“So you admit it!” Destruction thrust a finger in Creativity’s face.
“I admit nothing Sister, for I do not know what you’re talking about.”
“You have stolen a Nemesis of mine, and… given it to your pawn!” Destruction continued to rage. “You have meddled beyond your scope!”
“Ah, is that what has your feathers in such a twist?” Creativity asked with a raised eyebrow, “I do not believe I have meddled at all, I merely presented opportunities. If I recall correctly, quite a number of them were in your… Nemesis’s favor.”
“You lie!” Destruction spat. “I rode the creature the entire time! The creature was far too adept at resisting me for such a mindless beast, and your pawn should have never been able to do what it did to free it!”
“You rode the beast?” Creativity replied in mock surprise. “Have you considered that this is no one’s fault, but your own? Perhaps you are not as skilled as you believe yourself to be, even after cheating yourself and granting the beast magical sight.”
“You try my patience Sister and I tire of repeating myself! I demand recompense for your meddling!”
“You may demand all you wish Sister, but it will get you nothing.” Creativity waved a hand dismissively. “I would offer you a chance to glimpse at the Weave to prove my innocence. But your last visit proved you cannot handle that sort of responsibility, so I have hidden it from you.”
“You cannot do that!” Destruction screamed with fury. “Reveal it to me at once!”
“You seem to enjoy telling me what I can and cannot be doing.” Creativity spoke slowly, as if to a child. “But in reality, I can do whatever it is I wish in order to preserve the Balance.”
“I-” Destruction began before Creativity cut her off with a gesture.
“The Balance that your actions have skewed,” Creativity continued to speak, now advancing on Destruction. “You taught me a valuable lesson after your last visit, Sister. I will even admit you got the better of me.”
“But I am not so naïve anymore, to think that we will be anything other than enemies.” Creativity waved her hand in dismissal, her voice turning to ice. “Leave my domain, Destruction. You are no longer welcome here under any circumstances.”
“If I see you here again, it will be as a broken corpse at my feet.”
With fear in her eyes, Destruction turned and fled.
Chapter 31
I gasped with relief as my hands came down on hard stone, heaving myself out of the raging energy of the Ley Line with a heroic surge of strength. I scrambled on my knees as my lungs and stomach began to rebel from the copious amounts of Æther I had both inhaled and swallowed. I didn’t even have a chance to scan the room before my body began retching violently, forcing itself to expel the glowing liquid.
Gods, that burns! My head spun as the Æther began to sizzle on the stone floor. Gasping for air, my ears told me that the Puma had also found its way out of the Ley Line and based on the raspy growls I could hear, was also experiencing the same discomfort as it vomited out raw Æther.
Where is everyone? I glanced around the room, not seeing any of the party members nearby. Even the massive form of the Spider Queen was gone, a fossilized skull now sitting in the place where her massive bulk once joined the floor.
With the Æther leaving my system, my mind was slowly beginning to process the turn of events I had just experienced. Rubbing my mouth free of spittle, I began to take slow, deep breaths to calm myself as I quickly reviewed a list of alerts that were hovering in my vision. Starting with the one that had changed my relationship with the Puma forever.
Congratulations on bonding an [Ætherwarped Puma – Level 10] as your familiar!
Against all odds, you have freed the [Ætherwarped Puma] from the Nemesis Spirit possessing it! As such, you have gained the undying loyalty and gratitude of the rare creature. Bound together with both magic and blood, you and your familiar now share a unique and near unbreakable bond between one another. This bond allows you and your familiar to constantly understand where the other is, regardless of intervening distance, so long as you are both on the same plane of existence. As you both gain experience and strengthen the bond between the two of you, specialized abilities will become available.
Beware! The [Ætherwarped Puma] you have bound as a familiar is an intelligent creature, subject to its own wants, needs, and desires. Should your personalities clash, or you perform actions outside the creature’s moral code, it may choose to dissolve the familiar bond of its own accord.
Current Familiar Abilities
Mental Link – The magical bond linking you and your familiar has created an intimate mental link between the two of you, allowing each of you to communicate mentally between one another for a distance of up to one mile, regardless of intervening objects. Magical wards, however, will block this form of mental communication.
Soul Bound – During the familiar bonding process, you have anchored the being’s soul directly to your own. Should the familiar be slain in your service, you will immediately suffer a 10% penalty to all attributes and skills for the next 24 hours until the familiar is reborn. Should the familiar survive your death, it does not suffer any penalties, but will be compelled to travel to your place of rebirth as quickly as possible.
Additional familiar abilities can be obtained through the use of Class Skill Points, Training, or Special Events.
Ætherwarped?! My heart flipped in panic, seeing the leading prefix in the Puma’s name. My mind fearing that I had bound a creature as unstable as the spiders we’d spent our day fighting. I quickly turned to take a look.
My mouth fell open as I spotted the Puma. It had indeed been warped by its swim in the Æther.
The creature had grown, its size now rivaling one of a large tiger. It stood now at just under four feet high to the shoulder and nearly ten feet long from snout to tail. The once tan pelt that it wore now gleamed a vibrant azure, thick muscles visibly bulging from under the creature’s fur. Massive claws protruded from dinner plate-sized paws, as the creature bared them out of reflex while it continued to cough.
Sensing my surprise through the link, a sapphire colored eye fixed on me in concern.
The Puma paused its hacking cough and looked towards a massive paw.
The Puma brought itself up into a regal pose as it sat on the ground, watching me carefully. I felt a wave of surprise and concern flow through our link.
What?! I flinched at the urgency of the Puma’s mental voice, remembering its claws blinding me just a few moments earlier. My eyes?
I quickly rubbed my hand across my face, feeling nothing amiss, yet the panicked motion reminded me that there were two more alerts still waiting for my attention. Cautiously selecting one, I hoped for answers to whatever the Puma saw in my eyes.
You have gained the Trait – Ætherwarped
Ætherwarped – Due to high exposure of Raw Æther, your body has undergone unpredictable changes! You have gained the following Sub-Trait and Abilities as part of your condition. Further exposure to Æther can result in further effects!
Mana Starved – Your body now has an innate hunger for Arcane Energy in order to fuel its normal bodily processes. For as long as you have mana, you do not require to eat or drink. However, if your mana reaches 0, your body will immediately begin to starve. All mana regeneration is permanently reduced by 50%.
True Sight – Your eyes have been enhanced by exposure to Æther t
o the point where they are able to pierce through natural darkness and all facets of magic to see things as they truly are. This ability replaces Arcane Sight and can be suppressed at will. When this ability is active, the player’s eyes will visibly glow a bright blue.
“Fuck!” I cursed out loud as I read the first half of the alert. Now I’m Ætherwarped too and I’ve completely gutted my mana regeneration! How the hell am I supposed to be an effective Spellsword now?!
I felt some relief as I continued to the second half of the alert, realizing just how much my Arcane Sight had been augmented.
Okay, maybe this isn’t all bad. But I probably wouldn’t have made this trade if I had an option…
I looked towards the giant cat regarding me with concern. Okay, maybe I would have.
“Lyri-Holy shit!” Constantine’s voice shouted in surprise. “Run, Lyr! Why are you sitting there?!”
My head snapped up to see a shocked Constantine drawing his Daggerfangs as he called for help from the ramp behind him. Beside me the puma leaped into action, putting itself between me and Constantine as it bared its fangs with a roar.
“Whoa! Whoa! Wait up!” I stumbled up onto my feet as the rest of the party charged down the ramp, weapons at the ready. “The cat isn’t a threat! It’s my familiar now!”
“Familiar?!” Constantine exclaimed, relaxing ever so slightly. “That cat tried to kill me and it did kill you! Why the hell would it be your familiar now?!”
“It was under something’s control and I freed it while we were in the Ley Line, then it was bound to me!” I started to explain. “I don’t quite understand how I did it, but it happened!”
“How the hell did it turn blue and grow even larger then?!”
“Because it’s Ætherwarped… the same as me now,” I replied hesitantly.
Constantine stared at me in confusion. “Ætherwarped? Like the spiders?”
“Enough!” Sierra cut in while eying the Puma carefully. “This isn’t the best place to talk. Æther Sickness is slowly poisoning us here.”
“We’re going to carefully move out of this room where it’s safe.” Sierra thrust a finger at me. “Then you have some explaining to do!”
***
We had left the room containing the Ley Line, moving up to the next highest ‘plateau’ along the ramp to get away from the Æther Sickness. Still somewhat hesitant of the Puma, the rest of the party stood across from me, while the big cat sat coolly by my side. Apart from both groups, Donovan watched all of us carefully sitting with his back against the wall. His eyes glazed over and visibly exhausted.
“So that’s all of it,” I finished, having explained everything from the moment I’d dragged the Puma into the Ley Line, to the discovery of my new condition. “I don’t know how effective I’m going to be with a completely shot mana regeneration going forward, though.”
“I think you’re too focused on the negatives, Lyr,” Drace said shaking his head. “You have a… giant cat as a friend, don’t need to eat or drink, and can see in the dark and through all illusions.”
“I’d say you’re pretty fucking lucky, Lyrian,” Constantine grunted. “I bet if anyone else tried to do what you just did, they’d be eating a 20% penalty to skills and experience because their soul fragment is stuck at the bottom of the Ley Line with no way of recovering it.”
“Believe me…” I said softly, remembering the searing pain of the Ley Line. “While I was in there, death would have been a blessing. I have no idea why I didn’t die.”
“What happ-”
“What’s his name?” Sierra interrupted suddenly, not having taken her eyes off the warped Puma. “Does he have a name?”
“Uh. I’m not sure…” Caught off guard by the sudden question, I turned to look at my Familiar.
I frowned at the creature’s confusion, and the surreality of explaining the concept of a name to a cat.
My familiar replied cautiously as it adjusted to the concept.
“Lyrian?” Sierra asked me impatiently, seeing me just staring at the cat. “Does it?”
“Sorry…” I shook my head. “I was just explaining what a name was to the cat.”
“Oh…”
The Puma regarded me with great interest as my words sunk in.
Amaranth replied graciously, as he started to purr.
“His name is Amaranth,” I finally told Sierra, the conversation having taken a handful of seconds.
“Amaranth…” Sierra said slowly, testing the name. She slowly took a step forward, holding her hand out for the cat to sniff. “My name is Sierra. It is… nice to meet you. I’m happy you’re on our side now.”
Amaranth regarded her coolly for a moment, before rubbing its face across her open hand, purring even louder.
Whatever spell held everyone in suspicion broke at that moment, each of the party members stepping forward to introduce themselves to my new familiar. Once more I shook my head at the surreal scene, but considering that I had just fought a massive Spider Queen in the bowels of an abandoned ruin, surreal was quickly becoming… rather ordinary.
I guess this is my life now.
While everyone was focused on Amaranth, I noticed Donovan still sitting with his back to the wall, completely unfocused on everything going on around him.
“Hey… Donovan, are you alright?” I called out as I approached the dazed mage, seeing that his shirt was soaked through with blood. Some time after I had jumped into the Ley Line, he must have taken a sizeable wound to the chest that had since healed.
“Huh? Oh… I’m okay… Lyrian, was it?” Donovan spoke softly, his mind clearly miles away. “It’s just been a long night… day… I don’t even know when it is.”
“It’s… probably getting to be late afternoon, depending on how long I was in the Ley Line,” I offered a bit more sympathy to the mage’s temporal displacement now that we were out of combat. “On Friday mind you.”
“Friday.” The mage sighed again. “Damn…”
“What happened, Donovan?” I prompted, wondering just how much to reveal. “How did you end up here in the middle of a Temporal Lock? In fact, what are you do
ing this far north at all?”
“That… is a long story.” The mage sighed before looking up at me. “And much I am not at liberty to discuss.
“Tell me what you can then,” I told him with a shrug. “I have nowhere to be.”
Taking a deep breath, Donovan steeled himself and nodded at me. “I… am a member of the Eberian Mage’s Guild and I was charged to lead an expedition north of Eberia to determine the location of a Ley Line that was believed to in this area.”
“How did you even know where to begin looking?”
“I can’t say.” Donovan shook his head. “That is a secret belonging to the guild.”
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