The "Best" RPG Ever-65

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Zack carefully lifted Clera off of the wolf's back and set her on one of the couches. The wolf shuddered slightly, indicating relief to have the weight off of him, and then looked like he was about to shake the water off too. "Hey! Don't do that here, you'll get everyone else wet too."

The wolf grunted: They were already wet.

"C'mon, let me get you a towel or something." He led the wolf into the downstairs bathroom.

Loren turned to Ezra, who was still watching the winged girl intently. "So what's your theory, then?"
"Empaths have two souls. Ordinarily they are said to converse through dreams, while asleep."

"That's true of her, too, yeah," said Katherine. "Soo, what, you think something just couldn't wait until the next time she fell asleep normally?"
"Maybe one of the souls did something that the other one violently disagreed with. They should work it out on their own before long." The Captain fixed the psion with a stern look. "Take my advice and don't try to interfere with it. Anyway." Addressing everyone now, she said: "As I was going to say before this happened, I will make certain that all of you are compensated well for your help with this matter. Rose as well, when she visits next." The dragon had, understandably, stayed behind in her forest. "I have work to catch up on, so I'll take my leave now." Without waiting for a reply, she went for the door to town. A few goodbyes followed her out.

"We should, uh, dry her off so she won't get a chill or something, right?" said Aria, pointing at Clera. Already dry herself, Nora knelt next to her and carefully pulled the water off of her, collecting it into a small floating blob to one side. "Oh..yeah, I kinda forgot you could do that. Uh, any chance of the rest of us getting a turn?" The elf sighed, a hint of tiredness present, but stood up and nodded, getting to work on the rest of them.

"Uh, thanks, really, but you don't have to—" Loren started, but couldn't finish before she'd already pulled the water off of him.

"I-it's no problem." When she was done she opened the door to the front yard and tossed the ball of water out into the rain.

There was a momentary, awkward pause.

Aria looked down, remembering she had destroyed her shoes in the recent fight. "Well, I think I need to change..I'll be back down in a minute if you want to hang out?" she said toward Loren.
"Uh—sure," he said.

Most of the others filtered out after that, Nora taking a seat on a chair near the couch Clera was on. Mira started toward the kitchen, and Loren followed her.

"Oh, hello there," said the witch, noticing him. "Did I ever introduce myself?"
"Not exactly, but close enough. Aria told me your name was Mira, and that you were a witch," he said.

"Still, I can't stand not being friendly." She held out a hand to him. "Nice to meet you~."

"Uh." He took the hand carefully after a second, like he was afraid it was going to sprout thorns, but went along with a fairly normal handshake after that. "You too, I guess."

"Great! Now we're introduced." The witch wasted no time in going to the pantry after that to continue her task of finding some food; she had made the mistake of skipping breakfast entirely before.

"Hey, are you hungry? Since you followed me in here and all."
"Not..particularly. I'm not exactly sure how to go about this but I had a few..questions," he said.
Putting a small plate together for herself, Mira teased: "Oh, is transporter work not exciting enough for you? Sorry to say, I'm not really in the market for an apprentice at the moment."
"Wh—no! That's not—" His half-indignant flustered response was cut off when he realized she was giggling. "Oh, you're joking. That was a joke," he stated flatly.

"Bingo!"

"What?"
"You got it." They didn't even have bingo here? Well, maybe it just had a different name, she thought. "Take a seat?"

Loren sat across from her at the table, and cleared his throat while Mira started eating. "But, that is—witches and warlocks do take on apprentices, normally, right? That's how...new ones come about?"

"I dunno if that's true of everyone, but it was for me," she said.

"And..if it's not prying too much, who was your..who were you apprentice to?"

"Maybe the name won't mean much to you, but her name was Griselda," she said, watching his expression carefully. "Oh, you do know her!"

"Not—personally, but—"

"I'm not surprised she has a reputation, either," Mira said.
"Would you be surprised to find out she's dead?" he said; it came out more bluntly than he meant it to out of some annoyance from being cut off.

"Not at all. I mean, the one who killed her lives here after all," she said.

"...You, knew that already," he said slowly, trying to make sense of this.

"Mm-hmm." The witch swallowed the bite in her mouth. "Don't get me wrong—I'm not happy she's dead but, she needed to be stopped. She used to be good, but she'd gone way off the deep end. Why do you think I wasn't with her when it happened?"

"What do you mean, she 'used to be good'?" he said, skeptically. "Wasn't she terrible her whole life?"

"'Course not!" Mira said, with a touch of annoyance in her tone. "You'd be forgiven for thinking that, too, though. That was an image she cultivated more or less on purpose, after all. In truth, for a long time she was only terrifying to bullies and oppressors. Anyone who was really in need—poor people, orphans, so on—knew what she was really like."

"I suppose you were one of the latter?"

"Oh, certainly. I was bullied by the other orphans on top of the kids in town. All that teasing me about how I looked and sounded like a girl," she said.

Loren physically resisted taking the bait, but could only do so for so long. "Um.."
"Ye~es?"
"Aren't you—"
"Yep. Before she would take me on as an apprentice, Griselda required it. I didn't really care, I was only about...twelve at the time? And anyway, it was a convenient 'fix' to the problem, don't you think?" Loren shrugged, uncertain what to think of it. "Before that, she'd show up every now and then, scare off the bullies, and be nice to me and some of the other kids. Show us around town, take us out someplace to eat—and scare the owners into serving us if they wouldn't otherwise, but she did pay for it all—do magic shows, stuff like that. It wasn't until after I insisted on becoming her apprentice and moving into her tower and everything that I found out about the other side of her nature."

Loren waited quietly for her to eat another few bites. Since he didn't seem willing to ask, she just continued: "Griselda believed in a very specific idea of justice. She thought it wasn't being served by the government, and I don't think you'd argue with that assessment if you saw what she had. So..she liked to come up with her own 'fitting' punishments whenever she thought someone was doing something wrong. I was going through the forest one day, gathering ingredients for a potion or something, and found one of the biggest bullies in town hanging up on a tree by some of her knives stuck through his clothes. I didn't even realize it was her doing at first, even though I knew she used those to fight, so I stood there trying to figure out a way to get him down long enough for some of the adults from town to show up and start accusing me of doing it. Just imagine—I was a short child and I couldn't even reach the lowest knife stuck into his pant-legs to get him down! People can be kind of dumb sometimes, you know that?"

"That I do know," Loren agreed, nodding.

"So anyway, I already looked like a witch by then and the only thing that saved me from being carried off and burned at the stake was the real witch showing up and scaring them away. After that, she explained how that guy had led a bunch of his friends in dangling some poor girl out a third-story window, and figured that hanging out to dry himself for a couple of hours was a fitting punishment."

Mira paused, remembering how it had gone in the dream the night before. "She sat me down and explained it so simply, you know: 'People never learn if they're not punished for their actions. Sometimes the law can't or won't do what needs to be done. That's where I come in.'"

"And you agreed with her?" he asked.

Mira shrugged. "Remember, I was still a child at the time, and she's the closest thing to a parent I knew. It didn't really sit right with me but I accepted it at the time. No, it was a few years before I started to argue with her. She started summoning a lot of demons to just keep around the tower and do stuff for her. There was one 'servant' she'd had since the beginning, but these were..different. They were violent or heavily armed, that kind of thing. She would send them out to do the 'punishing' sometimes."

"And obviously you left at some point, since you weren't there when..."
"Right. It was..um, little over a year ago, actually. She had her demons kidnap this high-ranking noble, and started cursing him partially to the form of a pig, threatening to actually cook and eat him. I said that was too much, there was no way someone actually deserved that. Or even if they did, she would hurt a lot of other people who didn't deserve it, maybe us included, with what she was doing.

"We got into a real shouting match. She never could see past whatever was right in front of her, and that man's list of crimes made her nearsightedness even worse. I admit, the list of things he'd gotten away with just because he was a high-ranking noble wasn't pretty. And I know why it was even more horrible to her, too, with how her 'master' had been. But..." Mira sighed. "Unfortunately, I was right. From what I can tell that noble, or maybe his family, is exactly who conscripted Zack's order to go take her out. Maybe I could've convinced her to stop if I'd stuck around, but after that argument I'd had it. I packed up and ran away, and the next time I heard news of her, it sounded like she'd totally lost it."

Mira took advantage of that dramatically hanging in the air to finish her impromptu late breakfast. "Maybe that answers your questions?"

"Uh. I guess it does," he said. "What was that about her master..?"
"I'll give you the short version for that one," she said, standing up to put the dish away. "He kidnapped her pretty young, more or less abused her for some years while plotting to take over and/or destroy most of the nearby civilization. She helped the people of the nearby towns sneak in and kill him in his sleep. He'd forced her into becoming a witch as some part of his plans already, so instead of, you know, comforting or congratulating her, they just walked away silently after it was done. Like 'you can keep your life today because you helped us stop him, but don't get your hopes up'. I think she insisted that I should be a witch specifically and not a warlock because of him—although I really doubt that a person's gender actually factors into how garbage of a person they are."

"You seem...awfully forthcoming about all this to a near stranger," Loren observed, standing up himself.
"You are a friend of a friend. I'd like to convince you I'm not evil as quickly as possible," she said. "You know—so you don't start trying to convince her that I am?"

"That's..reasonable, I guess. Not that Are—Aria would really listen to me anyway if she's made up her mind."

"Oh alright, I do have another reason, but it can wait. Pret-ty sure that's Aria's usual downstairs run I hear through the wall." She waved him toward the door back into the living room.

---

"Why did you do that? What was that?!"

"Uh...?" Clera was briefly disoriented, and got her bearings more slowly than the person whose body she was sharing liked. He waited impatiently, seething. They were back in Dr. Kellen's office, with him standing up and leaning on open-palmed hands on his desk, towering over her sitting in the chair in front of it.

"That was uh..my magic," she said finally. "I-it uh, I thought it was just sealed away from my becoming an Empathic soul but, it seems like it actually separated from me at the moment of my death—which isn't that surprising, with the way it happened, but—"
"I know what it is!" he said, standing fully up. "Why did you simply take it like that?"

"Why did I..it's a part of me," she said.

"A dangerous part. You spent your entire life fearing it, did you not? Trying without success to control it?"

"I-it's not like it's some kind of demon that possessed me," she said, standing up herself, and unconsciously spreading her wings in some kind of threat-presenting instinct. "It was just, it lashed out when I wanted to. When my emotions got the best of me. And that was before I learned how to control it! I kept it perfectly under control for years at the end of my life!

He crossed his arms like an angry teacher. "And you can guarantee that you'd be able to maintain that kind of control now?"
"I—I don't know! I don't know how it works in this situation! There aren't exactly any textbooks on 'using magic as one of two souls sharing the same body'."

"Then why did you just decide to take it before thinking it over? Or—waiting to discuss it here?"

"I—it, it wasn't. It wasn't a decision," she said. "Once I saw it and realized what it was, a piece of me, I couldn't just...keep me away from myself! Do you have any idea what it's like to just suddenly realize you're in two separate pieces?"

They were both quiet for a moment. "...I suppose I don't." Dr. Kellen visibly calmed himself, and Clera did the same, folding her wings. "I believe I have overreacted."
"You think?"
"I realized suddenly that I didn't understand what was happening but I was still behaving as if I did, and therefore someone else was in control of my body. Of course it was you, but that realization..caused me to panic," he said.

"Okay, that's pretty understandable. Wait, didn't you say—"
"As soon as we got here I understood. But before that I did not," he said. Then, after a small sigh: "We still..we still need to discuss this. Do you think it's possible to keep that..part of you under control?"

"I know how to use it," she said, "and since we're 'both' in control when we're awake, I'm sure 'we' know how to use it. But as for keeping a tight lid on it, not using it at all, like I did toward the end of my life, I don't—I really doubt it.

"That was a matter of keeping my emotions in check. Tight control over my entire mind. I don't know if the training and practice I did for that is enough to mute the emotions of two different people, or even one who isn't me."

"Does that make us..dangerous?"
"Only if we try to bottle up the power. But that..there's no reason that should happen. If we're going around fighting monsters anyway, there's no good reason not to use my power for it," Clera said. "We..didn't have a means of fighting before, really. Was it just me who was bothered by just flying around waiting for an opportunity help, halfway hoping someone would get hurt just so I'd get a chance to feel useful?"
"That was...mostly you, yes," he said. "I cannot fault the desire to be more useful. But—"
"You made a vow, I know I know. But—that's not to hurt people with your medical knowledge, right? The reverse-healing powers we were offered is kind of fuzzing into that territory, I agree, and it feels like a corruption of the purpose of those powers in a way that sort of tells me it is. I agreed one hundred percent we shouldn't use those. But—your vow or whatever doesn't keep you from defending yourself if someone is actively attacking you. Don't you have a—a weapon?"

"A gun," he clarified for her. "I do, two of them. One in this desk, one at home."

"Well, this is the same kind of thing as that. Fire magic is a whole lot more in the 'weapon' category, I'd say, as the expert on it here..and we have a lot of creatures that count as pretty much always attacking us, so fighting them back should be legal. Right?"

"I suppose you're right," he said, with a touch of reluctance.

Their surroundings had warped and shifted subtly over the course of the conversation, until they were back in Ian's living room, standing on opposite sides of the coffee table. "What can we do, exactly?" Dr. Kellen said, sitting down slowly.

"Well, uh...it's kinda hard to..I mean, I guess I could just 'transfer' it to you of course..." While she was thinking about it, a skill tree labeled 'Fire Mage' appeared floating in the air between them, facing her. "..Oh. Huh." Her eyes scanned over it for a moment. "It's really strange, seeing everything I ever learned to do with it written up in a big diagram like this. I guess we can access it by closing our eyes, and 'learn skills' with it like the other one? Heh, Aria won't be happy to hear about it."

"Or she'll be terribly excited," Ian said. The tree swung around where it was facing him, and he skimmed it for a moment. "It's probably best to agree and assume that you'll take over when it comes to deciding which spell to use and how..."
"Seems likely to work, yeah."

Ian got up again, and went around the table to extend his hand to the winged woman. "Well, I am terribly sorry about exploding like that."

"No, it's, understandable. I'm glad we were able to work it out," she said, taking the hand gently. "Guess we should wake up now? We don't usually have control over that..."
"We normally aren't unconscious as a result of a disagreement, either," he said. "Perhaps all we must do is agree to awaken?"
"Worth a shot."

---

The wolf didn't seem happy, but sat and let Zack get most of the water off onto the towel. "...There. That better?" He grunted—it could have come off faster—and shook some anyway. In fact he didn't seem too happy in the first place. "What?"

The wolf made a kind of groaning whine.
"Oh, yeah. I wasn't much use there either. What do you expect, literally fighting fire? I'm sure we'll be back to things made of flesh and blood soon enough, though." Zack reached out and, when the wolf put his head under his hand, gently rubbed his ears a bit. "You just have to do what you can, right?" The response to this was a mollified, quiet bark after a moment. Then they headed back to the living room.

It was almost empty, just Nora sitting across from where Clera had been set down. The wolf sniffed the air, making his way around toward the door to town. "Where'd everyone go?"
"Uh, M-mira went to get breakfast, and t-took Loren with her...Rayna and Lynn b-both said they wanted to go back to bed. Aria w-went upstairs to change shoes. K-katherine said something about looking for an umbrella. Um..." Nora stood up, coming a little closer to Zack, and waved, pulling the water off of him. Then the wolf gave one bark at the door.

"What? Yeah, she left while were busy," said Zack, nodding to the elf before turning in the wolf's direction. He gave a brief, low growl to that and circled back to where the knight was. "You get it now, right? She gives us money, which is like giving out the food, and..just being around her I could tell I wouldn't stand much of a chance in a real fight."

The wolf gave a mildly displeased grunt, but seemed to understand. Nora took advantage of him momentarily sitting still to take the remaining water off and add it to the blob she'd gotten from Zack, then tossed it out into the front yard.

"Well, whatever. You can still think of me as your alpha if it makes you feel better," Zack said. Then, turning to Nora: "I want out of this armor. Then I'll come back down."
"Okay," she nodded.

---

Once she had finally gotten off the half-melted shoes and destroyed socks and replaced them, Aria ran back downstairs to find Loren coming back into the living room from the kitchen, looking maybe a little dazed. Clera was still unconscious on the couch, with Nora sitting across from her, watching. "Hey, sorry I took so long!"
"Uh, that's okay. I had..something to ask Mira anyway," he said, gesturing vaguely where he'd come from.
"I hope not accusing her of anything," she said, coming closer. "You got proof right here that relying on demon power doesn't make someone bad, yeah?"
"I suppose not. Just possibly insane," he said. "But I wasn't, anyway...what?" She'd stopped right in front of him, looking up at his face.
"I dunno. Being shorter than you feels wrong." Aria took a second to push her height up to almost match his. "That's better!"

"Mnngh..." Clera sat up slowly, looking around and trying to make sense of her surroundings.

"Hey! Welcome back to the world," said the shifter, turning to wave to her.

"..How long was I out..?"
"About fifteen, twenty minutes?"

She swung her feet around to the front of the couch. "It didn't feel like more than two or three. I suppose someone carried me here? And..?" She pulled at some of her hair, noticing it was dry.

"Th-that was me," said Nora. "Do you feel o-okay?"
"I'm fine," she nodded.

"So, what happened exactly?" said Loren.

"Uh..my empathic soul unleashed m-uh, her magic at the moment of death. It seems as if it separated from, her then, and got swallowed by chaos magic at some point."
"..A-and turned into that fire g-giant?" Nora asked.

"Correct. It seems entirely too convenient to me that it happened to show up here. However, it means I have access to my—her magic now. She was a fire mage," she added after a second, to Loren.
"Sweet." Aria gave a thumbs up.

"You can use your extra soul's magic?" Loren asked. "Are you sure?"

"Hmn..." She held up a finger and made a small, match-like fire appear floating over it. "Seems so."

"I've never heard of anything like that. And, are you having identity dissociation issues?"

"My ritual was..unusual," she said. "It's complicated. However, I'm able to separate and communicate in dreams, which I assume is normal."

"Well—that is, as far as I know, but..."

"Anyway! I want to ask you a couple of things, so let's go to theeeee, library, yes!" Aria grabbed Loren's forearm and half-pulled him that way, deciding too much prying into this matter from him was a bad idea for the moment. He cooperated before long and just followed her, gently pulling his arm free in the process.

There was a moment of awkward standing after that. "You had...questions?" Loren said, obviously confused by her behavior.
"Right! Right. I'm trying to come up with a way to explain this, but honestly I don't think it's possible. Sooo. I need to ask you a few things to confirm something, but to you they're just going to sound like nonsense, probably. It's hard to say if I'll ever be able to tell you where these questions actually come from. That okay?"
"I..guess?" he said, looking really uncertain.

"Great! First of all, do you know what a 'train' is?"
"Um..? Like, training?"
"No no, a train. A machine that runs across metal rails to get people from one place to another. Have you ever heard of anything like that?"
"...I, uh..mine carts, maybe? They're not really for people, and I've never heard of them being called a 'train', though..."
"Okay, good. Second: Murphy's law. Ring any bells?"
"Noo...? Who's Murphy?"
"Not important, really. But his law is: 'Anything that can go wrong, will.' Nothing?"
"I don't think so. I mean, that general...sentiment comes into practice maintaining almost any high-order magical spells or equipment, like transport crystals, but I've never heard it phrased quite that way."

"Excellent," said Aria, putting her hands together with a grin. "That answers what I wanted, thank you. Now I have to decide what to do with this info. So let's talk about something else. Have a seat, maybe. If you're not in a hurry to leave?"
"Not if it's still pouring outside," he said, looking around until he found a nearby window—and indeed it was.