I really should have expected the repeating summons to be unpleasant. Almost everything associated with being summoned is, in one way or another. The only thing I can take away from this is the certainty that I also get returned here when the summon would normally end, not just when I get killed. I thought it would, but somewhere I may have been hoping it wouldn't. The other thing I learned is that its strength decreases, if that is indeed what I felt. If my senses are anything to go by this should be my last appearance here.
The question is, what to do now. I fully realize now that there is no-one there to see what I'm doing, no-one to check if I'm actually fulfilling the task Mari gave me to do. I could have been doing whatever I wanted! Which would have been the same as I have done up to now, but without as many concerns.
As far as my options, I could go deeper into the dungeon and see what's been happening there. I don't actually feel the need for it and Mari will probably pester me if she finds me. I could go out and explore more. Maybe I can find the creature that shot me, or find something completely new. I don't think I will make it to the river, but there must be some interesting things along the way. There is one other option. What happened with the bird is bothering me, though not in a bad way.
Playing back the moment in my mind, I still can't recall what the sound was that made me jump. I don't know why I jumped to the side instead of forwards or up. It was pure instinct. If it's such a strong part of me, I can only assume it's something from my species. Harijia alludes to it enough; as much as swarmlings are group predators, we are also prey. With such a reaction, I will assume one of the predators is also a bird. My best choice for now is to learn more about those birds and hope the ones back home are similar enough.
I take the now-familiar path to the chasm and up. It's my second trip and my progress is a bit faster as I can follow roughly the same way up as before. Once up, I take a random direction along the chasm and start moving. I keep an eye on the sky and on the slope above me. It takes several hours before I spot what I was looking for. Some kind of four-legged creature eating the sparse vegetation. Finding myself a hiding place, I settle in to observe and wait.
It takes hours and several relocations before the hoped-for events. Even then, it's not quite what I wanted to see. Instead of the big bird, it's a smaller one going after a group of rodents. From where I am I can see the dive in which it gains speed, the way it flies low above the land and the moment the wings flare as it strikes. That flaring looks like the most likely thing I would have heard. Even so, dodging that, even if only partly? I think I was very lucky. Like the rodent, I was supposed to be running already after spotting the bird, with the jump being a last resort. Training my reflexes may have helped.
This will not do. If this is going to be something I have to deal with when I'm free, I'm better off learning about it here and now rather than later. It's decided, I will spend my current life here on dodging birds.
Finding a place for them to hunt me is not hard. I just look at what I would like in a hunting ground if my prey is slower than I am. Few obstacles and no places to hide. There are surprisingly few of these places. Almost every meadow has some big rocks, a ditch or some bushes, often with brambles. The choice then falls on the one with the least amount of all that. Situating myself on a large-ish slab of stone I settle down in a mostly comfortable position. Then it is time to wait.
Looking this way and that, my eyes always trained on the sky, I'm hoping for an advance warning. If I can see the enemy it would make for an easier first practice, maybe. Hours pass and nothing happens. How often do those things eat? How many of them are in the area? Perhaps there are just one or two who hunt here and they already caught their prey. My thoughts start to wander. Lazing about in the sun is taking its toll and I start to feel a bit drowsy. The rock beneath me has heated up nicely. I'm sorely tempted to lie down and stretch my body over the warm stone. Another hour later breaks my resolve and I lie down, still keeping en eye on the sky.
When the danger comes, it comes from the sun. At first I don't even see it. When I finally do, it is because it dips down for the last bit of its attack. It's already up to speed and close to the ground when I manage to get to my feet. My muscles bunch and fire, pushing me out of the way just in time as a mass of claws and feathers rushes over the spot I was just in. The bird straightens its flight almost instantly and starts on an impossibly tight turn. I start to run in the opposite direction, but I have no hope that I can outrun a beast like that. That's fine. Survival was never my objective.
Flapping wings behind me tell me the bird is speeding up once more in pursuit. Running almost on automatic, a lot of my attention is on my ears. A soft 'fwap' is the cue I was listening for and I throw myself to the side. For a moment I believe I succeeded, then the talons followed by a heavy weight crash into me. As the beast crashes me to the ground I feel several things break, then the world turns white. That could have gone better.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The familiar whiteness of the summon takes me once again and this time, too, I feel the other force pulling at me. This time it's significantly weaker and after a short while of agony I continue in the 'direction' I had been going in. When my vision clears I find myself looking at the familiar visage of Harijia. I brace myself, with good reason as it turns out. The headache that assails me reminds me of the earlier summons. I had gotten used to the pain, so for this to hurt as much tells me it would have left me incapacitated back then. No need to draw this out. At the back of the cell I discharge the excess and feel the pain recede.
"Harijia," I call out. "Tell me about multiple summons in a row." The word for it escapes me for a moment.
"Consecutive summons? They're a pain, and not just literally." She laughs at her own joke. "The gain is quite small compared to a normal summon. The reset fights the natural resolution of the spell."
I nod. That is quite close to my estimation. It doesn't feel like I got three times the worth of a summon in headache, but I did have to suffer through two of those 'reset' Harijia mentions. Not a nice trade-off at all. Surfacing from my thoughts I see Harijia looking at me lost in her own thoughts. Since the cell door is still closed, I'll have to wait for her to snap back to attention. At least I don't have to wait too long before she speaks again.
"You already knew."
Not quite what I was hoping for, but not surprising.
"You already knew about part of it. Your energy?" She looks at me with speculation in her eyes. "No, your species doesn't have that awareness. But you can feel it around you, can't you? So you felt the opposing forces and not just the pain."
She opens the door for me and I walk out.
"Thank you for telling me. I'll think of a way to help you train this, I promise."
I need her trust, or at least enough of it that she won't be bothering me all the time. This felt like a small price to pay, though I'm somewhat disappointed she understood the implications, more so than I did.
True to her word she approaches me a few days later with some exercises. I have to do them with the help of devils, since there are no demons here who can help with spellcasting. The results are a mixed bag. I can sense the active use of magic and the flow of it. I can tell different persons apart by it and I can tell, with some effort, the general affinity of the energy used. I can't tell what type of magic is used, so I won't know if it's a barrier or an attack. It's also very hard for me to find static magic, like enchantments or what Harijia calls 'aura'. Those barely give off any scent or feeling to me at all, though I can immediately find them if they are actively powered up. Now I know why some of the demons and the devils who visited felt dangerous. Harijia says it's their aura that gives those who are sensitive to it a taste of their power. Even those who are not that sensitive can feel it to some extent.
This new sense I'm exploring can help me in several ways. The most obvious would be for tracking down creatures that are using magic to hide or flee. I'll also be able to distinguish those who can use magic from those who can't by the lingering sensation, though it's not foolproof. Also very useful is how to turn it off, or at least ignore it. Creatures like the drallith can do to those energies what the shit area of a colony does to the air. More uses will undoubtedly show themself to me in the future. The practicing is quite fun and I don't hold back my appreciation. As a result, the times when I've felt Harijia trying to influence me have practically stopped. She's only used it a few times to enhance my good moods, which is not even close to as annoying as when she was enhancing my bad moods.
Days pass and turn into weeks until it is time for the next summon. It's Ara, this time. The claw protectors and the collar are there for me and I accompany her on a day of walking around with people. The conversation is not interesting, I don't get to do anything and in the evening I have to sit through a human dinner in which I'm not allowed to do anything either. The next day is much the same. Ara calls them social activities and 'events'.
The second evening I make the mistake of actively trying to sense energies and magic. Ara is clearest to me, of course, but almost every person is trailing their own personal cloud of energy. Even some of the furniture is pushing out copious amounts of it. The clashing sensations almost knock me out and I sit there dazed for the next hour before I recover. Perhaps I should be observing humans and learning their habits, but I can't be bothered right now. I'm sure there will be other chances at that.
More time passes. I find the devil who teaches about various beasts, animals and monsters. As I suspected, the main predators on swarmlings above ground are birds and other flying creatures as they can kill and leave before the rest of a colony can react. It makes me redouble my physical training. If I look strong enough, they may pick an easier target. If I'm fast enough, I may be able to get out of the way. Either way, doing nothing won't help at all!
In the dungeon I make my trips outside, mostly to practice with the birds. They don't show up every time, so sometimes I just nap under the sun or the moon. Nothing else there has attacked me yet, though the creatures are getting restless. I think stronger things are coming soon, lured there by the dungeon. It's possible the intelligent creature knows I'm hanging around there. I've felt something watching me a few times, without wolves nearby. I never sense it when the birds are watching me. A mystery I'd like to solve as my survival may depend on it later.
I'm always appearing at the place closer to the outside. A small niche near it is where the elixir from Tarvinder is placed, in a container I can drink from instead of the stupid glass thing. Sometimes he is there as well, asking me if I have noticed anything about myself in my real body that could be the result of his concoctions. I have not, and he looks more disappointed than I am.
Random summons keep happening too. Most of them are simple. Appear, fight and die. When I notice it's one of these I hardly make an effort anymore. If they treat me like trash, then trash I will be. The only other ones I see more often are the adventure group from my first summon. They're a bit nicer, even though they used me to lure out a swarm of giant blood-sucking bugs at one point.
It is Ara who provides me with the next really interesting thing in a summon that doesn't go like the previous ones.