AN: For those of you curious, no, that wasn't a spell. That was Inferno Blast, the most spectacular (though not the most mechanically potent, unless you're fighting armies) of the level 9 Strikes from Tome of Battle. It has some pretty awesome flavor, and it looks like I managed to translate that fairly well into the story. Props to anyone who can spot other maneuvers Jaeger uses in this chapter.
Edit: Bolding format error corrected.
((()))
Help me dig, the cat cut into the glassed surface of the scorched clearing it had just created, before turning around and beginning to claw its way down into the earth. Kirche, floating above the glassed ground, at as low an altitude as she comfortably could with the heat it was giving off, stared at the cat for a few seconds, before shrugging, and turning her magic to assist the cat in its self-assigned task.
It took less than a minute for her to levitate enough earth to reveal a mid-sized cave filled with filthy women, most of them young (a few more girls than women), and almost as many sick. Kirche had heard of such things before, but she had never seen them before, and her customary flighty and jovial persona slipped away like a swiftly discarded cloak. Her first instinct was to remove the girls from the filthy pit they had been trapped within, but the ground was far too hot to be safe for them, and she was far from powerful enough with Wind spells to keep all of them airborne.
Fortunately, it was only a few minutes before Tabitha joined her, Sylphid's freshly-healed wings bearing the petite Gallian to the scorched ruin of the bandit camp swiftly. It was subtle, but Kirche was able to recognize the faint shimmer of Air-magic wrapped around Sylphid's wings, reinforcing them and smoothing the Wind dragons flight. It took only a single glance and exchange of nods for Tabitha and Kirche to agree upon a course of action, and the shuddering girls were swiftly levitated out of the hole, over the scorched encampment, and into the nearest section of relatively undamaged forest.
The cat, apparently untroubled by the glowing heat beneath it, simply scampered across the glassed camp floor to join them.
"How did you do that?" Kirche hissed quietly as she slowly released her levitation spell, touching down lightly beside the feline, "And what are you? You're no mere cat."
'I am a shape-changer,' the cat scrawled out into the dirt, 'trapped in this form by a curse, though I will not allow the curse to stand. I will explain more later, but in the meantime, please claim credit for the rescue when the Princess' guard arrives to investigate.'
"The Princess?" Kirche asked, a hint of incredulity entering her voice, but the cat had already rubbed out its message with a paw, and scampered off towards one of the younger girls that had been pulled out of the pit.
Kirche would have chased after the cat anyways, but Tabitha took hold of her sleeve, and pointed up to the sky North of them, where a trio of Gryphons with riders were approaching.
((()))
"What happened, Captain Agnes?" Henrietta asked, leaning out the window of her carriage to speak with the scarred head of her musketeer corps.
"A group of brigands attempted to accost a pair of Triangle mages," Agnes said with a snort, "The girls trashed the brigands, then chased the survivors to their camp and leveled it. Captain Wardes reports that the mages have requested to speak with Your Highness."
"Of course," Henrietta said with a nod and a faint smile, "Is there anything else?"
"Yes," Agnes said, her hard countenance growing even harsher, "A number of young women being held captive by the brigands were rescued, and what is to be done with them must be decided."
"How many, and what condition are they in?" Henrietta immediately asked, her smile disappearing as she caught on to the implications of what Agnes had said.
"Around three dozen, Your Highness, " Agnes said, "And though none have broken bones or combat-related injuries, they are almost all malnourished, sick, bruised, or a combination of the three."
"Have them brought to the caravan at once," The Princess declared, her wavering voice at odds with her decisive words, "And have the commoner staff break out appropriate supplies to tend them, while the water mages form up with me for magical treatment."
"At once, Princess," Agnes declared, saluting sharply before marching back towards the Gryphon Knight who had conveyed Wardes' report of the bandit encampment back to the caravan.
Henrietta withdrew into the carriage, before closing the curtains, Siesta cluing into what the Princess was doing and closing those on the opposite side of the carriage.
"Louise, Siesta," Henrietta said hastily, "Please help me find my healer's smock, and Louise, you may want to change into something readily disposable as well. This will likely be messy."
((()))
Siesta, having grown up in a vibrant farming community, was no stranger to seeing injury, and hearing of the occasional assault from amongst rowdier townsfolk or travelers visiting Tarbes. Louise, having grown up on the Valliere Estate, inarguably the most lawful part of Tristain, had not had much experience with such things, and what she saw over the rest of that day came as a shock to her. An enraging shock, but Louise had plenty of experience with being angry, and forced herself to not act on it while Henrietta needed her assistance.
Thirty-three women, the youngest scarcely thirteen, the oldest just over thirty, and all of them had clearly been sexually abused. One of them was even a noble, though the fifteen-year-old girl was too incoherent to even attempt spell-casting, and had apparently been little challenge for the disgraced mages amongst the brigands to capture. Several of the younger girls flinched whenever anyone touched them, but the oldest were almost worse, with the dull, resigned look in their eyes. A few of the young women had eyes filled with fury, and would clench their fists whenever one of the men in the convoy came near them; Louise was almost afraid to touch them, but without the help of the male servants or guards, there simply were not enough hands to go around.
And given how readily Princess Henrietta dove into healing the rescued women, Louise could hardly stand by idly while her friend and Monarch got her hands dirty, literally. Louise had known that the Princess was a Triangle of Water, and had training as a healer; what she had not known was that she was an experienced healer, one who knew not only how to treat wounds effectively, but handle distraught patients gracefully as well. There were three healers with the caravan; one of the Royal Healers sent along to ensure the Princess' health, a second amongst the Gryphon Knights who functioned primarily as a battlefield medic, and the Princess herself. As the Gryphon Knight was a man, and thus forbidden from approaching the rescued women by the Princess' decree, Henrietta and the woman in her mid-twenties that the Royal Healers had sent ended up treating all thirty-three patients themselves.
Louise and Siesta were beside the Princess with each patient she treated. Louise had never seen the intimate parts of a woman outside of her immediate family before, and after the damage she saw, she didn't think she ever wanted to again. Or ever wanted to have intimate relations with a man, for that matter.
For the first time in many years, Louise wished that her mother was there, so that she could ask her how such things could possibly be allowed to happen.
((()))
Restricted as I was, there was precious little I could do for the women, but respect their privacy. Little I could do directly anyways. Indirectly, I had other options, more specifically, level-based options.
I had just hit level twenty-one. Epic level.
And my curses damned near made the breach into truly broken power tiers worthless. I was theoretically capable of casting ninth level spells, manifesting ninth level Psion Powers, and initiating ninth level maneuvers. Not what I had once been capable of, but from what little I remembered of my chaotic (and horrifying) time within the barrier realm, it was hardly surprising that I came out of it the not the same as I entered.
Of course, all of that except the Initiator levels were barred by the Dragon's Curse, which still held me. After all, in the barrier realm, Dragons were gods.
So.
My abilities as a Swiftblade; worthless, as I could not cast Haste.
Druidic Healing spells, worthless.
Hide in Plain Sight, useless.
Inertial Armor, Force Screen, various forms of combat prescience and precognition, True Strike, Time Stop, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Wild Shape, all of it useless.
I wasn't helpless, but still, so much had been lost, and I was no longer a top-tier combatant.
The single most crippling factor of all, however, was being trapped in the form of a cat. I don't know if the loss of the Paragon Template I once held came from the Dragon's Curse, my time in the barrier realm, or something else altogether, but I lacked the raw physical strength and prowess to make it viable for combat. Even that didn't touch on the most irritating aspect of it; being unable to physically speak.
D'n'D, however, was a very broad system, with a great number of options, and once I'd seen that the women were safely with the caravan, I'd turned my attention to working through them to find what I wanted/needed. Unfortunately, what I'd found was both encouraging and discouraging simultaneously.
Wait.
Wild Shape?
When the hell did I gain the ability to Wild Shape? It's ineffecient and counter-productive for a high level character, the only use it has is being able to spellcast while being a damn bear, because Natural Spell is broken.
And I don't even have Natural Spell.
I swear, that entire pocket dimension has to possess some kind of mind-altering properties, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking reconfiguring my build like this.
Or maybe someone else did.
Whatever.
No Epic Feat for me, I needed to talk, which meant Master of Many Forms, which meant I needed Endurance, which is a shitty feat, but I'd be taking it anyways.
Damn Lolis.
((()))
"This is the first time you've seen something like this, isn't it?" An unwelcome voice asked.
"Go away Kirche," Louise said, her voice brittle with physical and emotional exhaustion.
"I don't think that would be a good idea right now," Kirche said, walking around the small clearing Louise was seated within, and into the Valliere's field of vision.
To the pinkette's considerable surprise, Kirche was dressed in a comprehensively modest dress, complete with a shawl that concealed even the outline of her figure. She was also carrying Louise's familiar, which had curled up into a ball of stiff tension in her arms.
"What's with the dress?" Louise demanded harshly, turning her whole focus on the larger woman.
"I'm not so crass as to flaunt myself in front of women who have been through such hardship," Kirche said wryly, "I've seen what being taken like that can do to a woman, and I wish them no further pain. From the way you've been acting, I take it this is the first time you have been exposed to such things?"
Louise said nothing, turning away from Kirche and glaring off into the forest.
"I am not surprised that a Valliere would be a stranger to such things," Kirche said, Louise's hands clenching into fists at her words, "It has been some generations since your family crushed all such outlaws in your lands, and few have been foolish enough to attempt to enter them since."
Louise's fists slowly relaxed, and she turned to look at the Zerbst again, confusion warring with frustration on her face.
"Oh, don't be so surprised," Kirche said with a snort, "Part of the reason the feud between our two families has endured so long, is because both of our families are strong enough for it to have endured. Mine, because there are so many of us, and yours, because there's at least one Square Mage in every generation of Vallieres. Some of my family think its because you are descendents of a Royal bastard ten or so generations back."
"You're a Triangle, Zerbst," Louise said sharply, "Maybe even a square, by what the Gryphon Knights said of the encampment. You know better than that."
"Oh, I certainly do," Kirche said, gracefully seating herself beside Louise and extending her arms to offer the pinkette her cat, "But we need to talk about this cat of yours. He was the one who destroyed the camp, after all."
Louise sighed and wilted as she took her familiar from the older girl, sparing only a momentary and mild glare for the Zerbst before turning her attention to the stiff cat.
"I suppose you saw him using his fire?" Louise asked, resignation in her tone.
"Yes," Kirche said, a ghost of her customary smirk coming to her face, "I don't know what exactly he is, but he's clearly capable of Square-level Fire Magic. Why didn't you tell me we shared an affinity, Louise?"
"We don't," Louise said grumpily, carefully laying her familiar over her knees, mindful of how he would squirm when he came out of his stupor if she held him in a way he did not like, "I'm not a Fire Mage, my Familiar can just use Fire Magic."
"Of course!" Kirche said, affecting stunned revelation, "Clearly your-, what is his name anyways?"
"I don't know," Louise said, eying Kirche carefully as she began to stroke the cat's fur, "He's never told me."
"It was him who scratched that message out on your window sill the night you blinded yourself, wasn't it?" Kirche asked, a hint of eagerness in her voice.
"Yes," Louise said, some stiffness returning to her voice, "He does not communicate with words often, mostly due to how inconvenient it is, but that was the first time."
"Why then?" Kirche asked, curiosity rising in her voice, "You'd had him for months at that point!"
Louise's expression turned stony as she remembered that night, and she glared at the Zerbst, who started back slightly at the sudden change in the Valliere's expression.
"Why," Louise growled, a hint of iron showing in her eyes, "Would be because I was at a breaking point from the failure and harassment I'd been dealing with at the Academy."
"Oh," Kirche said, leaning back and laughing a little awkwardly, "I suppose little Jaeger was being a good Familiar then, helping you out of your funk. I'm just glad you had Foquet's Golem to take your frustration out on, instead of me!"
"Don't be an idiot," Louise said, snorting disdainfully, before turning her attention back to the cat on her knees, "You're an aggravation, but if people were killed for being aggravating, there'd be less than a hundred people in all of Halkeginia."
"Ah, that famous Valliere control," Kirche said with a sigh, her tone (surprisingly to Louise) respectful rather than amused or disdainful, "Although I miss our little spats, I do have to admit that the surety of self you've demonstrated ever since you blinded yourself has been rather impressive. Is there any way I could convince you to begin verbally sparring with me again when we get back to school?"
"Is that what it was to you?" Louise said flatly, "A game?"
"Mostly," Kirche said with a shrug, "Do you know anything of my history with my own family?"
Louise shook her head stiffly.
"I had an engagement once," Kirche said a little whimsically, looking down at the cat as she did so, "To an older man. I know it is a thing us noblewomen need to accept sometimes, but this man was much older. I was fifteen, he was thirty five. And he made it very clear when he met me, that while he expected me to bear him an heir, his real interest was in my body," She paused, and her voice turned a bit hard, "Using my body, specifically. He had no interest in any form of relationship beyond that whatsoever. So, seeing the kind of man he was, I allowed him to touch me inappropriately in public before we were wed, and then I burned his dick off for the presumption and impropriety."
Kirche turned her gaze back to Louise, an iron fury in her eyes that the Valliere had never seen before.
"Two of his female servants came to me," Kirche said harshly, "In tears, thanking me, before the end of the day. They showed me some of the bruises he'd left them when they received his 'attentions.'"
Silence came, their gazes locked, and for the first time Louise saw a passion in 'The Ardent' that she could respect. After nearly a minute, Louise smiled faintly, and broke their locked gazes, turning her attention back to her familiar again.
"What did you call him?"
"Jaeger," Kirche said, smiling again herself, "It means 'Hunter' in Germanian."
"I know," Louise said, nodding, "I'm just curious as to why. I do not know if I have seen him hunting, or with what was clearly a kill of his own, a single time."
"He hunted the brigands," Kirche said, "They fled miles through the forest, needing magic to keep ahead of him. They started running because of Tabitha though."
"Because of Tabitha?" Louise asked, confusion in her voice, "If she hadn't summoned a Dragon, I'd have considered her the least threatening student in our entire year!"
"Tabitha is a Triangle," Kirche said seriously, a hint of grim in her voice, "And a Chevalier. She doesn't talk about her life in Gallia much, but I know she's seen combat, and more than just a few times. When Sylphid was wounded, she became angry."
"Who would be stupid enough to attack a pair of mages with such obviously powerful familiars anyways?" Louise asked, her tone half-rhetorical, part dismissive, part pure fatigue.
"Fools," A new, raspy voice entered the conversation, and Jaeger began unwinding from his taut ball on Louise's knees, "Perhaps the most common kind of fools amongst all men; those who think that might makes right."
"Filthy brutes," Louise spat as she stared at her familiar, the cat standing upright and turning to face the two, and to her considerable surprise, Jaeger snarled at her.
"Are you so different?" He demanded, an angry heat in his steadily-clearing voice that Louise felt blazing in her own chest, "Tell me, Louise le Blanc Francoise de la Valliere, what exactly is it in Halkeginia that gives a noble the right to rule over the commoner?"
Louise opened her mouth, rote words ready on the tip of her tongue, but she stilled the instinctive response that had been drilled into her, and studied her familiar's body-language instead. His teeth were bared, his back ever so slightly arched, and the empty eye socket glaring at her was flat-out disturbing, even without the anger reflected in his intact eye.
"That's right, noble," Jaeger said harshly, the shape of his voice clearing, "And while your family, from what I have seen, honorably discharges the responsibility that their authority bears, ask yourself this: Do you think the other young nobles at the Academy would be as honorable as your parents have been?"
"Few, if any," Kirche said, cutting into the stare-down between 'Familiar and Master,' "The Vallieres set a standard few others match; it is part of what makes them such excellent adversaries. There are some who manage a standard that is at least passable, however."
Jaeger turned his baleful gaze upon the dusky-skinned Germanian, sizing her up before looking her directly in the eyes.
"What of you, Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhault Zerbst ?" He demanded, "What will you do when you hold legal authority over those of lesser power than yourself?"
"I won't," Kirche said with a snort, looking away to the edge of the clearing, "I know the reputation I have built myself, do you think it was not deliberate? I will at most, be a mistress to some lord I find amenable to my tastes, and more likely simply end up a soldier."
"Nobles in Halkeginian armies hold officer's ranks," Jaeger growled, "Even if you never are landed, even if you never wed, you still hold the authority your social stature as a noble, your power as a Triangle Mage, grants you. What will you do with it?"
The feline was nearly shouting the last, his small body producing an impressive volume for its size. Kirche turned away, feeling a hint of shame, something she simply was not accustomed to any longer.
"I had never thought of such things in that way," She admitted, "I really am not certain."
"You best had," Jaeger ground out, visibly working to restrain his anger, "In another ten or twenty years, you will be amongst those determining the prevalence of scum like those bandits within these lands. Especially if Germania and Tristain do in fact unite, your two families handling of their rivalry will determine much."
"Alliance will be meaningless if the two realms hate each other," Louise admitted grudgingly, turning her gaze to her primary antagonist from the academy, "We're going to have to learn to be friends, Zerbst."
Kirche found herself smiling involuntarily at the Valliere's words.
"Oh, this will be so much fun," Kirche breathed, and Louise scowled at her.
((()))
"Is Jaeger an acceptable name for you?" Louise asked quietly, later that evening as she lay down in the tent that had been erected for her use.
"It will do," the cat replied as he curled up on a cushion set aside for him, "I've borne other names, but none of them quite suit this form."
"It seems strange to me," Louise said slowly, "To be so casual about one's name."
"Perhaps," Jaeger said quietly, flicking his tail in an odd emulation of a shrug, "But my given name was literally the most common in my native tongue, not even counting different variations upon it. I have always identified more as 'me,' than as 'my name.' Besides, some forms of magic can hold power over you if your true name is known."
"What is the native tongue of a shapeshifter?" Louise asked, curiously, and Jaeger laughed in response.
"I was born human," Jaeger replied, "And up until oh, four years ago, I still was. I have been subject to so many transformative magics since then, however, that I'm not sure I can remember them all."
A few moments of silence passed, as Louise chewed on that answer, before she ventured another question.
"How old are you?" She asked.
"Twenty-five," Jaeger replied, "Or thereabouts. I'm a long way from home, and I'm not sure how many different calendar systems I've crossed since the last birthday I was able to accurately keep track of."
"It has been a long time since you have seen your home?" Louise asked.
"I haven't seen it since I first left," Jaeger said with a snort, "And honestly, I don't much miss it."
Louise offered no verbal response, just turning to stare quietly at Jaeger, some degree of shock clear in her eyes.
"Oh, don't get me wrong," Jaeger said, a hint of bitterness in his voice, "I do miss my family and friends some, my younger sisters in particular, but I wasn't really close to any of them. I was in outright conflict with my parents before I was summoned away, and my life wasn't exactly ideal in other aspects either."
"I'm sorry," Louise said, abashed, "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
"Oh, it wasn't all bad," Jaeger said with a sigh, the bitterness fading to be replaced by a sort of resignation, "Lord knows other people have had it much worse, it's just that sometimes life takes a shit on you, and there's not much you can do about it. Like with your troubles regarding magic."
"...Being trapped in the form of an animal cannot be easy," Louise agreed, "How have you coped with it?"
"How did you cope with all of your magic turning awry on you?" Jaeger countered, and long seconds passed, broken only by the sounds of a travel-camp at night, before Louise replied.
"You endured," Louise replied, her voice aching with remembered pain, "And hoped for things to change one day."
"The intensity of the struggle may change," Jaeger said quietly, the fatigue in his words palpable to Louise, "But the nature does not. One can surrender hope and waste away, or fight to overcome."
Silence passed between them for long, long minutes, as Louise worked herself up to asking a question she honestly feared the answer to.
"I think I am feeling your emotions," She finally whispered quietly, her voice so low it was barely audible, even the Jaeger's feline ears, "Since the explosion at the bandit camp."
"I had a familiar of sorts of my own, once," Jaeger whispered faintly, "Now that I have begun to surpass the curse that constrains my magic, most likely the fractured bond has attached itself to you in a reciprocation of your own binding upon me."
Neither of them spoke further that night.
((()))
It took another three days of treatment and preparation before Princess Henrietta and the other healers declared the freed captives fit for travel. The guards had not been idle while the healers worked; a number of the musketeers had some training as craftswomen, and a number of improvised additions had been added to the baggage carts. Between the additions to the cart, slipping the young noblewoman and two other rescued women into the Princess' carriage, and several of the musketeers sharing their horses, the caravan was able to begin moving again without any significant loss of travel speed.
Things were rather awkward within the carriage for a time however, the three women added to it clearly desperately uncomfortable in the Princess' presence, the noble girl visibly trying to fight tears of shame. Louise fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat; Siesta stared down at her lap sadly, and Henrietta was worn down between a mixture of exhaustion and guilt over what had happened to the women. Nearly half an hour passed before Jaeger abruptly joined them in the carriage, the faint scent of Pheasant about him betraying where he had been.
It took him all of three glances to realize what had happened, and another half a minute to decide on a course of action regarding the silent tension in the carriage. Jaeger left the carriage as quickly as he had come, and a few minutes later returned with Kirche and Tabitha in tow. The Zerbst was still clad in much more modest apparel than she habitually wore at the academy, but it did nothing to diminish her ebullient personality.
"Whatever are you all not talking about in here?" Kirche asked, a somewhat sinister grin twisting her lips, before jamming herself onto the bench seat beside Louise, nearly squishing the smaller Valliere in the process.
That initiated a verbal engagement which thoroughly broke the conversational ice in the carriage, and Kirche's fiery personality melted it the rest of the way.
((()))
As the journey into Germania continued, things began to change. The most immediately obvious to the caravan at large, was that as more and more distance was covered, the women rescued from the bandit camp became less and less desolate. Many tears were shed, there was no small number of furious outbursts from the women who had responded to their captivity with anger, but the sheer numbness which had overtaken most of them began to fade.
Seven nights out of the next two weeks, it had become necessary to use magic to dampen sound around women who had woken up screaming, so that the rest of the camp could sleep.
The 'passengers' of the caravan also began to interact more easily with the Princess, noblewoman and commoner alike. It had taken some doing on her part to get them to refer to her with a simple 'milady' rather than 'your highness,' 'your majesty,' or other more elaborate titles, but taking turns riding on the carts, rather than in her own carriage, so that others could make use of it, made a substantial difference. Having been the most prolific healer treating them had made no small difference either.
One of the most pronounced changes was in Louise's relationship with Kirche, even if the change was only really noticeable to Tabitha and Jaeger, being the only members of the caravan that had seen them interact at the Academy. Their relationship continued to be adversarial, but it lacked any real edge; the conflict of those who, while irritated by each other, did not actually mean the other any harm. Their word-play was further dampened by the fact that as the journey continued, Louise's energy levels began to drop, and though it took some prodding for her to admit it, she was becoming increasingly sore, particularly around her joints.
At first, Henrietta was worried that Louise was taking sick (not an unlikely thing, given how much time she had spent around the rescued women and the way they had been kept), but a medical examination via water magic revealed that Louise had simply entered a rather abrupt (and vigorous) growth spurt, one which instigated a rather uncomfortable conversation with Jaeger.
((()))
"This is because of you, isn't it?" Louise asked pointedly.
"Yes and no," Jaeger replied quietly, "It would be more accurate to say it is because of our connection, or at least, I think it is."
The two of them had 'split off' from the caravan for the night, Louise taking a walk through the extensive forests surrounding the road,
"Why are you uncertain?" Louise asked, an edge of tension beginning to push into her voice.
"I am cursed," Jaeger replied flatly, "If I was not, I could easily use magic to instigate a growth spurt or similar effects in another's body. In particular, two of the forms of magic I wielded can cause such effects passively. As things stand, I suspect that the Familiar bond you have created with me has caused this magic to 'flow back' through the connection to you, but I cannot be certain."
Louise said nothing for a time, lost in thought (and nearly walking into a tree once), before she pulled together perhaps the most important question regarding the situation she found herself in.
"How will this change me?" Louise asked quietly.
"Until the curse is broken," Jaeger replied, "I cannot say for certain. What I can tell you, is that the general theme of the changes, will be oriented towards making you more physically powerful, and able as a combatant."
"What else?" Louise asked insistently.
"...Honestly, that's pretty much it," Jaeger said slowly, "I am nothing if not a warrior, and while I know utility magics, few if any of them are of a sort to be used as a long term 'buff.' There is literally no debilitating effect that should flow 'back' through the bond to you, the only differences I can think of that you would disapprove of would be cosmetic."
"Cosmetic how?" Louise asked, eyes narrowing slightly as she tried not to glare down at her familiar.
"Changed hair or eye color, changes to skin coloration, or possibly texture," Jaeger said with a shrug (an odd gesture for a cat to use), "Something that suits either the enhancement, or the character of our magic. Only time will tell what it would be, or if it happens at all."
"And the height?" Louise demanded.
"You're becoming more physically vital," Jaeger replied, "Your body is changing to reflect that. Let's set a scale of comparison, one which I have used before. Your average nobleman, say your classmate Guiche, could be said to have 'ten' strength. A nobleman such as your father, who clearly practices physical discipline, yet is primarily a magic user, would have twelve strength, while a craftsman whose trade demanded much strength, such as a Blacksmith, would have fifteen, or even sixteen strength. You, being of rather slight build, would have a nine strength, or possibly eight. Once my my magic has finished working on you, you will have something like fourteen or fifteen strength. Some of this strength will come in the form of more compact and efficient muscles, but as you know, it is far easier for a large man to be prodigiously strong, than it is for a small man."
"That makes sense, I suppose," Louise admitted with a hesitant nod, before glancing down at her small, slender form, "I cannot say I would be opposed to being gifted with a rather larger physique."
"It has its positives and negatives," Jaeger replied, shrugging again, "We will not know just how far the growth will extend until it stops."
A faint smile began to cross Louise's face, as she dreamed of looking down at Kirche, rather than up.
((()))
By the time the convoy reached the Germanian capital, Valdeboda, Louise had grown two inches, and it was readily apparent that she would need new clothing, particularly as ill-fitting dresses would be incredibly gauche for formal diplomatic events. As only one member of their traveling company new anything about the city, that meant she had to go dress shopping with Kirche.
Being male, I decided it was most certainly in my best interests to not get dragged into the expedition. I kept an eye on the girls of course (Siesta accompanying Louise as befitting her position), but I did so from outside the assorted stores they were visiting. Honestly, listening to Kirche and Louise bicker was getting a bit old as well, even if there was no longer the harsh edge to it there once had been.
So I spent most of my attention on the Germanian people, who quite notably were not the Germans of the Earth I was native to. Or even the assorted people groups that folded into Germany in the 1800's as it first formed; Like Kirche, they tended towards middle-eastern skin tones, though most had the brown or black hair one would expect of such ethnicities. Red hair to go with that coloration was apparently a Zerbst thing.
More interesting to track, was the assorted groups of spies tracking Louise. First, there was Matilda/Longueville/Foquet, who was clearly too torn by indecision to actually do anything. As an actual woman going through tailors' shops looking at dresses, she was probably doing the best job at not being noticed, save I personally recognized her. Much more obvious, were the Germanian agents, of which there were three different groups.
The largest (and most obvious) group of them, I was easily able to ascertain were working for the Emperor, and they were functionally nothing more than a 'discreet' security detail. The Emperor had nothing to gain from pissing off Henrietta, and the half-dozen agents actually seemed more worried about Kirche than anything else. Apparently, her reputation as not just a wild card, but a powerful wild card, has gotten around in Germania as well.
The second group of Germanians were much more troublesome. They were extremely tight-lipped about anything of actual use to me, and for all intents and purposes, appeared to be nothing more than a middle-aged noble couple out for a stroll in the market, with a pair of retainers accompanying them. The only reason I knew there was more to them than that at all, was because I had epic-level skill checks in Sense Motive and Perception in general. They were watching Louise, doing so under orders, and their 'porters' were actually mages as well. Given how much rarer mages were in Germania, I was placing my money on them being a strike team waiting for an opportune moment to act.
The third and final group of Germanians took my suspicions about the second group, and confirmed their most likely motives. The third group was a bunch of street ruffians, mostly loitering in the alleys and being much more obvious (the Emperor's team was definitely keeping track of them); they had much looser lips. From what I could gather, they were a budget version of the mage team, and they were employed by the Emperor's rivals with a simple objective: Disrupt the treaty negotiations by any means possible.
Germania was a far less unified nation than any of the others in Halkeginia, in part because the Romalian church was not as strong in Germania, and in part because they were not ruled by a direct descendant of Brimir. If the Emperor was able to marry into 'proper' royal blood, it would end the ducal competitions that currently resolved succession issues within Germania, and lock his line in as 'legitimate' rulers, crushing the ambitions of his political rivals. Given how long the ruling houses of Gallia, Tristain, and Albion had endured, I could understand the level of desperation this might drive the Dukes desiring to supplant the Emperor to.
Derailment of attempted marriage arrangement was the obvious objective, but it was also fairly obvious that the various factions interested in such were either sporting vastly different levels of competence, or vastly different methodologies. The team of mages had little possible purpose aside from assassination, and they were professional enough that it was a legitimate concern, especially with my own abilities reduced as they were. Inferno Blast was about the only top-tier ability I had retained, and it was useless anywhere I couldn't just blast the shit out of everything. The team of street thugs, on the other hand, was either a desperation option, or there to ruin negotiations just by making an attempt at kidnapping or assassination. Given that the vast majority of Henrietta's guard, including basically all of its mages, was (understandably) with the Princess rather than the shopping expedition, I was actually worried.
Kirche and Tabitha were both skilled combatants, and once Louise could actually get into things, her explosions were nothing to be sneered at either.
I still felt... vulnerable though. I didn't like that feeling.
((()))
"Kirche," Louise said with considerable aggravation, "Just because it is the color of my hair, does not mean that all of my dresses need to be pink."
"But it suits you so well," Kirche practically cooed as she looked up and down the dress Louise was wearing, "And there are so few other colors that your particular shade of pink fits well with. It clashes horribly with black, most shades of blue are out, green would be horrible, and white is so plain-"
"I happen to think white is a perfectly acceptable compliment to my complexion and coloration," Louise retorted as she tugged at the bodice of the dress, trying to convince herself that she wasn't still growing so fast that whatever she purchased would not fit properly in another week.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a group of common ruffians bursting into the front of the store, shouting threats and brandishing knives. Acting purely on instinct, Louise went for her wand, almost immediately realizing that, unfortunately, while it was secreted in the sleeve of her dress (as per usual), she was not wearing her dress.
Kirche and Tabitha, on the other hand, were both wearing their own clothing, and two triangle-class mages were more than capable of dealing with a bunch of poorly-armed thugs. The storefront, on the other hand, was not capable of dealing with a pair of triangle-class mages letting loose.
((()))
Stone and wood exploded outwards as the entire front wall of the dressmaker's store was shattered by synergistic magics. Fire and Wind feed off of each other very well, something I was quite well aware of myself; my bet was that Kirche and Tabitha were a bit enthusiastic about dealing with the thugs. Unfortunately, every other team in the area took it as their key to move, and the Emperor hadn't bothered to inform Louise's party that they had been given a team of shadow-escorts. Not to mention the fact that a number of people on the street had been injured by the blast, though thankfully it was small enough that I wasn't seeing any fatalities.
Yet.
It was time for me to move in, and see if my understanding of surpassing the curse was correct.
((()))
"Who sent you?" Kirche demanded, no hint of her playful personality remaining as she seized one of the (mutilated) surviving thugs up by his collar, brandishing her smoking wand beneath his nose, "Who?"
The man gurgled up blood, and attempted to spit in her face; a thin barrier of wind magic prevented the glob from landing. Scowling, Kirche dropped the man, then kicked him away, displaying far more strength of leg than Louise would ever have expected. For that matter, she'd not have expected the Germanian to have enough strength of arm to lift the man one-handed in the first place.
"More coming," Tabitha half-whispered, gesturing out towards the dissipating cloud of smoke in the street as Kirche picked up a second survivor, "Better equipped and trained."
"Tch," Kirche snorted, "We'll have to ask them."
Then she threw the second man aside, none to gently, and conjured a wall of fire in front of herself, sealing off the demolished store-front; Tabitha backed the barrier with one of her own. With a level of coordination borne of long practice, the two began 'walking' their barrier outwards, shaping it into a curve as they did so.
"Everybody out," Kirche said firmly, gesturing for the shopkeeper and his attendants to follow them out into the bubble-shield, "This is going to get ugly before it gets worse, and if anyone stays here they'll be in trouble. Louise, have you trained for casting through shield-holes?"
Louise shook her head.
"Damn," Kirche said, "Then we'll have to-"
She was cut off by an explosion of fire from the street, one which nearly buckled her own fire shield.
"Mages," Tabitha said curtly, "Four, line-level or better."
Kirche swore, and did something with her wand that forced the flames to near-transparency, revealing an out-and-out brawl on the street, a melee between thugs, what looked like common peasants, and a noble couple's entourage.
Kirche was forced to re-evaluate that when a tall, scarred man wearing only a pair of breeches and an eye-patch appeared amidst the brawl in a flicker of shadow and flame, lashing out with fire-wreathed fists. Kirche winced slightly as flesh sizzled and men screamed, a flurry of blows moving faster than her eyes could follow laying out fully half of the combatants in a handful of seconds. Seeing their compatriots so roundly defeated, the surviving thugs turned and attempted to run; the newcomer, flames receding from his fists to wrap around his body in its entirety, simply watched as the 'peasants' ran them down and captured or killed them.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the flight and pursuit cleared the street in front of the damaged dressmaker's store, and the team of mages decided to act while they had clear lines of fire. Two bolts of ice and a stream of high-pressure water lashed out towards Kirche and Tabitha's combined barrier; Kirche's flames were doused, but a twist of the wrist from Tabitha initiated a 'spin' to her wall of wind, deflecting the ice before it could penetrate. The fourth mage, conjuring a quartet of stone golems, advanced on the man with the eyepatch, eying his wreath of flames warily.
"Smart move," The man said in a voice that Louise immediately recognized, calmly waiting for the golems to reach him, "But it won't be enough."
((()))
'Foquet' watched the engagement in the street from behind the chimney of a bakery; she had expected some sort of fracas, but nothing so large and so soon; she hadn't even had the time to start looking for local mercenaries, much less actually recruit any. And watching what the Zerbst and her little blue-haired friend made of the three mages attacking them, without the dragon or the salamander to back them up, made her quite wary of trying to take them on alone.
Oh, certainly, if she used her largest size of golems, fire and wind would do little to nothing against it, but it would also bring the full force of the Germanian royal guard down on her, and that was a battle she knew she could not win; watching the man she suspected was somehow the Valliere's familiar put his fist (which was on fire) through one of the golem's chest, she didn't much like her chances on taking the Valliere's current group of bodyguards.
Or friends. Matilda had had friends like that once; none of them had survived to escape Albion.
Groaning in frustration at the re-emergence of a formerly-suppressed memory, 'Foquet' leaned back, retreating behind the chimney, and found to her irritation, that the cloaked and masked form of Viscount Wardes had joined her on the roof, without her even noticing.
Damn noise-suppression spells, she thought caustically.
"Why aren't you attacking?" Wardes demanded bluntly.
"Because the city watch are doubtless already halfway here, possibly with the Royal Guards in tow," Foquet snapped back at him, "And I don't have any supporting forces to distract them. The caravan arrived here last night. They haven't even 'formally arrived' and met with the Emperor yet; whoever put this into motion is both desperate and foolishly impatient, two things I am not."
"You should be," Wardes growled, none of the charming Gryphon Knight he had shown before visible any longer, "I've met with the leader of the Emperor's guard, and they are both more numerous and more competent than I expected. If you don't act now, you won't get another opportunity, and that would be very bad for your siste-"
Foquet's patience snapped, and she went for her wand.
((()))
The fight in the street ended as abruptly as it had begun, cut short by a source none had expected, and few had even suspected capable of such a thing. It was the first time a Void spell had been cast in Germania in living memory (possibly ever), and the effect it had on the myriad of interplaying barrier and attack spells was nothing short of catastrophic, shredding every bit of arcane energy in active use on the street.
Observant eyes noticed that it did not extinguish the flames of the scarred man, though it did blow off his eye-patch, revealing the empty eye-socket beneath.
"I don't suppose I could talk you into hitting me with one of those?" He asked, turning to look at Louise directly, "Do you even recognize me when I stand up straight, and without all the extra hair?"
Any reply Louise might have given was cut off by a fifty foot golem emerging from the next street over, accompanied by a roar of feminine rage.
"Foquet," Tabitha said sharply, a vague scowl crossing her face as she lobbed a shrieking vortex of wind into the sky, "Careful, she is better than me."
Those amongst the team of magi assassins still capable of doing so attempted to take the opportunity to renew their attack as Tabitha cast her spell; an intense wave of flame intercepted their barrage of spells. In their haste to retake the offensive, they failed to refresh their own defensive spells, and the scarred man was amongst them before they realized the full scale of their mistake, removing any opportunity they may have had to remedy it.
Like most nobility, once their magical protections were removed, the proved quite vulnerable to the 'fist to the face' technique. The dueling pair of mages who moved over from the next street, were much less fragile, not to mention harder to hit. Or harder to hit effectively; one cloaked and masked figure was riding a flight spell, the other was riding within an immense earthen golem, both of them hurling spells at the other.
The Air mage was nimble, and the stones hurled were slow; The lightning flung in return was a powerful example of Square-class magic, but it was difficult to deal much damage to stone with Lightning. The battle was little more than a stalemate, dealing little damage to the two combatants, but plenty to the city around them, and attracting even more attention than the initial fight had. Golems twice the height of any building around them tended to accomplish that.
"Jaeger," Louise called sharply, "Can you end this?"
"Yes," He said flatly, before turning and sprinting towards the golem.
More than thirty feet tall, locked in combat with a flying mage, the stone construct was far from 'stable,' but Jaeger climbed it more swiftly than most healthy men could stairs, hands dancing across rocky protrusions, feet almost slithering upwards, until he stood atop the head.
"OI YOU!" Jaeger bellowed, shifting slightly to maintain his balance as the golem lurched beneath him, "UP IN THE SKY! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!"
"If you insist," The wind mage replied, before diving towards the scarred man, sword-wand leading.
"Be that way then," Jaeger shrugged, turning the shrug into a twist of his shoulders that tilted him out of the way as his masked assailant swept by, seizing the man's shoulders and re-directing his dive to slam him into the golem's shoulder.
"You don't charge the Swordsage," Jaeger said with a dismissive snort, before hopping down after the man.
The wind mage, however, had already recovered from his forceful impact with the construct's torso, rolling to his feet and evading Jaeger's drop kick with a single smooth motion, before retaliating with a flurry of strikes of his own. The first two caught Jaeger by surprise, and he was unable to fully dodge, catching to slashes along his flanks for his trouble. The flames roiling around the shapeshifting familiar leapt out in retaliation, sliding back up the blade even as it shed Jaeger's blood, scorching the spellsword's arm.
Jaeger deflected the third blow with his bare hand, and the mage withdrew his offense before the flames could further trouble him. The burning familiar moved into a searing offense of his own, but discovered, to his considerable surprise, that his opponent was in fact, swift enough to evade or parry his fiery blows.
"You're better than I expected," Jaeger admitted as he shifted backwards, analyzing his foe in more detail, "Most-"
The wind mage left little time for speech, and pressed a refreshed attack of his own, this time lashing out with an orb of electricity, rather than his blade. The orb of lightning was evaded, and struck the neck of the golem instead, causing it to stagger slightly as the current washed through the construct and lent some of its charge to the mage within controlling it.
Jaeger responded with an attempt at grappling, but the wind mage, understandably wary of close combat with a man who was on fire, leapt from the golem's back, and took to the air again, nearly eating a bolt of ice from Tabitha in the process. Lightning lashed at the tiny girl in retaliation, but she already had a shield of air protecting herself and Kirche, and any further attempts he might have made on her life were interrupted by Jaeger rocketing up into the air after him, riding a cone of flame cresting at his fist.
The wind mage rolled around the attack, his cloak scarcely singed by the flames, and hurled a bolt of lightning in return.
Jaeger twisted in midair as his propulsion abruptly cut out, neatly evading the blast, before attempting a spinning kick as he fell back past his foe; again accomplishing nothing.
Wind blades, dodged.
A leap attack from the roof of a nearby building, evaded.
A pressure blast of air, avoided by use of Foquet's golem as cover.
A hurled stone, contemptuously deflected via a shield of air.
Making use of Foquet's golem for cover from the trio of student-mages on the ground, the wind mage ascended up and away, buying time to cast a series of spells, none of which had any immediately visible effect. When he returned to ground level to re-engage, however, the purpose behind his actions became readily apparent.
His blade touched Jaeger again, but this time, the flames surrounding the scarred man's body were worded away by sharp currents of air, nullifying the one successful means of injuring the mage he had demonstrated thus far. Jaeger was forced on the defense; he moved with consummate skill, dodging, ducking, even deflecting his foe's darting blade with his bare hands, but there was a reason swords were used over bare hands, and bloody slashes began to accumulate along his already-scarred flesh.
Not that Jaeger made it easy for his foe to injury him; it took a full minute of furious swordplay for the man to land just five glancing blows on him, at which point Jaeger chose to change the nature of the fight. In what was nearly the blink of an eye, Jaeger's form contracted into a mote of shadow, and disappeared from sight. His foe quickly swept his eyes around the area, catching sight of Jaeger just in time to catch a flying mercenary to the face.
Unconscious mercenaries, especially one wearing nothing more solid than leather, did little in the way of damage, but it almost knocked the mage off his feet, and he took to the air in order to avoid another strike, flying a full fifty feet straight up.
Jaeger hefted another thug, wreathed the unconscious body in flame, then spun around, arms out to hold his improvised weapon at maximum extension, and hurled up at the Wind mage, striking the man dead-on.
"The hell?" The mage burst out, before retreating another fifty feet upwards, "You're throwing people at me?!"
"A wise warrior uses whatever weapons he finds at hand," Jaeger replied with a shrug, before hefting another body, and beginning to spin again.
A trio of arcing rays of lightning leapt down before he could complete his throw however, and one of them struck; the instant the electrical energy made contact with his body, Jaeger disappeared in a blast of fire, dropping the body as he did so.
"Bad move," The shapeshifter whispered from directly behind the Wind Mage's ear, hot breath ascending rapidly to searing heat, as the flames around Jaeger pulsed.
The man turned just fast enough to see a hellish glow emanating from Jaeger's empty eye socket, before his world was drowned in flame.
((()))
"Princess!" Agnes half-shouted as she burst into Henrietta's guest suite at the Imperial Palace, "There's been an attack on Lady Valliere's party within the city!"
"Send Captain Wardes to assist them at once!" Henrietta responded promptly.
"Wardes is missing," Agnes growled, "Or I would have had him out already. I think he may be the agent we've been looking for."
"Wardes?" Henrietta gasped, face paling as she began working through the ramifications of the man's possible treachery, her feet already carrying her towards the door, "We must move immediately."
((()))
"Wardes?" Louise gasped as a mirror-image of the mage Jaeger had just immolated in fire appeared directly behind the Valliere, and seized her around the waist.
((()))
Something was wrong; there was no body. By scent, I was certain that I had been fighting Wardes, but there was no body. Inferno Blast is hellishly damaging, but not enough so to atomize the warded body of a human being. Something was wrong, and I knew that somewhere in my mind lay the information as to what, but it lay in one of the portions of my memory that I hadn't been able to sort out yet.
What was it?
((()))
Three spells went off in rapidy succession; an air-hammer, a flame-whip, then a second air-hammer. None of the (few) commoners watching the engagement saw what happened, their eyes still half-blinded by the massive fireball that was only just fading from the sky; the royal guards arrived half a minute to late to witness what had happened.
When they did arrive, they found a distraught Zerbst standing guard over the body of a tiny blunette who was suffering from one pulverized arm, the other missing in its entirety, while a cat used a flaming paw to sear the severed shoulder shut. Of Louise Valliere, there was no sign.
((()))
AN: ERMAHGERSH! ...So much drama in real life. Really puts a damper on the whole 'writing' thing. Still, this chapter is finally done, and it's pretty long too.
Hopefully, as drama in my life is (currently at least) being resolved, writing production will become more regular again.