"I'm up for a few matches if you are," you say, looking around.
Your answer is a round of grins.
"But just so we're all on the same page," you add, before anyone can speak, "I'm preparing myself for a major ritual on Wednesday, and as part of that, I've chosen to use as little magic as possible for the next couple of days. That means that if we do fight, I won't be able to go anywhere near all-out."
Altria's frown expresses her disappointment there as clearly as if she'd spoken aloud.
"I'm also not a sword expert in the first place," you continue. "I have some training and experience, but I'm more focused on hand-to-hand and the supernatural stuff. I should probably also add that I've never been on a horse in my life. Now, knowing all of that, are you okay with having a few low-power spars? I'll understand if you'd prefer not to be disappointed."
Kenneth and Lance trade looks with one another, and then Altria.
"Sounds fine by me," Kenneth says.
"Likewise," Lance agrees.
"I was hoping for a proper rematch," Altria admits, "but I can certainly accept your reasons for holding back."
"It's probably for the best that we don't go all-out, anyway," Lance says then.
Altria nods. "Yes, less chance of anyone getting hurt."
"There's that, too," the dark-haired boy says. "But I was thinking more of how our fathers would be in a mood for weeks if we had a mini-tourney when they weren't around to see it."
"Not to mention how Auntie would never stop teasing them about it," Kenneth snickers.
"...I hadn't considered that," Altria admits.
Your little band of warriors spends the next few minutes hashing out the rules of this mini-tournament. It's just going to be the four of you, and the others all want to fight you at least once - Altria for the not-quite rematch, Kenneth and Lance just to see how they stack up - which makes the prospect of tiered, elimination-style bouts less-than-attractive.
Aside from the round-robin format, everyone easily agrees on using hand-to-hand skills and practice swords. Your preference not to use your own magic has the other three debating whether or not they should take a similar handicap, and limit all the bouts to natural ability and trained skill. Altria is telling the older boys about your ability to use ki, and how that stacks up compared to her mana-manipulation, but she doesn't appear to have a preference either way, and Lance, at least, looks like he's inclined to keeping things mundane. Kenneth just wants to fight.
As for yourself, if you're really serious about this priest-like self-purification business, abstaining from use of any and all supernatural power would technically be even better than "only" eschewing magic for the next day or so. Then again, if you were REALLY serious about the whole business, you'd be spending this time shut up in a room somewhere, praying and fasting, not planning to fight. And unless you're careless or unlucky enough to exhaust your reserves or suffer a lasting injury - very, VERY unlikely given Briar's presence - the state of your ki will have a minimal impact on the upcoming ceremony.
Aside from the exact terms of engagement, there's also the question of time. Your soon-to-be opponents don't think holding the tournament after supper would be a good idea, as there's a fairly large meal in the works, partly to welcome you, Briar, and Lu-sensei, but mostly to see off Mr. Drake and his cohorts. You have all day tomorrow to pick from, it's just a question of whether the morning, afternoon, or evening strikes you as best.
Morning has in its favor the fact that you'll have a full day afterwards to rest and focus on preparing for the ritual. Against it is the fact that you and Lu-sensei are going to be dealing with the difference in time zones, and will likely be up VERY late tonight - and consequently, won't be at your best early tomorrow. This is one area where you're willing to make an exception to your "no magic" rule, if it proves necessary to straighten out your sleeping cycle, because being properly rested and ready for the ritual trumps any concerns about lingering magical energies. Still, it would be preferable to avoid the need.
Afternoon is arguably the best time for the mini-tournament, as it will let you properly rest beforehand without resorting to magic, and still leave you with a reasonable amount of time to recover afterwards.
Tomorrow evening would give you the greatest amount of time to get accustomed to the difference in time zones, but having the matches then would leave you with the least amount of recovery time. You're also pretty sure none of your opponents would be terribly keen on waiting that long, as they'd all be slowing down with the day's end.
Lance seems a bit reluctant to accept these terms, something you suspect has to do with a lack of experience in how well ki-users stack up to magically-enhanced fighters in close combat. However, between Altria and Lu-sensei's mutual assessment of your skills in that area as "more than equal to the challenge," Kenneth's unabashed eagerness, and your own confidence in your ability to face the young swordsmen without magic, the dark-haired boy agrees to the conditions.
You find tomorrow afternoon to be the best time to hold your series of spars. It gives you a decent period in which which to rest and get accustomed to the change in time zones beforehand, plenty of time to recuperate in the aftermath, and won't give anyone a significant advantage over anyone else.
Granted, Altria and her cohorts already know the terrain better than you do, and the blonde has fought against you and seen you fight on a number of occasions, giving her a good grounding in your preferred style, skills, and tactics, which she could have easily passed on to the boys.
But even without your magic, you have advantages of your own, chief among them the favor of a certain divine trinity. Din's backing, in particular, is going to come in very handy tomorrow...
...but that's in the future.
Right now, having settled upon final terms for your mini-tournament, Altria escorts you back around to the front door, and then inside her house - making a point to specifically invite you in.
Tom Powell bows out here, to return the car to the gatehouse garage. As he leaves the group and unlatches the driver's side door, the driver catches your eye, runs his fingers down his clean-shaven chin as if stroking a long beard, and then mimes kicking someone.
You shoot him a surreptitious thumbs-up.
He tips his cap in return, and then climbs into the car and pulls away.
Your group makes a quick trip to the guest rooms where you, Briar, and Lu-sensei will be staying, and along the way, you find yourself mentally comparing the Drake residence to Castle Shuzen.
From one perspective, it's no contest. The vampires' home isn't quite palatial, but a couple centuries of occupation combined with their obvious wealth and appreciation for the finer things in life combined to make it as close to that standard as a one-time fortress could hope to be. The Drakes are by no means poor or shy about displaying their wealth, but there's only so much a manor house can do against the grandeur and romance of a proper castle, while staying within the bounds of good taste.
Which the Drakes have. Oh, you can see little touches in the decor that make you think, "Lucia was here," but those vivid splashes of life and color have been carefully chosen to complement the stately architecture and efforts of interior designers past.
On the other hand, Castle Shuzen wasn't exactly homey. The abundant youki that saturated the stones, the ground, and the very air might have made it comfortable for Kahlua's family, but it left you constantly on your guard - and that was BEFORE you found out about the king of monsters that used to be sealed away in their basement. Altria's home is much more appealing to your human sensibilities, with the added bonus of a lived-in air that Castle Shuzen's great size and cold stone construction couldn't really convey, and that no other home you've ever visited truly shared.
You mentally pause to consider that, and then ask Altria how long her family has lived here.
"I'm not precisely certain," she admits, after considering the question for a minute. "But somewhere around two hundred years, I think."
That easily makes this the oldest human house you've ever set foot in. Not the oldest residence - that honor likely goes to the Buddhist shrine you helped repair - but if this place has been inhabited by the same family consistently for two centuries, that welcoming atmosphere isn't just a psychological impression.
It's their threshold.
Altria wasn't just being polite when she welcomed you in at the door. Without an invitation from a member of the family in residence, Briar wouldn't have been able to enter the house, even with the earlier welcome from the gatekeeper.
You turn your senses towards the threshold with new appreciation, trying to suss out how the residual spiritual energy of generations of Altria's family has worked its way into the structure of the house.
Gained Spiritual Imbuement E (Plus)
After dropping your luggage off at your rooms, Altria asks if you would care for a proper tour of the manor before dinner. Normally, this is the point in the visit where you'd present yourself to your adult hosts, but given that Mr. Drake will still be cleaning himself up after an afternoon on the field with his peers, and how close dinner is, you could easily get a pass on that.
Or you could go see Lucia, who would doubtlessly welcome the opportunity to play hostess.
From the looks Altria, Kenneth, and Lance are giving you, they're hoping you won't ask to go see Lucia.
If meeting with Lucia can wait until dinnertime without seeming rude, you're content to let it go until then.
Besides, it's clear that Altria wants to show you around her home. As a guest, you're supposed to respect your host's wishes, right?
Lu-sensei excuses himself from the tour, saying that he wouldn't want to drag "you young people" down with the presence of an old man.
"This way, I can go run interference with the lady of the house, and Ambrose, if I run into him," he offers.
This is a good point, and a generous offer from your teacher, which you and the British trio are inclined to accept.
Altria rings a small bell, and when a maid appears a moment later, she instructs the servant to show Lu-sensei the way to the dining hall.
"Mother should be somewhere around there," Altria explains. "Overseeing the dinner preparations."
"You mean arguing with the cook until the housekeeper has to separate them," Kenneth says.
The maid ducks her head, hiding a smile.
Altria doesn't deny her cousin's remark, and Lu-sensei goes on his way, looking a bit concerned about what he's about to walk into.
You send a final glance in your teacher's direction, and see him speaking with the maid; whatever she's saying through that bright smile, it doesn't seem to be reassuring him in the least.
Then Altria leads you around a corner, and you lose sight of the old man.
The tour of the Drake household takes about half an hour, and as before, you keep experiencing flashbacks to when Kahlua showed you and her other guests around Castle Shuzen. There are many similarities, but just as many stark differences.
The Drakes don't have a Hall of Enemies, for example, but they DO have one of those galleries for family portraits. Looking back through the generations of Altria's paternal lineage just makes it more obvious that she favors her mother in looks almost completely, although you do see a few examples of green eyes and golden hair here and there - never together, however, and almost never quite the correct shades.
Then again, the latter could be a problem with the pigments used in the paintings.
One thing the manor house has going for it that Castle Shuzen didn't? Picture windows, and lots of sunlight. Granted, the windows all have security bars and are probably made of shatter-proofed glass, but they still let in far more light than the converted arrow-slits and stained glass of the vampires' residence.
You while away half an hour and more, hardly noticing the passage of time thanks to the color commentary of your new companions. Altria could frankly use a bit more polish when it comes to being a tour-guide, as for all that it's clear she loves the place, she tends to slip into a dry, almost lecturing tone when talking about it. Fortunately, Kenneth has plenty of amusing insights, ranging from "stories about Great-Uncle John" to "the time we had a sword-fight in the foyer" to "that month when Altria was three, and decided clothes were for wimps."
His stories never fail to get some kind of reaction out of Altria, running the gamut from laughter, to rueful wincing, to furious denial and threats of imminent thrashing.
Threats, incidentally, that Kenneth dares her to follow through on - and which Altria promptly does, chasing her smirking older cousin down the hall with a roar, leaving you, Briar, and Lance blinking in her wake.
"And to think," you murmur, "she's always been so... formal, before."
"This is a side of her I honestly never expected to see," Briar agrees, as the blonde and the brunet vanish around a corner up ahead.
"Tria relaxes a bit once she's comfortable with you and knows your limits," Lance says with the voice of experience, "but she does tend towards the well-mannered end of things even then. I think it's because her mum is so... er..."
"Herself?" you offer.
The dark-haired boy nods. "Yeah, that. Anyhow, Ken makes a point of giving Tria a poke whenever she's getting too caught up in her deportment. You, uh, may have noticed that he's not the most polite soul, himself."
"Never would have guessed," Briar deadpans.
"So he acts like that deliberately?" you ask.
"...sort of?" Lance answers, after a moment's hesitation. "I think it's more that Tria just annoys Ken when she gets all prim and proper, especially when there are adults around and they start gushing about how grown-up and respectful she is, so he does his best to annoy her back."
Doppler-shifting yells and a footsteps, as well as an unexpected surge of magical energy, come from behind you then, and when you whirl about to look, Kenneth and Altria go tearing through the intersection a few feet away, both of their bodies surging with low-level mana enhancement.
Gained Mana Burst F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"With varying degrees of success," Lance adds, before raising his voice. "Not in the house, you two! Remember what happened the last time?"
...DEFINITELY not behavior you expected to see from Altria.
Although you are tempted to join in the chase - both in the name of good fun, and for the chance to get a closer look at the form of magical self-enhancement Kenneth is using, and how it differs from Altria's trick - you find yourself more interested in what Lance just said.
"What happened 'last time,' if you don't mind my asking?"
The dark-haired boy sighs. "Mrs. Drake has a parlor where she practices dancing. You've probably seen the like - one of those rooms with a barre on one wall, and a large mirror covering the next wall over?"
You nod slowly, having no trouble envisioning such a thing, nor in imagining where this tale is headed.
"Well, the two of them started doing this" - Lance gestures in the direction the cousins have disppeared to - "in that part of the house, and Kenneth got the bright idea to duck into that particular room. He didn't know the floor had been polished earlier that day, and when Tria came at him at full speed, they both ended up going into the wall."
You wince. "Not the one with the mirror on it, I hope?"
"No," Lance agrees, "they caught a bit of luck on that account. The barre wasn't so fortunate, though, and the wall didn't exactly come off unscathed, either."
"I take it Miss Lucia wasn't happy?"
"Actually, she chalked it up to kids being kids. Tria and Ken's fathers were... a bit less understanding."
As you consider Lance's words, it belatedly occurs to you that despite the merry chase that Kenneth is leading Altria on, you haven't heard any doors being thrown open or slammed shut.
It suggests that the older boy took something away from that previous learning experience, though perhaps not the lesson his father and uncle were hoping for.
Just as that thought crosses your mind, your ears catch a a short cry of, "Bloody-!"
It's followed closely by a loud thud.
Which is, in turn, followed by a cry from Altria: "I've got it!"
And then there is ANOTHER muffled impact.
Lance appears to have heard all this as well, because he immediately facepalms.
You're torn between calling out to see if Altria and Kenneth are alright, going to investigate in person, or just walking away so you don't get caught up in whatever happens next.
In the end, Lance beats you to it by a hair, lifting his head to call out: "What did you two maniacs break THIS time?"
"Nothing!" Altria's voice comes back quickly - perhaps a little TOO quickly.
"Then what did you knock over?" Lance continues.
There is a hissing noise you take to be Kenneth, trying to encourage his cousin to keep silent.
"...that would be the bust of Sir Francis," Altria admits.
"Altria!"
Lance looks like he wants to laugh, or cry, or perhaps just strangle someone. "Just... put it back, will you? And help Ken up. It's about time we made ourselves present for dinner, anyway."
It's only a minute later that Altria and Kenneth return, coming out of a side-corridor a short distance ahead of you. Altria looks the same as ever, but the older boy is a bit more ruffled than he was the last time you saw him, and is gingerly holding his left elbow, as if he banged his funnybone.
Which, for all you know, he did.
The brunet gives you and Lance a sour look, an expression his face seems eminently suited to bear, and says, "I'm starting to hate wooden floors, you know? Also, rugs. I think I could work up a serious grudge over loose rugs."
Given the grouchy mood Kenneth is in and the tendency for casual insult you've already seen in his behavior, you figure it's best not to say anything that might set him off. Instead, you simply nod in sympathetic understanding regarding his "grudge" towards slippery floors, and follow along in Altria's wake as she leads the way to dinner.
It takes a couple of minutes for your little band to get where you're going, which is fortunate, as it gives Kenneth more than enough time to get over the lingering aches of his accidental collision. Lance also points out a few details of the oldest boy's outfit that are out of place, and which Kenneth quickly corrects, sparing a brief thanks for his friend. Altria is likewise straightening her clothes and re-tying a few golden strands of hair that came loose from her usual braids during the chase - although even when she's finished, you notice that one particular strand continues to jut from her head like some kind of antenna.
"Done this before, huh?" Briar asks the blonde.
"How you present yourself in company is a mark of your respect for that company, as well as your own dignity," Altria says, sounding a bit like she's quoting someone.
"I'm not hearing a denial in there," the fairy teases.
The blonde coughs into her fist, and does not answer.
The Drake's dining room turns out to be a wood-paneled hall about half the size of the stone-floored chamber you ate in while visiting the Shuzens. Instead of a long rectangular table - or several shorter tables arranged end-to-end - dinner is being laid out on a round table, large enough to accommodate a dozen places comfortably. The table isn't quite filled to capacity; you count eleven chairs in total, shorter-backed but somewhat more comfortable-looking than the ones at Castle Shuzen. Most of these are occupied when you enter the room.
You recognize Altria's parents at once, of course. Lucia is sitting to her husband's left, and next to her are three empty chairs - one is clearly reserved for Altria, and given Lu-sensei's presence in the next chair over, you can safely say the third empty seat is yours, but who's the other for? Briar?
To Arthur Drake's right is a man that's clearly his brother - a few years older, grayer, and heavier about the middle, with a pronounced mustache and a large nose that looks like it's been broken at least twice in the past. To his right is a woman of an age to be his wife and Kenneth's mother, but you honestly can't see much of a resemblance. Both have brown hair, but where Kenneth's is stringy and looks like mud, his mother's is full and a much richer shade. The lady in question is also quite a bit prettier than her husband and son.
Maybe she just pays more attention to her looks than they do?
There are two empty seats past Mrs. Drake, and then a single man who, by process of elimination, is likely to be Lance's father. Mr. Pritchard sort of resembles his son, but he's the largest man in the room by any physical measure you care to use. He's got an inch or two on the Drake brothers even sitting down, his shoulders are very nearly wide enough to make TWO of Lu-sensei, and his chest is just massive. He may well be the largest human being you've ever seen in this lifetime, and he measures up well even against the majority of monsters you saw at the World Tournament and Kahlua's birthday.
You find yourself sending a speculative, sidelong look Lance's way, wondering if you're going to have some competition in the Big-And-Tall category when you grow up.
In the next seat over from the powerfully-built man is Lu-sensei, and to his right is the last empty seat, adjacent to Altria's.
What really stands out to you about the new faces is that all three of them, including Kenneth's mother, have the auras of trained mana-users - although in the lady's case, it's the more familiar feel of a MAGIC-user, rather than whatever name these gentlemen have for their technique and its practitioners. No one's being obvious with their power, but you can still tell at a glance that Lu-sensei and two of the three servants are the only people in the room who DON'T possess mana reserves and the skills to do something constructive - or destructive - with them.
Your entry prompts a round of introductions, in which you learn that Arthur's brother is named Eric, that his wife's name is Mary, and that Mr. Pritchard's given name is Roderick.
When you move to take your seat, you're a bit surprised to find Altria sitting next to you, leaving an empty chair between herself and her mother.
Your confusion lasts only a moment, as a brightly smiling girl around Lance's age enters the room. Her hair isn't the golden hue shared by Lucia and Altria, with more of a reddish cast, and her features are considerably different - you can see a resemblance to Arthur and Eric, but nothing that would obviously tie her to Lucia.
She has mana as well, though less of it than most of the others assembled at the table. Again, the way the energy moves through the girl's aura marks her as a fairly conventional practitioner, rather than some sort of magic knight.
"Running late, Anna," Arthur chides gently.
"I'm sorry, Father," the girl apologizes. "I passed Ambrose on my way here, and he was... heh... in quite the mood."
Altria winces.
"What about?" Mr. Drake asks curiously, as his older daughter takes her place at the table.
"From the look of things, he was ambushed by someone with a paintgun." At this range, you're able to see that Anna's smile is the sort worn by someone who's trying very hard not to burst out laughing. "One loaded with rounds of random colors."
Out of the corner of your eye, you catch Briar raising one tiny fist into the air.
"I don't suppose you'd know anything about that, would you, Altria?" the older girl asks the younger. Her tone isn't snide or anything, just honestly curious and eager for details.
"Um..." Altria looks torn.
You could throw your friend a line and admit your responsibility in the counter-prank against the wizard. Everyone at the table appears to be in the know, supernaturally-speaking, so you could give them the full details of the incident. But since the question was aimed at Altria, it would be more proper to let her answer first - though you could let her know you don't mind her "telling" on you.
The glance Altria casts your way tells you that her reluctance to speak about what she knows or suspects about Ambrose's color-related misfortune arises from a sense of obligation towards you. It could be her responsibilities as one of your hosts, or perhaps just one friend trying to keep another's secrets for him.
Either way, you raise a hand and nod, letting Altria know that you don't mind if she speaks.
Your silent gesture visibly eases her mind, and she promptly turns to face the older sister you didn't know she had.
"There was a small incident earlier," Altria says. "Ambrose apparently thought it would be... amusing... to arrange for our guests to be met by a flock of fairies."
A collective sigh passes around the table.
"I didn't see it myself," the blue-clad blonde continues, "but I'm told that Alex convinced the fairies to go pester Ambrose."
And now most of the table are looking at you.
Lucia isn't, but that's because she just threw her head back to laugh. "At last! The wizard gets a taste of his own medicine!"
Anna Drake, meanwhile, has leaned forward far enough to let her look past Altria at you.
"How did you DO that?" she asks intently. "And can you teach me to do the same? Or anyone else?"
"Elbows off the table, dear," Lucia says. "And at least introduce yourself to our guests before you start squeezing one of them for information."
Anna blinks, looks down at her arms, and then straightens up with a blush. "Right. Sorry. My name's Anna Drake, I'm Altria's sister."
"Alexander Harris," you reply, nodding. "Please call me Alex. And this is my teacher, Lu Tze-"
"Pleased to meet you, Miss Drake," the old man says.
"An honor, sir."
"-and my fairy companion, Briar."
"Hey, there!"
Anna doesn't QUITE start at the mention of the word "fairy," and when she tries to be polite and address Briar, she waits just a little too long and is looking far enough in the wrong direction to make it clear that - magical talent or no - she can't perceive your friend.
"And as for what I did about the fairies-"
Anna leans forward again, this time minding her arms.
Your being able to talk a gang of little fairies into turning on their not-exactly-an employer was the culmination of several factors. For one thing, you let them have their fun - and in fact, you played along, which is something they appreciated. You also know the ways of the Fae well enough to have grasped the potential for a deal, release from Briar's entangling spell-trap in exchange for pranking Ambrose, and to conduct yourself in the right manner to encourage them to want to agree to your terms, without coming across as TOO threatening. And of course, you have a history of mostly-positive interactions with Fae.
At least the ones that aren't trying to hunt you and people you know.
Ultimately, most of those points arise from your relationship with Briar - and it was Briar's entangling spell-trap that really set the stage for your deal.
As far as you can tell, Anna Drake doesn't have any of those qualifiers in her corner, so it would be quite a bit harder for her to deal with even minor fairies on equal and productive terms.
That said, the older girl is magic-user enough that she could bond with a fairy herself, if she really wanted to. There have to be at least a few fairies with a similar mindset as those who dwell in and around the Lost Woods fluttering about Earth or the nearer parts of Faerie, and who'd be interested in such a deal if it was offered.
Of course, that may be more effort than Anna is willing to put into this.
"-that was really a team effort," you say earnestly. "I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to try and convince the fairies to help me if Briar hadn't caught them with a spell, and she would have had a hard time dealing with thirty-odd other fairies all at once if I hadn't been distracting them. And after that, we played off each other while talking them around."
Anna smiles faintly. "'Good cop, bad cop?'"
"Same idea, at least," you agree. "It helped that I've had prior experience dealing with Fae creatures on a non-hostile footing - not just Briar, but other fairies I've met through her, and additional Fae we've run into while out and about."
"Are there that many Fae where you live?" Anna asks, frowning.
"No," you admit. "Actually, from what Briar tells me, Faerie beings prefer to avoid Sunnydale-"
The name of your hometown causes Anna to grimace. Your peripheral vision lets you make out a similar, albeit much more fearsome expression on the face of her uncle Eric, and there's a certain tension in the air that makes you think Mary Drake and Mr. Pritchard are having the same sort of reaction.
"-as much as possible. She only stays there because it's where I live, and we're partners. And we've both being doing daily purification rituals pretty much since we first met."
"Has it helped?" Anna asks, with a tone of morbid curiosity.
"Not as much as I would have liked, no," you're forced to admit. "Fortunately, I was able to find help from a third party with considerably superior skill and experience at using purification magic. And I took notes."
That's about as much as you want to get into that topic, at least over dinner. The Hakubas are fairly closely involved with the Shuzens, and you can't be sure that the Drakes don't know their name - or that they wouldn't investigate it if you dropped it here. You'd really rather not make MORE trouble for a family that's done so much to help you over the last few months, and more immediately, you don't want to tweak your hosts' noses by bringing up your own friendly association with the Shuzens.
Based on what you saw and heard of their interactions at Kahlua's birthday party, you're pretty certain that Arthur Drake and Issa Shuzen have tried to kill each other in the past at least once. That's really not good material for dinner conversation.
At least, not for your FIRST dinner here.
"In any case," you say then, getting back on topic, "most of what I know about dealing with the Fae, I either learned from Briar, or as a result of our friendship. If you're really serious about learning how to do the same kind of thing, Miss Drake-"
"Please, call me Anna." She grins. "I have ALWAYS wanted to say that."
You nod. "-then I'd suggest you start the same way I did. Find one of the smarter fairies who's willing to work with a human partner, and build up your relationship from there."
"That might be difficult, considering that I can't exactly see them," Anna says dryly.
"There are ways around that. I'm willing to help, if you feel you need it."
"I'll keep that in mind," the older girl says.
Your conversation with Anna Drake ends there, at least for the moment.
You spend the next few minutes focused on your meal. The first course is the fancy French cousin of chicken soup, packed with vegetables. It's only been a couple of hours since you had breakfast, but in anticipation of the trip, you kept that "meal" small - just a bowl of cereal, really - so that you'd have room for dinner with the Drakes. Even so, you decide to limit yourself to just one serving.
Food-based duels with Sokka at the Shuzens' aside, you don't usually eat THAT much in the mornings.
As you slurp up your soup - Briar doing likewise with another set of tiny dishes whose lingering magical auras point to Ambrose's involvement - you keep your ears open, following the general conversation and waiting to see if anyone addresses you. Lu-sensei is discussing unarmed fighting with Roderick Pritchard, with specific emphasis on the differences and similarities between Western and Eastern styles. Across the table, Kenneth and Lance are debating something that looks like it involves swords, if their occasional attempts at "fencing" with the silverware are any indication, while to your right and past the small space set aside for Briar, Altria is mainly focused on her meal.
You're pretty sure that's her second bowl of soup, and it's already half-gone.
The two ladies are engaged in a discussion about fashion, talking to each other animatedly while, between them, their husbands trade looks of mutual bemusement and suffering. Anna is listening intently to that.
Seeing as how Altria is more or less available, you decide to inquire after a few subjects of interest. The one you'd most like to discuss involves the manner in which her peers and elders utilize mana, but that doesn't feel entirely appropriate for a conversation starter. You need a lead-in, one that DOESN'T hint that you saw certain people using that ability in the house earlier.
Instead, you begin with a more innocuous subject. "So, Altria?"
Her reply is a wordless acknowledgment.
"Not to sound like a hypocrite or anything, but... fairies in the yard. A whole family of mana- and magic-users. MORE magically-gifted types among the hired help, while the regular staff are at least aware of the supernatural and willing to talk about it with others they know are in the know. Is this normal for the European Moonlit World, or is it a more local thing?"
Altria smiles around her soup-spoon, before removing it from her mouth to say, "No, Alex, this is definitely not a common arrangement."
As Altria explains it, the European supernatural community - which doesn't have a single name for itself, but rather, over a dozen different competing titles, in as many different languages - is every bit as mixed up as the mundane side of the continent. Knightly, religious, and esoteric orders dating back to antiquity rub shoulders with factions that have formed around the heirs to noble and even royal bloodlines - or claimants to such - and all compete constantly with younger organizations that have formed out of centuries of politics, warfare both open and covert, and random encounters between otherwise ordinary people and the thing that go bump in the night. Altria tells you that just discussing all the groups she knows of in the United Kingdom alone would take you the entire night; covering the agencies at work on the continent would require days, and learning their history and interactions is the study of years, if not whole lifetimes.
Western influences or no, the different groups that make up Japan's Moonlit World at least have the common ground of shared culture and nationality. Europe is just a MESS.
Altria does note that monsters account for a much smaller percentage of Europe's so-called "civilized" supernatural community than they do in Japan. One reason for this is that iron - and subsequently, steel - was much more common in Europe than Japan, and from an earlier point in history. The Fae and other creatures specifically vulnerable to iron were largely exterminated or driven out of Europe during the Roman Era, while those monsters that lacked the classic Fae weakness had to compete with humans more capable of killing them than their stone- and bronze-wielding ancestors had been.
Another reason for the relative dearth of monsters in Europe is the rise of Christianity, which did not have a very good history of tolerance regarding the supernatural - albeit not without reason. Magic-using humans could try to hide among their mundane kin, but most non-humans were incapable of such - a distinct contrast with what you've seen of the modern Moonlit World, where many monsters have the ability to adopt human forms.
And then there are the demons. From the lowly corpse-demon vampires to the titanic Old Ones, Europe has a problem with demonic activity that reaches back to the dawn of recorded human history, and then keeps going. Such creatures do NOT like to share, even among their own kind, and when it comes to the matter of dealing with competition for territory and prey, they tend to favor very bloody and final solutions.
For all of that, though, some European monster populations did survive into the modern era. You were already aware that the living vampires have a presence and history here, but Altria mentions a few other non-humans that remain active in the Old World. Dwarves, for instance, hold strong interests in a number of mining and metalworking concerns, while "house-spirits" such as brownies and benevolent kobolds apparently got unionized over the last century. Ogres and goblins are heavily engaged in crime, as befits their natures, and as you've seen for yourself, there are still some Fae and other spirits that hold to their "traditional" ways.
Gained European History F
Gained Knowledge (Ancient Earth History) F (Plus)
Gained Local Knowledge (Moonlit World) C (Plus) (Plus)
When Altria mentions Rome, and describes how their presence on the world stage had just as far-reaching an impact on the supernatural side of things as it did the mundane, you can't help but remember the Memorians.
The blonde pauses and gives you a look. "Did I say something amusing?"
You realize you were smiling. "It's just that it's funny you should mention the Fae being driven out of Europe during the Roman period - I have a bit of a story that ties into that."
"Oh?" Altria asks, looking more than politely interested.
"It involves a map, though," you add, apologetically. "Maybe after dinner?"
"After dinner," Altria agrees.
Altria's explanation of the European supernatural community is briefly put on hold when the second course arrives, in the form of a finely-sliced white meat you don't immediately recognize, but which Altria informs you is duck, lightly garnished with greens.
Never having eaten duck before, you feel you owe it to the spirits of Donald and Scrooge not to let their distant relation's sacrifice go to waste. It proves to be pretty good, although as with the first course, you refrain from seconds.
After giving Altria time to work her way through most of two plates, you inquire for more detail about the European Moonlit World - specifically, about how much involvement the government has in the community, if any, particularly here in Britain.
Altria readily admits that she doesn't know enough about most other countries to answer that question - she HAS only been studying this sort of thing for about as long as you've been studying world history - but when it comes to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, the Crown and Parliament do try to keep an eye on things.
The operative word is "try."
As Altria tells you, the Crown's involvement in the supernatural benefits from a number of old oaths, often magically- or spiritually-binding, which tie various families and orders to the rightful monarch, providing Her Majesty the Queen with a number of useful agents whose loyalty is basically assured. However, in the often-divided history of what's now called the United Kingdom, there were at least as many vows sworn AGAINST the royal family as there were in support of it. Most of those hostile oaths have since come to nothing, whether because the families bound by them were destroyed, or because a different family now holds the throne, but a few are still in effect, which can make things... complicated... for otherwise decent and honorable citizens.
Crown involvement in the supernatural is further limited by just how much temporal power the monarchy has been forced to concede over the years, to say nothing of how difficult it is for members of the royal family to move about unnoticed these days.
You notice Altria glancing quickly in her mother's direction when she mentions that, but Lucia and her sister-in-law seem to have dragged their husbands into their ongoing conversation.
Altria is visibly relieved by that, and resumes her account.
There was a time when, if a significant monstrous or demonic threat was identified, the sitting King would simply summon his knights, ride to battle, and crush the unholy foe under weight of steel, skill-at-arms, faith in God, and a carefully-measured dose of sanctioned magic. Those days are long gone, however, and in the modern era, the Queen must make do with a handful of personal agents, and a more general oversight of the often far-flung groups of supernatural loyalists, many of whom don't get along.
"Ambrose has mentioned the Church, Magi, Watchers, and a few other names on numerous occasions," Altria notes. "He hasn't gone into much detail about them or their particular roles, though, and I've been reluctant to press him on the matter. He swears enough as it is."
Parliament's role in managing Britain's supernatural side is both more and less restricted than the Crown's. Less, in that the bureaucracy gives them all kinds of ways to hide manpower, money, and materials, and the movements thereof, to say nothing of the authority they can and do bring to bear when it's required. More, in that large portions of the House of Commons - duly-elected representatives of the people that they are - do not KNOW of the hidden world, and are either not around long enough to be taken into confidence, or else are too focused on their own political power to be considered trustworthy. Even among the House of Lords, where the existence of the mystical world is more or less an open secret, there are those who are deliberately kept in the dark by their peers, and others who know but are not trusted to do right by Queen and Country.
In short, much like the greater European scene, British supernatural politics are complicated.
Or maybe that should just be, "politics are complicated?"
Gained European History F (Plus)
Gained Knowledge (Bureaucracy) F (Plus)
You mull over everything Altria has said so far, and finally ask her how her family fits into the picture.
The answer is that the Drakes are descended from several old noble lines - and a few less-than-noble lines, Altria admits without hesitation or shame, and more of a smirk - through which they inherited not only lands, wealth, and titles, but also one of those oaths to the Crown she mentioned previously.
"Though ours isn't directly to the monarch or the royal house," she adds. "It's aimed at protecting the land and the people. That's the chief duty of the Crown, and that's apparently what our ancestor swore by."
"'Apparently?'" you repeat.
"The details are vague," Altria admits. "Whoever swore that oath did so a LONG time ago, long enough that we're not sure who they were or even when they lived." She frowns then. "I'm pretty sure Ambrose knows, or has good reason to suspect, but sometimes, getting answers out of him is just... argh."
Leaving aside the specific terms of the family oath, and what certain want-to-strangle wizards may or may not know about them, the Drakes' role in the British Moonlit World is that of "troubleshooters" - in the sense that when there is trouble, they find the source, and then shoot it.
Or stab it.
Or punch it, though that approach is generally reserved for instances when the trouble in question is between otherwise upstanding members of society, and casualties would be to the displeasure of Her Majesty and/or the detriment of society.
Altria's careful distinction between those two terms reminds you that royalty isn't barred from having personal opinions, it's just that the best kings and queens know how to set such things aside and do what's right by their people.
Ganondorf had real problems with that concept, but Queen Elizabeth is a better ruler than he was by almost any measure you care to use - which doesn't mean that she COULDN'T have taken a measure of personal satisfaction at the prospect of having some of her more frustrating subjects get the stupid knocked out of them.
This line of thought seems like the kind of thing you should keep in your own head, though.
So you do.
By this point, dinner has passed through the salad course reached the main event, which proves to be platters full of the largest, juiciest steaks you've ever seen. Seriously, it looks like they cooked the equivalent of a whole cow!
Despite the quantity of meat before you, the size of the dinner party and the rate at which you've seen some of its members pack away the calories leaves you wondering if there's enough to go around.
As the primary guests of the evening, you and Lu-sensei are offered the first choice of the steaks.
Your teacher makes an apologetic remark to your hosts about still being on Californian time, and red meat not really agreeing with him at what feels like mid-morning, but he still takes one of the smaller, more tender-looking steaks.
For yourself, you look over the options, and decide to go with one of the larger steaks, just in case your concerns about the "limited" supply prove true.
Briar simply helps herself to a bit of your serving, sparing the servants some difficulty.
After that, the platters are taken around, the rest of the diners selecting their preferred portions. As they do so, you can't quite shake the impression that you're watching a pride of great cats during feeding time, whether that's at a zoo or out in the wild.
Altria and Roderick Pritchard take three steaks each, while the other men and boys take two, as does Lucia. Anna and her Aunt Mary limit themselves to a single steak each, but even so, none of the cuts of meat are small; combined with what your fellow diners have already eaten tonight, this leaves you with honest doubts that any of them will be able to clean their plates.
Oh, Mr. Pritchard and the Drake brothers are large enough, relative to their chosen portions, to make it at least plausible that they could eat that much in a single sitting, but Kenneth and Lance's servings are big enough that you suspect there's some kind of magical eating technique you aren't privy to.
Either that, or they both have hollow legs.
You're trying not to even THINK about Altria's portions. She's long since crossed into the "where does she put it all?" stage, and is making headway on the realm of absurdity.
Also, your previous suspicions were fairly accurate. The amount of meat left on the servants' trays is down to three servings of what you'd consider a "normal" size. If it were a few hours later, you and Lu-sensei could polish off one of those each.
You have to mentally tip your chef's hat to the Drakes' head cook. He clearly knows what he's doing.
On a related note, the steak is DELICIOUS.
Gained Cooking E (Plus)
Gained Scenting D (Plus)
As the main course proceeds, your impression of being surrounded by hungry carnivores is borne out. The piled steaks don't suddenly vanish, but the rate at which they diminish is just a bit unreal. You've gotten about a third of the way through your steak by the time Altria finishes the first of hers, and Mr. Pritchard isn't far behind her.
"Okay," you say to the table at large, putting your fork and knife down. "I'm sorry if this comes across as rude, but I really have to ask: do your families practice a secret school of magically-assisted eating techniques?"
There are some snickers from the younger crowd seated at the table, and an open grin from Lucia.
"Because the last time I saw somebody other than Altria eat this much in a sitting, well, he wasn't human."
"Are you speaking of the young Water Tribesman, perhaps?" Arthur Drake inquires.
"Yes, sir," you answer. "But I'm pretty sure no one here is secretly Sokka's long-lost cousin."
The head of the house considers that, and surprises you a little when he chuckles and says, "It's actually not impossible, you know. The Water Tribes have traveled the waves since time immemorial, and have relatives in just about every culture and community that relies on the bounty of the sea. Selkies, for instance."
There is a pause as he takes a drink of his wine.
"Still," the gentleman continues, "any supernatural heritage our family might have is so far back as to no longer be significant. Your first guess was closer, although the focus of our style isn't ACTUALLY eating."
"Could have fooled me," Mary Drake notes dryly.
From there, the conversation shifts to giving you, Lu-sensei, and Briar a brief introduction to the mana-infused fighting arts. As you've seen, such styles are effectively applying mana in a fashion akin to the ki techniques that originated in the Orient, for similar results. There are considerable differences between the two approaches, however, most of which boil down to the fact that while every human being has at least some ki, being born with mana reserves is considerably more rare. The usual method of getting around a lack of internal mana is to contracting with an external source, but this doesn't work very well with mana-based fighting styles, if at all - even when the patrons are willing to give up that much of their own energy, humans can only channel so much inhuman power without serious side-effects.
The key was discovered when someone looked at the natural methods by which the human body recovers spent mana - namely, by absorbing ambient mana through the air they breathed, the food they ate, and the drink they imbibed - and got the bright idea to try enhancing them.
"Ambrose is quite convinced it was a wizard," Altria notes.
"Considering the detailed knowledge of the inner workings and supernatural traits of the human body it would have required, he's probably right," her father says. "To say nothing of the willingness to risk lives with the... experimentation."
Whatever the nature of the "researcher" involved, the quest to develop enhanced methods of mana-absorption was eventually successful. To a point.
"The way we channel mana and the way magic-users channel it are diametrically opposed," Arthur explains. "Our uses are almost entirely internal, focused on building up and enhancing the natural functions of the body with supernatural energy. Magic is mainly focused on creating effects external of one's self. Even when a magic-user casts a spell meant to augment his own body, he has to create the spell as a separate entity FIRST, and THEN apply its effect."
You consider that, and kind of see what he's getting at. Even with your internal reserves, you have to form the matrix of a spell and set all its parameters before it can do anything. It's not exactly SEPARATE from you, but it IS distinctly different from the raw mana it started out as. Just channeling that directly... hmmm...
Gained Mana Burst E
"Is it possible for a traditional magic-user to learn these techniques?" you ask, while thinking to yourself that extra options are always nice to have.
"It's technically possible," Mary Drake answers you, "but it's not worth the trouble."
You blink in open surprise at that. You'd have thought that a method of rapidly recovering spent mana which DIDN'T rely on imbibing mana potions or more exotic substances would be something that mages would be all over.
"It takes just as much time to learn mana-enhancement as it does to learn magic," she explains, "not to mention a great deal more physical effort than most magic-users are willing or able to dedicate to the task. Even leaving that aside, the entire style relies on your ability to channel mana through your body quickly and accurately, and one of the basic principles is learning how to increase your ability to do that."
"Unfortunately," her husband grumbles then, "by learning how to channel your own mana faster, you make it easier for OTHER people's mana to move through your system as well." He grimaces beneath his mustache. "It has its advantages where beneficial magic is concerned, but hostile spells become far too effective."
It's easy for you to picture the kind of "effectiveness" he's talking about, and you try not to wince.
"We get around this by learning a separate skill," Altria's uncle continues, setting down his cutlery and raising his right hand. He focuses his aura and the mana running through it in a way you're not quite familiar with, and then...
In your passive Mage Sight, Eric Drake's hand becomes a glowing blur of undifferentiated mana.
You blink, and peer closer, cycling through all your different modes of enhanced vision. To normal eyesight, the man's limb is completely unchanged, and your Ki Sight, Spirit Sight, Mental Sight, and Fairy Sight are completely unaffected. Not that Fairy Sight was picking anything up from him to start with, but...
It's the same situation with your non-visual senses. Everything else works normally, but your Mage Sense is stopped cold, able to tell only that there is SOMETHING magical going on, but not what schools are involved, and not even how powerful the effect is.
The energy... buzzes. Uncomfortably so.
"Sweet Farore on a Deku Stick!" Briar blurts out. "Magic resistance?!"
"It is," Altria says.
...
Okay, that is just not FAIR.
You're familiar with certain creatures that are so inherently magical, their innate essence interferes with spells cast against them. If memory serves, powerful priests are able to cast a spell that temporarily bestows the same effect on the subject, though such a feat is currently beyond you. That a group of non-spellcasters have come up with a way to reach the same result is just... it's so...
It's cheating, is what it is!
"The protection isn't absolute," your blonde friend continues, taking over the explanation as her uncle powers down and lowers his hand. "At first, all it does is restore your original level of passive resistance to magic, and then only when you're actively spending mana to do so. With enough practice, you can keep the technique going all the time, for no real loss of power, and then build on it further - but as long as the technique is active at all, you can't cast spells. The channels in your body that carry the mana are already occupied, and by a use of the power that's MEANT to interfere with the structure of spells."
...well, THAT sucks.
"Don't feel too jealous, lad," Lu-sensei says then. "There's a technique in the School of Five Elements that does something similar."
...okay, that's better.
"You should be ready to start practicing it in a few more years," he adds. "A decade, tops."
...oh, for the love of Din...
Fortunately, there is still food to be eaten, and you focus on doing so, drowning your irritation in delicious, savory steak.
And later, ice cream.
After the meal, Altria takes a moment to speak with her parents, and then leads the entire party to a sitting room with a large table, clear of any lamps, potted plants, or other obstacles.
"You mentioned a story and a map earlier, Alex," she says.
Taking the hint, you produce your hard-copy of the Memorian Map from your dimensional pocket, and lay it out on the table, which is large enough for everyone to be able to see the Map.
"Is that Latin?" Arthur Drake asks almost immediately.
Lucia leans forward with sudden interest.
"It is," Roderick Pritchard confirms, his much greater height giving him a better view. "This almost looks like a transcription of a Roman map, except some of the notations are too advanced... and I don't recognize any of these names." Frowning, the big man turns to you. "Where did you get this, young man?"
Your announcement provokes a round of blinks.
"Are you mad, boy?" Eric Drake bursts out in astonishment. "What on Earth possessed you to go there?"
Briar giggles.
You understand why, and just HAVE to take one of the openings the mustachioed man has presented you, and run with it.
"No actual possession was involved, sir," you say. "Although I did meet a short legion of ghostly Romans."
There is another collective blink, which is followed by quick glances at the map.
"There were also magical artifacts," you add. "And monster spiders."
Eric Drake's mustache twitches. "Spiders, you say?"
"Monster spiders?" his brother notes, emphasizing the first word as he regards you more intently.
"Yes, sir. The hatchlings were about... so big." You hold your hands apart, framing a space roughly the size of a soccer ball - sorry, FOOTball - or young Gohma. "But some of them were bigger than your dining room table."
Altria's uncle pales slightly.
"Would you mind if we got Ambrose in here before I started telling the whole story, though? There are some parts I think he'd like to know about, and the story's long enough that I'd prefer not to tell it twice if I don't have to."
Arthur nods and turns to Anna. "If you would, dear?"
"Of course, Father." Altria's sister casts a simple messaging spell, and tells Ambrose that his presence is requested.
"When you say 'bigger than the table,'" Eric Drake asks then, with an expression of deep disquiet, "you do of course mean that it was a SWARM of spiders that covered an area that large, right, lad?"
Your keen and penetrating senses tell you that Altria's uncle doesn't like spiders.
This might be a time where complete honesty is not the best policy... maybe?
Before you can speak further about spiders of unusual size, one of the sitting room's doors opens. On the other side is Ambrose, clad in a well-cut, dark blue robe - one that is completely devoid of luminous fairy dust, you note immediately. He doesn't have his customary staff or some "amusing" stand-in to hand, nor is he wearing a hat, and there's a complete absence of any obvious magical effects on or near his person: no intimidating presence; no moving images worked into his robe; no mystical paraphernalia hanging from his belt. He's not even smoking a pipe.
Despite all those absences, the old man manages to project the traditional image of a proper wizard for perhaps the first time since you've met him.
"I have been summoned," Ambrose proclaims grandly, as he strides into the room, "and so I appear. How may I be of assistance to-"
He stops in mid-word, having caught sight of you, and slowly raises his right hand, forefinger extended in accusation.
"You."
Although it's clear to you that Altria's uncle is not going to like what you have to say, your personal sense of forthrightness compels you to be truthful in this matter.
"No," you say slowly, "some of the older spiders really were that big."
Eric Drake gives you a look of mixed disbelief and dismay.
"But only if you counted their legs," you add, trying to make things sound a little less horrible for him.
And indeed, the clarification does seem to ease the mustachioed man's unease with the idea of table-sized spiders. Just... not very much.
"That's not counting the mother, though," Briar notes.
"What mother?" Altria asks, shooting the fairy a guarded glance.
The rest of the room's occupants look from Altria, to you, their expressions silently seeking an answer to the same question - and in some cases, dreading it.
"The, uh, mother of the rest of the spiders," you admit. "THAT one was even bigger than the table, just in the body."
"...how much bigger?" Eric Drake asks.
"Dear," his wife interjects, "do you really need to-"
"I'll lose more sleep worrying about what I don't know than I will worrying over what I do," Eric says to Mary, before turning back to you, visibly steeling himself, and repeating the question: "How much bigger?"
"It was about twenty feet across?" you admit, thinking back to the crack in the floor that the mother Gohma he to haul herself through to make her first appearance, and how you saw sparks skittering off her armored shell where it scraped against the broken stone, just barely squeezing through from the tunnels below.
Beneath the mustache, you see the man's lips move, silently mouthing, "Twenty feet."
"You're having us on!" Kenneth bursts out.
"I'm... not so sure he is, Ken," Lance says as he stares at you.
"The hel- I mean," Kenneth quickly corrects himself with a wary glance at his mother, who meets it with a stern gaze, "the heck he isn't! A spider the size of a small house? Have you ever heard of a bug that big?"
"Well, no, but-"
While that's going on, Arthur Drake sighs, signals a servant who's been standing unobtrusively near one of the doors, and sends him to fetch some brandy.
Perhaps it's just as well that this is when Ambrose enters via the other door.
Seeing as how you already told everyone who was at the dinner table how you turned Ambrose's prank and fellow pranksters back on him, you don't see much point in trying to play innocent in the face of his, er, "acknowledgment."
Instead, you simply smile and wave, implicitly accepting all the unspoken accusations he wrapped up in that one word.
The wizard's out-thrust finger comes up, and he takes a breath as if to begin a long-winded rant, but the words never come, as his attention is drawn elsewhere in the room: to Eric Drake's twitchy pallor; to Mary Drake's quiet murmurs to her husband, half-consoling and half "I told you so"; to the argument between Kenneth and Lance regarding twenty-foot-long spiders, and whether such things could possibly exist even in the supernatural world; and to Altria's interjection that she has encountered one giant, admittedly non-arachnid entity in your company, and heard tell of another.
Ambrose spends a minute taking all this in, sparing a thoughtful glance for the Memorian Map spread out on the table, and another for the servant who's just now returning - with a crystal decanter full of an amber liquid and several tumblers atop a small silver tray. Then he turns back to you.
"Been wreaking havoc on the minds of the unprepared again, I see," he notes dryly. Before you can say anything in response to that, Ambrose faces his erstwhile employer. "My lord, based on prior experience, I would strongly recommend that everyone be comfortably seated and have a stiff drink in hand, if not in their bellies, before young Alexander opens his mouth again."
You scowl at the wizard.
You frown at Ambrose. "You just want an excuse to drink again."
He places one hand to his heart and dons an expression of wounded innocence.
You sigh, and then admit, "But to be fair, my tale DOES involve gods..."
And now everybody is staring at you again.
Including the servant who brought the brandy.
"Such bullshit," Kenneth breathes in awe.
"Language," his mother scolds him. Her heart doesn't really seem to be in it, though.
"...I believe I will take your advice after all, Ambrose," Arthur Drake says, as he reaches for the bottle.
It takes a couple of minutes to get everyone sorted out. Glasses are filled and handed out to the adults, and there's a brief discussion about whether or not Kenneth is old enough to drink - Ambrose supports it, and the boy's father doesn't exactly object, but his mother and, surprisingly, Aunt Lucia both do - while the servant is dispatched to fetch a few extra chairs.
As drinks and seating are being arranged, you take the opportunity to think over how to tell your tale.
The first major stumbling block is explaining how and why you came to learn of the Memorian Outpost to begin with.
You know that the Drakes and their other guests have personal experience with little fairies, and Eric Drake's earlier question about what could have possessed you to venture into Faerie is still fresh in your memory, hinting that they have a fair idea of just how dangerous the other realm and its denizens can be. As such, telling your audience that you ventured into Faerie blindly and just stumbled over the not-so-abandoned ruin is unlikely to go over well.
Saying that you went to the Outpost on the advice of a Great Fairy may not go over much better, but at least you and Briar can vouch for Navi's character. With a little luck, Ambrose will know enough about what a Great Fairy is to be able to act as a third opinion, and one the Drakes will trust.
That's the "how."
That just leaves the "why."
Do you want to tell the Drakes about the Mirror of Shadows?
If you do, you're going to have to explain what you wanted the artifact for, which will unavoidably reveal your involvement in the subjugation of Lady Takara's Mad Self - and possibly Gyokuro's as well. You could try to leave out mention of the Shuzen matriarch and undersell your involvement in the event, making it seem like you were "merely" in charge of collecting the Mirror, but you're not the best liar, and beyond that, the idea of not taking credit for your actions grates against your sensibilities.
Plus, you're not sure how far that story has spread among the Japanese supernatural community by now, or how far it WILL spread in the future. Either way, it could be a problem if you tell the Drakes one version of the story here, and they learn about another one later.
If you don't want to explain about the Mirror, you're going to have to come up with some kind of cover story. "Collecting reagents for the Familiar Ritual" comes to mind, but you're not sure if that will convince anybody. You collected every other reagent on Earth, after all - why go clear to another plane of existence for just one? One which is just a jar of ectoplasm, at that?
Accidentally traumatized arachnophobes and such aside, a policy of honesty has served you well thus far, and you see no real reason to change that approach.
As such, once everyone is settled, you begin from the beginning, asking Ambrose if he recalls the divination ritual you performed back at Kahlua's.
"Difficult to forget, lad," the wizard murmurs.
You explain for the rest of your audience how that ceremony was interrupted by a hostile demonic presence, and how a moment of divine intervention courtesy of Lord Raiden put a stop to it before it got any worse on your end than it already had.
"After that, I felt like I owed Lord Raiden a show of gratitude for stepping in, so I went to a family of shrinekeepers I know in Japan, and asked for some advice on how I should go about doing that."
From there, you explain how Miss Suzuka found a list of possible "good deeds" you could perform, and how one of those was the matter of a missing little girl, which, upon careful investigation, turned out to be the work of a bereaved and insane nine-tailed kitsune.
Ambrose facepalms with his empty left hand.
You have to take a few minutes here to explain the significance of multiple tails when it comes to Oriental foxes, and reassure various members of the audience that at NO point in the proceedings did you attempt to fight such a creature.
Instead, you went looking for a possible cure for her madness - which is what led you to the ruined outpost in Faerie. You recount that Navi was aware of an artifact that had the sort of power you were interested in, and that it had ended up inside the ruin. Accompanied by two of the shrinekeepers - both grown men armed with spiritual and holy powers, and quite capable of taking care of themselves in a purely physical matter - you traveled to the outpost with Navi's assistance, and ventured inside, through the anti-Fae wards that not only prevented her from crossing the ruin's threshold, but also made it impossible for her to scry more than a few feet inside the abandoned structure.
"This is where you found the giant spiders?" Ambrose inquires.
"Giant demonic spiders," you clarify, "and yes. But they weren't the only things in there."
You proceed to recount your brief fights with the still-active security golems and corporeal undead, your first meeting with and successful "awakening" of Captain Marcus, and how that led to an assembly of those spirits of the Memorian Legion that still lingered in the outpost.
The Drakes and Pritchards listen intently as you pass on the brief history of Memoria that you learned from the shades: its distant Fae-wrought origins; its centuries-long campaign against the darker powers of Faerie; its survival past the fall of Rome, and alliance with the monsters of Europe; and the demonic forces that were involved in the nation's downfall.
Your audience listens even MORE intently when you describe the battle between the Legion and the remaining invaders, shade against corrupted shade, phantom spell and spectral steel against the claws and armor of demonic beasts.
"The Shadow was effectively acting as the guardian of the Mirror," you say. "Once I'd purified him, we took the Mirror and made our way back through the tunnels to the Legion, who'd more or less finished their own battle by then. We helped mop up some of the remaining creatures, and decided to call it a day."
Gained Oratory F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"And the Map?" Roderick Pritchard asks intently.
"What about the Fox?" Ken and Lance ask over one another.
"You DID find the girl, right, Alex?" Altria says.
You hold up your hands. "I'm getting to those, really!"
Even as you say that, you're thinking quickly over which of those topics to cover first. Your acquisition of the Memorian Map is the next event, chronologically speaking, but you're pretty certain that if you reveal the existence of a working planar gate to Faerie, your narration of recent events is going to get derailed in a hurry. You could just skip over that and explain about the clerical convocation you unintentionally touched off, although again, bringing up the DIRECT divine involvement in that event could cause a major shift in topic.
Concluding the "Tale of the Fox-Hunt" first seems least likely to cause a derailment, even with Gyokuro's participation and Lady Tamamo's unexpected appearance, and it's what you wanted to get out of the way first, explanation of the power of the Mirror of Shadows and all, so you'll be going with that.
After you've finished telling the story of how Lady Takara got her sanity back, though, which of the remaining topics do you want to cover first?
The tale wouldn't have the same impact if you simply told your audience that you fought the corrupted Shadow of a mighty warrior. You can't help but feel that Dark Link deserves better than to be remembered as merely that.
To do justice to your opponent and your battle, you will of course have to go into some detail about the Hero of Hyrule... but fortunately, you've got a ready-made excuse for the source of your familiarity with Link.
Namely, Briar, and through her, Navi.
Being careful to emphasize the fairies' connection to Hyrule and to imply that your knowledge of the other world is secondhand, gained from stories told by your companion, as well as a few things you've learned from her mother and dealings with current and former residents, you tell the Drakes and Pritchards (and Ambrose) about Link.
Not everything, of course - you'd be here all NIGHT if you tried to re-tell the Legend of Zelda in its entirety, and even a shortened telling would run the risk of revealing things you'd rather not let out just yet (or ever) - but enough to give your listeners a solid idea of who Link is, what makes him so important, and why a Shadow of him, even when lacking his full arsenal and holding back to enjoy itself, is so formidable.
The only people in the room who aren't raptly attentive are Briar - who's heard it all before - Mary Drake - who seems half-amused, half-resigned by the reactions of her husband, their son, and their peers - and Ambrose - who is giving you one of those thoughtful looks as he sips at his brandy.
You make a mental note to talk to the wizard later, because you learned quite a bit about the curse in your soul as a result of your encounter with the Hero's Shadow, and it's the sort of information you really ought to pass on to the expert practitioner, if you want him to be able to help you find a cure for your... condition.
Even Lu-sensei is paying close attention, likely so he can compare your previous accounts of Hyrulean matters against this newest telling.
Everyone else is giving you the sort of regard you're used to seeing in your father and Uncle Rory, when there's a really good game on TV.
The story seems to particularly resonate with Altria.
You're sure you have NO idea why.
A legendary Hero, favored by the fairies and wielding a peerless holy sword, who returns to his homeland in its hour of greatest need...
NO idea at all.
You proceed with a recounting of the Fox-Hunt, including your alliance with the Hayashi Clan-
All of the adults look interested here.
-the careful testing of the Mirror of Shadows-
Lucia, Mary, and Anna giggle at your account of what Ichirou's Shadow did.
-your completely unintentional summoning of Tamamo-no-Mae-
Ambrose drains his shot glass, and you have to spend a couple minutes explaining for those who aren't up to speed on legendary Eastern monsters who and what Tamamo IS, at which point, more drinking ensues.
-and finally, the tracking down and confrontation of Lady Takara.
You are very careful to make clear that after using the Mirror on her, you got the HELL out of the way, and left the subsequent battle to the adults.
And, yes, you assure Altria, you DID find Mai, even if she didn't come out of the entire incident completely unchanged. You're due to check up on her, Lady Takara, and Lady Akemi later in the week.
Gained Oratory E
After reaching the "somewhat happy" ending of that part of the tale, you go back to the matter of the gathering of holy men and little gods that happened in the days immediately after your return from the cleansing of the Memorian Outpost. You feel that it leads in neatly to the matter of the Memorian Map, so that if and when and derailments occur, you can get the discussion back on track.
This proves to be the case.
As it happens, Ambrose WAS aware that there are "agreements" among the uppermost - and lowermost - echelons of the supernatural world regarding direct involvement with mortals. Nor is it just Japan that has to deal with such things, not by a long shot; similar pacts and oaths are in effect the world over.
The other adults were not so well-informed.
Mary Drake, in particular, has things to say about the Age of the Gods and the Age of Man - mainly that the first is over and done with, and has been for well over a thousand years.
Gained European History F (Plus) (Plus)
"It's one of the few points that all the major magical authorities agree on," she says.
"If by 'authorities' you mean those stuffed shirts in the Clock Tower," Ambrose begins.
"And the Church," the brunette adds firmly. "And the Watchers' Council. And don't roll your eyes at me, old man. I know you have your differences of opinion with all of them, but they ARE-"
"-blinkered by their own arrogance and hidebound traditions," the wizard interrupts. "Not to mention a thoroughly Euro-centric view of the world. If it's not at least five hundred years old and transcribed from the original Latin or some other even older dead-as-dust tongue, it's not REAL to those idiots."
Judging by the offended look on Altria's aunt's face, she's going to retort to that. Maybe you should interrupt, before this disagreement turns into a full-blown argument?
Yeah, maybe you'd better speak up before this disagreement gets out of hand.
"Leaving aside the fact that the Memorians WERE originally Roman," you say, drawing Mary and Ambrose's attention back to you, "now is probably a good time for me to mention that there was a Catholic priest present when the assembly got particularly interesting."
Your interjection is greeted with two surprised blinks.
Then Ambrose huffs. "What did he have to say about meeting a room full of pagans and their gods?"
Mary shoots the wizard a dark look.
For yourself, you think back and recount what the young clergyman told you about having prior experience with the supernatural, and making a couple of long stories very short.
Mary seems satisfied - a bit smugly so, if her latest glance in the wizard's direction is any indication.
Ambrose looks more bewildered than anything else, and needs a moment to find his voice. When he does, he mumbles something about, "More reasonable than ninety-nine percent of the priests I ever met," and, "Stop looking at me like that, girl."
You spare a moment to see if anyone's going to say anything else, and when they don't, you move along with your story.
Fortunately, there isn't much more to tell. You cover the "face-to-face" meeting in Faerie between the kami and their adherents, Priest Cato's appearance, and finally, the existence of the deactivated gateway in the Outpost - and the divinely-confirmed continued existence of its Earthside counterpart.
On cue, every eye in the room turns towards the Map.
"We are NOT telling the Mages' Association about this," Ambrose says firmly.
"But-!" Mary exclaims.
"Think, Mary. What would the average magus give for the chance to study intact, functional examples of artifice dating back to the end of the Age of the Gods? To talk to practitioners from just a few centuries later? Or to have quick-and-easy access to a plane where the Phantasmal Races haven't declined or vanished, but are in fact every bit as powerful as they were thousands of years ago?"
Altria's aunt listens to Ambrose's implacable listing of examples. The more Ambrose says, the more her expression falls.
In the end, she sighs. "They'd sell out their own mothers in a heartbeat."
The wizard nods. "That would be the LEAST of it. And that's not even getting into the sort of disasters those greedy, grasping fools would unleash in their attempts to plunder the place. They'll hear 'ghosts,' think of the paltry poltergeists and sorry shadows that the Clock Tower keeps as conversation pieces, and run straight into the teeth of a short century of Roman soldiers, with their own brand of magic AND the ability to call on bloody MARS in a place where there's nothing stopping him from ANSWERING."
"How bad could that be, anyway?" Lance asks then.
"Do you remember how I said Ginta Hakuba called down the power of his patron to smite most of a swarm of those giant demon spiders?" you question him back.
"Yes..."
"Well, Ginta's reaction made it pretty clear that, whatever result he'd expected that prayer to have, blowing up everything in a twenty-foot-radius of pure holy energy WASN'T it. When I asked him about it, he told me that he'd never channeled that much divine power in a single prayer before, and that the effort of it SHOULD have exhausted him. Instead, he was just winded - and very surprised."
Lance considers that, and cranes his neck to look around at the room - measuring the walls, you think.
The way his eyes widen tell you he just finished doing the math, which says that Ginta's prayer took out an area bigger than this entire room.
And it's not a SMALL room.
...and now the other boy is looking at you, wide-eyed and wary. Was it something you...
...
...oh, right. You DID mention dropping your own version of a Holy Smite on the mother Gohma, didn't you?
You'd say you're sorry, but really, you're not.
The damn spider WAS trying to eat you, after all.
"Before we start arguing about who to tell what about anything," Roderick Pritchard says then, with a look that takes in all the other adults, "perhaps we should ask the owner of this Map, who was entrusted with it by the proxy of an old war-god, what HE means to do with it?"
The adults turn to you.
Well? What is your foremost priority for the Memorian Map, and the Gate it leads to?
"I'm not going to lie," you say. "There are a lot of things I could do with a portal to a secure, friendly location in another plane. All the things that Ambrose mentioned, for starters."
The wizard rolls his eyes. "You say that like you weren't asking questions and taking notes the whole time you were there."
Guilty.
"But before I can do anything involving the Outpost in the long run," you continue, "I have to be able to get there and come home again in a safe and timely manner. Preferably one that DOESN'T require me to be constantly trading favors with Navi, because she has other things to do besides be my inter-planar taxi driver, and I'm not sure what I could give her that would be worth the hassle on her end."
That, and both times you've asked the Great Fairy for help with something, it's turned into a small-scale quest. You're not sure if that's due to Navi's nature as one of the Fae, your Power-based trouble-magnet issues, or just the universe being its usual frustrating self, but it's the makings of a pattern all the same.
Not that you OBJECT to those little adventures, exactly. After all, you got a Blessed Blade and a much-needed purification out of the first one, and a potent magical item, lots of new friends, and critical information about the origins of the death-curse in your soul from the second. Not to mention a ton of much-needed practical application of your various skills, which life in Sunnydale hasn't been the most helpful with.
For all the benefits, those outings included a couple of major scares: a close call with a magical clone of Young Ganondorf back in Navi's Silent Realm; and crossing blades with Dark Link in the depths of the Memorian Outpost. And while you came out of both meetings victorious, and basically unharmed, you think that two face-to-face encounters with legendary villains of Hyrule is MORE than enough for one year.
It's more than enough for one LIFETIME, but you're not going to hold out hope that you could go THAT long without Evil Legend Number Three showing up.
Again, pattern recognition.
"You know, lad," Ambrose says brightly, "if all you want is an alternative to being shuttled around the dimensions by a fairy..."
"You have other things to do, too," you reply.
"And you don't want to owe me a favor any more than you do a Great Fairy."
"But more seriously," you continue, "I'm certain that Captain Marcus and the rest of the Legion have plans of their own for the future of the Outpost. And Mars DEFINITELY has something in mind, or he wouldn't have sent Priest Cato back. I don't know for certain what any of them are up to, but I DID tell the Captain that I'd try to find this side of the portal. It may not have been a magically-binding oath or anything, but still..."
"Promises are important," Altria agrees with a nod.
The adults trade speaking glances.
Before anyone can say anything else, you hear a clock somewhere in the hallway begin to announce the hour.
Thinking back, you started dinner promptly at five, and you heard the clock strike six around the time the steaks were being... devoured. Is it really seven in the evening already? It certainly doesn't FEEL like you've been here that long.
The difference in time zones is really working against you, isn't it?
"Perhaps we should pause this discussion here," Arthur Drake says then. "I think we could all do with some time to consider everything Alexander has said."
From the throats of all those near your age, and Roderick Pritchard besides, comes a chorusing, "But-"
"We are already committed to a major endeavor over the next few days," Lord Drake reminds his family and friends - and you're quite certain that it WAS the Lord who was speaking just now, although something of the father enters as he adds, "And part of meeting that obligation requires us to make an early start of things tomorrow."
The looks of resigned disappointment are just as widespread as the outcry, although Mr. Pritchard hides it better than the kids.
"I also imagine that Alexander would appreciate a chance to rest his throat, after all that talking," Lucia points out.
You have to nod in agreement. The servant who brought the brandy for the adults slipped out at some point to fetch a pitcher of water, which you've been availing yourself of during your narration. Even with that bit of cool, soothing relief, however, you DID just spend most of an hour talking.
"Besides," the lady of the house adds, "these Roman ghosts and their fortress have been in the same place for a thousand years, now. I don't think they're going to disappear overnight, no matter what we do."
There's that, as well.
A quick check with your hosts confirms that Altria is usually expected to be in bed at or around nine o'clock. Given that the family is planning an "early start" tomorrow, they're not planning on extending that deadline, so you've got a couple of hours left to round out the day.
Going by the reaction of half your audience, you could easily get away with discussing more about the Memorians - there were plenty of minor details about the Outpost and the individual shades that didn't make it into your tale. Or you could ask Mr. Pritchard about ACTUAL ancient Romans and their maps; his reaction to the Memorian Map tells you he is probably the closest thing to an expert on the subject in this group, with the possible exception of Ambrose.
Talking to the wizard is another option, but you've got topics OTHER than Memoria to occupy him with - the Curse of Demise, for one.
Or you could forego talking, and just hang out with the other kids until it's time to call it a night.
"And that," you agree with a nod.
"Only sensible," Mary Drake says.
"I would be worried if you'd answered otherwise," Lucia adds.
"Agreed," Altria says.
Ambrose looks around, sees that everyone in the room is exhibiting some variation on that reaction - including Briar and the guy who's been fetching chairs and drinks - and then sits back in his chair with a huff.
"See if I get you people anything nice for Christmas this year..."
The group begins to break up after that, with the Drakes going off to do whatever it is old-fashioned, high-class British families who are in the supernatural up to their necks do, the night before the husbands/fathers/uncles head out to do something dangerous but necessary.
Ambrose swipes the brandy from the servant and then returns to his seat, where he refills his glass and begins to empty it once more, but there's a different pace to his drinking than what you saw that time at the Shuzens, when your various revelations convinced him to get drunk. You're not sure if it's because of the difference in the type, quantity, and/or quality of the alcohol, or because Ambrose has a different motive this time, but he's taking slow sips at fairly long intervals, occasionally muttering under his breath while he stares at point beyond one of the walls.
This leaves you with the Pritchards, who are quite happy to spend some time discussing Roman maps with you. Well, Roderick Pritchard is happy to talk about it; Lance only interjects a couple of times, and otherwise defers to his father, who's clearly both the expert and the enthusiast on Roman matters in the family.
Roderick isn't able to narrow down the location depicted by the Memorian Map much further than your efforts already had - he apologizes for that, saying that he'd need to consult some books that he's pretty certain Arthur doesn't have copies of. What the big man IS able to do is give you pointers on reading maps done in the Roman style - or a form of cartography descended from that one - as opposed to more modern charts.
Gained Cartography F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
You also pick up some new words in Latin - or more precisely, you learn what the generally-accepted modern translation of those words is, as opposed to the terms Captain Marcus and his fellows used. Considering that the Memorians had been speaking a living derivative of Latin for centuries after Rome fell, with influences from their time trapped in Faerie and their association with assorted monsters, and that the entire nation appears to have left no more linguistic legacy than it did a historical one, there ARE differences.
After spending half an hour or so talking with the Pritchards, you bow out of further conversation, as much because you feel that Lance would appreciate some time alone with his father as because you've learned as much as you reasonably can.
As the two of them excuse themselves, you roll up the Memorian Map and tuck it back into your dimensional pocket.
"Hey, Ambrose?"
"Hm?"
"Are you still sober enough for a serious conversation, or should I wait for another day?"
The wizard considers your words and his glass of whiskey, which is currently down to a finger's width of the amber liquid. As far as you're aware, that's only his second glass of the evening, and a shot glass at that. If his meal was anything like the one you saw...
"Out of a potential three sheets to the wind," Ambrose muses, "I would rate my current condition a one, at most. So yes, I should be good for talking and thinking, as long as you don't drive me to drink with another insane topic." He pauses and peers at you intently. "Were you planning to?"
"Not specifically," you hedge, while looking around. That manservant has disappeared, but the way he kept turning up when he was needed has you a little worried that this isn't the place you want to talk about such a sensitive and personal topic, as... well. "It's just that I found some information regarding my little teleportation issue, which I thought you'd like to hear."
Ambrose looks at you, then tosses back the last of the whiskey in his glass, gets up from his chair, and picks up the decanter.
"This way, lad."
Five minutes a half a dozen halls later, you're in a different sitting room that is much smaller physically than the previous one, but whose walls whisper of magic meant to ensure privacy against both physical and supernatural attempts at eavesdropping.
Ambrose ushers you to one of the two smaller chairs, while settling himself into the largest, refilling his glass, and then setting it and the remaining whiskey down on the convenient side-table.
"Right," the wizard says. "I'm ready. Hit me with your latest insanity."
Well, since he asked so nicely...
You tell Ambrose the little detail you left out of your encounter with Dark Link - how it wasn't JUST a formless cloud of demonic energy that you drove out of the Hero's Shadow, but one with a snarling, unsettlingly familiar, yet completely unknown visage. How you spoke to Navi about it, and how she in turn consulted with the Golden Goddesses, and learned of the identity attached to that face, and how it - he - was connected to you.
You tell the wizard about the Demon King Demise, the caster of the dying curse that lurks at the center of your soul.
Ambrose takes it all in.
"Called it."
And then he takes up his glass, and drains it in one go.
You didn't interrupt Ambrose when he started drinking in response to the outrageous things you told him back at the Shuzens', so why would you start now? He's the elder here, and he knows his limits better than you do; if he feels that he can take another shot of that whiskey and remain functional afterwards, you're not going to challenge him on it.
After all, you have prior evidence that the old man can be quite lucid and even helpful when he's already had a few.
Idly, you wonder how much progress Ambrose has made in checking up on the Grail War, but the heavy clink as the wizard sets his glass down on the table draws your thoughts back to the matter at hand.
"I knew you were going to say something so utterly and absurdly unlikely that it might as well be impossible," the wizard proclaims cheerfully. "This is why I brought the whiskey and poured myself a glass before asking, you see; so that I'd have a good, stiff drink ready and waiting when you proved me right."
"And if he hadn't said that?" Briar asks.
"Then I would have had a good, stiff drink ready and waiting when he proved me wrong, and I could celebrate that the world wasn't ending again, or whatever," Ambrose replies with an impatient gesture. "Do try and keep up here, little lady."
"Right, sorry, lost my head."
Lu-sensei has been so quiet since dinner ended, you half-forgot he was present, but now, he clears his throat, drawing your attention to the third of the room's chairs, where he's been sitting while you brought Ambrose up to speed.
"For those of us whose grasp of magic runs more to knowing when it's better to dodge or focus one's will, rather than the technical details," he says, "what's the significance of this information?"
Ambrose rubs his eyes, letting out a sigh that billows his long white mustache.
"The thing that makes dying curses such nasty pieces of work is that each one has the metaphysical 'weight' of its caster's life and death behind it. It makes them more powerful, longer-lasting, and harder to break than any other kind of curse the caster might have been able to muster." He grimaces. "For that matter, you don't need to be a proper magic-user to cast a dying curse; you just need to have a spark of talent, and to die hating someone. But the more magic and the more hate that you have, the stronger your dying curse becomes."
"And demons are very good at hating," Lu-sensei observes in a neutral tone.
Ambrose nods. "Very magical, too. And a Demon KING... well."
The wizard pauses to pour himself another glass of whiskey. He looks at your teacher, and holds out the crystal bottle, but Lu-sensei makes a gesture of refusal.
Ambrose doesn't toss back this latest glass, instead taking a small sip before he continues speaking.
"When it comes to a dying curse, there are typically only two saving graces, one of which is that you can always break the curse by restoring its caster to life. That's hard enough to do when you're dealing with a human soul that's only recently dead. The older, more powerful, and more SIGNIFICANT a life was, and the longer ago it ended, the harder it gets to bring back, and we're talking about a Demon King so ancient and so long dead that one of the Great Fairies had never heard of him before, despite being born in the same land he once terrorized." Ambrose shakes his head and takes another sip of his whiskey. "I'm afraid that option is quite simply out."
"And the other?" you ask.
"The other is that, like any affliction of its kind, a dying curse obeys certain terms," Ambrose replies. "It has to. The words spoken at the moment of the caster's death, the hate and spite and pure malice bound up in them, they don't merely define what a curse DOES, but what it IS. However much power is invested in the curse, all of it is bent on fulfilling those terms, and it doesn't - it CAN'T - drift far beyond them. So, the trick then becomes finding a way NOT to trigger the terms of the curse."
Ambrose gives you a direct, expectant look.
Without being told, you know he wants to hear the Curse of Demise, so he can pick it apart and figure out its focus and limitations.
You know the terms. You heard them from Navi, who got them directly from the Golden Goddesses, who in turn were watching and listening as Demise spoke them so very long ago.
"'Extraordinary.'"
When Navi told you of the ancient Demon King, during your last visit to the Memorian Outpost, she made a point of passing on his final words - the terms of his dying curse, handed down to her by the Goddesses specifically for you to hear - as completely and accurately as possible.
"'You stand as a paragon of your kind, human.'"
At the time, you were more focused on fixing the words in your memory, so that you could review them in detail later, when there weren't a dozen kami and a score of priests around to overhear your speculations and debates with Briar on the matter.
"'You fight like no man or demon I have ever known.'"
And you DID have those arguments, which led the two of you to a few tentative conclusions regarding the "trigger" mechanism of the Curse - theories that you hope Ambrose will be able to confirm and/or refine.
"'Though this is not the end.'"
As it happens, although you and Briar must have repeated the words of the Curse a dozen times over, neither of you ever actually said them all together in one go.
"'My hate... never perishes.'"
You didn't think anything of it before.
"'It is born anew, in a cycle with no end!'"
But now...
"'I will rise again!'"
...as you recite the final words of the Demon King Demise...
"'Those like you... those who share the Blood of the Goddess and the Spirit of the Hero...'"
...you can't help but feel...
"'They are eternally bound to this curse.'"
...there was a good reason for that.
"'An Incarnation of my Hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!'"
Your utterance of the Curse of Demise doesn't have any effect so obvious as the manifestation of an aura of darkness, flames, dark flames, or flaming darkness, nor does it cause you to sound older and larger, or suddenly speak with a different accent. It doesn't even strain your throat.
But for just a moment, deep within yourself, you feel something... shift.
It's as if something huge and dark and ancient and terrible... just turned over in its sleep.
From the expressions on the faces of your audience, THEY noticed something as well. Either that, or your delivery was a lot better than you'd intended.
Gained Oratory E (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Sense B (Plus)
Gained Threat D
Gained Words of Power C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
For a moment, all is silent, the fading echo of the last words of the long-dead Demon King hanging in the air.
"...I think I will have that drink after all, Ambrose," Lu-sensei says.
Wordlessly, the wizard produces another shot glass from somewhere, sets it down on the table that sits between his chair and your master's, tops it off, and then slides it over.
Lu-sensei lifts his glass, salutes Ambrose with it as the wizard returns the gesture in kind, and then both old men down their drinks.
"Well," Ambrose says then, as he puts his glass down once more. "That was a bit more than I was expecting to hear. Do us all a favor, lad? Don't EVER recite that while you're wielding magic, or when you're on the Hellmouth or in a Hell-dimension. I don't think any of us would like the outcome."
This is a promise you have NO problem with making or keeping.
"So, trimming out all the usual demonic bombast, and looking at what was actually SAID..." Ambrose ponders in silence for a moment, and then grunts. "I need more context. I'm guessing the 'Hero' in question is the one who slew the demon, but who's the 'Goddess,' and how do the two of them fit into the history of the land where this all happened?"
Oh, boy.
You recount a greatly-summarized version of the Legend of Zelda, focusing on Link's recurring role as the Hero of Hyrule, and the royal family's claim that various Princesses and Queens have been the mortal incarnations of the ancient Goddess Hylia.
But what do you tell Ambrose regarding the Incarnation of Hatred?
You start by telling Ambrose about the various great monsters, evil sorcerers, demon lords, and other villains that have plagued Hyrule, down through her long history. The list ranges from legendary existences like Volvagia, the Scourge of the Gorons, the Twilight Usurper Zant, and Vaati the Wind Mage, to less-than-unique but still significant threats like Gohma, Ironknuckles, Manhandla, or the occasional "King" among the monstrous races, to the ubiquitous beasts themselves - Leevers, Moblins, Octoroks, Peahats, and Tektites, to name just a few.
The fact that you've recently read through the Hyrulean Holy Books, with their mytho-historical accounting of events and the detailed bestiary, comes in very handy here. Your memories of being the King of Evil are far from complete, and just looking at those recollections you can safely access, you get the distinct impression that Ganondorf didn't much trouble himself about other villains.
If they existed at the same time, he tended to use them, and then discard them when their usefulness had expired.
If they pre- or post-dated him... well, he just didn't CARE.
When it comes to the details about Ganondorf himself, placing him among the ranks of the kingdom's great villains is no hardship.
Admitting that he was SO MUCH WORSE than the other big names, to the point of being Hyrule's own Dark Lord, demonized not only figuratively, but LITERALLY... that takes some effort on your part.
After all, you're not used to admitting this stuff to people who don't already know.
It helps greatly that you have Briar and Lu-sensei present, and that both of them already know this.
Okay, MOST of this. You did tell your martial arts teacher about Ganondorf's history and the fact that he turned into a demon at the end, but you kind of left out the whole "Great Demon King of Evil" bit. Or the fact that he was a serial resurrector/reincarnator, long before you ended up with his soul.
Speaking of which, you don't try to shade that particular truth. You present it to Ambrose straight and unvarnished and right between the metaphorical eyes.
The wizard's response to all of this?
Is to take another drink.
Then he puts his empty glass down, stoppers the bottle, and sets it aside as well.
"Right, so, before I attempt to drink myself under the table, here's what I have to say in response to what you've told me." He pauses, looking directly at you, one finger held up before him. "First of all, Alex, thank you for being honest with me. It cannot have been easy. Second - and I'm fairly certain you've reached this conclusion already, but for the sack of emphasis - for the love of all things holy and most of the ones that aren't, DON'T tell this story to anyone you don't trust to not IMMEDIATELY and COMPLETELY screw you over with the information."
You nod.
The wizard returns the gesture, with a little more force than is needed. The drink appears to be affecting him at last.
"That said," Ambrose goes on, "if and when you find people who you DO trust to hold this knowledge, and to use it RIGHTLY in the event that this Curse awakens, I would also strongly recommend telling THEM. If only so they can try to minimize the fallout."
"Now, as for the Curse itself, I can see two obvious triggers. The first is a meeting with this Hero, which is easily dealt with by the fact that the two of you are on completely separate worlds." Ambrose pauses. "Actually, check that. Do you know if he's currently incarnated or not?"
"He is," Briar replies. "He's past middle age by this point, but he should have plenty of years left in him."
The wizard nods. "Good, good. So, stay FAR away from him while he's alive, don't try to summon him AFTER he dies, and you should be okay there."
You nod. It's the same conclusion you'd already reached, but the confirmation is welcome.
"The second trigger is the 'blood of the Goddess.' On the face of it, it's the same situation as the Hero - stay away from whichever royal lady currently shares the Goddess's soul, and you're golden. BUT" - and here he stops, raising his hand again for emphasis - "given the wording the Demon King used, I think you're looking at a slightly more complicated issue."
This has you frowning. "How do you mean?"
"He didn't say the SOUL of the Goddess, he said her BLOOD." Ambrose peers at you. "How long ago was the Curse made? Thousands of years?"
"At least," you admit.
"So how many descendants do you suppose that first Zelda has by now? For that matter, how many do her subsequent incarnations have?"
...
Erk.
From the way she just fell out of the air and onto the plush arm of your chair, Briar appears to have experienced the same realization.
"Alex?" she says in a faint tone of voice.
"Yeah?"
"I never thought I would say this, but I am really, REALLY glad that you were born on the Hellmouth."
The scary thing is, you can see EXACTLY where she's coming from with that statement.
As Ambrose implied, after the Goddesses only know how many thousands of years, the bloodlines of the various Zeldas will have spread far and wide. There's a chance that the original Zelda might NOT be a common ancestor to all living Hylians, but at this point, she can't be far off from it - and any Hylians that AREN'T her direct descendants almost MUST have blood-ties to one of the later Princesses.
After all, it's the lingering mark of Hylia's divine grace that is the foundation for all those claims the Hylians like to make about their importance in the eyes of the Goddesses, and no small number of Din's faithful likely owe their clerical powers to the same source.
If you'd been born in Hyrule, or any of its neighboring kingdoms, or even anywhere on the same PLANET, there'd be a non-zero chance that you'd HAVE the "blood of the Goddess."
In which case, the Curse of Demise would have kicked in from the day of your BIRTH.
...
You have to take a moment just to marvel in horror at that notion.
Goddesses above, it's no WONDER Ganondorf always went bad, even in those lifetimes when he was decades older than the current Link and Zelda.
And then you shiver, realizing that you dodged ANOTHER bullet in your dealings with the Postman.
If HE'D been related to one of Zelda's incarnations...
You're going to have to be very, VERY careful going forward, when it comes to summoning from the ranks of the Goddesses' celestial servants.
Considering that you were planning to summon one or more Sages at some point, to try and find new teachers in the mystical arts, you think you may owe Ambrose for this piece of advice.
Ambrose has a fair point, and you're strongly inclined to agree with the precaution he's suggested. The only problem is that, right now, you don't know very many people that you DO trust with complete knowledge of your status as Ganondorf's reincarnation, and the potential implications if you ever lose it - and of that vanishingly small number, the majority are in the room with you right now.
Still, you agree to keep his advice in mind in the future.
And that's not just you politely waving off Ambrose's concern, so that you can forget about it later. Well-informed backup is always a good idea, it's just not terribly practical to expand your circle of completely trusted allies right now. Most of the people you could see yourself revealing such sensitive information to in the near future are and will be too young to make any productive use of it for some time to come. As for those who are old enough and have the resources to make effective plans against the return of the King of Evil, well...
It's not that you don't trust the Drakes, the Shuzens, the Arisawas, and other adults you've met over the last year. It's just that you don't trust them THAT far. Not yet.
And some of their preferred methods for preventing a revival of the Demon King are likely to be... painful.
The wizard nods, unphased by your reply, and moves on.
There's a strong impulse to tell Ambrose that you owe him for his advice, and owe him BIG, but you fight that urge down and instead are just profuse and heartfelt in expressing your gratitude.
After all, you're not the only person who just got some critical information out of this meeting. You'd already taken Ambrose into your confidence about the darkness in the depths of your soul, and the effects it was having on your magic. If he's any kind of wizard at all, he'll have been studying up on that, trying to find the answers at least as much to sate his own curiosity as to be able to dangle his discoveries over your head.
By revealing your connection to Ganondorf - and through him, Demise - you've likely just saved Ambrose a great deal of work and frustration.
True, you may also have cost him some sleep and damage to his liver...
In any event, you recognize that you and the wizard have both said all you can about this subject, at least for the time being. It's also past eight o'clock, and getting on towards eight-thirty, and you DID want to spend some time with Altria and the boys before calling it a night.
As such, you wish Ambrose a good night and see yourself out. Briar comes along, as ever, but Lu-sensei decides to stay behind.
He says something about helping Ambrose drink.
You leave them to it.
It takes you about ten minutes and directions from several of the servants to track down Altria, Kenneth, and Lance, all of whom appear to have finished spending quality time with their parents, and reunited in the Game Room.
Unlike Castle Shuzen's private arcade, the Drakes' Game Room proves to be more old-fashioned, with a pool table in place of prominence, a dart board on one wall, and a mini-bar next to it - carefully locked up, you note in passing. There's also a couple of small tables with chessboards carved right into the top, outfitted with some of those fancy sets of playing pieces that feature carved figures. One set is arranged as if in mid-game, armies of ivory and ebony spread out across the checkered battlefield, but the other is set up for a new game. There's also evidence of a sound system hidden amidst the wooden panels lining the walls, but given the late hour, it's obviously turned off.
Altria and the boys are sitting at a third, larger table, heads bowed over a colorful mat of some sort as they pull another army of miniature figures - smaller and rather more colorful than the carved, monochrome chess set, not to mention far greater in number - out of several felt-lined wooden carrying cases.
"-always have to play Bretonnian," Kenneth is complaining.
"I like knights," Altria replies.
"So do I, but I don't keep four separate armies of them!"
"One of those is Father's," Altria says defensively.
"Which still leaves you with three-" Kenneth breaks off, with a look in your direction. "Oh, hey. Finished with the old men, then?"
"Kenneth," Altria chides.
"What? Ambrose walks with a stick half the time and has a white beard that goes out to here" - the elder cousin makes a gesture, indicating an absurd length - "and his teacher looks like someone's little bald wrinkly smiling great-grandfather."
"That's not the point," the younger of the two sighs.
You've got about half an hour until bed. What do you want to do?
You field Kenneth's somewhat ill-phrased question, but your attention is on the tabletop full of miniatures the entire time.
Altria and her companions have set up two armies at opposing ends of the mat that covers their end of the table - a single piece of green felt, several feet square and divided into hundreds of sections by a grid of hexagrams.
On one side of the "board" are a row of knights, all in heavy plate and mounted atop powerful-looking horses that are depicted as rearing, charging, or - in a couple of cases - maneuvering to avoid some threat. The knights are armed with a mix of lances and greatswords, with pennants snapping from the former.
It's all very dramatic and glorious, at least by the standards of figures not that much bigger than Briar.
Alongside the knights are rank upon rank of footmen, visibly less well-armed and considerably greater in number - you count at least five for every knight, probably more. A wider range of weaponry is depicted among the foot than the knights, and there's a group of archers towards the back of the formation. You also notice that, where every knight is unfailingly depicted in a valorous pose, some of the common soldiers bear expressions that are... less certain.
Ahead of the foot is a mob of lowly, dispirited-looking figures in ragged cloth, wielding what look like farm implements. Ganondorf's memories identify these as peasant levies.
Arrayed against this small army is a chaotic mass of green muscle, jagged blades, and toothy grins that put you in mind of a Moblin warband. Just looking at the miniatures, you can almost HEAR the bestial grunting and gleeful enthusiasm for battle.
"So," you ask. "What's this?"
And so you learn about Warhammer - or at least as much as you can in half an hour.
Given how much Altria, Kenneth, and Lance have to say on the subject, you don't think it's nearly enough time. This, even though they don't try to sit you down with a copy of the rules - which prove to be found in a set of large, hardcover books - and instead just demonstrate a "simple" battle between Altria's beloved Bretonnians and Kenneth's Ork WAAAAGH!
Altria seems to have a superior grasp of strategy than her cousin, but Kenneth has the advantage of sheer brute force: his Orks go through Altria's mob of peasants without even slowing down; and even her footmen seem to need at least three-to-one odds to really match one of the bruisers. Only her knights can take a typical Ork one-on-one, without serious luck, and even they have problems with Kenneth's bigger Orks.
Gained Knowledge (Crafts) E (Plus)
Gained Strategy F (Plus) (Plus)
The game is interesting, but it's also easily the most rule-intensive game you've ever come across, which makes it hard to follow even with Lance providing a running commentary. And it's EXPENSIVE. All three players have cautionary tales - or in Kenneth's case, open grumbling - about the cost of the individual miniatures, and the difficulties inherent in assembling your own army.
Their families are well-off, but the kids only get so much of an allowance, and their hobby eats through that like Sokka with a meat-lover's pizza.
In any event, Lucia turns up just as Altria's Grail Knight has driven through the chaos of the battlefield to close with Kenneth's Warboss. The game is put on hold there, as everyone heads off to bed.
You pass a slightly-wobbly Lu-sensei on your way to your room, and ask him if he'd like you to cast a Spell of Sleep to help him deal with the time difference.
He thanks you and accepts your offer, which leads to the rather amusing scene of you tucking your master in.
Chuckling to yourself, you head for bed, casting the same spell over yourself and Briar.
The next thing you know, you're looking up at the ceiling of the guest bedroom. It's dark, and when you look to the bedside clock - whose glowing digital display stood out against the more traditional furnishings at least as much as it now does in the lack of light - you find that it's not much past midnight.
You've only slept for about four hours, but you were also only up for seven hours or so before that. At this point, your body just doesn't want to sleep any more, and it's going to take a more significant magical intervention to convince it otherwise.
You could easily cast the necessary augmented Spell of Sleep on yourself, if you wanted to, but the Drakes were quite understanding about your "jet lag" issues, and said that they wouldn't mind if you had to get up early because of it, as long as you were quiet and checked in with the staff - or more precisely, with security. There's a phone in your room for just that purpose.
Recognizing that further attempts at pursuing sleep are not going to benefit you - at least, not enough to merit the additional and rather larger expenditure of mana you'd require to achieve a lasting period of unconsciousness - you push back the bedcovers and get up.
First order of business: check on Briar.
"Hey, Briar," you call out, just loud enough to be heard from the doll-sized bed the Drakes provided for your companion. "You awake?"
You wait a moment, but there's no response.
...it occurs to you that, in your various overnight trips to different parts of the world, you have yet to see Briar experience any particular trouble going to sleep or getting up when she needs to, regardless of how long she's actually been awake prior to that. She's a little grumpy when she gets up, but that's normal for her.
Maybe it's a fairy thing?
Second order of business: checking in with the night shift of the Drakes' staff and security.
You reach for the bedside phone, unhook the old-fashioned receiver, and fumble with the dial for a moment.
If the man who picks up is surprised to be speaking to a kid just after midnight, he's professional enough not to let a hint of it enter his voice. He simply takes your message, thanks you for alerting him to your plans, and asks if you'd like anything delivered to your room - a drink of water, a late snack, or something of that nature.
With that, the staff member bids you a good night, and hangs up.
You do the same.
Third order of business: light exercise.
You get out of bed, take a step, and promptly stub your toe on something you couldn't see in the dim light of the digital clock.
Muttering to yourself, you revise your order: open the curtains on your bedroom window.
This takes little time, and once you've pulled back the curtain, the waxing gibbous moon provides plenty of light for your night-adapted eyes, at least in the center of the room.
With that taken care of, you proceed to the fourth order of business: light exercise, for real this time.
You start with a simple physical routine of stretches, push-ups, and sit-ups. Once you're feeling limbered up and more properly awake, you start channeling your ki to your feet and begin a series of kata that emphasize footwork. You don't go through the stances and steps nearly as fast as you're capable of - that would be too noisy - nor do you put your full effort into your upper body, merely enough so that Lu-sensei wouldn't smack you for developing bad habits.
Most of your attention is focused on your feet, your ki, and the floor beneath you, comparing how different combinations of physical stance and directed life-energy work on a hardwood floor, or the fine rugs that cover it in places.
Gained Ki Step D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
You keep this up for about an hour, before you figure you've reached the limit of what you can learn without moving at speed in this sort of "environment."
With that done, you move on to the fifth item on your list: a deep meditation and examination of your spirit.
Sitting down on the very rug you've been stepping on for the last hour, you close your eyes, focus your breathing, and clear your mind, preparing to exercise the Spiritual Attunement technique Elder Tiriaq showed you.
An hour passes, and by the end of it, you're not sure if you accomplished anything. This is only your first night at the Drake estate, and as good as your supernatural senses are, it's entirely possible - and even likely - that you're just not familiar enough with the place to successfully attune yourself to it. There's also the fact that the only significant environmental aura you've detected here is the manor's threshold, which is faint compared to the ambient demonic energies of the Hellmouth, or even the natural blend of air, water, and darkness that reigned during your visit to the South Pole.
Concealing your presence in an aura so thin and so intrinsically linked to a single family - one which you are in no way part of - feels like the sort of feat that would be better left to a master of this particular skill, not a novice like yourself.
Feeling a bit stiff and cool from all the time that you just spent sitting on the floor, you get up and do another series of quiet, easy exercises, just to get your blood moving.
Once that's done, you sit down again, and focus on your soul in a very different manner.
Some time later, your eyes open.
The good news is, your spirit appears completely unchanged from the last time you took one of these "deep dives." The wellspring of life-force was as it always has been before, the Boar was moody as ever, and the dark spot that represents the Curse of Demise was still drifting in silent menace. That disturbance you felt when you repeated the terms of the Curse for Ambrose doesn't seem to have had any long-term effects.
The bad news is that trying to use your Brain Enhancement technique in the process of meditating seems to have been largely a waste of time and ki. Activating the technique was fine, and you had no trouble holding it as you meditated, or even when you entered your soulscape. But as you ventured deeper into that luminous place, the faint "honing" of your consciousness that was the only appreciable benefit of Brain Enhancement slowly fell away, as though with every metaphorical step you took closer to the heart of your spiritual being, the farther away you moved from the seat of your psychic consciousness.
You DID learn that techniques focused on your MIND don't work in your SOUL, and your reserves have regenerated the energy you used up prior to this, so at least it wasn't a complete loss.
Gained Brain Enhancement E
Gained Meditation C (Plus) (Plus)
Checking the clock, you find that it's now ten after four.
Briar is STILL asleep, somehow.
You thank the gentleman for the offer, but tell him you don't feel particularly hungry or thirsty, nor are you in need of any other deliveries.
"If you're certain, young sir," comes the reply.
You assure him that you are, and that is that.
For lack of much else to do, you turn on the lamp on one of the bedside tables, and spend the last couple of hours before sunrise going over the Spell of Consecration that you acquired from Akkiko. As you read, you mentally poke at your plans for the ritual, a next-to-last-chance check to see if there's anything that needs doing or changing.
Nothing comes to mind.
All the required reagents are accounted for, and your chosen items are still in your dimensional pocket, as clean of contamination as they were when you put them there.
You know the steps to the basic ritual, and you've studied, reviewed, argued, and re-vamped the additional parts with Briar often enough over the last few months that, by this point, you could probably perform them in your sleep.
There is simply nothing else that needs to be done.
And in all honesty, if you try to add anything more to the ritual, you're NOT going to come out of it with a simple familiar bond. If you're lucky, all that would happen in such a case is that you'd end up adopting Briar, or being adopted by her. If you WEREN'T lucky...
Well, Navi could fix it. Probably. But better not to need her to in the first place.
As sunrise approaches, you wake Briar for your daily cleansing ritual.
After that, you shower, dress, and make your way downstairs in search of breakfast.
A good portion of the morning passes in a busy clamor, as last-minute preparations are made for the departure of the Drake brothers and Mr. Pritchard. You half-expect to see them depart clad in full plate and with weapons drawn, and while that doesn't happen, the glimpses you catch of their luggage train suggest that the gentlemen are taking the equivalent of a small armory with them: some of it archaic; some of it modern; and a fair bit of it enchanted or blessed, by what you senses tell you.
The trio depart shortly after eight, and for the next couple of hours, a frankly depressing mood hangs over the house and those who remain in residence. Altria is subdued, staying close to her mother and sister, whose own behavior isn't much better - seeing Lucia this obviously dispirited is rather unsettling. Kenneth's temper is up, and his own mother is a bit short with him in turn, while Lance hovers around, seeming a bit lost.
You end up deciding to excuse yourself for a little while, both to give your hosts a chance to collect themselves, and so you can get in a nap in the hours before lunch (and without the benefit of magical assistance), ensuring that you'll be in good form for this afternoon's planned entertainment.
When you come back downstairs a bit before noon, you find the extended family to be in better spirits, the enthusiasm Altria and the boys showed for the mini-tournament yesterday having made a reappearance, and stirred the ladies out of their own funk.
At one point over lunch - soup, sandwiches, and side-dishes - you and your impending opponents work out the order in which the fights will take place. Since you're the guest of honor, as it were, the others decide to let you choose whether or not you want to fight first, and if so, who you'll be matched against.
When you pick Lance as your first opponent, he blinks in surprise, and then graciously accepts your challenge.
Kenneth grumbles under his breath, "Why does everyone always want to fight Lance first?"
Then the brunet glances at his blonde cousin, winces, and mutters, "And why do I always have to fight Altria first?!"
"We're just lucky that way, Ken," Lance tells him. His smile avoids qualifying as a smirk by the barest of margins.
"That's what you said about the girls," the oldest boy sighs.
"WHAT girls?"
That exclamation comes from Lucia, Mary, and - somewhat surprisingly - Anna, all at once. Lucia sounds delightedly curious, Mary startled and suspicious, and Anna... kind of hurt, for some reason, although she's looking at Lance rather than her cousin.
Altria, for her part, seems puzzled by all this.
For yourself, you don't feel the current topic of conversation is any of your business - although if Kenneth and Lance really are venturing into the treacherous sands of teenage dating, you wish them luck.
Ganondorf wasn't big on such things, in part because he'd grown up seeing the kind of social warfare that Gerudo girls liked to wage when boys were the prize: stalking their targets to learn about them; executing ambushes when they knew the prey's movements; sabotaging their rivals; forming packs to bring down the strongest opponents, only for the group to turn on itself in the wake of victory.
Seriously, there were times when it seemed that the only difference between "romance" and "battle" amongst the tribe was that the former didn't end with someone bleeding on the desert sands.
At least, not most of the time.
Warrior-girls in love are SCARY creatures.
Fortunately, Earth's culture is different enough, even amongst the Moonlit World, that you'll never have to deal with such frightful beings in this lifetime.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
You frown, wondering why you feel a sudden chill.
Following lunch - which Kenneth manages to get through on a wave of fast-talk that doesn't actually EXPLAIN anything about his offhanded remark about girls, at least not to the satisfaction of any of the older females; Lance just kind of smiles his way through it all - and a half-hour or so for the light meal to settle, your group ventures into a room near the back of the house, which Altria showed off to you during yesterday's tour.
It's a large, high-ceilinged parlour, with one long wall made up entirely of glass and a floor that, though still made of wood, looks and feels like it should be in a gymnasium somewhere rather than a house like this. The wall opposite the great window holds a number of storage closets and built-in cabinets, with a row of shields of various designs hanging above them, while the shorter, perpendicular walls are lined with racks of weapons. Axes, maces, short spears, staves, a dozen different swords... there's at least two of everything, and while most are decidedly Western in origin, you spot a few armaments whose curved blades suggest a more Eastern origin.
Everything with an actual cutting edge or sharp point is sheathed or otherwise covered, and looks to have been locked to its supporting display besides. Even the blunt maces, quarterstaves, and wooden practice blades are secured.
Appearing rather out of place amongst all the martial gear are half a dozen chairs and a small table that have been set up near the door. A silver service bearing a steaming teapot and two plates of light snacks rest atop the table.
"Oh, hey," Kenneth says, ask he catches sight of the cookies. "Fresh-baked chocolate chip."
"Mine," Altria and Anna growl in unison.
Mary sighs. "Honestly, how you children can still be hungry..."
"Don't hog the cookies, you brats!" Lucia protests.
"Oh, for goodness's sake!"
While the rest of the group sorts THAT out, you, Lance, and Lu-sensei - who offered to referee, and was unanimously approved - proceed to the middle of the room.
"So, for the record," your teacher says, "the terms are: one-on-one; no time limit; no weapons permitted; Alex may only use ki techniques; and victory is determined by ten-second pin, forfeiture, or referee's decision. Correct?"
"Yes," you and Lance both agree.
Your teacher looks back and forth between you, and then says, "I am familiar with how Alex fights, and while I've not seen you in action, Mr. Pritchard, I HAVE seen Altria's style, so I believe I had best add one further condition: no wrecking the room."
There is a pause.
You and Altria MAY have coughed in embarrassment.
With the terms set and agreed upon, you and Lance face off.
MAGICAL KNIGHT-IN-TRAINING: LANCE PRITCHARD
As your teacher's hand comes down, you immediately activate your Ki Enhancement. You briefly consider Overloading the technique for greater power, but decide to hold off on that for now; this IS just a sparring match, after all, and Lu-sensei DID just tell you not to trash the place.
Engaging the technique only requires a second, and that is a very good thing, because in the same moment that you needed to channel your ki, Lance was powering himself up with mana. The black-haired boy's reserves of magical aren't nearly as ridiculous as Altria's - or your own - and so rather than surrounding himself with a layer of radiant energy, his application of the Mana Burst technique manifests more like a network of glowing lines running just beneath his skin.
The lack of interference from mana overflow makes it much easier for you to see what Lance is doing with that energy.
The fact that the technique has barely settled before he comes charging straight at you is also helpful in that regard, as it gives you an up-close-and-personal look at the power moving through the other boy!
Lance's proficiency with Mana Burst isn't on Altria's level, but it's good enough to be competitive with your own purely ki-based buff. In fact, based on what your Mage Sight is letting you see of Lance's technique, and what you know of Augmentation Magic, the power and skill going into his Mana Burst should roughly equal to a sixth-circle spell meant to raise all physical and mental parameters in one go.
That's not as good as what you're capable of, going all-out with layered self-enhancement spells, but for the equivalent of a single spell, or more accurately, a single technique? It's quite good.
In fact, when all is said and done, it's roughly on par with your Ki Enhancement, though you think Lance might have a very slight edge due to his greater age. You're about the same size, but he's a little quicker, and he's just had more time to practice his skills and get used to the limits of his body...
What's truly interesting about all of this is that, where Altria's mana carried the unmistakable flavor of draconic power, Lance's aura does not hold the least trace of any essence that isn't one hundred percent human.
For the first time since what must be your fight with Ayane, back in the semifinal round of the Under Tens Division, you're being matched by an opponent your own age who is completely human.
At least, you are in terms of raw specs.
Much like with Altria, Lance doesn't seem to be as good at unarmed fighting as he is at mystical body-reinforcing techniques. He's not BAD by any measure, he's just not AS skilled at good old-fashioned fisticuffs as he is at turning himself into a glowing superhuman.
This gives you more than enough breathing room to trigger your Ki Armor, your Ki Step, and your Brain Enhancement techniques in quick succession, even as you dodge and deflect the other boy's punches.
The first technique is more a precaution, given the current flow of the fight, while the third... doesn't really appear to have any effect. Your basic Ki Enhancement already includes an element of mental boosting - you need it to control your increased strength and speed without hurting yoruself, much less properly-leverage your physical gains - and while Brain Enhancement is more cost-effective by dint of its specialized nature, your proficiency with that skill is still too low to catch up with the mental benefits of your far more practiced Ki Enhancement.
As for Ki Step, this is a perfect opportunity to practice moving around on bare wooden floors at high speed with the technique engaged.
You've just finished triggering your fourth ki technique when Lance abruptly disengages, falling back a few feet and signalling for a pause.
"Hold!" Lu-sensei calls, before turning to the older boy. "Yes, Lance?"
"I think we can all see where this match is going to go, if we just stick to bare-handed fighting," he says, not even breathing hard despite the last few seconds of intense activity. "Mind if we bring swords into it now, Alex?"
"Sure," you say. Your Ki techniques last long enough that you can spare Lance thirty seconds to grab a weapon.
Glowing with mana as he is, it doesn't take Lance that long to cross to the nearer of the weapons-rack-lined walls and unlock what look for all the world like a pair of classic knight's swords, save that they've been fashioned from wood.
Lance returns to his place opposite you and presents one of the training implement, grasping the "blade" near its base and turning the hilt towards you. He waits politely as you test the weight and heft of the wooden weapon.
It's shorter in the blade and the hilt than your own Blessed Blade, and lighter too, though not so light as you'd expect something made of wood to be. That makes you think the interior of the fake sword has been weighted with metal, or else that some VERY dense wood was used to make it.
You could fight with this, but you think you'd be a little awkward.
Looking around, you spot a hand-and-a-half training sword that's much closer to what you're familiar with.
Lowering the sword you've been given, you raise your free hand and point to the two wooden bastard swords hanging on the wall behind Lance.
"Would you mind if I used one of those instead?" you ask. "They're closer to the type of sword I'm familiar with."
The other boy blinks, and looks back over his shoulder to see what you're pointing at.
"Allow me," Altria says, quickly getting up from her chair. "I've seen the sword Alex uses."
As the blonde moves towards the wall, Lance turns back to you, his expression sheepish.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes, nodding at the arming sword in your hand and hefting his own. "It's just that these are the swords we train with the most often. It never really occurred to me you might favor something different."
You accept the apology in the spirit it's given, and then thank Altria as you exchange your current weapon for the one she's brought over to you.
You heft the blade and make a few movements, slow at first as you consider its weight, dimensions, and momentum, then a little faster as you find its balance and your own.
Yes, you can use this.
Heck, you think you could really fight with this. Especially if your opponent was a corpse-vampire. Might have to hold back on some of the more brute-force moves, but...
Leaving your speculations aside, you assume a ready stance, check over your active ki techniques - all of which are running smoothly - and signal Lu-sensei that you're ready to resume the match.
Lance does the same thing on his end, and your teacher's hand comes down once more.
CLACK!
From the first crossing of training blades, you learn a few things.
CLACK!
One is that not only is Lance a bit faster than you, he MUCH more used to the extra reach that comes with using a sword.
WHOOSH!
It's also clear that Lance has put in FAR more practice with blades than you have. He wields that arming sword as smoothly and naturally as if it were an extension of his limb.
CLACK!
These factors, when combined with how your opponent's weapon is smaller, lighter, and faster than your own, have put you on the defensive.
CLACK!
It's not all bad news, though.
CLACK!
For starters, you've managed to get your Mental Enhancement technique up and running, as planned, and unlike your Brain Enhancement technique, this skill is actually having an effect. You don't suddenly become faster or perceive Lance as moving slower; instead, where you were previously having trouble tracking the other boy's blade, and risking becoming overly-focused on it, you find that difficulty easing.
WHOOSH!
Though the sound his weapon makes when it goes sailing past is NOT helping your focus in the slightest.
CLACK!
Also, while Lance's speed and greater skill at swordplay have clearly given him the advantage, he hasn't managed to break through your guard. This is one way that having the larger, sturdier weapon can come in handy, as long as you're able to keep a steady grip and not maneuver your sword so far into one parry or deflection that you're unable to meet Lance's blade the next time it comes around.
CLACK!
That said, a sword is not a defensive weapon.
CL-
Time to go on the attack.
-WHOOSH!
With a renewed surge of ki, you disappear from your place on the receiving end of Lance's all-out assault, circle around him until you're in his blind spot, and then unleash a Strike Flicker.
Gained Strike Flicker E (Plus) (Plus)
CLACK!
Somehow, Lance sees, or more likely SENSES the attack coming, and is able to half-turn where he stands to meet your sword with his own. He uses both hands, one grasping the back of his blunted blade for added leverage, and grunts under the strain of stopping your larger and much faster-moving attack. For an instant, his mana surges brighter, hazier, and dare you say HOTTER within him.
You don't think he's calling up a second mana technique; it's more like he's focusing the energy he'd already called up, dedicating more of it to strength.
Interesting. That's one thing you definitely can't do with most spells, not unless they're cast with the required formulas already in place.
Gained Mana Burst E (Plus)
For all his effort, Lance was out of position to properly defend against your attack. He manages, somehow, to shift your blade so that it doesn't strike his body, but the sheer force of your blow leaves him visibly off-balance.
Sensing an opening, you are swift to press your own attack, using the greater reach of your weapon to full effect-
CLACK!
WHOOSH!
CLACK!
-but with each exchange-
WHOOSH!
-and successful side-step, the older boy's superior sword skill shines through, wresting a little more of your current advantage away from you. You pull out another Strike Flicker-
CLACK!
-but this time, with another flare-up of mana, he manages to properly block, a fact that convinces you he MUST have some kind of heightened awareness. If the Mana Burst technique really is equivalent to Ki Enhancement in every regard other than what fuels it, it wouldn't be enough all by itself to explain how Lance managed to intercept your weapon at the speed it was moving. The black-haired boy's got to have at least one other advantage, some skill or inherent trait that can benefit from the boosting effect of his techique: good eyes; a keen danger sense; just being good enough with a sword to read the cues in your own, less-polished technique; something that can hint at him what you're about to try, as you do it.
WHOOSH!
Beyond the spar, you can hear the small audience cheering. Mostly for Lance, although Briar is making herself heard, and Altria and Lucia are giving you a fair share of encouragement.
"Flatten him, Lance!"
Unlike Kenneth.
Shutting out the distraction, you focus on the match, wondering what you should try next. Using the Body Flicker earned you some success, and if you chain a series of such attacks into one rolling speed-blitz, you could probably break Lance's footing entirely.
That said, such an approach would cost you in terms of ki. You've got two more bouts after this, and if you're serious about your resolution to avoid magic as much as possible today, you can't ask Briar to heal you just to top off your ki reserves.
A plan comes to mind, but proves easier conceived of than executed.
Mental Enhancement on top of the mental effects of Ki Enhancement at work, perhaps?
In any case, while maintaining your losing offensive against Lance, you start infusing your wooden blade with ki, forming a Sword Beam. The process proves to require several additional seconds of effort on your part, an unexpected development you attribute to your unfamiliarity with your current weapon, as well as its less-than-optimal nature for taking such a charge.
The Blessed Blade has spoiled you in that sense.
Still, you manage to complete the technique, and as a bonus, you don't think Lance spotted the brief glimmer of energy along the edge of your practice sword as it took effect.
The next step requires you to get sneaky.
You create a Doppelganger, but instead of projecting it somewhere away from yourself, you create the ki-based illusion AROUND yourself, effectively overlaying your true appearance with your fake one.
Lance's lack of reaction tells you he didn't notice.
Gained Doppelganger E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Preparations made, you do two things at once: first, you suppress your magical signature as far as you can, as it's one of the likely suspects for HOW Lance has been able to track you through your Body Flickers; and then, while controlling your ki as finely as possible, you slip into another Body Flicker.
On top of suppressing your ki signature, you'd considered trying to make your ki signature look like you were going to perform a different technique, but you don't have any such ability, and even if you did, you might not be able to use it while maintaining half a dozen ki techniques. That would be right on the edge of your skills, even if you weren't in the middle of a spar.
Then too, everything you know about Lance tells you he isn't trained to use ki; without that, his ability to sense ki, and more critically, MAKE sense of what he's noticing, would be limited at best. Even if he DID possess a natural aptitude for the skill, it would in no way be precise enough to tell the difference between a Body Flicker and an Overload.
So why waste the effort? Especially when you're already concealing your latest technique?
Gained Body Flicker A
This time, when you drop out of high-speed movement, it's to find Lance standing with his back to you. He's visibly tensing up, aware on some level that something is WRONG, but his reaction is delayed compared to the last couple of times.
Whether it was your Doppelganger, your magical self-suppression, your concealed Body Flicker, or the combination of the three, your gambit appears to have worked.
Lance still whirls around to confront you, of course, the lines of mana under his skin blazing up once more as he pushes his energy into boosting his speed, but that just means that when his sword comes up in a guard, it doesn't have properly Mana Burst-boosted strength behind it.
The combination of your Ki Enhanced strength, the accumulated charge of your Sword Beam, AND the Strike Flicker that you threw in on top of that, proves to be entirely too much.
In credit to the dark-haired boy's training, his sword isn't quite torn from his grasp.
Instead, the force of your blow knocks him right off his feet, with the back of his sword smacking him in the face as he goes down.
With his grip loosened by the shock, which also has him well and truly distracted, Lance isn't able to stop you as the tip of your blade flashes down, catches his practice blade under the hilt, and yanks it away from him.
"And hold!" Lu-sensei calls.
"What the heck?" Kenneth bursts out, leaping to his feet. "I thought you said no magic!"
You look his way, blinking in confusion. "I did."
"Then what is that!?"
You follow the line of the older boy's finger to your Doppelganger, which is little more than a haze in the air - more because the force of your Body Flicker disrupted it than because the ki invested in it was running out.
Unfortunate, but kind of unavoidable. You're not capable of using two ki techniques simultaneously yet, so you didn't have a lot of options for making that work.
"That's not magic."
"The hell it isn't!"
"Kenneth!" his mother barks.
"It actually isn't," Lu-sensei interjects, drawing the attention of both mother and son to himself. "It's a ki-based technique Alex picked up from some young kunoichi he met at the World Tournament."
Kenneth blinks. "Kuno-what?"
"Ninja girls," your teacher says.
The brunet boy blinks again. "Those are a thing? Really?" Then he shakes his head. "Wait, no, nevermind. What about his sword? I saw it flash when it hit Lance."
"Also not magic," Lu-sensei says. "Alex knows how to infuse energy into his weapon. Altria has seen the completed form of the technique, or at least its aftereffects."
Your blonde friend nods. "Exploding Slimes are hard to forget."
Of course she remembers that.
Kenneth, meanwhile, is doing a double-take at his cousin. "Wait, what?"
"It was while we were out on the grounds..."
"There were EXPLODING SLIMES at that party, and you didn't tell me before now?"
"It, uh, slipped my mind?"
"You just said it was hard to forget!"
More like she WANTED to forget it. She WAS one of the party to get splattered with Slime, after all.
In any event, you appear to have won the match. You help Lance back to his feet.
Is there something you'd like to say or do, before the Drake cousins have at each other?
Also, after Altria and Kenneth have fought, there will be a brief break so that everyone can rest. Following that will be the third bout, which - as the winner of your match - it's agreed that you've earned the right to either pick your opponent for, or pass on.
"Speaking of Kahlua's party," you say, raising your voice a bit to get the cousins' attention, "I gave Altria a brief lesson on how to use the Sword Beam while we were there. If any one was interested-"
"Yes, please," Lance says immediately.
"Absolutely!" Kenneth exclaims.
Altria... winces?
"NOT in the house," Lu-sensei says immediately.
"Or anywhere NEAR the house," Lucia adds firmly, with a meaningful look at her youngest.
Altria blushes.
You look back and forth between usually-free-spirited mother and unusually contrite daughter. There's a story here...
Anna Drake beats you to asking. "This has something to do with all the fire damage on the lakeshore, doesn't it, Altria?"
"...yyyyes," Altria reluctantly admits.
You regard your friend. "Still having problems with not tapping your internal reserves?"
"It keeps catching fire," the girl sighs. "Or exploding. Or catching fire and THEN exploding."
Kenneth and Lance look envious.
Catching her son's expression, Mary Drake sighs. "We don't have a lake at home, Kenneth."
"But we do have a pool-"
"NO."
It is with a sulky frown that the elder Drake cousin takes his place on the field of contest, after fetching his own wooden arming sword from the racks. Altria is still carrying the blade Lance originally gave you, and the two of them adopt similar opening stances, saluting one another by raising their swords.
Lu-sensei's hand comes down, and the power within both combatants surges to life. Kenneth's own mana is bright and strong, but it pales in comparison to the dragon-fire that runs through Altria's veins. You mean that quite literally; Altria is far from being wasteful with her power, but she has so much energy on tap and is so close to her cousin that your passive magical senses have a hard time making out what Kenneth is doing with HIS mana.
On the other hand, once you've suppressed your Mage Sight and taken the "glare" of magical energy out of the equation, your Ki-Enhanced eyes have an easier time following the purely physical movements of the pair.
Most people would think that the teenaged Kenneth should have a clear edge over his smaller, younger, and female cousin when it comes to strength, whereas Altria should be relying more on speed and agility.
Most people have never seen Altria fight.
Speed and agility are there, certainly, but she also has physical power to spare, thanks to her abundant, potent magical energy and the sheer level of self-enhancement it allows her to achieve. Kenneth's... less overwhelming mana simply can't increase his natural abilities to the same degree, and this not only negates the advantages of his size, it leaves him actively DIS-advantaged.
That said, it's easy to see that Kenneth is not unfamiliar with a blade, or with facing down Altria's incredible power.
He anticipates, dodges, redirects, and intercepts for all he's worth, squeezing every last ounce of value out of his one genuine physical advantage - his greater reach, which lets him stab, slice, and swat at Altria with the last few inches of his blade, while keeping just outside her own effective range.
Even if Kenneth's sword was live steel, his attacks would be little more than nuisances, able to bruise, bite, and bleed his opponent, but unlikely to truly FINISH the fight. Yet he guides his weapon with impressive accuracy, always aiming for places that will make Altria flinch or defend herself by reflex, instinct, or training: the ear; the eye; the side of the head; points on the arm that you know from personal experience will sting, and could weaken a warrior's grip on their weapon.
On top of that, Kenneth is one of those guys who likes to talk in a fight, the better to taunt his opponent.
"Too slow, 'Tria!"
"So close!"
"You can do better than that!"
"Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!"
...it would also appear that he is not above stealing lines.
Gained Battle Awareness D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Sword Training C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Altria, for her part, seems just as accustomed to her cousin's style as he is to hers. Which is to say, she sets her jaw, glares at him more intensely after certain comments, and tries all the harder to give him a well-deserved SMACK.
"Is it always like this?" you murmur to Lance, as Altria takes her practice sword in both hands and raises it high.
"Not... always," the dark-haired boy hedges, as Altria charges her cousin with a shout, and brings her sword down-
"HA!"
-only for Kenneth to back out of the way, leaving Altria's weapon to strike the floorboard-
CRACK!
-and break in half.
For a moment, everyone stops and stares.
Then Kenneth reaches out with his own sword, and lightly taps his cousin on the shoulder.
Altria closes her eyes and hangs her head, looking terribly embarrassed.
"Winner by disarmament," Lu-sensei announces, with a glance at the floor. "And may I add, this is a very solid bit of carpentry you have here?"
"We take only the best," Lucia says with a smile.
"Everything else is too likely to break," Mary snipes.
"Oh, hush. Like your boys are any better."
At this, Mary Drake can only shrug, acknowledging the point.
The break between "rounds" of your little tournament is only about five minutes long, more of a chance for Altria and Kenneth to catch their breath, so that they aren't at too much of a disadvantage going into the next set of spars.
You pass this time by drinking some of the tea to replenish your fluids, enjoying one of the chocolate chip cookies - which the servants appear to have been keeping up a steady supply of - and listening to the idle conversation of your hosts and fellow competitors.
Your eyes are on Kenneth almost the entire time, silently measuring him up.
He returns the favor, openly grinning in anticipation of the fight to come.
"You done?" the older boy finally says.
"I am. And yourself?"
"Done." He rises from his chair, and gestures to the center of the room with a sweep of one arm. "After you." Smirking, Kenneth adds, "Women and children first, and all that."
"Oooh," Lucia and Anna murmur.
"Oh, no, after you." You smile beatifically. "Age before beauty."
"Oooh," Briar says.
Trading barbs like this, the two of you take your places and assume your opening stances. You immediately note that Kenneth's stance is different from the one he used when squaring off against Altria, and while you can't read his intentions like a master swordsman is supposed to be able to, you're quite certain he's not going to face you using the same methods he employed against Altria.
For your part, you wonder if you should stick with the tactics you used against Lance, trying to overwhelm your opponent with a Body Flicker blitz, or go with something new. Points in favor of the former approach are simplicity, familiarity, and a record of victories - here, in previous friendly spars, and in more serious battles. Against it is the fact that Kenneth has seen that ploy in action, and will doubtlessly be expecting it.
Lu-sensei steps up. "Fighters ready?"
"Yes, sensei," you reply.
"Yes, sir," Kenneth says.
Your teacher's arm comes up.
MAGICAL KNIGHT-IN-TRAINING: KENNETH DRAKE
It's mostly the old plan, but for two changes.
As Lu-sensei's hand comes down, beginning the match, you implement the first of those changes, pushing additional energy into your still-active Ki Enhancement technique until it Overloads.
As you're doing this, Kenneth is powering himself up with mana. His stance suggested that he'd been planning on charging you as soon as he could, but your sudden acquisition of a glowing nimbus, visible even to the unaided eye, has clearly startled him.
"Not magic?" he asks cautiously.
"And neither is this next bit," you reply. "Watch your eyes!"
"Wha-"
You relax the restraints you normally keep on your aura, letting it "shine" as bright and clear as possible, for all those who have the sensitivity to perceive it.
It had occurred to you to try and do more, to "push" your aura towards a greater level of intensity in the hope of dazzling or temporarily blinding your opponent, but a few things held you back from making the attempt.
For one thing, while you have plenty of experience at suppressing your aura, EXPRESSING it is new ground for you. Normally, this wouldn't stop you from trying out a new technique, but it leads into the second point, which is that you're honestly not sure if it's possible to intensify your magical presence the way you were considering, at least not without actively manipulating your mana. And doing that would defeat the point of your resolution not to use mana today.
There's also the point that, while mana manipulation isn't true spellcasting, using it would infringe on the spirit of your agreement with Altria, Kenneth, and Lance to not use magic in these matches. And you'd rather not do that.
For all these reason, you don't try to exert your aura.
You just stop holding it back.
Thanks to your brief warning, Kenneth was already taking steps to protect his vision, although rather than look away or shield his eyes with one hand, he instead lowers his gaze, so that he's looking towards your lower legs.
Well-trained enough not to take his eyes off an opponent, then. Good to know.
A sidelong glance at your audience shows that Altria and Lance are both doing the same thing as Kenneth, while Lucia and her sister-in-law are both still looking directly at you, and just squinting slightly. Anna Drake HAS raised a hand to guard her eyes, but that's it.
Warning successful.
With that, you go on the offensive, repeating your original tactic of Body Flickering behind your opponent and unleashing a Strike Flicker-
!
-only for jets of mana to ERUPT from Kenneth's body in a manner startlingly akin to Altria's technique, whirling him around where he stands, practice sword limned with mana as it rises to meet your own, ki-infused blade with an arm-wrenching, wood-shattering CRACK!
Gained Ki Control B (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mana Blade F
Gained Strike Flicker E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Both practice swords split apart at the point of contact, tiny splinters spraying in all directions as their severed upper lengths fly in opposite directions across the hall.
Both you and Kenneth are jarred by the collision, each of you turning slightly back in the opposite direction of your respective swings, but you both quickly regain control.
This leaves you both staring at your weapons, then at each other, and then back at your broken blades.
"Um," Kenneth sums it up.
"Huh," you agree.
As you stare at your ruined practice blade, you absently note that it appears to have been fashioned entirely out of a single piece of wood, with no obvious inserts that you can see.
Guess the wood really was that dense after all.
Pushing that thought aside as soon as it crosses your mind, you look up at Kenneth.
"New swords?" you suggest, indicating the wall-mounted arsenal with a tip of your head.
The older boy considers that for a moment, and then shrugs.
"Nah."
And then he throws the broken hilt at you, pommel first.
Gained Thrown Weapons Training F (Plus)
Fortunately, you were tempted to press the offensive yourself, so even the unusual form of Kenneth's "surprise" attack doesn't catch you off-guard. You simply tilt your head to one side, letting the sundered sword go shooting past, drop your own ruined weapon, and set yourself to receive the point-blank charge that Kenneth tried to sneak in behind the distraction.
Your Overload technique is still going, so you're able to stop Kenneth in his tracks, and even push him back a bit, before the glowing lines of his Mana Burst technique brighten as he compensates and matches you.
At no point in this does Kenneth's modification of Altria's mana-fueled jet-propulsion trick make a second appearance, but you're not at all surprised. The amount of energy that move must eat would be a lot more significant for somebody who doesn't have a dragon in their soul; Kenneth must have figured that the expense was worth it, to counter your Body Flicker attack.
Further speculation along that line becomes impossible as the older boy reaches out, seizes you by the shoulders, and pulls you into a grapple.
The next few seconds are a blur of limbs, pressure, spinning about, and yelling, as the two of you struggle. With your Overload technique still in effect, Kenneth's strength advantage is minimal, but it's clear almost from the outset that, despite his longer limbs - or perhaps because of them - the older boy is your superior in the clinch. You think it's only your Ki Step and Ki Armor that are allowing you to stay on your feet right now: the improved traction that comes with the former technique is letting you compensate for Kenneth's efforts to sweep your legs out from under you; and the latter is taking the sting out of his foot strikes, as well as the hold he's got you in.
Between those and sheer physical effort, you're staving off defeat.
Gained Strength C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
But it's not going to last. You aren't winning like this, and you aren't even holding your own; you're just losing slower. You need to break Kenneth's hold and put some distance between you, and you need to do it before your Overload technique burns out, about thirty seconds from now.
One option that comes to mind is your favorite standby, the Body Flicker. A sudden surge of speed would be just the thing to tear you away from your opponent, except that Lu-sensei has warned you about the risks of using that technique in this sort of situation. If that first instant of acceleration DOESN'T break your opponent's hold, you'll just end up dragging him along with you.
Another option that comes to mind is using your head. You've headbutted more than one opponent in the past, and with your Ki Armor up, you'd definitely come out the better from any such exchange. The only question is if Kenneth's head really is as hard as it seems or not.
Or maybe...
Use your head!
Kenneth is tall enough that, under normal circumstances, you wouldn't be able to headbutt him. At least not without a major risk of doing him real and serious injury, which is a level of using your head that you've been careful to avoid.
It's one part not wanting to get into a habit that could see you disqualified from any LEGAL competition, and one part not wanting to try and smash other people's faces in with your own. Stunning them is enough for your purposes; if you get into a fight where you truly NEED to break faces, you've got methods that work just as well, and don't require you to get so close.
You're already about as close to your opponent as you can get, however, and Kenneth isn't exactly standing up straight at the moment. A shift of your balance here, a deliberate sacrifice of position there, and a quick leaning back, combined with a downward YANK on your foe...
"Ken, watch-" Altria calls in sudden alarm.
Figures that she'd realize what you were doing-
"Wha-" Kenneth exclaims, eyes going wide with surprise as he sees your face coming at his.
-but it's too late now.
The Wisdom of the Raging Boar compels you.
WHAM!
Gained Grappling E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Headbutt E (Plus)
"-out," the small blonde finishes sheepishly, as you and Kenneth stagger back from one another.
You're in good shape, your Ki Armor having toughened you up enough that you register only a slight ache where your forehead smacked Kenneth's. The older boy has come out the worse in the exchange, reeling backwards and losing his grip on you out of sheer surprise.
An opening!
As Kenneth staggers back from your head-to-head, he presents you will a perfect opportunity to strike, and end the match.
You set your feet, focus your ki, and take one step forward, bringing your right hand around at blurring speeds.
To his credit, the older boy tries to mount a defense, hunching down and bringing his arms together in a block that will cover his head and most of his upper body. The reddish-orange lines of the Mana Burst technique flaring up again as he raises his guard, promising a strong defense.
Magical enhancement or no, however, Kenneth is still dazed and off-balance from your last hit. It adds fractions of a second to his reaction time.
If you'd attacked at your normal, Ki Enhanced speed, he still would have been fast enough to close his guard. Not perfectly, but well enough to take your attack on his arms rather than to the chest.
Even though you're not using maximum force on this attack, your Strike Flicker is still faster than that, and slips between Kenneth's closing arms to connect with his diaphragm.
The older boy doubles over with a choked-off, "Whoof!"
Gained Sneak Attack E (Plus) (Plus)
You drop low and spin around with all the force you can muster, left leg extended to sweep Kenneth's feet.
The move is textbok, as is the manner in which Altria's cousin goes down in a heap.
Ending your spinning kick facing Kenneth, you push off with both hands and your right leg, leaping forward to seize and immobilize your opponent.
Even on the floor, gasping, and now with your not-inconsiderable weight pressing down on him, Kenneth puts up a struggle, but his loss of breath - and the soreness he must be feeling because of that hit - tips the balance in your favor.
Lu-sensei calls the match shortly after that.
Releasing your opponent and backing away, you rise to your feet.
"Are you alright there, lad?" your teacher asks. His words are not aimed at you, but your opponent.
Still breathing hard, Kenneth waves off the question, and - slowly - pushes himself up off the floor. As he rises, he looks up at you.
"I could have taken you if our swords hadn't broken," he says, one finger pointing your way.
...oh, really?
You wonder how you should respond to that. You could offer to have a rematch after your spar with Altria, if the Drakes can provide better-quality practice blades, or you and Kenneth both agree not to use supernatural powers on the swords themselves.
Forgoing the use of supernatural powers at ALL, and just making it a contest of pure physical ability and trained skill is also an option, but it would put you at a pretty severe disadvantage, and so you're obviously not keen on it.
Alternately, you could wait until after the familiar ritual, when you can freely use magic to toughen up these wooden swords.
You could also treat Kenneth's remark as empty bluster, and ignore it.
You frown, honestly put off by Kenneth's remark. He didn't sound sulky or argumentative when he spoke; he presented it as a statement of fact, which is frankly annoying. Yes, he's likely the better swordsman out of the two of you, but that by itself doesn't automatically mean he'd have won.
He's demonstrably better than you at grappling, too, and just look at how THAT turned out for him.
"That may be true," you admit slowly, "but if you wanted to stick to sword-fighting, then why did you attack me when I suggested stopping to get replacements?"
"Oh, like you weren't going to attack me anyway," the older boy says with a huff. "I saw your stance, you were ready to move in an instant - and you did."
...you note that he didn't answer your question. That's annoying enough, in and of itself, but add in the way he worded the rest of his response, trying to turn things back on you...
"We were in the middle of the match, and neither of us or Lu-sensei had called for a time-out," you point out, keeping your tone level. "Lowering my guard would have been dumb. Especially since you DID throw what was left of your sword at me."
"Hey, it's a legitimate move!"
"I didn't say that it wasn't!"
"Then why did you bring it up?"
"Because you-!"
No. No, you're not doing this.
Once again, you dial back your mounting irritation. "Look, Kenneth. If you want a rematch, that's fine by me. I would prefer waiting until after the ritual, so I can use mana freely-"
"Ah, if you're just going to cast spells, what's the point?" the other boy grumbles.
You're NOT.
"I can use mana for other things besides spellcasting," you say, finding it a struggle now not to raise your voice at Altria's INCREASINGLY annoying relative. "A lot of them are physical enhancement techniques like the ones you use. So, as I was going to say, you don't have to worry-"
"Who says I'm worried?"
But. This. GUY...
"Excuse me."
Your mounting frustration with Kenneth is pierced by the sound of Altria's voice, coming from somewhere close by. When you turn to look, you find that she and Lance have come out onto the main floor, practice blades in hand.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your discussion," the blonde apologizes, "but I believe it is our turn next."
"Yeah, point," Kenneth admits. He makes a grand gesture, says, "Floor's yours," and heads for the seats.
Leaving your entire conversation unfinished.
Gained Rage E (Plus)
"Oh, and Alex, if I could have a moment?"
You turn to your friend, setting your anger at her cousin aside. "Yes, Altria?"
"Based on what's been happening with the wooden blades, mother suggested that you and I might try blunted steel for our match. What are your thoughts?"
You consider that.
"Sure," you say, without even a moment's hesitation. "I'd prefer a blade in a style similar to the one I was using, but if you don't have one available..."
You trail off, a bit uncertain how to finish that. You DO want to have that spar, and you COULD use the practice with an arming sword, but at the same time, you're already under enough of a handicap in these matches. Do you really want to add an unfamiliar weapon on top of that?
Fortunately, Altria comes to your rescue.
"We should be able to accomodate you," she says with a nod and smile.
You grin in return, thank Altria, and turn to leave.
"And, Alex?"
You look back at your friend. "Yeah?"
Altria's expression turns sheepish. "I apologize for Kenneth's behavior. He can be... difficult... to get along with."
...now what do you say to that?
It's true that, as your hostess, Altria does owe you that apology. Kenneth's attitude reflects poorly on her and their entire family, the more so because he's old enough that he should at least know how to concede a loss, even when it upsets him. That he can't or won't do so... well.
A glance across the room shows you that Kenneth is being given the Mom Look and a quiet but intense-appearing talking-to by Mary.
The scene WOULD make you feel a bit better, except that even with his back turned to you, Kenneth's posture radiates the kind of stubbornness Ganondorf was used to seeing in mules, Gorons, and other creatures whose physiologies lent themselves to rock-headedness.
Some people are just jerks by nature, and no amount of social pressure or training can make it otherwise. And if Altria's cousin is one of those types, do you REALLY want to hold his entire family accountable for him? For that matter, do you want to blame ANY of Kenneth's family, for his personal choices?
Yeah, you're not going to fault the Drakes for the actions of one of their own. Kenneth's lack of manners is his own fault, with some potential for blame going to his parents for not teaching him proper behavior in a way that made it stick. But you're not going to hold Altria and her entire extended family accountable for what one person related to them did.
Still, as the guest who's been offended, you accept Altria's apology as the host, letting her know that you don't blame her personally.
She seems gratified by that response.
As Altria moves to join Lance, you clear the floor, taking a seat next to Lucia - and trying not to make it too obvious that you're sitting almost as far from Kenneth as the arrangements will allow. The older boy, for his part, has turned his chair around and is now straddling it, with his arms crossed over the back and a sour expression on his face.
"My nephew can be a prize ass at times," Lucia says, in a quieter voice than you're used to hearing her use, "but we do love him all the same. Thank you for not knocking his block off, Alex."
You nod, and focus on the match.
On something of a whim, you activate your nascent psychic senses, trying to probe at Altria and Lance.
Rather to your surprise, all you get for your trouble is static. There are brief flashes of feeling, bits that might almost be words, but most of it is drowned out by what your mind interprets as a sort of white noise.
Is Altria's Mana Burst doing that?
A mental "ping" directed at your fellow audience-members comes back fairly clear, suggesting that the source of the interference is indeed your blonde friend's powerful magical energy.
Huh.
On the positive side, nobody so much as gave you a funny look, so your psychic scans seem to have flown under the radar.
Gained Mental Concealment E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mental Sense D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mental Sight D
Since there's little point in bothering with the psychic scans if Altria is jamming them, you let your probes lapse, and refocus all your attention on the fight in progress. You already had your Mental Enhancement technique up, and while you considered using Brain Enhancement, it would have only served to waste ki; your Ki Enhancement technique is still running, and has the superior impact.
Thanks to the combined mental boosts of your techniques, you've been able to follow the match despite your impromptu experiment with psychic power.
Perhaps because of how her last match ended, Altria is not fighting with the full force you know she's capable of. She's still moving fast and hitting hard, but there's a measured quality to her movements this time around.
Lance Pritchard, meanwhile, is using a very different approach to fighting Altria than Kenneth did. Where the oldest boy sought to keep his distance and wear the pint-sized powerhouse down without getting into a contest of strength, Lance gets in as close as he can as fast as he can, trying to deny Altria the space she needs to build up momentum for her stronger attacks. Rather than wide blade-strokes, you're seeing half-swording, hilt-strokes, and the occasional attempted pommel-blow, with plenty of punches, knees, attempted trips, and plain old shoving thrown in.
Gained Grappling E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
It's working about as well as Kenneth's preferred tactics did, which is to say, not much. Altria's small size does work against her in this sort of contest, as no matter how much her immense mana reserves augment her physical abilities, they don't increase her MASS in any way. As a result, Lance is able to shove the blonde all over the room, breaking her stance and robbing her of even more strength in the process. If he could just take her legs out from under her, even once...
...but, it never happens. Altria may not be able to strike at Lance with the full strength of her arms and body, but her LEGS are working just fine - and aren't girls supposed to have greater lower-body strength anyway? You think you heard that, somewhere. Even if it's not accurate in general, it certainly is in THIS case, what with the draconic mana running through Altria's body.
She kicks out, knocking Lance's left leg back, ruining HIS footing, and buying herself a moment to back off and correct her stance.
That moment, plus the distance, are all Altria needs, as she delivers a two-handed stroke that conects with Lance's sword - raised in an unavoidable block - and rips it from his hands.
Lu-sensei calls the fight there.
Aside from sneaking another of those excellent chocolate chip cookies out from under the noses of the Drake women, you spend most of the brief break quietly discussing tactics with Briar. As it happens, though, your fairy companion doesn't have a lot to say that you hadn't already considered.
Even with your self-imposed restriction on using magic and mana-powered techniques, you're capable of matching Altria in a direct contest of strength - or at least, you were the last time you sparred with her, so long as you were smart about it. Body Flicker and Strike Flicker give you the edge in pure speed, but only in brief bursts - and Lance was almost able to keep up with you in spite of that, while Kenneth matched you outright, albeit for an excessive expenditure in mana on his part.
Such a cost won't be nearly as much of an issue for Altria.
It's also a given that you're going to be at a disadvantage in terms of sword-skill.
Unlike the two magic-powered knights-in-training, you DO have a few other advantages, in the form of your various ki techniques, but you were already planning on using most of the ones that have direct benefits in combat. And most of your remaining combat-focused ki techniques would run up against Lu-sensei's warning not to wreck the room.
This... doesn't leave you a lot of options.
One thing you could do is take a page from Kenneth's book and use the reach advantage provided by your greater size and larger weapon to keep Altria at a distance as much as possible, so that she can't hit you. You've fought the blonde several times before, and also seen her fight a considerable range of opponents both armed and bare-handed, so you do have a fair grasp of her style and what you could do to counter it. That said, you're quite certain that your familiarity with Altria's abilities isn't as complete as Kenneth's was, and you're not going to be able to count on her breaking her sword against you.
Plus, you'd kind of rather NOT use Kenneth's plan. Mostly because it IS his plan.
Another option is doing what Lance tried to do, by closing in, putting the pressure on Altria, and KEEPING it there so that she can't bring her full power to bear against you, until you can trip her or knock her over. You're reluctant to try this, however, because you're not at all accustomed to using a sword in such close quarters, and Altria would have even MORE of an advantage over you as a result.
Failing that, you have your go-to option of rapid-fire Body Flickers. For once, you have serious doubts as to how effective that approach will be.
"Or you could always surrender," Briar adds, only half-joking.
While you're going over your options, the idea of suggesting that you relocate somewhere less-breakable for this match occurs to you, mostly because it would let you use some of those potential room-wrecking techniques Lu-sensei warned you off of.
On reflection, however, you decide not to voice the idea aloud. It would be a bit rude to Lance and Kenneth, and you suspect that Lu-sensei would be... less than pleased to have you coming up with workarounds to his instructions.
And it's not like getting some actual practice in at NOT breaking stuff when you fight would be a BAD thing. Sooner or later, you're going to HAVE to fight all-out in a location that really isn't suited for it, and where any property damage you cause is going to be noteworthy. The better you're able to control your powers before that happens, the less trouble you'll get into in the long run.
Your speculations are side-tracked as one of the Drake servants enters the room, unlocks one of the closets, and opens both doors to reveal full-body suits of padded leather in several different sizes.
Altria gets up from her chair and heads over to begin putting on the smallest of the suits, shooing off the servant when he offers to help her.
Instead, the man turns to you and asks, "Will you be requiring any assistance, Mister Harris?"
Um.
Seeing as how you've never worn training gear like this before, some help to ensure that you're wearing it properly would be most welcome.
It takes a few minutes for you to finish suiting up. Your unfamiliarity with the equipment is the biggest source of delay, not only because it leaves you strongly dependent on the servant's aid, but also because it's apparent to your hosts, who are quick to chime in and explain the technical names for each piece of gear, how it should feel and move with you once properly-fitted, and certain things you shouldn't do in a spar with metal blades, even WITH the benefit of such protective wear.
A lot of it goes over your head, to be honest. You think that you'd honestly have an easier time if they were discussing REAL armor, because Ganondorf had plenty of experience with that in his time(s).
When it came to practice gear? Not so much.
The Gerudo weren't so flush with wealth and resources that they could really afford stuff like this. They either trained in the armor they were going to wear in battle, or did without.
Once you're fully-equipped, you take some time familiarise yourself with the armor, doing stretches to test how it affects your range of movement, a few katas to figure out how the added weight affects your strikes and blocks, and other such things. You even go so far as to use Ki Infusion on the armor, in the hope that the faint enhanced awareness the technique provides of the things you extend your life-force into will accelerate your understanding of and proficiency with this new equipment.
You're not sure how much it helps, or even if it helps at all, but it certainly doesn't HURT.
Gained Armor Proficiency F (Plus)
Gained Knowledge (Armor) F (Plus)
Eventually, you declare yourself ready for the match. Or at least, as ready as you're going to get in the time you have available.
As you take up the blunted steel blade your hosts have provided for you and square off against Altria, you review your options, and decide to go with a variation on the tactics Kenneth used. You don't have as much of a size advantage over Altria as her cousin does, but your longer blade makes up for much of the difference in reach, and its greater mass plays to the strength advantage you expect to have going into this fight.
Of course, the size of your blade will also make it a bit slower in your hands than a shorter blade, a problem compounded by the unfamiliarity of the armor you're now wearing. Despite that, you feel confident that your natural (and enhanced) reflexes are sufficient to compensate for the loss, so that you're at least equal to Altria.
Speed-wise, you expect to be at a disadvantage, but hardly an insurmountable one. And that's before taking Body Flickers into account.
And since you're going to be trying to keep Altria at range, you suppose you might as well throw in a few ki attacks, should an opportunity to use them present itself when you aren't facing that glass wall - or your audience.
Part of you is still annoyed that you're taking your inspiration from Kenneth, but the greater whole takes a calming breath and releases that irritation, while raising your blade in a salute to Altria - once that she returns in kind.
DRAGON-SOULED KNIGHT-IN-TRAINING: ALTRIA DRAKE
As Lu-sensei raises his hand, you ready yourself. Although it's been the better part of half an hour since you began this mini-tournament, the Ki Armor, Ki Enhancement, Ki Step, and Mental Enhancement techniques that you activated during your first match are still running strong - they're far easier to maintain outside of the stress of a combat situation, particularly when you aren't really using them in that time. That's good, it'll save you the time and energy you'd otherwise need to replenish them.
You could manage the energy costs, but with Altria coming at you, the time might prove to be an expense you couldn't afford.
Speaking of whom, your teacher's hand has just come down, and your opponent's aura has surged to life.
The match begins.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
The first few seconds of the fight pass in a blur, sunlight and aural energies flashing from your blades as they cross, clash, and crash together.
The good news is that you are indeed stronger than Altria. In your last fight with the British blonde, back at Kahlua's birthday party, you had a slight lead in pure physical power while using your Ki Enhancement - not so much of one that you were comfortable taking her rocket-powered attacks straight-on, but enough to grant you an edge, however slight. Your strength has increased over the intervening month, greater practice with your Ki Enhancement technique blending with the consequences of good old-fashioned physical labor and combat experience. You can, in fact, block Altria's blows directly without suffering more in the exchange.
The bad news is that when Altria told that Medaka girl, all the way back at the World Tournament, that she was better at fighting with a sword than at fighting bare-handed? SHE WAS NOT KIDDING. Your strength advantage avails you nothing on the offense, as Altria turns your first blow aside, slips into your guard, and goes on the attack with an ALARMINGLY fast series of strikes. Even with your active enhancements and passive skills, you barely see what she's doing in time to draw your sword back into a defensive position - the brilliant glare of her Mana Burst certainly doesn't help, as even though you'd suppressed your Mage Sight and Mage Sense to prevent flash-blindness, Altria's throwing off enough VISIBLE light for it to be distracting.
Actually anticipating the blade, as you'd need to do to employ Kenneth's approach to fighting this tiny terror, is right out; it's all you can do to get your blade in position in time to intercept Altria's attacks.
Gained Knowledge (Swords) E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Weapon Defense D (Plus)
The fight's barely started, and she's already got you on the defensive.
You think this might be a good time to change up your tactics a little. At the very least, you need to use another ki technique to reduce the gap in pure sword-skill.
The world blurs around you as you leap away from Altria's onslaught and shift into a half-powered Body Flicker, putting as much distance between the two of you as you can WITHOUT hemming yourself into a corner, or flying headlong into a wall.
Altria's response to this is to once again expel plumes of reddish-gold mana from her feet and shoulders, and come tearing towards you like a Fire Keese out of the Underworld.
As fast as she is, you still have time enough to dump more energy into your Ki Enhancement technique, Overloading it and bringing your physical parameters even higher. While doing so, you spare a moment's thought to adjust your grip on your sword, moving your hands out of the "power"-focused hold they'd unconsciously assumed on the weapon, in favor of a grip that will offer a little more finesse.
It doesn't feel quite as natural to you, but you tell yourself to get over it. You don't need to adopt Ganondorf's bad habits in swordsmanship any more than you do his OTHER less-than-optimal behaviors.
CLANG-SKREE!
As Altria crashes into you sword-first, you find yourself squinting against the glare of her aura again. The notion of using Environmental Adaptation to filter out the excess light occurs to you, but while you do so, the effects are minimal. Rather than dazzlingly brilliant, Altria's aura is now just... brilliant?
You still have to squint, but at least you can SEE while doing so, so it's an improvement.
Technically.
CLANG!
CLANG!
You'd wonder over why the benefits of the technique were so limited, but you're kind of busy fending off Altria's renewed onslaught. Although your Overloaded abilities haven't really bridged the gap in skill, your increased speed, reflexes, and awareness are helping you keep track of what Altria is doing with her blade, and at least ATTEMPT to keep up with her.
WHOOSH!
Ha! You dodged that one!
Gained Evasion C (Plus)
CLANG!
But not that one...
It occurs to you to use Ki Infusion on the floor, to get a better read on Altria's footwork, but you dismiss the idea as soon as it comes. Ki Infusion only affects things you're directly in contact with, and then only WHERE you're in contact with them; it doesn't cover a large enough area for the application you were consider-
!
-AN OPENING!
Not for your sword, which is too busy fending off Altria's blade, nor even for your hands, which are too busy getting your sword where it needs to be, but for a moment, there's a gap in Altria's defenses. If you only had a third arm, or a much longer neck...!
Oh, wait. That WOULD work, wouldn't it?
Seeing the opening begin to close, you take a chance, and apply your strength advantage to drag Altria and her sword just a little farther THAT way. She immediately starts gathering mana to counter, but at the same time, you're gathering ki, and craning your neck back.
As Altria's Mana Burst begins to fire, you bring your head forward, and release your ki.
From your forehead.
Gained Ki Blast D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"WHAT-"
In the instant that the beam fires, you see Altria's eyes widen beneath the forehead strap of her protective headgear.
"-THE-"
It's safe to say she WASN'T expecting you to laser-face her.
"-HELL!?"
Judging by the color commentary, Kenneth wasn't expecting it, either.
Your surprise attack isn't one hundred percent successful. The padded leather wrapped around Altria's skull soaks up some of the force, and the defensive augmentations of her Mana Burst eat even more of it. There's also the little matter of you not being as practiced at firing off Ki Blasts from different parts of your body as you are at using your hands to channel the energy, so the beam was a bit more diffuse and less damaging than usual.
It's still good enough to ring Altria's bell a bit.
And for a moment - even if you're certain it's more to the bewildering nature of your attack than its actual impact - her guard is down.
With your Overload technique up and running, you are just about quick enough to follow Altria's movements. If you were to take this opportunity to take one step back, you'd be at the idea range to try and get on with mimicking Kenneth's battlefield-control plan, like you originally intended.
Or you could take the opportunity to go on the offensive. That's what you're SUPPOSED to do when your opponent's defenses falter, isn't it?
It wasn't part of your plan, but that doesn't matter.
Your opponent's guard is down. You have an opening through which to attack.
You WILL take it.
There isn't enough space between you and Altria for you to ready a full-force sword-strike, much less deliver it, so you don't even bother trying. Instead, you take a step forward while shifting your grip on your weapon once more; though your right hand remains wrapped about the hilt, your left slides up to grasp the blunted blade directly.
Using that increased leverage, you bring your weapon's guard up in a blow that channels the momentum of your advance as well as the strength of your body, and take another shot at Altria's padded head.
CLANG!
Even in her momentary daze, Altria's swordsmanship seems undiminished; her blade comes up, blocking the blow.
As such, instead of smacking her in the head, the energy of your strike is transferred to your opponent's body.
Her rather smaller body.
Which you have a marked advantage over in terms of raw power.
AND which isn't well-set to receive the strike.
For the first time in this entire match, Altria is forced BACK.
Gained Club Training F (Plus)
Gained Sword Training B
You press the attack, pushing forward with body and blade alike, trying to tie up your opponent's sword by main force so that she can't start taking you apart with it again.
Unsharpened though it is, steel still hisses and scrapes at steel as your blades struggle for dominance. The crossed weapons glitter brilliantly, reflecting your shimmering aura of Overloaded ki as it clashes with Altria's burning draconic essence.
The audience is yelling... something, but you can't spare the interest to make it out, having chosen to focus your attention on your opponent.
With your magical senses deliberately locked down, you can't QUITE make out Altria's dragon, but you can FEEL the spirit-beast's presence, snarling and snapping at the edges of your aura.
The Boar, on the other hand, is perfectly audible, thundering its clear approval that you are advancing, attacking, and taking control of the fight, rather than letting your opponent set the pace-
!
-right up until those jets of mana ROAR to life on Altria's back once again, propelling her straight at you with such force that it momentarily renders your physical advantage moot. Though you don't lose your grip on your blade, it's wrenched forwards by Altria's sudden acceleration - or backwards, from your point of view - the back of the blade smashed up against you as Altria herself collides with your midsection in a flying tackle.
It happens too fast, and with too much force, for you to try and set yourself against it, and as a result, you're ripped off your feet. The sole reason you DON'T fall to the floor immediately is due to the thrust of Altria's mana-empowered charge, but you can already tell that she either doesn't have enough horses under the hood to keep you BOTH airborne, or else is deliberately powering down so as to slam you into the floor.
You've got just enough time to attempt ONE maneuver before you hit the ground.
Altria doesn't have you in a complete hold - her arms aren't long enough to go all the way around your chest when you're both wearing armor and your still-crossed swords are getting in the way - so you could try to Body Flicker backwards, out of the tackle. The main issue there is that moving BACKWARDS at such speeds is tricky even when you've got your feet under you. And right now, you DON'T. That could go badly.
If all you want is some distance, you could just try to shove Altria away. All you'd have to to is wait for those mana-afterburners to die down, and push forward HARD with both arms. You'd still fall, but if you get the timing just right, and maybe get your legs involved, SHE would go flying right over you. That would at least buy you time enough to get back on your feet.
On the other hand, who says that re-establishing a distance is the right course of action? YOUR arms will most certainly go all the way around your smaller opponent, so if you're quick, you could turn this tumble to your advantage.
As you fall backwards, time seems to slow down even more than your ki and psychic techniques would account for.
Your fingers relax their grip on your sword, which would normally result in the weapon falling to the floor, but is prevented here by the pressure Altria is applying as she drags you down, and how fast everything is happening.
With an almost glacial slowness that doesn't reflect the true speed at which you're moving, you pull your hands away from your blade, arms spreading just wide enough to encompass Altria's form.
And there, for an instant within this slow-crawling instant, you pause, waiting for the radiance of your opponent's mana-fueled propulsion to die down. If you were to try and grab her now, while those jets of magical energy were still burning bright, you'd not only fail, but likely injure yourself. Deep bruising, at the very least.
Altria's face is currently pressed against your midsection, so you can't see her expression, but you feel a sudden slow tension moving through her frame. Shoulders tightening, back straightening.
She's noticed something.
Mana plumes or no, you have to act NOW.
Even as your arms snake forward and start to scissor shut, Altria does... something with her feet that you can't see, but which swiftly, gradually results in the push she's exerting against you increasing.
For yourself, you try to get just one of your feet under you for an instant, seeking not to stand, but to turn, so that instead of coming down on your back - with Altria on top of you - you at least land on one side. Ideally, you'd kick off hard enough to spin all the way around, trapping Altria between you and the floor, but you're more concerned with not having her weight come down on your gut.
Small as she is, that would still be more than enough force to knock the wind out of you.
Your arms close around the small blonde, and you wince as the fading but still-present "jetwash" batters against you. Even through the padded material wrapped about your forearms and the Ki Armor hardening the flesh beneath, you can feel the force involved.
Magical.
Kinetic.
Even thermal, though the heat is insignificant compared to the first two forms of energy.
It's not enough to stop you, but it STINGS.
Gained Pain Threshold D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Although your tooth-gritting determination offsets the ache building in your forearms, it still takes a not-inconsiderable exertion of your Ki Enhanced and Overloaded strength to complete your hold. Even then, you suspect that it's only the fact that Altria's movement technique is fading out that allows you to succeed.
As for turning yourself in mid-air-
WHAM!
-you tried your best, but Altria had both feet on the floor, the momentum of her rocket-propelled flying tackle behind her, and a level of pure technical proficiency at wrestling that you know exceeds your own.
You didn't come down FLAT on your back, but landing on your right shoulder and upper back isn't much better, especially since the shock of the impact loosened your hold on Altria.
Layered Ki Armor and Ki Enhancement can only do so much, even when the latter is Overloaded. Maybe if you'd Overloaded the first...?
Well, there's no help for it now. You're down, you're disarmed, you're winded, and you're even kind of wounded, if bruises count. Meanwhile, Altria is losing no time at all in shrugging off your faltering hold and moving to restrain you.
You have just enough time and clarity of thought to try one more thing.
You could signal to Lu-sensei that you forfeit, which would be the reasonable course of action. It would also spare you a certain level of indignity, as Altria is pretty much going to have to SIT on you to completely immobilize you - and you don't doubt for a moment that she WILL, if that's what it takes to secure her first genuine victory over you.
Another option is to get in one last, fast attack. You don't really have the time to charge up a Ki Blast, but a Strike Flicker-enhanced punch from your left hand? Doable. Whether it would accomplish anything is debatable.
Trying to wrestle free is also an option, if one even LESS likely to work.
It's important for a martial artist to have a realistic sense of his own abilities and the limitations thereof, so that he knows when he's in over his head - or is about to become so - and needs to change tactics.
And it is safe to say that, in this situation, you are at a distinct disadvantage.
You've gotten empirical evidence that Altria outclasses you in pure technical skill when it comes to grappling and sword-fighting. And using a sword IN a grapple? That's something you've never even TRIED before. In addition to that, you're down, disarmed, and more than a little banged-up.
All things considered, it wouldn't be at all inappropriate for you to acknowledge your limits, and give the win to Altria.
At the same time, it's every bit as important for a martial artist not to quit when the going gets tough. Even for someone with your frankly ridiculous capacity to learn new skills and refine existing ones, learning how to fight is far from an effortless task. It's tiring, it's time-consuming, it's frequently BORING, and it leaves you with more than a few bumps and bruises along the way - and if you can't muster the determination and discipline to overcome these comparatively minor complaints, you really have no business calling yourself a martial artist.
You're left torn between these two impulses, arguments for and against each swirling around in your head.
What finally tips the balance is your knowledge of Altria's character, and your brief mutual history as friends and sparring buddies.
The first time the two of you faced off, it was a knock-down, drag-out battle to the finish, where both of you went all out until you were running on fumes, and then pushed even further. It was crazy, it was FUN, and in the end, it was your win.
Your second match was not so wild and crazy as the first, but it was still a great deal of fun, even if you were losing for most of it, due to facing Altria in her field of expertise and with only a fraction of your full strength. It also ended on a sour note, as you managed to injure yourself with an untested technique and force a premature finish.
From a certain point of view, you robbed Altria of a win.
THIS fight, with both of you using blades and you having personally sworn off the use of mana, is taking place under conditions very similar to your second bout with Altria. It could very easily be taken as a rematch, and you don't think Altria would be entirely happy if she once again "won" because you took yourself out of the fight.
You know YOU certainly wouldn't be.
And so it is that, rather than admit your loss and tap out, you gather your strength and resolve to fight to the end.
You do so by grabbing Altria with your right hand, and throwing a ki-accelerated punch at her with your left.
She sees or senses the attack coming in time to trigger one more burst of mana, which not only propels her inside the arc of your punch, but against your left shoulder, slamming it back down against the floor.
You try using the momentum of that sudden push to lever the right side of your body up off the floor-
WHAM!
-and Altria finally steals a play from your book and headbutts you, hard enough to bounce the back of your head off the floor.
Ow.
The next thing you know, she's sitting on your chest, sword held across your body with both hands, keeping your shoulders to the ground. You cannot help but notice that, for someone so small, Altria is NOT light. Not only that, but she's exerting an awful lot of force.
You shift your legs, trying to kick off into a roll-
"Hold!" Lu-sensei calls.
-and freeze at the sound of your master's voice.
"Winner by pin, and also by dint of being in a position to choke out her opponent, Altria," the old man says.
"HELL YEAH!"
"Kenneth!"
And that, as they say, is that.
Once Altria has gotten off of you, you pick yourself up, bow, and thank her for the fight, congratulating her on her win.
She smiles brightly, and returns the bow.
After the two of you have changed out of your sparring gear, Kenneth and Lance have their spar, taking a cue from you and Altria and facing off in protective gear and with steel blades. It's educational to see a couple of peers in the art of the sword fighting each other, but you don't really see anything new in their match.
Kenneth wins, incidentally.
You'd be more annoyed by that, except that he was actually vaguely graceful in victory.
Then again, Lance IS a couple of years closer to him in age...
Following the conclusion of the mini-tournament, you head back to your room to take a shower and change clothes. After that, you track down Lu-sensei and spend most of an hour talking with him about your performance in the round-robin matches, as well as some of the ideas for Ki techniques that you had, but didn't use, during them.
As it happens, expressing your aura to crush the will of weaker opponents is a time-honored technique in the halls of ki-based martial arts, and most of the spiritually-attuned ones besides. Lu-sensei hasn't taught it to you yet because of your age-
"Can you honestly tell me you WOULDN'T use it, every chance you got?"
-and because the technique is not only alarming but potentially dangerous for those who are exposed to it, especially the untrained. It's also profoundly unsubtle, and impossible to focus on a single target without "hitting" everyone else in the area, at least until you reach an advanced level of proficiency.
And, as you yourself have noted time and again, you live on the Hellmouth. Too many demons can sense semi-spiritual manifestations like that.
The idea you had of extending your ki into the ground to try and follow Altria's footprints is another ability Lu-sensei knows of, but it's not one he practices himself, considering it impractical, at best. For one thing, you need to be in constant contact with the ground the entire time you're using the skill, which isn't always possible. Secondly, different materials conduct ki, vibrations, and other forms of energy at different rates; trying to make sense of it all, much less in the heat of combat, is too much work for too little gain. Thirdly, it requires a prohibitive amount of ki to infuse a large enough area of ground for the technique to be at all useful. Finally, there are plenty of creatures that can bypass such ground-based abilities, whether by flying, by being incorporeal, or just by being really fast.
By Lu-sensei's account, the only way such a technique would become truly practical is if you were born with a natural mystical connection to the element you wanted to use, or were willing to spend decades cultivating such a link.
And no, he doesn't think that your burgeoning Earth Affinity counts. At least, not without a great deal more development.
If you want to improve your ability to track your opponents without looking at them, Lu-sensei recommends working on your Ki Sense more, or adjusting your Ki Enhancement to boost your non-visual senses. He can give you pointers on that, if you can find the time to practice. There's also a method for using an expressed aura to register foreign presences, but naturally, you need to learn HOW to properly express your aura before you can start trying to learn that.
As for using Body Flicker during grapples, Lu-sensei just repeats his cautionary advice.
"There are situations where it's worth the risk, but a friendly spar is not one of them."
After you've finished talking with your teacher, Altria and the boys track you down and all but drag you out to the lake where Altria has been practicing the Sword Beam. You spend the remainder of the afternoon here, offering pointers on how to use the technique.
The best you can say of this is that it's not a COMPLETE disaster. Kenneth and Lance both start out with a habit of trying to pour their own mana into the practice blades they're using, and while that IS one way to achieve an effect like the Sword Beam, it's not how the technique actually works.
Also, it blows up more than a few practice swords.
By the time dinner rolls around, Lance has shattered three swords and a dozen plain sticks, but has progressed to the point where he can draw on ambient energy rather than tapping into his reserves. Actually charging his blade with it is going to take more time.
Kenneth is STILL reflexively adding his own mana to his weapon, and managed to break a grand total of SEVEN of those practice blades before finally agreeing to switching over to sticks, of which he blew a good thirty to splinters.
As for Altria...
BOOM!
...yeah. Her dragon-aspected mana continues to not play nice with this skill. She started with sticks, and did not manage to avoid incinerating or shattering a single one, after something like sixty attempts.
The girl has dedication, but you're starting to think that wood is just not going to cut it as a medium for her practice. It's simply too fragile, and far too flammable.
Gained Mana Blade F (Plus)
After dinner, you spend a couple of hours watching a mini-tournament of a different sort, as Altria, Kenneth, Lance, and - rather surprisingly - Lucia face off with armies of miniatures. Lance borrows one of Altria's "spare" knightly armies, while Lucia fields her own, consisting of a bunch of elves that wield everything from bows to fancy-to-the-point-of-absurdity swords to very respectable looking magic staves.
One of them is riding a dragon.
Surprisingly, Lucia DOESN'T completely dominate the kids. As she explains it, she only became aware of the game after marrying Arthur, and didn't take it up as a hobby until Altria did. She's also more interested in it for the artistry of assembling and painting the miniatures than the strategic and tactical side.
Looking at her gloriously decked-out High Elves, whose pieces of armor and jewelry manage to almost glitter and gleam like the genuine article, you have to admit that Lucia does good work.
Gained Knowledge (Crafts) E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Strategy F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Although the wargame is interesting, you call it a night early, wanting to be fully-rested for the morning.
And so you are.
Following a more intense than normal purification ritual, a particularly filling breakfast, and reviewing of the upcoming ritual in your own mind and with Briar's input, you feel you are just about ready to leave.
Before you can announce this, one of the Drakes' servants enters the dining room to announce that a woman by the name of Navi has arrived outside the front gate, and is asking if you and your party are ready to go.
You are.
You do not hesitate to invite Altria to attend the ritual as a witness, and she is just as quick to accept your offer.
Bringing the wizard along also strikes you as the right thing to do. He DID make several significant contributions, helping you to sort out the ritual diagram you're going to use, and suggesting the location you ended up picking. It only makes sense to ask him if he wants to come along and see the outcome.
However, you're not sure if the old man is even in the house anymore. You didn't see him all day yesterday, and you're not sure if he left with the Drake brothers and Mr. Pritchard, went his own way, or spent the whole day holed up in his private chambers doing wizardly things.
Surely, if he was here, he would have showed up for the mini-tournament? If only to poke fun at people?
As it turns out, Ambrose did leave the estate at some point yesterday.
However, he also left something for you: a blue-tinted crystal ball, just small enough to fit neatly into the palm of your hand. When the servant who was asked to deliver it hands it over, the crystal starts to glow from within, and you hear Ambrose's voice:
"I appreciate your thoughtfulness in asking me along, lad, but I have a prior committment that can't wait. Apocalypse season waits for no man, I'm afraid. On the other hand, what's the point of being a wizard, if you can't use magic to get around the petty inconveniences of space, time, and mortality? With that in mind, I've left this little proxy to observe and record your ritual. It's programmed to self-activate when exposed to particular magical energies, it's got plenty of memory, and I wove its spell-matrices as tightly as possible, so that it wouldn't interfere with your spellwork. All you have to do is take it with you, drop it off for the ritual, and pick it up in the aftermath; I'll be able to review it later at my leisure. Assuming, of course, that the world hasn't ended in the meantime. And on that cheery note - ta!"
You regard the crystal. Aside from that telltale glow - which was actual physical light, however magical its creation - your passive Mage Sight hasn't picked up a thing from the crystal, which lends credence to Ambrose's claim of it not interfering with your magic.
The next person that you invite to witness the ceremony is Lucia. She considers it, but finally decides to stay at the estate.
"I trust Altria to behave herself out of my supervision for a few hours, and I trust you, your partner, and your teacher to see her home safely," Lucia says.
You can't say that you aren't a little disappointed by Lucia's decision, but she IS the lady of the house, and so has a duty to see to her other guests, whether or not they're family.
You had given some thought to inviting Anna Drake along, as she's both magically talented and showed an interest in learning about fairies - even if that interest seemed to be born out of a sense of self-preservation, in the face of Ambrose's sense of humor.
Lucia's polite refusal to accompany you almost has you deciding not to ask the eldest Drake daughter along, but you DID offer to help the older girl with her inability to see fairies. This would certainly be a way of doing that, as Navi doesn't share the selective visibility of immature fairies, and so you go ahead and make the offer anyway.
Anna is visibly surprised by your invitation, but quickly asks Lucia if she may accompany you. As soon as Lucia says yes, Anna hugs her, then excuses herself to change into something more appropriate for spending a few hours outdoors than the light dress she was already wearing.
You take the opportunity to extend a polite apology towards Mary Drake, Kenneth, and Lance for not asking them to come along.
They don't seem to mind.
About ten minutes later, your party of five is pulling up to the front gate, Tom Powell once again acting as your chauffeur. You picked up an honest-to-goodness picnic basket at some point between the dining hall and the front door, a lunch pressed upon you at Lucia's insistence.
As you and your companions emerge from the car, you spot Navi, standing patiently outside the gate. She's made a modest effort to appear human-ish, keeping her wings hidden and her aura restrained; she even went so far as to exchange her usual gossamer gown for a white blouse, blue sweater, and matching skirt that wouldn't look out of place in... okay, maybe the outfit would seem strange in Lucia's closet, but it still suits modern Earthly women's fashion.
The point is, the Great Fairy looks as normal and mundane as you've ever seen her.
Despite that, as soon as Altria and Anna lay eyes on Navi, they freeze, half-in and half-out of the car.
"Oh my," Anna murmurs.
"Alex...?" Altria asks.
"Altria, Anna," you say, "this is Navi, the Great Fairy of the Lost Woods of Hyrule, and Briar's mother. Lady Navi, these are Altria and Anna Drake, who have accepted my invitation to witness the ritual."
"Pleased to meet you, ladies," Navi says.
"Likewise, ma'am," Anna manages to get out.
"The same," Altria says, before falling silent, eyes wide, as Navi gives her a downright INTERESTED look.
...right. Altria's prior incarnation had some history with fairies, didn't she?
"Well, then," Navi says, as if she hadn't just been looking into Altria's soul. "This is everyone who's going?"
"It is," Lu-sensei says.
"Then let's be on our way."
You form a circle and join hands, youself to Navi's right, Lu-sensei to her left, with Altria next to you and her sister closing the circle.
Briar, as ever, takes her customary place on your shoulder.
Navi's magic rises-
-and the next thing you know, you're in the grove where you negotiated with the local place-spirit, and proved your right to use its home for your purposes by fighting an Earth Elemental, and defeating a Fire Elemental in an impromptu dance contest.
It looks quite a bit different by daylight.
It's currently just after eight o'clock. The eclipse will begin around ten, and will hit maximum totality about seventy-five minutes later - you'll be spending the period between ten and quarter-after eleven actually performing the ritual. As for the two hours leading up to it, you have some options.
You COULD spend the entire hundred and twenty minutes focusing on setting up for the ritual, and squeezing in a dry-run, so that everyone has a good idea of what to expect and where they should - and should NOT - be while you're making with the actual magic. It would be somewhat dull for your guests, as they'd have to stand through everything twice.
Alternately, you could skip the last-minute rehearsal. It'll only take you an hour or so to set everything up to your satisfaction, and you could spend the remaining time talking with your guests and taking it easy, so that you aren't too wound up when you actually begin the ritual.
You see no reason not to indulge Ambrose's request. Rather the opposite, in fact; if he has a recording of your ritual, you can at least attempt to get a copy for your own use.
Mary Drake admits to having the same objective in mind, which is one of the reasons why she's not upset at being left off your guest list.
Gained Ambrose's Recording Crystal
You've spent months preparing for this ritual.
You've ventured halfway around the world - in three different directions - slipped the bounds of earth and gravity, and crossed through the fabric of reality itself to reach other planes of existence entirely.
You've encountered creatures ranging from the savage to the civilized, the mundane to the exotic to the flat-out eldritch. Some of them, you've dealt with in a reasonable manner, trading your abilities for services in kind. Others, you've beaten up to take their stuff.
You have gone above and beyond the call of mere necessity, gathering rare and potent materials to empower this ceremony.
You have fought and bled and BURNED for the ritual.
So why would you start holding back NOW?
You hand Ambrose's Recording Crystal over to Altria and spend the next half-hour walking the grove, holding the sheet with Ambrose's Familiar Ritual Circle drawn on it before you as you get a feel for how the local energies flow, and where the diagram and each of your reagents need to be placed to have their optimum effects.
Then you get out Akkiko's Scroll of Consecration, invoke the spell within, and repeat the process of walking the grove, to see how the purifying energy you've just unleashed interacts with the natural forces, and what, if any, changes you need to make to the layout of your diagram.
Expended Akkiko's Scroll of Consecration
That only takes about ten minutes, all told, and you're pleased to note that no major adjustments will be required. One or two minor details could stand to be tweaked, but wouldn't have hampered the ceremony if you'd left them as-is.
You're still going to change them, of course. Only the best will do.
Your next step is to ritually-conjure the powdered silver you need to lay down the ritual diagram, modified to include those "tweaks." Although you could have simply created the metal where you wanted it, you opt to take your time instead, walking the purified area of the grove once more, silver dust spilling from your hand - and your dimensional pocket, where you stored the product of your Spell of Creation - to form the precise lines and angles, graceful curves, and arcane symbols of the ritual circle.
Gained Drawing F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Once the diagram is completed to your satisfaction, you begin taking your chosen reagents from your pocket and laying them down in their proper places.
In the outer circle, Searfang's Horns go to the East, representing Fire and the rising sun. Directly across from them goes the Glacial Core Fragment, your reagent of Water, which is soon wreathed by mist in the cool morning air, yet which you have no fear of seeing melt. To the South, you pile the rich soil you took from the Gate to Faerie, and in the North, you set the bottle containing the Essence of Wind. When the time comes, you will open that bottle, but for the moment, it remains shut.
In the middle ring, adjacent to Earth, you set down the Antarctic Meteorite, anchoring Time to your ritual. Across from it, at a sixty-degree angle that ends between Air and Fire, you deposit the jar of Ectoplasm - that, too, remains closed for now, to be opened when the moment is right. To complete the trinity of Time, Spirit, and Life, you have chosen a mix of your blood and Briar's. That will also wait for the ceremony proper, but for now, the place between Air and Water is occupied by the wooden bowl that will catch the offering, and the clean, conjured silver knives that will draw it.
One of those blades is human-sized. The other is tiny.
Finally, for the triangle that makes up your inner ring, you place the small sphere that is the Essence of Shadow at the corner opposite to Time, a silent testament to the fact that both Light and Darkness are transitory states, one fading into the next. West of Time's position is Kagome's Ofuda with its message of friendship and camaraderie, closer to - though still removed from - the element of Fire, and across from Life. The Potion of Blindness completes the innermost layer, binding Darkness between Earth, Water, and Time.
Expended Reagents
These preparations have consumed an hour, and for most of that time, your four witnesses have been standing well back, watching and quietly speaking amongst themselves. Navi has been doing most of the talking, explaining for the benefit of Lu-sensei and the Drake sisters just what purpose each of your actions serves in the greater framework of the ceremony.
Now, with your set-up complete, you announce that you'd like to perform a single rehearsal, both as a final check that you've done everything correctly, and to give your audience an idea of what to expect when the real magic starts.
You ask each of them to take a particular spot outside the circle.
With her dragon's soul, Altria is a clear match for the Element of Fire, and as such, you ask her to stand to the East.
As a Great Fairy, Navi could easily occupy any of the remaining cardinal positions, but given the potency of Altria's energy, you have her take a position to the Northwest, anchoring Air and Water. The long association between fountains and the fairies of Hyrule make this an apt match, as does Navi's innate power of flight, and the mastery over Air it represents.
To the Southwest, forming the other corner of an isosceles triangle with Altria and Navi, you place Lu-sensei. His personal focus on the physical, tangible teachings of the School of the Five Elements make him a fair match for Earth, while his non-magical, purely human nature contrasts Altria's dragon-influence essence as surely as Water does Fire.
To the Southeast, you place Ambrose's Recording Crystal, which began levitating on its own almost as soon as you passed it over to Altria, and has proven somewhat receptive to requests. Its physical composition fits Earth perfectly, and while the energy bound up in it is not the most ideal match to Fire, being the creation of Altria's teacher gives it a good link to her.
Finally, you ask Anna Drake to stand in the Northwest. She IS a magic-user of some skill, and the mystery, study, and versatility associated with the art are very reasonable matches for the Element of Air, while her blood-relation to Altria overcomes any lack of a special affinity for Fire.
With this loose pentagram formed, you begin your rehearsal with a prayer to the Goddesses - or at least the outward display of one.
Well, would you look at that. He's actually doing it.
Your rehearsal goes off without any significant issues.
About time. I was starting to think he'd decide that he hadn't done ENOUGH yet.
Oh, you get a bit of color commentary from your audience, Navi interrupts you a few times to correct your pronunciation of certain words, and Lu-sensei suggests about a third of the way into things that everyone should sit down, since they'll be expected to keep standing for the entire hour-long ritual.
Where did this obsession with over-engineering things come from, anyway?
At no point, however, do you make any real mistakes, nor does anyone actually interfere with your recitation.
Maybe it's Ganondorf's influence bleeding through again?
As the hour you allotted for practice winds down, you feel satisfied.
I mean, LINK always grabs everything that isn't nailed down, and HE always wins in the end, so...
It's time.
You... might be on to something, there...
Let the ceremony begin.
Your guests stand - or hover - in their appointed places, while Briar leaves her spot on your shoulder to hover in front of you, within the innermost circle of your ritual diagram.
Everyone's attention is on you, but your attention is split between tracking the flow of energy in the world around you, and the state of the sky.
That last one is a bit tricky to follow accurately, given your position near the center of the glade, which puts you underneath the ancient tree that grows there. Fortunately, the air is calm, so while you're cast into shadow by the crown of the tree, you at least don't have to worry about the level of light shifting back and forth as the branches swayed in the breeze.
Then you feel it.
The faintest increase in the ambient Shadow.
Here, at least, the eclipse has begun.
And so, at long last, you begin the ceremony.
This time, when you pray to the Goddesses, it's with your full conviction, and your Power flowing freely through your being. You invoke Din's protection against external interference, Nayru's guidance to prevent you from making mistakes, and Farore's blessing upon your endeavor, meant as it is to form a link between two living beings - one of them a fairy.
Following the opening prayer, you begin the ritual proper, drawing upon the elemental energies that fill the clearing, gathering and shaping and releasing ever more potent and complex workings of magic and will and wonder.
One by one, you tie these insubstantial weaves to your chosen reagents, forming constructs that will - at least temporarily - alter the local flows of power into something more suited for your needs. Each time you bind an element to its representative, the reagent in question begins to glow and emit a faint sound. At first discordant and senseless, these emanations slowly fall into a pattern as you set more and more weaves, carefully adjusting the existing ones to accomodate and complement the new additions.
The result is not quite a song.
But then, you are not finished.
Earth, Water, Air, and Fire are invoked and bound without issue. The brief pause when Navi obliges you by unsealing the Essence of Wind does nothing to hinder your progress, and while the unleashed elemental mass immediately shoots out of its vessel, its newfound ties to the greater ritual hold it steady, as surely as it binds the power of Air to your working.
Time and Spirit are likewise added to the growing ritual with no trouble.
As for Life...
You have to squat and stretch a bit to reach the wooden bowl and the silver knife it contains, but you manage. Briar flutters over to take up the smaller of the two blades, and then hovers in place, waiting for you to perform your half of this phase of the ritual.
It would be very dramatic if you were to slash your palm or something, but that would be stupid, reckless, unnecessary, and just plain wasteful. All you need is three drops of blood, and so, all you do is prick the end of your left index finger and let it hang over the bowl, squeezed between your thumb and middle finger to offset the natural clotting action while you state your willingness to bond with Briar, not as master and familiar, but as partners in magic, and life.
Drop.
One for Power, for the body, and the world without.
Drop.
One for Wisdom, for the mind, and the world within.
Drop.
One for Courage, for the spirit, and the world withal.
Pulling back your hands, left hand turned over with the index finger curled over your palm to avoid spilling any additional blood, you let Briar perform her part.
"Ow," she mutters, before affirming her agreement to your pact.
Drop.
One for Power, for the body, and the world without.
Drop.
One for Wisdom, for the mind, and the world within.
Drop.
One for Courage, for the spirit, and the world withal.
Though you don't truly hear the impact of the tiny drops of Fae blood within the bowl, each is accompanied by a progressively larger flash of magical energy - first a tiny spark, then a bright burst, and finally, the same manner of radiant glow shared by the other activated reagents.
Briar rejoins you in the center of the circle, and you proceed with the next stage of the ritual, calling upon the powers of Light, Shadow, and Darkness.
Powers of Darkness... hear me!
That order is no coincidence.
Wait, what was... uh-oh.
By this time, the eclipse has progressed to the point where the aura of Shadow is being overtaken by one of Darkness, as the Moon approaches the point of true occultation.
Servants of Chaos... heed me!
Invoking the Element of Light now not only fits your personal preference for this circle of powers and lends Light's properties of purification and blessing to the ritual, it will also let conclude the invocation of elements with Darkness, rightly applying its property of endings - and so drawing power away from the other, less beneficial aspects of Darkness.
Not happening!
And yet despite this, and all the other precautions you've taken, you can't escape a chill as the aura of Darkness grows stronger.
Children of the Night... harken to me!
It's impossible for you to forget that this eclipse is the same one that heralds the rebirth of the Dark Lord Dracula.
Din, would you mind?
With an effort, you force yourself to shut away those concerns, and focus on your spell.
The time has come! The Dark Lord rises again! He calls to you-
There's one final stage of the ceremony that must be completed.
Not. At. All. Hey, tall, dark, and pasty?
Resolute, and trusting not only in your own efforts, but the protection of the Goddesses, you proceed.
-serve... eh? Who DARES-
With an exertion of magic, spirit, and will, you focus the power of the ritual through your half-formed bond to Briar-
PISS. OFF.
-and in a short, sharp flash of pain, sever the Hellmouth-contaminated link completely.
GAAAAHHHH! IT BUUUURRRRNNNNSSSS!
Even though you were braced for it, you can't suppress the gasp of pain that comes with the cutting of that bond. Twisted and tainted as it was, it's been with you for over a year, a source of reassurance and companionship. To lose it...
Good riddance. Now, then, where were... oh, good, I didn't miss it!
From the audible whimper and the way Briar drops a good three inches in the air before catching herself, you aren't the only one who felt that.
Shhh! This is the best part!
Fortunately, there's an easy fix.
You adjust your metaphysical grip on the magic, "aim" it in a different direction, and will it to flow through the array beneath your feet.
The silver powder erupts into silver FLAMES as the magic shoots through the diagram, spreading along every line and curve and leaping to each seemingly-indepent sigil as it goes. Where the surge of power reaches a reagent, the gathered material momentarily FLARES with potency and purity, before being utterly consumed.
The Gatesoil burns like paper in a fireplace, leaving even less than ash.
The Glacial Core Fragment sublimates instantly, and even its steaming residue is rapidly consumed.
The Essence of Wind swirls even more wildly, before breaking apart.
Searfang's Horns are shot through with lines of reddish-gold, recalling the monster's molten makeup, before bursting asunder.
The Antarctic Meteorite crumbles away, as if a billion years of erosion had taken place in the span of seconds.
The Ectoplasm boils away with a ghostly cry.
The mingled blood-
"HOLY-!"
-does SOMETHING, but you're not able to see what, because in the same moment that it happens, the link that was just broken is replaced, with a feeling as of LIQUID FIRE POURING THROUGH YOUR VEINS.
But in a GOOD way.
You're pretty thoroughly distracted by this unprecedented sensation, but the ritual allowed a couple of minutes of "breathing room" at this point for precisely that reason, so you'll forgive yourself for missing the particular reactions that consume the last three reagents.
AND DONE!
Gained Familiar Bond
In the wake of the completion of the Familiar Binding Ritual, there is a long moment of silence.
You gladly take this opportunity to NOT do anything, to instead relax and unwind after over an hour of near-continuous spellcasting. The spells that went into the ritual were nowhere near the most powerful ones that you're capable of casting, and performing them all in the ritual manner prevented them from drawing on your internal reserves of mana, but you were still handling a not-insignificant amount of power for an extended period of time.
The break that you allow yourself is brief, because you still have clean-up to do. Then, too, getting in some minor spellcasting wouldn't be a bad idea, for much the same reason that you're supposed to do cool-down exercises after a period of intense or extended physical activity.
Your first spell is a telekinetic cantrip to gather up what few physical traces your reagents left, after the spell-fire consumed them. This doesn't amount to much, as the Glacial Core Fragment, Essence of Wind, Ectoplasm, mixed blood, Essence of Shadow, Potion of Blindness, and Kagome's Ofuda all dissipated completely, leaving nothing but three empty glass containers in their wake. The silver knives and wooden bowl you used to draw and hold those six drops of blood have vanished as well, but that comes as no real surprise, seeing as how they were conjured in the first place. By the same token, all the conjured silver powder is gone, leaving only an incomplete burn in the grass to indicate it was ever here.
Aside from residual traces left in the flask, jar, and bottle, all your spell gathers up are seared and broken shards of the Antarctic Meteorite and Searfang's Horns, as well as a pile of thick ash that used to be the Gatesoil. You poke at these with your mystical senses, but aside from the mana signature that was all but burnt into them by the ritual's climax, these leftovers are completely mystically inert.
If nothing else, at least you can re-use the glassware, once it's been properly cleansed.
Pocketing the leavings of the ritual, you draw upon your limited knowledge of druidism to cast a Wood Elemental spell, healing the grass of as much of its incidental damage as you can. The burns aren't really that serious, as they didn't touch the roots, but repairing the harm you did to the grove will not only eliminate the biggest piece of physical evidence from your ritual, it'll go some way to maintaining good relations with the guardian spirit of this place.
After all, you might want to use this site again in the future.
And even if you don't, there's no need to go around upsetting place-spirits strong enough to have combat-grade elementals on call. Even if you ARE strong enough to beat said elementals in a straight fight.
Gained King of Spirits D
"Well," Lu-sensei says. "That was honestly more of a show than I was expecting." He pauses, pulls a pair of dark glasses out from somewhere, and holds them over his eyes as he looks towards the sky. "And it looks like we haven't completely missed the eclipse, either."
Anna and Altria look at him, then ALMOST look towards the sky, before catching themselves. Your master came prepared for this, and hands out more of those glasses, even passing you and Navi your own sets.
The Great Fairy accepts the eyewear with a curious expression, both bemused and thoughtful.
It occurs to you that, with your teleportation, you could move somewhere further west along the path of the eclipse, letting your party see more of the spectacle without the distraction of your ritual. Lucia and her other guests were going to drive to a good location - you could meet up with them. And there is that basket lunch...
On the other hand, you ARE feeling a little wrung out by the magic you just finished working, and Navi isn't likely to hang around too long, now that the ritual is over. Staying here to watch the remainder of the "local" eclipse before heading back does sound awfully tempting - but then again, so does just returning to the estate.