Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2 - A Long Day
Author's Note:
So, this was inspired by my recent playing* of Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2 – I finished the game, battled the Death Reaper and then dragged myself – with two broken weapons and very little health – back to the Wind Fortress where I rested up.
There are no 'nights' between dungeons anymore once you beat the game, so I treat each new dungeon as a different day.
*Wildene Island – in my headcanon, this is the name of the island that the story takes place on.
* I say recent but I just rediscovered this on my tumblr and realized I had NOT posted it here like I had thought. Huh, I wonder if I deleted it? Anyway, I found this buried in the many, many unfinished short fiction pieces on my computer some time ago. I wrote this back... June 2013, according to the computer. So, here it is!
SNSC Story 2 - A Long Day
Day 12 – Two Days After the Defeat of Guren
Player Characters – Aera, Loki
With Gedharm...dead, Guren's spirit banished and Goura and Lynn freed, Gabriel hadn't waste any time with his plans and his human friends eagerly pitched in to help.
The Wind Fortress guarding the entry to the Forest Outskirts and marking the end of Entry Woods was small but the building had a series of underground rooms.
These rooms were accessible through the doors to the left and right of the Sword Vault and the living quarters included kitchen, more rooms, pantry, a dining room and a study existed making it the perfect place for stray summons on the Island of Wildene which they lived to come to rest or to stay.
"I think Aera went exploring," Tatiana had said when she arrived for the day with Rocky and Kara in tow. "She was gone before I woke up."
Gabriel had tamped down any feelings of worry. Aera had long since proven she could take care of herself – and she wouldn't have to, not with Loki there to watch her back. But still, she could.
And the wild creatures (non-summons) and stray summons were beginning to calm down after Goura's influence had begun to fade from the area. It would take some time but it was safer and the beam pads made for quick, safe travel.
He had busied himself with helping his friends air out the fortress, making living spaces downstairs and setting up small huts in the trees around the fortress.
Gabriel let the smells of Kara and Tatiana's cooking experiments fill his nose and the soft murmurs of Nina's chatter as she clattered around the new herb pantry downstairs reached his ears. He let himself get lost in imagining a spread of good food before Xeride's prodding brought him back to the task at hand and he bent his head to the page. They had cleaned out the study in the backroom of the upper level and made it a nice bookkeeping area. "We've set up beds on the lower floors..." Xeride said.
"And maybe we can excavate the floor below that one with some help... but that's going to be a big project." Gabriel muttered. "There is another floor – but it blocked off. Like it was caved in."
"We could also use one of the other fortresses." Xeride suggested.
"The Water and Fire Fortresses are merchant's outposts now but maybe we could talk to the Water Fortress merchants... we can use the beam pads to get from one fortress to another and the Thunder Fortress is completely uninhabited since Bruno returned to the village..." Gabriel paused in their plan, looking up as his ears twitched and something resonated in his mind.
"Gabriel?" Xeride questioned.
"I think..." Gabriel stood, walking through the Daemon Vault and on top the wide steps where the green flags flapped in the breeze. He paused a moment and then his eyes fell on the beam pad as it flashed a deep purple before its rings of light dispersed to reveal two figures. The taller, darker skinned figure of the pair had a large sword and pack on his back and shoulder and supported his pink-haired master, her arm slung over his shoulders and his arm around her waist.
"Come on! Do you know how heavy you, my sword and your monstrous pack is?!"
"Aera, Loki!" Gabriel called, attracting Loki's attention as he ran towards Craftknight and Guardian Beast with Xeride close behind. The young Oni looked relieved and Aera waved feebly at them, seeming too weak to stand.
"Oi, help me with her! She's wobblin' all over the place!" Loki dropped the pack on the ground, dedicating his energy to keeping her standing.
"What happened?"
"We went explorin'. Come on, help me git her inside – she's barely standin' up."
"It – it – was..." she yawned, trailing off. "...A long day..." Loki huffed as Aera flumped against him, knocking some of the breath out of him.
"I can teleport – " Xeride began to offer but Loki waved off the offer.
"No – I think teleporting like this makes her more queasy – and it's not that far. Come on, Gabriel put some back into it."
"Um...Aera?"
"It's no use." Loki commented, looking down at his master. "She's asleep."
Rocky looked ready to burst into tears when Gabriel and Loki carried Aera inside using their arms to make a sort of chair for her.
"What happened?"
Gabriel could only thank the stars that Tatiana and Kara were still downstairs and couldn't create even more commotion over their concern for Aera.
It was Loki who replied. "We went exploring,"
"Exploring where?" Gabriel demanded as they carried Aera to the spare bed in the room opposite the left of the back door. Xerida hurried to pull the covers back and they gently sat her down on the soft bed, taking a moment to remove her enchanted weapons sheath and her shoes before laying her between the soft sheets.
"Git me some of that heartleaf powder out of her bag," Loki ordered instead.
Xeride remembered that Loki had dropped the heavy pack outside – Loki always carried it on their trips – and he and Rocky rushed to go get it.
"Aera sensed that there was still something in Goura's Labryrinth. So, we went to check it out," Loki explained. "And when we got there – to the Chamber of Seals, I mean – the circle in the middle – it was glowing purple. It was a teleporter. Took us to another section of the Labyrinth. And man, there were a lot of strong monsters down there! We got six black dragon fangs, Gabriel! Six!"
"Fascinating," Gabriel drawled.
"Right – anyway, we fought our way through the labyrinth – it was actually easier than the main labyrinth – maybe because it wasn't hiding Goura?"
Or maybe because you two have gotten stronger...
"But we found this Death Reaper – like the scary older brother of the Death that Passeau summoned and man was it stronger! The Noble Buster didn't even work as well so I held it off while Aera swapped weapons. She had to use Daemon Gems and even that wasn't enough so she was barely standing when we finished it off. And I didn't have enough magic to teleport us all the way out of the Labyrinth – I could only teleport to the entrance of the Deeper Maze. There was some kind of ward. Luckily, there was a beam pad there that we activated so we didn't have to go through the upper maze."
Just then, Xeride and Rocky returned with the pack.
"Do you have any idea...how heavy that is?" Rocky panted, practically dropping it on the floor.
"I told you heartleaf powder not the whole bag!"Loki opened the med pouch of the bag.
"Heartleaf powder?"
"Yeah, I spray some in the air to help Aera get better faster," Loki says. "It's invigorating. She's all peppy in the morning afterwards but I only use it after hard battles like this one or Guren. Okay, all of you go away now – it's not good to breathe it in when you're awake."
They retreated reluctantly and after a moment, Loki emerged, jumping up to pull down the sliding wood panel in the top of the door frame that served as a door.
"Just let her sleep." the young oni advised. "She'll probably be out until the morning. Or late tonight."
"Won't that mess up her sleeping patterns?"
"Yeah but don't worry about it; she'll just get up and make a bunch of weapons until its lights out. There's a forge in here right?"
"Downstairs," Gabriel confirmed. "Tatiana and Orin made sure it was the first thing cleaned."
"Why did you go down to Goura's Labyrinth anyway?" Rocky pressed.
Gabriel's ears flicked in the direction of the left staircase; the other girls were coming to investigate.
"Because Aera sensed that there was something else down there. But the Labyrinth's pretty secure; no monsters are getting out of there."
"What's with all the noise?" Tatiana asked as she emerged from the stairwell with Kara and Nina in tow.
"Nothing you need to worry about." Loki said dismissively. "Aera's just taking a long nap. And I need to fix her weapons."
Tatiana frowned. "They broke?"
"She neglected to tend them this morning," Loki lied. "Help me out, Gabe,"
"No, I will. I am a Craftknight too, you know." Tatiana said.
"Cool."
"Hold on, Loki," she said, grabbing him by the ear as he made to dart pass her. "I hear Aera every morning downstairs stoking the forge. Her weapons broke from overuse today not neglect. What happened?"
Loki sighed. "We went deeper into Goura's Labyrinth. There are some strong monsters* down there – a strong stray summon* too. She's just a little tired."
"Then probably you are too from carrying her back here. Kara, Rocky – make sure he gets to bed."
"Hey!" Loki protested as she smoothly unhooked his Oni Blade from his back and he made a dive for it that Tatiana side-stepped, holding the heavy blade in both hands. "You're not my matriarch or my master!"
"Come on!" Kara and Rocky were quick to advantage of their child cuteness and herd Loki downstairs. "Our mom tells us stories and gives us warm milk to help us go to sleep."
"Do I look eight to you?"
Xeride and Gabriel laughed. "You certainly know how to handle him." the young beastman commented.
"Yeah... to think it's only been nearly two weeks since we met him..."
"A lot has happened." Gabriel agreed. His smile faded which Tatiana was quick to notice.
"Gabriel – "
"Is Aera back?" Nina asked, peering out of the staircase. "Loki just came down,"
"She's resting," Tatiana said. "Hey, will you be mine and Gabriel's forge assistant? Xeride, can you get her weapons? Oh, do we have a weapons room?"
"Downstairs." Nina said, waving. "And a practice room too! It's kind of small... hopefully once we dig out the third level, we'll have more space!"
Gabriel waved his hands. "Wait, I can't – "
"Don't be silly - you had to get your swords for somewhere." Tatiana said dismissively. "We know a self-made weapon from one someone else made, you know. Come on, it'll be fun!"
Fun, she said. Forging weapons wasn't high on her list of favorite things to do but she was pretty good at it. She wasn't on Aera's level – who had improved during her quest in leaps and bounds but she had plenty of motivation to get better and quickly.
Gabriel seemed to know she was lying and chuckled. "Alright."
The weapons were repaired.
Kara and Rocky were safely escorted home by Tatiana.
The summon creatures were sleeping, Nina was wrapped in a cocoon of blankets in the study, Xeride was in power down mode outside of the study door. The fortress was silent.
Gabriel returned from his visit to the Borzak's Garden sooner than usual and made his rounds of the fortress. All was still. Loki was not in the guest bedroom.
He followed his nose; the Guardian Beast was by Aera's door with his sword on his shoulder. Respectfully, he set Aera's repaired weapons by the sleeping Oni. Loki cracked an eye before nodding in recognition and closing his eyes once more.
Gabriel then quietly slipped downstairs to take Xeride's place guarding Nina's door.
The wild beasts outside were still adversely affected by Guren's influence. On Maetropa – and apparently on Silturn – it was the honor of warriors to guard the sleeping quarters of the ladies. Aera was more than capable of taking care of herself and Nina had a few tricks up her sleeve and a violent reaction to being startled awake but instincts were hard to deny.
The last awake occupants of the fortress drifted off into a half slumber as a calm silence permeated the stone walls.
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