Okay, so... As of today (February 26), I owe you guys up through Part 60. Part 61 is due Tuesday.
Good news: I already have Part 61 written thanks to writing over 13k words in the last three days. It's currently 10am and I'm trying to manage a 30k weekend across my two main stories (AEtT and one of my Transfomers stories). To succeed in this endeavor, I still need to write 16k today. (So I will post this Part and Part 55 and get writing, because I'm wasting daylight.) (Edit from 3.5 hours later: So I got distracted, am just now posting this, and haven't written anything yet today. -is shot- At least it's laundry day and I have the next 4 hours to write. I can still succeed in my weekend goal.)
Bad news: Parts 54 and 55 are the last two that have been copy-pasted from the main doc and sent to a beta already. So unless I can talk one of my Skype buddies into beta-reading for me, I'm SOL for a few weeks, as Tea/WeGotWinx is leaving for Spain tomorrow and will not be able to do any editing until she gets back. Fear not, you'll get all the chapters due to you before Camp NaNo April '17 starts.
So... enjoy! I need to go write. Badly.
"Who'd ya think taught him how ta sneak?" –Ifrit
Chapter 7.9 – Will o' the Wisp
Part 54
I had a headache. Such a headache...
Which might have explained why I was lazing around in bed.
I finally gave up after a few hours—by this point, Asch knew I wasn't going to die, at least—and let my eyes slide closed.
When I woke up again, the headache had abated, and Asch was sitting next to me, finally wearing something a bit more suited to traveling than the rather dressier clothes he'd been wearing for the last few weeks.
I smiled. "So... I take it you're now free to get back to work with the rest of us?"
Asch jumped a bit, looked over at me, and nodded, offering up a small smile. "Yeah. Are you feeling alright, now? Or at least better?"
I nodded. "My head doesn't feel like it's been tap-danced on by elephants, at least."
Asch chuckled. "Still don't think I want to know what an elephant is."
I hummed. "I'll find it in me to draw one at some point. Right now..." I stifled a yawn and managed to pull myself out of bed. "Sun."
Asch just smirked, helped me up, and then shadowed me as I made my way outside, slowly finding the tree we'd spent one afternoon under, already.
I didn't quite lay under the tree. That would put me in the shade, and I needed the sun.
Asch ended up sitting against the tree, and for a while, it was quiet.
"So...Who's Lloyd?"
I blinked, looked over at Asch, and blinked some more. "Uh..."
"Remember you had a pretty bad fever at the start? You were muttering something about a Lloyd."
Oh.
I hummed and looked up at the clouds. "Well. Gee. Thanks. I hadn't remembered that, and now you've piqued my curiosity."
Asch grunt-groaned. "Well, you've got me interested now, too."
I snickered. "Relax. No need to be jealous. He's five."
"Okay... And?"
I smiled. "He's sorta halfway not really trying to reform Danté?"
Asch spluttered. "What?!"
Taking that as an excuse to outright laugh at the oddness of the conversation, I looked over at Asch. "When the Monolith of Syal exploded, Syal and I were trying to save Danté. We succeeded, but he kinda got tossed to another world in the process. Lloyd found him, and managed to get attached in all of a couple hours. Although part of that might have been Noishe. Who isn't a liger, but apparently the language is close enough for he and Danté to talk to each other."
Asch watched me for a bit, then raised an eyebrow. "Why do I get the feeling something else has happened with Lloyd since then?"
I hummed. "Well, after the Keterburg mess, and after I'd explained, I kinda ended up in the TimeStream. That was the first time I saw Lloyd, so yes, I saw him before I threw Danté to Aselia. Then just a little while ago, when Rem tore my mindscape apart, I was trying to find Danté to tell him something. Instead, I found Lloyd again." I stopped and frowned. "I should probably go find him again tonight. He's... He saw what Rem did to me, sort of. I can't imagine that was anything less than nightmare fuel, and for a five-year-old..."
Asch hummed. "Dark said, given the damage Rem could do to his mindscape, and yours..."
"Asch... I basically fell apart for no obvious reason," I said. "I'll go find him tonight. Regardless of whether Dirk and Danté can control the nightmares, I think Lloyd will need to actually see me again for him to realize I'm fine."
The chuckles surprised me. Enough so that I looked over at Asch again, and spotted that familiar look. That one he always wore when I was being my usual, quirky self. "I'm not even sure I want to know how adoption across worlds works," Asch finally said.
I blinked a few times, then let a small smile show. "Yeah, guess I kinda have. I don't think you can blame me, though. Kid's got two fathers, an older brother or uncle figure in Danté, and... that's it."
Asch hummed. "Much as a lot of boys will deny it... You never realize how much of a presence your mother had raising you until..."
I sat up and managed to scoot over so I was sitting next to him, half-curled into his side.
"Well. I guess that brings the 'father' count up to an uneven three."
Asch blinked a few times, stared at me, and then turned about the same shade of red as his hair. "Um..."
"Hey, I think you'd do a great job..." I stopped and sighed. "This is probably gonna come out bad, but I can promise you'll do better than the kid's biological father, who currently thinks he's dead."
And there Asch went with the choke-splutter again. "Uh..."
I smiled and let my head fall to rest on his shoulder. "I'll... tell you the whole story later. Maybe after this sentience mess is dealt with."
"Ah hate ta have ta say it, but it ain't mah mess."
My turn to choke.
Then I turned an amused but annoyed half-scowl on Ifrit. "It's bad enough we can't break Shadow of that. We don't need both of you doing it."
Ifrit grinned. "Who'd ya think taught him how ta sneak?"
I raised an eyebrow. Interesting tidbit. "So... Who are you avoiding?"
Ifrit paused. "Eh... what makes ya think ah'm avoidin' someone?"
I smirked. "You're sneaking, which you don't do very often, you keep glancing around, and you're half-hiding back here. Who are you avoiding?"
The man, who was oddly shorter than me, ran a hand through the multitude of tiny braids in his hair. "Ah mighta said somethin' a little less than appropriate ta Natalia."
"Ah. Trying to avoid a trained assassin-turned-bodyguard-now-boyfriend. Yes. I can't blame you for the sneaking," Asch muttered.
I snorted. "You say that like Natalia wouldn't be shooting him."
"True."
"On the other hand, it's very possible they've both decided to ignore it," I added. Asch gave me an odd look, and I shrugged. "It's a Noir thing. Natalia's gotten downright terrifying since Noir tucked her under her wing. Which was Mohs' fault for trying to get her disowned."
Ifrit chuckled and sat down. "So... Ah dunno if Sylph's said anythin' yet. But there's more'n jus' the blizzard ova Baticul bein' a case o' weird weather."
I blinked. "Really? She hasn't mentioned anything to me..."
Ifrit nodded. "There's a spot in Northern... ah... Sylvanna? That the right name? Anyway, there's a warm spot there in the middle o' the snow."
I hummed. "So we should probably go see what sort of randomness Myno caused."
Asch gave me an odd look, and I shrugged. "What? He's a fire spirit. So it's probably his fault."
Ifrit chuckled. "Ah think ya might be right. Ah ain't done nothin' in that area, at least."
I nodded to myself, scooting back out into the sunlight, laying down, and closing my eyes. While I was utterly pissed with Rem at the moment, I needed the sunlight. Badly.
"Thought you said you were waiting to go find Lloyd until tonight."
"I am. I just feel like sunbathing, sorta." Not quite, I supposed. But sunlight was sunlight.
It helped me forget about the dark waters I always seemed to drown in when my mindscape was torn apart.
"Where's Dark?" He could use some sunlight, too.
"You know, now that you mention it..."
Uh-oh.
I groaned. Loudly.
Asch chuckled. "Sorry. I don't think I meant for it to come out that way."
I turned my head enough to shoot a glare his direction, and he shrugged. "I don't know. They're probably running around in the fortress again."
I reached out with my telepathy.
It had expanded enough again that from here, I could find everyone on Eldrant. And I do mean everyone.
"They're not on Eldrant," I stated.
"Maybe they went with one o' the Archive teams?" Ifrit suggested. I hummed. For some reason, I doubted that.
So, fastest way to answer the question...
*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
I was in Dark's mindscape again, once again just hovering on the edges.
It didn't take him and Eraia long to find me, and I noted that Dark looked mildly guilty. "You need us?" he asked. I guessed 'us' meant him, Sorylle, and Natalia.
"Not really, just wondering where you are," I replied. "Since I get the feeling you did not go with the teams sent back out to the Archives."
Dark nodded. "The Isle of Feres beached itself for a few hours. Twilight got all of the ligers off it before whatever machines cause it to float around got it unstuck and it floated off again."
I smiled at the mention of my partner. I'd missed him... "He doing well?"
Dark damn near grinned back. "Very well. He's a bit upset with me and Natalia for not bringing you along, though. Especially after we told him some of the nonsense you've gotten yourself into."
I laughed. "Yeah. Suppose I really ought to be a bit more careful... On another note. You're getting plenty of sun, right?"
Dark suddenly looked a bit baffled, but nodded. "Yeah. Natalia and I are on the same beach we saw the Western and Eastern Clans off from. Natalia's enjoying it. Sorylle's enjoying getting to hassle her mate and half-spoil the one litter of cubs he's sired."
My smile pulled up into a full grin. "I take it you two have some means of getting back home, as well?"
"Yeah. It's called a Sylph."
I snorted. "Alright. Have fun. Keep getting plenty of sunlight. Best prescription I can give if you've been messing around with the cracks in your mindscape. Especially since, as best I can tell from the fragmented memories I get when I pull you out of the abyss, yours is pure darkness. Mine's at least water, something I can avoid and, so to speak, burn out by sitting next to a fire."
Dark nodded. "Right, thanks."
"I'll come by again if we need you two back before you're ready to return," I added, already pulling away.
*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
I opened my eyes, blinked at Ifrit, and then tilted my head to the side. "What?"
"Ah'm still tryin' ta figure out how ya managed ta beat Rem."
I blinked. "What, the mindscape fights?" Ifrit nodded, and I shrugged and sat up. "Fairly easily. I don't know why she thought it was necessary, but Mom did train me enough in mindscapes to know what to do if mine got torn apart. The thing that typically kills people when their mindscapes are torn apart isn't actually the sudden destruction of their mindscape. It's..." I stopped and shook my head. "It's the abyss that's waiting underneath all of it. It's different for everyone, but... if there's an element to each mindscape, the abyss manifests as a dark version of the opposite element. Which, for Dark, whose mindscape is inherently light, means the abyss is just... darkness. Complete and utter darkness."
"Given your sudden need for sunlight, I'd guess yours isn't much better."
I grimaced. "More like an oceanic abyss. No light, but... Asch... I damn near drown every time my mindscape falls apart. At the same time, I usually know exactly what's going on. So I can pull myself back up pretty quickly. It's... the confusion, that inability to figure out which way is up... that is what usually kills people. And that's what I was teaching Dark to do. So, yeah. Sunlight. I typically try to light a fire while I'm at it, but in a pinch, or if I'm feeling lazy... sunlight."
Ifrit hummed and held out a hand that was, notably, on fire. I couldn't help it. My eyes locked on it, until it suddenly snuffed out and Ifrit sat down.
"Okay. That felt weird."
I blinked. "Huh?"
Ifrit chuckled. "Ya didn't notice."
I just stared at him, and Asch looked just as baffled as I did.
Ifrit held out his hand again, and as usual after a round of my mindscape being torn apart, all I could really do was stare at the flames...
Except, Ifrit had felt something...
Since I was actually paying attention this time, I noticed it just before the flame snuffed out again, Ifrit rubbing his hand in a very familiar manner. I recognized it from when my own hand started tickling, and it wouldn't go away.
I gave him a sheepish look. "Heh... Sorry? I... hadn't even realized I was doing that."
Ifrit chuckled. "It's fine. Jus' tickles. Ah guess 'at's mah own fault fo' not jus' settin' a fire. Ain't like we ain't got wood."
I smiled back, even as Asch continued giving us baffled looks. I smiled at him and shook my head. "Apparently I was right to tell Dark to get some sunlight. Looks like I pull more out of sitting around staring at fires than I realized."
Because that fire... I'd been pulling on it in a way that I hadn't even noticed until Ifrit had suddenly reacted. I'd pulled on it, using it about as literally as I could to burn out the excess water in my soul, the water I'd come back from that damn abyss soaked in.
I stood up and stretched.
The sunlight still felt good, but even just a little fire, even if it wasn't as much as I strictly wanted...
"Hey, Ifrit. Whaddya say we go check out that anomaly in Sylvanna now?" I asked. After all, it was still early afternoon. "Shouldn't be too much of an exertion."
Asch sighed. "And it's not like we can really do anything until the Archive teams come back again. Which reminds me, where are Dark and Natalia?"
"Northern Rugnica. No, they're not in the Archives, either. The Isle of Feres... uh... beached itself temporarily." Asch looked over and raised an eyebrow at me, and I shrugged. "What? It did. Twilight and all the replica ligers got off and started reclaiming the Northern Forest."
Asch sighed. "Well. Guess it's good to know that they're getting a chance to rest," he said. "So... I guess... Keterburg?"
"Yeah. I kinda don't want to, because... you know. Snow. But it warrants investigating, at least," I replied. Ifrit stood up.
"Well. Wheneva ya ready."
I stood and looked at Asch. "Are you coming or would you rather stay here?"
Asch looked at me, then at Ifrit, then back to me.
Then he sighed. "I'll stay here. Just... stay out of trouble for once. Please?"
I smiled. "I make no promises, but I will certainly try," I replied. Trouble followed me around like a lost puppy looking for a new owner. Avoiding it was... difficult at best. Impossible at worst.
Ifrit chuckled. "Don' worry. Ah'll take care o' her. Kade'd kick mah ass if ah didn'. An' jus' so ya know, that hurts."
I snorted. "I can imagine."
Asch just rolled his eyes. "Shoo."
Ifrit didn't need any more prompting.
Fun Fact: Lloyd. And the comments up there about inter-world adoption.
This is going to be a large driving force in the spin-off (whenever I actually get around to fixing the massive mess Kvar and Danté made of things), and at the same time, almost completely invisible. Because the spin-off is written from Danté's POV, and all he sees are glimpses of what's going on. Lloyd waking up after Kairi's mindscape is torn apart by Rem? There's Danté's first hint. Lloyd learning curve when training to dual wield when neither Dirk nor Danté is all that familiar with swords? Another massive hint.
We won't see the full extent of Kairi's influence until the crossover section between An Echo through Time: Future Arcs and A Twilight Star. It's... rather more than one would expect.
