Chapter 35 – Fronting Up.

SIGNAL DETECTED...

ANALYSING...

CONNECTION OBTAINED.

CONFIRMING CONNECTIONS...

CF-203 CONFIRMED.

CF-204 CONFIRMED.

 

INITIALIZING DATA SYNC PROTOCOL...

DATA SYNC PROTOCOL ONLINE.

SCANNING CF-203...

...NO ANOMALIES DETECTED.

SCANNING CF-204...

...NO ANOMALIES DETECTED.

DATA SYNC INITIATED...

COMMENCING CF-203 DATA SYNC...

...CF-203(Spectre) DATA SYNC COMPLETED.

COMMENCING CF-204 DATA SYNC...

...CF-204(Kitsune) COMPLETED.

 

I see you’ve finally implemented that change.

 

SCANNING LOCATION...

10%... 35%... 60%...

...SCAN COMPLETED

...LOCATION IDENTIFIED AS 003-127-66305

CHECKING OPERATIONAL ATLAS...

...NO KNOWN DATA FOR LOCATION

 

It’s [[Nexus Temple-04]].

 

UPDATING OPERATIONAL ATLAS...

...OPERATIONAL ATLAS UPDATED.

CHECKING VIABILITY AS ANCHOR POINT...

10%.... 20%...

 

It’s not. Not for the load Odinsphere needs. Tempest is the only real option there.

 

80%... 90%... 100%...

...SCAN COMPLETE.

LOCATION NOT VIABLE.

 

Are we able to move them to Core-Temple [[South]]?

 

CHECKING CONNECTION STABILITY...

...CONNECTION STABLE.

 

SCANNING AREA...

...INITIALIZATION POSSIBLE...

CHECKING OPERATION RANGE...

...RANGE VIABLE.

...ERROR...

...INTERFERENCE DETECTED...

...RANGE HAS BEEN LIMITED

CHECKING AVAILABLE RANGE...

...RANGE VIABILITY LIMITED TO [LOCAL]

 

Plan B it is then.

 

SCANNING AREA...

...ACQUIRING LIST OF TARGETS

...ANALYSING DATA

TARGET(S) LOCATED,

...SELECTING TARGET LOCATION

...TARGET LOCATION LOCKED.

POWERING MANA ARRAY...

MANA SYNCHRONIZATION: 30%

CALIBRATING SHIFT...

5%.... 10%... 15%...

---

“I have a confession to make,” Rachael stated, looking straight into Crystal’s beautiful eyes and giving her a weak smile, still all nerves, but knowing that she needed to do this, and do it now. “I may have been hiding something from you.”

Crystal squeezed her hand gently in support, giving her a soft warm smile. She really was so much more beautiful than she had been in her dreams.

“If it’s about your tastes, I already knew...”

Rachael chuckled, feeling a little less tense. “Nah, it’s not that. It might have been a little awkward if you hadn’t though, but I was pretty sure that you already knew.”

They were sitting off to the side of the temple, on the soft grass under one of the trees, leaning against each other and holding hands. Introductions had been had, Alison and Clocky having shared stories with each other of the last few days with everyone else listening in (the ones awake of course, those unconscious didn’t really count and only the cat-foxes would be able to provide any illumination on them, which they hadn’t). Even after that they weren’t any clearer on most issues, besides the likelihood that Bowser was involved in Sean’s mess. That was about the extent of it. There was just too many unknowns. As to the current situation, the ‘gift’ for everyone, no one seemed any the wiser as to who or why. With one exception of course.

Rachael however had insisted with some time alone with Crystal first. They’d just reunited, and she needed to have a talk to her. The kind of statement that made everyone nervous, but she had really wanted to push the urgency of it.

Rachael took a deep breath, forming the words in her mind first. “I was, and probably still am, a Priestess of the Core. I... might have always had magic.”

Crystal looked deep in though, her cute brows creased in concentration.

Rachael was dreading what might come next.

“Wow. That’s kinda awesome. There we were role-playing it, but for you it was actually real.”

“Yeah.” Relief washed over her. “Sorta.”

“That actually makes a number of things make sense.” Crystal gave her hand another reassuring squeeze. “Did you think I would hate you over it or something? You’ve been as nervous as.”

“...maybe...” Rachael managed to mumble, blushing.

It was Crystal’s turn to chuckle. “I don’t think I could ever hate you,” she then said, as she gazed out into the sky. “Even if it turned out that you were the one behind everything.”

Crystal then went really red. “...more like the other extreme...” she managed to mumble. “I always knew I had, but I don’t think I ever realized how much, until just before...”

“Thank you,” Rachael said, leaning over to give Crystal another kiss. Which may have lasted longer than either had intended.

“So, you’ll have to tell me all about it,” Crystal said, once they had finished.

“Hmmm. Yup.” Rachael nodded. “It’s a long story. The short version is that I’ve always had magic, and the Core sought me out, and made me one of it’s priestesses. However I may have run away from active duties, to attend university and hang out with friends instead.”

“No complaints there. We wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

“Yeah. I wonder sometimes if there was more to our meeting that I know. Being a priestess was part of the reason why I was unaffected by the aura of Old Town. As for you, I still don’t know why. We did end being bonded by the Core though.”

“That’s why I can sense you?”

“Yup...”

“That’s really cool.”

She had skimmed over something rather important, but Rachael couldn’t bring herself to mention that Crystal had almost died, and that she had shared her life fore with her. Crystal did have every right to know, but Rachael also feared that Crystal might think that she owed her a debt or something. Which she didn’t. Never. If anything, it was the other way around, but there was no way that she wanted to have that hanging over them. And even if Rachael insisted that was nothing owed, it would still hover around in the background, in their minds. So better left unshared. She was also hoping that Crystal suddenly didn’t think that their feelings were because of the bond either. They weren’t and she knew that. She’d had them for her for a long time, she’d just been ignoring them.

“You know... I had visions of you. Like this, as a girl, back in our time.” Their accuracy was actually quite scary. Thinking about it, she was more than certain that the Core had been up to something, even back then.

“That means you knew about it even before I did. Thanks for helping me become me.” Crystals smile was bright and genuine.

They sat in silence for a while. It was nice, being with Crystal like this. Rachael hadn’t realised how good it actually felt.

“The voices mentioned something about Priestesses. I’m guessing you know something more about what happened to us all then?” Crystal asked.

“The what, no, not really. We were made complete, and a gift for our companions. For you, that meant in part becoming fully yourself. And a change to our magic. Beyond that, no clue. The who though, I have a fair idea.”

“I guess we should return to the others then...”

“Yeah...” Rachael would rather have stayed there for longer though.

Rachael reluctantly got up, Crystal following suit, and they then proceeded to make their way back over to the others, walking side by side. Rachael felt a bit out of place. This was something that she had never really done with any of the others that she had dated. Sure she had spent time with them, been with them, but not really with them, not in this way. Not with what she actually felt for Crystal. The others really had been just facades.

She could feel and sense Crystal at her side. She wanted to make it more, but wasn’t sure if she should, trying to keep her hands at her side and being super conscious of where they were. Crystal just seemed so relaxed.

‘Why are you hesitating? You are a thing right? Just take her hand.’ Heh, being lectured to by her cat-fox.

Rachael reached over and took Crystal’s hand, Crystal responding by intertwining her fingers with Rachael’s.

‘See, wasn’t that hard.’

Saylin looked them over as they reached the group, her gaze settling on their hands before she huffed, her face set in mock annoyance.

“Why is it that all the gorgeous ones are always taken,” she muttered with a pout, loudly enough that everyone could hear her, before looking daggers at Rachael with a playful scowl on her face. Crystal went beet red. Rachael just laughed.

“She was mine, even before you were born Saylin.”

“No need to rub it in,” Saylin grumbled with a flourish.

“Such a drama queen,” Alison said with a chuckle.

“There will be someone out there for you,” Clocky stated, motioning for Rachael and Crystal to sit with the others. “More so now I think.”

They did so, sitting facing the others.

“So,” he then continued, Fairweather leaning into him, “Alison said that you were a Priestess of the Core. The source of magic. Are you able to provide any further details on what has happened to us all?”

“A little.” Rachael paused for a moment, organizing her thoughts. “Before the Shattering, there was magic in the world. Just a little, in select individuals, and very much hidden from the world. Those who had magic were invariably brought into the service of the Core as one of it’s Priestesses.”

“Only females?” Alison queried.

Rachael hadn’t thought about that aspect before, but indeed it had only been women. Did that mean that before the shattering only woman had had magic, or the Core just called females to it and ignored the males, or something else entirely.

“Only woman. I’m not actually sure why. It didn’t tell us much, and kept most information to itself. I think most people who know of the Core underestimate how intelligent it actually was, mistaking lack of communication for lack of intellect. People also think that the Core was the magic sealed within. That I believe is incorrect. I think that what we refer to as the Core was actually something that was looking after the magic and its seal. Something ancient, and powerful.”

“And I dare say that it is quite adaptable. I am almost completely certain that it is in fact the being known as Angel that currently resides in Odinsphere.”

“That would make sense actually,” Clocky said, stroking his not-quite-a-beard thoughtfully. “It would explain what I have heard about it which admittedly isn’t a huge amount.”

“The Core, or Angel, is behind our arrival here, as well as the provider of the two cat-foxes. As to its plans for us, I honestly have no idea, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t manipulating things where it has the influence. It’s always been that way, but for the moment I’ve lost the connection that I once had with it.”

“What, like voices in your mind?” Saylin queried.

“Exactly like that. We priestesses always called it Core, but Core isn’t it’s actual name. It does in fact have it’s own name, or designation. Arcane. It isn’t the only one of it’s kind however, not the only Ancient. There are others, and they are awake and active. It’s these other Ancients that brought us all here, baiting Crystal to this place. Arcane provided the basis for the changes, the magical arrays, but it was the others that drew them out and activated them. For what exact purpose, I do not know. The Core had planned for us to be shifted directly to another location, but these Ancients interrupted the process.”

“They did list out a whole bunch of titles for us. We seem to be of interest to a number of them. I would say that whatever purpose they have for us requires that we be complete, and wield power. Hence the changes to us, and to all of you too. A gift they said, but make no doubt that they do have plans.”

“Do you have any idea who any of the other Ancients are?” Clocky asked.

Rachael nodded. “Just one. Unlike the others, it has been in communication since it gave us it’s gift, on and off, perhaps even before, though I don’t know if Crystal would have been able to identify its voice.”

Crystal shook her head.

“I can identify for me when it made it’s presence known, a heavy impact on my mind that knocked me out. You would have had something similar, and at the same time, as the gift was given primarily for you, although it flowed through to me as well?” Rachael asked of Crystal.

“Yeah, straight after the battle with the Dark Wolf.”

“Who was it? You’re keeping us in suspense!” Saylin actually seemed interested.

“Warrior. That is the title it is known by.”

“Of course!” Vorsce exclaimed. “That’ll be why the lass suddenly got good with her sword. Real good.”

“Talk about friends in high places. I wouldn’t believe you if I hadn’t seen these results with my own eyes.” Alison added.

“So, if these Ancients can talk to people directly and give them gifts, why hadn’t they done so before now?” Dudley’s question was an apt one.

“They may well have done so. I can’t say that they never have. But I am pretty sure I know why they have done so in this instance,” Rachael answered.

“And why would that be?”

“Because I am wearing her armour...” Crystal answered. Rachael smiled. She’d worked it out. The boots, and sword and shield too. Now of course Crystal had the whole set, and she looked absolutely stunning in it. Almost divine.

correct.

arma dea.

“And that I am pretty sure was planned by the Core.” She had no basis for it of course, but she wouldn’t put it past the Core to have done so, and it just fitted.

“So to summarize, we’re being manipulated according to the whims of Ancient beings of power. I like it,” Saylin stated, crossing her arms and grinning. “This magic better work out to be good though, and I’d better meet the one.”

Alison rolled her eyes, a dark look briefly flickering across her face, Rachael not completely sure that she’d actually seen it. “I can’t say that I like it. We’re not some toys to be played with, especially with the cost that has been taken so far. Sure, we’ve given a gift, but even that has come with it’s own issues.”

Clocky looked thoughtful. “Perhaps we always were, and now it’s just obvious. If they gave us power so that we can play their game, there is always the chance that that same power can let us do as we wish. Irrespective, we have been given a gift, and we will utilize it. For us.”

“Once we learn how to properly use it,” Fairweather added.

“I will be able to help there, with the basics at least,” Rachael stated. She’d had training, she knew how to use her magic. She’d be able to pass that knowledge on.

“I’ve seen what she can do,” Alison confirmed. “She is indeed competent in its use.”

“Thanks. We’ll quite happily take you up on that.” Clocky nodded to Rachael. “Our offer to Crystal still stands, for both of you. Once we’ve dealt with this mess, we’ll take you to Odinsphere, those who wish to go of course. The current situation has however turned out to be a lot more involved that I’d anticipated.”

“Yeah,” agreed Vorsce. “Didn’t think we’d be trekking through the mountains for this long. Would have expected Sean to manage to kill himself long before now.”

“I had my suspicions, but yes, something isn’t right there. That is part of the reason why I had Saylin recalled.”

“We’re now day’s behind, and that’s before we have to somehow find their trail again.” Saylin flopped backwards into the grass, staring up into the sky. “I wonder if there is another exit from here. This place was certainly hidden. Do we really have to do days more worth of walking though?”

“What did your sense tell you?” Fairweather asked, looking up at Clocky.

“That this was the way to go. We can certainly see why, though it doesn’t mean that it was directly related to our pursuit of Sean.”

Clocky paused, stretching his shoulders before he continued. “We have a number of things we need to look at now I believe. First is locate Sean and the attackers. While there was three of them, that number may change. Second, is to locate where Sean got his cargo from. What they said when we fought them worries me. Experiments on Touched seemed to be the gist of it, and I don’t like the sound of that. We have seen something of the result of his cargo, and it is terrifying. Third is to work out what the Grazeye’s have done with the girl. I’d like to think that they just took her as food, but we know that isn’t the truth based on Rachael’s observation. There is definitely something much more to it. And finally, we will need to face Bowser. What form that takes will depend on what we learn from the other three. However I can say that our time working as train guards is definitely over. This job is well and above that now, and we are being dragged into something much greater. Ancients can try and manipulate us, but we will still forge our own path.”

as is human nature.

“The million dollar question of course, is where to start,” Dudley concluded for him.

“A preliminary sweep of the rest of the valley first probably is a good idea,” Alison stated, standing up.

‘Connection established with Odinsphere,’ Kitsune informed Rachael, cutting in on the conversation. ‘Angel is trying to relocate us.’

“WHAT! Where?” Rachael only realised after the fact, when everyone stared at her, that she had shouted. She picked up Kitsune, holding her in front of her as she stared at her cat-fox.

‘I don’t know. Something about plan B.’

“If she separates us again there’ll be hell to pay.” She didn’t shout this time, but her voice was hard.

‘There is only one target location.’

“What’s going on?” Crystal looked worried, and she wasn’t the only one.

Rachael frowned. “Angel is up to something. Kitsune says she’s trying to relocate us...”

“The entity from Odinsphere?” Alison queried with a scowl. “All the way out here?”

“It appears so,” Rachael confirmed, the sudden formation of glowing arrays around them reinforcing that conclusion, flowing out from the two cat-foxes. She was definitely using them as conduits for her arrays.

Those who weren’t already standing quickly did so. Rachael tried moving to see if she could get outside of the array, but was dismayed to see that they moved with her. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw some movement up in the sky. Clocky looked thoughtful, tears of blood on his face, Fairweather holding his hand tightly.

“It begins,” was all that he managed to say as the glow of the arrays intensified dramatically.

“&$%^.”

There was no way she was going to get separated from Crystal again. Grabbing Crystal’s hand, she pulled her into a close embrace, feeling her right up against herself. She held her tight, Crystal hugging her back. The arrays under them seemed to shift and merge somewhat, their hue now tinged purple.

The last thing Rachael saw before her vision was completely obscured by the magic, wrapping them all in it’s warmth, was the ground nearby exploding in a shower of dirt as something impacted with it, a powerful and terrifying presence straightening itself up from the crater of its landing, black flames everywhere. Then everything went white as she felt them shift.

she has arrived.

hellfire.

---

Velvet sat on the edge of the cliff, swinging her legs idly as rocks crumbled away from the cliff face below her, tumbling down into the mists far below, ripples flowing out from their point of impact, creating eddies and waves. Decay, but without any change. An impression. Just like the view from here, the mists seemingly stretching out to horizon and beyond. A place that she did not have a name for.

Elsewhere.

Shadow Realm.

Velvet brought her right hand up in front of her, examining the two new tattoos on the back of it. It had been there for a few days now. Mute at first, but now they were golden and glowing just like the rest of her tattoos did in this place, but these ones were not arrays, nor were they of her creation. Rather they were a representation, a connection. A sword with horns at it’s side, and a fist, also with horns at its side.

Champions.

Daughters.

Your influence in the world,

and connection,

born of your magic and nature.

Shared with your Sister.

Though you are unique in that you are your own Champion too.

Velvet did not recall ever having a sister. As far as she was aware she had been an only child, adopted out to a miner family just after birth due to the slaughter of her birth family by the minions of the Demon King, at least according to Lyrissa, who had rescued her. As to the miner family, they had all died to the Pale Fever, and she had been the only one to survive. Probably due to the nature of her magic that had been sealed inside her.

But she did have a good guess as to who they were referencing. Especially in this place, siblings did not have to be related by blood.

The voices always echoed around, answering her unasked questions at their whim, eternal but yet very much in the moment. She could feel them all around her, sense their nature. There, but also not. Real, but also a contradiction of existence.

Concepts, states, knowledge, emotions. The intangible. Ancients.

That which has always been.

Aware or not.

The driving forces behind life and death, and everything in-between. Immeasurable power, and here she was, in the middle of them all. It was terrifying to some degree, yet she was not afraid. She couldn’t be. She was beginning to understand what the purification ritual had done to her, the changes that it had wrought.

Angel had put so many layers into the array it wasn’t funny, many of them hidden in the leylines themselves, a risky manoeuvrer, but necessary. Velvet was pretty sure that the Realm of Shadows was what the Demon King had been after. Once it had been sealed behind the nature of the Core, but that was long gone. He knew what he was doing, and had the corruption of the leylines been completed he would have achieved his goal. She couldn’t even grasp what the consequences would have been like. Once the ritual had started she had realized that even from inside his seal the corruption had been already been spreading. For a thousand years. She could feel it throughout the leylines, sensing all of the imperfections present, as if it was all a part of her.

One would say that mistakes had been made, but she wasn’t so sure about that. Angel would have known, hence the arrays. Why it had chosen to do nothing was a different question entirely.

Velvet had her suspicions too about the Demon King’s origin, but they’d never confirm it. She had even directly asked, but they would not respond to that one.

Angel’s solution had been risky, only viable due to Velvet’s compatibility with one of the still complete primal magics. The only magic that could actually achieve what she was after. Dawn. Light, warmth, beginnings, creation, life. Combined with the unlimited potential of humanity.

Assimilation of the leylines.

Ascension.

She wasn’t so fond of that term. It carried... connotations.

Which are truer for you than any other.

Even us.

You already have a following in the Cult of the Morning Light,

and the Touched are all believers.

That in particular all felt wrong. She had studied the arrays in depth. She had had plenty of time. Just because she had been petrified in crystal didn’t mean that she was unconscious (though at times she wished she had been), and she had been able to bring them all to mind. A decade is plenty of time, and she understood all of it now. Every last part, and then some. While it was a side effect, the gifting of magic right across the world, to those now referred to as the Touched, had been intentional, and deliberately set at a level just above a shard, but with the capacity to grow and evolve. Much more powerful aspects could have been granted, given the nature of the host, but those aspects of the array had deliberately been left incomplete, as if it was present just to show her what was possible. Velvet had indeed learnt from it, and then some above that again. The potential from the arrays was mind boggling, and was just a small portion of what she now knew.

She was surprised she was still sane to be honest. She still couldn’t even grasp what the assimilation actually entailed in the end. While leylines might be seen as a pool of magic, they weren’t in reality. There was no limit to them, they couldn’t be drained or diminished. They were more a state, a representation of potential, and they were a part of her now.

She would never be the same again.

But that wasn’t going to stop her. She would find a way back, to return to Myne. To take her life back.

It just wasn’t that simple. She couldn’t just use magic to return as she wasn’t completely here. Only part of her was. The rest of her was still there, both in the crystal statue and in the leylines themselves. A repercussion of the method of the assimilation, along with her human nature in the first place. It meant that as they said, she was also her own champion, but it also meant that reawakening and returning was going to require her to recreate and join them all back together again. No easy feat. But she was going to do it.

They were banking on it too. It was part of the reason that Angel had done what she had. Another layer to her plans. Her successful return would pave the way for the others.

Connections.

The New Age is coming.

Angel had provided some in the way of the champions, but whether or not Angel realised it, she also had more of her own. Powerful ones as old as her magic itself. Ones that had sat outside of Angel’s influence thus far.

Velvet got up, and made her way back up the path towards the temple. There was more life here now. A trickle of water flowed under the bridge, the skeletal trees had buds forming at the tips of the branches, the ground was no longer parched and cracking, but moist with blades of grass starting to poke through, and the garden showing some growth. It was no longer as ruined. It reflected her state, and progress. But it had another purposes as well.

She could finally make out the details of the statue in the centre of the chamber. It was meant to be her, but currently it was a merger between her and her ‘sister’. Day by day it was changing though, becoming more of her and less of the other. The wings still remained though, which she guessed was fair enough, since she could summon them when she wanted, though the statue had four to her usual two. Light and Ashling were conspicuously absent. Six of the statues on the ranks had recently repaired themselves, three on each side, distinctly different from what had been there before. One was very familiar, making her smile.

And two new statues had appeared beside hers. Both very beautiful woman, reminiscent of things past. There was no mistaking who and what they were.

Her Champions.

And also apparently Deep Dragons.

even if we did utter the title,

that may have been an unintended side effect,

though not an unwelcome one.

your nature is just as much to blame though,

queen of dragons.