Chapter 215: 215
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Orison said a little sadly, "There's a possibility that they were completely alive and savable but after drowning in the mud, their supernatural nature saved them to become what their family had once came from. All I can say for sure is that they are something in between a dead spirit and a living fey spirit. I don't know if that's how they're supposed to be or if that's how they are because of how they came to be."
Returning to cleaning out the tray, at the very back with cores stacked neatly around it, he found a man in the undying state. It seemed that the rusalki had been trapped but not unoccupied. Perhaps it was because they felt some familial connection with the man or perhaps some vestige of their human life remained but they had carefully kept the man in a balance between 'undying' and not crystallizing.
After asking Hunter to move the equipment to the closet, Orison carefully removed the man from the back of the tray and made sure his mouth and esophagus were cleared of obstructions. Setting the man aside for a moment, the young mage quickly finished cleaning the tray, collecting the useful mud and replacing what completely crystal cores he had found with a couple of condensed eternium motes from his space.
Before returning his attention to the man, he rechecked his space. There were small remaining collections of inert, life and condensed eternium crystals but most of the bulk had been either absorbed by the somewhat larger calm space or fallen to the chaotic layer below. When he went to take a look, he realized he couldn't look in. His own inner instinct moved to block him and he understood that until he grew strong, such a thing was possibly quite dangerous to the mortal mind and body he wore.
Under Hunter's amused observations, the young mage stripped, cleaned and tossed the man onto Hunter's bunk. While busy doing so, he thought about the nature of his space, what it needed to grow and how much he could trust it. Too many times, whether old or new, it had given him unpleasant to rather nasty surprises. It also could protect things from unwanted outside influence while still accepting desirable ones.
He felt that he could grow to trust the space that was an organic part of himself. With time, growth and practice, he believed he could stop it from devouring things he wanted to keep, even if the space sensed their usefulness to itself. Glaring exceptions, for the moment, were things that possessed natural laws. The trifecta of life, inert and soul essences that could help it grow faster in the right amounts at the right time were things that he needed to monitor closely.
Orison was pulled from inner reflection by some harsh coughing and a request for water. Unsurprisingly, released from the healing mud's hold, the man came to. The unknown Rogers man looked around in shocked delirium.
"Nurse, my son. Is he doing alright? Did Yagna name him Garret?" the man asked after learning that he'd been in a 'suspended state' for quite a long time.
Pleasantly surprised, the young mage said, "You're Garret and Gurrut's dad? But you were supposed to have died in a fort medical room."
Poleaxed by finding out that he was the father of two but not so much to be unable to put the pieces together, he processed that whiled he said, "We were on a classified exploration. All of us made medical room wills BEFORE the mission. Tell me, how is my sis-"
The man stopped talking as he curled up in pain. Under Orison's spirit sight, dozens of spiritual remnants and soul cores stirred to activity in the man's spiritual seat. As the young mage watched, the edges of the man began to disintegrate right before a strong green bubbling of magical energy began building at the man's center.
Orison told Hunter to remain inside as he picked up the man and ran him out of the cabin's barrier. Souls began slipping out of the disintegrating man while the young mage moved desperately to get him out of the burrow before the reincarnation 'bomb' went off. He almost dropped the man when he snapped back into his original form painfully. Trying to understand why that happened, he dropped the man on the ground outside and headed back in double-time when he heard the roar of some creature followed by a few more answering roars.
Stumbling past the barrier, the young mage fell weakly to the ground, once again down to fumes in his magic reserve and with some lifespan damage. Hunter came to check on him when they both froze from a feeling of sadness. Through the marks, they could tell that Cole and Cray were no longer alive.
Numbly, Orison lay on the ground staring at the burrow's root speckled ceiling as a brilliant green flash detonated outside. More than angry or sad, he just felt confused. His life and those lives around him felt aimless and without purpose. The insanity and chaos of their brief spurt interactions seemed to be connected to something greater but accomplished very little in and of themselves. A dim echo of spiritual understanding remaining inside hinted at meaning but offered no answers to the existential crisis Orison was having.
Moments later, as if it had been a cosmic joke said in poor taste, he felt Cray's spiritual connection pulse with renewed life. Through it, a small amount of excess essence generated by Gate of Reincarnation's pulse was shunted down the line and neutralized by the unviewable layer of Orison's space. While Hunter burst out in a relieved exclamation, the young mage wept at the senselessness of it all.
Under Hunter's disbelieving eyes, Orison deactivated the ill fitting suit so that it could reform properly later. "Shouldn't we be going out there to help them?"
While taking a couple of bites of ration bar left by Lily, the young mage said, "It'll be chaos out there. I'm tapped out and you only have a scrap of prepared spells left. We'd only add to their burdens if we did. But if you don't believe me, do what you want. I need to sleep."
Laying down, Orison pulled the majority of the blanket to him and did exactly what he said he was going to do. In what didn't feel like much later, he felt weight settle onto the bed and felt a familiar presence that didn't ring any alarms. He was drifting back off but the other person tried to wrestle some of the blanket for themselves. Orison wasn't having it, clinging with childish grudge until they gave up with a chuckle.
In the middle of the night, he got up and reactivated his suit after answering the call of nature. Relieved of things that would keep him from returning to restful oblivion, he considered doing so until he felt that something was terribly wrong. Unable to pinpoint what that at first, he glanced around. It wasn't the presence of something that had set him off, it was the absence.
Cole and Hunter were gone. Quickly checking the cabinets and closet, he found them mostly cleaned out. On the table was a note but he didn't read it until he had finished checking everywhere else things were stored. It turned out, that under the bed was another hidden cabinet that he hadn't even been aware of.
Inside that cabinet were three bags of coins and three bags of gems Orison vaguely remembered pelting him on the stairs along with other things that could be considered 'riches'. The cabin was a neat and orderly creation and if it hadn't been for the wild partying a couple of days ago, the panel that hid the cabinet wouldn't have been partially slid open. Once the old business was finished, he made a mental note to check the cabin out for other features that might still be hidden.
Turning to the note, he read, "You are a cruel and selfish man. I and my companion shall take our rightful share of belongings and be on our way."
Cray woke up to the sound of hysterical laughter.
"This wouldn't trick a f***ing child!" the young mage said as he exercised Find Objective, tracking two thin blue essence trails to not that far away from the burrow's entrance.
Stepping to the edge of the cabin's barrier, Orison disabled the feature that kept noise in and shouted, "Give them back to me, along with our possessions, and we can talk or I can hunt you down and chew through your half dead heart. I'll save what little remains of your soul for desert!... Think I'm bluffing, Ms 'I think I can hide in trees well'?"
A shadowy figure separated from the darkness within the tree branches. Hunter and Cole approached with sharp kitchen utensils pointed at their necks. A boy version of the Rogers man he'd saved earlier in the day took place in front of her along with other figures covered in random blankets, sheets and rags.
Smirking, the sultry woman said, "I suppose I'll just have to settle for an incomplete set. Enjoy your winter, boy."
She turned to walk away with the rest of her retinue following behind. Rolling his eyes, Orison tossed out a ball of chaotic essence. The trick wasn't really good for anything except disrupting fine control spells and delicate psionic signals. It was plenty to ruin the arrogant woman's gloating victory exit, however.
Suddenly surrounded by an angry mob attempting to beat the stuffing out of her, the woman who was neither truly alive nor dead, tried to gain control of the 'guards' nearest her. Sadly with so many feet and fists wanting their share, all she could do is manage an occasional broken cry cut off by yet another blunt force trauma to the face or torso.
He thought of letting them finish her off but then considered a different solution. With the hidden stores of food as a motivation, he coerced them into cleanly breaking her arms and legs so that he could safely interrogate her. To be extra sure, he had them retreat to a safe distance so she couldn't control them again.
Mind whirring, Orison struggled to find the optimal solution to this new problem as he shrunk down the outwardly appearing black orb containing his group's shelter before storing it away. Even if the food that was stolen could be found, there were too many people to share it with in good faith. There was no doubt in the young mage's mind that if he didn't share it, the situation would no longer just be people against monsters.
"Consider your next words and actions carefully. In a situation such as this, good and evil matter a great deal less than useful and useless," he said menacingly.
Looking down at her, he couldn't help but notice that she was inhumanly beautiful. Being beaten had only lent that allure a strong flavor of tragedy. Like a bleak and desolate gothic Snow White, she laid broken amid dead and blackening leaves on the frosty ground.
Even as she stared up at him with large, teary eyes, he wasn't moved in the slightest. Cherry lips, split but unswollen, murmured a begging litany of forgiveness and mercy. He slapped her and grabbed the sides of her slender neck, sliding her off the ground and up against a tree to meet his eyes.
"You are no kind of man to do this to me!" she said half in accusation and half in plea.
Forcing his eyes to flare in spectral brilliance, he replied, "You're right. I'm a monster just... like... you. So, stop playing damsel in distress. No one cares... You two, over in the thicket, stop inching towards my people or I'll rip her spine out and beat you to death with it."
Under spirit sight, he saw two others whose life force and spiritual fluctuations moved in the same slow and steady way as the woman pinned to the tree. He noticed that aside from 'boy' Rogers and a couple of others, the rest didn't react until they saw the three look sharply to the thicket.
"Oh, great. Some of our new group don't even speak the same language," Orison thought.
Out loud, he said, "Hunter, what would you call a half human, half vampire?"
The budding wizard exclaimed excitedly, "Dhampir! Are they really dhampirs!? That's amazing!"
Withering under Cole's glare, Hunter added in a more subdued manner, "We might be able to work things out right? Dhampirs don't NEED blood. Or, at least, not as much. If we were willing to donate a little, maybe they could help us survive the winter. We might even be able to find some hidden stuff in the undead empire. Maybe a proper spell book instead of trying to push things together from a scrap heap?"
Not taking his eyes off 'Snow White', Orison replied, "You do realize that doing it that way will teach you better?... And stop blurting things. This is a 'less is more' kind of situation... Where was I? Ah...
"The three of you have heard. We aren't naturally opposed to cooperation with... dhampirs but your little lady's actions here have put a rather serious kink in that. Do either of you in the thicket have a mutually agreeable solution to offer?"
An annoyingly handsome man stepped forward into moonlit ground along with a devastatingly beautiful woman.
Before the male dhampir could speak, Hunter blurted. "Wow, are all dhampirs supermodel hot?"
Natural diplomat, annoyingly handsome guy caught the gist of the meaning of Hunter's words and said, "It's the aesthetics of our creation. Vampires value beauty, sire it. Some are weak enough to its call to form affection for a particularly enchanting victim. During the spring years of such a creature, a rare chance arises for our conception but our cold blooded parent's fickle obsession inevitably dies with time like all else.
"One or twice it has been recorded that a particularly smitten vampire may answer the call of oblivion to pursue their muse to the afterlife. It is an occasion greatly more rare than our creation, I assure you. I have not lived through the time of such an event."
Orison said blandly, "Fascinating. Suggestions for a solution to our current dilemma? There's months worth of time to wax eloquent on art, culture, hopefully language."
Mr. Photogenic replied, "There are a few outlier strongholds with items and potential treasures to suit both our needs. You have my word on friendship as long as it is reciprocated."
Orison gave a faint smile.
After getting a similar agreement from the other two, he said, "A return of our stolen goods and it's a sealed deal."
The male dhampir wasn't as enthusiastic about that but returned what hadn't already been consumed or accidentally damaged beyond usability in the haste it was acquired. In a surprise move that eased tension some, the young mage reciprocated by taking two empty bottles and pouring a third of a bottle of Doc Agave into each, filling it the rest of the way with blood collected from Hunter, Cole and Cray.
They took turns sniffing the bottles and 'Silent Beauty' went for Cole's. There was a brief bicker for Hunter's before the losing 'Snow White' took Cray's. Recovering after a drink of 'Bloody Doc', 'Snow White' failed to resist glancing daggers at Orison which earned her a hard but affectionate cuff to the back of the head by 'Silent Beauty'.
Seeing no reason to delay, they set out for the northernmost stronghold. While they traveled through the night, Orison closely watched social dynamics. The non-common speakers congregated around boy Rogers and his two people. The two dhampir siblings followed 'Silent Beauty' unquestioningly.
As for his group, the structure wasn't nearly as solid. He could rely on Cray for the most part but Cole and Hunter were a force unto themselves. The budding wizard sucked up to Mr Photogenic and Cole gave the three dhampirs predatory smiles when they weren't paying attention to him.
At one point, Orison sidled op to the feline young man and said, "You're not strong enough... I don't know what your plan was or is but 'Silent Beauty' will knock your spiritual intent's d*ck into the dirt so hard, your mother will make you marry it in nine months."
Startled, Cole looked at the young mage with suspicion. "I don't know what you're going on about."
Orison rolled his eyes and said, "You were never under control and thought to let them take you and Hunter to some place you could ransack. There's a good chance that you might not come back if you and he found only enough for yourselves or something you didn't feel like sharing."
Looking stubborn, Cole said, "Like you wouldn't. It's survival first and friendship second. You got Cray and he's got me. Besides, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody pulled your tongue and a meat pie popped out the other end... Now that it's all on the table, does that mean we can't get along or something?"
Feeling a little emotionally tired, Orison said, "No, I wouldn't. And no, it doesn't mean that. I had hoped for a little more than mutually suspicious allies from you after openly sharing what I had. It just makes me the fool, I guess."
Looking a little conflicted, Cole added, "It might be survival first but I know how to repay a favor, alright? Isn't that good enough?"
Orison nodded wearily, "Guess it has to be... Let Hunter know that those two fought over his blood because he's a virgin. They'll chew him up. They'll spit him out afterwards if he's lucky."
Somewhat nervously, Cole said, "Why do you think the 'moon goddess' looking one wanted my blood?"
The young mage chuckled weakly and said, "Some older women have a weakness for handsome men, some for young ones and some prefer cats... Watch your a**."
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Orison said a little sadly, "There's a possibility that they were completely alive and savable but after drowning in the mud, their supernatural nature saved them to become what their family had once came from. All I can say for sure is that they are something in between a dead spirit and a living fey spirit. I don't know if that's how they're supposed to be or if that's how they are because of how they came to be."
Returning to cleaning out the tray, at the very back with cores stacked neatly around it, he found a man in the undying state. It seemed that the rusalki had been trapped but not unoccupied. Perhaps it was because they felt some familial connection with the man or perhaps some vestige of their human life remained but they had carefully kept the man in a balance between 'undying' and not crystallizing.
After asking Hunter to move the equipment to the closet, Orison carefully removed the man from the back of the tray and made sure his mouth and esophagus were cleared of obstructions. Setting the man aside for a moment, the young mage quickly finished cleaning the tray, collecting the useful mud and replacing what completely crystal cores he had found with a couple of condensed eternium motes from his space.
Before returning his attention to the man, he rechecked his space. There were small remaining collections of inert, life and condensed eternium crystals but most of the bulk had been either absorbed by the somewhat larger calm space or fallen to the chaotic layer below. When he went to take a look, he realized he couldn't look in. His own inner instinct moved to block him and he understood that until he grew strong, such a thing was possibly quite dangerous to the mortal mind and body he wore.
Under Hunter's amused observations, the young mage stripped, cleaned and tossed the man onto Hunter's bunk. While busy doing so, he thought about the nature of his space, what it needed to grow and how much he could trust it. Too many times, whether old or new, it had given him unpleasant to rather nasty surprises. It also could protect things from unwanted outside influence while still accepting desirable ones.
He felt that he could grow to trust the space that was an organic part of himself. With time, growth and practice, he believed he could stop it from devouring things he wanted to keep, even if the space sensed their usefulness to itself. Glaring exceptions, for the moment, were things that possessed natural laws. The trifecta of life, inert and soul essences that could help it grow faster in the right amounts at the right time were things that he needed to monitor closely.
Orison was pulled from inner reflection by some harsh coughing and a request for water. Unsurprisingly, released from the healing mud's hold, the man came to. The unknown Rogers man looked around in shocked delirium.
"Nurse, my son. Is he doing alright? Did Yagna name him Garret?" the man asked after learning that he'd been in a 'suspended state' for quite a long time.
Pleasantly surprised, the young mage said, "You're Garret and Gurrut's dad? But you were supposed to have died in a fort medical room."
Poleaxed by finding out that he was the father of two but not so much to be unable to put the pieces together, he processed that whiled he said, "We were on a classified exploration. All of us made medical room wills BEFORE the mission. Tell me, how is my sis-"
The man stopped talking as he curled up in pain. Under Orison's spirit sight, dozens of spiritual remnants and soul cores stirred to activity in the man's spiritual seat. As the young mage watched, the edges of the man began to disintegrate right before a strong green bubbling of magical energy began building at the man's center.
Orison told Hunter to remain inside as he picked up the man and ran him out of the cabin's barrier. Souls began slipping out of the disintegrating man while the young mage moved desperately to get him out of the burrow before the reincarnation 'bomb' went off. He almost dropped the man when he snapped back into his original form painfully. Trying to understand why that happened, he dropped the man on the ground outside and headed back in double-time when he heard the roar of some creature followed by a few more answering roars.
Stumbling past the barrier, the young mage fell weakly to the ground, once again down to fumes in his magic reserve and with some lifespan damage. Hunter came to check on him when they both froze from a feeling of sadness. Through the marks, they could tell that Cole and Cray were no longer alive.
Numbly, Orison lay on the ground staring at the burrow's root speckled ceiling as a brilliant green flash detonated outside. More than angry or sad, he just felt confused. His life and those lives around him felt aimless and without purpose. The insanity and chaos of their brief spurt interactions seemed to be connected to something greater but accomplished very little in and of themselves. A dim echo of spiritual understanding remaining inside hinted at meaning but offered no answers to the existential crisis Orison was having.
Moments later, as if it had been a cosmic joke said in poor taste, he felt Cray's spiritual connection pulse with renewed life. Through it, a small amount of excess essence generated by Gate of Reincarnation's pulse was shunted down the line and neutralized by the unviewable layer of Orison's space. While Hunter burst out in a relieved exclamation, the young mage wept at the senselessness of it all.
Under Hunter's disbelieving eyes, Orison deactivated the ill fitting suit so that it could reform properly later. "Shouldn't we be going out there to help them?"
While taking a couple of bites of ration bar left by Lily, the young mage said, "It'll be chaos out there. I'm tapped out and you only have a scrap of prepared spells left. We'd only add to their burdens if we did. But if you don't believe me, do what you want. I need to sleep."
Laying down, Orison pulled the majority of the blanket to him and did exactly what he said he was going to do. In what didn't feel like much later, he felt weight settle onto the bed and felt a familiar presence that didn't ring any alarms. He was drifting back off but the other person tried to wrestle some of the blanket for themselves. Orison wasn't having it, clinging with childish grudge until they gave up with a chuckle.
In the middle of the night, he got up and reactivated his suit after answering the call of nature. Relieved of things that would keep him from returning to restful oblivion, he considered doing so until he felt that something was terribly wrong. Unable to pinpoint what that at first, he glanced around. It wasn't the presence of something that had set him off, it was the absence.
Cole and Hunter were gone. Quickly checking the cabinets and closet, he found them mostly cleaned out. On the table was a note but he didn't read it until he had finished checking everywhere else things were stored. It turned out, that under the bed was another hidden cabinet that he hadn't even been aware of.
Inside that cabinet were three bags of coins and three bags of gems Orison vaguely remembered pelting him on the stairs along with other things that could be considered 'riches'. The cabin was a neat and orderly creation and if it hadn't been for the wild partying a couple of days ago, the panel that hid the cabinet wouldn't have been partially slid open. Once the old business was finished, he made a mental note to check the cabin out for other features that might still be hidden.
Turning to the note, he read, "You are a cruel and selfish man. I and my companion shall take our rightful share of belongings and be on our way."
Cray woke up to the sound of hysterical laughter.
"This wouldn't trick a f***ing child!" the young mage said as he exercised Find Objective, tracking two thin blue essence trails to not that far away from the burrow's entrance.
Stepping to the edge of the cabin's barrier, Orison disabled the feature that kept noise in and shouted, "Give them back to me, along with our possessions, and we can talk or I can hunt you down and chew through your half dead heart. I'll save what little remains of your soul for desert!... Think I'm bluffing, Ms 'I think I can hide in trees well'?"
A shadowy figure separated from the darkness within the tree branches. Hunter and Cole approached with sharp kitchen utensils pointed at their necks. A boy version of the Rogers man he'd saved earlier in the day took place in front of her along with other figures covered in random blankets, sheets and rags.
Smirking, the sultry woman said, "I suppose I'll just have to settle for an incomplete set. Enjoy your winter, boy."
She turned to walk away with the rest of her retinue following behind. Rolling his eyes, Orison tossed out a ball of chaotic essence. The trick wasn't really good for anything except disrupting fine control spells and delicate psionic signals. It was plenty to ruin the arrogant woman's gloating victory exit, however.
Suddenly surrounded by an angry mob attempting to beat the stuffing out of her, the woman who was neither truly alive nor dead, tried to gain control of the 'guards' nearest her. Sadly with so many feet and fists wanting their share, all she could do is manage an occasional broken cry cut off by yet another blunt force trauma to the face or torso.
He thought of letting them finish her off but then considered a different solution. With the hidden stores of food as a motivation, he coerced them into cleanly breaking her arms and legs so that he could safely interrogate her. To be extra sure, he had them retreat to a safe distance so she couldn't control them again.
Mind whirring, Orison struggled to find the optimal solution to this new problem as he shrunk down the outwardly appearing black orb containing his group's shelter before storing it away. Even if the food that was stolen could be found, there were too many people to share it with in good faith. There was no doubt in the young mage's mind that if he didn't share it, the situation would no longer just be people against monsters.
"Consider your next words and actions carefully. In a situation such as this, good and evil matter a great deal less than useful and useless," he said menacingly.
Looking down at her, he couldn't help but notice that she was inhumanly beautiful. Being beaten had only lent that allure a strong flavor of tragedy. Like a bleak and desolate gothic Snow White, she laid broken amid dead and blackening leaves on the frosty ground.
Even as she stared up at him with large, teary eyes, he wasn't moved in the slightest. Cherry lips, split but unswollen, murmured a begging litany of forgiveness and mercy. He slapped her and grabbed the sides of her slender neck, sliding her off the ground and up against a tree to meet his eyes.
"You are no kind of man to do this to me!" she said half in accusation and half in plea.
Forcing his eyes to flare in spectral brilliance, he replied, "You're right. I'm a monster just... like... you. So, stop playing damsel in distress. No one cares... You two, over in the thicket, stop inching towards my people or I'll rip her spine out and beat you to death with it."
Under spirit sight, he saw two others whose life force and spiritual fluctuations moved in the same slow and steady way as the woman pinned to the tree. He noticed that aside from 'boy' Rogers and a couple of others, the rest didn't react until they saw the three look sharply to the thicket.
"Oh, great. Some of our new group don't even speak the same language," Orison thought.
Out loud, he said, "Hunter, what would you call a half human, half vampire?"
The budding wizard exclaimed excitedly, "Dhampir! Are they really dhampirs!? That's amazing!"
Withering under Cole's glare, Hunter added in a more subdued manner, "We might be able to work things out right? Dhampirs don't NEED blood. Or, at least, not as much. If we were willing to donate a little, maybe they could help us survive the winter. We might even be able to find some hidden stuff in the undead empire. Maybe a proper spell book instead of trying to push things together from a scrap heap?"
Not taking his eyes off 'Snow White', Orison replied, "You do realize that doing it that way will teach you better?... And stop blurting things. This is a 'less is more' kind of situation... Where was I? Ah...
"The three of you have heard. We aren't naturally opposed to cooperation with... dhampirs but your little lady's actions here have put a rather serious kink in that. Do either of you in the thicket have a mutually agreeable solution to offer?"
An annoyingly handsome man stepped forward into moonlit ground along with a devastatingly beautiful woman.
Before the male dhampir could speak, Hunter blurted. "Wow, are all dhampirs supermodel hot?"
Natural diplomat, annoyingly handsome guy caught the gist of the meaning of Hunter's words and said, "It's the aesthetics of our creation. Vampires value beauty, sire it. Some are weak enough to its call to form affection for a particularly enchanting victim. During the spring years of such a creature, a rare chance arises for our conception but our cold blooded parent's fickle obsession inevitably dies with time like all else.
"One or twice it has been recorded that a particularly smitten vampire may answer the call of oblivion to pursue their muse to the afterlife. It is an occasion greatly more rare than our creation, I assure you. I have not lived through the time of such an event."
Orison said blandly, "Fascinating. Suggestions for a solution to our current dilemma? There's months worth of time to wax eloquent on art, culture, hopefully language."
Mr. Photogenic replied, "There are a few outlier strongholds with items and potential treasures to suit both our needs. You have my word on friendship as long as it is reciprocated."
Orison gave a faint smile.
After getting a similar agreement from the other two, he said, "A return of our stolen goods and it's a sealed deal."
The male dhampir wasn't as enthusiastic about that but returned what hadn't already been consumed or accidentally damaged beyond usability in the haste it was acquired. In a surprise move that eased tension some, the young mage reciprocated by taking two empty bottles and pouring a third of a bottle of Doc Agave into each, filling it the rest of the way with blood collected from Hunter, Cole and Cray.
They took turns sniffing the bottles and 'Silent Beauty' went for Cole's. There was a brief bicker for Hunter's before the losing 'Snow White' took Cray's. Recovering after a drink of 'Bloody Doc', 'Snow White' failed to resist glancing daggers at Orison which earned her a hard but affectionate cuff to the back of the head by 'Silent Beauty'.
Seeing no reason to delay, they set out for the northernmost stronghold. While they traveled through the night, Orison closely watched social dynamics. The non-common speakers congregated around boy Rogers and his two people. The two dhampir siblings followed 'Silent Beauty' unquestioningly.
As for his group, the structure wasn't nearly as solid. He could rely on Cray for the most part but Cole and Hunter were a force unto themselves. The budding wizard sucked up to Mr Photogenic and Cole gave the three dhampirs predatory smiles when they weren't paying attention to him.
At one point, Orison sidled op to the feline young man and said, "You're not strong enough... I don't know what your plan was or is but 'Silent Beauty' will knock your spiritual intent's d*ck into the dirt so hard, your mother will make you marry it in nine months."
Startled, Cole looked at the young mage with suspicion. "I don't know what you're going on about."
Orison rolled his eyes and said, "You were never under control and thought to let them take you and Hunter to some place you could ransack. There's a good chance that you might not come back if you and he found only enough for yourselves or something you didn't feel like sharing."
Looking stubborn, Cole said, "Like you wouldn't. It's survival first and friendship second. You got Cray and he's got me. Besides, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody pulled your tongue and a meat pie popped out the other end... Now that it's all on the table, does that mean we can't get along or something?"
Feeling a little emotionally tired, Orison said, "No, I wouldn't. And no, it doesn't mean that. I had hoped for a little more than mutually suspicious allies from you after openly sharing what I had. It just makes me the fool, I guess."
Looking a little conflicted, Cole added, "It might be survival first but I know how to repay a favor, alright? Isn't that good enough?"
Orison nodded wearily, "Guess it has to be... Let Hunter know that those two fought over his blood because he's a virgin. They'll chew him up. They'll spit him out afterwards if he's lucky."
Somewhat nervously, Cole said, "Why do you think the 'moon goddess' looking one wanted my blood?"
The young mage chuckled weakly and said, "Some older women have a weakness for handsome men, some for young ones and some prefer cats... Watch your a**."
Orison said a little sadly, "There's a possibility that they were completely alive and savable but after drowning in the mud, their supernatural nature saved them to become what their family had once came from. All I can say for sure is that they are something in between a dead spirit and a living fey spirit. I don't know if that's how they're supposed to be or if that's how they are because of how they came to be." Returning to cleaning out the tray, at the very back with cores stacked neatly around it, he found a man in the undying state. It seemed that the rusalki had been trapped but not unoccupied. Perhaps it was because they felt some familial connection with the man or perhaps some vestige of their human life remained but they had carefully kept the man in a balance between 'undying' and not crystallizing. After asking Hunter to move the equipment to the closet, Orison carefully removed the man from the back of the tray and made sure his mouth and esophagus were cleared of obstructions. Setting the man aside for a moment, the young mage quickly finished cleaning the tray, collecting the useful mud and replacing what completely crystal cores he had found with a couple of condensed eternium motes from his space. Before returning his attention to the man, he rechecked his space. There were small remaining collections of inert, life and condensed eternium crystals but most of the bulk had been either absorbed by the somewhat larger calm space or fallen to the chaotic layer below. When he went to take a look, he realized he couldn't look in. His own inner instinct moved to block him and he understood that until he grew strong, such a thing was possibly quite dangerous to the mortal mind and body he wore. Under Hunter's amused observations, the young mage stripped, cleaned and tossed the man onto Hunter's bunk. While busy doing so, he thought about the nature of his space, what it needed to grow and how much he could trust it. Too many times, whether old or new, it had given him unpleasant to rather nasty surprises. It also could protect things from unwanted outside influence while still accepting desirable ones. He felt that he could grow to trust the space that was an organic part of himself. With time, growth and practice, he believed he could stop it from devouring things he wanted to keep, even if the space sensed their usefulness to itself. Glaring exceptions, for the moment, were things that possessed natural laws. The trifecta of life, inert and soul essences that could help it grow faster in the right amounts at the right time were things that he needed to monitor closely. Orison was pulled from inner reflection by some harsh coughing and a request for water. Unsurprisingly, released from the healing mud's hold, the man came to. The unknown Rogers man looked around in shocked delirium. "Nurse, my son. Is he doing alright? Did Yagna name him Garret?" the man asked after learning that he'd been in a 'suspended state' for quite a long time. Pleasantly surprised, the young mage said, "You're Garret and Gurrut's dad? But you were supposed to have died in a fort medical room." Poleaxed by finding out that he was the father of two but not so much to be unable to put the pieces together, he processed that whiled he said, "We were on a classified exploration. All of us made medical room wills BEFORE the mission. Tell me, how is my sis-" The man stopped talking as he curled up in pain. Under Orison's spirit sight, dozens of spiritual remnants and soul cores stirred to activity in the man's spiritual seat. As the young mage watched, the edges of the man began to disintegrate right before a strong green bubbling of magical energy began building at the man's center. Orison told Hunter to remain inside as he picked up the man and ran him out of the cabin's barrier. Souls began slipping out of the disintegrating man while the young mage moved desperately to get him out of the burrow before the reincarnation 'bomb' went off. He almost dropped the man when he snapped back into his original form painfully. Trying to understand why that happened, he dropped the man on the ground outside and headed back in double-time when he heard the roar of some creature followed by a few more answering roars. Stumbling past the barrier, the young mage fell weakly to the ground, once again down to fumes in his magic reserve and with some lifespan damage. Hunter came to check on him when they both froze from a feeling of sadness. Through the marks, they could tell that Cole and Cray were no longer alive. Numbly, Orison lay on the ground staring at the burrow's root speckled ceiling as a brilliant green flash detonated outside. More than angry or sad, he just felt confused. His life and those lives around him felt aimless and without purpose. The insanity and chaos of their brief spurt interactions seemed to be connected to something greater but accomplished very little in and of themselves. A dim echo of spiritual understanding remaining inside hinted at meaning but offered no answers to the existential crisis Orison was having. Moments later, as if it had been a cosmic joke said in poor taste, he felt Cray's spiritual connection pulse with renewed life. Through it, a small amount of excess essence generated by Gate of Reincarnation's pulse was shunted down the line and neutralized by the unviewable layer of Orison's space. While Hunter burst out in a relieved exclamation, the young mage wept at the senselessness of it all. Under Hunter's disbelieving eyes, Orison deactivated the ill fitting suit so that it could reform properly later. "Shouldn't we be going out there to help them?" While taking a couple of bites of ration bar left by Lily, the young mage said, "It'll be chaos out there. I'm tapped out and you only have a scrap of prepared spells left. We'd only add to their burdens if we did. But if you don't believe me, do what you want. I need to sleep." Laying down, Orison pulled the majority of the blanket to him and did exactly what he said he was going to do. In what didn't feel like much later, he felt weight settle onto the bed and felt a familiar presence that didn't ring any alarms. He was drifting back off but the other person tried to wrestle some of the blanket for themselves. Orison wasn't having it, clinging with childish grudge until they gave up with a chuckle. In the middle of the night, he got up and reactivated his suit after answering the call of nature. Relieved of things that would keep him from returning to restful oblivion, he considered doing so until he felt that something was terribly wrong. Unable to pinpoint what that at first, he glanced around. It wasn't the presence of something that had set him off, it was the absence. Cole and Hunter were gone. Quickly checking the cabinets and closet, he found them mostly cleaned out. On the table was a note but he didn't read it until he had finished checking everywhere else things were stored. It turned out, that under the bed was another hidden cabinet that he hadn't even been aware of. Inside that cabinet were three bags of coins and three bags of gems Orison vaguely remembered pelting him on the stairs along with other things that could be considered 'riches'. The cabin was a neat and orderly creation and if it hadn't been for the wild partying a couple of days ago, the panel that hid the cabinet wouldn't have been partially slid open. Once the old business was finished, he made a mental note to check the cabin out for other features that might still be hidden. Turning to the note, he read, "You are a cruel and selfish man. I and my companion shall take our rightful share of belongings and be on our way." Cray woke up to the sound of hysterical laughter. "This wouldn't trick a f***ing child!" the young mage said as he exercised Find Objective, tracking two thin blue essence trails to not that far away from the burrow's entrance. Stepping to the edge of the cabin's barrier, Orison disabled the feature that kept noise in and shouted, "Give them back to me, along with our possessions, and we can talk or I can hunt you down and chew through your half dead heart. I'll save what little remains of your soul for desert!... Think I'm bluffing, Ms 'I think I can hide in trees well'?" A shadowy figure separated from the darkness within the tree branches. Hunter and Cole approached with sharp kitchen utensils pointed at their necks. A boy version of the Rogers man he'd saved earlier in the day took place in front of her along with other figures covered in random blankets, sheets and rags. Smirking, the sultry woman said, "I suppose I'll just have to settle for an incomplete set. Enjoy your winter, boy." She turned to walk away with the rest of her retinue following behind. Rolling his eyes, Orison tossed out a ball of chaotic essence. The trick wasn't really good for anything except disrupting fine control spells and delicate psionic signals. It was plenty to ruin the arrogant woman's gloating victory exit, however. Suddenly surrounded by an angry mob attempting to beat the stuffing out of her, the woman who was neither truly alive nor dead, tried to gain control of the 'guards' nearest her. Sadly with so many feet and fists wanting their share, all she could do is manage an occasional broken cry cut off by yet another blunt force trauma to the face or torso. He thought of letting them finish her off but then considered a different solution. With the hidden stores of food as a motivation, he coerced them into cleanly breaking her arms and legs so that he could safely interrogate her. To be extra sure, he had them retreat to a safe distance so she couldn't control them again. Mind whirring, Orison struggled to find the optimal solution to this new problem as he shrunk down the outwardly appearing black orb containing his group's shelter before storing it away. Even if the food that was stolen could be found, there were too many people to share it with in good faith. There was no doubt in the young mage's mind that if he didn't share it, the situation would no longer just be people against monsters. "Consider your next words and actions carefully. In a situation such as this, good and evil matter a great deal less than useful and useless," he said menacingly. Looking down at her, he couldn't help but notice that she was inhumanly beautiful. Being beaten had only lent that allure a strong flavor of tragedy. Like a bleak and desolate gothic Snow White, she laid broken amid dead and blackening leaves on the frosty ground. Even as she stared up at him with large, teary eyes, he wasn't moved in the slightest. Cherry lips, split but unswollen, murmured a begging litany of forgiveness and mercy. He slapped her and grabbed the sides of her slender neck, sliding her off the ground and up against a tree to meet his eyes. "You are no kind of man to do this to me!" she said half in accusation and half in plea. Forcing his eyes to flare in spectral brilliance, he replied, "You're right. I'm a monster just... like... you. So, stop playing damsel in distress. No one cares... You two, over in the thicket, stop inching towards my people or I'll rip her spine out and beat you to death with it." Under spirit sight, he saw two others whose life force and spiritual fluctuations moved in the same slow and steady way as the woman pinned to the tree. He noticed that aside from 'boy' Rogers and a couple of others, the rest didn't react until they saw the three look sharply to the thicket. "Oh, great. Some of our new group don't even speak the same language," Orison thought. Out loud, he said, "Hunter, what would you call a half human, half vampire?" The budding wizard exclaimed excitedly, "Dhampir! Are they really dhampirs!? That's amazing!" Withering under Cole's glare, Hunter added in a more subdued manner, "We might be able to work things out right? Dhampirs don't NEED blood. Or, at least, not as much. If we were willing to donate a little, maybe they could help us survive the winter. We might even be able to find some hidden stuff in the undead empire. Maybe a proper spell book instead of trying to push things together from a scrap heap?" Not taking his eyes off 'Snow White', Orison replied, "You do realize that doing it that way will teach you better?... And stop blurting things. This is a 'less is more' kind of situation... Where was I? Ah... "The three of you have heard. We aren't naturally opposed to cooperation with... dhampirs but your little lady's actions here have put a rather serious kink in that. Do either of you in the thicket have a mutually agreeable solution to offer?" An annoyingly handsome man stepped forward into moonlit ground along with a devastatingly beautiful woman. Before the male dhampir could speak, Hunter blurted. "Wow, are all dhampirs supermodel hot?" Natural diplomat, annoyingly handsome guy caught the gist of the meaning of Hunter's words and said, "It's the aesthetics of our creation. Vampires value beauty, sire it. Some are weak enough to its call to form affection for a particularly enchanting victim. During the spring years of such a creature, a rare chance arises for our conception but our cold blooded parent's fickle obsession inevitably dies with time like all else. "One or twice it has been recorded that a particularly smitten vampire may answer the call of oblivion to pursue their muse to the afterlife. It is an occasion greatly more rare than our creation, I assure you. I have not lived through the time of such an event." Orison said blandly, "Fascinating. Suggestions for a solution to our current dilemma? There's months worth of time to wax eloquent on art, culture, hopefully language." Mr. Photogenic replied, "There are a few outlier strongholds with items and potential treasures to suit both our needs. You have my word on friendship as long as it is reciprocated." Orison gave a faint smile. After getting a similar agreement from the other two, he said, "A return of our stolen goods and it's a sealed deal." The male dhampir wasn't as enthusiastic about that but returned what hadn't already been consumed or accidentally damaged beyond usability in the haste it was acquired. In a surprise move that eased tension some, the young mage reciprocated by taking two empty bottles and pouring a third of a bottle of Doc Agave into each, filling it the rest of the way with blood collected from Hunter, Cole and Cray. They took turns sniffing the bottles and 'Silent Beauty' went for Cole's. There was a brief bicker for Hunter's before the losing 'Snow White' took Cray's. Recovering after a drink of 'Bloody Doc', 'Snow White' failed to resist glancing daggers at Orison which earned her a hard but affectionate cuff to the back of the head by 'Silent Beauty'. Seeing no reason to delay, they set out for the northernmost stronghold. While they traveled through the night, Orison closely watched social dynamics. The non-common speakers congregated around boy Rogers and his two people. The two dhampir siblings followed 'Silent Beauty' unquestioningly. As for his group, the structure wasn't nearly as solid. He could rely on Cray for the most part but Cole and Hunter were a force unto themselves. The budding wizard sucked up to Mr Photogenic and Cole gave the three dhampirs predatory smiles when they weren't paying attention to him. At one point, Orison sidled op to the feline young man and said, "You're not strong enough... I don't know what your plan was or is but 'Silent Beauty' will knock your spiritual intent's d*ck into the dirt so hard, your mother will make you marry it in nine months." Startled, Cole looked at the young mage with suspicion. "I don't know what you're going on about." Orison rolled his eyes and said, "You were never under control and thought to let them take you and Hunter to some place you could ransack. There's a good chance that you might not come back if you and he found only enough for yourselves or something you didn't feel like sharing." Looking stubborn, Cole said, "Like you wouldn't. It's survival first and friendship second. You got Cray and he's got me. Besides, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody pulled your tongue and a meat pie popped out the other end... Now that it's all on the table, does that mean we can't get along or something?" Feeling a little emotionally tired, Orison said, "No, I wouldn't. And no, it doesn't mean that. I had hoped for a little more than mutually suspicious allies from you after openly sharing what I had. It just makes me the fool, I guess." Looking a little conflicted, Cole added, "It might be survival first but I know how to repay a favor, alright? Isn't that good enough?" Orison nodded wearily, "Guess it has to be... Let Hunter know that those two fought over his blood because he's a virgin. They'll chew him up. They'll spit him out afterwards if he's lucky." Somewhat nervously, Cole said, "Why do you think the 'moon goddess' looking one wanted my blood?" The young mage chuckled weakly and said, "Some older women have a weakness for handsome men, some for young ones and some prefer cats... Watch your a**."
