Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, Guys and Girls! How are you all doing?
So here comes chapter 12 of The Heart Of Blaze; Second Rebirth!
Not much to say here... had a couple not-bad-but-stupidly-busy days.
College isn't nearly as much of a bitch as school is, but it seems that trouble will find ways to annoy me anyways. I've had much to consider recently with the current availability of The Raising Tide expansion to Beyond Earth and the massive world of Wildstar... its questing system is amazing if you ask me, dunno why so many people dislike it..
Anyways, enough about me, lets start with the story! Finally, you guys are gonna get some more Alice, seeing as like 200% of you have been both PMing and Reviewing with statements that basically amount to this : GIV MOAR ALICU-CHAN OR GTFO.
Yeah... here goes nothing. Enjoy, ye bastards :D (Love ya all)
... I am so going to do Louise first though, haha.
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
Sometime next week - Corwin's Mansion - Louise's Point Of View...
Posturing myself and reforming my voice back to my own, I state to the Tristain Intelligence Corps Officer, namely one Victor Zatara."Report!"
He salutes me after drinking a full bottle of cold water, the guy has been running for a long time while maintaining an invisibility spell, gotta give him credit where credits due. He steadies himself and begins."Yes, milady!"
Taking out a parchment, a well-drawn map of the European region, the Human part of the world as the elves say, with a monstrous amount of written information both on and beside the map. War plans, Spec Ops movement and a great amount of supply lines, both hidden and open.
For instance, the lines carrying weapons and reinforcements are obvious to the enemy and will take their attention as several supply lines carrying food and other luxuries to the battlefields are hidden and subtle. A happy soldier is a dangerous soldier. Good, seems like Henrietta is trying her best, although I'm sure some of that effort can be attributed to Wales, especially during nighttime.
"We have many soldiers crossing the upper pass between The Empire and the Theocracy, causing extreme amounts of violence to ensue on that straight line every single day. We are going to be eventually victorious due to many factors, but the enemy is doing good on taking away our attention. My Queen seems to believe you know why, Lady Phoenix." He says after a short pause and I nod.
"I do. The Mad King is buying time to try and find all of the shards of my heart so he can force me to become his Gandalfyr, his slave. He is sending all of his forces to the line not to defeat you but to stall for time. Your soldiers are most likely fighting void-addled thralls and not actual soldiers." His eyes grow wide.
"T-the shards? Milady, I am afraid that we know nothing about the shards of your heart. We believed them to be lost!" Huh? So father hasn't done anything yet?.. but why?
The man in front of me suddenly gasps in pain as his eyes turn a blood red and several guards yelp out like little girls. Then the man looks at me with a grin on his face."Good evening, my daughter. How have you been."
Nearly laughing, I reply."Pretty good, dad. I take it you are here for more than just chit chat?"
With a nod, he continues."I have not told Henrietta the whereabouts of the shards because even if she does not want to admit it, she has many enemies hidden away within her own castle. If I told her their location-"
"Our enemy would eventually know as well..." My conclusion makes things... difficult.
"Yes, the situation was somewhat dire until recently. But, with my newest son on the chessboard, things may be in our best favor again. Take a look at the map and tell me what you see." My father states and I do as I am told.
It would be impossible for the middle line to be broken by either side of the war, for that would allow free entry into the others lands... to many people would die for my sake that way. But there has to be a way to- Wait, The Savage Balkan is nearby on the lower sides of the war. Sure, in order for the Borken to be of any help, they would have to pass through the border of former Germania, but I am sure that a squadron of Intelligence operatives could open the gates for them.
I look up to see that my father has stopped possessing Victor as he shakes his head, massive amounts of essence leaking out of him."W-well, that was sure an experience."
"Do not worry, it was worth the price." I tell him and he immediately refocuses himself, realizing he is about to get new orders."I hear and obey."
Grinning at him, I continue."Our own army cannot help me and attack Salem without drawing the enemy's attention, or letting some of them begin raiding our lands... however, The Savage Balkan is currently a place of constant turmoil where the elves are trying to forge an army of Borken to invade our lands. One of the Warlords there, named Crothu The Invincible, has proven himself worthy of my fathers blood. Once you are ready, I want you to take a squadron of Shaper Operatives and aid him in any way you can to secure his total dominance over the lands. Once that is done, you must organize his armies safe passage over our south eastern borders and conquer as much enemy territory as you can, including Salem, to hide the reasoning for this advance."
He nods."This information will be of great interest of Lady Henrietta and The Grand General... although, we could just let Lady Alexandra have her way with The Balkan and not waste time?"
"And you think that The enemy wont follow the conquest of someone that influential? The second my grandmother burns the Balkan to the ground, she will make a beeline for Salem. Our enemy will think of this as an assault on their lower regions and retort aggressively... making my salvation impossibly harder." I state with some annoyance.
He waves his hands defensively in front of himself."Forgive me, Lady Phoenix. I should have known better than to question your wisdom."
"Just make sure that Information ends up where it belongs and you will be forgiven, but before that happens, stay awhile and enjoy yourself. Salem is too nice a place to leave right away." I shoo the man off with a steady hand and he complies.
Soon after, Jonathan comes running towards me and bows."Milady, the arrangement has been made with my city's black market. Your delivery of life fibers, etherite and other materials will arrive next week at worst." With a nod, I motion him to come closer.
"You have proven yourself to be far more resourceful than I originally gave you credit for, Corwin. Tell me, do you wish for anything as a reward?" His eyes grow wide as I speak.
Nodding at me with respect, he says."I-Indeed? Well, there is something I would like to possess, namely the power to kill the High-End criminals in my city." Quirking an eyebrow at him, I laugh.
"That's fine.. although, I have a request for you then. Leave Samuel Sewall alive. Defeat him, break him, but bring him to me before you kill him." He bows before me with respect."I hear and obey."
Throwing him a grin as I realize he had eavesdropped on my earlier conversation, I extend my hand to him and he shakes it with a raised eyebrow. Soon, he falls down onto his knees as my power tears him apart and reforges him anew.
He arises, seemingly no different, but with an air of power surrounding him. He grins with the typical shark-like teeth that all evolved seem to possess."Thank you, milady. I promise I will not make you regret this decision."
And with that, he runs off to do whatever he wanted to do. Looking at the orange-golden sky, I let out a breath as I walk towards the peaceful waterfall in the backyard of Jonathan's mansion and begin my meditation to enter the Inner Dream. Today is the day that my beloved daughter gets to meet her newest Uncle. Wouldn't do me well if I'm not there when it happen, now would it?
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
Seconds afterwards... - The Inner Dream - Alice's Point Of View...
I suddenly felt the need to take a look around myself for some reason.
There is a set of psionically made toys, a stuffed teddy bear and the dolly of my mother laying around me, along with several stacks of books of all kinds just laying around. Mother explained to me how my power makes it incredibly easy for my mind to connect and draw knowledge from this thing known as The Bleed Effect.
This has made me quite interested in exactly what that meant and suddenly, a massive amount of information entered my brain, causing me horrendous, albeit momentary pain. Soon after, while mommy was outside, a strange letter appeared in midair. The person who wrote it stated to be my grandpa and that If I wanted to know something, I should ask for it in the form of a book, allowing for a slower, but much less painful access to any form of knowledge I wanted.
More notes appeared occasionally, telling me things... strange things that I don't think a girl my age should understand and yet, I did. You see, Grandpa has a theory that when mother infected me, my power combined with her blood, transformed me into a form of... interface, for The Bleed Effect, a librarian with the access to everything all of The Evolved know and learn.
Unfortunately, that also has an immense effect on my mind. On the bright side, Grandpa is pretty much the same thing, so he knows a few tricks. The knowledge is causing me pain since its being thrown around everywhere and causing an unnecessary mess of memories in my mind.
Normally, evolved minds are created to withstand so much memory, but my body just can't handle both the connection to my mother and the knowledge I subconsciously desire to learn...
So, following Grandpa Alex's example, I made a set of chests, along with several other objects, that would handle specific types of information. This has made things impossibly easier, for both mother and me.
Painful strikes thrown aside for a second, my link to what is basically a Limitless Library of Knowledge has proven quite useful. Hmm, a limitless library of knowledge?
"Why didn't I think about this sooner?" Muttering out loud to myself, I stand up from my sitting position and extend my hands towards the horizon, which is filled with a never ending forest that mother created around the mansion, and form a wish in my mind.
Psionic storms appear around The Inner Dream as space and time twist themselves to fit my desires and soon, a massive never-ending library of empty bookshelves replaces the forest. Feeling myself being filled with wonder, I notice a black line separating the library from the Mansion.
A Psionic border between my own and mothers mind. The Mansion is hers and the Library mine. Quickly stepping over to the Library, I am greeted by a big green, glowing person..thing .. he does not have legs, only a torso, head and arms, seemingly floating in mid-air.
He notices me and bows down."Greetings, Lady Alice. I am The Archon, a Viro-Virtual Psi Program written by Lord Zeus himself, to aid you in the organization and development of your... sudden and, if I may say so myself, genius creation of this Library!" His words sound... different, distorted, not.. normal?
"Um.. hi and thanks? I-I.. I'm afraid I don't know those words about what you said you were so, could you get me some books that describe in detail what you are? Also, you were created by Grandpa? When?" With several blinks of his, ugh my brain hurts... his Virtual eyes, he nods and bows again as he forms a chair upon which I sit. Wait, what does Vir-NO. BAD ALICE. STOP. YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THAT YET.
Shaking my head out of my headache, I listen to him as he speaks."Lord Zeus has created me.. calculating... Exactly seven seconds before you formed the library. He had done so because of a simple instinct."
My eyes grow wide."He... he made you just because he got the idea to do it? Even before I made the Library?!"
A nod."Accessing Database... Complete. Lord Zeus is known to possess instincts on the verge of total premonition. This is not the first time he has done such a thing."
Suddenly, an over sized stack of books falls down onto the floor from apparently nowhere. We both take one look at it before we let out a joint sigh. Turning to look at him, a sudden idea makes me blink."Wait.. there is no way he couldn't have made you so quickly if he didn't have something to base you on, right?"
"Accessing... Complete. It seems that I was made by several modifications of your own psyche written in Virtual Coding and then magically engraved into The Hive Mind which connects all of The Evolved Beings in existence." His words make my jaw drop.
And bring it right back up as I realize the extreme benefits of having what is basically a male version of me inside of my head."Would you happen to be capable of seeing all I see in the outside?"
A happy nod."Yes! Indeed, my primary function is, in fact, not to be your guide around this library, but to be your defensive aide while you spend time in the real world... may I ask what is the difference between this world and the so-called real one?"
Blinking and shrugging at the same time, I reply."This one's better."
"A direct answer. I like you, master!" I smile at him brightly as I turn around towards the fallen stack of books. With another joint sigh, we both say at the same time."Well, best get to work."
"ALICE! ALICE WHERE ARE YOU?" A sudden yell echoes outwards as Mothers voice thunders across The Inner Dream.
Leaving The Archon to his work with a wave for now, I decide to run towards the Mansion and spot mother standing alongside a confused male being, a Borken, my brother, Crothu.
The sudden headache makes me fall right down onto my face as I trip on an imaginary stone."Ow, ow, ow , ow, owwie.."
"There you are! Where have you been, honey?!.. Wait, whats that.. is that a library?" Mother screams out worriedly as she runs towards me.
I nod at her."I made it while you were outside. Its gonna help me contain all the knowledge I ask for."
Her eyes grow as wide as saucers and she beams at me with pride and sudden tears in her eyes."My little Alice, growing up so quickly."
With a big hug, mother finally releases me and I let out a breath of relief. We both giggle at my antics and then turn around to see Crothu lamely rubbing the back of his head."Um... hi? I suppose you are Alice?"
Running up to him as I was pretty excited to meet him, I say."Yeah, I am! And you are Crothu, right?"
He tilts his head at mother who does much the same and then he turns towards me."Excuse me little one but how do you know my name?"
"That would be because she has access to The Collective Knowledge of all Evolved." The Archon appears out of the Library, carefully floating out of it with curiosity echoing in his virtual voice.
Mother's and Crothu's mouths are currently gaping at him."W-w-what are you?"
He nods at them as he begins his explanation."Greetings, Lady Louise and Lord Crothu. I am a Viro-Virtual Psi Program created by Lord Zeus as an aide to Lady Alice."
"He's here to help me, both in the real world and in the Library." I tell them and mother blinks several times.
"Wait a minute here, you mean to tell me that my daughter possesses access to all knowledge within The Hive Mind?!" Mother says with a disbelieving voice.
The Archon smirks."Not only that, but with my help, she can both access and use it within the span of a millisecond!.. Once I manage to sort everything out and throw out the thrash, no reason to know why some dude on Euphoria decided it was time to throw out the trash."
Shaking his head fiercely, Crothu comes near me and shakes my hand."I don't have the brains to take this in right now so.. Hi Alice, I'm one of your Uncles. See you sometime, okay? Goodbye and have fun, bye." And with that he disappears, quickly reconnecting his psyche to his real body.
Letting out a laugh, mother looks at The Archon and myself."Well alright then. You two can go and have fun managing The Library, I need to start remodeling my part of this place because I've been doing nearly everything wrong so far."
The Archon beams at her."Ah, you mean to do a complete restructure of The Inner Dream? May I aid you in your endeavor, Lady Phoenix? I assure you, my access to The Collective is the same as that of Lady Alice, plus one of my functions allows me to relay information from my creator to anyone in the near vicinity."
She nods at him, looking equally happy."Yes, I would appreciate that, Archon... Do you have a name or is that your only designation?"
He blinks, quite confused."I do not know what you mean, milady? I am officially designated as PROJECT: Archon, but if you desire to name me something else I am sure that The Creator would not mind."
Perking up at this, I exclaim."How about Odyx!"
Both of them look at blinks several times at me before he laughs."Alright then, its settled. I am henceforth; Odyx, The Archon!"
Suddenly, mother looks at me as I watch Odyx returning to the Library to start sorting and managing the knowledge."Alice, your body is currently meditating in the real world. If you wish, you could go outside and play now. There won't be anything that I have to do for a long time so, you have the whole week free."
Nodding at mother, I say excitedly."Yeah! I've wanted a chance to test my powers in the real world for a while now and the backyard of mister Corwin's mansion is the perfect place for that."
She giggles at my excitement and states."Just be careful not to delete anything from existence, alright dear?"
I tilt my head in confusion."But I can't do that?"
She smiles at me."I'm just joking honey, please be careful is all I wanted to say."
"Alright mommy, I'll do my best!" I tell her with quickly-returning excitement as I reconnect myself to the real world, finally capable of doing so on my own.
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
Seconds Later... - The Real World - Alice's Point Of View...
"Uhmmmh.." I moan out loudly as I wake, alerting several guards to my re connection to the real world.
Cracking my neck and standing up from mothers meditating position, I take a look around to find that the world looks.. different.
"Milady, the making of The Library seems to have affected your powers in a way much alike to that of simple training. You may possess far greater capabilities now than when you were last awake. For instance, my primary database allows me to access information about several powers that The Creator seems to believe you possess." Odyx's voice echoes in my mind and I send him an imaginary nod.
I turn towards the guards with a smile."Could you please leave me alone for a while? I desire to test some of my new powers and I would not wish you to be hurt." Strange, unnaturally smooth wording leaves my mouth as I speak. It would seem that the Library's creation has done more than make my powers skyrocket.
They bow and leave."As you wish, Lady Phoenix." Oh, they seem to think that I am mother. Meh, who cares, that works in my favor.
After they have disappeared from sight, I send another message to Odyx."Archon, you said that Grandpa thought I had new powers, could you explain in a bit more detail please?"
"Of course. First is what he reffed to as Phantasm Forming. While you may not yet be capable of forming pure physical objects in the real world, Lord Zeus seems to think you can form Phantasm.. ghost versions of them, for a lack of a better word. I would recommend trying to create something you see around you." His smooth voice echoes and I nod.
Extending my hands forward, I take a long look at a small stone around the artificial waterfall and imagine it appearing in a ghost-like white form in front of my hands. Soon, a jagged image attempts to form, but I find it very hard to keep it stable. As I look at the Phantasmal stone, I see that it does not quite fit the description of the stone I looked at before and the image gets even more unstable, eventually breaking completely from reality with barely a sound.
"Hmm, Interesting. Try making the same stone again, but do not attempt to scan it for imperfections. Rather, please push it towards that rock over there." Blinking as I refocus myself, raise my hands up in the air and form what I know is a stone, and swing my arms forward, making my Phantasm crash into the rock, creating a huge sound as several guards come rushing to see an utterly annihilated piece of rock.
They look at me somewhat petrified."Uh... I'm going to go elsewhere now, please inform the mayor of this... alongside my apologies."
With a couple nervous laughs, they comply and servants begin trying to fix the piece of the garden I just blatantly and quite carelessly ruined. Crap.
Quickly running away from that rather embarrassing situation, I arrive at the gates towards the city, only to see it guarded by two of the Mayor's men, most likely instructed not to let me outside right now."Milady, the second power may be of good use in this situation. It is called Psychic Compulsion. Rather than complete mind control, you are supposedly capable of making others incapable of noticing you for a short while, or compel them into doing something for seemingly no reason at all. It is called compulsion because strong wills are able to resist it rather easily."
"But those guards are evolved, aren't they? Can't we make use of that connection to make this easier to do?" I mutter out silently as I hide inside of a bush, planning.
They don't seem to notice me which makes me extremely glad, because I think I look fairly stupid right now."Hmm, interesting. Let us make this an experiment then. Use your ability on one of the guards to open the gates and compel the other into being unable to see you as you rush past him. To use this power, you must imagine yourself as a Phantasm entering the victims mind with a single thought, that which you wish of them to do."
Steadying myself, I extend my hands to one of the guards and send a Phantasm with a simple order."Open The Gate."
And then towards the other one."You shall not see anyone pass by you for ten seconds."
"Urgh!.." The guards both grunt out as they unwillingly comply to my orders. Huh, interesting.
"Milady, you have only 6.42329 more seconds by the end of this sentence to pass by the other guard." My eyes grow wide as I go full sprint as just barely manage to get past beyond the gates as the guards recover from the compulsion.
I continue running until I reach the end of the alley and then turn to look at my right hand, noticing my Phantasmal Power left a shining ghostly pure-white glow and smile."Oh I am so gonna love this."
The Archon's giggle echoes out in my mind before he abruptly stops."Milady, your Psionic Energy Pool seems to have been drained nearly completely. Accessing the barest points of Knowledge from the Euphorian Collective has revealed that completely draining it may cause extreme headaches and even a coma in some cases, so may I advise you to go and rest for a while before we commence further testing?"
Nodding enthusiastically, even if I was a bit disappointed, I quickly dig around in my pockets as a certain chocolate cake comes to mind... only to find that I have no money. Grrr, If only there was some money I could just, pick up and get away with it.
"OWCH!" A sudden, blinding orange pulse leaves my body and highlights a hidden alley. Intrigued by the glow of the alley, I enter it and get the impulse to dig around some strangely positioned trash bags. Inside of them, I find a pristine metal container and open it with ease.
Inside of it, there were several pouches of gold, silver and copper coins, as well as some jewelry and precious gems."Hmm, the ability you just used only took an insignificant amount of Psionic Energy to use... Calculating... Complete. My analysis concludes that you just used an Ability called Viral Pulse, which comes naturally to all Evolved beings and is used to locate living beings and/or objects with souls."
I take the pouch full of copper and let all of the coins fall down to the ground. Then I fill it with six pieces of new gold, sixteen silver and twenty copper coins, while managing to restrain myself in taking anything else as I close the container and hide it behind the trash bags again as I place the pouch onto my waist. Taking a look around to find that nobody was nearby, I let out a sigh. That container was probably a mafia dead-drop.
Shrugging and hoping for the best, I walk towards my favorite sweets hotel, Shady Shanks! Silently, I finally reply to Odyx's former statement."But that was a metallic container, not something with a soul or alive."
He sends me an imaginary nod."Perhaps your own psionic powers upgraded this version of the Pulse, allowing it to even find soulless objects considering that you actively seek them out, which would explain the sudden headache you received because this was your first time using it. Either way, this is an event worthy of recording. Should I send this as a report to Lord Zeus?"
My eyes beam at nobody in particular as he says this and I speak enthusiastically."You can do that? Then yes, please do. I have a feeling that Grandpa's input will help a lot in the future."
"Yes, I agree milady." Okay, this milady stuff is getting kinda annoying.
I scoff at him, causing a few people to look at me strangely as I quickly excuse myself to a less populated area."Would you kindly stop calling me milady, Odyx. You are kinda like my twin brother so just call me either sister or Alice, okay?."
A face completely stunned by surprise is shown to me as an image and I nearly laugh at his bewildered expression."W-w-well t-then. I think you are correct in your statement, sister Alice. However, I would also like it if you could call me Odyx or Brother and not Archon then."
I nod at him as I quicken my steps in excitement."Okay then, my big brother Odyx! Lets go eat some chocolate cake!"
"Yes.. lets!" His suddenly excited voice echoes enthusiastically before he tilts his head."Wait, weren't you born sooner? Wouldn't that make you the big sister?"
Shrugging, I reply."Sure it would theoretically, but you were obviously created as an adult so that makes you my big brother. And besides, I'm only seven years old now while you look like you are in your twenties."
"I suppose that is logical... wait, it says that you are six in my database?" Huh? Oh wait, I was so happy when mother found me I didn't even tell her when my birthday way, hehe.
"Yeah, I think that's because nobody other than me knows the exactly date. You know the time when mother found me, right? My birthday came exactly a week later, but I forgot to mention it to mother." I reply as I take another turn around a long street, almost arrived to our goal.
"Interesting... oh well, well worry about that later, lets go eat some cake now!" He exclaims as he realizes that the hotel is in range of my eye's view and I let myself smile brightly as we near our current goal.
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
Lord Joyde The Madman: And that is it for chapter 12 of The Heart Of Blaze; Second Rebirth!
It was surprisingly fun to type about Alice, especially now that she has her own version of Wildstar's The Caretaker, living in her head.
Meh, nothing else to say here... tell me what you think about this new development!
Also.. where are you Krazyfanfiction1? Haven't heard from you in months! I'm getting worried D;
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!