Anchor Knight

by Nathan Thompson

  I remained silent and concentrated on not tripping over my feet as she talked. But her information was still good to know. And she smells nice, a part of my mind spoke up, that I quickly repressed.

  "…but it still means my wards can be circumvented," she mused quietly to herself. "So to counter that, I should probably—oh, look, Jas, we're here," she said, pointing to the center of the room I had just carried her into, and patting my chest to make sure I knew I could stop walking.

  I had, in fact, already figured those two things out, but I chose to just smile and nod.

  "How do we reactivate this room, Vessa?" I asked, not sure whether I should still be carrying her at the moment.

  "Hold on," she said, "give me a second." She closed her eyes, and a large terminal rose from the center floor tile. Next to it was another capsule pod. Together, the two objects took up the bulk of the small room, and Nova and I had to step backwards to make space for them. The terminal looked like a pillar with a screen and small control panel mounted into it at each side, along with some devices that looked like pairs of headphones attached to small hooks hanging unobtrusively from the sides.

  "There," the gray woman in my arms finally said. "The terminal can actually be used by anyone, though it will take a bit of training before they understand all the data. Oh, right. You're supposed to have put me down by now, Jas. I thought I already said that."

  "Not yet you haven't," I gently corrected the distracted woman. "Do you want me to place you directly into the capsule?"

  "Actually," she said, sounding embarrassed. "I'd like to try to climb into it. The exercise will be good for me. Would you mind just helping me climb into it?"

  I did my best not to make her feel more embarrassed, gently lowered her to the floor, and then kept my arm firm as Vessa braced against it to climb into the capsule.

  "What do I do this time?" Nova asked as she looked about. I understood her confusion, as there wasn't a second capsule in this room.

  "That's a good question," Vessa replied with a frown. "This one isn't big enough for two, and frankly these rooms won't take nearly as much power to activate. Just help stand guard, and keep everything lit, I guess."

  "That works," Nova said with a shrug. "Do you want Jasper to do his normal thing?"

  "Yes," I said, answering for myself. "I will do that, and you both will be close enough to me so that my power can shield you again. Just in case it's needed."

  The firmness of my tone had caught them both off guard, as did my commanding them. They turned to look at me, but instead of apologizing, I kept my gaze level and calm.

  "Nestor will go in the capsule, too, so that I can use him to communicate with Vessa in case of an emergency other than the mad shadows."

  "Um, okay, Jasper," Nova said, and Vessa seemed to relent at the same time. "That's all pretty reasonable. We can do that. And maybe this time Nova can help you if the shadows show up."

  I nodded, but I doubted it would be necessary. The shadows had always needed an entry point to attack, usually a doorway to an unpowered room. But this section was a dead end, that didn't lead any deeper into the ship. In fact, according to both Vessa and the enemies we had just slain here, it had a way to actually lead outside the ship, and that was only via short-range teleportation. And the shadows had repeatedly told me that they were trapped within the vessel itself, and needed to devour Vessa's flesh-body to ever have a hope of escaping.

  That said, I wasn't going to drop my guard any. Nestor climbed into Vessa's hands with a happy squeak, and the ship-woman smiled and activated her capsule, shutting the opaque screen. Nova moved to stand over her protectively, summoning her Soulscape wings to curl around the capsule like a hen covering her chicks. For my part, I stood just beyond those wings, venting atmosphere over both the capsule and angel-woman.

  The room stayed bright this time, thanks to the light of Nova's armor and wings. A soft, quiet hum swept through the room. Nova's head was just visible enough through her feathers for me to tell that she was looking about, but I felt the need to focus, just in case. I kept my head down, stilled my body, closed my eyes, and listened.

  I heard nothing unusual this time. Which made this time feel all the more unusual, for lacking the menace of any of our earlier reclamations.

  Because of that, I found myself even more wary, more on guard.

  But no noises came.

  After a few moments, I felt that Nova had twitched her head toward my direction.

  "Jasper," I heard her whisper. But I was still listening, waiting for something to hiss or chitter from a nearby wall.

  "Jasper," the winged woman repeated. "Psst!"

  I cracked one of my eyes open just enough to look at my friend. She seemed to be torn between looking at me and moving her head around to better scan every corner of the room.

  "Do you hear anything?" she asked me, still using a quiet whisper.

  I stared at her, only one eye still half open, gave her a slow head-shake, and then went back to listening for noises in the room.

  Just then, I thought I heard the faintest of hissing noises.

  But it was too faint to be sure.

  Several minutes passed. The noise did not repeat.

  Did you hear that, Grandmother Mara? I asked, just to verify.

  No, dear, the elder dragon replied. Either you are so sensitive to them now that you can hear them from a great distance away, or you are so tense that you are imagining their presence when they are not even there. Either way, you are under no threat.

  That was good enough for me. I went back to listening.

  Nova whispered again.

  "Jasper!" she hissed. "What about now?"

  I cracked an eye open to look at her, checking my connection with Grandmother Mara to ensure that I could still detect her presence. Since I could, I just slowly shook my head, closed my eye, and went back to concentrating.

  Two minutes later, Nova spoke up again.

  "Jasper," my normally brave, calm friend hissed. "This is boring."

  I squinted up at her again, nodded, then concentrated again.

  It was boring.

  But at least no frothing, gibbering shade-demon was trying to tear my sanity out of my skull.

  I decided I preferred boring to that experience.

  "Jasper!" Nova hissed again. "Stop being so quiet! And stop doing that thing with your eye! It's weird!"

  I cracked an eyelid back open, lifted my head slightly, and raised a finger to my mouth.

  "Ugh," my blonde friend hissed at me, her wings ruffling in annoyance. "Fine. I'll just make things brighter."

  My eyelid had already closed, but I could feel the light shine more intensely in the room. I found myself wondering whether Nova had ever had to manage a stakeout, or a particularly boring patrol.

  A moment later, I heard the faintest of whispers, and fixated on the sound. This one was even more subtle than what I had heard moments ago. But my instincts told me to lock onto it.

  Moments later, it repeated again.

  Nova didn't seem to hear it, so it still might have been my imagination. But I rested a hand on my halfblade, currently in one of my belt-loops, just in case.

  Wheeeerrrrre…

  Grandmother, did you hear that? I asked the dragon within my soul.

  Not yet, dear, the dragon said from her perch, her eyes scanning upward. But I cannot hear things outside your soul as clearly as you can. Keep listening.

  I did as my second teacher instructed. For several long moments, I heard nothing but the hum of the room and Nova's breathing.

  "Wheerrrrrre…"

  This time, the whisper was unmistakable.

  "Jasper!" Nova suddenly hissed. "Jasper! Jasper!"

  Both of my eyes opened, as my halfblade returned to my hand.

  "Did you hear that?" Nova whispered urgently. "Did you?"

  I nodded, and moved my finger to my lips.

  "Wheerrrrrre…"

  "Did you hear that one, too?"
>
  I nodded again, and repeated my gesture for her to keep quiet. The angelic valkyrie bit her lip and nodded, drawing both her sword and baton.

  Then I tried to focus on the whispers, and figure out why they felt so different this time.

  "Wheeerrrrrre… herrrr…" the voice moaned. It reminded me of the first time I had encountered them, when they had not manifested any shapes or addressed me directly.

  It also sounded much, much further out than before, as if it was trying to project itself through dozens of walls.

  "Wheerrrrr…" it began again, and this time the sound made Nova twitch in surprise. "Isss…herrrr…."

  I heard distant sniffing now, as if it was from the walls far beyond the room we encountered Gray Long.

  Grandmother, I said to Mara, do you hear it now?

  Yes, dear, the dragon replied calmly. It's the reprobates, again. But this time, it seems that they can't sense her at all.

  That was encouraging, but then I heard the sniffing sound again. Nova must have heard it too, because she pointed her baton in its direction and gritted her teeth.

  Evidently, they can only sense the vaguest of directions, grandson, Mara continued. The vessel-saint's power is sufficient to keep them outside of the rooms she has already reclaimed. They can feel her regaining a room in this vicinity, but they can neither come closer, nor examine what is happening in detail. So they can only project a scant amount of soulsense, and claw aimlessly about with it.

  Will my new spell restrict them further? I asked, watching the shadows in the room carefully.

  It certainly couldn't hurt to try, young rider, she replied indifferently. I took her at her word.

  "Nova," I said out loud. "I am about to try and use a mana spell to veil us further."

  "Right," she said, nodding. "That's a good idea, unless they can perceive you while you are casting it. But I trust you. Go for it."

  Having notified her, I began activating the spell. After a quiet, precise incantation, a numbing spiritual sense swept throughout the room.

  "Wherrr—" the next whisper cut off halfway, then finished with a muffled tone to it. "Herrr?"

  "Okay," Nova said with a nod, putting away her baton. "Since it seems to be working, I'll help, too."

  "Wait, what?" I asked, but Nova had already started to cast the same exact spell I did, except that she made my casting look clumsy and amateurish by comparison. A moment later, a soft hum of power swept through the room, and the whispering voice cut off completely.

  "Area secured," my blonde friend said proudly. "Next time, we should just do that right at the start."

  "I didn't even know you could do that," I said to her, slowly beginning to feel like I had missed something obvious.

  "Why?" she said, turning to look at me. "I'm a tri-practitioner too, remember? My essence lets me absorb power from Sourcebeasts, and since I'm a mana specialist, I would at least get that part of the creature. The only reason I didn't cast that spell sooner was because I was waiting on you to make sure it would be safe."

  "That…" I started to say, then caught myself. "Nova, I should have thought of that. Great job. Thank you."

  "You're welcome," she said with a pleased smirk. "I'm glad I don't have to just sit here and fidget while we listen for something that sniffs and hisses from the walls."

  "Very good point," I answered her. "But keep in mind, it worked best this time because they didn't actually have a way in this place."

  "Whatever," the angel-woman said with a shrug. Then she looked down at Vessa's capsule. "How much longer do you think it will take her to bring the room back online?"

  "Hopefully soon," I replied, reaching out to Nestor in case he could inform us about the process somehow. But all I got back was a pleased sensation of getting my ear scratched in just the right spot. "Do you have a way to tell with your link with her, or something?"

  As I asked that question, I realized Nova would have already done so, if she did. She frowned and shook her head.

  "What I get from her is becoming… increasingly cluttered." She shook her head again, dissatisfied with her own answer to me. "Not cluttered in a way that worries me. Just cluttered in a way that says there's a lot going on, right now, and she hasn't had enough time to organize the information and identify the emotions she's having. It gets worse as more rooms get reactivated. So I can tell what she's thinking, because, ironically, she shows me too much sometimes. But it is easier to get along with her, now that I'm not afraid I'm a talking, dancing puppet anymore."

  Her face didn't turn in my direction, but I saw her pupils shift over to watch me.

  "Say…" she began, "speaking of her and my feelings, is it alright if we talk about something right now? Since we have time?"

  "Of course," I said with a nod, glancing around one last time out of habit. "Since we're safe now, it's perfect timing. What do you want to talk about?"

  "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "Here it goes…"

  Right then, the room's normal lighting flickered on, along with the nearby connected rooms. The background humming noise flared up much louder, and then went completely silent. Vessa's capsule opened, and I looked down to her happy expression.

  "Another part of me came back online," she said, smiling, and with a single tear drifting down her cheek. "And I got to say goodbye…" She began blinking, face still beaming. "He moved on, too."

  "That's good," I said, reaching for her. "I'm happy for you, Vessa."

  "Thank you," she said, taking my hand, but then squeezing it instead of lifting her body out of the tube. "I've been feeling guilty about my crew for so long… to get at least a tiny part of them back, and know they are somewhere else now… it's good."

  Then Nestor let out a happy squeak, and leaped up from her other hand. He gave her face a nuzzle, then ran up the arm holding on to my hand, treating it like a bridge that led back to me. He crawled up to my shoulder and tickled my jaw with his fur.

  Safe-safe? he asked, making sure I was alright.

  Safe-safe, I affirmed with a nod, and he made a relieved squeak. Another squeeze on my palm told me Vessa was ready for me to help her out.

  Nova came over to help her out as well, her face suddenly wearing a serious, business-like expression that suggested she had just changed her mind about having that conversation she had worked herself up into starting.

  "Did anything happen this time?" Vessa asked as her feet returned to the tile floor. "You both look like you're okay."

  "Just some faint whispering," Nova answered quickly. "It went away after we both used the spell we learned from killing that flood-dragon jerk. Other than that, it was completely boring."

  "Good," Vessa said, sounding relieved. "Hopefully we'll have more reclamations as easy as this one—not that the fight earlier was easy. By any definition."

  "Agreed," I said with a nod. "What should we do, now that this room has power again?"

  "We should all take a moment so that I can activate the sensors," Vessa replied, looking off into the distance. "Alright," she said, before she sighed and began blinking. "Oh wow, I didn't expect this to make me feel so much better. Everything is a lot more clear. It's like I've just been groping around in the dark, for… I don't even want to think about how long." She blinked a few more times, and then shook her head. "It will take time to get used to this, and it's not even anywhere close to what I had when my entire ship was back online, but it's already a bit useful now. Even having a communications room working again… I'll be able to talk to you both directly, instead of having to type out a string of long-winded sentences. Hold on," she suddenly said, "let me take a look directly outside the surface of my ship-body."

  Her gray eyes glowed with light as a far-off stare adorned her face. After a few moments, she blinked and frowned.

  "The damage is… pretty bad," she admitted. "I'm surprised I'm even functional. My parents pulled off a masterpiece by making me so durable. I'll have to figure out how to repair the external damage at
some point, but at least I found what was affecting my ship's power and movement so much." She turned to look back at us. "The active boarding portals are still attached to certain sections outside my ship-body's surface, and they're actually still active. These models draw power by siphoning Source energy from the surface of whatever structure they're attached to, and in my case the siphoning is actually disrupting a lot of my ship-body's functions, especially my sensors. It's also making our jumps take longer, making my weapon targeting harder, even disrupting my normal movement through the night sky. There's a particularly bad patch that's actually located close to where the ship-based teleporter will take you, if we use it… but we won't, today," she said firmly.

  "Really?" I asked. "Why wouldn't we?"

  "Because we've recovered almost a dozen rooms, at least five of which have functions I haven't used in years, you two have been through two battles, gained numerous substages in your respective Sources, and finally faced off with whatever nightmares are haunting the depths of my ship-body. We've had an extremely productive day, and we need to consolidate our gains. I need time to re-familiarize with my sensors and other systems, and you two should take some time to rest and get used to your newfound powers. Especially you, Jasper," Vessa said as she turned to focus on me. "You've gained a total of fifteen substages, as well as some pretty significant modifications to your physical strength. If we had more time, I'd set up a month-long special training course to ensure you fully adjusted to your new physique, but not only do we not have any eggs for you to practice holding, we don't have time. But I want you to spend the remainder of the day resting and doing light exercises, like holding a food pouch without squeezing it too hard."

  "But didn't you want us to take advantage of your enemy's confusion this morning?" I protested. "We're going to have to take back these sections of your ship at some point anyway. Isn't it better to just take as much as possible, while we still can?"

  "Yes," Vessa said crisply, "and we already did. I have my sensors back, giving me eyes back on my outer body—even if they aren't perfect eyes—I have a handful of weapons systems back, a navigation room that is already restoring parts of my memory, and my security systems that will finally let me see and defend the holds of my own ship-body. This is a lot for me to take in right now, Jas. I need this time just as much as either of you, probably more so. And you do need time, Jasper, even if it's just to figure out the new charms, spells, and techniques you just learned. Do you want to enter another life-or-death battle and find that you've forgotten to use an ability that could end the fight right at the beginning, that you weren't used to yet, and get hurt or killed because of it? Take time, Jasper. Take a nap, practice holding something, find a safe spot to tinker with your new powers. And if you finish all of that and get bored, go and try to Draw for a bit; it will help you even if it's not the best environment for you. Are we clear?"