“But before we begin,” she says, then flicks one of my ears. “You should rejoin your party, little fox. They are beginning to worry.”
Just as she points it out, I find Seraphine and Nyx frowning, gazes locked onto Bluebell with a mix of wariness and fear. But Bella…
Bella watches me. Her crimson eyes are glued to my face, something inscrutable hidden within them.
Right. Just… move. It’s not that hard. Why am I even doing this? I don’t know her.
…Do I?
My mind flashes back to the memory—or rather, the patch of memory that’s still missing. That frustratingly elusive little snippet that gives me instant headaches if I so much as attempt to pry the secrets from them.
Instantly, I know that Bluebell has something to do with it. I can just feel it. There’s some connection between us, and it’s not just her draw on the mana in the world.
I stiffen in her arms the instant it hits me.
There’s something distinctly fae at work here.
With a mental flick, my Oathstone floats before my face. The moment I probe it for any other connections, any other deals… I feel it.
And I remember what happened to me in the Weave, that day I all but died in the Tunnels.
——————————————————————————————
“There you are, little fox,” a new voice says. Feminine and ethereal. Familiar, but also not. “Wandering so far into the Realms already... I did wonder when it might happen.”
I can’t see, or feel, or smell. I’m almost certain that I’m not even actually hearing anymore, either. But her voice reaches me nonetheless.
“Come now, young fae,” she says, and something caresses me. Not my body or even my mind, but me.
My soul, I think.
I should probably be panicking.
The thought is there—clear, immediate, and exactly what I’d expect.
But it doesn’t stick. Not because it’s gone, but because something else is there first.
Her touch isn’t suppressing anything. If anything, it’s doing the opposite. Her presence fills the space the panic would have taken with something warmer, steadier, and impossibly familiar.
“We have much to discuss, and I have a debt to repay,” she says, gently guiding me along.
A new sense nearly overwhelms any sense of reason I have left to wonder where I am or who she is, as mana itself bombards me from all directions. It presses in, intent on making itself known to me, as if it were excited with my presence here.
The tinkling laughter that comes from Bluebell draws my attention back to her… tails?
Yes, her tails.
There are so many…
They wrap around my being, tugging me along behind her as she walks on mana that seems to form itself into a path made just for her.
“Do you feel it?” she asks.
Then she sidesteps, as if trying to leap from the path the mana has made for her.
But it accommodates her.
It shifts quickly, matching her movements with enthusiasm. Even as she moves faster and faster, twirling and swishing about.
She speeds up even more, and though I know she moves faster than I could possibly track with my normal senses, my sight here is different.
I see the instants between instants where the mana tries to predict where she’ll move next, only for her to swish elsewhere, throwing it off. That’s when her laughter reaches me.
“You do!” she barks. “You feel it, just as I do!”
Her laughter is like mine—interspersed with joyous yips and chirps.
And all the while, she dances with mana itself.
Contratulations!Through experience, you naturally gain the fo—
The notice suddenly blinks out of existence with a flick of one of her many, many tails.
“Ah, ah, ah,” she tuts, seemingly struggling to restrain a chuckle. “You know better, System. This place is not for you to touch, even if you now have a window to peer through.”
NoticeUpdate request pend—
This time, a tail literally swats the notice from my vision, flinging it far, far into the distance.
The fact that she can apparently forcibly dismiss my notifications stuns me.
She giggles when I gawp—or rather, when I try to gawp.
Not having a mouth is weird.
She doesn’t answer the questions battering at my mind, though. She simply dances onward, taking me… somewhere.
Despite myself, I find myself drawn to her movements.
It isn’t just that it’s beautiful. It’s that it… makes sense.
Every step she takes feels correct in a way I can’t explain. Like there’s a pattern to it, something just beneath the surface that I almost understand but can’t fully grasp.
The mana responds to her, yes—but not because she commands it.
She’s playing with it.
Something in me twists at that thought. I can feel it it pulling at me, somewhere deep inside.
I watch the way she turns, the way the mana bends and reshapes itself around her, not chasing or following, but meeting her as if it had always known where she would be.
Even when she tries to trick it with seemingly random switches in direction.
But stranger still is that I find myself aching to learn how to do that.
And that I feel I could, if I only knew how.
I’ve never danced a day in my life, but the thought catches, half-formed, and refuses to leave despite how ridiculous I believe it to be.
So even as I question where I am, and why I’m here, and where we’re going…
I watch.
I watch, and memorize, and learn. I lose myself in the urge to pick whatever scraps of knowledge I can until I don’t know how long it’s been—or if any time has passed at all.
Only when we finally stop am I able to focus on something else.
Around us, the mana seems to sag with relief the moment she halts, and I find myself doing the same. Bluebell, for her part, just grins at me across a table set with tea.
That’s when I realize I have a body again.
Sort of.
Looking down, I find myself made of an amalgam of lights and colors. Shifting pale blues, blood reds, glowing whites, and hints of something prismatic slipping in and out of view.
But it’s still the body I know.
Even my tail, now made of the same strange substance as the rest of my body, swishes behind me through an opening in the back of my chair.
“I would offer you tea, but I fear you aren’t ready for the implications of such a thing. However, you are free to pour yourself a cup, should you wish.”
I open my mouth to quip, my words racing far ahead of my thoughts.
“Can I even taste right now?”
She smirks, but doesn’t answer. Instead, she leans forward slightly, resting her chin in her palm as though studying me.
Her tails shift behind her in slow, smooth waves of fur, hinting toward her sudden curiosity.
She hums.
“So you are the impertinent little fox that flicked the nose of every powerful entity in the world.”
My shoulders stiffen instinctively.
“I didn’t—” I start.
She waves a hand, dismissing the words before I can even form them properly.
“Oh, you absolutely did,” she says lightly. “Whether you meant to or not is entirely irrelevant.”
Her grin sharpens just a touch.
“Though I must say… I approve.”
“I’m not trying to break anything,” I mutter.
“No?” she asks, tilting her head.
That’s when I realize she has ears much like my own. They flop ever so slightly to the side as she looks at me askance, and my chest constricts as a feeling of familiarity squeezes my heart.
I push it away—hard.
“How unfortunate,” she sighs.
There’s no real disappointment in her voice. If anything, she sounds amused.
“The world has grown terribly stagnant,” she continues, idly tapping a claw against her cup. “Rigid. Predictable. Safe in all the wrong ways, despite its little… cycles.”
She practically spits the last word, her disgust and vitriol evident as the mana around us ripples with shared distaste.
Her gaze flicks back to me, suddenly sharper.
“You, however, are none of those things.”
My tail flicks behind me, betraying my nervousness.
“You make it sound like that isn't a good thing,” I say.
“It rarely is,” she agrees with a laugh. “But it is necessary, nonetheless.”
She sips at her tea, its prismatic liquid sparkling in my vision like stars. She savors it slowly, her eyes closing with apparent pleasure as she settles just a bit deeper into her chair.
“Why are you even telling me any of this?” I ask. “Who are you, really?”
For a moment, she just watches me over the lip of her teacup.
Then she sets it down with a faint click and straightens up once more, her tails fanning out behind her regally.
The mana in the space presses in once more, as if excited for what comes next.
“I am Kiri, the Sixth Manaborn,” she says.
Her voice doesn’t rise, but it settles into the space like a truth with actual, physical weight. Then her voice shatters that moment of solemnity.
“But,” she adds, a hint of a smile returning, “you may know me better as Bluebell, the Wingless.”
She dips her head, and all of her tails follow in a facsimile of a bow.
My mind stutters to a halt.
Huh?
“You’re not—” I start, then falter. “You can’t be—”
Her smile widens just a fraction, her eyes softening into something that makes me ache.
“I assure you, I am she,” she says gently, “Though the story is a bit… dramatized.”
I… I can’t process any of this.
Annoyingly, she looks pleased by my momentary existential crisis.
“Try not to break,” she chuckles. “I’d hate to lose you after finally getting the chance to meet you properly.”
“I’m not going to—” I start, then clamp my mouth shut.
Because I don’t actually know how to take any of this.
How am I supposed to react to this?
To her?
My thoughts stumble, trying to take shape and failing.
She isn’t just… someone important.
She’s—
The reason I started. The reason I kept going. The very fantasy I’ve been chasing without ever really believing I’d reach.
Bluebell, the fae girl born without wings and thus without magic, who went on to delve the deepest layers of the Tunnels to find her own magic. To fix her own fate.
She was supposed to be a myth. But now she’s here. Sitting across from me.
Sipping tea.
I swallow, something tight and unfamiliar and deeply uncertain settling in my chest.
What in the hells am I supposed to do with that?
My hesitancy seems to amuse her even more.
She exhales softly, relaxing back into her seat, cup already back in hand.
“Regardless,” she says, tone gentler now. “I owe you a great debt. So let’s get this done, then we can chat a bit.”
I blink at her, somehow even more confused.
“…What?”
She smiles genially at me, then turns serious, clearing her throat.
“A true favor given freely begets three in turn,” she says.
The world around us just… stops.
“I know you, Emilia of clan Ken.”
Her voice doesn’t rise, but it deepens. Like something vast is pressing closer.
“I know your past. Your path. Your hunger.”
Each word lands gently, and each feeling somehow more real than the last.
“I know you run from what hunts you in your sleep. I know you reach for strength not for glory… but to ensure you are never that helpless again.”
My chest tightens.
“And I know,” she continues, softer still, “that what you truly want… is freedom.”
The words slam into me like a punch to the gut, but I have no air to lose.
The space around us begins to shift, the table and chairs dissolving—not violently, but like they were never meant to last.
“A true favor given freely begets three in turn,” she repeats.
Her gaze does not leave mine, even as she seems to grow in stature, tails spreading into the infinite distance, filling all that I can see.
“You gave without knowing what it would become.”
The mana stirs, gathering into a storm that encircles us, even as it expands to accommodate her true power.
“And so something must be given in return.”
She is… everywhere. No matter how far I reach with this strange sense, all I find are her tails. They frame reality like a swirling cocoon of fur and warmth.
And all I feel is… safe.
Safer than I can ever remember being.
“A true favor given freely begets three in turn,” she repeats with finality, her tone soft, yet tinged with a will of steel. “Thus you are owed.”
Her tails wrap around me once more, hugging me.
“You will receive three gifts. No bargains, or traps—gifts. I will not twist them for personal gain, as many fae are wont to do.”
She smiles at me then, her gaze warm and full of gratitude for a moment. Then she seems to take in a deep breath, as if what comes next needs bracing.
“As I know you, so too shall you know me.”
She spreads her arms wide, smiling broadly now.
“I am Kiri, the Sixth of my kin. I am Mana, I am Fae. I am Magic… and I am Fate.”
Her words bring with it the weight of purpose. Of meaning, and of being. Of what she is, and what she embodies.
The power behind it pushes the knowledge of what it is into me without a care for the fragility of my mortal mind, and I understand it for what it is.
An aspect. A Domain.
Her Domain.
A fragment of reality, and of godhood.
She takes another breath, her smile shifting into a wicked grin full of playful glee.
“You did me a great service in allowing many of us to propose changes to the System in a way that sticks. With the help of the great Mother, I was able to start undoing the actions of my predecessors.”
The mana shapes itself into an image before me, turning into a replica of the World Notice that apparently led to this moment.
WORLD NOTICEKiri, the Sixth, and Morena, Goddess of Life and Death, enact a change!
All previously extinct sapient species will be slowly reintroduced to the world through Dungeons.
“My predecessors did not have the right to erase from the world those with minds of their own. We shall undo their mistakes.”
“Thanks to you, we have regained some measure of control over the System. It was always meant to fix things, but… well, that isn’t important to you right now. What matters is your reward.”
For a bit, I just stare, unable to formulate any of the many, many questions suddenly bouncing around my head.
“Let us begin, then.”
Her tails shift, settling around us like a massive multi-layered blanket.
“First…”
Her gaze softens, not in pity, but in understanding.
“You carry something unfinished. A moment that never reached its end. A grief that never found its shape.”
Though I don’t have air to breathe, it feels as if my chest is crushed under the weight of my past.
“You survived,” she continues, “but part of you did not move forward with the rest.”
One of her tails gently caresses my cheek.
“That is not a failing. It is simply… incomplete. So I will give you a place where that moment may reach its proper end. Not as it was, but as it might have been, had you been given the chance you deserved.”
Her voice lowers just slightly.
“It will hurt. You will walk it, you will choose, and what you take from it after that… it will be yours forever. As it should be.”
Mana pours in from our surroundings, condensing itself into a tiny gemstone of some kind. A thread of mana stretches out from it towards me, so fast I don’t even have time to think of avoiding it.
It connects, attaching itself to my core.
She doesn’t give me time to respond or ask what just happened.
“Second…”
Her tone shifts into something lighter, but no less certain.
“You are walking a path that will intersect with others, whether you intend it or not.”
A faint smile touches her lips.
“One in particular.”
My stomach flips, though I don’t know why.
“You would have met her eventually,” Kiri continues, “but eventually is a fickle thing. It bends. It shifts. It breaks when it matters most.”
Her tails sway once, thoughtfully.
“So I will… encourage the meeting. You will cross paths sooner than you otherwise would have.”
A flicker of amusement enters her voice.
“What you do with that meeting will be entirely up to you, though. So too shall anything after. As it should be.”
At the words, mana pulses into the stone again, and a second line connects itself to me.
She draws in a slow breath.
“Third…”
This time, her gaze sharpens.
“You are Fae.”
The words feel heavier than the rest.
“But you are not whole.”
I stiffen.
What? Not… what’s that even mean?
“The System sought to replicate the Manaborn. My kin,” she says, sounding almost annoyed. “It… succeeded. Mostly.”
She huffs, glancing off in the distance where she swatted the last System Notice.
“You have power,” she continues, “but not the instincts that give it shape. Foxkin instincts are close, as all beastkin are descendants of the fae—but they are not close enough to what would make you True.”
The history bomb hits me with the force of a train, but she doesn’t let me reel at the implications of beastkin heritage.
“So I will grant you what should have been yours from the beginning. The instincts of a True Manaborn. With this… you become what you were always meant to be. The Seventh. As it should be.”
Another pulse of power, and another line of mana materializes between me and the stone.
Except this time I suddenly feel as though it is mine. Truly mine, and mine alone.
It is as much a part of me as my own soul… though I don’t know how, or why. Or even what it really is.
“For this one, though it is a genuine gift, I would like to apologize in advance. There will be some… growing pains,” she says, visibly wincing. “You’ll get the hang of it though, I’m sure.”
Her gaze returns to mine and holds steady.
“And when you do… you will understand why they are a gift.”
She claps her hands before her with finality.
“Now, there’s just one condition: When you leave this place, you will not remember any of this.”
My stomach drops.
“What—”
Her tails shift, wrapping loosely over my mouth. Not restraining, just… present enough to quiet me.
“You are not ready to carry this knowledge yet,” she says. “Not without it shaping you in ways that would not be truly yours. It would alter your decisions, even if you are not aware of it doing so.”
Her tone is calm and soothing.
“For this to work, you must not know what comes next.”
Her eyes soften again.
“You will discover this moment again, in your own time, through your own understanding. And when you do… it will be yours in full again. As it should be.”
A fourth line of mana connects me to the strange stone, literally setting in stone the gifts she’s given me.
“Now that all that’s out of the way,” she grins. “Allow me to welcome you to the family.”
She holds her arms out invitingly, and her tails push on my back, bringing us together once more.
I’m struck with an achingly painful familiarity. I try to push it down, but she speaks, interrupting my effort.
“It is okay…” she coos. “You can remember here, for now. It will not stick.”
She scratches gently behind one ear, drawing the memory even closer to the surface, reminding me of all that I had lost.
Of the mother I once had, who would scratch oh so gently behind my ears in all the right spots.
Just like this.
This time, the memory hurts.
“It is okay,” she says again, barely a whisper. “When the memory of this place is yours once more, you will be ready for it. This I promise. So for now… let yourself remember. Live in the moment. I am here, and I am family.”
I am lost for a time, after that. I don’t know how long it takes to put myself back together, but she never once lets me go until I do.
——————————————————————————————
“Oh?” Bluebell chuckles. “It took seeing me in person to connect the dots once more?”
The hum of the ancient chamber crashes back into me all at once. Only an instant passed, but everything changed.
I stare at her, struck dumb with disbelief and… overwhelming gratitude.
Among several other emotions, chief among which being annoyance at her extremely uncalled for prank.
Because she just so happened to give me these extreme instincts right before I hit my estrus. And also ensure that I just so happened to meet Bella around the same time as it started, all but guaranteeing the ensuing embarrassment and shame.
I give her another squeeze before slowly disentangling myself from her many tails and almost instantly regret their loss.
I’ve never been addicted to something, but I’d like to imagine this urge to return is the closest I’ll ever get to that feeling.
After freeing myself and mumbling a brief ‘thank you’ for her… gifts… I shuffle back to my party, finally capable of thinking straight.
Mostly, anyways.
Gods, her draw on the mana around us is intense.
Seraphine and Nyx continue to glare at Bluebell, though they are very, very visibly nervous with her sudden appearance.
Bella, for her part, watches only me, a slight frown creasing her lips.
“Sorry, I’m okay. It’s…” I glance over to our other two party members, then lean in to whisper in Bella’s ear. “It’s hard to explain. I’ll tell you back in the dorm.”
She eyes me suspiciously, then nods. “Very well. Still, this all but guarantees our entrance exam is going to be tossed out.”
I open my mouth to object, then pause.
“Wait, seriously?”
****************
Authors note:
Phew! Longest chapter in a while. Lots of info though :3 Edit: Just a psa - normally these memories/dream sequence sections would be in all italicts with bold text for emphasis as needed, but as this moment is the majority of this chapter I left it as is. Didn't want to force you guys to read an entire chapter of Italics lol.
We're closing in on the end of book two and I'm kind of shocked by that. Just the fact that I've damn near written two entire books in what feels like just a few months??
That's crazy to me. I'm beyond happy, but also deeply confused that it feels like I'm knocking them out quickly. lol
For you guys, I'm betting it's too slow, since you'd probably love to get more chapters :3
But from my POV, I went from not writing at all three and half years ago......to two entire books over the course of a single year.
And it only feels like a few months have passed.
That's insane to me, and that realization is only now starting to kick in as I close in on the end of book two.
This has been, and continues to be, one of the best experiences of my life.
Thank you all <3