M.D.Syl
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Chapter 66 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-03-28 09:53:24 +0000 UTCAuthor notes:
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Chapter 66 The Best Birthday Gift.
Every being needs to feel loved.
Everyone needs to know someone appreciates them.
If one cannot admit it to oneself,
then the fool misses out a major part of life.
Koshavi, Princess of Dreams.
Someone knocks on the door to the room. Berthold holds a torch while Salik and Lezere move the rotten furniture we use for a barricade. The knocks turn urgent, and now spiders are screeching outside.
I get up to my feet, and rush to the door. I reach for my necklace and gem pouch, ready to drain them and cast spells.
Salik and Lezere open it, exposing Kolag's metallic figure. I hadn’t even noticed he left. He pushes the struggling Ryon into the room, and hacks at the incoming spiders. The eight eyed creatures pounce on him from all directions, up, down, left, and right. Kolag waves his claymore wildly, cutting through white hairy legs like butter. I watch wide eyed as one of them get passed his defenses. The fangs bites into Kolag's back and snap on his armor with a loud sickening crack. Purple venom drips down the broken mandible, and green blood torrents out when a major part of the spider's head is gone with its fangs.
Kolag turns and hacks the spider's head into two additional pieces.
Another spider is about to pounce from the opposite side, I can tell how coordinated they are, and they just broke Kolag's rhythm. "Rinim ril shariss!" <Ice sharp fly!> I launch an icy spike into spider's abdominal sack, using the last of my water mana, it screeches and limps away.
Lezere uses the moment to tag Kolag inside, and Salik seals the door, leaning his back on it. The spiders pound at the door outside, but Lezere and Kolag join Salik, leaning on the heavy door.
Soon, the spiders cease their attempts to break in, and silence ensues. The three push the barricade of rotten furniture back into place.
Kolag drops in a heap of tired metal, leaning back against the wall. Green gore covers his dark armor. He pulls a hairy spider leg from under his left pauldron and throws it to the ground.
"Kaka! Had fun, metal man?" Lezere punches his shoulder.
"This wasn't about fun, my friend, this was about saving a life," he rebukes with an echo.
"I hope it was worth the risk, kid." Salik notes, taking the torch from Berthold.
Kolag lifts his metallic gaze to the tall merc. "We're all alive, aren't we? I call that a win."
“Ya try this! Da’ eggs are so tasty! Just need some cookin’!” Ryon exclaims, hopping in place like a giddy child.
“What eggs?” I ask with a frown.
“Da’ big eggs outside! They green but they real tasty!”
Oh venom… he didn’t!
Berthold covers his mouth and groans, while Salik bushy eyebrows almost reach his hairline. "You call that a 'win'?" he asks.
“Don’t take the power from a baby, eat the mother I dare you!” Lezere calls out from her spot near Kolag.
Ryon beams at her. “Oy big jugs lady! I beat you, then we snake!”
Lezere snorts, and gets up from near Kolag. “Later skinny, we sleep now.”
"Yeah. Lights out, kids." Salik smirks. "Anyone else need something before I put out the torch? No? Good night then. Sleep tight." He doesn't wait for a response before he stomps the torch, and a blanket of darkness falls over my battered party.
People move in the darkness, I hear awkward whispers, chuckles, and snorts. It’s too dark to make out anything , but I can tell that everyone settle in their spot. The whispers of Salik and Berthold can barely be heard in the dark room. Along with Sharla’s occasional unconscious moan and Jerro’s comforting words. Ryon and Lezere are a bit louder, letting out a chuckle or two.
My eyes stray toward Kolag, even if I can barely spot his large figure in the dark. A part of me wants to talk to him, to tell him how I feel. But it feels too awkward in this crowded room. I may die tomorrow, he might die tomorrow. I have to tell him how I feel…
“Fotyr” <Fire> the flickering flame in my palm shed enough light for me to spot where Kolag’s armor is. I clasp my hand to shut the fire so I won't have to waste magical gems, and crawl to Kolag’s side. I sit near him with my back to the wall, my heart pounding rapidly in my chest. “You went out to rescue him anyway…”
“Yes.”
I switch to Toml’a, our mother tongue. I figure half of the people here don’t speak it. “Did he need your help?”
“No.”
“I really missed you,” I say from the bottom of my heart. I missed him. His altruistic nature. His utter selflessness which I am still so jealous of. Even after a year of being apart, I kept thinking about him. And now he’s here again, doing everything he can to keep everyone alive, without compromise.
“You did?” I can hear the surprise in his resonating voice. He probably expected criticism from me, not this.
“I did… I meant what I told you that day, I love you too. Being apart for a year just made this feeling stronger. I am way too lonely, way too ambitious. I need a good-hearted person like you who isn’t afraid to stop me from making a heartless mistake…”
“Inara I…”
“Use my name,” I cut him in the middle of his sentence.
“I can’t, that… I don’t know what to even call the monster you call a master. But she… she did something to my head, to everyone’s head. I know Inara isn’t your name, but I don’t remember what it was, no matter how hard I try…”
She wiped my name even from his head?! Snakes! And what will happen if I tell him? No… she must’ve prepared for that option… and I’m not testing this on Kolag… Maybe I should test this on Ryon… too dangerous… She went to great lengths to hide my name… it’s probably not something I should compromise… not on a whim… “I’m sorry…”
“You have nothing to apologize for, but you shouldn’t love me. I can’t offer you much. I can’t even take off my armor for the physical aspect of the relationship between a man and a woman, I…”
“What if I’m not looking for the physical aspect?! What if I’m looking for what’s in here?” I knock on his armor with my fist on his heart. “Ever thought about that?”
“Do you not want children?” he sounds puzzled.
“You’re more important to me than children.” I don’t think I can have children anyway… I'm pretty sure I'm infertile...
He chuckles mirthlessly. “It’s kind of you to say that. I’ve always wanted children of my own. They say children make women happy, but I disagree, it’s not only women… Not like this damned demon would allow me to even have such a thing. It’s only a fleeting dream now…”
“Then we’ll find a way to get rid of that demon and then…” And then what? Then I’ll tell you that I’m probably infertile and I can’t even have children? I shouldn’t lie to him about that… if that’s something he wishes for, then he deserves to know… not that I talked about it… I don’t even think about it… I’d rather not… it’s just a suspicion… voicing it will make it real… and maybe I’m wrong… maybe my body just takes longer to develop? I’ll deal with it once we manage to get rid of that demon. One problem at a time.
“I’m a broken man Inara… the man you knew is dead and buried… I did terrible things…”
I glide my hand on his helmet. If only I could touch his face... “The Kolag I knew would go out to save Ryon. You act just like I remember, so you did not change one bit! Besides, I doubt you can beat me when it comes to terrible…”
He cuts me off. “I killed a helpless woman, I stabbed my sword right through her heart. That was me. My choice. Not the demon.”
“I ate multiple human beings, and their souls,” I state dryly.
“I refuse to believe that!”
I sigh. “I did… I didn’t know it was human meat when I did that… but it’s not an excuse. I still can’t forgive myself, it’s something I have to live with. I’m sure you had a good reason for killing that woman. It’s not as if you’ve never killed before. Or do you only have a problem with killing women?”
“It was Janara…”
So Janara is dead too… I hate this world… but Janara and I didn’t exactly part on the best of terms… not to mention she told Rushmia that I killed Purson, asked her to punish me probably... “Good! She had it coming.”
“You don’t hate me?”
I can tell how much he wants me to hate him, how much he hates himself, and I hate that he hates the man I love. “Should I? Janara told the red witch I killed Purson, without even hearing me out first. I only got away because she wanted a clean conscious. I’m glad she’s dead. That’s one less mentally unstable enemy to worry about.”
“I d…”
“Just stop!” I cut him off before he even has the chance to speak. “You’ll have to try a lot harder than that if you want to convince me that you’re a bad person. I'm already tired of this silly competition of who the worse person is. I don’t care what you think, I love you! You deserve someone that loves you and that’s me. And we both know you love me too. So just drop the whole: ‘I’m a bad guy and I don’t deserve to be loved’ act and hug me!” I lower the pitch of my voice, mimicking him for a bit there.
“I… very well.” He wraps his hand around my shoulder awkwardly. His metal-clad chest is cold, but the inner side of his leather-covered arm is warm. I’ve waited for this moment for a whole year… I guess I didn’t know how much I needed this until now.
We pass a long silent moment like that. I attempt to leech out all the warmth out of his arm, I am desperate for it.
His arm tighten on my back for a brief moment, before he speaks again, cutting off the silent moment we had. “Just promise me one thing…”
“Anything!”
“That you’ll kill me if this demon ever takes over.”
“Anything but that!”
He lets go of my shoulder and make me face him in the darkness. “I mean what I say. If I can’t… if we can’t find a way to get rid of this demon. I’ll need you to kill me. Promise me that!”
He said we... “We’re going to find a way!”
“And if we won’t?! I’m no longer the naïve idiot I used to be. I know that good doesn’t always prevail, we don’t always get a good ending like in the bards’ tales. If you want me to act on my feelings toward you then promise me that! I can’t risk you. I can’t have you hesitating to put me down just because of your feelings! This demon had ended enough lives, if it harms you too then I… I…” The way he squeezes my arms hurts me. He sighs and let go of my hands. “You can suppress your heart when you have to, and you can make difficult choices such as this. Promise me that if you see that there’s no hope for me, and this demon is going to take over, that you’ll kill it, and me with it. That’s my only wish from you. So if you love me, you’ll promise me.”
I sigh. “Fine! But only if you promise me to try every other way before we go there. That I decide to do it, not you. You'll sacrifice yourself for some noble idea of saving someone. I don't want you to. Promise me that you'll stop treating your life as expandable, and I'll promise you that I'll kill you if it comes to that.”
“I promise. Thank you. That's all I ask...” he wraps his hand around me again for another long moment of silence. Grimoires and magical books are great and all... but this is the best birthday gift I could ask for!
*~*~*
Interlude 66.1
Berthold.
Berthold finds himself in a curious but scary company.
An orc lady who sees him as a weakling. A Noxite who actually appears to be virtuous instead of a diehard fanatic, but that remains to be seen. And why wouldn’t he take off his armor? An oath? Noxites can be weird sometimes.
A street boy with disgusting habits and items he had never seen before. Is it magic? If it is, why does he throw it around like throwing knives, and if it’s not, then how do you make something like that?
A prophet of Tiyadi. Berthold never liked the emissaries of death, they have much to answer for. But this one seems to have lost his mind entirely. If Berthold didn't make that deal with the witch, he'd put an arrow in the prophet's head and end his misery.
A real fairy! But she’s dying.
And the boss… except he’s no longer the boss. Now he’s just obeying the windy mage lady that scares the rotten venom out of Berthold. Someone who can kill with a flicker of her fingers would scare just about anyone. Berthold is quite surprised that the rest of the people here aren’t as scared of her as he is.
What is Berthold even doing here? He doesn’t belong in this group. He’s just a simple scout, a simple guy from Axero city, just getting by day by day while gathering money for his mother and sister… He doesn’t belong in this group of heroes from an epic bard’s tale… He’s the guy who dies in the bard’s tales… the guy nobody who hears the story will miss.
This is all for his mother and sister. Berthold grits his teeth. They have to make it, even if he loses his life in the process, even if that mage lady kills him, even if…
Berthold shakes his head. He can’t think about it. But the thoughts won’t let him sleep. It’s best to engage in some conversation. Berthold examines the people in the thin moonlight coming out of the windows.
The boss is already snoring. The prophet with the fairy in his arms doesn’t seem like he wants to be disturbed, not that Berthold would enjoy the company of a death fanatic.
The same goes for the mage lady who cuddles with the knight of all people. Don’t Noxites hate magic in all forms? How comes they're together?
Berthold can't wrap his head around that.
There aren’t many options left. “Hello. My name is Berthold. How did you get yourself into this snow pile?” Berthold crawls toward the young ebony-skinned thief.
“What snow pile?” The thief's white teeth shine in the moonlight, he cocks his head and licks his lips with a puzzled look on his face.
“You know… this group, this party, following Inara into fighting spiders…”
“Ah… I wanna trick to heavy head curse! Now I have all da tricks! You go away now. I only talk to da women with the fat jugs!”
Berthold chuckles. “Women, uh? Let me tell you about some ladies that I’ve met in the forest…”
The thief’s mouth cracks a huge grin as he listens to Berthold’s wild tales and escapades.
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: formed: 1 gem replenished per five minutes.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 66
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 6 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 18 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 14 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 27 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 4 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 40/41 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating.
Light: Noxi’s Light, Lako’s Blinding Light.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet.
Earth:
Wood:
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s lesser shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body.
Spells known:
Gravity: Alino’s weightless bodyb.
Focus capability: 12 patterns
Social status: Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries.
Wealth: 1854 gems. 1421 golden peas, 7 silver scales, 37 copper bits.
Items:
Magical necklace. Contain a 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keep the pouches’ content fresh.
Fresh rose petals, 25g
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 2/100
Companions:
Kolag of house Befar.
Lezere of the black fang tribe.
Salik.
Berthold.
Jerro.
Sharla?
Loyal
Ryon
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> Fluent
Myrsha <Gravity> 6/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
Injuries and scars:
