Author's Note:
Hey, I'm alive!!! Haha…phew! This was…not a good semester for me free-time-wise. Finals were unbelievably crappy and took up pretty much two weeks of my time, not to mention most of my mental capacity and…well…sleep. I wanted to have this chapter done close to Thanksgiving but school said NO so…you're just getting it now
I made it extra long for you, though! Is thirteen pages enough for you all? haha
I admit, some of you may be a bit disappointed because rather than really digging into Rydia's adolescence and the conversations she could have with Shiva and others, I'm plowing onward. Conversations about "growing up" I might go back to once I'm done with this and have more time. Right now I just want to get to the end.
Also, Rydia's around fourteen years old now.
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Chapter Twenty Eight
The world of womanhood was one Rydia had definitely not expected. It was all too strange to be real. The mere idea of having children made her dizzy. Did people really do all the things Shiva had told her about? Six months had passed, and Rydia had wanted nothing more than to lock herself away with nothing but Shiva's strong tea to sustain her. She wanted to deny that she was continuing to change. She didn't like it, didn't want any of it, but she slowly felt adulthood being forced upon her like a coarse shirt being pulled over her head and shoulders. There was nothing else she could do. She was growing up, that was all there was to it.
To her chagrin, Black considered her as an alien thing, something that might break or bite depending on how it was approached. There were times when she caught his gaze, and he was staring at her as if to ascertain whether or not she was growing horns. She realized she hadn't said much to him after that night when she'd panicked and Shiva had intervened. It was too embarrassing to discuss, so she didn't; but now Black kept a strange sort of distance. It made the changing more difficult to bear, knowing that he thought she was probably a crazed sort of creature. She was, after all, a maelstrom of emotions, flying to anger and plummeting to sadness the next instant.
On this particular day, she could feel the lid on her temper coming dangerously close to sliding loose. Of all people it was Black who was dutifully chipping away at her resolve. Sitting at the small table in her house, he'd been supplying her with books that might peak her interest, but he had taken to staring at her out of the corner of his eyes, and Rydia was tired of it.
"Look at me like that one more time and I'll cast thundara on you!" she suddenly snapped, throwing the cover of the book in front of her shut.
Black's golden eyes slid smoothly away, almost affronted. "What good would that do?" he quipped.
She plopped her chin into her cupped palm in frustration. "It would make me feel better," she muttered bitterly.
"I'm not looking at you strangely anyway!" he objected.
"Yes you are! Like I'm a rock moth or something!"
"Well you've been acting enough like a monster lately, you may as well be one!" he volleyed.
Outraged, Rydia slammed her hand on the table. "Take that back!"
"Have I missed something?"
They both turned to see Shiva crossing the room toward them with a stern look on her face. Their argument came to an abrupt halt.
"Black, stop goading her. Rydia, stop being such an easy mark. We have work to do today, or have you both forgotten that?"
Rydia's anger was gone in an instant. "I didn't forget."
"Good. Black, are you ready to go?" Shiva asked brusquely, a hand on her hip.
He sighed and nodded, jumping down from his chair.
"And Black," Shiva continued, "I'll have to have a word with you after this lesson."
"Yes ma'am," he muttered.
If Shiva heard the sass in his tone, she was ignoring it. She turned on her heel and waited for the two of them by the doorway of Rydia's little home. Rydia quickly drew on her cloak of gray and green, slipping one dagger into the belt at her waist before joining Shiva.
Without another word, Shiva led the two of them once again through the city, a path so familiar to Rydia she could walk it in her sleep. Following her jarring experience with "womanhood", Rydia hadn't left the city for months, but lately Shiva had resumed such training sessions.
"The world won't wait for you to stop being afraid of yourself," she'd said. "We don't have much time left, and growing taller isn't something to worry about. Learn as you grow, I don't expect you to become an adult overnight and neither should you."
Rydia thought of their conversation again as she walked quietly behind Shiva—comforted by those words. If Shiva's encouragement hadn't been enough, her training spoke volumes to her as well. It wasn't too long ago that she'd practiced her spells outside of the city, and the results had been startling. Her magic was different than before—it was more powerful, more controlled. It seemed her aptitude with her spells had nearly doubled and the ice summon's curiosity had gotten the better of her. She wanted to learn Rydia's limits and sending her more frequently beyond the borders of the city was her method of choice.
For Rydia, sensing the new depths of her magic and learning to adapt to the changes of her body, these frequent excursions had done her good. She could feel the current of energy flowing through her, more powerful than before. The longer she went between casting magic the more she felt it bubbling up inside her, begging to be set free. The caverns were as much a release for her as they were a learning experience. Blizzara, thundara, and fira were now powerful tools at her disposal. Her transformation spells held longer durations and the energy she was able to share with Shiva during summonings allowed her to execute even greater spells.
On the rare occasion that she called upon Ramuh, he seemed to become more lively and young, buoyed by the strength of her own magic. This change in her ability startled her but bolstered her along and helped her to think less about the physical changes she was undergoing. Progress she thought in relief.
Shiva brought them just within the caverns and there halted.
"Today we will do something different. I will go on ahead and conceal myself in a portion of the cavern. Your task is to find me. The same rules apply as every other session. If you encounter a foe too powerful, flee."
With those instructions, she cast float on the three of them and disappeared from sight. It had occurred so quickly, Rydia barely had time to register the fact that Shiva was no longer with them.
"We should try to find her as quickly as possible," Black advised, nonplussed by Shiva's quick directions and departure.
"And why is that, my oh-so-diligent guardian?"
"Before you undergo some beastly transformation and lose control of your senses," he replied with a hint of jest in his voice.
Rydia's hands balled into fists.
"I'm not a monster!" she sputtered.
She could have sworn he bore a smile on his face. It was hard to tell, the whiskers and all.
"Shiva just says I'm going through a phase. It will pass."
Black sighed. Was that relief she heard?
"I'm not a monster!" she repeated, with less venom and more self-doubt.
"Humans are strange," was all he said.
Rydia began walking at a clipped pace, leaving Black to trot behind her. Her dagger strapped securely at her waist, she knew she could use it if necessary; but she felt confident enough in her magic now, that she didn't think she would have to. If anything, she might use it against Black before any foes.
As her anger settled, she led the way through several passages that she'd now become familiar with, looking for the hidden ice summon. Rydia assumed that Shiva would conceal herself as far from the Summoned Land as possible and loathed having to spend that much extra time with Black.
She glanced down at him a few times before returning her eyes to the path ahead. She knew from experience that the cavern monsters were clever and could attack without warning, so she resolved to keep her attentions on the caves, not on the cat walking behind her.
They walked in silence through several passages, and it wasn't long before the first foe crossed their path. She and Black had just squeezed through a narrow path and rounded a corner to find a basilisk waiting for them there, black carapace shining like polished armor. It regarded her with obsidian eyes and flashing tongue, and Rydia readied herself quickly, the words of the blizzara incantation flowing through her lips. She released the power the spell contained, gathering ice out of the air and directing its path. It engulfed the basilisk, consuming joints and seeping into cracks before solidifying completely. The ice then shattered, but the basilisk was strong. The ice had cracked its carapace, but not gone far within. A tongue twice as long as Rydia was tall, shot out across the space between them. Rydia jumped out of the way, launching into another blizzara incantation. She released it, but this time focused on the fissures in the carapace, forcing the spell to attack at those points. She drove it through, freezing the basilisk from the inside out. It shattered into fragments, the remnants falling to the floor where they sizzled and melted in the molten pits.
Black nodded in satisfaction and they moved on. There was quite a business feel to all of this, and Rydia continued to feel it more keenly as they pressed onward. Minor enemies fell easily beneath her spells and were brushed aside. Others posed more of a problem, but many of them could be handled with Black's assistance. Those she couldn't handle at all were avoided altogether, and Rydia relied on Black's eyes and ears to know where and how close they were.
After several hours of searching, Rydia was finally beginning to grow tired. "Do you sense Shiva anywhere nearby?" she asked.
Black shook his head. "No. Wait. Yes."
Rydia paused to look at him. "What does that mean?"
He looked a bit dazed. "She's up ahead, but something's not right. She's using her magic!" he exclaimed, bolting along a long straight passage and up a staircase of vines. Rydia ran after him and they both emerged into another chamber of the caverns that had been carved out in the rock by magma.
Shiva was standing in the center of the chamber, a sword of ice in each of her hands. The creature she faced was large, its body a mixture of parts and colors. The torso was that of a great cat, but its three heads all belonged to different creatures. It snarled and snapped. Rydia was taken aback. She'd never seen anything like this lurking in the caverns before.
"This isn't right," Black muttered and leapt forward to stand at Shiva's side.
Rydia joined him a moment afterward.
"What happened?" he asked Shiva.
At first the ice summon was silent. "It came out of the shadows. Took me by surprise. I'm amazed that a chimera made it this far. These aren't their usual hunting grounds."
"Do you think this one is like the others that tried to enter the Summoned Land?"
"Most likely. Fenrir had mentioned that more monsters were pouring out of the tower, and many of them were headed here."
"I wonder why," he mused.
"No time," Shiva answered tersely. "We have to destroy this one before it goes any further."
She cast a glance at Rydia. "Stay back. We'll take care of this."
Rydia's eyes widened fearfully. "Are you sure I can't—"
"I said stay back!" Shiva repeated.
Startled by the fierceness of Shiva's command, Rydia began to slowly retreat backwards.
Before her, Shiva jumped toward the beast, the two swords of ice glistening sharp in her hands. She ran deftly on the air, the effects of the float spell still withstanding, and brought her swords down in graceful arcs, aiming for the heads. But the creature was quicker than Shiva had expected. It hopped backwards and reared, raising clawed paws upwards and snarling. Shiva dodged them and quickly retreated, but not before one of the heads released its magic. A terrible blue flame poured from its mouth, blazing across the ground and sweeping Shiva up in its fury. The ice summon was thrown off her feet and landed on her back, scorches on her clothing and flesh. Rydia looked on in shock. She'd never seen Shiva injured.
Black, bothered by the state of his companion also bolted forward, teeth bared. Rydia wondered for a moment if he'd actually grown in size or was she imagining things? He too threw himself at their opponent, claws extended. His attempt was more successful, and four even stripes remained on the creature's hide. On Black's retreat, the same attack followed him as had Shiva's. Blue flame lanced across the chamber, sending Black flying.
Shiva was back on her feet, but her face was one of consternation. She wiped her face with the back of one hand, removing blood that had started to flow.
"This one counterattacks. Black, can you get behind it?"
He struggled to his feet, groaning. "You have a plan?"
She gave him a knowing smile. "I always have a plan."
Shaking off his smoking fur, Black once again ran forward, this time giving the creature a wider berth. The chimera watched him with one of its heads while Shiva took the opportunity to run forward, throwing one sword and keeping the other. The projectile buried itself in the creature's chest and the chimera cried out with all three heads at once. The sound of all three screams was blood curdling and Rydia covered her ears in dismay. Shiva, on the other hand, smirking with this small success, closed the distance and slashed at one of the heads, severing it from the body. Green blood jetted out of the neck where it had once been and the other two heads writhed in pain and howled. Shiva ran behind the creature rather than the way she'd come. While it turned to counterattack, Black arrived from its other side, leaping onto its shoulders and biting with long fangs into the neck of another head. The chimera, unsure of where this other attacker had come from, bucked and howled. Black refused to release his grip on the neck, and green blood runneled down the sides of its hide.
Rydia could only watch helplessly. She realized this foe was beyond her, and that entering the battle would only trouble Shiva and get in the way of the two battling summons; but she felt terribly useless, standing as she was on the sides of the battle. While she watched, the head in Black's grasp drooped and sagged, going lifeless. Only one head left.
Shiva returned with her sword in hand. She jumped, trying to get a good vantage to place her strike, but the head ducked and recoiled. Shiva missed and landed too close to the creature's front side. The last remaining head lunged for her and dug its teeth into her arm. Shiva cried out in surprise, dropping the sword in her arm. She pelted the creature's head with her other fist, snarling at it, furious with pain. When it failed to release her arm, she gripped the sword she had lodged in its chest and pulled it out, using a leg for leverage. The sword came free and she pierced it through the spinal cord of this final head. The jaw went slack, her arm freed. The body fell limply to the ground. Shiva clutched her wounded arm and Black slowly walked toward her, his coat covered in splashes of green blood.
"Tougher than he seemed."
Shiva nodded. "Close combat wasn't the wisest decision on my part," she admitted.
"But chimeras absorb ice."
"Hm," she conceded, then turned to see Rydia watching the two of them, worry splayed across her face. "Come here, Rydia," Shiva called.
Rydia did so, quickening her pace the nearer she got. "Are you all right?"
Shiva nodded wearily. "Fine. I'm ending today's training. We've had enough excitement for one session."
Black snorted. "Excitement indeed."
"Both of you take hold of me. I'll take us back home."
Rydia grasped one of Shiva's sleeves and Black leaned up against one of her legs. Shiva spoke the teleportation spell and they arrived at the portal to the city.
Shiva bore a frown. "Strange," she mumbled, shaking her head.
They stepped onto the portal, neither Rydia nor Black commenting on this strange appearance in the caverns. Not yet. Upon entering the city, several summons stopped to look at them strangely, many in their human guises. Some had taken to this disguise whenever they knew Rydia was walking about, but some simply preferred walking on two legs than four. It allowed them to free their arms for other activities.
The eyes turned on Shiva were that of shock. It must have been a sight for them to see the stern woman bleeding and singed. Black didn't look too wonderful either. His fur was a terrible mess, blackened and smoldered. Rydia felt strange not having a single mark or blemish to her person.
Some tried to come closer but Shiva waved them off. "It's fine," she told them in her authoritative voice. To Black and Rydia she said, "We'll head to the library. The king and queen must be told of this. Don't stop. Try not to look at too many people. I don't want to raise a spectacle."
Rydia led the way, Black behind her, and Shiva in the rear. They made such a strange traveling group through the city. Rydia prim and neat in front and Black and Shiva a ragtag mess behind her. They passed through the sections of the city as quickly as they could, passing many curious eyes. Ramuh even saw them at one point and to Shiva's dismay, followed them. Shiva appeared to bristle, her pride injured at Ramuh seeing her out of pristine condition. She generally prided herself for returning from errands unscathed, but not today.
Ramuh followed them to the library, saying little, but did not enter the throne room. He halted at the final staircase while Shiva took the lead and strode into the room.
Leviathan was waiting for them, standing in human guise with his arms folded. A look of appraisal was on his face. Asura stood beside him, dubious.
"Please explain to me, Shiva, how you managed to find yourself in such a sorry state. Black as well. This is most unusual even for you," the king inquired.
Shiva squared her shoulders, and Black seemed to wilt a little in defeat. Rydia stood behind them, peering past Shiva's back.
"There was a chimera in the caverns. I was caught off-guard," Shiva explained.
"A chimera? That's a tower dwelling beast."
"As I thought," Shiva stated. "I did not anticipate its attacks as I should have. It took both Black and myself to subdue it."
"Is it dead?"
"Yes, quite," Shiva answered.
Asura was watching Rydia with the same shrewdness she bore toward everyone. "You are not injured, girl?"
Rydia shook her head. "Shiva told me not to engage in the battle."
Asura's gaze shifted back to Shiva. "This is yet another of a series of battles with strange monsters in the caverns. Fenrir has been sent out to gather information, but for all his speed, who knows when we will hear from him again. It could be months, only the equivalent of days in the outerworld."
"Do you think these attacks are being guided?" Shiva asked.
"If the man Golbez wants to control the magic of the world and subdue any that might oppose him, it is possible we are his next target. First the summoners, then the summons. It is possible he doesn't know the danger we already face with the near annihilation of the summoners themselves, and therefore, sending monsters as his spies to sense the magic of this spell could be a problem for us."
"How many summons are currently being placed to guard the entrance to this land?" Shiva prodded.
"Enough for now, but if chimera or even greater beast attacks begin to escalate, many more will have to defend the door."
"We will take this information to heart and decide what else to do with it," Asura assured them. "Unfortunately, there is nothing else to tell you. Wait a moment and I will heal those wounds of yours."
The queen spoke the words of a cure spell and its soft glow filled the room, stitching flesh and skin together again. Shiva flexed her arm experimentally, the gash from the bite she'd received gone from existence.
"I'd suggest cleaning yourselves off as quickly as you can. I don't want to bring too much attention to this too soon. You may leave now."
Dismissed, Shiva led the retreat from the room. Rydia wasn't sure, but it seemed the woman brooded. When they had closed the door, Ramuh was waiting for them at the top of the stairs.
"Are you going to explain what happened?" he asked, finally voicing his concern.
Shiva's look was icy. "Chimera. We handled it fine. Just took me by a bit of surprise."
"You too, Black?"
Black's face was set in neutral. "Blasted counterattack."
When that was all either of them said, Ramuh didn't ask any more questions and merely joined them in their departure from the library.
When they arrived at the front of Rydia's small home, Shiva made it quite obvious that she was leaving for the day.
"Since today didn't go entirely as planned, I'm rescheduling your test to a later time. For now, try to get farther in your readings of the summoner texts, Rydia. I'll come to you soon to discuss how your training will progress from here onward."
Rydia nodded as the ice summon walked away, Ramuh beside her, still curious as to how exactly she'd been injured. Black remained with her at her doorway.
"Aren't you going in?" he asked, sounding perturbed.
Rydia looked down at him. "You're staying with me? I thought I was too much of a monster to be tolerated."
"Your bed is soft," he retorted.
Rydia rolled her eyes and opened the door. Black stepped inside and hopped onto her bed, stretching out his limbs and beginning the ritual cleaning. Rydia cast him a cursory glance, unstrapped the belt from her waist and hung it from its hook near the door. She ran a hand through her long green hair and walked to the table in the center of the room.
The books on her table were open, their pages facing her with the letters scratched on, dancing across her vision. After the excitement in the caves, her mind had a difficult time wrapping around reading texts for the next several hours, possibly days.
"Have you ever seen Shiva injured before, Black?"
He looked up from his grooming. "No. I also don't accompany her very often outside of the city when she's on an errand."
Rydia frowned. "Why didn't she use one of her more powerful attacks?"
"I don't know. She might have had her reasons. Maybe she was saving her strength?"
"I hope she recovers quickly."
"What do you mean? Asura healed her—you were there."
"I wasn't talking about her body. I was talking about her pride. I've never seen her so angry."
"I suppose that's true. She'll recover quickly enough. She may consider it a personal challenge from now on, but she'll be fine."
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to do anything."
"Shiva told you not to get involved."
Rydia shook her head. "Still. I should have done something."
"And end up burnt? You'll be able to fight against monsters like that soon enough on your own. Don't get too hasty. By the way, that pile you've collected—anything worthwhile?"
Rydia absently flipped through some pages. While she understood a lot of what was written, certain passages eluded her. The language was still too difficult for her to decipher.
"I'm only finding snatches of complicated magic commands and bits of lore. There's little of what I really want to read, and I'm beginning to wonder whether or not it exists at all."
"I don't think there would be any belief that the void existed without reason to think so. There has to be mention of it somewhere."
"I wonder if it's mentioned in the sections I can't read, but if that's the case, it will take a long time for me to figure out what it means. I also haven't found anything out about how the spell around this place was cast or how to undo it."
Black sighed and returned to licking the charred wads of his fur. Rydia didn't want to think what kind of hairballs he would no doubt acquire later on. Or did summons not worry about those sorts of things?
She pulled a chair away from the table and sat down, beginning to read. The same thing greeted her eyes as many times before. Stories about different attempts at mastering new spells, the successes of using magic in farming—things that she might have found interesting if she weren't so anxious to find something else, something more particular to her situation.
She flipped ahead. A different script flowed across the page. It was more elegant and refined than the others before it and even the arrangement of the words of the page looked more artful than functional. She read a few lines and found that the words read like musical notes. They were long and short, their cadence filling her head. She flipped a few pages past and came across yet another series of these similarly constructed passages. One, however, was different than the others, but still old in dialect. Once again she began to read, but when she finished it, her eyes froze over the words. She blinked and re-read the passage.
A dreamer sees what cannot be seen. What was, what is, what will occur…Who knows what dreams the dreamers dream. Truth in riddle? Young and old alike, they argue. Perhaps only the weavers bear the answers. Exploration leads them to separate mind from body and wander the planes of thought. Otherworldly. Some never return, their bodies left to see unseeing. The weavers of dreams, the interpreters of thought, lost to the nothingness where others dare not tread. Are they magical beings? Are they ghosts? Or have they crossed one of the boundaries of this world and found the other side more to their liking? The boundary between the corporeal and the spiritual, between magical and natural. Can they be crossed? Are there spaces between these things where something else exists? Are there shadow realms that can only be reached with the mind, touched by thought? So that to think they exist gives them existence, and to dream them brings them to life? I have often pondered this and so continue. Perhaps to learn the truth I must take that journey myself—to the other side.
Rydia pushed the book away and sat up straighter. Shadow realms? Spaces between? Could it be the Void? Could it be one of those places?
The words of the passage were confusing, but she thought she largely understood their meaning. People who could separate their minds from their bodies and wander the planes of thought? How far did those planes reach? Could they touch the realm of the dead? Was it possible to do this herself? After all, she had the ability to see visions, perhaps all it took was yet another step forward. There were risks, but could there be greater benefits as well? Could you bring a wanderer back with you?
She skimmed the entry a bit further but found very little that warranted usefulness. What she'd already read, however, had been enough to spark an old desire. Was it almost time for her to be ready?
"Eh? Did you find something useful?" Black asked again, looking up once again from his angry grooming.
Rydia gave him a tight lipped smile. "Just surprised a little, that's all," she hedged.
He stared at her with one eye half-open.
"Really, the text just changed in a way I wasn't expecting. Are you feeling better?"
The ratio in size of his eyes changed yet again. "I'm…fine. In fact, I'm going to bed. Hopefully the frizz will have gone away by morning."
Rydia watched him hop down from her bed and bounce to his corner, fully equipped with a mound of blankets and pillows. It was almost more extravagant than her own bed. He buried himself beneath a blanket and she could see the lump moving in a circle until his head reappeared a few moments later.
"Will your fur really repair itself overnight?"
He yawned. "I am magical, you know."
Watching the cat summon prepare for a night of rest, made Rydia tired as well. Facing a wall, she slipped into her sleeping gown and dipped beneath her covers. Dreams. How could someone go about slipping between dimensions in their sleep? Did she do it already? Slipping between great physical distances? She fell asleep with those thoughts on her mind.
………………………………………….
The following morning Black was gone. It wasn't surprising. He usually went on his own accord long before she ever did. She dressed and did her early morning routine, then stepped outside her door for some "fresh" air. The city did not look like it usually did at this time of the morning. Summons were rushing about in all directions, and many of them hadn't even bothered to hide their true forms. Shapes and colors of all kinds greeted Rydia's eyes as she looked about. What were the summons doing?
Rydia espied Black among the throngs of Summons and wove her way toward him.
"Black, what's going on?" she asked above the din.
"Fenrir's back."
She frowned, this statement's true meaning lost to her.
"Black," she hissed, "What does that mean, exactly?"
"Come with me. Leviathan is going to make an address."
Her eyes opened wide. "He's going to what?"
"Just follow me."
She pushed between more summons and tried to keep an eye on Black's tail as he dipped between and around people's legs.
They reached the arena and sure enough, half of the Summoned Land's population was crowded into it. Leviathan stood on a tier, in human form, if for no other reason than to stand even taller above the crowds.
Black tried to lead her closer to the summon king, but they were stymied halfway through the enormous crowd. There they waited.
After several minutes of tumult, the king finally raised his arms. Quiet gradually fell on those assembled and Rydia's attention was solely on the king.
He spoke, and his words were so loud and resonant that Rydia hardly thought that she and Black needed to have struggled to get so close.
"My fellow brothers and sisters, I have news of grave importance! Our dear friend Fenrir has returned from his journeying and has information that grieves me terribly…"
There were murmurs among the Summons.
"Activity in the Tower of Babil has grown of late. The presence of magic there is abnormal and everyday it seems more monsters, brainless beasts, are released from its doorstep. Some have found their way to our city more than once, I'm sure you know this. I ask you now to trust me. I am ordering that the watch be strengthened to the portal of this city. We cannot allow anything to find its way onto our streets or into our hallowed homes. I would close the portal, but during this critical time with no summoners to give us information of the outside world, it is our only way of keeping watch on the affairs in the Tower. As for what grieves me, the creation of these monsters is not without purpose. A man named Golbez has somehow found a way to discover the secrets of the Tower, secrets even we hardly know of. There is a great power he is hoping to unleash and his purpose is to destroy the earth, this much we have discovered. However, before he can enact his plan, he first hopes to destroy anyone who stands in his path. It seems that he has become aware of our presence in the underground, even knows that our domain is penetrable. I do not know how he has become so enlightened, but it would seem he has decided to declare war on the Summons. We must tread carefully here. If we unleash our power within this spell, we will eat away the spell's very essence—our lifeline. Therefore, we must keep vigil beyond the city, outside of the spell. Those of you with magic honed for combat, I will ask that you form teams. Each team will scout in shifts. Stay on your guard. Who knows what this sorcerer has done to these monsters, or if they have greater powers then they ought. This is no longer a war fought simply by humans. We have been directly engaged, and this latest report from Fenrir has confirmed that the attacks are not, in fact, at random. The time has come for us to fight for ourselves and fight we shall. Go now and prepare yourselves. I fear these coming months for us will be difficult. This assembly has now ended."
Leviathan walked away from the edge of the tier and retreated up the side of the arena, returning to the library. Rydia watched his back, until the purple of his robe faded from sight. The Summons around her were now talking in earnest, many of them splitting up and returning to their homes, and several remaining in the arena discussing this abrupt order from their king.
"If that portal had never opened the boundary of the spell in the first place—"
"Those fools the humans, they've brought another wave of grief upon us—"
"Whose group are you joining? You've the power of the wa—"
"Rydia."
Her ears were buzzing from the chatter, her thoughts distracted.
"Rydia!" It was Black.
She looked down at him, her eyes full of fear and alarm. "Is it really…that bad?"
"If Fenrir has found something amiss, then I'm inclined to believe him. I just don't understand how Golbez figured out where we were."
"This affects my training, doesn't it?"
"Yes it does, but I don't know how greatly."
"Rydia!" another voice called to her from a distance away. She turned to see Shiva walking toward her with Ramuh and Ifrit. She watched them approach with great curiosity. What was she up to now?
"You've heard it, then?" Shiva asked.
Rydia nodded.
Shiva looked to the other two summons standing beside her and gave a cursory nod to each one.
"We who have given you our names, will comprise your team."
"My—my team?"
"It is time that as a true summoner, you fight as one. The time for training on our part is nearly complete. There is little more that we can teach you that you won't learn on your own. Therefore, with Golbez directing his attention at us, we will fight beside you as comrades."
Rydia was so taken aback, her mouth fell open without permission.
"Y—you're giving me the responsibility of this group?"
"Sooner or later you were going to have to take such responsibility. Upon your return to your human companions, it would have been very much the same. This is where we know just how far you've come."
"I'm confused. Does this mean my training is over?"
"No. It means your training is finally being put to use. Don't lose focus, not for an instant. Our power added to yours, our team cannot fail."
"Shiva…"
"Of course, I'm coming too," Black interjected from behind. "I'm the brains behind this little group of ours."
Ifrit snorted with distaste and Ramuh lifted an eyebrow.
"Black, you're an apprentice. Your powers have not yet emerged, but you still want to enter this fight?"
"Of course! Besides, I taught Rydia half of what she knows anyway! It's only fitting that I should accompany her."
"Very well. I will learn the time of our shift and deliver it to you. Rydia, in the meantime, I urge you to continue to teach yourself the Summoner's language. We are dramatically running out of time. The more powerful magics that you have been studying will take time to complete, time we don't have right now, so it's knowledge of a different kind that you should focus on now. I'll come to you later."
With those words, Shiva left the arena, Ifrit trudging after her looking non-too-pleased. Ramuh, however, stayed behind.
"Rydia. I'm proud of the progress you've made in so short a time. Even lately, your powers are stunning and only continuing to grow. I'm afraid from here on, things become very serious."
"I understand."
"I have faith in you, Rydia."
"Thank you, Ramuh."
"Go home and do what you must. I look forward to our first battle together."
"Ramuh…"
He began to amble away, but Rydia ran forward and hugged him around the waist.
"I'll do my best!" she cried.
Even though she couldn't see it, she knew he nodded. "I know you will."
She let go of his waist and he looked down and smiled at her. "You've become quite the young woman."
She blushed. "Black, let's go home and prepare. There's not a chance that Golbez is going to succeed here."
"Agreed."
……………………………………………………………………
Note: About the chimera, I honestly can't remember if they absorb ice or not, I just remember HATING them and vaguely remember that they absorb many spells…I also changed its physiology a bit…I decided hooves for the front two legs was boring, so I went with paws instead.
Hmm…lots awaiting dear little Rydia…yup yup. I feel like I could have written a lot more for this chapter but…for the sake of posting something, it is what it is.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas!
I'll try to update as soon as I can!
myth
