Fell Champions

Otter woke up with a state and an absolute metric fuckton of pain. Her head hurt, and so did her shoulder, and…

A spike of fear hit her, and she checked her arm, and then breathed a sigh of relief. It was still there. She tested her grip and flexed her fingers, making a fist and then miming playing the piano one-handed. It looked good, even if it felt a little… weird. Okay, that was good. Not excellent, but good. 

She scanned the room, realizing she was mostly in darkness, and found she was lying in a nice, comfy bed. And someone was cuddling her. A female someone. Otter would recognize the telltale feeling of boobs squished against her anywhere. Further inspection revealed the errant cuddler was Rua.

Excellent.

She was about to wake her - she really wanted to get laid despite aching everywhere, and she was sure the endorphins from sex would help with that anyway - when she heard a soft coughing noise. Despite the darkness, Otter saw that seated in the corner on a wooden chair was Sami, her sword laid out across her lap, the ruined blade now mended and whole. 

“She carried you here,” Sami’s voice came quietly. She bitterly added, “Carried us both, actually.”

“What happened?”

“You got your ass handed to you by… no, we all got our asses handed to us by a Dreamer wearing MoonCutter like a skin suit.”

“Oh. Well. That sounds pleasant.”

“Apparently the Sleeper in the Depths, the Silayan Dreamer, did something forbidden when she gave you your Pact. Something about you being able to alter fate. And since Dreamers live on an established timeline but in a non-linear fashion, you just existing is fucking with them.”

“Great. Every time I think I hate that bitch the most I possibly can, she one-ups herself.”

“You think she did it to mess with you?”

“She does a lot of things to mess with me. But no, her end goal isn’t against me. I think I’m like a guided missile for her. You don’t care about the fact that the missile blows up when it takes out its target. You just care that the target was blown up.”

“If your analogy is correct, it’d probably be even more disconcerting to her if her missile blew up her target, but was still around afterwards.” Sami drummed her fingers on the hilt of her sword. “Who do you think the Sleeper’s target is? Holt?”

“I don’t think Holt’s even on her radar, if I’m being honest. I get the impression he’s… amusing to her, but that’s about it.”

That caused Sami to raise an eyebrow. “He has unfathomable, nearly god-like power, and he only warrants amusement?”

“I don’t think he does. Oh, he’s powerful, sure, and he’s probably operating a top shelf Pact, but he’s still just a guy. And the Dreamers… aren’t.”

“From my own interaction with the Salassian Dreamer, I think I have to concur. She referred to a ‘Shaper’ when she interacted with me. A lot of what she said was nonsense, but I think she was referring to Holt at that moment. I don’t remember exactly what she said - she was terrifying, if I’m being honest - but I think she said he owed her something. And that she viewed him as… interesting, but ultimately inconsequential. She was more excited about making me her ‘champion.’”

“See? He’s like a dancing monkey to them.”

“So what do you think the Sleeper wants?”

“How should I know? She keeps setting obstacles in my path and hinting at things. Like, she took on the form of Kir before I met Kir. And then played it off like a simple mistake. ‘Oopsie, how silly of me, I forgot you are constrained by linear time.’”

“You think Kir’s involved?”

“More like the Dreamer wants Kir as a tool to help me. Or maybe she’s just messing with me. I dunno.”

Sami leaned forward in her chair, her eyes intent. “Which brings me to the next topic. We don’t know what kinds of threats are out there for you, Mayumi. But we now know at least one Dreamer wants to kill you. And it’s safe to assume the others might, as well.”

Outside, a peal of thunder sounded, followed by the downpour of rain. 

“Sucks being wanted by everyone. C’est la vie.”

“No, it’s not…” Sami started angrily before visibly taking a moment to compose herself. “I need to be able to protect you, Mayumi. Otter. Please. Let me protect you.”

A flippant remark came to Otter’s lips, but for once her brain did some quality control and pulled it up short. Maybe she was growing as a person. Or maybe it was the beginning of tears in Sami’s eyes, or the somewhat pleading tone in her voice. 

It wasn’t often Sami got emotional. It was apparently enough to make Otter’s brain hamster sniff the comment before it reached her lips, realize it was distasteful, dust off her brain filter, and then shove it firmly into place.

“Okay. What do you need out of me, Sami?”

“No more taking point. You’re a caster. Stick to the backlines.” Otter’s newfound brain filter resisted the urge to make a joke about ‘backshots from the backlines.’ She was kind of proud of her restraint. “And that includes meet and greets, even if it doesn’t seem hostile. We see someone new, Rua or I will talk to them. At least until we feel them out. Let us take the risk.”

Otter glanced at the sleeping Rua. She looked so peaceful like that. 

“I don’t know how I feel about you volunteering her for that. I don’t want to be another Kir or Juala, using her up until she’s broken.”

“I’m not volunteering her for anything. It was her idea. We talked about it while Vex was… putting you back together. After making sure you weren’t permanently damaged, or that MoonCutter didn’t leave some nasty surprise in your arm, like a parasite or a disease or cancer cells.”

Otter felt her heart rate spike. “She can do that?”

“She’s a Fleshcrafter, according to Vex. So yes, she could. And these were just the possibilities Vex gave us off the top of her head. We got lucky. The Dreamer didn’t take us seriously. Although honestly, it didn’t need to. It walked through most of our group without trying. If it hadn’t been for Vex and your little fangirl, it would’ve been bad.”

“Fan… right. Pandemona.”

“She isn’t Pandemona. You are.”

“No. I was. She can have the name if she wants it.”

Something hot and angry flashed in Sami’s eyes. “Pandemona was the name of my first real friend. My first love. The… the first person I killed. She… she doesn’t just get to be Pandemona because she has insecurity issues or whatever.”

“Hey. I’m still here. I don’t blame you–” Rua let out a groan of pain in her sleep, and Otter winced at that. “Okay, that’s not fair her Pact works even when she’s sleeping.”

“No, but it clears the air, doesn’t it? I did kill you. Or at least, I gave you the nitroglycerine and told you to juggle it. And while you might forgive me, you do still blame me.”

Rua made another noise, and stretched. “Are we arguing about the past? While I’m trying to sleep?”

“Sorry,” both Sami and Otter said at the same time.

“Good. I see Kir hasn’t decided it’s time to go home yet. So, perhaps we should take this time to–”

A knock sounded on the door. Rua made a sound of frustration.

“I’ll get it,” Otter said, climbing out of bed, but Sami was already up and opening it.

Reyna poked her head into the room. “Everyone’s awake? Great. Is it time to teach me how to do the thing yet?”

She held up a soul crystal - presumably Il-Su’s soul crystal - and Rua sighed audibly. “Go. I only just wanted sex before getting dragged back to Pruana Isle.”

“Godamn getting blueboxed again,” Otter grumbled. Reyna made a surprised sound, and Otter realized she’d said the G-word again. “Sorry, I meant to say some joke about you being Ratatoskr and delivering the most annoying news, but honestly, I’m aching too much and dealing with a newfound filter my brain hamster installed while I wasn’t looking, so my heart’s just not in it today.”

That one brought a round of confused looks, even from Sami.

“Never mind. Fine, I’ll show you how to make an Essence Spark, Reyna. Sami, do me a favour. If Kir shows up to abduct my - our - girlfriend, summon Everett and have him beat her up and/or sit on her.”

Sami darkly chuckled at that. “I’m sure I’ll be able to find some interesting things to do with Kir once she’s pinned to keep her distracted.”

“Keep it in your pants. Or don’t. Whatever keeps Rua here for a bit longer.” Otter turned to Reyna. “Okay, we’re gonna need somewhere private and quiet. You’re going to need to meditate a bit for this.”

Reyna made a face at that, but led the way to a room in Rua’s massive house. Inside was sparsely decorated, just a bed, some open floor, and Juala’s old spear propped in the corner. 

“Juala’s brother let you keep that?”

“Akai has no use for it. It only works for Juala. And he decided to let me have it as a reward for killing the man who killed… her.”

“Fancy. Long as no one comes crying that you stole it, I guess.” Otter debated telling Reyna that Il-Su was very much alive, but her newly installed filter said that was probably a bad idea, since it involved a more in-depth explanation about Il-Su, and herself, and things that were going on, so just decided to omit it for now. “Okay, first, we have to… Hrmm. Never had to teach someone how to do this without a tutorial. Guess I’ll start by introducing you to my Essence Spark.”

And then it suddenly occurred to Otter that she hadn’t actually seen her Essence Spark since creating it. She’d just kind of left it in a spare room, sleeping on a table, and then gotten busy doing a million little things. Like attending the funeral, and then Holt’s so-called tournament. 

Wait. The funeral.

Otter’s heart lurched in her chest.

“Son of a monkey bastard! I missed the funeral orgy, didn’t I?”

Reyna’s face also turned sour. “Yes. We all did, because of whatever happened with you lot when you disappeared. Some of us had to stay on guard for your return, and not get distracted. Although, it was insultingly timid. Another one of Sureya’s slights. She left early, and took her whole retinue with her.”

“Oh, well, I wouldn’t have wanted to fuck her anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Uh, she’s my enemy?”

Reyna gave her a funny look. “And?”

“What do you mean ‘and’? That’s a good enough reason.”

“Where are you from? Because it’s not the Islands, not with that attitude. Don’t care if you’re a pelanoa, something’s off about you. Sureya being an enemy just makes the sex better.”

“I’m from…” she remembered the cover story Rua had given her, but it felt weird to say. “... somewhere complicated. It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you eventually.”

“Fair enough. So, how do we summon or create or whatever this Essence Spark thing?”

“Technically both.” Otter explained the process of visualization, and then remembered she needed the focus items for the ritual, one for each sense. And it would probably help to have her own Essence Spark present, which she hadn’t seen since the initial ritual.

Otter focused on a part of her brain, a small tingle at the back of her head, and sent a call to it. There was a sensation of tugging, and then suddenly something was battering against the door to Reyna’s room, hard enough to send it rocking in its frame.

“Let me in, let me in, let me in!” came a high-pitched squeal. 

Otter opened the door, and in flew on a pair of fairy wings her errant Essence Spark.

“Close the door!” she shrieked. “The beast is hunting me!”

“Sure thing, Squeak,” Otter said, having no idea what the Essence Spark was referring to.

And then she saw it, in the hallway. A fuzzy creature, a little bigger than a house cat, all lithe muscle, and with ears reminiscent of a fox’s. This had to be Rua’s pet lisuna she’d heard so much about but had never seen herself. And it apparently saw the Essence Spark as prey.

Otter slammed the door shut just as the lisuna bounded at it. There was a thump, followed by the angry yowl of a predator foiled. 

The Essence Spark flew into Otter’s face, all six inches of diminutive fury, and grabbed fistfuls of pink hair and began to scream. “You left me here! With that monster! It’s been chasing me for hours!”

Otter poked at her Essence Spark, and said, “You’re fine. You’re not even technically physical. If the lisuna ate you, it’d just shit you out in a pile of glittery energy in a few minutes.”

“So?! Just because I can’t die to that thing doesn’t mean I’d enjoy being chewed up and shat out!” A puff of blue energy burst out from the Essence Spark as she huffed in frustration, and she beat her wings a few times. “I require a name! You called me ‘Squeak.’ This will be my name going forward!”

“Sure,” Otter said. “If you’re fine with that, I guess. We need to show Reyna here how to make her own Essence Spark.”

Reyna had been busy inspecting the tiny fairy, her eyes wide with wonder. She moved to poke at Squeak, who dodged the finger and then wrapped her arms around it and bit down on the tip, hard enough to draw blood. 

“Oh! Bird fucker!” Reyna shouted, shaking her hand and sending Squeak flying off it. “Who’d you bite me?”

“Why did you try to poke me!” 

“Because you’re a little winged beastie that looks a lot like both of my sisters combined, plus that bitch with the swords. Why is that?”

“Because you have to visualize something when you’re making your Essence Spark,” Otter said, “and apparently that’s what I visualized.”

“You made a tiny person with wings that looks extremely fuckable, except its holes are way too small to fuck. Probably couldn’t even fit a Crib cock in there.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I am very stretchy!” Squeak yelled.

Otter pinched at the bridge of her nose. “Didn’t need to know that. Moving on!”

“But I can demonstrate!”

“I said moving on!”

Otter broke down how to properly create and summon an Essence Spark to Reyna, going over the ritual, and using the props to represent the senses, plus the soul crystal. It took them an hour to gather the materials Reyna wanted for her ritual, and then another hour of meditation practices and visualization lessons. Otter still felt like it was a rush job, but Reyna was eager to get on with it.

The room stunk of sharp spices and was filled with the sound of heavy rain pelting hard outside. Laid out on the floor were other items for the summoning, but most importantly of all, Il-Su’s soul crystal. Reyna sat with an intense look of concentration. There wasn’t much for Otter to do, and it was kind of boring just sitting there waiting for the ritual to finish.

It took hours. And despite Otter wanting to play with Squeak and see what elemental shenanigans she could get up to, she remained as quiet and motionless as she could get while Squeak sat on her shoulder. Her own brand of ADHD made this more difficult than she cared to admit, and more than once she had to resist the urge to start telling stories to Squeak just to make things interesting. 

And then finally, after an entire afternoon of boredom and waiting, something happened. Reyna’s eyes snapped open, and in front of her, a purple form coalesced into shape. Female, much like Squeak, and also sporting fairy wings. But while Squeak was an amalgamation of many different women, this particular Essence Spark had the appearance and bearing of one specific person. 

Lithe, with a dancer’s build, and absolutely no ass to speak of, with a hooked nose and a permanent look of annoyance locked on her face, this Essence Spark was the very spitting image of Juala Moseina.

She gave one beat of her wings, and alighted on Reyna’s outstretched hand. Reyna looked at her in wonder. So of course, the Essence Spark then bit her.

“Bird fucker!” Reyna yelled. “Why are all these things so bitey?”

“Oh, probably the Dreamer’s influence.”

“What?”

Stupid filter. “What?”

“What does a Dreamer–”

“How about you play with your abilities, see what you can do?”

“Fine. How do I use this… thing?”

“I have a name!” the purple Essence Spark said.

“Oh? Then what is it?”

“I dunno. You haven’t given it to me yet.”

“Then it’s, uh…” Reyna trailed off, and then glanced at Squeak. A devilish smile came across her face. “Cheep.”

“Cheep?” the little fairy-like biter said. “Cheep! Cheep! Yes. I like it. Cheep!”

“So, how do I use you?”

“Math!” Cheep said.

“We also need to know what element you’re attuned to,” Otter added. “So we can get an idea. And unfortunately, I’m not quite sure how to do that in–”

“Void!” Cheep said cheerily. “I am the Darkness between all things! The space in between, the nothingness that awaits everything when God awakens and swallows the Dreamers!”

Reyna visibly paled, and then stared at Otter. “What did you get me into?”

*-*-*

Elsewhere, Il-Su was beginning to paddle out from shore after having stolen a small fishing boat. And he hadn’t even killed anyone to get it. No more harming people. Not unless he had to. That was his resolve.

Pegacorn hadn’t been exactly pleased that he intended to join her effort to form a clan with Brock, but she also recognized he was damn good in a fight, and hadn’t betrayed her team like she’d feared he would. If anything, he’d worked to help Brock even when it’d been a liability to do so. 

Yes. Everything was looking good, even with the threat of rain on the horizon. These islands loved their sudden rain squalls, but they were usually gone as quickly as they arrived. It just meant he was going to get a little wet. A problem he’d dealt with before.

He felt the beginnings of a smile tug on his face. He had purpose. No longer burdened by the past. He was escaping his own poor decisions. He wouldn’t have to deal with Sami or Kir or Sureya anymore. He could finally put it all behind him.

He didn’t know that at that exact moment, Reyna had just harvested a piece of his soul and then hammered it into the shape of an Essence Spark.

He gasped in pain, and nearly fell out of his boat. He tore at his chest, trying to rip his own soul crystal out with his fingers. He could feel something draining from him, something being ripped out. 

When it was done, he was drenched in sweat, shaking uncontrollably. Hesitantly, he loaded up his character screen. He landed on the stats page, comparing what was there to the numbers burned in his memory.

Strength: 21

Agility: 28

Tenacity: 14

Will: 15

Fortune: 11

Awareness: 17

He… he was missing three points in his Agility. Roughly 10%.

Someone had used his soul crystal. His fists clenched, his nails digging into his palms. He looked back at the shore he’d just come from, his eyes narrowing in fury.

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