Xena moved ahead of us, leading the way farther into the granary and holding up one of Paz's stars to light the way. "Stay behind me, Miss." I nodded to the back of her head.
"You're not okay, love." I looked sideways at Paz who still had my arm slung over her shoulder. "It made you relive something, didn't it?" I nodded. "One of the times with your mom?"
I looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "Yeah." My voice was so small and trembling, I didn't even recognize it. "I hate that she still has her claws so deep under my skin after all these years." I clung even more tightly to my ginger rock, keenly aware that without her, I would be blown away in the storm of my emotions. "I've got this amazing body now and literal magic spells, but wearing these clothes still makes my skin crawl and my stomach clench."
She hugged me tighter and then whispered in my ear. "You're damned right that your body is amazing."
I let out a breathy chuckle. "Paz, I love you so damn much."
"I love you." She looked down at our feet as we stumbled after Xena and was quiet for so long that I thought we were done talking. "It wasn't always."
She spoke so quietly that for a moment, I was going to ignore it; I thought she was talking to herself. But then curiosity got the better of me. "What wasn't always?"
"Hmm?" She blushed. "Oh, I said that out loud? It's.. it's nothing. Just my name wasn't always Paz."
My parfait of a girlfriend was an Inception of layers, I swear! "What did it used to be?"
"Oh.. Um, Li-" She shook her head and blew out a heavy sigh as her cheeks colored. "Lily. My dad called me his little rosey Lilypad."
"Oh wow, that's so pretty. Would you like me to-"
"NO!" She viciously cut me off and then instantly looked guilty. "Sorry. It's just, that's not me anymore. That hasn't been me for a very, very long time."
"Ooohhhh. Okay. Dead name. Got it!" I nodded vigorously. "Say no more. Consider it forgotten."
Paz huffed and smiled at me. "Yeah, dead name. Something like that. Thanks."
"HELP!"
We looked at each other in panic. "Go!" I urged her. "I'll catch up!" Paz hesitated for a few precious seconds and then sprinted after Xena.
I hobbled along after them, wheezing for breath and bracing myself against the wall with one hand. I never imagined getting sucked would hurt so much. "Hehe, that's what she said." Gods Below, why am I such an idiot. I'm here making immature jokes while my girlfriend and my elf are probably fighting for their lives.
Suddenly I was staring at a wall. I pulled Paz's star out of my pocket. Dead end. Fuck! How big is this place. And why do I have the directional sense of a goldfish. I took another turn and found another dead end. Okay, what the fuck. Is this a secret labyrinth hidden in a granary or some shit.
I retraced my steps and found a junction that I didn't remember going through. I spun around in a circle. Every path looked the same. I couldn't even remember which way I had just come from. I crouched down and looked for tracks, but it all just looked like random grain and dirt scuffled every which way! Fuck, I picked a direction at random and hobbled off as fast as I could.
The air got stiller and staler as I walked. My breath started misting in my face and I shivered. I was getting a deeply unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach. The starlight spilled across the two bodies of my girlfriend and my friend. They were both curled up on the floor; un-moving as two wights feasted on them. I screamed, fought through the pain and flung myself on top of Paz in a feeble attempt to shield her.
A very large branch smacked me in the face. I pushed it aside and looked around at the immeasurably vast trees stretching up and away from me in every direction. This was the Emerald Forest.
I threaded my way between the trees and burst out of them onto the Great Plains of Ninira. Vast fields of green flowers swayed in the wind and in the distance, I could see the towering walls of the city itself reaching up into the heavens.
Massive silver banners hung down over the side of each wall that surrounded the city in a hexagon. Oh. Silver banners with back suns emblazoned on them. So this was thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago, before the Solarin Empire had been driven out. I haven't written a ton about this period, mostly just hand-waving it as ancient history.
My eyes were drawn to a tall elven man as he stood maybe a few hundred feet away and rose up out of the waist-deep flowers. He had kind eyes and an easy smile as he laughed at something at his feet. The flowers around him flickered and suddenly a wave of color washed through them.
"Now now Lilypad, what have I said about your magic, hmm? You're to ask me or your mother first, before casting something. You're still learning control, my sweet girl. We wouldn't want to accidentally hurt someone."
He leaned down and scooped up a small girl out of the rainbow flowers. She was maybe six years old with fiery red hair and eyes so green that I could see them glimmer with mischief from where I stood. Paz. My heart clenched.
Her tiny voice was lost in the wind, but the next moment the flowers went back to their natural green coloring. They turned and meandered toward the gate in the massive wall. I wasn't conscious of making the choice to follow them, but somehow they were never more than a hundred feet away.
Her dad exchanged pleasantries with the gate guard as they passed through and then we emerged onto a very busy street. Merchants lined both sides of the narrow walkway, aggressively offering their wares to anyone who was unlucky enough to make eye contact. I saw everything under the sun on display, from food and clothing to elaborately carved toys.
Paz's dad stopped at a vendor who had beautiful bouquets full of every exotic flower you could name. He knelt down, set her on her feet, and said that he was going to find something pretty for her mom's birthday. And if she would be a very good girl and quietly wait for him, then he'd buy her a treat after.
Little Paz hugged her doll closer to herself and assured him that she would do as he asked. He moved further into the merchant's stall and disappeared from view. Little Paz was brave, but with all the commotion on the street, and all the people jostling around her, she started fidgeting nervously after he had been gone a few minutes.
I couldn't say what I was thinking, but I suddenly found myself kneeling beside tiny Paz. "What's her name?" I gestured to her doll.
This was all some kind of memory/dream induced by the wight just like mine had been, so I fully expected her to ignore me. I nearly jumped out of my skin and barely choked back a very loud string of curses when she turned and smiled up at me. It was the kind of smile that only kind children could give; a smile that said the world still has hope and love in it and us adults are all very silly for being so cynical all the time.
"Her name is Amelie. What's yours?"
"Alexis." I gently shook the doll's hand. "It is my great pleasure to meet you, Amelie."
She giggled. "Your name is pretty! I'm Lily."
"A pleasure to meet you as well, Lily."
The ground shook with such staggering force that I was knocked back onto my butt. All around us, people started screaming, running, and pointing at the sky. I looked up and saw two enormous figures flying through the sky and circling each other. They were each an Avatar of different gods. Essentially, it was as close as gods could come to fully manifesting all their power in the world of mortals. Judging by the shapes and colors of them, I would have guessed that Zikteiel, the god of Death Below, was fighting Iridatha, the goddess of Life Above. Their feud was older than the universe itself, but this was such an incomprehensibly dangerous way for gods to argue. Dangerous for us, that is.
"Lily, come close and hold your eyes closed tight!" I wrapped my arms protectively around the terrified girl. We were blinded for several seconds as one of the Avatars fired off a magical beam that could delete mountains. It missed its opponent and the top of a tall tower was sheared off.
Now the screaming started in earnest as multi-ton fragments of buildings began raining down on the city, obliterating anything and anyone unlucky enough to be under them. We were going to get squashed out of existence. I strained to see through the panicking crowd. A large chunk of stone had already blocked the gate we entered through. Fuck.
As hell rained down all around us, I could think of only one thing to do. I cleared my throat and took a big breath.
"I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A SCIENTIST SALARIAN."
I closed my eyes as one of the spires from on top of a cathedral crashed down on top of us flattening Lily and me into floor paste. I hesitantly opened an eye and saw a lattice of shimmering threads of light in the shape of a dome over us. The remains of the shattered spire were scattered all around our dome.
"I'VE STUDIED SPECIES TURIAN, ASARI, AND BATARIAN."
The threads of the dome shimmered with magic and thickened.
"I'M QUITE GOOD AT GENETICS, AS A SUBSET OF BIOLOGY."
More chunks of city crashed into the ground or exploded on my bubble.
"BECAUSE I AM AN EXPERT, WHICH I KNOW IS A TAUTOLOGY."
Lily opened her eyes and looked up at me like I had lost my gods damned mind, which, you know, fair enough.
"MY XENOSCIENCE STUDIES RANGE FROM URBAN TO AGRARIAN."
The two wights slithered out of the shadows. Here in the realm of memories and dreams, they were entirely corporeal. Lily screamed and the dome flickered as they clawed and slashed at it.
"I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A SCIENTIST SALARIAN!"
Tendrils of purple lightning lashed out from my shield toward the wights and obliterated both of them.
Without their caster to sustain them, Paz's stars of light winked out and I was once again alone in total darkness.
New Spell WeaveShield of Force
5th Tier Abjure Force
Range: Self
Cost: 5 spell points +1 spell point per sustain
You project a directional shield covering up to a 180° arc. It lasts until dismissed or until it runs out of durability. Can be sustained at a rate of 30% renewed durability. Initial durability is equal to (spell-casting ability) x (class level + casting tier).
Level Up AvailableExperience required for level 2: 1100 / 1000