M.D.Syl
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Chapter 61 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-03-11 16:56:45 +0000 UTCAuthor notes:
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Chapter 61 Kabit.
I’m one little spider, crawling on the ceiling.
I collect dust, webs, and tiny little bugs.
I’m ugly, no one wants me, even my mother tried to eat me!
But I live, hunt, and lay eggs!
Maybe I'll eat my children too, yummy!
Mayan, the Ocean Fairy.
{27} Koshavi (February) the 20th
I may have gone to bed but I do not go to sleep. I am too scared to sleep. Instead, I sit and meditate. I draw mana from my necklace, and work on connecting my crown pool. My necklace isn’t as good as souls, and it runs out of mana pretty fast. It could be compared to a tenth of a single soul bottle. But it’s definitely better and faster than without any mana source.
Now when the initial excitement of Kynator showing up had died down, I am actually annoyed by it. I have five bottles of ectoplasm, and the hag wouldn’t even give them a glance. I can only look forward to my soul bath when these people leave for their war.
It’s frustrating. I want to take it now, to connect my crown mana pool. To win my bet and receive another reward. From the necklace on my chest, I know that the hag’s rewards are quite good.
But now I have to wait patiently for this matter to blow over, all while attempting to ignore the creeping fear that the hag and my “siblings” might die in this battle.
If they all die what will happen to me? I doubt the other side of this war will simply let me go. Maybe I should run away until this blows over? But if I do, I’ll display to all of my ‘siblings’ that I am a coward. And in the future, if I ever need their help they wouldn’t come to my aid…
I have many frustrations to vent and I channel them all into my meditation. If I’m honest with myself I also feel jealous, jealous that the hag’s attention is stolen by them. This is ironic, before they came I didn’t want her attention. It scared me, she scared me. But now I know that if I want to enter mage’s society, I’ll have to accept that many people there are cannibals…
I’m still not sure if I can accept it… this is disgusting… it also makes sense why normal people fear mages so much, and why there are so many rumors of mages going on random killing sprees. I never believed these rumors up until now… But if killing people and consuming them grants them power, I can understand why they do it. Mages are a very ambitious bunch…
I’ve been meditating for hours now, but something feels off. Is that my mana flow? No that’s fine… there’s just this ominous feeling… I can’t calm down… like this Trinag is watching me… or Balusha’s eyes… let’s take a break… It's mostly just more left over mental strain from that cellar... I should try and calm down from feeling hunted all the time…
I open my eyes.
“aaaaaAAAHH!”
I can’t control the surprised shriek that leaves my mouth, nor my reaction to jump backward on my bed.
There is another face an inch from my own, but this face hangs upside down. The woman floats with her head pointed at the ground right in front of me. Her blank expression doesn't change, not even when I jump back and scream.
I pant. Then take a deep calming breath. I blink. She’s still there with her legs pointing at the low ceiling, her eyes are closed, and her freckled face stays blank.
I observe her quietly. There’s a small ink stain right below her ear. Her raven colored hair is collected in a tight bun, and unlike Balusha, it doesn’t seem like she modified her body to look overly attractive.
Her petite body is covered by a heavy blue velvet dress that widens out from her waist down—or should I say up. Even if she’s hanging upside down, the skirt doesn’t fall downward. It covers her legs entirely as if she’s standing on the floor.
I recognized this first level spell, it’s called ‘Gravity Point’. For her; down is indeed upward, and she most likely combined it with some form of levitation spell to float up to me, or down.
“I take it you’re another one of my sisters?” I ask, gathering my wits.
A pair of gorgeous purple eyes open slowly as if she's waking up from a deep sleep or trance. “Your meditation, it’s very good.” her voice is faint. Not a whisper, yet barely heard.
“Uh… thanks?” I think?
She stares at me with those mesmerizing purple eyes of hers. It’s hard to look away, and yet she scares me. Like Balusha, she feels like a predator, unlike Balusha, this predator kills its prey by hypnotizing it. We spend the next minute looking into each other’s eyes in silence.
“Mom sent me to supervise your soul bath.” I jolt up. It’s like her words break some sort of spell.
So the hag didn’t forget about me! Phew… At least I can connect my crown mana pool! Hopefully I’ll even connect my gravity one too today! But that’s too much to hope for… connecting them is supposed to be harder than opening…
Can I trust this woman? She’s probably eating humans too. “You’re not going to put human souls in there, right?”
She cocks her head, leaning it to the side. “Mom said not to…”
Mom... Firuk is a momma's boy... this is a momma's girl... “Are you going to hang up there all day?”
She flips sideways and lands on her feet. “Is this less uncomfortable for you?”
“Yes, thank you.” Would be more comfortable if you didn’t hang two millimeters from my face while I meditated, but I’ll take it…
“You’re welcome.” She sits near me on my bed, her hand touching my shoulder hesitantly. She nods to herself. “Can we be friends?” she asks in a toneless quiet voice, her other hand is offered forward for a shake.
Eh?! I look at the hand she offers me dumbstruck. This woman is just as crazy as my other ‘sister’ couldn’t I get normal ones?! It doesn’t hurt to be friendly
“Sure… you didn’t give me your name…”
“I can’t tell you my real na… oh you mean my mage name, oh, oh! Of course you do. Oh, right, forgot about that. Umm… what was it again? Ah yes! I am Kabit.” The name means ‘Spider’ in Myrsha. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hag gave her that name because she tends to hang upside down from the ceilings. “Your name is Inara, correct?” The slow tone in her voice turns somewhat cheerful.
“Yes…” I shake her hand.
“It’s nice to have another female sister. All I had until now was the boys and Balusha… and that ooze jugs…” Kabit’s soft hazy voice turns into a loud whisper while her finger circles the crown of her head. “She’s crazy as snow!”
You’re not exactly the picture of mental health yourself, lady. But if I had to choose between you two… I guess I’d choose you? At least you’re friendlier… A spider and a scorpion huh? Both are poisonous…
“We’ve met…”
She nods and continues in her soft hazy voice. “Then you know what I am talking about. I sincerely hope you won’t try to kill me over a man or mating rituals that I am not interested in. It’s nice to have someone else who primes gravity. If you want any tips, do let me know…”
“Primes gravity?”
Black thin eyebrows crease into a deep frown. “Isn’t gravity your prime element? Your name is Inara… why would mom use another language to name you? Is water your prime element?”
Ah… “No, gravity is my strongest element. I just never heard the term…”
“Oh. My mistake. Mom keeps it hush hush until it’s time to ascend and fuse with your elemental… umm… can I hug you?” Her soft voice turns toneless; it lacks any warmth.
Hug me?! We’ve just met! You don’t even know me! “Sure…” Her hug is tight and very uncomfortable. It also feels odd. As if she isn’t sitting on the bed beside me, she floats even now. But I can’t imagine why she’d want to spend the mana on floating.
She breaks the awkward hug. “I sincerely hope my hug was done correctly. First impressions are important." Yeah... try not to hang from the ceiling in front of my face maybe... "Soo… Should we take a bath?” She floods her voice with fake cheerfulness again.
“We?”
“I sincerely hope that you do not mind if I join you. I understand if you do, and shall refrain. But if you’re worried about the souls, you don’t have to. It does not matter if two people or ten people use the same water, and I can also help you connect your mana pools faster…”
You’re damn right I worry about the souls. I worked hard to get them. Go eat your humans or whatever it is you eat. Besides. We’ve just met. And you already want to take a bath with me… what the hell?! Wait… are you attracted to me? Rot, who knows and who cares… I know you said I can refuse, but can I even say no?
“I think I need to eat the meat first?”
“Oh yeah. I nearly forgot to mention. I’ve prepared the meat for us too. Come along now.” She leaves my room, motioning me to follow her. The way she walks is odd. It seems like she floats forward. Given that the hems of her blue skirt touch the ground, it’s impossible to tell. But I still think she’s floating, because her hips don’t move in the slightest. And she’s a gravity mage, floating should be an easy thing for her. I wouldn’t be surprised if her choice of dress is meant to distract people from the fact that she’s constantly floating.
Down in the kitchen, I can tell the hag is the one who taught her how to cook, the dishes are very similar. “It’s really good, Kabit!” I compliment her, both to be polite and because the food is amazing indeed.
“That’s why I am so happy there is another female sister. The boys never compliment my cooking.” she says with a tiny smile and a hazy voice.
I chuckle. “Feed them some feces once and they’ll compliment your cooking forever…”
She covers her mouth with an awkward forced laughter. The laugh sounds like an odd mix of fakeness and genuine, I can’t tell how much of it is real. “Where have you been this whole time, Inara? I needed you here ages ago!”
I am not sure if the way she talks to me is genuine or an act. If it’s genuine then I feel sorry for her, she seems rather lonely... who forgets their own name? Only someone who didn’t hear it for a very long time…
But I shouldn’t forget that she’s a cannibal… and if this is an act. Then I have to watch out. Someone with the name spider can easily be a manipulative psycho. However, right now she appears to be a socially awkward girl who’s desperate for some female friends. Given the way she acts, I wouldn’t be surprised if she simply crept away everyone she tried to befriend.
Don’t forget… this is a hundred or something years old mage… not some young teen aged girl…
It’s hard to tell, and it’s hard not to look into her purple mesmerizing eyes. “Define ages ago, I am only twenty-seven.”
“And I am only forty-six. In the world of magic we’re both toddlers.”
I take a risk and use my crown mana pool to prod her. She’s only around the strength of Kynator’s so-called “daughters”. Much stronger than me, true. But not at the monstrous strength of Balusha and Firuk, and nowhere near the hag herself. It doesn’t seem like she’s lying about that part at least…
Her eyelids are partially closed, and the airy voice she has makes her sound as if she’s not fully focused on being here with me. I feel something like an invisible limb of mana sliding against the center of my skull, then it’s gone. Was that mana prodding? This is the first time I actually feel someone else doing that to me...
“We’re also the youngest ones here,” she adds. “Kynator is the eldest, he’s one hundred sixty-nine this year, I think? Maybe it’s a hundred and seventy already, time flies. Then it’s Firuk, he’s a hundred and eighteen. Balusha is ninety-six. And Shilfius, he’s fifty-nine now? Yeah fifty-nine, he’s just a bit older than me…”
So Balusha is actually an old hag uh? I stop myself from saying it aloud. I just met this woman, and if she passes these words to Balusha I could really suffer later on…
Wait! Didn’t the hag mention she had an apprentice that left two months before I came by? I wonder what happened to him… “Do you know how old our mother is?” I ask with curiosity.
“Umm… I think she’s around her three hundred? Maybe more… I don’t know…” Kabit covers her mouth in a chuckle that sounds fake or forced. “Whenever we ask for her age, mom falsely claims she’s a young woman of thirty years.”
I never asked the hag for her age, it felt like a bad idea, but now I knew I wouldn’t receive an answer anyway.
“Kabit. Why did you hang from the ceiling in my room?”
Her lips form a thin smile. “I apologize if it was unsettling for you. I was waiting for you to finish and I lost myself a little… if you want to specialize in gravity you should also try hanging from the ceilings, or the walls. When you can understand that every flat object you look at can be down, life as a gravity mage will become much easier…”
I see… so if I can change my thought pattern to ‘everywhere I look is down’ while constantly using gravity point, I can confuse many people in a battle… That’s a good point, I guess she was training her mind… She’s still creepy though, but it’s good to understand some things…
“So… should we go downstairs?” she asks with a hopeful tone.
I nod, following her down to the cellar.
Do I even get a say if she joins me or not?
If I ask her not to join me she’ll probably get hurt,
Or act like she’s being deeply offended and use it to manipulate me. Depends on how much her behavior is genuine…
But aren’t I being manipulated into letting her into my soul bath right this moment? Ugh…
She takes off her blue dress humming happily to herself. Just when I am about to tell her I don’t want her to join, I see her legs.
She has eight legs. Thin, hairless, black, arachnoid legs with a pointy tip. The legs are so thin that they can’t support her body. I shudder at the sight, and a chill goes through my spine. I don’t want that thing anywhere near me, yuck!
*~*~*
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. Leo’s pull. Leo’s focal point. Alino’s light body. Alino’s heavy body, Alino’s orbiter.
Spells known:
Gravity: Alino’s weightless bodyb.
Focus capability: 11 patterns
Social status: Inara daughter of mysteries. 6th daughter 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 simple healing potion.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
Belt with the magical effect of keeping everything inside its pouches fresh. 400g of spell materials.
Fresh rose petals, 165g
Companions:
Languages: Toml’a <people’s tongue> Sinteo <Speech> Myrsha 6/10 <gravity>. Felul 1/10 <wind>
