“It’s the Stag King’s Fragment!” Clover excitedly shouted as soon as I stepped into her workshop. She danced over to a bank of terminals, and clicked around like a rabbit on crack.
“Hello to. You, too.” I sighed, and shook my head. Some things never changed, did they? Honestly, she was probably the best Mythek around in terms of pure joy when it came to working. A happy worker was a good worker, or something like that.
“Ah, right.” Her head bolted up, and her lop ears flopped around like windshield wipers. “Heyo! Welcome back, Aylin. Oh! Broughtyourcatagain?”
“Mrow!” Clover bounced to my side, patted Willow’s head twice, and then disappeared back behind a different bank of terminals. Her hands blitzed across a keyboard, and clacked fast enough to sound like the start of a song.
Willow glared at the rabbitkin, and jumped out of my arms to hide underneath a table. Honestly, I couldn't blame her. “Stag King?”
”Righto! The STAG KING!” She casually jumped and front flipped over a table. Before she fully landed, she grabbed an energy drink can and gulped down its contents. “He’sfromYosoki!CRAZYcoincidencedonchathink?”
My head throbbed from trying to keep up with her. “How many. Energy drinks?”
”Oh, I dunno.” She tilted her head to the side and rested a finger against her chin. “Maybe six or seven? Why? Canyoutell?”
”Too fast.” Way too fast to keep up with. If I could barely understand her, Nighteye must be suffering quite heavily to pull her words apart.
“Teehee!” She thrust a V into the air with her hand, and downed the rest of the energy drink. “Okay. Okayokayokayokay…. Calm, Cloves! You can be calm! Where were we?”
”Stag King?” Something about Yousuki?
“Right! Right right right.” She dashed to a different side of the room and flipped a monitor around to me covered in complex readings. “He’s from Yosoki! Isn’t that a crazy coincidence?”
“…?” Was I supposed to know what that was? Yosoki… it didn’t ring any bells. I glanced down at Willow, who was trembling and pressed up against the wall beneath a table. She just shot me a look like get me out of here.
“Yosoki! You know, with the Lesser Wind Oni you absolutely annihilated into the ground, and then some!” She shrugged. “Um, whatwasityouwanted? Wind Steps! Right! Where we got Wind Steps!”
Ah, the sky temple place. Yep, okay, I was starting to follow. The Stag King was from that planet too? “Cool.”
”Totally! Anyway, the fragment’s C-rank. I dunno how you managed to takedown a C-rankbyyourself. Kindasuspicious.” Her eyes widened and she stared at me like she could see through all my secrets. She was a thousand years to early for that, though. “It’s got storm powers! What do you want?”
”Options?” I asked.
”Oh, the usual, ‘course. Guns! I like guns. Armor? An accessory like we talked about could be nice too?” She shrugged and moved off to a minifridge. The front was see through, revealing rows and rows of energy drinks.
I casually threw a dagger at the fridge. The moment the white Ebonshroud impacted, it melted into a lock to hold it close. Eight in one day was, like, suicide. Sure, she was a Warden and had a stronger body than someone normal. That didn’t mean death by caffeine overdose was okay!
“Ah, partyfoul.” She pouted and pulled at her ears in frustration.
“Accessory.”
The frustration immediately vanished, and she practically teleported to the side of the room. “Accessory! Right! Been a while since I made one. Want anything specific?!”
”No.” Hmm… or maybe I did? I really liked Thorn’s Defiance, but it was a bit difficult to use since it was so unique. “Low-key.”
”I can do low-key. It’ll be so low-key you won’t even be able to find it!” She practically bounced on her feet while she clacked away at a keyboard. “Right! It’ll be done in a few days!”
I got the feeling she was trying to kick me out, but for once I stuck around to continue the conversation. I summoned out Thorn’s Defiance, and the heavy sniper rifle dropped into my hands. “Upgrade?”
”Hmm… I could. It was made from a fragment, so its possible. I’d need a ranged weapon, though. Maybe you could run through a few rifts, and—“
”Got it.” I summoned out Stormcaller, the bow I’d likewise gotten from Sky Skipper. It was made from antler, and sparked with an internal flow of electricity. There were no arrows, but simply pulling back the string would form one made of lightning. At least, from when I’d briefly tested it.
[Stormcaller - A bow made of fine antler. Where its arrows hit, a storm will answer.]
“That works! Woah, that works so well!” She grabbed the bow from my hands and plucked the ethereal string a few times. “Gimme!”
I passed ownership of both items to the Mythek through the OS. She couldn’t work on them if I still had ownership. From what I read on the Grid, passing over ownership was the reason why most Wardens were scared to go to Mytheks not aligned with a corporation. Not that it mattered. Corporate Mytheks could steal bound items just as easily as non corporate ones.
”Right! Get out!” She pushed me out the door, and slammed it shut behind me. A moment later, she popped it back open, plopped Willow into my arms, and slammed it shut once more.
“Well…” I stared down at the trembling form of Willow and soothingly patted her fur. That was something…
— — —
Some time later, I left Bastion behind. Getting out wasn’t nearly as big of a hassle as it was last time. The Arbiter must’ve put a note into their system or something, because I was let through without even a scan. That was dangerous. What if I was smuggling some kind of mega bomb or super drug? Actually, as long as they got a cut, they probably wouldn’t care. The Arbiters were actively working with Anarchs from what I’d seen.
Once I took the lift down into Ashton, I skipped what I did last time. The four wheeler was nice, but it was ultimately quite noisy and heavily dependent on having fuel. There was no point when I had a better option.
I walked past the gates of Ashton, and exited out into the Ashlands fully. Gusts of wind whipped ash into the air, dropping visibility quite heavily. That actually worked in my favor.
Once I was far enough away, I pulled out wave after wave of Ebonshroud and slowly constructed a horse. A Sleip, to be exact. Unlike the horses of Bastion, Serhymn’s warhorses had eight. It slowly came together exactly as I remembered the animal… or mostly, anyway. It’d been at least a hundred years since I last saw one of the majestic beasts.
The inanimate horse stared at me with hollow eyes. Right, which of the three should I imbue? Probably Willow, yep? Or maybe Ivy. She hadn’t left my apartment since I gave her access to the TV. ‘Course, Rowan was also an option. He… have I even interacted with him?
Why not all three? I formed three blobs of Ebonshroud, and tossed them onto the ash. A moment later, they bobbed around as if by their own free will. “Need horse.”
The three blobs grouped into a huddle like they were discussing something, and then one of them broke off from the others and merged into the Sleip body I’d made. A moment later, the horse's eyes blinked and a soft whinny came from it.
“Willow?” Without even accessing my connection to them, I could tell which one became the horse. As far as I knew, Willow was the only one that’d actually been looking into the behaviors of animals.
The horse nodded her head, and took a step forward—only to collapse. All eight of her legs flew in different directions like something straight out of a comedy cartoon. Willow unceremoniously collapsed into a heap.
”…” I helped her back up to her hooves, and patted off the ash that clung to her Ebonshroud hide.
Willow attempted to walk a few more times unsuccessfully. After the fifth time, I took control and removed four of the eight legs. She was no longer a true Sleip, but a fast horse hardly mattered if it couldn’t walk. “There.”
”Neighhh.” She shook out her mane, and guiltily looked away from me.
”It’s fine.” I patted her side lightly. I knew from experience how difficult it was to get used to using double the legs. Going to cat form still messed me up on occasion.
”Hufff.” She exhaled heavily, and walked around to get used to using a horse’s body. Her steps were much more stable this time around.
While she did that, I turned to absorb the other two slimes back—only to meet a set of watery eyes staring up at me pitifully. Definitely Ivy. I could see what she was trying to do, but only having eyes on a slime was more unsettling than anything.
”Stay out?” I asked after a moment.
”Glug glug!” The slime’s head bobbed around erraticly. Next to her, I got a similar feeling from Rowan. It had a flippant eye-roll to it, though, like he couldn’t care less.
”Fine.” Taking two kids with me on a horse wouldn’t be ideal though… With a thought, I reshaped them into two ravens instead.
The moment I gave control back, Ivy jumped at me and wrapped her wings around my leg in a soft hug. “Caw caw!”
I bent down and picked her up so she could perch on my shoulder. “Rowan?”
“Kraw.” The other raven just rolled his eyes and flapped his wings. His first attempt at flight failed spectacularly. By the time Willow fully acclimated to walking around as a horse, he managed to get into the air and circle just above the three of us. His flight was still a bit choppy, but he managed to glide around just fine.
“Caw~” Ivy cozied up on my shoulder, and rubbed affectionately against my cheek.
“That way.” I formed a saddle and mounted Willow. Although the process was a bit scuffed, eventually we set out toward the ravine where I last ran into the Morokai. The entire time, Rowan kept his distance like he’d rather be anywhere else than with us.
Ivy jumped off my shoulder, and perched on top of Willow’s head. The small raven lifted her head proudly, and threw out her wings. Wind blew into her feathers, and she drifted around like she was flying. “Vrmmmm-vr-vr-vrmMMMM!”
I winced, and clutched at my head. Wrong vehicle, my dear Ivy. Wrong vehicle… I was raising an idiot, wasn’t I? Ugh, why does this feel like I’m taking my kid siblings to work? And how is it that Willow, the youngest, is the most reliable?!
Thankfully, Ivy got bored before I could die of cringe, and instead just perched on the warhorse’s head to enjoy the breeze. Throughout it all, Willow faithfully kept up her sprint further and further into the Ashlands.
Once we got far enough from the walls of Ashton, my vigilance shot through the roof. Visibility was low thanks to the ashstorm, but that was only a minor setback. Between all four of us, keeping a watch on our surroundings was surprisingly easy. Especially with Rowan circling just above.
A ping of wariness came through my link with the flying raven, and he sent a mental image of a half-collapsed building buried in the ash just ahead of us. I patted Willow’s head lightly. “Around left.”
”Mmph.” She huffed lightly, and adjusted her course. The ash below us acted like a perfect muffle for her hooves, and completely silenced her movements.
It didn’t take us long to get to the ravine that I first found Lucia in. Horses, real ones anyway, couldn’t go at max speed for hours on end. Willow didn’t have that issue. Ebonshroud wasn’t real biological material, naturally, so she could run as fast as her body allowed without any issue the entire way out.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A sharp clattering noise echoed up from the ravine. It sounded like someone hammering away at a sheet of metal. The sharp noises completely covered up any and all sound made my my steed.
“Stay quiet,” I patted her neck and whispered. The moment I hopped off Willow, she simply shifted into an abyssal black tiger and prowled behind me on solid paws. Not quite what I meant, but it worked.
The three of us slowly crept up along the edge of the ravine and looked down on the long-abandoned HAT.