’s master being bound – Unhand me at once or else it will unleash that danger.”
The woman smiled at Alisson tenderly, like a mother watching a child write for the first time, albeit illegibly.
“Child, do not try to bluff me, no one is the master of a VWS. There is only hope and prayer that it doesn’t turn on you. That, and, well…” She dropped Enhérejär, and it fell to the floor harmlessly. “There isn’t as much mana as there was in the world when they roamed the lands tearing people apart, I’m afraid. Even here, it wouldn’t be able to work at its full potential. Even if it did, I could deploy a mana suppression field spell, and it wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
Mana suppression field? Just what the hell was the woman capable of? No one just says things like that, and treats a legendary weapon with so much distaste.
“Do you at least know how they work?”
Alisson slowly nodded. “From what you’ve said, and what I have been taught…It seems that Legendary weapon users act as a conduit between mana and the weapon…”
The woman lifted her finger. “That’s the first thing you’ve said right, child. Since the H.O system, is…” Her gaze drew to Alisson wryly. “Well, do you know what the H.O system is in the first place?”
Alisson pondered this for a moment. “Judging from what I’ve heard you speak of…It seems to be another word for magic in general.”
The woman hummed to herself in thought. “…Partial credit. It’s a more accurate acronym. H.O, Human Operated, system. Is it starting to make sense?”
“Human Operated…” Alisson muttered to himself.
If magic was…if magic was ‘human operated’…then…
That’s why humans were more magically capable. Magic, the ‘system’ this woman spoke of, was operable by humans. It was in the name. In other words, the more human resemblance a creature had, the more magic it could use. It made sense. Goblins. Orcs. Nekomata. Animal-hybrids. Elves. None of them were human, yet they could use magic to varying degrees based on how human they were.
His eyes shot wide.
“I see you’ve realized it. Yes, so then you, being something that is vaguely human, can absorb mana, which the VWS, not being human or organic in the slightest, can then siphon from you. It uses you as a conduit. Back in years prior, there was so much mana in the world that they didn’t need users, thus, they could act on their own, and they were dangerous. To mitigate their danger, the ones that were tamed were limited in the amount of mana they could absorb on their own.”
The woman shrugged. “But that’s just some trivia, come now, I believe I’ve thoroughly shaken you down. You don’t know left from right and you wouldn’t be able to kill me even if I were asleep naked on the snow, and you seem to have no intention of doing so. You may both move.”
Just like that, Alisson could move his body again. He sat up in the primitive bedding and was finally able to look around to see Celis sitting right behind him, with a dumbfounded expression, and also without a mask.
“Wa…” Her mouth dropped open, and then her eyes widened. “I-I can move my face!”
How come Celis got to be restrained sitting upright?
Alisson frowned, and then glanced suspiciously at the woman.
“I shut her up so that we could talk in peace. I didn’t let her move a muscle because she tried to kill me as soon as she saw me.”
Alisson sighed. That was Celis. Extremely aggressive and undiplomatic. As he finished that thought, he felt Celis grab onto him from behind. She pouted at the woman.
“Never separate us again like that. You got it?”
The purple haired woman simply smiled, and her eyes seemed to brighten in luminosity. In the next moment, Celis was gone.
“Wha!?”
Alisson gasped, and was a picosecond away from lunging for Enhérejär to attack this woman when suddenly Celis reappeared out of thin air behind him, with an expression of terror.
“Did you enjoy your fall? I hope you understand your situation, child. You are in no place to speak that way with me. You should be grateful you’re children, else I might not be so understanding.”
Celis immediately grabbed hold of Alisson again, whimpering. Alisson looked to the woman with shock.
“Did…did you just teleport my apprentice into the middle of the air outside this room?”
“Yes.”
Alisson frowned. “You truly have no decency.”
The woman closed her eyes. “I am this close to doing the same to you.”
Alisson rolled his eyes. “You call us children, if this is how you interact with others, then you are more childish.”
The woman insisted however, “Thin ice.”
Alisson sighed. “I will refrain from commenting on your attitude.”
The woman then suddenly broke out into a chuckle. “No…I’m just pulling your leg. Speak freely, but I hope you understand that attacking me will get you nowhere.”
Alisson bobbed his head. “I understand. You seem paranoid that we are here to kill you but, but frankly I have no clue who you are. I only know three things about you: Firstly, you are not human. Secondly, you most likely live a very long life if you refer to me as a child, I will be turning two-hundred and sixty in the coming months, mind you.”
“Yes, you are a child. That’s young. Inexperienced. I will continue to refer to you as what you are.”
Alisson frowned bitterly, but continued, “And I know that you speak Sidonian. At first I thought you were using magic but…”
The way she spoke, she idioms and references that only someone who spoke the language could form, not things that a translation spell would be able to get across. Also, the fact that those foreign proper nouns, Variable Weapons System, and H.O system, she spoke about using Sidonian words.
“So then, can you infer who I am?” The woman said expectantly.
Alisson shook his head no.
“Hmph. Well, I suppose we have much we to discuss…I could just send you on your merry way if you wish however…”
Alisson smiled at the woman. “I know that look in your eyes…Spirits I have met have those same glints of sadness. You must’ve been alone all these years here.”
He saw a little bit of Lavjoure and Sylph in the woman when she spoke those words. It was evident to him that she wanted Alisson and Celis to stick around for while longer, despite her uncaring words.
The woman smiled, but he could sense a hint of irritation in her expression; before suddenly, the room around him disappeared, and was replaced with cold winds and falling snow. A shot of terror flew through Alisson as he began to fall, he was about to scream out when suddenly he was right back where he’d been not a second before; the woman staring at him, and Celis having fallen over from not having Alisson to lean against.
Alisson clutched his heart, breathing heavily. “W-w-what was that for?”
“For making this bitter old woman blush. Come now, let us share some tea and talk for a while, children.”
She turned away, but stopped suddenly, and reached down to grab Enhérejär off the floor; which, Alisson now saw, was carpeted in fur rugs. She tossed Enhérejär into Alisson’s lap.
“I trust you will not do anything rash. Oh, and here you are, little apprentice.” Celis’s stilettos and baselards suddenly appeared and fell into her lap.
With that, the woman left the room. Celis and him stared dumbfounded at each other. Celis asked what Alisson was thinking,
Is she what humans call a ‘god’?
Maybe…
I can hear you both you know.
The both of them blushed.
Using unencrypted channels and having zero countermeasures for neural inhibitor magic, come now, it’s basic electrostatics, I’m disappointed in today’s youth.
After intruding on their telepathy, the woman once again fired off another round of unfamiliar words.
“A god.”
“A god.”
Alisson and Celis said, nodding at the utter power of this being, thankful for the fact she hadn’t just willed the two of them out of existence.
***