53

No Help There

Time: Half an hour later

Place: Sitting room inside Castle Matrix

"And that's the whole story!" concluded Susan, telling her story (again). "Which brings us to now. We tried to wake the cup up, but we must have done something wrong. But given the three of us were about as good in wizardry as any three people can be, I can't imagine what."

"So right now the museum no doubt believes the cup has been stolen somehow, out of a locked case?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Susan, not sounding very sorry at all. "I have a Creation spell but it can't make gold for some bizarre reason. So I couldn't make a replacement. Plus I would have had to cast the spell multiple times, once for each gemstone... Then try to glue them in place, it would have been a huge hassle."

"We thought it better to start work right away," Nita put in. "As long as we return the cup back where it belongs when we're done, everything will be fine, right?"

"For certain values of fine," Shaun replied, rubbing his eyes. "So you found a Power, and she's making a spear. You found the cup, and tried to wake it up yourselves. You did this because she told you about a reenactment that's going to have to be performed soon, which will stop people going sideways like they've been doing."

"That's about right," agreed Susan.

"She said the sword was there too, but I think it's too far gone," said Nita.

"Pity, we'll need all four treasures if it's the event I'm thinking about. Still, I'm glad you brought it to my attention, even though I've been handling reports for a week now about this very thing and was going to call a meeting soon to get everyone's opinion on what we should be doing about it. If you can just hand the cup over, you can consider your part in this finished."

"Uh, did you not hear my story?" asked Susan, looking between him and Sparkle. "Whatever you think this event is, forget it. The Darkness is here someplace, I have that on good authority. If I don't help you stop it, the energy of your reality is going to become a meal for him."

"Yes, we'll keep that in mind when I meet with everyone. Now, the cup, please, I'm a busy man."

Susan wondered if this guy was a bit dense, or just plain evil, and did a Dimension Sense on him, getting a 4, her minimum. Great. Sparkle also tried, getting a little better, a six. Never thought I would need INSight for skill checks, otherwise I might have made that a little better. I have to get that skill raised! It is average though, and two above my STRength. Stupid poor rolls! She looked to Nita, who nodded, and Susan shrugged. I guess she knows best.

She pulled the cup from her sub-space pocket and held it up for the man to see.

"Yes, that's the one. I'll just-"

As he reached for it, the cup suddenly blazed up, and Susan's Spirit Sense went wild. Bright light lit the room, causing everyone to look away, and Susan felt the cup go red hot in her hands, burning them. She cried out.

"Put it back again! Put it back again!" Shaun was shouting at her.

She tried, but found her fingers wouldn't obey her commands for some reason and realized she was at a significant penalty to MANipulation at the moment. Making a tremendous effort (i.e. she put ten energy into it) she got a 17, enough to basically tear the pocket open and drop the cup inside.

Everyone in the room blinked afterimages away, Susan trying to get a good look at her hands in the process.

"Well, crap," she finally said, as she got a good look. Her hands were badly burned, the skin charred and even bone showing through.

"Oh my God, your hands!" said Nita.

"Yeah, no wonder I was at such a high penalty." She giggled.

"Are you okay?"

"Can't even feel it!" she chirped.

Huh, she should be at pain penalties regardless, thought Sparkle. There's nothing in the rules about burn damage short circuiting the pain response, even though with burns that bad, it would happen to non-Paragons. Not even under the "Catching on Fire" section, where you think it would be. And she has Low Pain Tolerance too.

"Shock," said Shaun, coming over to look at them. "And the damage probably burnt out her nerves. That's going to take some time to fix, even with wizardry, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, your use of them may never recover."

"Oh, never mind that." She held her leg out to Nita. "If you would be so kind?"

"Will that work?" Nita asked, trying not to look at those ruined hands as she slid Susan's pant leg up and grabbed the knife out.

"Of course, silly!"

"Wait, what are you-" Shaun didn't get much further as Nita drove the knife (with possibly a bit more force than was strictly required) through Susan's right hand. Both healed immediately and Susan flexed them.

"That's better, thanks," she said, as Nita drew the knife out.

"Do you need Regeneration?" asked Sparkle.

"Nah, 2d10 healing? It did a twelve, I could tell that much. That would be enough to nearly blow off my whole arm. I couldn't exactly check to see what my character sheet said about the damage, but it must have been less than that. It's fine. Thanks." She took the knife back from Nita and strapped it to her leg again. "Okay, heavy gloves when we take it out next time. Wonder if that will give me a penalty to MANipulation?"

"Your hands!" exclaimed Shaun, looking them over. "Not a mark on them. How?"

"Ain't magic grand? Now, where should we put that cup so it doesn't burn through whatever it's sitting on? I honestly didn't expect it to blaze up light that. For one thing it's the symbol of water isn't it?"

"Yes, it's the spirit of water, I'm at somewhat of a loss myself." His eyes kept darting to her hands, as if he couldn't believe what he had been seeing.

"I'm not," grumped Nita. "In fact I know exactly what happened. I should have realized when I couldn't reach my sister. We were in your Dimension, not here. There's no connection to the waters of Ireland in your Personal Dimension."

"Oh course!" exclaimed Susan, snapping her newly regenerated fingers. "You're right. So when we took it out, the soul suddenly came back to it, because the spell we wrote did actually work. That caused the physical changes we saw and made it get really hot. That would explain it."

"Wait, you girls actually succeeded and didn't realize it? Who are you two? Where exactly were you at the time?"

"Dude, I just spent the last half an hour explaining that. Do people say 'dude' here?"

"Not typically, I think," answered Susan.

"Look, I don't think that will happen again. But let me put some bindings somewhere and we can bring it out again. Oh, and the reaction was greater here because the water table under the castle is fairly high. Anywhere else and it probably would have been more gradual. Wait here."

He got up and left the room, leaving the three to sit down again.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Nita with concern.

"Never better. That spell doesn't bring back energy, but I'm totally refreshed again, don't worry."

"If you say so. I guess this means we can go wake up the rock, huh?"

"Yeah, it should work. Though I would have to use Augment Skill again, to read the spell. I only have a three otherwise, that's below average. I wouldn't want to mess it up."

"There should be plenty of wizards around here anyway, they can probably take care of it."

"True. We should be out looking for the vessel of air. I bet my Question spell could help. We can't use Descry Object because we don't know exactly what we're looking for. But I could ask the world 'where should we look for a vessel to house the spirit of air,' and I bet we would get a place name, at least. That's only one or two words."

"Whatever you think is best."

Now there's a phase that's music to my ears.

Moments later Shaun came back and led them through the house, to a "small" closet he had a table set up.

"Okay, I've put a spell on the room, it should hold. Plunk it down on the table there."

"Sure thing."

She did so, and this time the cup behaved, merrily throwing a light show like sunlight reflecting off water about the room.

"Pretty!" said Susan, looking around.

"Yeah, that's awake," he remarked. "Well done, girls. You don't mind if I keep this spell, look it over more carefully?"

"Not at all," said Nita. "I hope it can help with the spirit of earth."

"If it did this good a job on the cup, I'm sure it'll suffice. I'll show you back to the door, you two can head home now."

"Head home?" asked Susan. "I wish. I need to find The Darkness before I can move on."

"Right, right, we'll keep an eye out for that too."

"But we want to help!" protested Nita. "I mainly wrote that spell, Susan and Sparkle just helped. Okay, I was augmented with her magic at the time, but still. I think that shows what I'm capable of."

"Oh, no doubt. Magic, of course! Yes, when we need you, we'll be in touch. You're in the book, right? Yes, not to worry. Here's the door. Good bye now!"

The door slammed behind them.

"Now what was all that about?" asked Sparkle, smoothing her fur out and checking to make sure she still had a whole tail.

"I think I rather unnerved that gentleman," said Susan. "I can't imagine how."

"Maybe he just didn't know how to deal with a magic user?" wondered Nita, looking back up at the castle. "Because he must deal with all kinds of different wizards all the time."

"I don't know, I almost got the sense he didn't really believe me."

"Your story is kind of unbelievable. I mean, I had no choice because you were right there in the other world I went into by accident. And what you've said and done fits. But he can't see you're telling the truth."

"I suppose. But in that case, giving me the means to show I'm legit, or at least the benefit of the doubt would have been better than just tossing me out."

"You did say we would have to go this alone."

"True. And I know where the cup is, he won't dare move it until the time of the 'play' that Biddy was talking about. I can take it back easily enough if I need to."

"You don't think we should do the reenactment ourselves, do you?"

"Why not? It's not going to be a standard one anyway, remember? We can bring the so called treasures along, but I'll rely on my own power to put this to rights, thank you very much."

"Remember, you're supposed to be helping these people solve their own problems, not solving it for them," cautioned Sparkle. "You deal with the additional element, they deal with the original situation."

"Yeah, I hear you. Come on, I still have energy left, let's look for the air vessel."

So the trio went into the surrounding forest where they figured they wouldn't be disturbed, and Susan tried her Question magic. She wasn't expecting the answer she got though.

Unknown

"What does that mean?" asked Nita.

"Good question," replied Susan. "Could someone have moved the vessel to one of these side worlds?"

"Someone from the other side, you mean? The Lone Power?"

"Seems if he's here, now, like in that hunt, he would want to help see himself win. No better way to do that than to keep what we need from us. Hiding a vessel seems an easy thing to do."

"That's how you beat Him so easily!" Nita suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from the log she was sitting on. She laughed and stomped her feet, as if some tension was going out of her. "I should have guessed before."

"Now what are you going on about?"

"That thing you fought. It wasn't Him, that was a small reenactment! Must have been. That's why He faded out at the end, rather than just blowing you away. He didn't have the power He normally would, as that 'recording' of Him normally just rode around on that horse after that elk creature. When the recording couldn't beat you, it just sort of fizzled out. Like a... cassette tape being cut. That makes so much sense now."

Oh man, cassette tapes. If these people even knew what was coming to replace them! "I'm happy you think so. The vessel?"

"Oh, right. Gee, I don't know, is there another question we can ask your magic to find out?"

"Why not just ask that directly? It's a yes or no question."

So she did.

Yes

"Ah hah! So it was here and it's been moved."

"We'll never find it!" despaired Nita.

"Maybe. Let me keep asking." She asked "What is the first step in retrieving the vessel of air back to our world?"

Defeat drow in two days

"What is the second step in retrieving the vessel of air back to our world?"

Impress the Sidhe

"What is the third step in retrieving the vessel of air back to our world?"

There is no step three

"Nice," said Sparkle, nodding. "A good fight is always a quick way to get XP."

"And I still have a bunch of Materia to convert, and spells to learn. Seems like the vessel is in the bag, if all we have to do is beat up some drow, whatever they are on this world. And hopefully that will impress these Sidhe, whatever they are. But what to do in the meantime?"

"Fire?"

"I don't know, burning the town down might be a little extreme just because I might get bored..."

"I mean the vessel!"

"Oh, why didn't you say? Yeah, let's ask about that!" So Susan asked "What is the first step in retrieving the vessel of fire back to our world?" figuring that worked the last time.

Reforge it

"Ah. Time to talk to Biddy again!"

And so the group made their way back to the farmhouse, where Biddy was still pounding away, seeming to have made several practice spears in the meantime.

"You three again?" she said, tossing her hammer down in disgust. "I've already told you-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's old news!" Susan verbally ran over her, waving that away with a hand. "We woke up the cup, the spell is in the hands of those that can wake up the stone, and the vessel of air should be in hand within three days. All that's left is fire, and that's your department."

"Wait, you did all that just today?"

"I admit, technicality Nita is on vacation so I've been taking it easy for her sake. But yes, we have."

"Oh, you have not," said Nita, rolling her eyes.

"Shows what you know. Well?"

"Look, I can't just... deal with you," she said.

"Why not? We took care of our end, and it seems like you're about ready to take care of yours."

"What, these? These will never do. They would be ripped apart in an instant if the soul of fire were to be placed in them."

"So let me at one, and I'll make it unbreakable. I've done it before, and with Energetic Accumulation and Augment Skill: Fabrication I bet I could do it in an hour or so. I would be wiped out the rest of the day, but I could do it."

"I don't know what any of that means. The point is, there's just no way. You need to get me metal that doesn't exist anymore in this universe, and you need to raise an army for the reenactment."

"My magic makes me an army," Susan said coldly, staring Biddy in the face.

She shook her head. "Believe me, no matter how powerful you think you are, it won't be enough. You can't use the spear, only one person on Earth can do that now, and you still have to find him or her. I'll do what's required, you don't have to worry about that. But you need to bring me the answers, not the other way around."

Susan glared at her. "Even though, if we get it wrong, everything you built here turns to ashes."

She sighed sadly. "Even so."

"Great. What a fantastic system. Fine. If you change your mind, maybe want to help us instead of just standing around, you know where to find us. We are capable, you know, what we did today should prove that."

"That isn't the issue. I am surprised, and I certainly believe you are what you say you are. But even I have to follow the rules."

Susan snorted. "Rules are..." She froze. Was that the voice of The Darkness in the back of her mind, saying "Rules are for the weak" along with her, or just her own fears? "Never mind. Come on, Nita, it's a long ride back to the house."

"So now what?" Nita asked as the two sat side by side on the bus back to the farm.

Susan shook her head sadly. "I really don't know. Wait until the day after tomorrow, I guess. The one other wizard I've met here seemed to just want to get rid of me rather than allow me to help."

"See it from his point of view," pointed out Sparkle. "You show up at his door, telling some wild story, then pull the cup out of nowhere? A cup which then flares to life, showing him no matter what else you might be, that you're powerful. But it's a power he doesn't understand, it doesn't fit into his worldview. A couple of kids, in his mind, shouldn't have been able to pull off the theft of the cup and put the soul of water back into it. Not with the wizardry he knows, especially given how reluctant Nita here is to use it around here. He's confused, but he sees the knife, usually which causes wounds, heal your hands, now he's a little afraid. You don't make it any easier with your attitudes."

Susan thought a moment. "Maybe my Poor Sense weakness shouldn't refer to my hearing." She grinned and winked.

"Har har."

"I get what you're saying though. Man, guess I'm my own worst enemy. Maybe it switched over since Severus isn't trying to kill me anymore. I figured it would be The Darkness, but..."

"How do you know it isn't? Has it spoken to you lately?"

"No, not much, now that I think about it."

"That's the way to tell, I think. When it's talking, it's not able to influence you. When it can, it doesn't need to taunt you, so why bother. You're already going along with what it wants."

Susan took a deep breath. "You could be right, and that does fit, I guess. I wonder if losing Luna was a worse blow than I thought? It's been proven I can't rely on my own judgment sometimes... Can I rely on you to take her place? You don't speak up about the stuff she did. And asking people I meet along the way? That just seems unfair because they aren't used to my wacky nature. Or what plans I might come up with, that seem insane on the surface but are actually reasonable for me. I can't have outsiders second guessing me every second. No offense, Nita."

"None taken."

"I'm just your Companion, not my place to do that. But... I'll try."

"Thanks."

It seems I still have a long way to go.