“Usin’ Life Energy’ll make you hungry fast,” I grudgingly explained in a mumble. “Other stuff feels like exercise. Running. Jumping.”
“Oh,” she said shortly. For a moment, she just stood there thinking, as though she could not quite decide how she felt, but then she eventually aimed the wand at the wall again.
That’s enough of that noise.
Gently, I placed my hand over hers. “Answer later. No food.”
She grimaced again and reluctantly nodded. “Right. Of course.” She hesitated, and I could tell from her expression that she wanted to ask me something.
“What?”
“Well, it’s just…” She chewed on her lip for a moment. “Do you think the hair will grow back on your face? After you’ve healed it, I mean? I kind of liked it.”
There was a beat of silence. Then, without another word, I turned to resume the long shamble down the corridor.
“No, seriously,” she persisted, limping after me. “I mean… no offense, but you look like you’ve got a hole in your chin right now.”
I just sighed.
*****
Mia stared at the wall suspiciously.
While it was true that her world had been totally upended in recent days and the mechanics of her new one were, as of yet, strange and mysterious, she was beginning to gain an intuitive sense of what belonged and what did not. And this wall did not belong.
Not that her intuition was overly helpful. Many of the things that did belong remained utterly foreign in most respects. Not all, but many.
Certainly, some were easy enough to understand. A chair was a chair. A door a door. Even her new bed was… well, a bed! And that was all fine. Though why this place needed such trappings still eluded her. It was like he was creating the environment just to accommodate her… perhaps to make her feel like more of a person.
She snorted softly. Foolishness. As if she might need a bed!
Distracted for the moment, she hooked the inside of her collar with a claw, tracing it down past the deep valley of her bust. She really did like the new wardrobe. Though she wondered whether he fully appreciated the implications.
Likely not.
He seemed even more baffled by the place than she was… which was completely absurd. But that was her new world for you. Strange. Illogical. Beautiful.
She was beginning to love it.
Her body thrummed with pleasure at the quiet admission, radiating in waves from her center. Training her. Reinforcing her feelings of attachment. Rewarding her growing loyalties. She knew these things quite well. She had existed for far too long not to know this game.
Yet she also knew he was neither directly responsible for it nor at all happy to know it was going on. And that was perhaps the most absurd thing of all. To think… he would actually try to stop it, if he could just figure out how.
For a brief moment, she considered whether or not to help him. She had little doubt she could create a skill to grant him a measure of control over the situation—at least in theory. But she quickly discarded the idea. That would spoil her fun!
No. Unless he asked, she had no intension of ever bringing it up.
But none of that helped with her current conundrum. She had to get rid of this wall. It was blocking… something. Something important. Something he needed.
It had to be. The floor told her so.
Idly, she ran a hand over the barrier, trying to get a sense of it. Most of the things in here responded to her in some way. Even the furniture. Not in words. Just basic sorts of impressions. And mostly they made sense depending on what the thing was. A chair felt like a thing for sitting. It… wanted you to sit on it. To comfort you.
Then there were the odd things. Things that… shifted about and changed from moment to moment. Formless, yet somehow not. Like the thing in the main room. It was always there. It called to her each time she passed it.
‘Look,’ it seemed to say. ‘Look and see through his eyes.’
And it would. She just had to sit on the cushioned bench in front of it and, like some sort of scrying pool, it would reveal the world outside. Yet she still had no name for it. Nor could she even describe its form.
Still others seemed perfectly normal, but presented themselves inconsistently. Like the Words. Books, he had said. Utterly ridiculous. As if a Word could be contained within something so mundane. To her eyes, they presented themselves as gemmed decachorons, as they should be. How he was able to read within them was a complete mystery… yet undeniable. She had even begun using the phenomenon to their advantage.
She suspected that coming into such close proximity to Ahnbe and that treacherous bitch might have been the cause of it. Young as he was, his mind was still quite fragile, and something might have been… perhaps fortuitously damaged. However, she would have to go deeper to find out. No good could come of that while he was awake.
In any case, those feelings were what had finally clued her in to this wall. All the other ones around here seemed to radiate a cheerful confusion when she touched them—as if delighted that she would bother investigating.
Not this one.
Oh, it certainly looked like a wall—totally identical to the rest—and she could not pass through it. Just as a wall should be. But this was not a place of should-be’s. It was a living place. And this wall was as a dead thing.
So then, why was the floor so eager that she go this way?
Narrowing her eyes, she trailed her fingers along the foreignness until they again met her living world. The wall there was giving off a feeling of… edginess? Like the end of one thing and the beginning of another. And like the others, it seemed overjoyed that she might be interested, yet confused as to why she would need to be.
“Hello…” she murmured tentatively, feeling ridiculous. “I want to go through here, but there’s… a blockage?”
‘Oh! Just a moment,’ the wall seemed to say. Though of course, it said nothing.
Then, the wall simply… moved out of the way. With a soft sort of swish, an inset opened up—complete with runners, crown-molding, and an appropriate little corner table—revealing the hallway beyond. And conveniently circumventing the dead wall.
“Huh… that was easy,” she muttered. Stepping forward, she caressed the polished surface of the table gently. “Thank you.”
It seemed to thrill a bit in reply, as though only too happy to help.
She stood there for another few seconds, intrigued by this new development. It definitely bore further investigation, but it could wait. For now, she was much more interested in finding out what had been hidden away.
Cautiously, she padded into the carpeted passage, scenting the air. She knew she had never been down this way before, yet it still had a familiar sort of atmosphere. There was pressure to this place. A warning.
Abruptly, a wind blasted through the tunnel, plastering her dress to her skin. Like all the things in her world, this too was alive. She could feel it. Yet this wind carried a strange… hollowness with it. An emptiness. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it simply died away, leaving the air still once more.
“Well… that was unex—“
Without warning, the wind thundered back, this time in the opposite direction. And this time, the wind was… vibrant. Giving. As though the stuff of life itself were carried upon it… yet there was a strained quality to it. And yet again, before she could think to buckle down or move away, it simply died, leaving the corridor still.
She blinked into the echoing silence. “It’s… breathing?”
She had thought she knew what this was. It had seemed just like the other tunnel. The one to her little project.
Another mind. Another world.
Yet this one…
Possibilities spun through her mind, each more outlandish than the last. Eventually, she discarded them all. It was best to stick with the basics. And if she were right then the next breath…
Right on cue, the wind came again. This time… gentler. Less desperate. Relieved, almost. The second breath after far too long underwater.
She nodded as the wind faded away, then looked back to the dead wall. It was still there, quite oblivious to what she had done. And equally uncaring as to what it had been doing.
As the returning breath pushed past once more—this time with a questing and hopeful verve to it—she balled her hand into a fist. “The audacity! The sheer unmitigated… Agh!”
There would be another wall, she knew. Or something like it. She had to find it. And soon.
Then she gave a start as a strange sensation passed over her. Slowly, she raised her hands and, turning them from back to palm, she looked them over curiously. They were the same as ever. The same delicate yet long fingers, each tipped with a bone white claw. Each fading to black at their points.
Yet now, for the first time, she was aware that she was not exactly alone in seeming them.
“My lord?”
“Hey, Donum,” Lynnria called from just ahead.
I gave my head a slight shake, the daydream already fading to the background. We had been trudging along the seemingly unending corridor for so long, nothing to consider save putting one foot in front of the other, that my conscious mind had slipped away. Yet now that I was fully aware, that just brought all of the horrible pain and fatigue to the forefront.
With a groan, I leaned against a wall. I had to rest. I had to. I was so hungry. So exhausted. So fucking tired…
But then… I gradually became aware of something. It was faint at first, but slowly growing stronger. As if my heart—long grown cold and still—had suddenly remembered what it was to be truly loved.
Jax?
“Donum!”
With a start, I glanced up. Lynnria was standing there with arms crossed and, if her twitching tail was any indication, clearly annoyed.
“Are you even paying attention?” she grumped. “I said we’re there!”
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
Each chapter is now being personalized with some... passable chapter-inspired AI generated art. I try. But it gives things a bit of color. And you can read ahead!
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
“Usin’ Life Energy’ll make you hungry fast,” I grudgingly explained in a mumble. “Other stuff feels like exercise. Running. Jumping.”
“Oh,” she said shortly. For a moment, she just stood there thinking, as though she could not quite decide how she felt, but then she eventually aimed the wand at the wall again.
That’s enough of that noise.
Gently, I placed my hand over hers. “Answer later. No food.”
She grimaced again and reluctantly nodded. “Right. Of course.” She hesitated, and I could tell from her expression that she wanted to ask me something.
“What?”
“Well, it’s just…” She chewed on her lip for a moment. “Do you think the hair will grow back on your face? After you’ve healed it, I mean? I kind of liked it.”
There was a beat of silence. Then, without another word, I turned to resume the long shamble down the corridor.
“No, seriously,” she persisted, limping after me. “I mean… no offense, but you look like you’ve got a hole in your chin right now.”
I just sighed.
*****
Mia stared at the wall suspiciously.
While it was true that her world had been totally upended in recent days and the mechanics of her new one were, as of yet, strange and mysterious, she was beginning to gain an intuitive sense of what belonged and what did not. And this wall did not belong.
Not that her intuition was overly helpful. Many of the things that did belong remained utterly foreign in most respects. Not all, but many.
Certainly, some were easy enough to understand. A chair was a chair. A door a door. Even her new bed was… well, a bed! And that was all fine. Though why this place needed such trappings still eluded her. It was like he was creating the environment just to accommodate her… perhaps to make her feel like more of a person.
She snorted softly. Foolishness. As if she might need a bed!
Distracted for the moment, she hooked the inside of her collar with a claw, tracing it down past the deep valley of her bust. She really did like the new wardrobe. Though she wondered whether he fully appreciated the implications.
Likely not.
He seemed even more baffled by the place than she was… which was completely absurd. But that was her new world for you. Strange. Illogical. Beautiful.
She was beginning to love it.
Her body thrummed with pleasure at the quiet admission, radiating in waves from her center. Training her. Reinforcing her feelings of attachment. Rewarding her growing loyalties. She knew these things quite well. She had existed for far too long not to know this game.
Yet she also knew he was neither directly responsible for it nor at all happy to know it was going on. And that was perhaps the most absurd thing of all. To think… he would actually try to stop it, if he could just figure out how.
For a brief moment, she considered whether or not to help him. She had little doubt she could create a skill to grant him a measure of control over the situation—at least in theory. But she quickly discarded the idea. That would spoil her fun!
No. Unless he asked, she had no intension of ever bringing it up.
But none of that helped with her current conundrum. She had to get rid of this wall. It was blocking… something. Something important. Something he needed.
It had to be. The floor told her so.
Idly, she ran a hand over the barrier, trying to get a sense of it. Most of the things in here responded to her in some way. Even the furniture. Not in words. Just basic sorts of impressions. And mostly they made sense depending on what the thing was. A chair felt like a thing for sitting. It… wanted you to sit on it. To comfort you.
Then there were the odd things. Things that… shifted about and changed from moment to moment. Formless, yet somehow not. Like the thing in the main room. It was always there. It called to her each time she passed it.
‘Look,’ it seemed to say. ‘Look and see through his eyes.’
And it would. She just had to sit on the cushioned bench in front of it and, like some sort of scrying pool, it would reveal the world outside. Yet she still had no name for it. Nor could she even describe its form.
Still others seemed perfectly normal, but presented themselves inconsistently. Like the Words. Books, he had said. Utterly ridiculous. As if a Word could be contained within something so mundane. To her eyes, they presented themselves as gemmed decachorons, as they should be. How he was able to read within them was a complete mystery… yet undeniable. She had even begun using the phenomenon to their advantage.
She suspected that coming into such close proximity to Ahnbe and that treacherous bitch might have been the cause of it. Young as he was, his mind was still quite fragile, and something might have been… perhaps fortuitously damaged. However, she would have to go deeper to find out. No good could come of that while he was awake.
In any case, those feelings were what had finally clued her in to this wall. All the other ones around here seemed to radiate a cheerful confusion when she touched them—as if delighted that she would bother investigating.
Not this one.
Oh, it certainly looked like a wall—totally identical to the rest—and she could not pass through it. Just as a wall should be. But this was not a place of should-be’s. It was a living place. And this wall was as a dead thing.
So then, why was the floor so eager that she go this way?
Narrowing her eyes, she trailed her fingers along the foreignness until they again met her living world. The wall there was giving off a feeling of… edginess? Like the end of one thing and the beginning of another. And like the others, it seemed overjoyed that she might be interested, yet confused as to why she would need to be.
“Hello…” she murmured tentatively, feeling ridiculous. “I want to go through here, but there’s… a blockage?”
‘Oh! Just a moment,’ the wall seemed to say. Though of course, it said nothing.
Then, the wall simply… moved out of the way. With a soft sort of swish, an inset opened up—complete with runners, crown-molding, and an appropriate little corner table—revealing the hallway beyond. And conveniently circumventing the dead wall.
“Huh… that was easy,” she muttered. Stepping forward, she caressed the polished surface of the table gently. “Thank you.”
It seemed to thrill a bit in reply, as though only too happy to help.
She stood there for another few seconds, intrigued by this new development. It definitely bore further investigation, but it could wait. For now, she was much more interested in finding out what had been hidden away.
Cautiously, she padded into the carpeted passage, scenting the air. She knew she had never been down this way before, yet it still had a familiar sort of atmosphere. There was pressure to this place. A warning.
Abruptly, a wind blasted through the tunnel, plastering her dress to her skin. Like all the things in her world, this too was alive. She could feel it. Yet this wind carried a strange… hollowness with it. An emptiness. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it simply died away, leaving the air still once more.
“Well… that was unex—“
Without warning, the wind thundered back, this time in the opposite direction. And this time, the wind was… vibrant. Giving. As though the stuff of life itself were carried upon it… yet there was a strained quality to it. And yet again, before she could think to buckle down or move away, it simply died, leaving the corridor still.
She blinked into the echoing silence. “It’s… breathing?”
She had thought she knew what this was. It had seemed just like the other tunnel. The one to her little project.
Another mind. Another world.
Yet this one…
Possibilities spun through her mind, each more outlandish than the last. Eventually, she discarded them all. It was best to stick with the basics. And if she were right then the next breath…
Right on cue, the wind came again. This time… gentler. Less desperate. Relieved, almost. The second breath after far too long underwater.
She nodded as the wind faded away, then looked back to the dead wall. It was still there, quite oblivious to what she had done. And equally uncaring as to what it had been doing.
As the returning breath pushed past once more—this time with a questing and hopeful verve to it—she balled her hand into a fist. “The audacity! The sheer unmitigated… Agh!”
There would be another wall, she knew. Or something like it. She had to find it. And soon.
Then she gave a start as a strange sensation passed over her. Slowly, she raised her hands and, turning them from back to palm, she looked them over curiously. They were the same as ever. The same delicate yet long fingers, each tipped with a bone white claw. Each fading to black at their points.
Yet now, for the first time, she was aware that she was not exactly alone in seeming them.
“My lord?”
“Hey, Donum,” Lynnria called from just ahead.
I gave my head a slight shake, the daydream already fading to the background. We had been trudging along the seemingly unending corridor for so long, nothing to consider save putting one foot in front of the other, that my conscious mind had slipped away. Yet now that I was fully aware, that just brought all of the horrible pain and fatigue to the forefront.
With a groan, I leaned against a wall. I had to rest. I had to. I was so hungry. So exhausted. So fucking tired…
But then… I gradually became aware of something. It was faint at first, but slowly growing stronger. As if my heart—long grown cold and still—had suddenly remembered what it was to be truly loved.
Jax?
“Donum!”
With a start, I glanced up. Lynnria was standing there with arms crossed and, if her twitching tail was any indication, clearly annoyed.
“Are you even paying attention?” she grumped. “I said we’re there!”
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
Each chapter is now being personalized with some... passable chapter-inspired AI generated art. I try. But it gives things a bit of color. And you can read ahead!
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
