I felt (more than I heard) the explosion happening just outside the town's limits, the resulting earthquake making my feet waver and body tremble. But I did hear the explosion. It just happened a second after a brilliant flash of white, blinding and deafening me for a few moments while I recovered.
Something had just happened. Well, that was obvious, but something big had just happened. Something really, really cool, probably, and I was missing it!!!
As soon as I'd seen what happened, though, I didn't think as highly of the mystery explosion.
There was a giant hole in the ground where I'd been informed the Damned Sparrows were corralling the mechanical golem thing, with storm clouds localized above it and a stormy, misty look about the place. An ominous amount of wind and breeze swept through the small forest clearing, highlighting a strange, sharp smell just as it did the smell of the high, high sky. And seated at the center of the crater was a sword — the sword I'd given to Cyl yesterday, actually.
It was changed, though. The sword's blade was shelled by a shimmering blue-yellow glow, and the hilt seemed to have been lightly damaged as if by overuse. It was also, notably, firmly planted into the ground hilt-up. I was beginning to understand what happened here. And I didn't like it.
I could see the Damned Sparrows out of the corner of my eye. They were regrouping and debriefing as they were, dented and scorched and torn up, deep in conversation about (most likely) the battle they'd just taken place in. Maybe I'd ask them about it later, but for right now I had my sights set on something slightly different. The sword's resting place, actually. If it had some magical charge and wasn't disturbed, I'd probably be able to glean the past few moments from it simply via a scrying spell.
Traversing the slope down to the sword was treacherous. The ground threatened to give away beneath me in a landslide, but I'd dealt with holes like this before — I kept my footing even as tremors shook the earth underneath me. Aftershocks of the earthquake, I thought? I wasn't totally sure yet, but I did take a few seconds to stay balanced when I got down to the sword.
Now that I was up close, I could see the subtle dents and hints of battle on the katana's blade and hilt. Even a cursory glance told me that this thing's opponent was not supposed to get hit by any normal armaments, and the level of force required to dull the blade to this extent was probably twice what even the Sparrow's boss ogre could do. Or it was just really well aligned and executed. Either one?
Whatever! I was getting distracted, and I wanted to know what had happened here. My fingers traced the route of the scrying spell in the air, and ethereal images sprung into view of two combatants.
One of them was clearly the big brass automaton I'd seen earlier smashing up the town, but the other was smaller — more lithe, flexible, agile. She also was clearly Cyl, the friend I'd been introduced to yesterday. Before I could really make out all the parts of her face and body and clothes that'd seriously prove my eyes right, though, the scrying spell jumped into action and set the stage for Cyl's battle against the Air-bot.
I clambered out of the hole, cracked and dried dirt crumbling beneath my boots as I raced against the spell's false imagery, and only barely made it out right when the spell started the scrying playback.
Cyl dropped backwards from her position having just struck the automaton. Her eyes glared a hole in the thing's torso — where two manabanks of unknown quality or make were absorbing a dangerous amount of energy — and the two darn-near teleported to a location a few meters away not a second after the spell started. As the giant air-automaton slashed downwards, Cyl blocked in a high parry supported by her other hand. There was a great clash, a shining of sparks, and then the spell started to scramble and break.
There were colors seeping from Cyl's body, rainbow auroras jolting out like lightning into the robot she was desperately blocking. It was obvious what it was — her magic, unbidden, had started to get drawn into the robot just like it had been doing a second earlier. But the magic held the two together, and it began to overwhelm the already-full banks of mana before exploding in a brilliant white flash. Ah. That's what the cool thing was.
That, and Cyllie. She was fucking badass! Well, most people were — but that was downright nuts. Her actions felt different, obviously distanced from the shy, awkward girl I'd seen yesterday, and yet they fit her like a glove. It seemed like she'd been doing this for forever. Hell, maybe she had been...
The spell faded before my eyes. I ruminated for a bit. Usually, people respawned close to the last spot they'd felt safe. For her, that probably meant in her room. And I'd need to give the sword back to her to see what she could do anyways, so I'd probably want to grab that before I left.
I wouldn't dwell on whether she even had the ability to respawn. Everything else was weird, but her being unable to respawn would be a giant departure from every rule about this world I'd felt out via learning and magic alike. Except for the exceptions. In any case it was probably gonna happen, and therefore it WAS gonna happen. Yeah!
I skipped back down to the crater's center, plucking the sword out and wiping it on my overalls. Since I had no sheath for it that didn't involve some very painful actions, I just put it away in my inventory. Hey... I forgot to explain that to her, and she was running in with the sword. I'd need to do that soon. Anyways, with my goals completed, I started trekking back up the crater's side.
"Flurry?" a shaky voice called out to me from behind. "I, uh, do you mind if I tag along with you?"
"No, of course not! I'm just heading back to your guild's house." I grabbed Nora's hand and started making my way towards her place of residence, giving her a trademarked Flurry Grin just for good measure.
That never failed to make her soften up just a bit, and she quickly came up alongside me. "So, uh... am I to assume you asked Cyl for help? And gave her a brief course in combat? Or..?" My questioning trailed off, seeing her flabbergasted look.
"N-No, nothing like that! I, actually, assumed you'd done that. She was amazing, I mean... some kind of spell you cast or something? Teleportation and her reaction time and strength and speed..."
"Nah, nothing I did." Heh. Nora was always cute when she babbled like that. "In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that she's a bit special in that regard. I've never met someone with no mana OR health bar. Maybe one or the other I've read about in books, but not both. And she's got neither, and also is an automaton, and ALSO is that strong?" Her confused look prompted me to clarify. "I, uh, used a scrying spell. Figured out at least a little of what our friend got up to."
"Ah, yeah. Forget those exist, honestly..."
"Oh god you have no idea. There's so many prerequisites to it all, nobody uses them for actual security or divination work anymore. I lucked out. Anyways, uh... she's probably gonna respawn soon, right?"
Nora avoids eye contact. "I'm... not sure. She's not of this world, and not like anything else, so I dunno what her deal's gonna be. If anything, she might just be dead. For real. We have no way of kno—"
"Nah," I interjected, ignoring the dread that pulled at my heart. "Any respawn inhibitors would need either pre or post-death prep, and it'd probably be flushed out of her system by the magic explosion anyways. Plus, if she's not able to respawn, we'll just figure out a way to resurrect her! Easy as pie."
"Hahhh. Ever the optimist-idiot hybrid."
I did a little pose while continuing to walk to our destination. "Flurry, at your service!"
We'd get there soon enough, and I would need to start prepping some repair spells. Huh, I wondered if a repair spell would work on — no, concentrate! You can't shirk your duties just like that, nerd. My fingers started to trace over a multitude of different spells, preparing to cast the repair spells at a moment's notice — it wasn't gonna look pretty for my mana pool, but I had someone by my side to catch me if I passed out or something.
As we neared the Damned Sparrows's guildhouse, I started casting all the spells I'd prepared. Little flits of light spiralled from my hands, sending wood and splinters and nails and stones back to the places from whence they came, and Nora paused for a moment to just watch the lightshow.
It was pretty, I had to admit. But I hesitated to use this kind of magic a lot of the time. Practical knowledge and tools felt better to me, as did an unholy union of artisanry and magic. It felt more like me, rather than what my dipshit mom always pushed me to be. If it wasn't for Nora, I'd probably just be the regular-ass witch of this town. A guy, too...
Anyways! Once the repairs were finished (and I'd absorbed more than enough unspoken praise and thanks from both Nora and the guildmembers), we made our way upstairs.
It'd been a long time since I had been in this room. For many reasons! Not that me and Nora were on bad terms, but I just didn't have a ton of time. Breakthroughs seemed constant in my field of work... anyways. It was a pretty bad mess, especially considering a second blanket lying prone on the floor. Weird. Guess Nora and Cyl were sleeping in the same bed? Made sense, given that Cyl only came here like, last week or something. I'd just sit here and wait, then. Try to ignore my mind's racing thoughts.
Or that's what I thought until Nora pulled me to her bed, sitting me down and flopping over into the crook of my neck. I could hear little subtle sobs, suppressed shaky breaths peeping out occasionally from the girl alongside me. Aw, damn. She'd just been in a near-death event. I'd forgotten in my lust for more knowledge and the whirl of thoughts in my head.
She sniffed into my side, over self-professed nothings, and I wrapped my arms around her to wait out the time until our new friend got back. It'd be okay, I promised her and myself. Things would turn out alright.
Eventually, the two of us fell into a sort-of slumber leaning on each other in Nora's bed. We'd wake up when Cyl respawned. The darn little bot had wiggled her way into our hearts — out of pity or what, I didn't know. I doubted Nora knew either. But if I had to guess, it was because she reminded us of ourselves when we were younger. Less cool. More anxious.
I hoped that Cyl would be okay. And that I could help with her being okay. She deserved that much, and more. My burning desire to know how she ticks was only PART of that, I promise! Whether or not any of us would get what we want... time would tell. Time slipped away as Nora and I bolstered each other. Time healed all wounds. I just wished that it healed things faster. And yet!
Things would turn out well. I held that point on the horizon and pledged myself to commit to the goal I'd given myself. If I just held on, if Cyl and Nora and the Sparrows and the town just kept going, we'd eventually make it to the horizon line and dip into the beyond.
My lucky stars would align someday. So would the sky for all my loved ones. It was just a matter of time.
We need to get this to 100k views and 1st so you'll give us some more gratred.
heheh, i'm aiming for second- first is like two million views which is totally insane. thanks for the mark of dedication though :)
Thanks for the chaps!