Mar had been busily absorbing the knowledge of the new books that they had acquired, but that had been promptly interrupted when a system notification had appeared to inform them that they had received a new Subject. Specifically, a Fungal Zombie Familiar. Since this had happened without any prompting on their end it had started quite a chain reaction of discussions in the Swarm, unfortunately, Mar had rather large issues when it came to dealing with individuals. Especially if said individuals were far removed from the rest of the Swarm. So it required more effort than what they were willing to spend to investigate the matter, they did sense that the Subject was unharmed at least for now. Therefore, they left it to fend for itself while Mar focused on unraveling the secrets behind their own abilities.
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She woke up as she was reborn, unlike most Subjects it was not with a Fragment merging with their soul. No in this case it was more similar to the birth of an Avatar, as strange magics filled the Fragment up with mental "mass" until it expanded into a full mind in its own right.
The Fungal Zombie blinked and glanced around while trying to get her bearings, she was in some kind of stately chamber. It looked almost like the bedroom of a Princess or rather the idea of one. A draped four-poster bed stood next to an elegant white nightstand with a beautiful vase filled with blooming purple flowers, the walls were painted in a light shade of pink and the floor was an elegant marble mosaic. Glowing lamps floated in the room and the Fungal Zombie blinked...floating? But why was there a bed with a duvet and pillows laying there fluffy as could be?
Her serpentine head glanced about and with her shifting glance, the perspective of the room shifted. Now, she found herself in a gloomy cavern with coral walls. A scent of rot and decay filled the room and the walls had eldritch glyphs painted in blood on them, the bed was no bed at all but a stone brier surrounded by an orange anemone. Faint chanting and shrieks could be heard through the water and uncanny lights could be seen through the window of the cavern.
In the moment that followed the two conflicting perspectives clashed in her minds as she saw both flicker in and out with each heartbeat. What was this! Where was she? Why was she like this? The Fungal Zombie began to panic as the whispering of her sister Fragments seemed fainter than ever. She was alone? SHE WAS ALONE! How could she be alone? Alone! That was not natural, the voices were so faint that they might as well had not been there.
"Enough."
A lazy voice murmured and the flickering perspective stilled, leaving the stately bedroom as the only thing that could be seen. The drapes of the bed slid open and a figure languidly slid out of bed and stood up. To a human eye she would be best described as transcendently beautiful to the point that it would incite an uncanny valley effect. She had crimson hair that flowed down like a river of blood, strikingly violet eyes that glowed faintly, a thin figure with the smoothest looking skin imaginable to the point that it looked like several oils had been rubbed in to make it glisten. Her slender arms ended with elegant 6-fingered hands with a light shade of red on her nails. The woman stepped out into the bedroom while being gloriously and unashamedly nude and she looked down at the Fungal Zombie which floated inside of a small aquarium.
"Well, it bodes well for you that you already can see things from more than one perspective."
Her ruby lips parted to reveal her sharpened and shining teeth in a blinding smile, before she continued.
"Kaicelus didn't think you would manage to, but I knew that you would. Welcome to the world little one, I am Øryja of Almura and it is a pleasure to bring you fully to wakefulness."
Stolen novel; please report.
"What....why..."
"Hush, the transition from sleep to waking is never easy and especially if one has been asleep for their entire life."
She made a shushing gesture before she threw her hair playfully and giggled. Her hands went up to absently play with locks of her hair, wrapping them around her fingers before uncoiling the locks so that they didn't become knotted.
"I forget how much fun it is to be dry. Long hair can be so...tedious under the waves, but we all make sacrifices for beauty I suppose. Anyway, I should finalize the process here."
Øryja reached out with her hand and The Fungal Zombie could feel magic pulsating at the tips of her outstretched fingers, she desperately tried to swim away but she was in a glass container. Her head rammed against the transparent wall as the magic flowed out of Øryja and into her.
"What would be a good name for this one? Do you have an opinion Kaicelus?"
She stopped in the middle of her rant and cocked her head with a curious expression on her face, which lasted only for a few moments before she smiled again with a hint of mad glee behind it.
"Ah yes, Kaicelus never fails to come with good suggestions for me. Familiar I now name you Envy. Envy of Almura."
As soon as the words were spoken Envy felt the world shift as the words became truth and in so doing they became her truth as well not just the way the world saw her. Envy did not understand this power but she knew that it had bound her fully to this woman. Or...not exactly, she felt her connection to the Swarm and it was more intimate than this emotional connection forged with mere magic. That gave her at least some confidence as the tall woman approached her and grinned down at her.
"So, about that unique power of yours."
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The Draug had fled beneath the waves and while that would normally be humiliating, he did not feel that it was unwarranted this time. He could have fought and defeated those two fleets, but ultimately there would have been little gain to be made from it. No, it was far more reasonable to just approach this as a minor setback. He would just retreat down to the seafloor, drag in some restless spirits to replenish his spectral warriors, and maybe sack a settlement or two for supplies.
He could sense that there was treasure to be found in these waters and he was nothing if not a happy collector. One did not question it when opportunity came knocking on the prow, rather one just accepted the bounty of the sea and continued journeying on.
A flex with his will was enough and the half-a-boat started diving deeper and deeper until the blackness enveloped the ship in its umbral grip. The veil thinned in places such as these and the Draug could hear whispers from all the dead that had been claimed by the maw of the sea.
Many whispered of regrets, of how they died to drowning or the cold of the water, desperate souls reaching out for one last hope in the darkness. The Draug was disinterested in their stories and their lost hopes, no he wanted more contemporary information than that.
"Treasure...crew...wreck...cache."
The Draug murmured and the world heard it despite his water-filled throat, and the murmuring remnants of the dead stilled until some began to whisper back. Most of these again were also uninteresting to him, lost fishing barges and ships trading in foodstuffs. No, what did interest him were the whispers of a wondrous city of magic deep down beyond the darkness. A city of the Leigh and filled with treasures that would drive the most cautious of Treasure Hunters into a frenzy.
Now, this was much more interesting than battling a Pirate fleet or scouring the seafloor for shipwrecks. The Draug began to pull the spectral remnants into the world, he would have to gather a lot of power if he was going to raid a city like this...Almura.