I stood there in the abandoned house and sighed. I needed to transform back, but… it was hard. Being Silver was an incredible experience, and being Kai was… not.
Cynath's voice in my head startled me enough that I let go of my dread for a second. Interesting. I’ve known about the Storm-structure for a while, but I wasn’t integrated into it like I am now. As such, I am discovering a few things as time progresses. Ah, I fear I must cut myself off or I’ll ramble for hours. Silver, I may have found something that you’ll find useful.
“Uh, like what?” I asked, seating myself on the sofa in the living room.
I believe, with the both of us working together, we can give you advanced access to a territory claiming feature. It appears to allow you to control access to a space and protect it from anything but the most directed attempts at vandalism.
She wasn’t wrong. That did sound very useful. I could put it around the school, and— “Cynath, can it stop monsters from getting in?”
Any entity that moves under its own power will be stopped. It’s not a hard and fast rule-based thing. It’s an intuitive system that… well, I could waffle on indefinitely about the odd way the Storm operates, but the short answer is yes, it can stop monsters — people too, anyone you don’t explicitly allow through.
This would be a gamechanger. It would — gosh, I was getting excited. “So I could put it around the school? We wouldn’t have to worry about defenses then! We could send everyone out to look for supplies.”
There was a moment of hesitation before Cynath responded, and I swear I could sense her wincing. I’m still investigating the rules, but… I do not believe you are high enough level to cover the school. The structure you’re inside currently could be protected, but only barely. For the school, I think… let me look into it some more.
Well, that was too good to be true. Protecting the house would be useful, though. It could serve as Silver’s base of operations, where I was completely safe from prying eyes. Yeah. That was a good idea.
As the decision crystalised, I slapped my thighs and stood up. “Okay. How do I do this?”
Well… I imagine you’ll find the process to be a little painful. First, I need you to find a dead squirrel…
**
“This is a lot painful,” I grumbled, as the awful, grating sound of metal on metal continued to fill the living room — as it had for the past hour.
You are protecting a house from any and all intrusion, regardless of enemy numbers, skill, or power. Silver, my dear, you wouldn’t have lasted a minute back during my glory days. The clash of bronze on bronze — it sounds different to iron or steel, you know — the smell of blood, the sounds of the defeated, screaming and begging for their lives. Oh, it was glorious. You’d be the inevitable rookie casualty that we find dead in some embarrassing way after the battle is done.
I paused and glared up at the ceiling. “That was uncalled for, Cynath. Can I get a different goddess?”
Excuse me? The goddess huffed. Honestly, she sounded kinda cute when she was annoyed. Her voice rose higher and she made little scoffing sounds.
“Yeah, excuse you. I don’t see you down here rubbing metal teeth together to carve runes,” I said, shaking one of the squirrel teeth at the ceiling.
I’d gone out into the damned blizzard — if it could actually be called one, it was doing only a marginally good job at freezing things — and retrieved some teeth from a dead squirrel I saw on my way back to the house. Now, apparently, I had to carve a set of runes into each tooth. Only problem was that I didn’t have any tools tough enough to work with the teeth, other than the other teeth. So, yeah, I was rubbing teeth together.
“I think this is the last rune,” I groaned, dropping the teeth to flex the stiffness from my fingers.
Hm. Yes, it is. Now, I need you to go outside and insert them into the ground at each corner of the building.
I groaned and flopped back, further into the couch. The blizzard was actually, you know, becoming a blizzard now — in summer, which was wild. The sleet was gone, replaced with flurries of snow being whipped around in dancing patterns by the wind.
Still, gathering the teeth, I headed for the back door and braced myself. One, two— I ripped the door open and bolted outside. The wind tugged at my jacket, at my hair — even my ears. Actually, especially my ears. The tips of them instantly felt like they were going to freeze off. It actually hurt — and then the wind jammed itself down my ear canal.
“Ah!” I squeaked, hunching my shoulders like I could somehow get them to go all the way up over my ears.
Stumbling, against the wind, I hurried over and knelt at the first corner. Dropping the other teeth-stakes, I took one and rammed it into the dirt at the foundation of the house. My strength was high enough that I didn’t even have to hammer it in there — the dirt gave way easily.
One down, three to go.
The next stake went in with similar ease, but as I was placing it, I looked around at the blizzard through watering eyes. It’d better be temporary. If we had to search for supplies and shit in this weather, it wouldn’t go well.
A minute later, I was driving the last of the stakes into the ground, when I felt a sudden wrenching in my soul. It was like someone had gently but firmly pulled it towards the house. It was a… a connection. Right there in my system ‘UI’, was a new node of sensation and thought. It felt like protection and warmth. It felt like a deep safety. It felt like I had control. I almost tried to ask about it right there, but another gust of wind threatened to pull my hair out — or maybe my hare out. Heh.
Anyway, I stumbled back into the house and slammed the door closed, breathing heavily. “Fuck me.”
I’ll need a corporeal body again, but that can be arranged.
I froze, eyes widening. Oh shit. Right. Goddess of war, the moon, and sex.
“It, uh… it was a figure of speech, Cynath,” I said carefully.
I’m aware.
Oh. I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat as my cheeks, already burning, became white-hot.
“So. Um. How does this territory system work? What do I need to do?”
Nothing. You’re all set. The house is protected. If you need to add others to it… well, we can cross that bridge when we get to it. Then, we burn it before our foes can follow us over! When they try to ford the river in pursuit, we shred them with volleys of arrows!
“Right.” Cynath was a little scary sometimes. “Then… I should get back? I still haven’t hit whatever time limit there is for my Silver transformation, so maybe there’s something else I could do?”
I think it would be prudent to go back to the school and see what help you can offer.
My heart sank, but I nodded. “Okay.”
The task was done. I had to change back into Kai. Resignation flooded me, and I sighed. Okay. Whatever. At least there might be food in the school now — I was so fucking hungry.
So, I trudged wearily up the stairs to the master bedroom. I had the urge to just… stay there, for a second. It was safe in this house now, safe and still relatively warm. It was a nice house, and the insulation was good. If I could find somewhere to light a fire, I could keep warm just fine.
Except then I wouldn’t be able to help everyone else. I couldn’t just leave them to their fate, not with things as unstable as they were. Plus, the whole food thing. Yeah. it was time.
Taking a deep breath, I reached inside my Storm-interface and flipped my classes. Silver light shimmered through the room as by body became nothing more than a three-dimensional silhouette of light, then shrank and changed. I braced for the feeling of wrongness — for body hair and lanky, awkward limbs. It didn't come. What?
I had changed back into my Kai clothing… my Kaia… no wait, my Kai… argh. Whatever, I was clothed, so I couldn't immediately see what was up, but when I pulled my pant leg up, I found that all the dark hairs there were… softer. My arms didn't have any hair, other than faint wispy ones. Oh, and my chest was completely clear. What the fuck? Was I like… de-aging? What was going on?
Would people notice? What should I do? Wait, my face!
My hands touched down gently on my cheeks. My breath caught. Smooth as silk. Slowly, I trailed my fingertips down, expecting them to hit… something, anything but soft skin. How, what? What was happening to me? I let out a shuddering breath and yanked my hand away. I did not know how to feel about this. I'd always hated my body hair, but to find it suddenly missing? It was unsettling.
As I got dressed, into the clothes I’d been wearing earlier as Kai — which were starting to smell a bit — I catalogued just where things were different. As far as I could tell, it was just my body hair, which… I guess looking like an elf wasn’t terrible. It was going to be hard to explain, though. I thought that in the end, the best course of action would be to act as confused as everyone else.
I left the master bedroom with anxiety gently squeezing my gut, and turned onto the upstairs landing. The stairs were the kind that switched back on themselves, coming up in the middle of the upper floor’s main hallway. Halfway down those stairs, I tried to take the corner with my usual haste… and promptly rammed my hip into the bannister.
"Fuck!" I groaned, rubbing the spot. That was going to bruise.
Pulling my waistband down slightly, I checked for damage. Nothing that would show yet, but… it was odd. Something was different — or, it was just my imagination. Maybe I was spending so much time as Silver that I was getting confused about how to do basic shit like walk down stairs. Bleh. Whatever. I had places to be.
Nobody was around when I scrambled back over the fence and dashed across the fields. Wind-whipped snow danced around me the whole way, getting caught in my hair and my clothes, where it melted. By the time I got to the entrance to the workshop, I was soaking wet and wishing for a hot bath and some clean, dry clothing.
Charles was the first to see me enter, and strode over from where he was inspecting the goods that Silver brought in. “Did you shave? Hm, nevermind. Not important. Where’ve you been, kid?”
“Um… doing stuff…” I replied lamely, looking to April for help. She was much deeper in the ship, messing with something. She must’ve felt me staring, because she looked up.
He narrowed his eyes at me, then looked over at April. Some sort of understanding lit his expression, and he winked. “Ah. Well, whatever you were preparing, I hope it lands as yer hopin’.”
“Huh?” I blinked. Now I was just confused. What kind of conclusion had he jumped to? Me and April? She was a lesbian and I was… Well, actually, I was a girl some of the time, but that probably wasn’t enough of the time for her.
“Ayo, Kai!” April's voice sailed out over the workshop to save me from certain discovery. “That Silver chick came through! She delivered all my welding gear and more!”
“Ah, ah!” Charles said, placing a hand on my shoulder before I could leave.
Crap! Think of an excuse! I was… I was… designing something! Yeah, I was designing… I don’t know…
“We have food, kid. Go eat before you get to work — don't want your shaking hands to slip,” the old man chided me, then raised a finger and pointed. “Over there in the corner. Help yourself.”
Oh. Oh! Hell yes!
I practically skipped over to the table, where some little bags of potato chips, salami, cheese, margarine, and bread were spread out and half used. Clearly the rest of the crew had been at it already. Taking a knife, I made myself a salami, cheese, and potato chip sandwich monstrosity. When I bit down, it was like my tastebuds had never known food before. It was heaven, and I had to force myself to eat slowly. I did not want to give myself indigestion right now.
"So what are we building first?" I asked, wandering back over to where the action was happening.
"A forge!" April exclaimed gleefully. "Hey boss! Where are we putting it?"
"Out under the awning at the entrance, dear," said Charles. "Don't want to burn the building down."
Oh, right! That made sense. "What can I do to help?"
"We need some bellows if you want to make those," April said. "I'm going to have Kim and Dan here help me put the forge together."
Kim and Dan were the two who were already unloading everything but the bricks from the trolley. Kim stopped to give me a small wave, while Dan just nodded acknowledgement.
"What kind of forge are we making?" I asked while I moved over and pulled some tools from a rack. Ah, I'd need some wood and some sort of fabric too.
"Honestly, to start with — just a box made of brick. We still need some charcoal. I was thinking the plan would probably be to make a clay-graphite closed crucible, then see how we go," April said. "I'm not too keen on following any specific design because our needs are going to be weird. We'll just follow the general principles and adjust as needed."
"Smart," I nodded, and turned to my task.
When someone said make some bellows, there was a specific setup that came to mind. Traditionally a set of bellows were two flat pieces of wood with leather connecting them to make a funny bag type thing. Traditionally, people didn't know a whole lot about shit, because contrary to what your average set of rose tinted glasses will tell you, the past was the worst.
So instead, I went looking for the metal desk fan from the admin reception desk, and a bike. Wait, why weren’t we biking everywhere? I needed a bike for Silver.
Reception was happy to let me have the fan, especially since it didn’t work now, and I found a bike with the front section partially melted. Looked like someone had used it to get to the school yesterday.
When I took them both back to the workshop, I got to work. First off, I cut the unnecessary parts off the bike and stored them. Sorry Mr Bike, your corpse was going to a good cause, I swear.
What?
Geez, don’t anthropomorphise the bike when you’re effectively dismembering it, Kaia. Kaia? Kai. I was Kai. Shit, there were too many weird thoughts happening in my head. I had way too much work to do, I couldn’t get distracted or confused. I didn’t have time to solve the puzzle box of emotions in my head.
Shit. What was I doing? I stared down at the desk I was working at. What was next? Did I have everything? Seat, pedals, chain, and gears — it was a start. Like a fire finally starting after too many attempts to get a spark, I finally remembered the next step in my plan, and whirled, heading for the storage room.
Inside, I found some lengths of two-by-four and dragged them back out onto the main floor. They clattered loudly, and I left them to go find a saw. I was making a stand to hold the bike up while someone pedalled on it, so it didn’t need to be that fancy. I could probably just eyeball it.
Later, when the stand was complete and I tipped it the right way up, I was ‘rewarded’ for my hubris when it wobbled alarmingly. One of the legs was too long. Yup. Good job, Kai-carus. Hope the sunburn was worth it. I could still fix my fuckup, though. I just needed… over on the big wall — where all the tools were hung — my gaze fell on the most feral of all the wood files in the shop. Yup. That was the ticket. Snagging it off the wall, I took it back and absolutely shredded the stand’s legs until they all lined up.
Now, I needed to create the actual mechanism. There were a few ways I could do it, but I opted for a simple solution. I figured that this set of ‘bellows’ I was making would end up getting replaced pretty quickly.
So, I got a metal pipe, shoved it through the hollow rear axle of the bike, bent the end around, then glued it together. The other end of the pipe received the fan. A test spin confirmed the glue hadn't caused the axle to stick.
From there, it was a simple matter of making a rough housing for the whole apparatus using dust collector piping and more wood. I hoped nobody asked where I got the dust collector pipes.
The whole contraption was far from pretty, but when I tested it, I was happy to see a nice steady stream of air. Well, until I realised I glued the damn fan backwards. I had to carefully heat the only partially set glue, then slide the fan off the rod, flip it, add more glue, and replace it the right way round this time.
“I’m done!” I called, bouncing over to where the rest of the crew was finishing with the forge.
Well, actually it was forges. There were two side by side, one small square one, and one long rectangle. All the bricks were fixed together with potting clay from the crafts workshop, which I thought was both amusing and concerning. Surely the clay wouldn’t hold up when it was at temperatures high enough to melt steel? Huh, or maybe it would? I had no idea. Either way, I was going to find out because they were about to light the forges to fire the clay.
The forges shared an air intake hole in the rear at the bottom, and I placed my bicycle bellows back there, fixed the tube in place with some more clay and began to pedal. The effect was both instant and dramatic. Flame belched everywhere, pouring out of every missed hole between the bricks.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” April exclaimed, waving her arms around. “Kai, stop! Let us get those holes patched!”
The fires were doused, then the holes were fixed, then we started again. It was all a pain in the ass, but it worked out. The fire only went where it was supposed to, and the clay was heating nicely. All we had to do was wait until it burned out on its own, and do another inspection, then… Well, that was April’s circus now.
Maybe I could attempt to source some charcoal? A thought occurred to me. Were there animals mutated to contain coal in some way, like the squirrels with iron? That might be worth investigating.
It was late by then though. I was hungry, I was tired, and I’d been through so fucking much in just one day. A girl put a knife to my throat while I had my hands in someone’s guts — after I’d fought a giant car-boar-thing. That alone was wild, but then I ran round doing a ritual, lost my body hair, and made a rickety contraption out of random parts. My brain was begging for a rest — and food. They’d apparently opened school’s cafeteria for people to get food. So, I headed there to search for dinner. Wait, oh fuck. My friends! I'd been busy enough that I hadn't really considered that they were out there, exploring and scavenging. I really hoped they were okay.