Chapter 187: Defiance
The flap of wings grows erratic as Raven’s flock avoids my needles, only to see them turn around in the air. They carve vicious arcs through the air, twisting back around and flying right for the birds again.
Seeing as much, the sumeen gives a loud cry and then consolidates again.
Which doesn’t break my tethers. The flock of ravens becomes their cloak, and a moment later, a dozen needles dig into their back. Instantly, their imbued enchantments trigger, and I see the sumeen go to one knee. Then, Opal reaches me, drenched in blood, and throws me higher up the tree.
“Go, go!” they say between laughs, a wide grin on my face. “The kids are almost through! Run!”
I turn my [Observation] upwards and see Trey about to step through the portal at the top of the tree. For a moment, my heart slows. And then, the mana inside the tree shifts.
Inu flinches, pulling away from her fight to tear up the stairs. I see Thatch retreat, and Sylves rapidly spiraling upwards on a column of wind. A heartbeat passes, then two… and then, I feel an authority crash down on us.
It’s more vast than any I’ve felt before. And, at the same time, it’s almost placid. Calm. A gentle warmth, even, and yet one that makes it hard to move. It’s heavy, pressing on me, but it’s also thin.
With gentle steps, Respitia’s oracle, Delfine, enters the tree. Her eyes are still covered by a blindfold, and yet, I can tell that she’s watching me. Humming softly to herself, she walks forward, and taps Raven as they lay on the floor, mending their wounds. “Calm,” she says with a smile. “Respitia wishes for all her children to return to her.”
Two city guards step out from behind her, one of them pressing a spear against Raven’s neck. “No one move!” he barks, and the oracle lightly pats his shoulder.
“Do not worry,” she says, in that same calm, aloof voice. “Everything will be alright.”
Still, the air feels frozen. I grit my teeth. This enforced calm. This lack of movement. I can feel my blood boil at the sensation, at how it infuriates me. And I refuse. I refuse to acknowledge it.
So I fight. My efficiency boils against my skin, willing me to move, to escape. I take a slow, quivering, pathetic step, and I feel the Oracle turn to me. All at once, the authority wears heavier on me - but in response, Opal moves. Then, when she focuses on them Inu moves another step forward.
Slowly, the Oracle’s lips pull into a frown. The weight on me grows yet more. My mantle weighs heavily on my shoulders. I can feel the way it wants to crush me, and the way it bristles against who I am.
I breathe. And flare [Suppression].
[Suppression 31 > 32]
There’s no point in my life at which I didn’t have problems with authority. My parents. My teachers. My bosses, my professors. Older kids at school.
Can’t stand it. I can’t. For so long did I try to fit their expectations. To fulfill what others wanted of me. To suppress my own needs. To be who I needed to be. To fit in and earn their approval.
But that’s not me.
No.
This oracle wants me to stay calm, and I refuse. I fucking refuse.
My [Suppression] reaches out with all my leftover mana. The stupid fishbowl around my face cracks and begins to flake away. Blood pours from me as I wreck my body in the attempt. Every single drop that I can get, that I can scrape from within my vessel floods out and presses against her authority.
I’m worn ragged from the fight. Everything hurts. I’m bleeding, and in shit shape. The tree underneath me is quivering, and still, I refuse. To give in to her. To let myself be trapped like some fucking pet in a cage.
[Suppression 32 > 33]
That’s not me. That’ll never be me.
I refuse the artificial calm. I refuse to be slowed. I take another step. The weight grows. I fight. With my everything, my mind boiling, I analyse her authority. I see where it’s thin, and fight against it there. I do it efficiently, while she spends it like she has an ocean to give.
But she doesn’t. I press, and take another step, another stair upwards. The pressure on me grows, but then, things shift. Opal moves, and so does Thatch. Thick streamers of red wrap around him, and he reaches me in a single leap. And then, some of that anger flows into me.
Inu links us with her [Empathy]. I push myself, further and further. I refuse to be torn from this, to stop my climb. I take another step.
“Cease your foolishness,” the oracle says with a frown. “It is pointless,” she says, and slowly takes her own first step forward.
Only for Raven to wrap a hand around her ankle. “They’re mine,” they growl, full of hatred.
She looks at them with all the consideration one might give a pile of dirt, and stomps on their hand. Raven howls, but their authority flares against hers. So does that of Cleaver, and Coldscar. One by one, their pieces rise. They’re all climbers, after all. People who want to go up. People who want to be free.
I fight.
My own authority twists and pushes against hers, but my efficiency is simply not suited for this. I can keep moving, but it’s weak. Slow.
So I reach for more. I push out every drop of mana I regenerate, I grit my teeth and let my flesh wilt as the runes dissipate, turned into more mana for me to wield. I break my healing experiments in my arm, and Abiding Apathy feeds me more mana. With every possible fibre of my being, I decline this. I defy her.
And then, something breaks.
Against all the rising pressure, the bark of the tree splinters outward. The titanic wood groans in pain, tilting to the side. I grit my teeth. The oracle’s authority spills outwards, wider, thinner. It shifts and weakens.
Fighting tooth and nail, I drive my skill into that weakness. I let myself want something. Really, properly want something. I fight and struggle and claw at this cage. With everything.
“Tower. I want to use a lesser request to break her authority.”
There’s another crack, and a soft scream. I push further, harder, bleeding, breaking apart even that fishbowl helmet to give myself just a little more mana to work with. The crack widens.
[Suppression 33 > 34]
And I earn what I was already offered.
[Congratulations!]
[You have claimed the authority of Defiance!]
My feet fall faster. I rush up the staircase, pushing our weaker members through the portal. Opal, Inu, Thatch and Sylves all dash upwards. The wood groans and tilts behind us - and then, with a crack collapses.
Looking back, my eyes meet the Oracle’s blind face once more. There’s a look on her face I can’t quite decipher. Almost… conflicted. Mournful.
Then, I step through the portal.
Chapter 188: Calm
The safe zone is a beach, as always. I stagger onto the sand. Bleeding, without mana, patches of frozen skin… In fact, I think most of the others look better than me. As usual, really. Them and their high heart stats. Imagine being healthy, couldn’t be me.
I barely catch myself before falling onto the sand. With quick, staggering steps, I head for the palm tree in the center of the beach. It’s a little different here - the place feels a little more full. There are even a few umbrellas in the sand. Not the bright, plasticcy ones I’m used to from Earth, though, but ones woven from white, thin cloth, filtering the sunlight.
After just a second, I make it to the tree, as do most of the others, and soon, my coconut falls down, softly landing in my hands. I breathe in for a moment, then look at Trey. Kuro gets the hint, quickly slithering off the kid, turning into a centipede, and skittering towards me across the sand.
The kid gives a small shiver at that, but he gets over it quickly, grabbing for his own coconut. I open mine, give Kuro their part, and eat. Instantly, health flows through me. I feel the cold receding, the budding frostbite vanishing from my limbs, and even the recently exploded stump of my fingers grows back slightly - only to the first joint, though.
[Your stats have been reinforced!]
Taking a shaky breath, I smile, then manifest my shadow-mask again. Just in time for Coldscar to stagger through the portal.
Interestingly, this time, the tree does sprout a coconut for him. It’s paler than ours, though, looking more like a husk. But with swift steps, the scithian makes it to the tree, takes the fruit, and tears into it like a rabid animal. Then his wounds close.
I tilt my head as I watch, but my mana doesn’t leave my body. For the first time in forever, I’m low on it, so I give myself time to recharge. So, instead, I just mundanely observe him with my regular human eyes. Kuro purrs as they wrap themselves around me, and I smile, happy to be reunited with my friend again.
Coldscar turns to us with a hateful glare. “Where’s the falling fishbowl?” he demands.
Thatch smiles helplessly and just shrugs. “Sorry,” he says, “I don’t know what you mean.”
The scithian’s face darkens even more, and the everpresent frown on his face tightens. I wonder, did they not realize Trey was the one wearing the shadow-cloak? I suppose he isn’t that much shorter than me… Really just one growth spurt away from reaching my height. And with the cloak hiding his silhouette…
Of course, right at the end, my fishbowl-hat was broken. Did Raven recognize me? I sure hope not.
“Yuki!” they screech, barrelling through the portal.
Hm. Truly. It’s a mystery. We’ll never know if they know.
“Where is that fucking enchanter?! I’ll kill the fuck myself!” they roar, tearing forward to the tree. The coconut gets shredded through by a maw that appears on their palm. Then, their eyes sweep over us again, lingering on me. “Kuro,” they hiss. “Why do you always wear that mask?”
I tilt my head as if confused, giving no answer. Raven stalks towards me while the rest of their crew stumbles through the portal, soon followed by the oracle and her two guards. The safe room starts to feel just a little crowded, really. I shuffle backwards a bit on the sand.
Not that it stops Raven. “Show me your face,” they demand. “Kuro, I need to know what you look like. I didn’t imagine it, I’m sure. Yuki was there. And now, instead of them, there’s some feryran kid. No, no. That’s not how this works. People don’t vanish like that. Where is my enchanter?”
Inu steps in front of Raven with a calm, measured motion. “Excuse me,” she says with a smile, “I have to ask that you don’t bother my friend.”
Raven hums in annoyance, their temper flaring high, and reaches out to push Inu aside. Her authority flares for a moment, partially restored by the healing coconut, and resists the motion. The hum of displeasure from Raven grows deeper, darker - only to be joined by a hiss of mana.
The density of it rises as the Monolith warns us. Fighting in safe zones is forbidden, after all.
“Now, now,” Delfine says calmly, a thin smile on her lips. Her wings are flared wide behind her, a brilliant gold, and her hair shines with a faint metallic gleam. She must be half-scithian and half-feryran, I guess? “Why don’t we all calm down a little?”
Her words are polite, but remind me of her authority. Already, I can feel my defiance rise again. And I smile a little at the thought. Isn’t defiance really just the anti-authority amongst authorities? How fitting that I earn that one for myself.
Efficiency is almost fully internal - something to prevent myself from being slowed down or stopping by external factors. It’s good for a support role, mostly, making my skills hit a little harder, letting me improve a little faster. But it’s also a bit general.
Defiance doesn’t really do much, but the thing it does, it does well - and that’s resisting other authorities. Even right now, I can feel it clinging to me like a loose chainmail of razorblades. Ready to rip and tear into any authority that tries to lay hands on me. Delfine looks at me, then tilts her head.
Ah, she must know who I am, since she felt my authority. How troublesome. But despite that, she remains quiet, and even Raven takes a step back at her request.
“Thank you,” she says to the gang leader, patting his shoulder. “We’re all climbers. We should work together under Respitia’s light.” Her smile doesn’t reach very high. It’s thin. How curious.
Sylves floats happily at that. “I agree entirely,” the faerie lies. “Let’s all share a meal.”
I roll my eyes at the blatant trap, but Delfine just smiles. “That sounds rather brilliant,” she says. “Please, let us do just that.”
At this point, I realize that this oracle might be an extrovert. My greatest fear made manifest. How ever shall I survive this? I give a soft sigh, meant only for myself, and get even more distance from the others, while Richard starts a fire and pointedly keeps Opal away from the cooking.
And despite that, Delfine sits down next to me. “Hello, Kuro-”
I get up and sit down somewhere else.
She sits down next to me. “Now, please, let’s just-”
I get up and sit down between Inu and Thatch.
Delfine just looks at me, and her expression is pretty funny. She stares as if she couldn’t believe what’s happening. Somewhere between confused, annoyed, amused and impressed. I stare back at her, meeting her blindfolded eyes. For a few seconds, it lingers, then the oracle just laughs and shakes her head. “I see how it is,” she says, though her voice holds no malice.
There’s a faint curiosity there. One that’s so strong I can feel an echo of it brushing my defiance. The razorblades rise against her authority. Does she have multiple, too, then? Her curiosity cuts itself on my defiance and I see her wince slightly as she draws back. She tilts her head at me.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d ask if you were related,” Opal notes with a grin.
Raven gives their best impression of an annoyed grimace. Coldscar frowns entirely unhappily. Meanwhile, Dove looks at Sylves with raw fear and Anna shoots Inu and Thatch jealous looks.
There are too many people for me to keep track of properly. So, instead, I give up. They can do whatever they like. They can glare or grimace or frown or talk. I’m almost tempted to summon my fishbowl again, but it’d instantly give me away to Raven. Right now they still seem at least a little undecided on whether I’m Yuki, which is good for me.
I use [Suppression] to tune out the noise of their talking as I reestablish my limiters. First, my attunement loop, acting on my vessel. I put it in place now, before I regenerate enough mana to blow myself up. Then, the cruncher, to make sure I train my body properly. It’s funny how oddly mundane it makes me feel.
Time passes as it usually does. I eat a meal, then lay down to sleep. After all the fighting, I’m pretty tired, and we are in a safe zone so surely nothing bad will happen. Surely.
- - -
When the middle of the night comes, I wake up. Mainly because someone appears to be trying to push mana inside me. Of course, this goes expectedly poorly, really. The little packets of solid mana I kept under my skin diffuse as the foreign mana touches them, dispelling it.
Sighing softly I open my eyes, finding Delfine crouched above me, staring down at my masked face. I stare back at her.
“Safe zones are meant to be calm, you know?” she asks politely. “So it’s not seen as an attack for me to help people sleep well. No one will wake up, for now. Which means that we can have a conversation, you and I. So, let’s talk, Ion.”
Chapter 189: Nighttime Conversation
I stare at the oracle looking down at me.
Delfine tilts her head. “Still not feeling talkative? Well, that’s alright. I don’t want to be your enemy, you know? If you ask, I’ll even end this conversation right away. But then you don’t get to hear why I wanted to talk.”
Dang, she’s played me. I never thought my curiosity would get me like this one day. Okay, well, that’s misleading. I never thought it would because I was, instead, sure that this would happen. But I forgive myself, so it’s okay. I look at her, silently, waiting for her to elaborate.
A thin smile spread on her lips, her blindfolded face still looking down at me. A few strands of her hair fall from behind her ear, tickling my nose, and I will Kuro to bat them away. At that, she looks surprised. “Oh? The shadow magic is real? I thought you would have used some kind of trick. Respitia always assured me you were an anti-mage.”
I shrug, still not saying anything.
“Hmmm,” Delfine hums, sitting back, and giving me slightly more space. “You know, the Monoliths generally allow some access to the Eyes, right? So, you’ll forgive me if I don’t trust your spectators. Tower, I’d like to use a lesser request to shield this conversation from prying Eyes.”
A hum passes through the air, a ripple of mana so beautiful and complex that I want to pull it apart on the spot. But I’d never have a chance. The tower’s magic is still so far beyond me. Delfine smiles at the power and nods. “I can imagine your expression, right now,” she says. Her hand even reaches out to touch my face, but I pull back. “Ah,” she says, her fingers hanging in the air. “My apologies. I get too… familiar, when I’m curious.”
I tilt my head at her. She can’t see it, but she keeps talking anyway.
“That’s why I tried to see into you with magic before, too. And my authority. I’m a curious person, Ion. So very curious.”
“Is that how you lost your eyes?” I ask.
“Oh, no,” she says with a faint giggle, holding a hand to her mouth. “No, I lost these because of a disease. The more light that entered my eyes, the worse my eyesight got. Some kind of allergy that made my optic cells die when touched by ultraviolet. Bit by bit, as I aged, my vision went. First, I lost colour. Then, darkness crept in around the edges. Then, I only had blurry pinprick holes to see through… and now, gone.”
I look at her, not speaking, and she sighs softly. “Yes, I suppose it is fitting I became an oracle. The blind one who sees, right? And yes, that is how I lost my eyes, I suppose. But it is not how I lost my sight. And no, I cannot heal them back. Neither can Respitia.”
Again, I remain quiet.
Delfine seems unbothered by it, talking away. Truly, extroverts are scary. She just guesses at what I want. Does she do so from the tiny shuffles I make on the sand? I try to sit perfectly still, giving away nothing to her. “So, this blindfold is simply part of who I am. I’ve learnt to make up for it in other ways. I’m very good at seeing things that I will interact with, for example.”
“I can see things that will hit me. Things that would hurt me. Things that run away from me. But it’s hard for me to see things that are still. Like you. Right now, I see nothing. In fact, there’s a chance you’re not in front of me, at all.” A thin smile plays on her lips. “But I’d wager you’re there. There wasn’t enough shuffling for you to get up, and you’re too curious to leave.”
How annoying.
Delfine gives another short hum, folding her hands in her lap. “You’re probably wondering why I wanted to speak to you, Ion. The truth is, I want to trust you.”
What a strange request. I watch her curiously, noting the way she fidgets, the way her wings draw a little closer to her. As if she’s cold.
“Which is why I need to ask: What will you do with Jean?”
And for the first time, I see through her facade. There’s a small crack. I’m not good with people, but I’m observant. I see the way her lips quiver, the way her interlocked fingers tighten.
“Do you plan to use him? Do you plan to bind him to you? To keep him on a chain and earn yourself all the favours you could ever wish for?” she asks.
I tilt my head. What a strangely reasonable set of questions to ask. “No,” I reply simply.
Delfine sits for a long while after that. I stare at her, and she looks at where she imagines I must be. There’s a long sort of silence as she waits for something that doesn’t come. In the end, she answers stiffly. “I see. Thank you, that will be enough,” she says, just a moment before the Tower’s mana washes over us again, the time for our private conversation disappearing.
Gracefully, she rises, and walks back to the spot between her guards, laying down on a bedroll and heading right back to sleep. I look at her for another moment, then shrug and close my eyes. What a strange person.
- - -
When I wake up a little after that, Anna is sitting next to me, her legs crossed, staring off at the ocean. Her hand rests on Trey’s head, gently petting his hair. She turns to look at me as I rise, and smiles faintly. “Good morning,” she says.
I nod, doing my best to give her a smile. It makes her brighten up instantly, and she pats the sand next to her, asking me to sit. I oblige.
“Is it alright if I rest my head on your shoulder?” she asks.
Hm. What a strange request. People seem to be doing that a lot, recently. I shrug. “Okay.” Since she asked, I’m alright with it.
Anna leans over, and for a moment, I stiffen at the touch. Then, I sigh softly, and let myself relax, as much as possible. I’m alright with it. “What’s on your mind?” I ask, being nice.
“I’m grateful, for all this,” she says quietly. “And I’m scared,” she adds, looking at her brother. “That it’ll all crumble. We’ve had multiple close calls. Trey is so young. He’s not…”
“Not ready for this?” I ask. “Hmm. He’s a brave kid. How old is he?”
“Thirteen.”
“And you?”
“Twenty.”
“When do you think people are ready for this?” I ask.
At the question, Anna stiffens. For a long moment, she doesn’t find words, squeezing her eyes shut. “Never,” she whispers.
I smile faintly at that. “Yeah,” I reply. “I think that’s true for most people. Trey isn’t ready. But he’s also getting an early start. He’ll survive.”
“Are you sure?” Anna asks.
And I don’t have it in me to lie. “No,” I reply, shaking my head, and she flinches at the word. “I can’t be sure. But we’ll do our best to keep him safe. I even gave him my cloak.”
“You did,” she nods.
I stare at the rising sun. “So, what do you think that means? Do you think he’ll make it? Do you think he’s tough enough? Because he’s only been getting stronger, you know. With every level.”
Anna sighs, and her breath shakes a bit. “Yeah, he has,” she agrees. “It’s been years since I saw him play like that. Laugh like that. He gets scared, but he’s moving, Snow. He’s not in pain. That’s why I’m thankful. It’s why I haven’t yelled at you for putting him in danger.”
A small smile spreads on my face. Norman did yell at me for putting his kid in danger. It sucks that Anna has become kind of a parent for her brother, but I suppose it would be like that. The Tower is fair, mostly, but that doesn’t make it kind. “I appreciate your calm.”
The feryran huffs at that with amusement, then laughs for a long moment. “I’m stronger, too, I think,” she says quietly. “But I’m also weak in lots of ways. Will you keep me safe?”
“Sure,” I reply casually. Anna blushes a bit at that.
“She’s flirting with you,” Thatch provides helpfully, and she flinches at his voice. “Which like, is fine. I do that all the time. Just want you to be aware of it.”
I was not, in fact, aware of it. People are such mysteries. I look down to Anna who quickly pulls away from my shoulder and looks like she wants to be swallowed by the sand. She can’t even meet my eyes. My face is as calm and deadpan as ever, and I turn to Thatch. “Thanks for the explanation.”
“Anytime,” he says, giving me a bright thumbs-up. “Sorry for embarrassing you, Anna. But my friend can be a bit dense.”
The feryran girl still holds her hands in front of her face. “I- I noticed!” she stammers. “Can we, uh, go look at the portals?”
“Sure,” I shrug, rising from my sitting position to my feet. Raven stirs, and as soon as they sit up, their six face-holes bore into me with malicious hatred again. I sigh, ignoring them as we head for the exits.
- - -
Our next stop is halfway up the spire. That usually means a slightly different floor. Higher rates of special exits, or unique conditions. Which there’s immediately a few good examples of.
The left portal is one of cold and darkness. A glacial cave, the snow outside slowly melting. A trial of endurance, waiting until the exit appears. We’d be locked into a frozen cave with Raven and Coldscar. That’s a bit of a death sentence, I think.
For the middle portal, there’s a ship sailing for port. It’s full of sailors, manifested by the Monolith. They look like people, but I know they wouldn’t be ones, not properly. Unfortunately, we’d once again be stuck in close quarters with the other groups. Maybe they’d get their own ships, but I’d imagine Coldscar could still just freeze the water around us, and we’d be stuck.
Third, and finally, there’s a castle. It stands on a cliff, a rocky outcropping, and its stones are slick with water from the ever pouring rain. Banshees haunt its empty halls, and we are meant to fight our way through it, sneakily. There’s an alarm condition.
“So, if we’re the first into the castle…” Sylves whispers carefully to me, “What kind of mischief can we get up to?”
I smile, just a little bit. It has been a while since I made a few enchanted traps. And Sylves did just infect Delfine and her guards with her [Hospitality]. “You know, if we enter the castle first, isn’t it kind of our place?” I ask.
The fae grins at that. “Yes,” she hums. “Yes, I think it would be. And no one enters fae houses without permission, isn’t that right?”
A devious little trick. So suitable for us. I smile, and the decision is made. “We’ll take the castle,” I say out loud, and step through the portal.