Fell Champions

Otter left her currently nameless Essence Spark at home. The little thing was tired from the summoning and apparently needed to sleep. Something else new to this type of magic. Essence Sparks in Immortalized only tired when their caster was out of resource from them to draw upon. This one, bearing a body, seemed hampered by the things a body would be hampered by. 

The Essence Spark was left on a small table with a napkin for a blanket, the food from her summoning left by her side in case she needed to eat. 

After that, Otter had headed outside in a huff, determined to walk off her frustration. But it turned out the summoning had lasted longer than she’d expected, and so everyone joined her, believing her to be headed to Juala’s funeral. 

Reyna led the way, Everett in lockstep beside her taking point, a shield on one arm, a shortsword at his hip, and a sack of bananas slung over his shoulder as party gifts. His shield was a riot of colours, and not made from wood, but rather coral, giving it an uneven surface with many spikes, with bands of steel reinforcing it.

They picked through the crowded streets of Ri Oa, looking to exit the city. Everyone else was also armed with the exception of Vex, who declined a weapon, saying her hands were more dangerous than any blade. Which, from what Otter had heard about her Pact, made a little bit of sense. People from this world looked ready to shit themselves whenever they heard the word ‘Fleshcrafter,’ and Vex’s own fear of her abilities only cemented how dangerous they were in Otter’s mind. 

The funeral was to take place at a small beach on a cove in the western portion of the island. A small dock had been set up, and there would apparently be an open bar, with drinks available to all attendees. 

What a wild idea. A beach funeral, where everyone was expected to get drunk, play, fight, and fuck. Truly, Silayans understood the important things in life.

Sami joined Otter’s side. “So, Vex told me what you did.”

Otter grunted.

“Didn’t go well, I assume?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Didn’t manage to get it to work?” She had to speak up, with the foot traffic on the street competing for noise.

“Oh, it worked. Kind of. Didn’t translate to a 1:1 ratio, but it more or less worked.”

“Then why are you…” Sami’s face turned thoughtful. “You didn’t get a Fire attunement, did you?”

“I said I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Oof. That bad? Earth attunement? No, it’s cumbersome, but great for AoE. Lightning? Chaotic, but that’s up your alley, and you’re familiar with it. It’s Water, isn’t it?”

Otter shot Sami an annoyed look. Sami gave her a knowing smile in return.

“You realize we only met because your first Essence Spark had a Water attunement, right?”

“And Air! And Lightning! And Fire! Even at that level, I had four attunements. Four. And only one was kind of bad.”

“Tell that to Black Rime Citadel.”

Otter grumbled, but conceded. “Okay, Water isn’t entirely useless.”

“So, how many Elements? Three?”

“Two.”

“Two? From Immortalized’s genius chaos gremlin? That’s it?”

Otter threw her hands up in the air. “Yes! I’m washed! So washed, it makes sense I got a Water attunement! Pandemona herself got four attunements on her starter Essence Spark, something completely unheard of, but Otter only got two! I’m half the caster I used to be apparently.”

“Told you it wouldn’t go well,” Vex said from behind them.

Otter shouted over her shoulder, “You’re not so big I won’t spank you. Anyone else want to get some digs in?”

Sami and Everett exchanged a helpless look. Vex just kind of appeared smug, but didn’t say anything, so Otter wouldn’t get CPA called on her for the sheer amount of noogies she would’ve been forced to give her daughter if she had. It was Reyna who broke the silence as they crossed out of the city and onto the dirt road leading out into the wilderness.

“What are you mad about?”

“She summoned an Essence Spark and isn’t happy with the result,” Sami supplied.

“No, I got that. What’s an ‘Essence Spark?’”

“Ah yes, you’re a local. Otter is from a far away land–”

“Called Canada, and it’s awesome, we have poutine,” Otter said.

“--and in Canada, they have a magic ritual called–”

“Hockey!”

Sami made an annoyed noise. “And she claims she hates Canadian stereotypes, and then walks into half of them every time she talks about her homeland. The actual magic ritual is called Element Weaving. You summon a spirit with an offering, give it a form, and then supply it with power, and it can do things for you.”

“What kinds of things?” Reyna asked.

“Summon fireballs normally,” Otter muttered.

“When you summon an Essence Spark, it is attuned to one element. Out of nine. Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Lightning, Spirit, and Void. Depending on the attunement, you can control that element, provided you feed power to your Essence Spark.”

“And this idiot can control water, and she’s upset about that?” Reyna blurted.

“Water sucks, everyone knows that,” Otter said.

Reyna smacked the back of Otter’s head. “You’re on an island, you moron.”

Oh yeah. They were. Water was everywhere. Huh. Why hadn’t she thought of that?

“Yeah, well, my other element is even worse. Wood.”

Reyna smacked Otter again and pointed to the trees all around them, densely packed in a way you only saw in thick jungles. The road itself only seemed clear because of constant traffic and maintenance to keep it that way.

“If you keep being right,” Otter said, rubbing the back of her head, “I’m going to get cross with you.”

“I’m cross with you right now for being such an idiot. Can this Essence thing be taught to people not from… where even is this ‘Canada?’ I’ve never heard of it.”

“North.”

“As far north as Mikovia?”

“You want to talk about a land you’ll never see, or how to learn about Essence Sparks?”

“Good point. So, can it be taught?”

“Far as I know, it’s not region locked, unlike your Pact magic. But it depends on the student.”

“What does it depend on?”

Reyna really seemed interested. Otter wondered if there was a particular reason, or just a fascination with throwing around fireballs. Eh, good enough reason for anyone to be interested, if she was being honest. 

“How good are you at math?”

“My tutor said I was good with figures. Better than most. Bored me a lot.”

“A guardswoman with a math tutor? Silayan education’s better than I thought.”

“Someone owed my family a favour.”

Sami shot Otter a look and made a sharp gesture with her hand that Reyna wouldn’t be able to see.

Huh. That was interesting. Reyna was lying. But why about this? It seemed small. Maybe she was embarrassed about a humble life? Otter had no idea if she should press on it. Didn’t seem like any of her business.

“You should teach her,” Vex said. 

“Weren’t you just against me summoning an Essence Spark?”

“Sure, when it was an unknown. But you’ve already volunteered yourself as the canary in the coal mine. Nothing terrible happened, so sure, why not teach her.”

“Really? We barely know her and you want me to hand out that kind of secret?”

“I’m standing right here,” Reyna muttered.

Vex shrugged. “I owe her one. I got her killed, and couldn’t fix it properly, and then couldn’t actually save the one person she cared about.”

Reyna grunted. “What she said. If it makes you feel any better, I can swear to only use this Essence Spark in service to you, and in defense of the Islands.”

“And Rua. Rua’s your boss, not me. I’m just the temp who only got the job because I’m giving her a good supply of orgasms.”

“I could swear service to you specifically, though.” Reyna paused, and then swallowed. “I’d even… let you claim me and let you assume your role as my pelanoa.”

Vex made a choking noise, and Everett let out a bark of laughter. Sami grabbed Otter by the wrist and dragged her from the road and into the woods.

“No,” Sami said when they were out of earshot.

“No?”

“Absolutely not. You are not going to accept that offer.”

“What? Who said I was even thinking of it?”

“Your erection.”

Otter looked down, and sure enough, her cock was tenting her pants. She swore and tried to readjust so it wasn’t so obvious, but the damage was clearly done.

“Traitorous thing,” Otter grumbled. “I wasn’t seriously considering it. It just sounded… you know… kind of hot.”

Sami flicked Otter’s ear. “We do not use sex as a tool to control people.”

“‘We?’ Are we still talking about me?”

“Yes. No.” Sami looked away guiltily. “Maybe this is more about me than I thought.”

Otter grabbed Sami by both shoulders and placed a kiss on her forehead. Sami breathed in, tensing, but relaxed and put her head on Otter’s shoulder and hugged her close.

“I hate what I did to you. All of it. Not just the ‘killing you’ part.”

“Eh, I was into it. Not the you killing me part, the you being my dommy mommy part.”

Sami gave a soft laugh like tinkling music. “You are such an idiot.”

“It’s why you love me.”

“No, I love you because you’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. You just happen to temper it by being the dumbest as well.”

Otter pulled away and met Sami’s eyes. “I promise I won’t use sex to try to control or manipulate anyone, or accept it as a reward in exchange for teaching Reyna magic. I still kind of want to fuck her, though.”

“She’s kind of bitch.”

“And that’s part of what makes her so hot. Can you imagine fucking it out of her? Wait until you see a Silayan getting dicked down. It’s like real life ahegao porn. You can literally watch them lose all higher brain function in real time.”

“Now that, I’d need to see to believe.”

“Public sex is accepted here. Rua might be at the funeral. You might get a real time demonstration quicker than you think.”

Sami arched an eyebrow. “And here was me thinking this would be a boring political affair.”

“Silayans don’t do anything boring, from the looks of it. Doesn’t mean everything they do is okay, but I’m actually kind of looking forward to this funeral. I mean, sure, it sucks that Juala bit it, but at least there’s a party.”

“Hmm. We should get back to the others. They’re probably standing around awkwardly wondering if we’re having a lovers’ tiff.”

“I wish we were. That’d mean we were back to banging. Seriously, you have no idea how much Silayan hormones fucking suck, especially when you’re not getting a steady supply of sex.”

The two began to pick their way through the woods back to the main road. This time they did it without managing to smack several errant branches into Otter’s face.

“If that’s your attempt at a pickup line, I worry how you ever managed to take me to bed in the first place.”

“Uh, because you were a repressed innocent and the first time I offered to ‘practice kissing’ with you, you got so horny you couldn’t think straight? Pun intended.”

“We didn’t sleep together for at least a month after that.”

“No shit. I said you were repressed.”

Sami let out a long suffering sigh as they finally got back to the road. Everett was busy telling some tale of heroism to the others, downplaying his own role for comedic effect, punctuated by laughter from both Vex and Reyna. 

“So?” Reyna said upon seeing them. “Am I going to be riding your cock later tonight?”

“I suppose there isn’t such a thing as tact in the Islands?” Sami asked.

“Sure there is, just never saw the use for it.”

“No, we’re not going to be having sex,” Otter said, hoping that her erection didn’t immediately betray her desire to do so anyway. Reyna was a very fine looking woman, especially around the hip and waist area. “At least, not in exchange for me teaching you how to summon and use an Essence Spark. You’ll get that for free.”

“Really? For free?” Reyna’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

“There isn’t one. You’re already sworn to protect Rua. An Essence Spark will help you do that. Don’t know why you just aren’t using Pact magic like everyone else, though.”

“The Dreamer doesn’t respond to everyone who asks for a Pact. She ignores most, in fact.”

“Rejected?” Sami asked. “I suppose you didn’t offer to, how did you phrase it? ‘Ride her cock?’”

Reyna shuddered. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“Tentacles,” Otter said with a sage nod. “Lots of tentacles. I bet the Silayan Dreamer would make most hentai look tame.”

“We’re almost there. Come on. I’m looking forward to getting drunk enough that I can make all the worst decisions in life and not remember them tomorrow.”

“Now that I can get behind. Next stop, a shitty funeral for a shitty person!”

Reyna grunted, but led them on their way. Otter eagerly followed, excitement filling her nerves. And then realized it wasn't just excitement. That thrumming in her fingertips began once more.

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