WALL OF TEXT BEGINS HERE
I realize, looking over the last few chapters, that the focus has really been on Vague and Lyn for most of the time. I'll have to fix that. Kay and the knights could use a bit more screen time later on.
One thing that keeps coming back and hitting me is that Fire Emblem is so similar to our world in so many ways, and so very, very different. It shares symbols and customs, strategies and colloquialisms, and so many familiar personalities keep popping up over the course of the games. For example, I hated Serra SO MUCH for the longest time because... well... she's a bitch. Really. I couldn't stand her. I went through the game five times without getting her support conversations for anyone.
Then I got her supports for Oswin and Hector.
And now it all makes sense. She's so very human it hurts. She's gone from being one of my most hated characters in the whole series to one of my personal favorites. She goes through such a wonderful transformation over the course of her romance with Hector. It's worth looking up.
She's still a bitch, though. F**k her non-support-conversation persona.
On the other hand, there are obviously big differences between real life and Fire Emblem. Magic, dragons and teleporters, for example. And that's just one game!
But the differences on a cultural level are there, too. Their legends have an air of the King Arthur mythos about them, especially Sword of Seals and Blazing Sword (namely (ha), the swords each game is named after, as well as many others), in addition to traces of many cultural legends and lore. Just think about this: Arcadia = Avalon, Roy = King Arthur, Eirika/Ephraim = Percival, Saleh = Merlin, Yurius = Mordred.
HAVE FUN, KIDS
There's a TON of others, and many of the games have heavy influences from other lore as well (Sacred Stones, for one, has a strong motif of Eirika as a Christ figure if you look hard enough) but suffice it to say there's a link. Besides that, all the Emblem games have a very European feel. Notice all the titles people carry (like counts, and pontiffs, and marquesses), and the weapons they use. One of the mightiest weapons in all the series is the rapier. The people who use katana are generally looked down on or regarded with suspicion by other cultures. Mixed-breeds (like Rutger and Sophia from Sword of Seals, Lyn from Blazing Sword, and Celice/Seraph/Seliph/Sigurd's kid (in a way) from Genealogy of the Holy War) are ostracized on both sides of their ancestry, as are bastards (like Guinevere, as shown in both Elibe games). Let's just gloss over the convoluted political situations from the Jugdral series on. Let's just say Fire Emblem is dominated by European presences.
They have all that history, and all the legends we see on-screen are historical ones. They also have a bearing on the plot, but that just makes it more likely that the people of Elibe (and Jugdral, and Tellius, and Akeinea, and Ylisse(or whatever the hell they call the place in Awakening)) have many more legends that we just haven't heard about...
So, why not werewolves?
Seriously! It fits the setting (the laguz from Tellius), it fits the precedent set by the presence of corporeal magic and physical gods. Hell, they already have SILVER SWORDS! And, it would add a whole new element of roleplaying to the story if a critically injured member of your army could get bitten by a werewolf and turned into a vicious, primal, baby-devouring monster. Just imagine the pathos of A-supported characters *literally* ripped apart by lunacy!
I don't know about you, but I think that's awesome. Werewolves have always held a special place in my heart (except for the Stephanie Meyer ones. F**k those ones). The Wolf Man, the White Wolf RPGs, Altered Beast, Nightmare Creatures, the Diablo II expansion, even Underworld - I just LOVE werewolves.
Not in a physical way.
Mostly not in a physical way.
Fuck it, I'm adding werewolves.
I will find a way.
The following things are revealed in the following passage: a scrap of Vague's history, some Jade Empire-inspired martial arts, ethnic slurs, and foreshadowing so thick you can smear it on toast and call it marmalade. Enjoy!
YOU HAVE TUNNELED UNDER WALL OF TEXT
"Not one of you," Vague laughed as they sat down to camp that night. "Not one of you could catch me."
The whole group was too busy wheezing, gasping for air and glaring at her to answer. Kay's wolf Beil rattled with each breath she took, as did Sain's armor. Kent had went back for Murphy, and so his armor had far less of the scrapes that Sain's did. Lyn by now was utterly drained; the duel with Ari and Raul was more difficult on her than she'd let on. Batta, of course, simply had no restraint.
"Still, every one of you did better than I expected," Vague noted idly. "You managed to keep me in sight the entire time. A few of you even got within spitting distance. I would've been a bit startled if one of you actually got your hands on me."
Vague herself reclined on a flat boulder, her cloak fallen away from her and spilling over the edge of the rock. Her left leg drooped over the edge, sweeping lazily back and forth like a cat's swishing tail. Her other leg braced in an angle against the boulder's surface, supporting her back with a quiet trick of her muscles. One of her arms hid away inside a fold of her cloak; her other hand was held near her face, dangling a triangular dagger with a reflective black blade.
Lyn gasped in another breath, and pushed it back out.
Vague nodded to her. "And you, Kay, good work on using those throwing knives. You actually scratched me once." She gestured to a small tear in her clothes. "This is impressive to me."
"Oh shut up," Kay wheezed. "Don't goddamn - hah... - pamper me - hah... - you bitch."
Vague laughed sharply. "Pamper you? The thought never crossed my mind," she assured her.
Kay flashed her a dirty look, but fell silent.
Kent raised a hand, gasped in a few breaths. "I - hah - have - hah - a - hah - question!"
Vague's fingers tapped out a tuneless rhythm on her knife. She stared at Kent, a lively grin exposing her teeth.
Kent sucked in a chest-widening breath, pushed it out again. He breathed like this for about twenty seconds before he actually started his question.
"What's your story?"
Vague's fingers stopped. The smile slipped a bit.
"What?"
Kent heaved a deep breath. "You told me in Bulgar you were in the army. Were you?"
Vague's fingers tinkled against her black blade, dancing out an alien melody on its surface. She pulled a breath in and sighed out her nose.
"After a fashion," she said. "Which is to say, no one alive now would be able to find any record that I served. Yes, Kent. I did serve in an army." She stared at Kent at that moment, her gaze suddenly intense.
Kent forced himself to return the look. His eyes kept slipping to her side, though, or hovering over her forehead, or on the glittering ebony blade in her hand. He barely ever actually looked to her eyes. Twice, at most.
"Your question has been answered," Vague said flatly.
Kent glanced at her in surprise after that odd statement. Her irises shimmered back at him, hypnotic in their contrast with her dull red skin. She was no longer smiling.
"Anyone else?" she said evenly. Her features contorted in a snarl at Kent as she spoke.
Batta raised his hand. "Food?"
"Kay and the knights have some parts of our stockpile," Vague said, voice throaty around her face-filling grin. Kent and Sain glanced at each other in disbelief. Kay furrowed her brow, then brought her pack around and rummaged around inside. After a moment, her eyes lit up in surprise as she brought out a ball of rice stuffed with pork.
Sain saw her bring it out. "Whoa!" His hand shot into his own pack, and pulled out a small, intact potato-and-beef tongue pie.
Everyone swarmed their packs.
"I am carrying a few of the more..." Vague couldn't repress a giggle as she beheld the kind chaos,"...desirable items myself."
Sain paused midway through a bite of pie and stared wide-eyed at her. "Better than thish? Yer lyin'."
Vague held up a clay bulb by its neck, swinging it in the air like a pendulum. "Am I?"
Batta's eyes flew open. "HEY! That's not yours!"
"It is now, beastie-boy," Vague jeered. "You should've been more careful."
"What is that?" Lyn asked him.
"That's my Ilian melting candy!"
"YOU BITCH!"
"You're training us," Kay called out before the argument could continue. "What the fuck duzzat mean, exactly?"
A very brief silence.
Vague flashed an momentary grin at her, and pointed at Kay with that black knife. "Now that, miss Kay Eiche, was a question worth asking." Her knife swept over the group, indicating all of them. "And all of you should take notice here, because this is a bit important."
Vague waited a moment, casting a subtle gaze over her assembled party. The knights watched cautiously; their past experiences with Vague had not been gentle. Lyn and Batta stared at her with a mixture of loathing and curiosity. Alone of Vague's students, Kay seemed eager to learn, and fixed her eyes on Vague with undisguised excitement. That excitement, however, went side-by-side with a wary light.
She saw this all, and understood every implication, in the blink of an eye.
She centered herself.
She took a breath.
And she began.
A glint of fire touched her eyes.
"You are all human."
Her voice crackled like ice as she spoke, matching the rumbling speed of her words. A slight smirk found its way into her mouth as she spoke, rattling the words like a shaky hand.
"Being human, you have a few advantages and a few disadvantages. One such pair of these are in the way your brains, work." Her hands drifted up before her, fingers slicing in short arcs to trace pictures of what she said as she went on. "For the most part, humans think in a two dimensions or less. For the most part, that's enough to survive. I mean, back before there were kingdoms, people had to survive somehow. Moving forward faster - and harder - was a good thing."
The smirk disappeared.
"But that's not enough." Her voice was fire, now, a living coal flaring with new power. "Not for me. I have to convince you to open up your minds, let me... rewire a few things in that massive ball of impulsive genius you call a brain, get you thinking past forwards-backwards-left-right. Stick with me, and you'll become something other than human... perhaps beyond human."
She sighed. When she spoke again, the fire that fueled her was gone. In its place was... truth.
Vague's scarlet eyes fixed on Lyn.
"Perhaps you will choose to be demons..."
They slid onto Kay.
"...or to be saints."
She glanced over the knights. "Perhaps you will become the best of protectors..."
She gazed at Batta, her eyes flickering between scarlet and cerulean, neither gaining a foothold.
"...or... something else entirely..."
She slammed her eyes shut, just for a moment. When she opened her eyes again, they were silvery in the afternoon light.
Vague looked at all of them again, in turn.
Her lips parted, revealing her ivory teeth.
"You may be whatever you want when I'm done..."
- her throat constricted as she spoke her promise -
"...but you will be unbeatable."
"Not what I meant," Kay interjected, cleanly slicing the consideration off of Vague's statement. "I was askin' exactly, not basically! What kinds'a exercises, when they're scheduled, shit like that!"
Vague rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course. Silly me." The hand on her cloak slapped down and vaulted her off the rock. Her feet whispered as they touched dirt, spreading easily across the soft ground. "The specifics are variable. They depend on your individual skill, as well as your independent personalities. Lastly, it depends on which lessons you want to be taught."
Lyn perked up. "Explain that."
Vague grinned. She said nothing.
A subtle growl of impatience passed Lyn's lips. "Please explain that."
Vague nodded in gratitude. "Thank you, milady. And again, this is rather important. I can teach you to be a Mountain Breaker, Doom Rider, Lightning Fist, Wave Cutter or... Storm Dancer."
She pointed to Batta. He flinched. "Your power is astonishing. I can see your defensive genius, your ability to never be moved, and choose when to strike like a falling star. You could be an excellent Mountain Breaker, Batta. Their lessons well become you."
Vague's finger swung around and landed on Sain. "Sain, you are a born Doom Rider if I ever saw one. Your talent for mobility, your agility, your range, are impressive. Your endurance... lacking. But it is no matter; that aspect can be improved later."
She twisted her arm to Kent. "You might well be a Lightning Fist. Your movements are... indefinable. Kent, the skill of strikes that hit like lightning seems an easy goal to reach for you. Steady, and strong, and faster than flying arrows. Yes... that lesson suits you well."
Her eyes bored into Kay. "A Wave Cutter is an odd thing, Kay. They move in a way that is difficult to touch. With a hand, or a blade... or a brain. Their discipline is a paradox, their teachings riddled with contradiction, their mastery nearly impossible for a normal mind. But I see a spark in you..."
Her eyes flicked to Lyn. "And Lyn- "
"Storm Dancer," Lyn interrupted. "That's the last one."
Vague's eyes went wide. She looked at Lyn, rather oddly, and said nothing.
Lyn shifted self-consciously. "It's me, isn't it?" Her expression changed, so slightly she didn't feel it. "Isn't it?"
Vague's face shifted. Her eyes seemed deeper inside her skull, and murkier. The lazy smirk that had covered her face cracked and fell away like the mask it was. For half an instant, Lyn could see tiny scars around Vague's mouth... like a second smile...
Vague's mouth parted.
The scars vanished.
Then
Vague
laughed.
Her laughter was quiet, and mocking. It sounded like an earthquake filtered through a patch of snow. It grew louder, louder, LOUDER, and the louder it got, the higher its pitch went, until its resonating wail went higher than a kite, higher than a bird, higher than a cloud, higher than the sky, piercing through Lyn's ears like glass spikes.
It went on and on, wiping the thoughts from her mind one by one. Her feelings, her memories, her ideas, they all faded away, being sheared away by Vague's laughter like... like... she could not focus... she... it... loss... what...?
...and silence.
Beautiful silence.
Lyn's mind gathered. Her thoughts came back... one at a time... then faster, together in clumps, then all at once flowing back like water.
"Wha... the hell... the fuck was that?!"
Vague's eyes stayed unfocused for a moment as she looked around. Their irises flicked between black and blue and orange and gold and white and purple and scarlet and black again and green and teal and blue again and beige and finally back to purple. She looked at Kay.
"Would you repeat that, miss Kay. My thoughts were a million miles away..."
"What did you do?! My brain feels like it just got steam-hammered!" Kay's voice had an unfamiliar tinge to it, a tiny quaver in the lower notes... little things that Lyn just felt. It unnerved her.
Vague waved her hand. "I just laughed a bit. It tends to have a, well, an odd effect on people."
"Odd, my ass!" Batta yelled. "I can't think!"
"Yes, and that's very odd, isn't it." Vague showed him a sardonic smile. "It tends to do that. I still don't know why."
Lyn rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers. "Don't do that again. I mean it."
Vague shrugged.
Lyn sighed. "Okay." Her fingers brushed across a spot just above her eyebrow. "Ow... crap."
Across the clearing, Kay wiped at her forehead. Her hands slid across her eyebrows, then down and off, shaking visibly as they slipped off her face. She looked at it briefly, a slight cast of confusion draping itself across her features. She wiped, looked, wiped again, looked again. Her hand's shaking slowed, and ceased.
She breathed in, out. "Hey. Does anyone remember what we were talkin' about?"
"Yeah..." Lyn's eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated. "Vague was talking about... um... something about... styles...? Fighting styles we could learn... um... Mountain Fist, Wave Rider... something else. I don't know."
"Your memory is good, milady," Vague purred, "but not perfect. There were five styles I mentioned. What are their names?"
"How should I know?!" Lyn blared. "You're the fucking teacher! You tell me!"
Vague moved.
Lyn grunted and put a hand on her forehead. "Ow! Fuck!"
"You tell me." Vague's voice was like ice, words cold and sharp and she used them like swords. "If I am your teacher, that makes you my student. Follow my instructions." Wind hissed through her nose. "The styles."
"Ow! That really hurt! It's like my head is having a baby!"
Kay narrowed her eyes at Lyn. "How'd you get a headache?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"The styles."
"Ow... um... let me think." Lyn wracked her brain, searching for the names. "Mm... Mountain... Breaker. Doom... Doom Raider. Thunder Fist. Wave... Slasher, no, Slicer, and... Storm Dancer. I remember Storm Dancer."
Vague blinked. "Two out of five. Good."
Lyn looked at her.
"Not good enough, though," Vague added. "Not nearly good enough."
Lyn blinked. As her eyelids lifted back up, a jolt of electric energy leaped through her at the sight that met her. She suppressed a jerk... barely.
Vague was a hair away.
"We'll just have to work that out of you. Won't we?"
And Vague moved.
Something stabbed into Lyn's arm.
"AAAAAAGHH!"
"Oh, come now. You can do better than that."
Lyn leaped backward, hand shooting for her sword.
"Tsk. So vulgar a tactic."
Something sliced cleanly through the back of her palm.
"AAAAAAAGHHHH!"
She backpedaled furiously, struggling to get some distance.
"GET AWAY FROM LYN!"
Batta came charging in.
Vague moved, and Batta fell to the ground.
Lyn drew her sword and slammed her back against a tree, planting her feet and moving to a defensive stance.
"Ah, quick thinking. Defense against back attacks. Smart."
A blade slipped between her ribs.
From behind.
"Usually."
Lyn froze. A hiss of air issued from the thin slice in her torso.
Her muscles locked solid from sudden shock.
Her eyes opened unnaturally wide.
Her hands fell still,
went numb.
"Oh, you're done already. Just pathetic."
Vague's hand planted itself on her shoulder. "Hold still."
A foot perched on the hollow of her back and slid the black blade out. Its balancing weight gone, Lyn crumpled to the ground. A moment passed as she lay there, unbreathing, uncomprehending, no feeling in her body. Something sticky splashed against her cuts and wounds. Lyn gasped as her blood lit up in her veins, circling through her body like rivers of acid.
"Hold still, Lyn. Steady. Be calm... keep calm. You'll be all right. You'll be all right..."
"Aaaagghhhh..." Lyn moaned as her pain constricted and vanished.
Vague's hands touched her cuts, smoothing them down as her skin knitted back together. A sort of cool weight settled into her bones.
Lyn squeezed her hands. She felt numb stinging in her fingertips. "Aaahh..."
"You're all right?"
"Noooo..."
Vague scowled. "Allow me to rephrase that: are you in pain?"
"Mm... no..."
"Good. I'll take care of Batta, then. Don't worry about the big lug." She patted Lyn on the back.
"Hands off of her!" Kent shouted, his face bleached red in his fury.
"Quiet, please," Vague murmured.
"How dare you strike our lady! You're a servant, child! Act like one!"
Vague looked at him, an odd smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. "If you're trying to express affection for someone, then you should express it. Show them, or failing that tell them. Attempting to show your masculinity by commanding a girl half your age and a third your size expresses a different sentiment altogether."
"Be quiet!" Kent shouted, darkening redder by the moment. "I cannot understand you! You've hurt the lady I have sworn to protect with my life, and I can't just stand by and let you go unpunished!"
"YOU CAN AND YOU SHOULD, CHILDLING."
Kent recoiled.
"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, YOU ADMIT THIS. YET YOU INTERFERE. CEASE TO DO SO. BE SILENT AND FULFILL YOUR PLEDGE."
Kent fell silent, his rant cut short.
Vague stepped past him on her way to tend Batta. Her gaze pierced into him, utterly vicious, as she passed.
Kent struggled to suppress a shiver. Such hatred in her eyes... where could it have come from...?
"To our feet, Batta." Kent snapped back to reality as Vague's voice reached his ears. "Your hand in mine. Now, pull yourself up on three. One... two... three."
Kent heard a grunt. It sounded strained, as if from someone trying to lift a weight much too heavy for them, and he thought he recognized its pitch as Vague's. He spun on the noise, and was greeted with the sight of Vague with one foot hooked around Batta's thigh, the other anchored to the ground, her left hand spread in the dirt, and her right clasping Batta's own hand.
Kent's mind blanked for a minute. His tongue felt numb as his mouth moved on its own and mutely asked, "What in God's name...? What is she doing...?" Curious flickers trickled through his brain.
Then it dawned on him; she was (somehow) pulling Batta to his feet.
Batta stumbled as he tried to maintain equilibrium.
Vague looked back down to Lyn. "One... two... three."
Lyn pulled herself to a kneeling pose. She took a mild, vengeful satisfaction in the look of strain that crossed Vague's face as she used the girl as leverage.
"You enjoyed that too much."
Lyn stared at her for a moment. Whoa.
"You aren't hiding it," Vague said. "So it shows."
Lyn huffed. "You're being rude. It serves you right."
Vague chuckled. "So you think my abrasive attitude is worth causing me physical pain. You're vindictive, you are."
"I am not!" Lyn filled her lungs to continue ranting, but she halted herself. Her brow furrowed slightly as she leaned toward Kent and asked, "What does vindictive mean?"
Kent yawned before he realized the question was directed at him. "Oh. Uh, it's like being vengeful. Vindictive is colder, though. A vengeful man would track down the man who stole his wife and beat him up in front of his friends. A vindictive man would find him and burn down his house."
Lyn raised an alarmed eyebrow at Kent's description. "Thanks, Kent," she said, staring at him cautiously.
Kent shrugged. "It's nothing." He leveled a glare at Vague.
Lyn cleared her throat. "You might think I'm rude, but I have to ask. Kent, are you off your meds?"
Kent aimed a sidelong look at her. "Am I off my what?"
"Your medicines," Lyn explained, giving him an odd stare.
Kent returned her stare, in all its oddness. "I don't think I fully understand, milady?"
Lyn thought a while. "There's a sickness some people on the plains get," she began at last. "A sickness of the brain. They turn bloodthirsty and full of rage, and in later stages of the sickness they start attacking people at random. It's rare, and I've never seen it in someone born outside the plains before, but... well, they say Durban had it."
Kent's eyebrows furrowed deeply. "Durban? Durban... I've heard that name..." He blinked. "Oh. Durban the Berserker? Of the Eight Generals?"
"That's correct," Vague said suddenly. "Though he was only called 'The Berserker' after the dragons were driven out. Prior, people only thought he was zealous in his quest to rid them of this world. When he started killing humans..."
"Then the Berserker's fate is the end of this sickness?" Kent asked, partially ignoring Vague. "That sounds horrible."
"Oh, yes." Lyn snorted and gave a low chuckle. "Sorry. I don't mean to laugh. That's what the sickness is called. 'Berserker's Fate.' It's not even funny." She snorted again. "But it is," she whined.
Sain and Kent joined her in quiet laughter. Kay hid a smirk behind her hand. Batta didn't think it was funny.
Kent ran a hand over his face to compose himself. "Ha... okay. Is there something that can cure it?"
Lyn stopped laughing and briefly searched through her memories. "...we used... prislit root, with yanam leaves. That treated it for a while, but without it the sickness got worse. I heard of a Kutolah family, who had a history of it in their family. Legends say they were so fierce their swords could pare through armor and cut off wyvern's wings at ten paces." Lyn shuddered horribly. "Scary thought."
Sain and Batta shuddered out of sympathy.
Kent looked at them and chuckled derisively. "Oh, come now, kids. This is a rare disease! None of us really have it! Here we are talking about myths and legends, getting scared by nothing!"
"Nothing at all," Vague agreed. "There are more important things at hand, children. Far more important..."
Vague stepped back from Lyn. Her fingers flicked gently against her stomach, stopped for a moment, then flicked again. She ignored Kent entirely. "Storm Dancer, Mountain Breaker, Wave Cutter, Doom Rider, Lightning Fist."
"Huh?"
"The styles. Repeat."
"Huh?"
Vague's hand met her face.
"Ow!"
"The styles. Name them. It shouldn't be hard."
"Bitch..." Lyn muttered. She named them all.
"Nicely done," Vague grinned, eyebrows lifted in mock surprise. "Dicely none indeed."
A moment passed.
"You are so weird," Kay uttered from a few meters away.
Vague shrugged.
"And a total bitch," Kay added.
"True enough," Vague agreed. "Kay, the styles."
"Huh?" Kay's joking tone disappeared.
"Name them."
"But I thought L-"
"Lyn was only one pupil," Vague finished for her. "You are another. You must know the basics, at the very least. Repeat the names of the five lessons, if you would."
Kay rattled them off with little difficulty.
"Good. Kent?"
Kent recited them, but stumbled on the pronunciation of Wave Cutter.
"Sain?"
Sain slurred a bit, but got them all.
"Close enough. And... Batta."
Batta flinched at the sound of his name. "I... Mountain Breaker. You said Lyn was a Storm Dancer, Sain was a Doom Rider, Kent was a... what was it... Lightning Fist, and Kay was a Wave Cutter. It's weird."
"Hm. What's weird?"
"You just had those five things all laid out for us. For every one of us, a different one, like magic. It doesn't make sense."
Vague shot him a curious stare. "Batta the Beast. What an interesting mind you have."
Batta smiled nervously at her, revealing all his teeth. "All the better to think with," he muttered.
Vague grinned back at him. Batta flinched.
"You're jumpy, kid."
"I've been called worse!"
Vague grinned a little wider. "And that's an odd thing for you to say."
Batta's eyes widened slightly. "No it's not!"
A third voice cut in, shouting, "Shut your mouth, you son of a bitch!"
Batta gasped, and fell silent. His eyes flooded with hurt as he stared at Kay.
Kay glared back at him. "Just shut it," she repeated.
His silence matched Lyn's, and the knights'. It stayed. And grew. Cold wires of tension wove between them all and drew tighter... and tighter.
"Ahhh... I see..."
Vague's quiet voice eased its way through the clearing.
"Clever, Clawing Wolf," she intoned. "Clever indeed. You needn't worry. This situation doesn't need to get any... hairier." She grinned madly. "That was a joke, incidentally."
"Clever gag," Kay muttered. "Keep it to yourself next time."
"Fair enough," Vague acquiesced. "That joke had teeth."
Kay's eyes hardened. "That's enough of that. Quit it."
Vague stared at her. Her eyes swam with mock concern. "Why are you getting so mad, miss Kay? Oh. You must think my humor is very biting."
"I'm serious. Be quiet."
Vague's voice went higher, took a comforting tone. "Don't take this so seriously. I'm merely trying to get a laugh out of you. Really."
Kay's grimace softened. "Mmm... you mean it?"
"I swear. I'm fighting tooth and nail for it."
The grimace came back, more sour than before. "Shut up."
Lyn looked at Vague critically. "I don't think I get it," she admitted.
Vague slipped her gaze to Lyn, then shook her head. "It's a rather stellar joke... unless it goes over your head."
"Shut up!" Kay growled.
"You don't give me any respect. Why not go all the way and moon me?"
"SHUT UP!" Kay roared.
Vague gestured to Lyn and the others. "You and the rest of the pack here."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"Oh, quit your howling, padfoot," Vague grinned.
Kay bristled.
The air in the clearing crackled.
Teeth slid out from under Kay's lips. Their ivory tips glittered like jewels in the pink light of sunset.
"Say that again."
Her eyes locked on Vague's face, flashing with quiet anger. Vague returned her glare, her expression utterly cold and hooded behind her braids. Bared nearly to her gums, Vague's teeth grinned like an animal snarl.
"I said, quit your howling."
Kay's mouth turned up in a humorless grin. Her eyes glinted out of the skin around them, like emeralds in bronze, shrouded behind her indigo hair. It hung over her face in a thin, misty veil, coloring her slightly blue from her lips on up.
"Keep going."
Vague shook her head. Her mouth wriggled slightly up at one corner, then the other, sliding gently across her face like a single drop of oil on water. She brought one hand up to her cheeks in an attempt to still it, slipping across her muscles and down her rust-colored skin.
Her fingernails traced seven thin lines in her skin's surface. Something shined from behind them, just for a brief moment, pure white. Deep scarlet trickled into the tiny trenches in her skin, erasing them in an instant.
"No, no. You're riled up enough as it is," she sighed, not noticing the slices on her surface. She heaved a breath. "I apologize for my slur..."
Kay's eyes lightened for half a moment.
A grin flooded across Vague's lips.
"...padfoot."
Kay stood absolutely still as her face went red, and then purple.
Then she snapped.
Her hand flew to her wolf Beil and ripped it out of its scabbard on her back. Its shimmering blade hissed as it sliced the air on its way to Vague's head.
"JHkhhh hkkkkhhh! GAAAAAAAAAAHHH GOD DAMN YOU I'LL FUCK YA IN YER MOTHERFUCKIN' SKULL I'LL RIP YER COCK OFF I'LL KILL YOU I'LL MURDER YOU I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
"You will not kill me," Vague said with utter certainty. The words came out like ice.
She twisted on her feet and slammed one hand into the ground, her back to the floor as Kay's axe whizzed half a meter over her body, parallel to her spine.
Kay stumbled. The power of her swing overbalanced her, once it passed its target and kept moving.
Something thudded into the base of her spine and pulled forward. She tripped over her ankle and nearly fell to the ground, but braced herself up with her free hand.
"MOTHERFUCKER!" she roared, her furious cry laced with pain. "YER FUCKING DEAD! I'LL BITE YOU IN YER THROAT AND SHAKE YA 'TILL YER FUCKIN' HEAD FLIES OFF!"
"Your teeth will not find me," a voice behind Kay's back stated. Its pitch was heavy with frost.
Something whacked across her spine just above her shoulder blades.
"Unh!"
Kay's lungs froze.
"And now you will not breathe without me. Let's wait until you calm down, shall we?" Vague scowled. Her voice regained a bit of emotion, just the slightest lilt of sadistic mockery. Her feet slid through the dirt, slowly circling around Kay as she lay convulsing.
Kay made a strangled gasp, grabbing for her throat, rage draining away as her eyes bulged in panic. A low gurgling noise rose up from her trachea.
Lyn leaped forward, an angry look on her face. "What did you do to her?!"
"Patience," Vague murmured, and stalked around to Kay's back. "By the way, miss Kay, that scrabbling is quite useless. No need to strain yourself."
Kay made a choking cough, rocking back and forth, struggling desperately for air.
"I've locked her breath in her chest, for your information," Vague informed Lyn. "Pressure point's on her back, somewhere..." She traced her finger along Kay's spine, from her neck and briskly down. About midway between her skull and her waist, she slid her finger out and around about two centimeters, centered just off her third thoracic vertebra. "...there-ish. The point itself isn't exactly universal, but it is exceedingly common. I had to estimate its position on miss Kay, since I haven't seen her naked at this point."
"That's kin-..." Lyn stopped in mid-sentence. "Okaaay, you just said that. Weirdo."
Vague gave her a sardonic look. "I just paralyzed a woman's lungs in front of you, and the thing that gets your attention is my commentary?" She huffed. "You, milady, are a surpassingly unusual person."
"Said the pot to the kettle," Lyn retorted.
Kay's thrashing slowed down, weakened. Her hands drooped as she tried to bring them to her throat. The purply tone coloring her face went deeper, starting to turn blue.
Lyn glanced at her. Her eyes widened and she looked back to Vague, flaring with rage.
Vague gestured mildly toward Kay, a professorial cast to her looks now.
"You see that color in her cheeks? That marks the onset of cyanosis. The blood in each cheek is so deprived of fresh air that they are leeching strength from other parts of the body, changing its color. If the cause of her cyanosis is not relieved, and soon, then she will suffocate. I should-"
Lyn spat at her. She missed.
"Enough of this shit! PUT HER BACK RIGHT STINKING NOW!"
"An excellent suggestion, milady," Vague agreed. "As a matter of fact, the very course of action I was about to take." Her feet turned toward Kay, followed by the rest of her. "Of course, a sack like yourself should've known."
An instant passed.
Lyn drew in a heavy breath.
"What did you call me?"
she asked, quietly.
"A sack," Vague said casually as her fingers probed Kay's back through her tunic. "Short for 'Sacaen', I understand. I hear it's a fairly common term for your folk."
Another moment passed.
Lyn's fist loosened. Blood flowed back through her knuckles.
"Maybe," she murmured. "But it's not a nice one."
"Ah, I see," Vague noted. She brushed some of the cloth from Kay's back. Kay tried feebly to lean away. "Then it would be rude to call you a sack."
"You're fuckin' right it is!" Lyn snapped. "Stop using that word. I'm telling you, just stop it."
Vague pressed the point. The instant her fingertips touched it, Kay erupted in a huge, horrifying gasp as she struggled furiously to gulp down all the air in the clearing. Shuddering, racking coughs rasped out of her in equal measure, blasting out torrents of stale air as she filled up with oxygen again.
"It's taboo, then," Vague reiterated calmly.
"Very much so," Lyn growled.
"What if I use it by accident? What would you do, toss a sack over my head?" A twitch jerked at the side of Vague's mouth.
Lyn's hand slid gracefully toward her blade, as if it moved itself.
"Oh, my mistake," Vague added. "You'd need your parents for that."
Lyn stiffened.
A moment passed before she was fully aware of her surroundings again.
Her eyes fixed on Vague.
"You're dead," she whispered.
"No, they're dead. I'm perfectly fine," Vague corrected.
Lyn's hand flashed toward her sword.
"Stop that!" a loud voice declared.
A hand clamped down on Lyn's wrist just before it reached the handle.
"Calm down," the voice said, softer.
Lyn's eyes flashed up. "Let go and I won't kill you," she promised.
Batta stared at her in shock. "B-b-but she's just trying to make you mad!" he whined.
A breeze rolled through the clearing as he said it. The leaves in the trees above rustled and shifted on their branches, parting a way for the sun to touch on the travelers at the end of day. The air warmed momentarily, carrying the scent of rain and melting the heat off of Lyn's body.
Lyn loosened.
"Huh... you're right."
Batta blinked. "I am?"
"You are," Vague answered. "Not the most difficult of puzzles, admittedly, but difficult enough when it's directed at you." She grinned. "Tell me, milady. How did I do?"
Lyn glared at her.
Vague covered her mouth. "Oh my, that well?" She clamped her hand down hard, but a giggle or two escaped anyway. "Hee-hee, hee-hee..."
"You are such a rude woman," Sain noted. "Most girls your age talk about love, romance. Did anyone ever tell you how odd you were?"
Vague laughed in his face.
"I'll take that as a no, then," he added.
Vague grinned at him. "Most boys your age talk about love, too. Has anyone ever told you how boring you are? How utterly and entirely you subscribe to a system that will never reward you? How much every woman hated you afterward?"
Sain yawned.
Vague's mouth twisted up into a scowl. "You're pathetic. A weakling, a bastard and an idiot. You're as useless as Quill's leg."
Sain's mouth snapped shut. His spine sprang up, stiff as a board. "How dare you."
"Of course, that brings up the matter of Quill," Vague continued, ignoring him. "I mean, I've heard of bad dates. That wasn't a bad date. There's horror in the world, and malice... but then, there's you. How did it feel, hmm? How did it feel to watch as that horse bore down and broke-"
"SHUT UP!"
Sain's face was red as a beet in his anger. He took a long, deep breath.
"Sore spot?"
Sain huffed at her.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Sain spent many moments reining in his temper. Long moments, with few pauses.
He tilted his head in thought.
"...how did you know...? About Quill, I mean...?"
Vague blinked, face impassive. "Hm? Oh, yes. I can do things... odd things."
She didn't elaborate.
Lyn cleared her throat.
Vague said nothing.
Lyn gave a small grunt of disapproval. "Would you kindly explain that?!"
Vague heaved a tiny sigh. "I cannot have any secrets, can I?"
The assembled group had strong enough senses of irony to laugh.
A smile bloomed on Vague. In her eyes and her cheeks.
"WHOA!" Sain cried. "...is that... an honest smile...?!"
Vague's smile turned cold. "As honest as a day is long, my friend."
Lyn growled. "Rrrah! Changing the subject! How'd you know all this stuff?"
Vague threw her hands up. "No focus, you children have. No patience. Always speaking, never listening. I weep for the failings of the new generation."
Lyn motioned for the rest of them to be quiet.
"Sorry for losing my temper, milady!" Sain called to Lyn, a slight strain to his easy smile. "My heart aches for it! My greatest apologies to you! And to you as well, miss Kay! I'll never let her get to me again!"
"As well you should not!" Kent began. "It is unbecoming of a knight!"
"Aww, he talks," Vague said in a sickening-sweet voice. "Come 'ere, boy." She whistled three short times. "Come 'ere."
Kent scowled. "That's original, implying I'm a dog." He waved his hand dismissively. "Seen it."
Vague's smile vanished. "No, you're right. Dogs have morals. They admit when they have done wrong."
Kent threw her a sharp glare. "I've done nothing wrong, girl."
"They smell better than you, as well," she began. "They can be loyal, reliable, determined, intelligent, empathic, creative - the list goes on."
"Dogs smell like offal, run from fear, beg for scraps, and excrete on the carpet." Teeth slipped out from behind Kent's lips.
Vague's eyes glittered. "Their males are brave enough to admit fucking each other," she scowled.
Kent flushed red. "YOU BITCH!" Kent shouted. He drew his sword.
"You're operating under a delusion, boy," Vague explained in the same mocking tone. "You're the bitch here. Come on. Heel."
"RAAAAAGH!"
He ran at Vague, sword's handle at his shoulder.
"SIT." Vague shouted.
Kent dropped to one knee and brought his sword around in a vicious swipe at chest height.
"DOWN." Vague shouted.
A blur of color flew over Kent's head as something smashed into the back of his head, doubling his dwindling momentum and driving his face into the dirt with enough force to break his nose with an audible crack.
"Stay," Vague jeered. "Good boy."
"You're a regular fuckin' riot," a voice gasped.
All eyes went to her as Kay staggered to her feet, dragging the wolf Beil with her as she rose. The color was flooding back into her cheeks now; she still showed signs of oxygen deprivation, though, giving her face a ravaged look. Her heavy panting and drooping posture rose and fell periodically. The muscles on her stomach twitched and tensed with every breath she took, as if defending her from a micro-sized horde. Her normally rough aura felt different, deeper. More intoxicating.
She coughed. "Stand still, I wanna rip your fuckin' head off."
Vague laughed in her face. "Oh, boo-hoo. You're soooo mad. Is this really about how I explained to everyone you're a werewolf?"
Sain blinked. "Wait, what?!"
At the same time, Kent cried, "HAH! I knew it!"
"I am not a goddamned werewolf!" Kay snarled, glaring at Vague. "I kill the fuckers!"
Sain did a double take. "Wait, WHAT?!"
Kent overlapped, "Wait, WHAT?!"
Vague's eyes widened slightly. "Do you? Hmm..." Her eyes wandered over Kay's face, noting her eyes.
"I kill werewolves. I'm good at it. I know how they fight." Kay sighed. "It's tough, sometimes... you meet someone, get to know 'em... one night, you're keeping company, talking to each other, then they look up at the sky. And there's the moon." Kay lowered her face to her hand. "...yeah." Her eyes flicked slightly to her right.
Vague rotated on the spot to follow her gaze.
To Batta.
Vague blinked once.
She turned.
Blinked again.
And then she grinned madly.
"Ah... ha ha hah... ha... I understand..." She looked to Lyn, her face illuminated with that mad grin. "Oh, Lyyyyyn. I have such an interesting secret to tell you..."
"NO!" Batta yelled. His arms were tensed to his side in fear, his face contorted in worry.
Vague pivoted on her heel to catch sight of him. "Oh, okay, Batta. I won't tell her."
Batta sighed and slumped in relief. "Thanks!" he said, smiling.
Vague opened her mouth, then hesitated.
Her lips closed over her teeth. She gave him a quick nod. "As you wish." She cast her eyes around the clearing.
Lyn tilted her head, confused.
"I know how you fight."
The knights perked up.
"You've shown me where to press you to make you stupid. You've given me the keys to your psyche." Vague broke off for a moment, giggling darkly. "Isn't that reassuring? The good news is, I know exactly which lessons to teach you... well, where to focus, at least. I know your breaking points; I can teach you to reinforce them. The bad news - and it is bad - is that we have quite a way to go yet."
"Duh," Batta said. "You haven't taught us anything!"
Lyn's brow wrinkled. She inclined her head.
Vague looked at him suddenly. "Hm. You are simply full of surprises, master Batta. Simply full of them."
Batta slid back a step or so, his stance shifting defensively back. His arms arched up in front of him, unconsciously, building a barrier between him and the tactician. His eyes sharpened, narrowing in on Vague. No words crossed his lips.
"You really don't have to be afraid of me, child," she hummed. "Helps, though."
"I don't care!" Batta yelled. "You don't make any sense!"
Lyn raised her head.
"You are not the most rational of thinkers yourself, Batta," Vague replied. "Not even close. You would make a Torus knot seem straightforward."
"The hell is a Torus knot?!" Kay yelled.
Lyn's feet shifted.
Vague rolled her eyes. "It's a three-dimensional construct that..." She thought a moment. "...no, wait. That's a Gelwyn prism. A Torus knot is a... hmm... well, it's a shape that... (hm... how to explain it...) ...imagine a standard rope coiled into a flawless closed loop."
She let that sink in for a moment.
Batta's eyes glazed over momentarily, then snapped back to life. "Wait, what?!"
Lyn slid around the edge of the clearing.
Vague rolled her eyes again. Her hand dove into her cloak. She rummaged around for a minute, muttering all the while. "Dummnudel... Du bist auch zu dumm zum scheißen... Damn ch... where... dammit, where's the rope...? ...coiled..."
Lyn slipped behind Vague.
"...Anyway. Torus loop. Tubes in a spiral pattern, arranged regularly, making a closed loop." Vague brought a length of braided rope out of her cloak. "Ah. Here. Finally."
Her hands flashed up and around in a fast pattern, then dropped it on the ground. "May I draw your attention here, now. This is an example of a Torus loop."
It was geometric perfection. Each braid spiraled around another, twining around the central thread like a pit of snakes, joined in a perfect loop from end to end.
"Incidentally, Batta, when I said we had a long way to go, I was not speaking figuratively. Caelin is far." Vague smirked at him. "Beside that, none of you are talented learners. You haven't learned a thing from me ye-"
Vague's chest thrust forward without warning. Her words cut off without a sound when Lyn's foot slammed into her back just above the shoulder blades, eyes widening as she absorbed the impact and went flying.
She arced through the air for a second or two, before her spine curved around a nearby tree with a loud SNAP and she lay still.
A moment passed in silence.
Mouths dropped open.
Disbelief shone across the faces of Kay and the fledgling legion.
Lyn put her foot down and staggered. Her eyes froze in shock.
Kay covered her heart.
Then she broke the silence.
"Oh my God."
