I stood as though transfixed, my gaze locked with her own.
It was almost funny—in a morbid sort of way. With her eyes closed, Arx might well have been no different from the crystalline stone she was imprisoned within. A beautiful work of art perhaps, but no less cold and lifeless for it.
Yet now… now she was suddenly alive and well. Conscious.
It was such a simple thing, that acknowledgment of one mind to another. That faint brush between windows to the soul.
Her eyes…
I felt as if my heart had been caged, imprisoned in stone just as she was. And now? Within her gaze, my heart began to swell with both longing and relief, threatening to overwhelm me. Within those pools of sparkling darkness, I was free.
But she was still trapped. Unable to move even an eyelash. And here I was acting a fool.
Well, then…
I sucked in a breath to steady myself. Now was not the time to be waxing eloquent about my emotions. Now was the time for getting shit done.
Sure, I had been screwed over. The Dungeon had fed me some bullshit poetry and called it a hint, but that was no reason to beat myself up. People stumbled over that kind of crap all the time! Hell, the internet was practically born off the backs of video game help forums.
But that line of thinking was exactly what had gotten me into trouble in the first place. No matter how much it might present itself as one, this was not a game. This was not a problem with a linear, preprogrammed answer. This was real life. I was free to try whatever I wanted.
No crystals? So what.
It was time for the brute force solution. Time to crack my knuckles and start smashing things until the balance tipped. Except I was not some hulking barbarian venting my rage with an oversized sledgehammer. I was a motherfucking wizard, and it was time I started acting like one.
So then… what can I do?
I had a smattering of spells—mostly buffs, a couple of auras, and a heal. Detonating Sap Varnish might be of help here if I had a source of fire or the Life to cast it with.
The only other things I had access to were Words. And thanks to Mia, I had some idea as to how to use them… in theory. We had not gotten around to Speaking them aloud just yet, but as they say, you have to learn to walk before you can run. And I was still very much in the ‘scribbling with crayons’ stage of my education.
Unfortunately, the nouns I knew were an eclectic mix of garbage. And the two verbs, while situationally interesting, were useless right now. That only left the pair of symbols I had picked up along the way.
I had worked out that they must also be Words, and that they were a part of the larger definitions of the Words I already possessed. But their specifics remained unknown to me. I had not earned them, and thus, by the rules of this world, they were undefined and impossible to know.
Yet I did. Illogical as that seemed.
One, I felt relatively confident, had something to do with opening things. Passages. Going through. Gaps. It was difficult to guess the exact meaning. Only the implication. There was quite a lot of potential there, but I had yet to work out the specifics of how to replicate it. So with some reluctance, I decided it best to leave that one as a last resort.
The other, the one I had found within Moisture, Mia had at least instructed me with as a part of Lynnria’s Class awakening. Its meaning was thus much more opaque to me, but… derived from within that Word?
Moisture meant… something like the feel of water. Covered in it without being submerged. It was the intrinsic quality of wetness.
The intrinsic quality, huh? I could have been wildly off-base but, combined with the ritual I had used it for, it seemed like a decent assumption. And more importantly…
“Lynnria,” I called. When our eyes met I held them for a long beat, trying to impart the seriousness of the situation. This was Donum at a point far past fucking around. “I am about to do something… potentially stupid.”
Her head rocked back, as though struck a blow. She had been around quite a few sorcerous types. She knew as well as I did, that was not a phrase you ever wanted to hear from someone like me. And I was a guy who could do things most wizards could not.
But she did not try to dissuade me. Instead, she let out a nervous little laugh. “Like Grandfather always says, if it works… it’s not stupid. Right?”
She was looking for some degree of reassurance, but I did not have any to give her. I only had the vaguest notion as to what I was about to do—never mind whether it would work. So I held my peace. Lynnria took that the only way she could have.
“In that case…”
Chin held high, she toed her way around the column until we were face to face. She looked at me searchingly for a long moment, and I could tell from the look in her eye that she wanted to kiss me—perhaps fearing she might not get another chance. But then I caught her gaze flickering up to Arx. She could not quite bring herself to do it under that scrutiny.
She swallowed her nerves down. “In that case,” she said again, “I wish you luck.”
With that, she traced her charm onto my chest then turned to flee. But then, at the last moment, she hesitated and quickly placed a chaste little peck on my cheek. As she hopped over the acidic dart trap at the archway, I could not help but grin at the girl.
“Ballsy,” I muttered before glancing back up at Arx. Her eyes, despite not having moved in the slightest, had gained a fierce intensity. “Very, very ballsy.”
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!
But more importantly, there's those all-important advanced chapters, Patreon exclusive character art, and even the occasional poll to influence the direction of the story.
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
I stood as though transfixed, my gaze locked with her own.
It was almost funny—in a morbid sort of way. With her eyes closed, Arx might well have been no different from the crystalline stone she was imprisoned within. A beautiful work of art perhaps, but no less cold and lifeless for it.
Yet now… now she was suddenly alive and well. Conscious.
It was such a simple thing, that acknowledgment of one mind to another. That faint brush between windows to the soul.
Her eyes…
I felt as if my heart had been caged, imprisoned in stone just as she was. And now? Within her gaze, my heart began to swell with both longing and relief, threatening to overwhelm me. Within those pools of sparkling darkness, I was free.
But she was still trapped. Unable to move even an eyelash. And here I was acting a fool.
Well, then…
I sucked in a breath to steady myself. Now was not the time to be waxing eloquent about my emotions. Now was the time for getting shit done.
Sure, I had been screwed over. The Dungeon had fed me some bullshit poetry and called it a hint, but that was no reason to beat myself up. People stumbled over that kind of crap all the time! Hell, the internet was practically born off the backs of video game help forums.
But that line of thinking was exactly what had gotten me into trouble in the first place. No matter how much it might present itself as one, this was not a game. This was not a problem with a linear, preprogrammed answer. This was real life. I was free to try whatever I wanted.
No crystals? So what.
It was time for the brute force solution. Time to crack my knuckles and start smashing things until the balance tipped. Except I was not some hulking barbarian venting my rage with an oversized sledgehammer. I was a motherfucking wizard, and it was time I started acting like one.
So then… what can I do?
I had a smattering of spells—mostly buffs, a couple of auras, and a heal. Detonating Sap Varnish might be of help here if I had a source of fire or the Life to cast it with.
The only other things I had access to were Words. And thanks to Mia, I had some idea as to how to use them… in theory. We had not gotten around to Speaking them aloud just yet, but as they say, you have to learn to walk before you can run. And I was still very much in the ‘scribbling with crayons’ stage of my education.
Unfortunately, the nouns I knew were an eclectic mix of garbage. And the two verbs, while situationally interesting, were useless right now. That only left the pair of symbols I had picked up along the way.
I had worked out that they must also be Words, and that they were a part of the larger definitions of the Words I already possessed. But their specifics remained unknown to me. I had not earned them, and thus, by the rules of this world, they were undefined and impossible to know.
Yet I did. Illogical as that seemed.
One, I felt relatively confident, had something to do with opening things. Passages. Going through. Gaps. It was difficult to guess the exact meaning. Only the implication. There was quite a lot of potential there, but I had yet to work out the specifics of how to replicate it. So with some reluctance, I decided it best to leave that one as a last resort.
The other, the one I had found within Moisture, Mia had at least instructed me with as a part of Lynnria’s Class awakening. Its meaning was thus much more opaque to me, but… derived from within that Word?
Moisture meant… something like the feel of water. Covered in it without being submerged. It was the intrinsic quality of wetness.
The intrinsic quality, huh? I could have been wildly off-base but, combined with the ritual I had used it for, it seemed like a decent assumption. And more importantly…
“Lynnria,” I called. When our eyes met I held them for a long beat, trying to impart the seriousness of the situation. This was Donum at a point far past fucking around. “I am about to do something… potentially stupid.”
Her head rocked back, as though struck a blow. She had been around quite a few sorcerous types. She knew as well as I did, that was not a phrase you ever wanted to hear from someone like me. And I was a guy who could do things most wizards could not.
But she did not try to dissuade me. Instead, she let out a nervous little laugh. “Like Grandfather always says, if it works… it’s not stupid. Right?”
She was looking for some degree of reassurance, but I did not have any to give her. I only had the vaguest notion as to what I was about to do—never mind whether it would work. So I held my peace. Lynnria took that the only way she could have.
“In that case…”
Chin held high, she toed her way around the column until we were face to face. She looked at me searchingly for a long moment, and I could tell from the look in her eye that she wanted to kiss me—perhaps fearing she might not get another chance. But then I caught her gaze flickering up to Arx. She could not quite bring herself to do it under that scrutiny.
She swallowed her nerves down. “In that case,” she said again, “I wish you luck.”
With that, she traced her charm onto my chest then turned to flee. But then, at the last moment, she hesitated and quickly placed a chaste little peck on my cheek. As she hopped over the acidic dart trap at the archway, I could not help but grin at the girl.
“Ballsy,” I muttered before glancing back up at Arx. Her eyes, despite not having moved in the slightest, had gained a fierce intensity. “Very, very ballsy.”
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!
But more importantly, there's those all-important advanced chapters, Patreon exclusive character art, and even the occasional poll to influence the direction of the story.
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
