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Contains spoilers for: Kingdom Hearts, Martin Mysteries, Totally Spies, Pokemon, Ori franchise, My Gym Partner is a Monkey, Tamora Pierce's Tortallan Universe, Shaman King, League of Legends, Unicorn Chronicles
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Side Story chapter 7: Also someday
Agent Earth
Torrington Academy
Art Studio
It had been a few months and 'Dawn Laskaris' was well loved by all the teachers and a good chunk of the student body. Mrs. Lockton was weeping as she admired a painting that Dawn had made. "Is she alright?" Dawn asked Martin who was shocked at the other students. "I think your painting is a little too moving for her to handle." Mrs. Lockton looked at him reproachfully. "You do not understand the message it is trying to convey." She says, turning the painting for the class to see in full. It was of a forest of tree houses.
"This is a vision of what humans living off the land could be." Mrs. Lockton said pointing out clusters of detailed people living in the tree house city. "This is a masterpiece that belongs in the Smithsonian!" Mrs. Lockton gives Dawn a jumbo-sized chocolate bar and a stack of paperwork. "Have someone fill this out and your art will be judged to see if it can be among the works in D.C. You will be credited as the artist." She explained, still weeping tears of joy. One of the students posted a picture of the painting to the internet, not knowing how that viral post would cause trouble. Martin looked at his painting of an overgrown and abandoned city with only animals among the ruins.
"Do you think my work is any good?" he asked the teacher. "The local Museum might be interested." Mrs. Lockton says handing him a stack of paperwork to fill out. "Folk art is important to understand the culture of an area." She lectures the class. All Martin got was a redeemable 'perfect grade' pass on any one assignment of any of the classes other than tests and exams.
After class
Agent Earth
Torrington Academy
Martin's dorm room
"what is this?" Dawn asked as she looked at the chocolate bar she had won. "You've never heard of chocolate?" Martin asked. "Not in bar form." Dawn said, "I've seen it in pasties or pudding form." She sniffs the bar after unwrapping part of it. "Smells like raspberry." She comments then reads the label it was a dark chocolate raspberry swirled candy bar. "do you at least know what junk food is?" Martin asked hopeful. "I don't see the hype of grease drenched food and I haven't been in many 'modern day type' places." Dawn said munching on the bar. "Not to set you off but I have to know why you are you." Diana slammed the down open and glared at her brother. "M.O.M. said not to ask that question!" She said crossly. Billy, the alien, in his human disguise peeked around the door frame.
"She's right, you know. Given her list of powers, it won't be good to be near her when she flips out." He said not entering the 'danger zone'. "It's alright. I was waiting for someone to ask me that question." Dawn said. Billy took notes as she explained her origin. After she was done, Diana was hugging her crying. "That has to be the worst choice to make ever." Martin comments shocked. "And this Great Mother had to do it multiple times. That is crueler than a maliciously twisted wish granter."
"No wonder M.O.M. didn't want to ask that question. It's worse than any of the possibilities we theorized." Billy said, sickly complexion, and making and sending out an email marked urgent before leaving to report the complete details, knowing M.O.M. will call for him as soon as she reads the email. "Hope, while ever fleeting, blooms eternally." Dawn said, patting Diana's back softly. "I did some searching and found that the Webway is impossible to navigate. I get that you don't need sustenance or even air to breathe." Martin said. "M.O.M. mentioned you have a 'ball of wire' that becomes a sparrow, somehow." He paused then got to his question, "Where did you get it?"
Dawn tried to find words to describe what had greeted her as she first entered the Webway. "there was a 'being' waiting for me in a place you can only reach when you have no sense of direction. That's almost the norm for the Webway. I can't find words to describe her appearance, but her voice was just like the Great Mother's." Dawn said, "She asked me who her voice sounded like and explained she sounds like whoever you are seeking. A lover, a beloved teacher, or maybe a parent or sibling. To best describe her would be she is 'the crystalized hopes and dreams of humanity'. And I mean all of it. From the dawn of time to the end of eternity." Diana stood up and fell on to a chair massaging her temples. Her eyes were red from crying as she said, "I'm glad you got help but my instincts are screaming at be not to trust her with my life."
"She said the same thing in an 'airier' manner." Dawn said, "There is no such thing as free lunch." Martin grinned. "A weird Greek proverb that I didn't need to study too hard to remember. What's the catch to the ball?" Dawn glared at the ball as she showed them it. "no control when it works or where it takes me on the 'scenic route' to the Great Mother. Do you know anything about a figure carrying a lantern?" Martin fired up the Legendex on his U-Watch. "That was quick." He spoke. then blinked as he read the holographic screen. "There will always be a human who carries the lantern of hope until the first bearer receives it to become the last and resists the name when it shines at the right time."
"Time shenanigans?" Diana asked, "Totally possible. The Fae are the ones to make the Lantern that houses hope." Martin said frowning as the lack of information was bugging him. It like someone made sure not to let the Center or anyone else learn too much. M.O.M. holographic face appearing startled him. "you just had to disobey that one rule, didn't you?" She dared him to lie with her glare. Sweating Martin tried to ask about the Lantern and its connection to the entity Dawn had met. "If I knew anything, I wouldn't be hiding it in my Ultra Legendex. It's bugging me as much as you. Someone is going out of their way to hide information." M.O.M. finally said after a full five minutes of silence.
"Your punishment will be having Dawn's expenses docked from your paycheck." M.O.M. states then told Dawn, "Could you please make some more artworks, maybe a statue? Martin won't mind buy the finest quality supplies. All you need to do is ask." Martin paled as he calculated the price of high-quality art supplies. He would be getting only a little spending cash for few months.
Six months later
Agent Earth
Downtown Los Angeles
WOOHP Headquarters
Jerry Lewis, a man in his sixties, adjusted his tie and straightened his black tux as three teenage girls, around 17 at most, dropped onto the couch from a shoot. "Hello Girls, this mission will be a big one." He says with a grim look. "Come on, Jerry. We were going go see the new artist's work that everyone is raving about before it gets sent to DC with the rest of her collection. They have a whole room dedicated to her paintings and statue." Clover, a blonde teen, whined. "You just want to go on a date with whatever boy your currently into." Alexandra, prefers Alex, a black-haired teen, said, poking holes in her statement. Samantha, prefers Sam, combed her red hair to fix the 'bed head' the wind of the transport they took had done.
"This is a joint mission with the Center, so expect the 'supernatural' on the job." Jerry said as M.O.M. appeared on the screen behind Jerry's desk. "Greetings WOOHP Agents. You must understand that this is not something I wanted to do but things went south after I sent my first team in." M.O.M. forced herself to admit this. "I am sending Agent Martin to explain." The call was ended as a portal opened and Martin fell out but landed on the pillow that Sam threw. Martin looks at them as he gets up and dusts himself off. "This might sound weird, but someone kidnapped someone I'm looking after, my sister and my friend Java, using a pop-up art supply store as an outpost."
"What!" all three girls yell in shock. "He's not lying. Here's the camera footage from the store across the street." Jerry starts playing surveillance footage of people entering a store and not coming out at all, even after the store closed. "We did some digging and this isn't only 'pop-up abduction' this store has taken part in over the past five months." Jerry shows them more recordings and articles about missing people and the store be sighted as one of the last places they left for was the connecting factor. "The team M.O.M. set managed to warn us of an artifact being used to 'fold' the space around the victims then take them 'elsewhere'." He points to the screen as it showed the footage from one of the agents' cams watching a teammate get 'twisted' and removed them the room. The footage swung to show a man wearing a charm bracelet with one of the charms looking like a goat horned UFO creature.
"the 'store owner' seems to have something criteria for those he snatches, and the charm bracelet is not the artifact's true appearance if it even is the artifact." Martin explains. "Question, is there anything particular about the victims?" Sam asked. "They all have red hair. The rest just seem to be friends/family of the red-haired victims or get too nosy." Sam looks at the date of the first abduction. "Wasn't that the date when the first artwork of that new artist was unveiled in DC?" her friends look at her and then go wide eyed. "That's right! That was the day that Dawn Laskaris' 'High Life in the Forest' painting was unveiled. But what does that have to do with red hair?"
"This will clear things up." Jerry shows them a social media post of Dawn standing next to the painting they were talking about. "Six months ago, this was posted and went 'viral' Dawn's painting was unveiled. As you can see, she has a striking appearance." Clover blinked and asked, "She's a kid? But her art is up there with the likes of the great artists of the Renaissance." Martin was looking away as he said, "That's where the 'supernatural' comes in. M.O.M. has given me permission to inform you of the basics of who Dawn Laskaris is." He pulls up the file of information he could tell at this time. "The Dawn, aka 'Dawn Laskaris', is an entity of the Divine weight class and has been 'adopted' by both the Primal Mother Tiamat and Greek Goddess Hestia. It is imperative that we get her back before the Laskaris Clan hears about this." He frowns as he reads this then looks in his Legendex for more information and pales. "Definitely agreeing with that last line." He says as he leaves via portal to do some investigating.
A few days later
Agent Earth
Denver, Colorado
Baby Doll Art House
"That him?" Sam whispered as her sunglasses recorded sound and picture around her. "Pan to the right a little." Alex said over the hidden earpiece. The shop keeper looked like an old man and moved like he was over a hundred years old. "Why is he covering up so much?" Clover asked. "He's got black out sunglasses and gloves on, in 90-degree weather." Martin tips on something and a chain reaction started that ended with a shelf dropping a bucket on the shop keeper's head. Luckily, they were the only customers at the time. "Sorry about that. Let me help you get that off." Martin says as he pulls on the bucket.
The next moment there was screaming from the girls and a headless shopkeeper laying forward as the head yelled in the bucket. "I've been found out! They will be unhappy! And just when we found the one!" he despaired in his bucket prison. "How about you explain why you are abducting people?" Martin said shaking the bucket a little to get the head to drop into his hand. The uncovered eyes were doll eyes. "That explained the shades." Sam said as she removed a glove from a hand. "Jointed fingers like a marionette." She also finds similar joints at the elbows and wrist.
"They will be freed and their song with make you suffer!" The head yelled indigently as Martin juggled it. "All you have to do is tell us what we want, and we'll put you back together." Sam offered. "Or we could test how flammable you are, piece by piece." Martin said, paying the 'bad cop' role. "Anything but that!" The head said, changing his tune. "Talk." Martin said, starting a recording. "I was tasked to main this shop and keep an eye out for the one that would free my masters from their 300-year prison." The head said.
"And how long have you been doing this?" Sam asked. "me? I just started this year. They have been making us for long before they were sealed. We last about ten years before we degrade too much to pass as human." The head said, now sitting on the front counter. "that still does explain the abductions?" Alex said as she entered the store with Clover flipping the sign to closed. "It's because we found the one! Some teen posted online a photo of the one. He didn't include a name, so we had to just guess." The head tried to shrug but failed. "You must not have good eyesight because the one you were after is ten years old or at least looks that age." Clover quipped.
"I know that! But she can change her appearance, the masters told us so." The head shot back. "We were told to warp anyone one that looked close enough to be the one and anyone to be used as black mail to them in to freeing them." Seeing their glares, the head says, "None are harmed, they even gave them nice rooms to stay in before being dropped off at a resort in the tropics. Here is the address" Martin got confirmation from M.O.M. that the missing people were safe at a beach side resort and in no rush to go home. She was annoyed that the team she sent was sipping cocktails for the past few days instead of informing her they were fine until now.
"Did you know the masters inspired this earth to make porcelain dolls?" the head says, "I'll send you to them if you put my head back on. Each one of us is gifted with a magic to warp places." Alex looked at the charm bracelet with monsters and other creature charms on it. "so, the fireball one doesn't cast fire magic?" She asked. The head laughed, "The Bomb Charm is just that. A charm in the shape of Bomb, a 'relative' of the masters. The chain is just a focus to channel the magic." They huddled to debate what to do. A few minutes later the head was put back on the body and the shopkeeper put his glasses back on. "I'm sorry if we caused trouble, but it must be done for the masters." The shopkeeper points at them and the spaces in on them. "Happy travels." The Shopkeeper waves.
Elsewhere
Agent Earth
Somewhere in Germany
Doll house
"Ok, this is a creepy place." Clover said as they are stared at by dolls, manikins, marionettes and other types of puppets from around the house. Martin was staring at his U-Watch that was displaying a gauge that was spinning out of control. "What's that supposed to read?" Alex asked. "How much magic density per square inch there is in the area. New tech being field tested, M.O.M.'s orders." Martin said the program crashed from overload. "And what does that mean?" Sam asked as a rotted version of the magical puppet people that shopkeeper belonged to walked into the room. "Hello there. Did you need something?" The being tried wave his arm but it became sawdust. "Oh bother. I guess 20 years is the limit for me." He managed to say as he turns to dust save for a core that landed into the sawdust pile.
"I guess they don't have that long a shelf life." Alex said. Martin scanned the sawdust and the was looking at the core as he explained that they were on a super powerful nexus of magic energy and a lot of lay lines crossed under the building. It explained why no one could locate this place even with the best trackers the Center had invented. A most better looking 'puppet man' came by with a broom and dustpan. "hello guests. I'm sorry you had to see that, but we are just not made to last." He said sweeping up his relative. "I'm going to need that core." He tells Martin. "He may be dead, but the next generation will benefit from the data recorded in his life."
"When I scanned it, I found that the core is too strong for the 'magic wood' to handle. Is that why the Shopkeeper said you only last ten years?" Martin asked, handing over the core. "That's about right. Been like that for thousands of years. The masters make the bodies, put in the core and tell us our tasks for next decade. Then we are recalled home, living out the last decade or two before death happens and their 'child' inherits their core." He takes the full dustpan, broom and core, but pauses before leaving, "Someone will be here to guide you to the masters shortly."
True to his word, a panel on the ceiling opened and a marionette in fancy clothing dropped down on glowing strings. "Welcome to the Doll House, connected to somewhere in the Black Forest, Germany. I will be your tour guide for your weeklong stay, or longer. It's up to you." The doll said in feminine voice. "Where are my manners? My name is Joy, the right-hand doll of the masters and the oldest servant to serve them." Martin looked at her then at the strings. "You are connected to the house itself. That why you haven't 'burned out' like the rest of the 'puppet men'." Martin theorized. Joy giggled and corrected his statement, "It help to have many bodies all over the house when more than one guest is visiting. Otherwise, you are correct."
They stopped at a door after walking through hallways and rooms. Joy would drop bodies from the ceiling in each room they passed then was retracted back up as they left. "Don't enter yet. The one we have been waiting for is trying to do her task and it is far too dangerous for easily breakable beings like you." Joy told them as faint sounds of battle could be heard inside. "What are the requirements to free your masters?" Martin asked. "To free Calca and Brina, the divine one must beat them in combat." Joy shakes her head, "but the masters are quite strong, and The Dawn has failed to beat them nine times already. If only that foolish wizard didn't place that curse on them, hoping to control them for his own ends." A frog in a jar labeled 'moronic enemy' glared at Joy.
"What's the curse?" Alex asked, "He trapped them in this room until someone can beat them in combat at their strongest. The catch is that they will serve that being as a summon they can call upon at any time. That frog is the foolish wizard who got cursed the masters. The masters hit him with toad, but it was something else that cursed him to live forever unchanged in a jar without an opening. One moment." Joy picks up the jar and takes it elsewhere before returning without it. "I shuffle him around the house as the masters ordered. I make sure to shake him up every time." Joy giggled evilly.
The door swing inward and a pair of sibling porcelain dolls the size of small children carrying Dawn, in her true form, by her arms. "She is worth waiting for." Calca, the male doll in blue clothing, said to the female doll in red clothing as Dawn hung limply in their grip. "Is it true?" Joy asked, "Am I not dreaming that you can leave that room at last?" Brina patted Joy with her free hand and said, "If it's a dream it is one that is most pleasant. As far as I can tell, she's the only one sleeping." Martin leans closer and hears light snoring from Dawn. "She's catching Z's." He comments and takes up the slack from the twin doll summon. He almost falls over from how heavy she was, but Joy grabbed his arm. "Careful! Your cave man friend had a little trouble carrying her." She scolds. "Why don't you four work together to get her to her room. Joy will guide you." Calca said as he hatched a plan to shock the 'puppet men'. His sister laughed creepily as she got the same idea.
Dawn's dream
Dawn found herself drifting from memories of the past to sitting in a cushy chair. "You're hijacking my 'demigod dream'. Not by choice but what can you do." Zane said as he sat in a chair like hers. Between them was a table with a chessboard set up. "I know you from somewhere." Dawn says trying to place his voice and face. "If I told you my name was Zane Laskaris, would that help?" Zane said as they played. "The one that let me use your last name?" Dawn asked. "You bet. Lady Hestia suggested it but as clan leader, it's my word that's final." Zane says then admits that he had no problem because Hestia was the one suggesting it. "Life has interesting ways of 'throwing you a bone' and I am willing to cut you a deal."
Dawn remembered a tale that all the spirits of her world knew as they hoped to see worlds outside theirs. It went like this: "Before the Great Mother took up the reins from the Master, a being agreed to watching the world for the first cycle, cycle zero. This being did not lift a claw to provide aid as the proto spirits learned how to think but he did make a deal with the Spirit of Time. In return for giving the spirit the rite to be there, the Spirit of Time was to aid the Great Mother, sealing the deal with Contract Magic. From that point on time began to move and the first cycle started for real." Dawn looked at Zane confused.
"You don't have claws?" She spoke. "And you aren't a little girl as you currently look like." Zane pointing out her disguise being just that. "I'm guessing you have other forms?" She questioned. "Checkmate." Zane said, the chess set vanished and contract, ink well and feather quill lay in its place. "You wish to find my daughter, 'the Great Mother', correct?" Zane asked as the contract wrote itself. "May I have her name?" Dawn asked, hopeful. "It will add to the 'price'." Zane said. "Then add it." Dawn said firmly. "Your 'price' will be two-fold. First, you will be sent into the past 100 years from when the 'gate' appears. And second, you must use your talent for art to leave proof of existence on each world you find. You must include this somewhere in it." He shows her an example of the Dark Souls bonfire.
"I guarantee you will find her in the end of that lag of your journey." He reassures her as he signs. "will I remember this dream?" Dawn asked as she signs. Zane laughs as he answers, "if I could forget my 'demigod dream' it would defeat the purpose of such warnings. When you do meet Electra, don't mention this please." The dream faded and was replaced by what she had been dreaming of before.
nine months later
Agent earth
Torrington Academy
Outside courtyard
Dawn was under a tent 'chiseling' the statue of the school founder from a giant slab of stone as a 'final project' before she left. She had been informed of a 'gate' slowly forming for the past nine months in the middle of one of the labs in The Center. It was at a crawl and nothing could pass through until it is fully formed and stable. To make up for her leaving, she had made artwork to be released one at a time, so it looks like she was still around. She had gone on a few missions and left a 'poof of existence' in the Himalayan mountain range. It was a statue the bonfire and an attempt at explaining her existence via images on the walls. She would improve the clarity as she went.
She double checked the photos she had for reference. The face was always the hardest part. The posture of the body below the head was easy to express motion. For the face, you had to give it depth of emotion. She hoped that she doesn't accidently breathe life into it. It would make things complicated down the road. A snake made of wood formed from the potted bush next her. "So, you are the 'sister' I felt." The snake hiss in a female voice. "Divinity, a cocktail of powers and materials, and more importantly, the scent of a clan curse I know well." She hissed tongue flicking out almost touching Dawn as the wooden snake coiled up her body.
"I am called Dawn Laskaris. My I have the name of the goddess who has sought me out." Dawn asked, marveling at the scale pattern. "I am Ivy, Goddess of Chaos, plant life, poison, healing, and serpents. I felt a new 'path' in the chaos, and it seems to be only for you to take. I want to say that Master Zane's clan welcoming someone like you to the fold, but they welcomed me, a creation that has become much greater." Dawn could feel the frown Ivy had as she stared at her. "This makes no sense. I can not see your name. It is not hidden as I can see your soul and the titles you bare but no name." Ivy looked at her from every angle in frustration. "this is more confusing than that school with talking animals wearing cloths. Please share your story. Leave no detail out." Ivy promised to share some tales of her life in return. It was a fair deal, and both swore on the Styx to seal the deal. So, as Dawn worked, she listened to Ivy's first tale, of her time watching the students at Charles Darwin Middle School in Glendale, California on another earth.
Flashback
Cartoon Network Earth
Glendale, California
Charles Darwin Middle School
One of the clasrooms
"Normal I would leave this for the history teacher, but this topic is far too important to bird kind." Miss Loon, the blue jay with a bob cut hair style for some reason, said as she started Creative Writing class. "Yes, Adam. You have a question." She points a wing at the only human in the school. Adam Lyon, his last name being misspelled landed him in this school, put his hand down and asked, "Miss Loon, what does this 'Lord of the Skies' have to do with bird kind?" there was gasps from the birds and interested looks from the other animals. "And that is why a bird is required to explain this." Miss Loon said nodding as if his question proved her point. "Who can give me their interpretation of this title?" She asks the class. Ingrid Giraffe raise a hoof and when she was called on, she answered quietly, "Um, Lupe told me about this a while ago. It's a title that is give to one that is the 'freest winged being' and nothing can keep them from taking flight. Not even the deadliest of storms." Jake Spidermonkey, who was lounging in his seat took off his baseball cap to pick a bug out of his fur and said, without raising his hand, "What's the big deal with some 'super bird'? it's not like they are royalty or something. That would be cool."
Adam ducked under his desk and covered his ears as the bird students started to yell at Jake for that careless comment. Bull Sharkowski, a bully of a bullshark with braces and 'water headphones' to breathe out of water added fuel to the fire by saying, "I could eat any bird with ease." Windsor Gorilla, Slips Python, and Ingrid share a look before bracing for the chaos that erupted in the classroom. Birds were arguing how powerful you had to be to have that title and non-birds that didn't not like that argued back. Miss. Loon bellowing got them to stop after five minutes but it was just the start of the 'Bird War'.
A week later
Cartoon Network Earth
Glendale, California
Charles Darwin Middle School
Advance learning homeroom
"Now, Adam Lion, please explain why the school seem to be at war for the past week." Mr. Blowhole, a sharply dressed killer whale asked as he leaned out of a tank of water. "Well sir, Jake made a passing comment about the 'Lord of the Skies' title and things seemed to spiral out of control. May I ask why you are asking me instead of the teachers?" Adam asked as he sweated under the gave of the teacher and The Spiffies, the upper crust of students, grade wise and were quite nerdy and condescending. The Spiffies consisted of Phineas Porpoise (Bottlenose Dolphin), Marvin Hammy (a pig), Aloysius Elephant (a member of the Elephantidae family but refused to say which one), Daniel Calamari (a squid in a tube tank on wheels), and Nestor Parrot (an Eclectus Parrot).
"The members of staff have become heads of the factions in this 'war' that happening." Mr. Blowhole said, pushing up his glasses, with an echoing sigh. "It is best if you stay in this classroom for now." He said, ignoring the loud and chaotic animal sounds outside the room. He spins the blackboard to show a map of the school drawn with sections colored to show who was 'in control' of that 'turf'. "This explains much but it will take some context to understand why." Mr. Blowhole drones, his voice unchanging. "It begins with the 'first' Lord of the Skies and a legendary bird who granted the title." He started as his students instantly started to take notes.
"The Eternal Queen of all bird kind, the Phoenix bestowed this title to an unknown being and granted them a power to use fire. This being was the first Firebird to come into existence." He droned, "Magic exists, if only to upset those that use logic and mathematics to figure things out. What's important is that the birds dream of earn this title and many would listen to what a title holder had to say like it was from a god." Adam remembered the surprise when Ivy, a snake goddess, had visited the school. Silps swears up and down that he can catch glimpses of her watching the school of the last three months after the visit.
"What about the Bird of the Hearth?" Adam asked. Mr. Blowhole froze and swore colorfully before calming down and asking, "Place don't let anyone know you heard those words from me." He was paler and nervous. "The Bird of the Hearth is on of the more famous holds of the title and is a firebird that is favored by the Phoenix enough to call her by her name. If this 'war' continues, dramatic actions may need to be taken to stop it."
A few days later
Cartoon Network Earth
Glendale, California
Charles Darwin Middle School
Hidden hangout room
Nestor Parrot started the meeting by saying, "I have confirmed that the 'war' is at a deadlock." A map of the school was unrolled on the table. "the Sky faction controls the east half of the school. The other half of the school is in control of the Land faction. In pockets, mainly under water, there is a number of groups that aren't taking side and are headed by Nurse Gazelle." Daniel Calamari sighs and comments, "It seems that the original argument is just being used as an excuse for everyone's grievances at this point. Classes are barely happening, and everything is on a hairline trigger."
"I purpose we put our heads together and find a solution to ending this 'war' before it becomes a blood bath." Aloysius Elephant states. "and how are we going to do that?" Phineas Porpoise asked. "They ripped the drones we sent to has for a possible peaceful negotiation yesterday with glee I haven't seen outside of a psycho from a human slasher flick." He pointed out. They started to brainstorm for the next hours, staying overnight at the school to find any solution. In the end, they settled on contacting Ivy and letting her solve the conflict before locking themselves in their hiding spot until it died down. Later they would learn she trade everyone fighting and forced them to talk it out before she released them. Principal Pixiefrog, a pixie frog, was in hot water but was able to spin it in a way to avoid anyone get punished too badly (Losing their job or being expelled).
Flash back end
"It almost reached the high school. If that had happened, let us not think of the rioting that could happen." Ivy shuddered. "nice work on the face." She changes the subject. "It's something that I work hard on. I have talent for it but why would I sit on my laurels when I can improve?" Dawn said. Martin entered the tent and froze at the sight of Ivy. "Hello Martin. This Ivy, a snake goddess that is interested in me." Dawn said helpfully. "OK, that is not a goddess I know of, but she looks lovely." He said not moving.
Elsewhere
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Divine Realms
Badger's sett (the name of a badger's home)
"What are you?" a grumpy badger with silver claws said as he somehow towered over Rei, his presence made the mere inches of height he had over her to be like miles. Rei whimpered out answer out of fear. "I'm not going to hurt you." He grumbled. Rei was scooped up by a female badger with the same aura of divinity. "Let me do the talking. She's scared out of her poor little head." She said, lightly scolding her mate. "You can call me Badger." He grumbled before leaving down a tunnel. "I am Mother Brock, the first female badger of this universe. My mate is the first male badger, and we oversee all badgers in the human realm." She looked Rei over. "you aren't from the human realm or the divine realm. That means you came from 'elsewhere'. I wonder how you got to this place." She smells Rei and nods to herself. "I see, you have the scent of Mother Flame on you. She mut have big plan for you."
And hour later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Divine Realms
Court of the Gods
"Mother Flame, why did you allow that outsider in?" Father Universe, the creator of this universe, asked his wife, who had a look that was amused. "I made sure that no Heartless or any other problem beings can use the 'book' to enter. Uusoae isn't the only one that can cause a little 'chaos'." Mother Flame said without elaborating. "little Rei will be my champion, that will give her some protection." Father Universe decided to keep an eye on this outsider.
Sometime later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Divine Realms
Mother Brook and Rei were traveling in an orchard of fruit baring trees. "What do we have here?" a male voice said as a pair of crow gods landed on the branch of the first peach tree. "A Plant that's trying to be a beast I think." The female crow said quite amused. "Shall we introduce ourselves to this odd creature?" The male one said. "Be nice, Dawn Crow. You too Sky." Mother Brook scolded them in the order they had spoken. Rei noted that the crows had silver talons. Rei's bell like voice rung out a greeting and a question. "you don't speak the common tongue, how unfortunate." Sky said, slyly. "Don't even think of trying that scam. That trinket will never grant the ability to communicate with everything." Mother Brook snapped as Sky dangled a gaudy necklace.
"Oh well. It was worth trying, we are trickster gods." Dawn Crow said with a shrug. "To answer your question. All the animal gods have silver claws, talons or something of the sort." Rei says a compliment that has the crow chuckling. "flattery will get you somewhere but not where you want to be. Take this for your good attempt." Dawn Crow drops a fancy coin purse with a coat of arms on it at her feet. "mortal currency liberated by one of our flocks. If you ever get to the human realm, it will be useful."
Sky got an idea and said, in a way that fooled even Mother Brook until Badger informed her of the trickery, "I would be incredibly grateful for your assistance on a small matter. I am willing to repay you with a favor within reason." She crooned gliding down and whispering in Rei's ear as she swept her under her wing. "A pest is spewing vile things my way whenever I go near an area of the forest a few hours flight to the south. I'd ask for aid from an animal god but there is a hunter who has a shoot first, ask questions after the god revives themselves policy." She then said normally, "Make sure to bring me berries that are just ripening and watch out for angry squirrels." Mother Brook tapped her claws warningly. "I don't know what you said but I'm keeping an eye on you."
A few hours later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Divine Realms
Rei from the odd tree and stared at it. It was a wide hollow tree, that looked 'lifeless', sitting in the middle of a clearing. There were berries growing about, but something felt wrong. There was the sound of insectoid legs and the stench of something acidotic and poison. From the tree a large globe of venom shot at Rei. Rei redirected back with her Bash skill and was rewarded with a man like shriek of pain and rage. From the hollow tree a horse sized spider with a head of a human man and a mouthful of pointed teeth scuttled out cursing with a language nastier than his venom shot. Speaking off venom, he left front two legs were melting off. "I will kill you!" he spat with hatred as he lounged with an off-kilter jump. Rei swings a blade of light (Spirit Edge) and removed the lower jaw in three slices then bashing the spider monster into the ground with a hard light hammer (Spirit Smash).
The beast garbled something, but no words could be made out. Still the beast refused to die. Rei formed and threw a flashbang and prepared to deliver the finishing blow, but cluster of arrows found their home in the beast's face and neck. Rei listened for anything but there were no footsteps. She whirled and hauled a flashbang at the source of measured breathing.
An antlered olive-skinned man in only a loincloth with a quiver on his back and a string bow in his hand was silently cursing. It was the hunter that the crow goddess warned her of, and she had just given him reason to turn her into a pincushion. "Good instinct and an odd ability for an oddity like you." He said, in a not angry tone. "You drew the Spidren so that I could kill it. For that you have my thanks." Rei tiled her head questioningly as the hunter blinked rapidly. Overhead the Crow gods were laughing long and hard at the hunter misfortune. "Hey Weiryn, having trouble with a plant?" Sky called down as she swoops down to snag a branch of berries.
Rei punched the ground annoyed. "We'll take about the favor at a later time." Dawn Crow yells as the crow gods depart with arrows just missing them. "once again a trickster makes me a fool." Weiryn muttered under his breath. He walks over to the beast and sliced it's head off with a hunting knife. "It's best to be sure that the Spidren is truly dead. I am Weiryn, a minor god of the hunter. What is your name?" He asked as he poked his head into the hollow tree. Rei crept over and looked inside as well. That was glowing webs recently places and bodies cocooned in silk. Rei asked his question as he looked for anything living in the tree. "A nice name. be on guard, there may be others." He warned. When they found nothing, he sat down and indicated for her to do the same.
He explained the tiers of the gods of this universe. The First Powers were the most powerful and were the highest judgement. The Great Gods came next, the children of the Father Universe and Mother Flame. The mortals worshiped them the most. The miner gods were still imported but on a narrower scope. There were other gods worshipped by other nations, but many were sealed or not causing too much trouble. When Rei asked where the animal and Plant gods fall, he was silent for a little. "The People of claw and fur are the main source of warship for the animal gods. They don't care if the humans worshiped them or not. Maybe if a human has wild magic, they will take notice." He paused as Rei commented his expression as he said that. He cared about someone with wild magic. "Plant gods are a matter I know little of."
Rei asked about the spidrens. "They are a part of 'the immortals', creatures that are not gods but can only die when they are killed. Time or illness will kill them but even mortals can slay them. There are many such beings that are among the immortal. Some even are willing to coexist in peaceful terms. Mortals makes things complicated. Such is the case of putting dead griffin chicks on shields to exploit the 'truth aura' griffins cause, even after death." Rei gaged at the idea. It was almost as immoral and vile as what Vlad the Impaler did to living humans. "They have forgotten this practice since the immortals were sealed here hundreds of years ago. But times are changing and gates to the mortal realm are being opened by wizards or other forces on this side."
Badger surfaced outside the tree walked in, frowning at the web. "nasty creatures." He grumbled. When Weiryn filled him in on the crows plot he spat on the ground in annoyance. "Bird brained tricksters always make things difficult." Badger scratched his chin. "The Mother Flame has a plan for this kit (word for a baby badger)" He says pointing at Rei. "I say we let her go to the mortal realm. There are enough portals opening because of the meddling of mortals and gods." Weiryn looked at his friend, "Not as she is. A coin perse stolen from a mortal king with only could her trouble if she is to go. Especially if it's Tortall that she travels." Rei looked at the coin purse with alarm. She had the king of Tortall's coin purse, a guard would attack her if she were found with it.
Sensing her state, Weiryn stated, "relax, a creature as interesting as you will not be killed. At worst he will be interested in your magic. I spied on him when he was younger, and I am a good judge of character." Rei relaxed. She leaned on the wooden wall and copper fire started blooming and spread from that spot. They get out of the tree in an instant as the tree crumbled to dust. There was no sign of the webs or the dead cocooned there. the pile of dust shifted as a new sapling pushed its way out into the light. Rei looked at her hands and wondered how she did that.
"You have a strong wild magic." Weiryn said as he watched the plant grow. "strong? She composted and somehow revived it as a sprot at an accelerated rate." Badger said. the tree matured and stood tall with openings large and small for shelter. "I'd say it's even better." Ghostwing, the first female great horn owl said as she silent landed on the new tree. "Now, you," She picks a talon at Rei, "Need to go to meet the Great Mother Goddess and her brother and husband, Bright Mithros post haste. They woke me up to play 'messenger bird' for them. Do I look like some hawk to you?" She said crossly. Rei quickly said that she was as striking as the Great Owl Kuro.
"Oh. Tell me what this Kuro looks like." Ghostwing said challengingly. Rei did one better. Using the berries, she crushed them and painted a rushed portrait of Kuro with the Spirit Tree as a scale for the size on the ground. "Reminds me of a barn owl but much bigger." Badger commented. Rei pointed to the Spirit Tree and called it her grandparent. "you are a 'seed' form a 'Spirit Tree'? I've heard weirder things." Ghostwing glides away just as silent. From the woods a woman in the prime of her youth and man steeped into the clearing. "Leave us." The man, his dark skin contrasted his golden armor that glinted in the sunlight as he thumped a spear with a white-hot tip on the ground. "Has someone stolen your shield again, Lord Mithros?" Badger asked respectfully. "That matter is none of your concern." Mithros boomed as the two gods left Rei along with the king and queen of the main pantheon of gods.
"We are here to judge if you are the one to steal Mithros' golden shield. Do not try to lie." The Great Mother Goddess stated. Her peal like skin was as beautiful as the moon but her voice was like the baying of hunting hounds. Her green eye bore into Rei's soul and her red lips were set in a thin angry line. Rei explained everything since she got here, making sure to emphasizing she has never seen them before. Mithros looks at the tree and commented, "The thief's trail ends here. What was here?" He ordered her to answer again. Rei explained about the encounter with the spidren again. "The thief passed it to someone else or was killed by the spidren." The goddess said as Mithros looked around for tracks. A black cat with violet eyes sauntered over to Rei and sat with his tail swooshing lazily. The goddess looked at the cat and quirked an eyebrow. "You wish aid this creature?" the cat just stared at Rei, waiting for something.
"This is The Cat, a Constellation and an ally of mine." Rei nodded, knowing that cats do what they want and how they want. "He has chosen to aid you. He has been named multiple names by humans in the past, but it is up to you to have a name for his mortal incarnation while he feels the need to aid or hinder you. When you reach the mortal realm, he will find you." Rei nodded as she was silently told to leave. The Cat meandered after her in no rush to go too fast. It wasn't everyday one meets something like Rei.
A few years later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
448 HE (Human Era)
Grimhold Mountains
Over the past few years, human mages have been 'poking holes' in seal that kept the immortals trapped in the Divine Realms. Each time the holes got wider and they could summon larger number of creatures with mixed results. The reason Rei was in the northern border mountain range of Tortall was because the other effect the mages caused was natural gates opening and closing at random across this world. Rei got caught in was and spat out over a cliff along with a Basilisk, a seven-foot lizard with skin that tends to be gray to white and knack for languages. "That was close." The basilisk said with slight hiss, cradling Rei in his silver talons. Rei stared at the abyss that she almost fell in. This Basilisk was called Tkaa and had been bartering for a rock that Rei had found.
When Rei was safely on the cliff ground, she pushed her magic to make a tree grow on the wall the cliff, creating a 'safety net' for anyone that falls off the edge. "Interesting idea. Strong enough to cling to the cliffside but not too heavy that it would fall." Tkaa mused. He reached into the pouch on his stomach pouch and nibbled on a rock. "The first thing to do is pick which way to travel. East is a drop to one's death and West is as body of water." He peers at the distant water. "It a few days away at least. The best bet is to south. There are a few trails as far as I can tell." He spoke, unsured how safe they were. Rei handed over the rock she had found. A man's fist sized rock laced with traces of fire opal. Tkaa bows a little in thanks and licks it. "Hmm, not as much fire opal as I had hoped." He drops it into his pouch and they part ways but not before he said, "We may cross paths in the future. I look forward to seeing how your magic training goes." Rei looked at the 'paths' and picked a goat path to scale down southward.
Weeks later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
448 HE (Human Era)
Tortall
Rei was sneaking look from the upper branches of the trees as humans on horse back rode on ponies in a hurry. She swore that one of them looked up at her, but she could not be too sure. She heard the riders stop then slow footsteps coming back her way. A stocky muscular woman just over five feet started looked up at the trees. Rei moved to a different tree and noted her complexion was on the darker side. Using what the gods she met in the divine realm had taught her, she was sure this woman was of the K'miri, a nomadic tribe of horse-riding people. The woman 'left' but Rei listened for her heartbeat. She hadn't a second before the woman grabbed where she had been.
"You're the critter that was seen with the king's missing coin purse." The woman said as she climbed the tree. "Just come with me and we can talk things out." She ordered. Rei gave her a questioning look. "Do you want me to say my name?" the woman asked, Rei just noticed she was wearing breeches, that was odd because as far as she had been told most women of this world were like the medieval times, tradition wise. "I am Buriram Tourakom of the K'miri Raadeh. Call me Buri. May I have the name of the critter spending the king's stolen gold?" Buri asked. Rei said her name and the branch started to crack from the extra weight. Buri climbed down and waited for Rei to do the same, asking, "If you can't speak, can you write?" Rei pulled the coin purse rom her hammer space and offered it. "The King doesn't want it back. He wants to find out why a crow stole it and he's really interested in you." Buri said, not taking the coin purse.
Rei called out and a smug black kitten with violet eyes came from a bush and said to Rei what amounted to a 'I told you so' in cat. "You have a friend. He's so silent, I bet he could sneak wearing a bell." Buri said. Rei wrote out her name and the name she had chosen for The Cat 'Trick'. A simple name but it was fitting for what the Cat had done. The missing shield that king and queen of the gods were looking for had ended up in the hands of the Graveyard Hag, a trickster goddess with some death related powers who wasn't going to give it up without Rei playing a game of chance. The Cat had out tricked the cheating Hag and had pointed out how She was cheating at the shell game to Rei, without the Hag noticing.
"that's one problem solved." Buri said. Rei points to the cost of arms on her clothes. A crimson rearing house on a bronze background. "I am a part of the Queen's Riders. Sometimes smaller groups are better than a company of armed war horses." Buri stated. Rei remembered hearing about them in the town she visited a week ago. A scouting party founded by the Queen of Tortall. The King's Own were grateful for new group as far as Rei overheard.
A week later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
448 HE
Tortall
Corus
Queen's Riders HQ
Rei sat in a fancy chair as a black-haired man with fair skin and a trimmed beard sampled the grapes she had grown. He was King Jonathan IV, ruler of Tortall. Trick had claimed his lap the moment the cat entered the room. "So, you are the one The Cat is following. I knew him as Pounce and Faithful. Pounce was the name he had when he was with of one of my friends' ancestors, Beka Cooper. And Faithful was a much more recent incarnation of The Cat." He pops a few more grapes into his mouth. "What I'm interested in is you." He says scratching Trick behind his ears, getting a purr. "You don't match any legend, myth, or text." Rei wrote out a simple explanation, but the king had a question. "How do you 'inherit' skills yet still have something that makes you special among your kin?" Rei did a demonstration by picks some grapes and put them in a pile, then placed a few of them in a couple piles. "I see. The ones that inherit the special talents get a lesser version, but some abilities are the same overall." Rei was impressed he figured that out from the wordless demonstration. "And what of your talent?" He asked. Rei made tiny orb of light that hummed with restrained energy.
"That doesn't look stable." The king said poking it, making a soft sound. Rei doodles a person stumble blind and deaf. "An interesting way to defend yourself with light and sound." He watched as she showed her range of sounds. Any manner of nature sounds she could replicate but none of them were understandable by humans. Rubbing his chin, the King said, "I understand your 'handicap' now. But that is an upside. Can you tell if food is 'not right' without tasting it?" Rei nodded as Buri placed a few apples on the desk. "Among these is a 'bad' apple." Buri said. "Normally I have new recruits do this test, but a farmer said you pointed out a bushel of apples that could have poisoned a whole village, by sound only." She crossed her arms and Rei used sound waves to see if there was 'impurities' in the fruit. She pointed to the left most and Buri cut it in half to reveal a toxic interior.
"A mage cursed the tree. We had to chop it down and burn it all." Buri told the king. "Was it a Carthak mage?" He asked, face stony. "Too soon to tell but we are looking into it." Buri reported. "They can do all they want but until they declare war, they can call it 'a rogue faction' doing it." The king scowled at but had to agree with her assessment. Tortall was not ready to fight Carthak's great army and navy and they knew it. Carthak was poking for weaknesses and 'testing the waters' before some big plan.
A few months later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
448 HE
Tortall
Corus
palace courtyard
Rei followed Trick who insisted she come here. She had been working at the Royal 'taster' and had caught several 'expired' foods without the need to taste it. She was improving the quality of life by pointing out want to watch out for. "And who are you?" a copper haired woman on the shorter side said as she dismounted a beautiful black warhorse. Her violet eyes flashed as he looked at Rei. Rei showed her the small scroll as she adjusted the custom silk mantle that bore the king's crest on it. She pulls off her armored gauntlets and takes the scroll.
"The king found a taste tester he tolerates. What a surprise." She said shaking her head amused. Trick, now perched on the horse saddle, meowed. "Faithful?" The woman asked looking at the cat. "He goes by trick. King Jonathan said as he stood by the door to the main palace. "I suppose he would pick another mortal." She turns to Rei and says, "I am Alanna of Pirate's Swoop. It is a pleasure to meet you, Rei of Niwen." A cold breeze reminded them that it was later autumn. "We will talk more later. I need to get Darkmoon to the stables and get out of this armor." She says guiding her horse to the stables.
Six months later
Bookverse
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
449 HE
Tortall
Corus
Queen's Riders HQ
Stables
Rei jumped, ran and weaved as she felt presence approaching the city. It was so hauntingly familiar. She tripped but rolled to a stop at the feet of a raven-haired woman in plaining looking clothes leaning on a fence. Be careful Rei. The roads can be stony." She said amused as she went back to talking to a smoky brown-haired girl, 13 at most. "What strange creature. Who is she?" the girl asked. "The Royal taste tester. You would not believe how many times the cooks unknowing have been using bad food before Rei pointed it out. She knows nature better than us humans even if she has to write it down." The raven-haired woman was Queen Thayet. "Rei, say hello to the new assistant Onua hired from Galla." Queen Tyayet said. Rei waved and the girl said, "I am Veralidaine Sarrasri, call me Daine." The girl said. Rei smiled and said in her bell like sounds, "I'm not sure if you will understand me but you must be good with horse if Onua Chamtong hired you."
Daine blinked as she understood every word a clear as if it was in the common tongue. "your accent is an interesting one. But I can understand you." Rei blinked then jumped for joy. Finally, a human that understood her in this world. The diner bells at the Queen's Riders HQ rung out up on the hill. "it's lunch time. I could go for some fruit about now." Queen Thayet said, looking at Rei knowingly.
A month later
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
449 HE
Tortall
Corus
In the woods
Diane was getting training from the chief mage Numair SalmalĂn to control her wild magic. He was a tall thin man with brown skinned and dark hair. "Now I want you to use your mage sight and look at Rei." He told Diane. Diane did so and the world became black with veins of color. Each was the lifeforce and magic of all living things. "Describe what Rei looks like." Numair asked. "Not like anything even the immortals I met. The copper fire is coiled around a glowing core that feels so inviting." She trails off and falls forward off the stump. Rei checked her pulse and signaled she was 'alive'. "What happened?" He said with worry and interest. Rei shrugged, she never had this happen before. Then again, she had Wild Magic added to her list of talents when she got to the Divine Realms.
Somewhere else
Grove of the past
Diane wasn't sure where she was but there were glowing leaves floating about this place. "Why have you come here, Child?" A deep male voice echoed as a trio of massive trees appeared. The leaves turned into creatures like Rei watching her from the trees and the rocky grass covered ground that materialized. "Where is here?" Diane asked in return. "So many questions, reminds me of you, Ori." The first tree said to the third one. "She grew into a confident spirit tree because of those questioning and exploring." The Second tree, that seemed to be two massive willows intertwined, laughed in a feminine voice. The third tree, with its leafy crown wrapped around a glob of light as the other two trees had, was silent, judging.
"By what magic have you breaching into the place were all knowledge is passed down to the Spirit Guardian known as Rei, resides?" the First tree asked again. "She came seeking answers." Ori said in a kind voice. "She may not know it yet, but we can aid her. But it will not come without a cost." The shades of the Spirit Guardians who passed their skills on to Rei watched as the Spirit Trees debated. Diane sat on the roots of the tree known as Ori and listened to the drifting song of wind through leaves. It was so many songs blended into one indescribable melody. She wasn't sure how long had passed for Ori told her, "Carry this seed, feed it your 'copper fire' every day. When the time for a miracle comes, offer it up as sacrfice." A 'rock' the size of child's clenched fist dropped into her lap. It looked clear and lifeless. "Rei will jumpstart it for you. Tell her Ori says she is proud of her."
Moments later
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
449 HE
Tortall
Corus
The woods
Diane gasped as she blinked at Rei's worried expression. "Find anything interesting, Magelet (means little mage)?" Numair asked. "There was this grove with three giant trees and spirit guardians in the hundreds." Diane tried to explain. "it felt like hours just listening to their song." She paused as she felt something hard hanging around her neck knocking into the silver badger claw that hung there. "It was minutes at best." Numair said as she lifted the 'rock' to look at it in the soft light of the orb Rei made. "That wasn't there before." Numair commented. Diane stood up shakily and said, Ori gave it to me." She turns to Rei and says, "She proud of you, Rei. Can you 'jumpstart' it?" She lets Rei get up to her shoulder and channeled light into it. The result was an inner light in the clear 'rock' glowing no brighter than an ember from the fireplace.
A week later
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
449 HE
Tortall
On the road to Pirate's Swoop
"I can't believe the royal Taste tester could fight like that." Evin Larse, the only trainee that required a full-sized horse instead of a pony, said as he rode with a hidden Trick hiding in his staddle bags. "The Stormwings fled when she pulled out weapons of light. What sort of creature is Rei?" Miri, another trainee, wondered as Sarge's bellowing command reach them. He was a former slave and burly as a bear. His job was to train the new trainees that tried out for the Queen's Riders and he did not do any 'hand holding' when it came to training. If you washed out, then the job was not for you. They slowed down as they approached a beach that was safe enough for camp.
Stormwings, an immoral that had the head and torso of human and metal claws and wings of a bird. Their metal teeth stained with blood from the corpse they desecrated on the battlefield. They were also called 'The Eaters' and had attacked the capital but have been driven off in in short order. Rei's fighting capabilities were all the rumor mill talked about since the failed attack.
As they set up tents, they talked so more, but not letting their guard down. "As a Player (an entertainer and bard), I know quite a few tales, but none match Rei. Maybe it's a forgotten story or song?" He proposed. He yelped as Trick jumped out of the Saddle bag. "What I do know is that cat is not normal." He says watching it saunter off. Miri covered her laugh as she hammered down another stack into the ground. "It could be The Cat. Wandered down from the stars to mess around with us mortals. That Constellation has been missing from the sky for the last year or so."
"There are old tales about wandering constellations taking 'mortal form' for a number of reasons." He said eyeing the cat warily. It was just another thing that was putting everyone on edge since the immortals started to return. Before the immortals came back, it was just bandits and wild animals to worry about. On the upside, new knowledge was given, and new cures were found, improving life expectancy for the commoners.
Later that evening
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
449 HE
Tortall
On the road to Pirate's Swoop
"What are you drawing?" Numair asked as he looked over Diane's shoulder by the fire. "You over the scare from earlier?" She asked. "You stopping your own heart was not a 'scare'. That was a stupid reckless idea that will never be repeated." He said, daring her to say otherwise. "It's one of the 'spirit trees' I saw. If you look at the trunk you can see animal faces. I believe the other tress call her Ori." Diane said as she added shading. "That 'rock' around your neck is absorbing magic from everything, I can feel it." He commented, noting the glow was a little brighter than when Rei first jumpstarted it. "I know." Diane said. "I asked Rei and she said that it is filling itself with the 'essence of life'. That was the closest meaning I could understand. She said was more than just energy but had no meanings that I could understand better." She sighed. Animals were easier to understand compared to the logic of trees.
"explain to me again what happened that evening." Numair asked. "I was in a place made of all the knowledge that Rei inherited lay. It was so peaceful and relaxing I couldn't think straight." Diane described the trees and the spirit guardians. She paused what she was doing and closed her eyes, thinking back. "The music was more than music. It was memories. I 'heard' events that I could say were mine but I'm human and the 'me' of those memories were not." She sighed again. "Am never going to look at owls the same way again." Numair's interest was pinged and he had to know more.
She described the snippets of Kuro's attacks on Ori, who had been powerless at the time to do more than dodge and hide, and then described how she saw the reason for her rage filled attacks. "She was willing to let or the forest she lived in wither and die. That isn't like any animal ever." Diane said shaking her head. "That is correct, Magelet. but you are forgetting she, highly likely, is like Rei in a way, more than just a plant or animal. More akin to an Immortal or 'god'." Numair mused. "but they can die of old age." Diane said, "The Spirit Willow told Ori this fact in one of the memories." Numair was deep in thought at this. "I am unsure of how to explain it then. We are lacking context that is required to understand the puzzle that is 'Rei'." Numair said with a shrug. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for more information, seeing as you are the only human who speaks her tongue." He leaves her to stew on this idea.
A few days later
Tortallan Universe
Mortal Realm
449 HE
Tortall
A village not far from Pirate's Swoop
They had found the village empty and worried griffin parents confronting them. The horses, feeling Diane magic fueled plead for the riders not to shoot, stopped the humans as she stood up to the deadly and proud looking male griffon with Rei providing back up. They spoke in not 'words' but concepts things were going as well as she could hope but then the male zeroed in on the lioness on Alanna's shield. Rei called out that humans have forgotten the old ways and his focus was now on Rei. "you. I know you." The Griffin shrieked in his race's 'language'. "You protected her from the eaters." He was referring to his mate. "Wait here." He flew off and returned only to drop a mound of feathers the size of a dog.
"we can tell the villagers it's safe to return." Diane said a little frazzled. "But what do they eat?" Alanna asked. Rei pulls out book flipped to a page with a sketch of a griffin snatching a dolphin from the water. "She's saying they eat aquatic pray only." Diane translated. Alanna looked down at Rei and wondered what other mysteries Rei was hiding.
Elsewhere
Different time
Shaman King Bookverse
Funbari Hills, Toyko Japan
"We must wait for the tournament to begin." Wallace said as he carried a wooden pallet of shrink-wrapped boxes with ease into the modest traditional Japanese style house. It had sliding doors and met floors, basically the works. Electra looked at the sky before sighing. She had been told that she had the 'rare opportunity' to try for the title of 'Shaman King' by Chaos. It was clearly something to distract her or be Chaos' latest idea for entertainment, they had taken the form of a blue butterfly at the time, so Voleta could barely get the tiniest hint of a read on anything other than their voice, that sounded amused. Next thing they knew, they were in a movie truck in front of this house. Oddly enough, Electra had a frying pan in her lap when they arrived with a note that said its name was 'Vorpan'. She didn't get the reference if there was one. (It's secret weapon you can get in Dead Cells)
The whole place had a thick layer of dust that she blew out of the house with a mini-tornado that sucked up any 'surprises' like insects and a few mice. The dusty wind kept going out of town, making her wonder where it would stop. "Hey! Were you the one to send that wind earlier?" A blonde-haired girl, with a flat look on her face, said as she knocked on the gate to the property. She had rosary beads around her neck a red bandana on her head and her wooden sandals clopped as she entered. She walked up to Electra looked at her and said, "What is your weapon of choice?" Electra guessed she meant what medium she used as a shaman. "Masks to channel spirits and herbal remedies for most 'simple case'." Electra said. "I can manipulate the elements without a spirit, but I am limited with some more than others." The girl's mouth curled a little as she said, "Kyoyama, Anna." Electra smiled and answered with, "Laskaris, Electra." Anna's eyes seem to shine with interest as she left without a word.
A week later
Funbari Hill cemetery
Just past sunset
Electra stared at the figure walking with a softly glowing lantern in his hand. He did not speak, nor did he stop walking. His hooded robes were a pale white and the shadows hid any features. It felt like her father but only in the smallest of traces. The fact the being passed through a person praying at a grave in a ghostly manner was proof it was something supernatural. "You can see the lantern bearers too?" A short kid with a large book under his arm asked her, tracing her line of sight. "I am Oyamada, Manta but most people call me 'Morty' or 'Mortimer'." He said to her. He had flat light brown hair and looked just barely a teenager. "What is that entity? It's not a ghost, human, animal, or anything I can think of." Electra asked. "It is an echo of the one to see something no one else ever did." Morty said. "they wander, untouchable by any means I'm aware of."
"But there was a one that was different." He says with a burning passion in his eyes. "A priestess met one that spoke of seeing 'someone beyond comprehension' and being 'splintered across all of time, past, present and future'. He then left to 'put himself back together, again'. That was in the last century if the account is truthful." Morty said, "No one believes me that they are real, but I've seen them, just like the group of spirits the new kid was hanging out with last night." He starts to quake with fear as he rambles. "Calm down." Electra said, clapping her hand sharply, breaking out of his spiraling fear.
"Take a breath and explain what happened yesterday." She asks as the clouds start to clear and a sea of stars lit up the night. "This kid with black spiky hair and headphones around his neck with this laid-back expression was here with dozens of ghosts." Morty said animatedly. He shows her a scape book of dead people buried in the graveyard and pointed out what ghosts he swears he saw. "there was one ghost that really freaked me out." Morty said, doing a full body shiver. "He sat, or floated, apart from the group and seemed to glare at anyone that drifted too close to him." Morty pointed to the hill with a tree on it.
She froze as Morty ran ahead and a thump echoed from the hill. There was a gang of delimits led by a pompadour white suit wearing thug with a wooden sword smashing a stone grave maker to proof a point. She winced as Morty was beat up and toss off the hill. They called themselves The Deadenders and were the perfect bait to draw out the kid that Morty talked about. She picked up Morty and carried him to the nearest clinic to get treatment. It would look weird if they found the broken arm they caused was healed overnight.
A few days later
Funbari Hill cemetery
"Greeting, Lord Amidamaru." Electra said bowing respectful to the now repaired headstone on the hill. The ghost sitting before her was a tall white-haired samurai carrying two blades at his hips with a serious look on his face as he materialized. "I saw you watching my fight with those delinquents." He commented. "Yes, Yoh is a promising Shaman to witness but what I want is information on a spirit that was here. One that 'glared at everyone?" She requested sitting down as he was. "That is not a being you should be looking for. No matter how powerful a Shaman you seem to be." Amidamaru warned. "that THING is a beast of a dragon who radiates such rage." He said, try to persuade her not to go looking.
"Did they say anything?" Electra asked. Amidamaru pondered this. "In the few months he was here, he didn't talk much. But that was one thing he kept repeating. 'I must tell her of his fate.' Does this mean anything?" Amidamaru asked. Electra's throat closed with fear. Something had happened to her father after he got splintered. Likely a major chuck got trapped somewhere. "I must find Wrath. He is my Father's rage given form. If he is disconnected enough to wander like this then something horrible happened." Electra said with worry. Amidamaru was shocked but rubbed his chin in thought. "What kind of person is your father?" He asked. Electra laughed, remembering how people described her father.
"a man that was almost broken but defied that outcome survived the darkest plane of existence." Electra said, "Wrath was just an ugly fish of hate, whispering revenge fueled thought in his ear." Amidamaru frowned. "a fish that became a dragon. Could the legend of the dragon's gate be true?" He sighed, "He flew to the west the evening that 'Morty' first met Yoh. I asked him where he was going, and he only said he would force the Shamans to 'find her for me'. His exact words were less polite." Amidamaru cough into his fist. "It was more a promise to make their lives uncomfortable as possible without causing death." Amidamaru shuddered. "I pity anyone that makes 'Wrath' unhappy." Electra's face contorted into a mask of fury. "And anyone that tries to stop me from finding him with learn it runs in the family." She jumped off the hill and vanishes into the night noiselessly.
A week later
Funbari Hills, Toyko Japan
Electra watched as Yoh jogged with weights. Anna turned out to be Yoh's fiancé because of a deal after she saved him as a kid. He had just been attacked by a pack of Jiangshi, 'hopping vampire/zombie' few days ago and they stopped by a bench and were raving about a kung fu movie star that did his own stunts. Electra stood in the trees pondering if she should give Morty a spirit to aid him. There was this polearm wielding black haired kid with a spike of hair in back that Yoh had defeated a few days before the Jiangshi started attacking. Tao Ren, a member of a family that had waited 500 years to gain the title of Shaman King. From what she noted, he had a sister, Jun, who was a Dà oshì, one who could control Jiangshi, and just happened to come to town the day before the 'zombie gang' attacks started.
"Wallace, go buy a few tickets to that movie." She ordered through her connection to her golem. She had to see what this actor was like. One does not die and just happen to lose the body when the Tao Family is around.
The next day
Evening
Funbari Hills, Toyko Japan
Electra hated when she was right. The dark mint hair teen did indeed have the kung fu actor as one of her puppets. Yoh, with the help of Morty and the pompadoured ( he lost two thirds of said hair) gangster leader, Ryu, had removed the control tag, by getting Yoh a wooden sword, from the undead actor. He wanted revenge for being used for 17 years and Yoh was not strong enough to stop his blind rage. Amid their planning, she stuck with lightning-fast blows, aiming to disable. "Impossible! How can anyone move that fast?" Tao Jun said as the masked vintage and feathered clock seemed to blur into existence. "Electra the Thunder Shaman." Anna said with a smirk. "Met her last time I was in town. She is an interesting person." She got to summoning Lee Pai Long's master. Electra seamlessly let said spirit use Yoh to knock some sense into his student.
"I think she is scarier than lady Anna." Amidamaru said as the fight was finished. "That flowing strikes and flawless dodges. It was something like the movies." Ryu said. "She even looks the part." Ryu paused as Electra summoned a tiny spider and shoved it into Morty's chest. It glowed as it sunk into his body without any wound. "This spirit with aid you even if you lack the talent to be a 'proper shaman' like Yoh." Morty pulled up his shirt to see a fading mark over his heart. "The spider will aid in sealing wounds faster from within your body. Goddess knows with your luck how much work they will have keeping you alive." Electra said. Anna smirked as she said, "Looks like I can you include you in the training after all, short stack." Morty fainted on the spot.
Electra paused and looked up as she felt a voice calling out to her. It was so close that she could tell it was on this world. "I need to go meet a dear friend I have long to see again." She said, "Wallace will maintain my house for me." She dashed off into the night.
Later
Shaman King Bookverse
Somewhere in the Arizona wastelands
Electra scaled the canyon wall as a giant blue comet streaked across the sky with a second one hiding in its shadows. "You are far from home, Shaman applicant." A man said as she reached the flat top of the rock. He was a native american of the Patch Tribe. "The Star of Destiney and it's twin, Star of Destruction signal the star of the battle for the title and the fate of the world." He said as her eyes looked past him and at the knight standing and looking at her.
"IT has been a long journey, Great Mother. Please Name me." Dawn said kneeling as Electra walked to the knight. "I Name you, spirit of the little world I preside over, Eddwen. May you carry the hopes and dream of those that never got the chance to see the splendor of it after the cycle is no more." Electra said. Dawn, now Named Eddwen, changed. Her armor was still scale armor but was more streamlined and made of the odd metal she created. She had an aura of divine presence as she made an oath to serve her. "Come on There are some people I want you to meet." Electra said offering a hand.
Dawn stood up and shifted to her human guise. Electra laughed because Dawn looked enough like her to be sister or even her daughter if she had been younger looking. "You will fit right into the family." The man coughed into his hand and said, "I am Chrom, one of the ten officiants who decide who is worth of getting a chance at being Shaman King. I'm not sure if I will be testing you but it was interesting meeting you." Chrom summons silver locust legs around his legs and hops away. "That wasn't spirit unity (letting a spirit possess you to use its skills)." Electra mused. "Was he hinting at Oversoul (putting a spirit in an object) being required?"
Dawn looked at her confused "I have never heard these terms in my travels." Electra just smiled. "But I'm sure you with share that knowledge, Great Mother." Dawn started to climb down the rock wall with Electra as they made their way back to the nearest town.
A month later
Shaman King Bookverse
Flying over the Midwest of America
Electra was fly in a cloud infused with her 'Guardian Ghost' The Raiju, the oversoul making the cloud as black as night and lightning surging around it revealing the scaled wolf-like form of the legendary beast of Shinto lore for mere moments. It was an Oversoul geared for travel, not combat. The Raiju snarled as a red horned giant, the Spirit of Fire, floated with a kid that looked like Yoh but felt full of negative energy, mainly rage and disgust for humanity. "you must be Hao." Electra said, "It seems you are here to invite me for your post doomsday world."
Hao chuckled. "Well, you are well informed for a Shaman I could find little information on. A shaman as powerful as you just 'appearing' out of nowhere hardly ever happens. Nor does a spirit who was able to drive me off to come from beyond the stars just in time for the Shaman Tournament." She knew he was not someone to fight yet but he was blocking her way to Patch Village. "I must decline your offer for you must have realized that I will be leaving with Wrath to deal with things." Electra said. "But before I leave, I must make sure Rajiu battles the one who climbs their way to the door to the throne of the King of Spirits. It is why he became my partner in this tournament." Hao shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, you would have been a fine addition to the world I wish to create." His Spirit of Fire let her fly past it.
A few days before the deadline
Shaman King Bookverse
Midwest of USA
Patch Village
Electra was eating at the café in the participants section of the village. She had made good time had been relaxing. Rhea had greeted her, having been here since they had been dropped on this world. At one point she had left, and Electra had not seen her for at least a week and was worried that she was up to trouble. "Are you this cat's companion?" a Romanian accented voice said in an acceptable modern Greek. The man looked like a vampire. Broad shoulders, Pale skin, gray hair, a tattered cloak, a rapier at his hip and a facial structure that was enough to tell what his lineage was. In his arm, the one not holding the umbrella he was shading himself with, was a smug Rhea. "You are of the Tepes family. I am Electra Nyx Laskaris. I hope Rhea didn't give you too big a headache." Electra said, standing up taking Rhea from him.
"No, no, she saved me. I am Boris Tepes Dracula III." He bows at the waist as he says this. "This will require a long talk, please sit and share your story." Electra requests, siting back down. He explained that he had his internal organs 'burned away' by a 'sword of light' by a group off extremists called X-Law. He was sure he was going to bleed out on the chapel floor as they left him at Yoh's feet. "Were you allied with a teen with a Spirit of Fire as his Guardian ghost, calls himself Hao?" Electra asked
"Yes, he aided me when I was younger and," Electra cut him off. "I get what's going on with that side but what I don't get is how you are alive. At her current level of skill, Rhea wouldn't be able to heal you in time before you died." A man, as short as Morty, wearing red cloak and blue scarf, his face was hidden, plopped into a spare chair at the table and places an empty glass bottle before her. "She force-fed him this and he stopped bleeding for a few hours." He said, "I was told it smells like the worst garbage dump ever to exist." He warned as she sniffed the uncorked opening. She slammed the cork back in, gagging. "Death repellent, keep you alive for up to ten hours no matter the injury, also knocks out the drinker so they don't complain too much as the medic puts them back together. Nasty stuff but explains how he's alive long enough for Rhea to be a healing of that level." She explains, coughing at the lingering smell that burned her sinuses.
"Brocken, why are you here?" Boris asked. "Did Hao send you?" the man just looked at Electra who passes out from the flumes she inhaled. "that stuff is strong." He comments before telling him, "If Hao's intel is right, we need a third member to progress soon. The deal is a win-win for us and her. By the way, Hao is willing to overlook your weakness if you help deal with the X-Laws." Brocken said leaving no choice but agree with this deal or be turned to ash by Hao later. Electra was awake within a minute and inspecting the bottle itself for markings. "This was a part of the batch I made months ago, that Rhea 'borrowed' from and I couldn't track down until now."
She picks up Rhea and holds her at eye level. "You know this stuff is dangerous to make. One screw up and it becomes poison that would rot the land around the area if spilled before it's finished. I don't want to think what it'd do to someone if they drank a failed/incomplete batch." She scolded as Rhea looked away. "What is this made of?" Brocken asked, more for Hao than his own sake. "I use cocktail of special toxins as a base and the rest is secret." She half-answered. "It's like anti-venom, right?" Boris asked paling a little. "you got the vague idea, but I use method to convert it to something much safer. Just to be sure no one get ideas I will tell you this, you must get it from the sources 'freely given' or bad things happen." She warned.
A week later
Shaman King Bookverse
Midwest of USA
Patch Village
Electra sat in Wrath's dragon coils as he explained Zane's fate. "upon reaching the Shadow Isles in Runeterra, he was forced to reach the heart of it." Wrath said as he used a chain scythe with an empty lantern instead of a weight at the other end to pick his teeth. "He was met with resistance from the twisted warden and a demonic scarecrow, among other things." He smirked a toothy grin as he crushed the bones, of the Whole Hag dinner he had been eating, to dust and jarred it. "Were there any issues?" Electra asked, "Was he injured at all?" Wrath fiddled with a ring on one of his claws. "The King that poisoned the land was difficult to 'put to rest' but it was not too fatal of a battle." Wrath said without looking at her.
"When and why was he forced to use the Ring of the Nine Dragons?" Electra asked, pointing to the ring, that was a Shen Gong Wu that let the user divide themselves into up to nine fragments, and giving Wrath a look that said, 'I will zap you if you don't talk'. Wrath smiled fondly at the threat. "It was when the name was uttered, and the land was cleansed of the tainted black mist I am unsure of how much of the damage done by the Ruined King's folly so long ago, but Zane was forced to use Plan Prism to avoid being ripped to apart by the 'reaction' that followed." He lays his head with a longing expression. "I do not like being so 'disconnected' from him." Electra didn't need to ask how long because he said, "over 80 years of being separate. I don't care for figuring out the exact length of time for the others, but it is hard to tell when the fragments were sent 100 years into the future and past from that moment in time." Wrath said in a somber voice.
"Where is are the fragments?" Electra asked. Wrath looked at her. "they will return when the largest fragment is freed from the bands of light that reflects worlds." Wrath said, "The 'Earth' connected to Luster has seven 'portals' and 'keys' to the place better known as the 'Rainbow Prison' nowadays." Electra pulled the Queen's Amulet she carried out and showed Wrath whose eyes widened. "You have one of the Five?" He smiled as he said, "You clever girl. Zane had to make a 'backdoor' to come and go from Luster." He taps his scaly chin trying to remember something. "Zane never found out where the 'portals' were but he did learn of one of the 'keys' description. A set of seven flawless rubies the size of a duck egg. With that and some information you could find your way in and out of the Red Shaft."
Electra hugged as much of Wrath's neck as she could, which was only a little, and said, "thank you. I promise I will find him." Wrath picked her up and placed her on the ground. "There is no guarantee that he will be in the Red Shaft. He learned a way to 'jump' between shafts without leaving the Prison itself." Wrath snorts, "Knowing him, he's helping the poor souls that have been thrown into it over the centuries." Wrath flew off, clearly have something to do. The Oracle Bell, a device strapped to her arm, dinged, announcing her first opponent of this 'team tournament' round. It was one of the weaker teams that used trickery and stalked a team that knew the way to the village. It would be a quite battle.
Three days later
Shaman King Bookverse
Midwest of USA
Patch Village
Electra was shocked to see Wallace, Dawn, Voleta and Sparksong preforming a jazzy jam session with the people around them throwing money into the hat that Rhea was carrying. She had no idea that Wallace was so good at playing the saxophone. Sparksong's tiny drum set was as loud as a full size one as was the trumpet that Voleta was playing. Dawn, in her human guise, was singing what sounded like a song that belonged in the Jazz hall of Fame or at least a chart topper with how much money people were dropping in the hat. Electra decided to let them continue and left for a different part of the shopping area.
There she spotted Yoh, who was sitting at a café table, with Anna and Morty, who was carrying all the stuff Anna bought. "I assume you are aware of the traveling musicians." Anna said, drinking some green smoothie through a straw, to him. "What's the harm in a little music?" Yoh asked, rubbing his ear. "They work for Electra and she is a foe to face later." Anna stated, shredding any argument he had ready. "Yoh, she is correct." Amidamaru said as he appeared next to him. "We have no idea what her oversoul looks like. Nor do we know what spirit she is partnered with. She took out the first team out in an instant. Her team didn't help her at all."
Morty pulled a laptop out of his backpack, after setting the bags of stuff down, and booted it up. "I got a recording of the start of the fight." He showed them the footage. "What's you looking at?" Trey Racer, an icy blue haired teen from the Ainu Tribe in the north of japan, said as looking at the laptop. "Footage from the fight yesterday. I tried to see if I could see her Oversoul but no dice." Morty said. Kororo, a tiny nature spirit with a Lilypad as an umbrella, looked at the footage and started waving her hands excitedly. "What is it, Kororo?" Trey asked. Ren walked up and shocked Trey and Morty aside. "It's obvious what she is doing." He says as he makes it go frame by frame with the freezes it when a soft glow of something was overlayed on Electra's body.
"Looks like my style of Oversoul." Joco, a dark-skinned shaman with a fluffy afro, said. Mic, his Jaguar Guardian Ghost appeared and growled, "Her scent is one of danger. The fact she is of 'That' clan makes finding information all but impossible." Joco's second Guardian Ghost, Pascal Avaf of the Olmec, appeared. He was figure made of gold and was quite knowledgeable of Shaman arts. "Her spirit is the Rijin." Pascal Avaf stated. "I battled the user from thousand years ago, before Hao defeated me." The spirit frowned. "Sadly, this user is much more compatible with the lighting beast and can reach levels much higher than a mere speed boost."
"What can you tell us then?" Ren asked impatiently, "Joco, don't you dare make a joke." Ren jabbed his bladed polearm at Joco's nose making him stop the joke that was at the tip of his tongue. "The user I fought could cloak themselves in lightning and become a deadly projectile and blinking speeds. They were incompatible with the true power the lightning beat carries." Pascal Avaf explained. "this Electra was barely moving in the match." Ren slammed a fist on the table and growled out, "She wiped out the team in moments of match starting. Their Oversouls were shredded to dust and their furyuku was depleted to dangerous levels. How is that 'barely moving?"
"You could always just ask me." Electra said walking up to them. Kororo floats over to her and tugs on her hair. "I see you missed me or was it my singing you missed?" Electra asked amused. Trey looked confused as Kororo looked at Electra pleadingly. "Alright. I will sing later. It'd be a shame to waste the sunny day." Kororo beans and sits in Electra's hair as she pulls up a seat. "You have questions, I may have answers I am willing to share." She states. "Who and what are your jazz playing friends?" Anna asked. She told them the barest details, just what they are and their names. "what's with that Spirit of Wrath you asked me about?" Amidamaru asked. Electra was glad her mask hid her face. "No comment." Was all she said in a tight voice. He wisely chose not to press her farther.
"Are you aware of the truth around the Minushions?" She asks Trey. "They are nature spirits connected to my tribe and need Lilypad marshes." He answered. Electra sighed. "They are nature spirit born of your dead tribe members. But you knew that already." Trey's silence was telling enough. "you have a question you really want to ask. One that is just as hard to talk about as the truth of Kororo." Electra said. "Why is Dawn a collect of the dead?" He asked pointing a thumb at Pascal Avaf. "He claims she is born of sacrifice but refuses to say anymore."
"that is a loaded question that will require a little set up to explain. Ask me again later." Yoh changed the subject, "What makes you so compatible with your spirit? I swear I saw claws or something slashing you opponents, but it was too fast." Electra's tone was playful and mysterious, "your answer will come when you hear my song." Anna had a question that was much different. "Can you make me a mask?" this was out of left field and everyone looked at Anna as Electra pulled out a notepad and pencil. "What subject matter, material, and do you have a color preference?" Electra asked.
"I don't think this is a good time to be asking about that." Morty asked. "Nonsense. She clearly makes masks of better quality than any shop and I want to know her rates." Anna says shooting him down. "It's one of my ways of making some spending money whenever I travel." Electra said. "All wood, stone, and other materials are freely given. They have a 'power' that forcibly taken materials lack." Anna nodded sagely at this as everyone else looked confused. "It's hard to explain but the basic idea is that taking by force, 'taints' the object, making it impure." Anna said. "What mask would you like me to make?" Electra asked.
"A spirit of protection. I will bind a spirit to it to protect my home." Anna said. Electra took her expandable cart from her pocket and started to unfold it as Ryu, his hair was regrown to the point before it being sliced, asked what was going on. "That has to be the oddest cart I've ever seen." Tokageroh, his guardian spirit, said. "It's clearly supernatural." Amidamaru comments as Electra unfolded it to the size of an SUV. "I have just the mask for that purpose." Electra said and opened doors on the walls. "Where did I put that mask?" She pulled out masks of all kinds, looked at them then put them back in a different order. "Shouldn't you have that organized?" Ren asked in an annoyed voice.
"It's a work in progress. There are a lot of stuff in here and my organizing system is on the chaotic side. As I make more kind of masks, I change the system as needed." Electra commented. "Wallace knows it better than I do." She says as she gets out of the cart and unfolded it to its full size. "How is it the size of a house?" Morty asked. "Magic" Electra said as she opened the 'front door' and walked into what was full blown workshop that was even bigger on the inside (an upgrade she had added after earned enough cash to pay for it from her mask sales).
About ten minutes of waiting, she returned with a cry of, "Found it!" her voice echoing from very deep in the cart. She exited the cart with a terrifying mask in a portable display case. It was of a glaring man. IT seemed to be judging them, daring them to break rule in its presence. In its mouth was a scroll. "Hang this at the threshold and the bound spirit will make sure the rules of hospitality, written on that scroll, are followed." She says removing the scroll from the mouth and let Anna read the rules it held. "What's it's made of?" She asked putting the scroll back in the mouth, which snaped shut around it as she did. "Scales of a plant hydra spirit." Electra said.
"It's wooden, how is it made of scales?" Trey asked. Pilica, Trey's sister came around the corner of the cart, just in time to be standing where Electra summoned Mob. She blinked as she looked at the 'scaled' back of the plant creature she was now standing on. She got out a squeak as at least 50 flower head looked at her. A head that looked like it had a sunflower mane wrapped around her middle and deposited her next to her brother. "Your scales are quite lovely." Ryu said sweating as his hands rattled. He wasn't the only one that was petrified in fear. Goldva, the leader of the Patch Tribe, was a diminutive woman, but that didn't stop her from going up to Mob and asking, "Can you not scare everyone?" she says this as she smokes a long thin pipe.
"I apologize if my spirit disrupted your busy work." Electra says respectfully. "I'm on my lunch break." Goldva drawls. She uses her Furyoku to blow smoke in shapes. Mob's heads looked at them and blows out a pleasant-smelling mist. "It smells like fruit basket." Yoh said breathing deeply. This eased the fear of Mob enough to return to what they were doing before he appeared.
Elsewhere
Rainbow Prison
Red Shaft
Zane looked at the sleeping woman in the hollow of a tree. Her hair was a rich red and her gown was white. The white stood out in sea of red that this place was made up of. "Something tells me you will be the key to me getting out of here." He tells her as he looks at the enchantments that bond her spirit in sleep and away from her body. "The only upside of being stuck here is that I can eat colors." He jokes as he pulls an apple make of red light off a branch and bit into it with a crunch. He was physically here, unlike the rest of the inhabitants, and should not be able to eat anything in this place, but magic solved that. "Bland as ever, same as the many years I've been stuck here." He told his sleeping listener. "This place has no scent, feeling, sound or taste. It looks reals save for being one group of shades and tones. And I'm adding the sound via magic because I can." The woman smiled faintly as she slept, the first reaction anyone had gotten out of her in years.
He had learned many things from the prisoners of the seven shafts and had freed many the ones that still had a body to go back to. He 'shimmered' to a different part of the Red Shaft (picturing a location and willing yourself there)
Red Shaft
Mountain top
He was at the flat peak of a mountain and sat down. He didn't have to wait long for a spectral looking old man to appear and set up makeshift chess set that was made by magic. "find anyone interesting?" the old man asked. His face had wrinkles upon wrinkles and was wearing robes that were from before the dark ages at least, He didn't give Zane his name but said Zane could call him 'George'. He claimed he was a relative of royalty. "The Sleepy Lady in the tree smiled a little when I talked about the lack of taste." Zane said. "Ah, you finally got a reaction out of her. It only took you years." George commented, making the first move. "Like you keep challenging me to chess for the past 59 years." Zane shot back, making his move. "I've won five times." He said with an almost toothless smirk. "Out of hundreds of matches." Zane pointed out. George's body had died long ago, and chess was the only thing that kept him from going insane like many of the poor souls Zane had run into.
"I have plan to get in contact with the 'outside world'. Not sure if it will work." Zane said. "If you remember, I sent a few crystals to be found by someone years ago." George nodded, "One of the crystals that formed from your blood if I recall. I still don't understand how you survived crystals near your organs. Who found it?" Zane grinned and answered, "an old man that runs magic shop found them and fashioned them into a charm bracelet and sold it to a young woman name Ivy Morris, who is called 'the Wanderer'."
Zane grew excited as he explained, never pausing the chess games as they talked. "I have no idea how but my contention to that bracelet has gotten stronger over the years, soon it will be strong enough to contact the person wearing it." George put Zane in check, but Zane reversed it and put him in check. "How is an old lady going to help you?" George asked, "She gave it to her daughter who in turn gave it to her own daughter. This is important because she just crossed over into Luster. The Unicorns may be willing to help me." Zane said putting him in checkmate. George grumbled and said, "I'm going to practice against some other people." He gathered up the set and 'shimmered' away. "With the bracelet in Luster the Ley lines will charge it and I can make contact with someone that is solid!" Zane whooped with joy. "Take that 'Great Powers'! I'm not going to let you stop me from helping the world you didn't want made as you sit up in 'Paradise' looking down on it with distain because it's not like your pet world!" He yelled at the open air. "You may have made Unicorn Earth (the earth closet to Luster) but Luster is just as beautiful!"
He paused as he felt a fleeting connection with a mind muddled and twisted. He sent a message to this being. "help me and I will grant you a boon if it's within my power." what he got back was a roaring voice that growled, "The Dimblethum does not need the aid of a whisperer!" Zane just as loudly sent back, "I make fair deals not some back handed demon deal! Help me reach luster! The Thunder Shaman will know who I am!" The connection was cut off. "I swear that mind feels familiar, if twisted in a cruel punishment." He huffs in annoyance, "He even compared me to that vile twisted voice." He jumped to a different shaft.
A few days later
Rainbow Prison
Green Shaft
"What are you doing here?" Zane asked, staring at the spectral form of an old lady sitting with her feet in the 'river'. "Do I know you?" She asked. "where is here anyways?" Zane sighed, "You are in the Rainbow Prison. I ask again, why you are here, Ivy Morris?" She looked at him sharply. "How do you…" she trails off and looks at his face. "You were on the wall at Elives' magic shop." She remembers shop she visited near her orphanage so long ago. "Going to take a stab in the dark and say Beloved got you. Failing to get one of the Five, she chucked you, or at least your spirit, here to wander for until you get freed, or your body dies from some foul play." Zane guessed. "I doubt she would kill me if she can use me a bargaining chip." Ivy said grimly. "why are you here?" Zane looked away, "I may have 'broke' an extremely powerful item and had to divide myself for safety. I've been suck here around a century, not that time is easy to track here."
She gave him a look. "You should not break something magical that isn't meant to be broken. It's unpredictable at best." She lectured. She then noticed he was solid. "You have your body." She said more of a statement. "And I know a lot about this place. Here's the deal. You enjoy the sights of this place and I will check in on you until you are rescued. But promise me you will look for one of the seven portals. The Ruby Portal keys area set of seven duck egg sized rubies. That's the only key I know of." She committed the deals to memory as he explained about the Light Between Worlds. She shared what she was willing to share about her life and promised to help him where she could.
Elsewhere
Luster
Electra sat in the branches of the Axis Mundi, a great towering tree at the center of Luster. They had reached Luster different ways and had split up yesterday. Dawn had to 'return' the ball of thread that 'Hope' admitted to 'stealing' after Hao's defeat. "It's a shame he decided to 'cheat' and try to take the title by force." The tournament was called off and everyone was told to 'wait and see'. Out of nowhere, 'Hope' appeared and told the truth of the ball that guided Dawn to Electra in a roundabout way. She had stolen it from M'Gama, a vastly powerful geomancer from Luster. Dawn set out to return the 'anchor', as it was originally called before being modified, and took Rhea with her. Sparksong had left for the Garden with Voleta transporting a bunch of crates. Wallace was traveling to meet with Ebillan, one of the seven dragons of Luster, (Firethroat, Graumag, Fah-Leing, Redrage, Ebillan, Master Bloodtongue, and Bronzeclaw) to give him the gate parts, leaving her free to decide how she was going to solve this conundrum.
She had none of the keys nor did she know where any of the 'portals' were. Arthur had sent her a letter saying that The Eye that bridges Worlds was on its way to Luster and that Ebillan may 'aid' her if she helps him reunion with Lady Nakreema, his love that is with the rest of the dragons that left 'Unicorn Earth' before Luster was discovered. She looked down at the cave not too far a walk from the base of the great tree. The graceful form of a unicorn was standing at the opening, looking around warily. The strange 'bear-man' that called that cave his home was growling to himself. Not any words, just annoyed growls as far as he could tell from the wind spirit that was carrying the sound to her ear way up in the tree's upper branches. It was when the unicorn, Lightfoot, talked about 'one of the five' she knew that they would be headed for Summerhaven, one of the four places the unicorns live according to what season it was. The order was Springdale, Summerhaven, Autumngrove, and Winterkeep, with the glory (the word for a group of unicorns) leaving before the season ended but arriving at the next place at the start of the new season, like clockwork.
She looked at the stars. She knew of a few of them The Ravager, the Queen, the Guardian, the Snake were ones that were only here but there was that warmed her heart yet made her somber. It was known as 'the Lantern Bearer' and contained a star that many used to find their way. She traced the vague shape of a cloaked figure carrying a lantern aloft with the brightest star in the heart of it, shining a path for the weary travelers below. She knew that there was story behind it. The Ravager was about Beloved and her seemingly unending hate for the unicorns. But she didn't know the story behind those stars. Grimwold, a cranky dwarf, was the current Keeper of the Unicorn Chronicles and had all the tales of the Unicorns of Luster recorded in his caves and was sometimes willing to tell said tales when asked nicely.
She looked at the tree truck and 'poked' it with a little SOUL energy. She tilted her head as it 'poked' her back. "You are a cheeky world tree and so young. Your creator must be proud of you." She said to the tree amused. The tree 'pushed' a feeling of pride and sorrow at her at this question. "Well, I better make sure you are still standing for when he 'returns' in full." She then chants an energy-intense 'blessing' on the tree. "Keep me safe while I take a nap." She says and lays down in a leafy patch, hiding her from view.
The tree drew her mind out of her body and let it drift along its roots as she slept. It was a fitting reward to see as it did for the boon that she gave it. The one known as M'Gama was another one the Axis Mundi had taken a liking to as much as a tree can. Flesh beings were hard to understand but those connected to nature were far easier to 'talk' to. The tree paused as it felt a distinct sense of 'kin' coming near the edge of its senses. It was not yet here but it was nearing Luster at a pace that was steady. What a joyous time in Luster.
A week later
Luster
Grimwold's Cavern
Record room
Grimwold had started the day, when he found a softly glowing creature reading from the Unicorn Chronicles. "How did you get in here?" He asked annoyed. The creature passed him a letter. He opened and cursed as he read the spidery handwriting. "Greetings, Keeper of the Unicorn Chronicles. Rei the Spirit Guardian, the being carrying this letter, has used my side door to reach Luster, faster, for reasons I cannot disclose but it is vital to the future of Luster that she is there for an event that will occurred by year's end. She lacks a langue that is understandable but can understand and write in many human and non-human languages. S.H. Elive." Grimwold scowled at the letter. "Once again I'm tangled up in a story. I record the stories, not participate in them." A smaller folded note fell out of the envelope, sealed with magic wax, on the front, in letters that were not Mr. Elive's handwriting, was the words 'For when the shapeless danger is discovered'.
Grimwold picked up the sealed letter and felt the magic binding the wax. "This was what you needed to deliver, or at least one step, I presume. I will hold on to it if that's ok with you." He puts it into his robes for safe keeping. Rei had continued to read scrolls and books, learning about Luster as she searched for information for her mission, not just delivering The Eye that bridges Worlds, but the one that the lady that wrote the letter gave her. She'd start at the newest stories and work her way to the oldest of records. "As long as you don't make a mess, I will let you search the records." Grimwold sighs. Rei made a bell like laughter as she read about 'the Queen's Players' and their antics. "The Queen's Players can be an amusing bunch of humans." Grimwold said with a smile that almost seemed out of place on his face based on how grouchy the dwarf had been.
A week later
Luster
Summerhaven
"The Queen will see you now." Moonheart, a gruff sounding unicorn of royal lineage, told Rei who followed him to the queen's pool in the grove where the Old One clings to life as she faded. Queen Arabella Skydancer regarded Rei with a pensive look as parts of her was see-through. Rei approached and leaned on the Queen's flank. The contact let them have a private conversation. "You are odd even for Luster." She sent to Rei. The Queen felt a little life return to her as Rei used a basic healing ability on her. "Thank you for that kind gesture. But I am strong enough to last as long as I need to." Rei's mind raced as the hidden meaning behind this message sunk in.
The Queen shook her mane and sent, "It is the only way, and my death has been postponed for a long enough time already. Will you help them bring my Wanderer back to me?" Rei was conflicted. She didn't know what the Wanderer was to the Queen, but she was waiting for her to return, only to fade away once that happened. Rei explained that a danger was coming, she wasn't what it was but was an old one that was tied to the unicorns' past. The Queen's expression didn't change as she sent, "And we will be ready when our darkest day arrives. As the Lantern Bearer told me, 'there is light in the deepest darkness'." She noted Rei's interest. "You wish to hear one of that stories about him?" Rei nodded.
"If you promise to help then I will share one of the stories." The Queen sent. Rei reluctantly promised to travel with the group that would go to back to Unicorn Earth to get the Wanderer. She would continue her search of the Unicorn Chronicles for proof of the danger the lady that called herself 'Allura' had told her in Mr. Elive's magic shop. She hadn't been able to say much because 'unseen watchers' but she had explained enough to Rei. "This story begins when unicorns were still new to Luster." The Queen began. "and there were many dangers we had to deal with." She went on to explain at that unexplored places were 'blurry' until someone explored them. Many times, Unicorns would get lost and run into a clocked man carrying an iron lantern.
"The 'true' start of the story began when Lightfoot was young." The Queen sent with an amused laugh, "He wandered off as the court was traveling to Winterkeep." Rei noted the sigh of acceptance from the Queen. "What happened is only known to him, the Lantern Bearer, and the Chronicle keeper that agreed to keep it secret, but from what I understand, he ran into creatures and was quite frightened before the Lantern Bearer calmed him and returned him a few days later at Winterkeep." She looked up at the stars and sent, "We honor him with a constellation whose star helps guide travelers." Rei needed to track down the full story.
Two weeks later
Luster
The Geomancer's home
Underground hot spring bath
Cara Diana Hunter, a young teen with red hair, looked at the 'human' girl that was in the Geomancer's home. "Dawn help me with the bath." Flensa, a dwarf woman who assisted M'Gama and was deadly with a spear, barked at the 'human' as Cara undressed and slipped into the pleasantly warm pool. Dawn scattered handfuls of herbs as Flensa grabbed what seemed to be scented shampoo or oils in stone bottles. "Stir the herbs please." Dawn asked Cara. "I didn't see you upstairs." Cara asked her as she stirred up the water. "I arrived yesterday to return something stolen." Dawn said. Cara wasn't sure if it was scale pattern or 'oldness' of the aura Dawn gave off, but she asked a question that seemed crazy before her jump in to Luster. "are you human?" She asked in a curious if awed tone.
Dawn laughed and had to stop herself from falling in the pool. "That is a question I haven't heard in that way for a long time. Normally they ask is I am a god or a great spirit with that tone." Dawn said with a smile. "I am Eddwen the Dawn." She paused trying to find right term to describe herself. "I guess you can say I am a divine spirit of the upper tiers. My existence is an odd one." She shrugs as Flensa worked the matts and tangle out of Cara's hair. "you bare the gift of tongues?" Dawn asked Cara. Cara told her of her encounter with Lady Firethroat, hesitating as she talked about her father being one of Beloved's hunters.
"That is a boon few could dare to dream of." Dawn said, "I myself have been given a boon by a dragon of great portance. It aided me in my search for the Great Mother." Cara could see the admiration in her voice. "On the road to the point that you can bridge worlds, you may meet a woman with a cloak of feathers pulling a cart that can change sizes." Cara was reminded of Thomas the Tinker's magic cart as Dawn continued, "if she offers you a boon, take it with grace but be warned. There is no such thing as Free Lunch." Dawn let that sink in. but then she stared at the bracelet on Cara's wrist. "Where did you get that?" she asked.
Cara looks at the bracelet with blood red crystals that seemed to have an inner light. "Grandmother Morris said she got it from a Magic Shop that 'appeared' in town on 'streets that hadn't been there before'. She passed it down in the family." She said as Dawn traced a finger of the chain. "Mr. Elive did say he was going to sell it, but I never expected to see it." Dawn said. "Those crystals are only found in one place and have a history to them. Born of blood and pain, they can take an edge off pain of most kinds." Dawn made a show of producing the strange metal that made up the chain as proof of her claim. "I am the source of this metal and have been told it's 'impossible to understand' and 'drive the scientific community up the wall' to name a few." Dawn shaped the metal into a figurine of the Squijum, a monkey/squirrel creature that was the only one of his kind. "I will leave it for you to take before you leave on your journey." Dawn says.
A few days later
Luster
Somewhere on the road
"There is something coming." Belle, a fierce warrior unicorn said stopping the group. Finder, a unicorn that had help map much of Luster looked ahead at the thing that approached them. "Is that a cart?" He asked. Thomas puts a hand to shade his eyes from the glare of the setting sun. "It does appear to be someone pulling a cart. But I can't tell who." The Squijum jumped off Cara's shoulder and races ahead with glee. "The Squijum seems to know this stranger." Lightfoot commented. The Dimblethum scratches his head and sniffs the air. "doesn't smell like Delvers. We can always crush them if this is a trap." He comments as the cart is pulled to the side of the road with the stranger gesturing them to come closer. "A storm is fast approaching, I can off shelter." They heard her call out. The sky looked clear, but it was getting late. They found her opening large market tent from the cart, large enough for all of them to take shelter.
"we are on the Queen's Business." Moonheart said in a no non-sense tone. Before Cara could act as translator, if was needed, the stranger bowed lightly and said, "And I am on a mission of my own." She sighed behind her mask and added, "but alas this key will do more for you than myself." She makes an off-hand gesture to the ring made of green stone on Cara's finger. (a gift from the geomancer) "There are six other keys I can track down." She realizes her error and says, "Where are my manners? I am Electra the Thunder Shaman." She then pointed to each one of them and listed their names. "How do you know who we are?" Belle asked in a fighting stance. "The Axis Mundi told me many things. Names and locations are just a few things it has 'seen' and 'heard'." The Dimblethum nodded his head and growled in a knowing tone. "The Dimblethum believes you. The rocks and plants can share many things if you can 'hear' their words."
Electra looked at the clouds that rolled in out of nowhere. The downpour came soon after. "Right on time." She comments as the storm that she sensed made the road pure mud. "Looks like it came of the direction of Dark Mountain." Finder commented. "Tell me of your task and what drove you to make this choice." Electra said, taking out a carving tool and a block of wood from the cart. It took an hour for her to share this information, but she didn't care as the words seemed to flow from her mouth. When she finished, she felt happy to share her feelings about her father's choice. Electra hummed in thought. "you said that Beloved contacted you on a clear night? It maybe the Ravager she used to make the connection but I'm not sure."
The group looked alarmed at this. "How can stars be used to talk to someone?" Lightfoot asked, "It's not like it's a personal object. But I'm no expert on such matters." Moonheart sorts at this statement. "It is her constellation but I'm sure there is more at work here." Thomas said. "Maybe it's because of the blood connection Beloved has with her many, many, children." Electra looked at what she had carved. It looked like a man with a face that made you want to trust him, yet there was a sorrow to his expression. Electra had never met him before, but the bracelet Cara had on had been glowing a little brighter as she carved it. It must be message from her father. "Take this boon. He will aid you in your future goals." Electra says forcing the figuring into Cara's hand. Dawn's words echoed in Cara's mind as she said, "Thank you for this boon. I pray that it brings me good results."
She fishes out the metal figurine Dawn made from her pocket and asked, "How do you know Eddwen the Dawn?" Electra looked at the metal figurine then looked at the living inspiration who was copping the pose. "We are connected in ways that you don't need to know for your story. Maybe that will change in the future but not now." The Dimblethum knew who the figurine was but the hazy memories refused to surface. He would track her down later to ask about it.
Ten days later
Luster
Grimwold's Cavern
Somewhere in the tunnel systems
Rei looked at the odd group. Three unicorns, the Dimblethum, the Squijum, and two humans. The extra human was an old man with a droopy forlorn face. Grimwold had told her he had place to be and left her to her research. She of course snuck after him as he traveled along the tunnels. She had overheard the tale of Moonheart's first meeting with the Wanderer and her first time in Luster. It was when the duck egg sized ruby being off as payment to get into Ebillan's cave and Cara saying she saw her mother in a 'red place' that she knew that she had found the 'ruby key' to the Rainbow Prison. Just as Grimwold was saying he didn't have any other treasure, Rei made herself known in the glow of the fungus that lit up the cavern.
"Lovely, you followed me." Grimwold grumbled. Rei presented The Eye that bridges Worlds. "That is a disturbing gem." The old man said. "Jacques, I believe I've heard of this gem before." Thomas said. "Just a rumor, but it is said that if the eye is joined with the gate, one can reach anyone, anywhere." The eye was smugly looking at him. Rei told him he was right but only Cara understands her language. "It's dangerous?" Cara asked, confused at the wording Rei used. Cara's brow furrowed as Rei explained her wording. "Care to share what this glowing thing is saying?" Belle asked in a snipped tone. "She is saying the 'eye' is so powerful that it can end worlds if it's one use is done with the 'wrong intentions' or by someone foolish. But how can it be one use if it's that powerful?" Cara asked.
Grimwold sighed. "Sometimes more magically power an object is, fewer times it can be used. What's equally true is that breaking said magical objects ends in great disaster if you can even damage it enough to break." He shrugs. "I don't think I trust a dragon to have an object like that." Moonheart said with distrust. "Look on the Brightside, the Delvers will be flash fried before they even get near the gem." Lightfoot commented. "That, Nephew, is an idea anyone would agree is good." Moonheart said dryly. Rei blew a raspberry at Moonheart and crossed her arms annoyed. She was giving them 'payment' for the dragon at they were ignoring her.
Two weeks later
Cara's dream/vision
Cara had looked up at the stars and had been drawn into a vision. It was her old house and there to me her was Beloved, a woman with flowing silvery hair and flawless skin despite her age, who was trying to make her hand over the amulet. "Blood calls to blood." She crooned with a voice laced with magic. "That's enough!" a male voice roared as man, with a look as fierce as a dragon in his smoldering eyes, appeared in the 'dream'. "You! How did you get here?" Beloved said shocked, caught flatfooted. "Two can play the 'Constellation connection' game." The man said, holding up an iron lantern. Beloved recoiled at the dream version of Cara's house creaked as Beloved's 'connection' unraveled under the force of the man's presence and Cara's desired to get away from Beloved. "Lantern Bearer! You will join the unicorns what the Last Hunt begins!" She shrieked in rage.
The cracks spread fast as the man said, "She's gone for now, but time is short. Remember this message 'Beware the Whisperer for its honeyed poison has been dripped in many foes the unicorns bare'." As if an afterthought, he added, "tell Fallon that the Deal Maker is willing to help his alahim. You already know who Fallon is." The vision ended and the terror of Beloved caused to flee into the forest that the geomancer had warned them was cursed and doomed any to be lost if the leave the path.
A week later
Luster
The wastelands
Ebillan's cave
Ebillan, a smaller black dragon whose temper made up for his lack of sized when compared to the out dragons of Luster, looked at the Eye. He had traded entry into his crystal cave room for the eye and the mending of his 'wedding cup'. Was it worth it? He wasn't sure yet, but the glowing creature that had left with the human for earth had promised it was worth trying to reconnect with his love. Ebillan eyed the bear-like creature and gryphon who were leaving his cave to return to their homes on Luster. Why had so many strange guests come to him? Didn't they have grander dragons to bother? He snorted, imagining how Lady Firethroat would react to a cat dragon hybrid and golem made of many things visiting her out of nowhere.
He traveled deep into his cave to a secret room hidden away from all and looked at the long-curved shafts of scaled material. Ebillan whispered his love's name to the eye and the shafts floated and formed a loose looking gate. The Eye lifted from his claws and floated at peak of the arch. Easily big enough to fit a creature twice his size, the gate pulsed with energy before a portal to a craggy mountain cave appeared in its frame. They had honored their deal and in return he would owe the Laskaris Clan a great boon for granting him this permanent portal.
Weeks later
Rainbow Prison
Red Shaft
An orchard near a lake
"Well, it took you long enough." Zane said as two men and a boy looked at him. "sahib, are you solid?" The boy asked with an English you would hear in India. They looked like they needed food and water soon. "Fallon, do you know this person?" the man that looked a little is Cara and the golden-haired man, who was looking at Zane with an intense look. "You must be Ian Hunter, I overheard it from the bracelet your daughter wears." Zane tells the first man. He turns to the kid and asks, "May I have a name that I can call you?" Zane's request was coupled with a slit bow.
"I am Rajiv, you will not find a fine guide for the streets of New Deli, Sahib." The boy said bowing deeply. "And to answer your question, I have my body and it has been this way for the at least two centuries I've been here." Zane replies as he 'solidified' an apple-like fruit off a tree with magic. He tosses Fallon the fruit and repeat the prosses with two more fruits that he tossed to each of them before getting one for himself. "Sahib, how did you make light into food?" Rajiv gaged at the lack of flavor as he bites into the fruit. "a little magic I learned from the Fae Queen." Fallon eyes his hands and comments, "And you are at her mercy as long at that band in on your finger, not that it can be removed."
"Good, you are the right person for the information I'm willing to share, for a price." Zane said. "A shaman gave my daughter a carving of Fallon and said she saw you in a vision. Who are you?" Ian Hunter asked desperate for answers. "more importantly you claim to know where Elihu is." Fallon said with an edge to his voice. "All in good time. What's most important is The Deal we need to work out." Zane said. "Just to clear things up, I know of your quest for the Sleeping Lady of the Forest as some call her here and her exact location of her spirit in this place." Ian's breathe hitched and he looked ready to sell his soul for this information.
"What is your price?" Ian said after schooling himself. "for the information both you and Fallon want, the price is a small compared to the price of what Fallon will also what from me." Zane said carefully, "let's focus on the first matter for now. You must aid my escape from this place." Ian knew they could if they could return his wife to her body on earth. "Sahib, how did you become trapped here?" Rajiv asked. Zane shrugged, "Don't break extremely magic things." Was all he said. Fallon shook his head. "Fair enough. We agree with these terms." Fallon stated. "I can flicker you to your wife, but Fallon's information is one that sits in a letter that will be opened when the Truth of the Whisperer is revealed." Zane paused then started explaining that after the existence Luster was uncovered to the Great Powers, Elihu, poor Elihu was cursed and twisted to the form of a beast with hands not made to create.
"dare you make deal to return him to his own shape and let him keep once the chaos ends, knowing the risks that signing this Contract carries?" Zane asked offering a quill pen and ink well from him to sigh with. The price of the contract was a new gate to Luster being opened. Fallon signed, knowing that me may have just invited the Hunters into Luster in some around about way. "The Deal Maker honors the Contract to the letter." Zane said as the deal was sealed.
"Sahib! The Deal Maker is a being of legend and this is one of his agents. This worries me." Rajiv said shocked and a little fearful. "Correction, he is the Deal Maker." Fallon said. "He can change which side he uses to greet the client. Be it the daemon, the reaper, the old man, or even a bird. All of them are the Deal Maker and the very magic that he uses binds all parties to the terms of the Contract once signed." Fallon said resigned. "That is the price of his Contract Magic."
Zane's expression was the same calm and collected look as he said, "The cats out of the bag but I was going to tell you anyways." He has them grab on to him as he shimmers away.
Rainbow Prison
Red Shaft
The hollow tree
Rajiv's touch awakened Martha Hunter's sleeping spirit. "Welcome back, sleeping beauty." Zane greeted. Martha's spiral of confusing and worry was stropped before it could get anywhere. "I believe you enjoy my talks. I even got a smile from you once." Zane explained everything that he knew then Ian's group explained their side of what was going on. "I don't understand how this is possible, yet it doesn't feel like a lie." Martha said as Zane worked on the spells bind her to the tree. "Mystery is the Spice of Life." Zane commented, "and chaos is the hot sauce snuck in." He added with roguish smirk.
"That is just what a Laskaris would say." Fallon said with a sigh. "the bottom line is that when we go to Luster there will much going on." They planned on using the portal and aiding the Unicorns as much as they could, maybe even ending Beloved and the Whisperer, a being born of the negativity 'purged' from thousands of unicorns in a hubris fouled plan long ago. "He," Zane hooks a thumb at Fallon, "The creator of the unicorns, tried to make them see logic but you know how a panic can make a group, blind, to other options." Fallon looked annoyed, relived, and ashamed as his secrets were uncovered one by one.
"Why isn't it working?" Ian asked, using the ruby on his wife's spirit, but nothing happening. Zane had 'loosened' the bindings that trapped her in the tree, letting her move her arms at least. "Was there any other item of power that could be used to trap someone here?" Fallon asked. Martha vanished from their sight as Zane said, "She does have that bit of horn in her heart." Zane started laughing, making Ian, in a lapse of judgement, punched him square in the face, cause Zane's first feeling of pain in two centuries. "This is no laughing matter!" He said crying as Fallon held him back. "A unicorn free her." Zane said as blood flowed from his nose. "A unicorn horn sent her here, so a unicorn had to have freed her." He grinned as he added, "It had to be the most foolish of unicorns to enter a stronghold owned by Beloved." They had concluded her body was keep with the Hunters, maybe even in Beloved's current home.
Not long after
Unicorn Earth
Beloved's castle
Courtyard
Zane stretched after removing the Ring of Nine Dragons and pocketing it. "It's good to be whole again." He says as Fallon stood near him. Fallon was looking at the front gate and glowing oval that floating in it. "Not what the Whisperer intended for the gate." Zane commented as fleck of rainbow came off the walls of the tunnel, which looked to be 20 feet across. The big man looked at him and asked, "And why is that?" Zane pointed out the blacked thing near the gate. "Someone lay a protection on other side, altering the spell that would have 'bore a hole' into Luster." The black thing looked like a warped and twisted human that got cooked alive. "You are saying that it takes a 'detour' to reach Luster?" Fallon asked, mind racing. "Right through the realm of Chaos." Zane looks at Fallon and says, "You are free to share what you know about me, think of it as an apology for spilling your secrets, but I must get to Luster, my duty as 'the Lantern Bearer' is needed." Zane runs into the gate and paces through the sliver curtain of mist that marked the halfway point between the two worlds.
Fallon shook his head at this. He knew little about Zane. He was a thorn in the Higher Powers' side for thousands of years. He appeared on what he called 'Unicorn Earth', the name started after Fallon had created the unicorns, but the point remained he wandered here and there driving everyone mad. He had entrenched himself in the history of all the races magic and mundane, making sure he was not easily forgotten by any stretch of time. What was most important was that despite the chaos that followed, he was someone that Fallon would trust to keep his end of the deal.
The next day
Luster
Dark Mountain
Electra looked at the tall man, who had just driven off the sons of Beloved from a cave, panting as blood pooled from the ones he killed. He had some fur clothing covering him, but his bronze skinned chest was bare. His golden blonde hair was on the shaggy side, but it had a 'ragged hunk' appeal to it. "We meet again, The, now former, Dimblethum." Electra said. "Judging by the magic I felt, you tried to transfer what you believed to be transformational magic that gave you back your 'human' form to Cara." The man looked at her shocked. "I am called Elihu. What do you know that I do not?" Electra looked at him intrigued. "Electra Laskaris. Are you the one that that aided in the 'purification ceremony' that gave birth to the Whisperer?"
When he hung his head in shame, she knew she was right. "To put it simply, it was not the Whisperer that made you this way. Someone paid a price for the Contract magic removing the punishment placed upon you." Elihu asks, "how was she turned into a unicorn if I did not have the magic to transfer?" Electra nods to a glowing creature Elihu knew was called Rei. Rei pulls a piece of yellowed parchment with spidery lettering and a sketch of a familiar bracelet. "As a last resort smash the bracelet with great magic present and the sleeping spell will give you form to flee to safe haven." He read, "Warning, this is permanent and cannot be undone."
"Mr. Elives sold Cara's grandmother the bracelet and it is the source of the transformational magic that changed her." Electra said looking at a sphere that had an inner glow. She twisted her hands in on it in different directions and made it grow to the size of a mango then twisted the other way until it was the size of a shooter marble, dropping it into a pocket. The sphere went out was she was no longer touching it. "I'm taking this as payment for the carving I gave her."
Elsewhere
Luster
Zane planted torches at points around the Axis Mundi, making a ritual circle, then lighting each one. He would then place gems, made of rare magic, in flame. The gems glowed, floating in the flames. The increasingly nasty quakes, from the pain of the portal 'scorching' the outer few feet of the great tree, did not help. "What I would give for you to shut up!" Zane yelled at the crooning voice that promised all sorts of things if he stopped what would soothe the pain the great tree was in. "Let this world die, it was a mistake to exist." The Whisperer crooned. "Just as you were! You were created because of a man driven mad by being ripped away from his most loved one, his 'alahim'. He shared a love that was more that romantic. A love without expectations from ether side. Think of it as blood brothers but much more. Not that you can feel such things." Zane said, placing the last gem.
The flames jumped and wrote runes, creating a giant circle around the tree. "That will keep the quakes to a minimum." He started the next phase of the healing process, walking the circle's edge, chanting in a tongue that was beyond old, with his Hearth Leader attire on. In his hand a lantern with a portion of the sacred Hearth in its metal frame. He would walk this path until the tree was healed.
Three days later
Luster
"What are you doing?" M'Gama demanded as she neared the edge of the circle. "Wait. I believe he is healing the tree somehow." A delver said as he studied Zane's actions. "I do not know what it is, but the tree is looking healthier by the hour." M'Gama strode over to the tree and, chanting, planted the last of the root woods to the great trunk, completely her spell from before she had been captured six days ago. She shivered as she crossed the circle both times. "This magic is extremely unpleasant yet heartwarming. I doubt it is 'healing magic' much to complex. Shall we join him in this endeavor?" She asked him. Namza, the delver, turned as Electra came from the forest. "Greetings, Rock Shaman." She greeted. "it is because of my muddling that the tree is not gored. My Father has knowledge, but I born the shaman talent."
"Your 'blessing' is not hard to miss." M'Gama snorted. "You will be to blame when Luster becomes much greater." She explained that the 'blessing' Electra placed had become a way for the tree to convert the 'chaos bleed' it absorbed into fuel for Luster's growth once the portal was dealt with. "If you really what to help, aid us in mending the tree." Her mind was elsewhere. Her Dwarf assistant had almost died if not for Dawn, that strange being who return the Anchor, nursing her long enough for her return. M'Gama had not expected to meet 'the Great Mother' nor did she expect that this shaman was that being.
Later that evening
Luster
The Last Hunt, made into a brief but extremely bloody war by the unicorns, had ended. Zane did not stop his chanting and walking but was happy to see 'Silver Hoof' aka Cara healing Beloved but at the same time end her life. Ian wanted to ask why Zane was doing what he was doing but was stopped by his daughter shaking her head. "Wait, he is chanting for something to guide the mending of the world and protect it from those that wanted it gone." Cara said, trying to describe what her gift of tongues told her.
"There are those that found my actions criminal and wouldn't mind this world 'dying' unexpectedly or on purpose." Elihu said as he joined the gathered watchers. With him was Allura, his lover and the one to create the Squijum, who was hiding behind her golden hair, and Fallon, who had his chest bare and looked like he fought a great foe bare handed. "I know the magic he is weaving." Allura said with a voice like honey. "This is not easily done and takes ten days for it to be finished without interruption." Fallon, sounding out of breath as he leaned on Elihu was the one to point out the cost. "This will be followed by a price by the one that answers the request, pray that he gets a merciful one."
A week later
Luster
As Zane's spell was finished a figure appeared. The only ones there to see it was Lady Firethroat, who had sensed something 'old yet familiar' and was compelled to come, and Gramag had come because she had been watching Zane's ten-day spell for the past three days. The figure that appeared looked like a horned humanoid with long flowing teal hair. "I am who you think I am yet not the one you've met." The figure said in a motherly voice. "This form seemed to be the best to negotiate with you." Lady Firethroat was a proud dragon but the being before her was a Dragon Deity and her presence stopped her from asking any question.
"Tiamat, the Primal Mother and she who rules the primordial sea, would you be kind enough to protect this young world?" Zane said kneeling from exhaustion and respect for the being that answered his 'call'. Tiamat's 'clothing', a mix of scale and plant life mimicking a dress, shifted as she leaned down and with a clawed finger to draw forth a drop of blood from his jaw. She licked the droplet and seemed to be deep in thought as the cut healed. "you will do." she said as she pucks out Zane's eyes, so cleaning blood only flowed after she as taken both. "This world will be protected as you requested." She said vanishing. When she was fully gone, Zane started cursing and holding his face in pain. "Why the eyes?" He yelled in pain as he rolled on the ground.
"What possessed you call the Chaos Dragon Tiamat?" Lady Firethroat demanded. "It's not like I had a choice! Chaos energy was 'burning' the tree, causing the roots to rive in pain. I took a gamble on getting a 'reasonable' being of chaotic origins." Zane said wrapping a bandage over his currently missing eyes. "It will take be days to regenerate my eyes and let them 'get back to standards'." Zane lay on the ground, wincing as his vision slowing restored. "That's a fine mess you got yourself into." Gramag commented in a Scottish lilt. "But I'm sure what she needed your eyes for will come up later." Zane stood up and used his stand to navigate. "You are full of tricks." Lady Firethroat commented, "Your daughter is still with the earth movers, mending the tree." she points a claw at the three sleeping bodies resting against the trunk of the great tree. "Thank you, Lady Firethroat. I must go and talk with the others to get a sense of what happened after Beloved died." Zane said bowing and leaving.
Author' note: This took longer than I expected but life has been crazy.