Dubstep Succubus

by Aaron Siverling

  "Ohhh. Wow."

  Alonzo looked at us curiously. "How are maps created where your from?"

  I scratched the back of my head, trying to put it into words. "We use mechanical devices to take image recordings. Like, from really high up."

  He shook his head. "Your world must be a very strange place. But Cherish isn't quite correct. There are maps that are created by magic but they are extremely expensive. Mostly they are maps held by generals and rulers. However…"

  Alonzo held up a finger, turned around and jumped off the platform before disappearing into the backroom.

  We heard some rustling, a crash and a few curses before he emerged with a long metal tube.

  The top of the tube had several complicated combination dials, each set in a bullseye of rings. He hands were a blur as he spun the dials into a configuration too fast for me to track.

  Then he pushed the circle in the center of the rings like it was a button. The lock opened with a series of clicks and unhinged.

  From the tube he pulled out a thick, rolled up piece of paper and spread it out on the counter.

  It was a map about six feet long and three feet wide, fully colored with stylized mountains, forests, lakes, rivers and other features. The trees depicting the forests swayed, the lakes shimmered, the rivers flowed, and the ocean rippled with terrifying sea monsters.

  "Oooh pretty."

  Both Cherish and Alonzo looked at me and I said, "What? It is!"

  Cherish spoke in an exaggerated tone. As if I were missing something obvious. "Yes, it is pretty. And incredibly useful if accurate."

  "Oh." Alonzo had a twinkle in his eye. "It's accurate. Very accurate. Within an hours time."

  I frowned. "Only an hour? That's not very… wait. How can it… oh. It's a magic map isn't it."

  "Gee, how's you guess?" Cherished snarked.

  "Nobody likes a smartbutt except another smartbutt with an impeccable sense of humor." I made an imperious gesture. "Carry on."

  Alonzo paid us no attention, smiling proudly as he gazed down at his map. "Updates any changes automatically."

  "Ruin." Cherish said, her voice unexpectedly serious. "I think it's a map of the world."

  After Alonzo smiled smugly he picked up the map and spoke a word I didn't recognize. When he did I got a tiny whiff of magic and the map bent in on itself to make a cylinder, its ends connecting seamlessly.

  "That. Is so cool," I said and Cherish made a sound of agreement.

  I leaned over the counter, and looked at it from the other side.

  The world really did have a supercontinent. It was sort of a triangle shape stretched wide, it's peak at the top and a crescent shape cut out at the bottom

  The land mass stretched almost all the way around the world. One end curved down and swept up while the other curved up and arched down. Together they created a huge circle, open ended at both sides.

  Within that circle was a massive whirlpool of mythic proportions. I looked closer and saw the words, The Edge Of The World, swirling around in it.

  I shook my head. "Okay, this is cool and all, but we have to go. Now. If not sooner. How much for the map?"

  Alonzo laughed and quoted a price that was greater than all my gear combined. Twice.

  "Nope." Cherish and I spoke instantly and at the same time.

  "I miss my screenshot function," I muttered and then asked, "Can you just tell us where we are and where I need to go?"

  He did, pointing to a small dot far from the middle labeled Sunnydale and western road trailing out of it.

  "Okay that's all I need. Lets go."

  "Wait…" I didn't want to waste anymore time but something in Cherish’s voice gave me pause. "Look at what the region's are called."

  I did, and as I read through the map I wanted to smack whoever named everything.

  The crescent shaped curve at the bottom of the land mass was labeled Crescent Bay and the sea under it was labeled The Southern Sea.

  I groaned. "Really? The western sea is called the West Side Sea and the east is the East Side Sea? Who named these places?"

  Alonzo smiled wryly. "The ancient Elves. Pure blood Elves, trend toward literalness due to a slight lack in creativity."

  "A slight lack?" I pointed at the top part of the landmass covered in mountainous terrain and said, "These are called Top Of The World Mountains! There's no excuse for that!"

  He chuckled and said, "That's what the Elves called them, we call them…"

  He made a couple of sounds that sounded partly like German and partly like broken rocks grinding each other.

  Cherish made a distracted 'hmm' sound as she inspected the map and said absently, "Well, Stone Teeth Of The World is a least a little better."

  "Wait… you understood that?" I asked.

  She blinked. "You didn't? I…"

  She paused, opened her mouth, closed it. Then said something similar to what Alonzo had said. Except instead of rough rock, she sounded like smooth river stones sliding against each other.

  "Oh." Alonzo smiled. "I like your accent. Very exotic."

  "You can speak Dwarf!? Dwarven? Dwarvenees?"

  "Huh, apparently," she replied. "But we have to explore this."

  "We don't have time! As neat as being able to speak Forest Elf. Forest Elven? Let's just say Elvish. Anyway, We've wasted - "

  "Wait," Cherish interrupted. "Are we talking about the same thing?"

  "Yes! Or… I think so? We are, like, literally linked mind to mind. How are we not communicating properly?"

  "Because you're male and when males communicate they generally just pay attention to what is actually said. I'm female. When we communicate it's with what is said, how it is said, what isn't said, the specific words used, tone of voice and body language."

  "Oh. Right."

  "Also, you don't pay attention, Ruin! And instead of remembering that and taking it into account, like I should, sometimes I forget!"

  "So be more direct!"

  "Okay!"

  She reached up, took hold of one my horns and maneuvered my head so that I was looking at a specific part of the map.

  "Read what it says."

  "Okay but I…" I blinked. Then blinked again. Not believing what I was seeing. "It… it says Hexencoral Forest. How can it say Hexencoral Forest?"

  It couldn't, but it did. It was right there. In the upper left part of the map.

  "I don't know." Cherish let go of me and turned to Alonzo. "Do you know anything about this Hexencoral Forest?"

  The Dwarf turned the map to look. "Hmmm, that wasn't there a few days ago. The forest must be new."

  "How - "

  "Cherish." I interrupted her and pointed to spot a ways under the Hexencoral Forest. "It says Leaflight Woods. Wasn't Aegis covered in Leaflight trees?"

  She nodded slowly. "Aegis didn’t have a sun, just the light from the trees.”

  “Hold on, time out. What do you mean no sun? How does that even… you know what. Tell me later. Right now we have more important things to worry about.”

  Cherish bit her lip, thinking before she said, "If the Leaflight Woods are made up from real leaflight trees and the Hexencoral Forest is the same as Midian hexencoral…"

  I noticed that Alonzo had been looking between Cherish and me with interest as we spoke.

  "Hey, Alonzo," I asked. "We were told that souls generate essence and that the world is made up of essence. That the more souls a world has the more the world expands. Is that right?"

  He studied the map and said, "Why yes. The land does seemed to have expanded. I wonder if the oceans have as well. Although, we have never seen such a sudden expansion before."

  "Alonzo," Cherish looked alarmed, "you're not saying that the actual, physical world has expanded to accommodate more people, are you?"

  He looked at her strangely. "How did your world deal with the accumulation of more souls? Did it not expand as well?"

  Mutely, she shook her head.

  "But wouldn't that cause o
vercrowding?"

  "Confirmed," I said. "That's why people were pushing governments for residential geosynchronous and geostationary orbital space stations with centripetal force based gravity. They've already sent people to Mars but they're living underground in lava tubes and…"

  I trailed off when I saw Alonzo's blank expression.

  "Off world. They're developing ways to live off world."

  "Ah, that makes sense. Well... no it doesn't. That makes no sense to me. Your world is an incredibly strange place."

  I just shrugged.

  "Ruin, this changes things. I mean when I saw the map I realized we would have to deal with economic issues - "

  "We will?"

  " - with trade, of how the value of certain things will change, the way the influx of the population…"

  I held up a hand. "Stop, stop. That's all real life stuff from the Outside. I suck at real life stuff."

  She reached up and patted me on the head. "That's why you have me."

  "I thought you were all about living in the moment."

  She smirked at me, "Eternity and the ever beautifully changing Now are identical. Duh."

  "Right, how could I of not known that?" I snarked back.

  Then she turned serious again. "It looks like Midian's territory is in the northwest, at the southern edge of the Dwarven Nation. The Mountain Calderas from Neon are in the desert at the right of Dwarven territory in northeast. I don't see anything from Rath, though."

  I thought about that for a second before saying, "Rath is rooted in the Asian aesthetic with a martial art culture. They had various plants and animals specific to that world but other than that, they didn't have any distinguishing aspects."

  Alonzo cleared his throat and we looked at him. He smiled and said, "Well, I have noticed that the lands of the Beast People are bigger than I remembered. Perhaps those plants and animals now live there?"

  The Dwarf tried picking Cherish's brain for specifics regarding the plants and animals, probably wanting to know their value but she didn't know much.

  Cherish suddenly gasped and yelled, "Midian trees!"

  I immediately understood her excitement. "Cherish! If that's - "

  "I know!"

  "But we'd have to - "

  "Ugh, I know."

  "That sucks but at least - "

  "Oohh yes…"

  Alonzo raised his hand, "Excuse me but… what?"

  "I'm a Nymph!" Cherish said and started bouncing in place.

  "Yes. I can see that," said Alonzo.

  I closed my eyes. "Cherish, please stop bouncing. It's inhibiting my higher cognitive functions."

  She stopped and I sighed with simultaneous relief and disappointment.

  "Right well, Cherish is a Nymph, which means she can bond with the spirit of a tree. When she does this, she can gain special abilities based on that tree."

  Alonzo raised an eyebrow, "You mean if you bonded with a willow tree you would be... extra… flexible?"

  She rolled her eyes at the Dwarf and said, "Yes, Alonzo. I would be extra flexible.

  He held up a finger. "Next question: Are there male Nymphs?"

  "Alonzo!"

  "What?"

  "You're already in a relationship!"

  "I'm just curious."

  She glared at him and he smiled sheepishly.

  "Yes. There are male Nymphs, though not many. But they wouldn't want a boring willow tree anyway. Midian has Moonshade trees, Tangle Thorn trees, Needle Bark trees, Silent Shriekers and Dream Singers. I once knew a Nymph that found a Heartstriker tree."

  "So Dream Singer again?" I only asked because that's what she had before.

  She got a determined look on her face and said, "No. A Heartstriker tree. I don't care if I need to take apothecary or become an alchemist to maximize build efficiency. I'll leave the Tangle Thorns to the melee fighters and the Moonshades to the Assassins."

  A Heartstriker tree produces flowers with perfumes that attract, pollen that creates confusion and sap that causes fear. The prick of its thorns brings sleep and its fruit consumes others with rage.

  "But… wouldn't your Siren skills make the benefits of a Heartstriker tree redundant?"

  "It would maximize the effects," she insisted. "In Midian you…"

  She trailed off, frowning, then she said, "Well… crab nuggets. That may not work the same way here. In fact, I'm sure it won't. I'll have to actually think about this instead of just going for the rarest and assuming it's the best."

  I shook my head, though not in disagreement.

  I was still stuck on the idea of entire species of animals inexplicably coming into being. For some reason, entire forests and plants doing the same was slightly more acceptable to my brain.

  Probably because a part of my mind classified plants as inanimate even though they weren't. Hexencoral weren't plants either, they were animals.

  Then I realized I had let myself be distracted again and was about to remind Cherish we had to go when I had another thought.

  After our Chain reconnected we had a place to go. A place to call our own. It wasn't Midian but it was a part of it. A home.

  The realization triggered something inside me. Hope, longing and… fear. Something about the whole thing felt like… I don't know.

  "Cherish?" I pressed my mind closer to hers. "What am I feeling? Why am I feeling it?"

  Her mind rolled through mine for a few seconds while I felt her curiosity turn to concern, then bloom into outright distress.

  She pulled back just a little and said, "You're afraid. Afraid of what others will do when they discover this. Because Subadults will no longer be reactionary. Not just trying to live and be happy while trying to fit into this new world. At the very least this will encourage old rivalries."

  I could feel her worry, felt her thoughts go down paths I would of never considered. Paths she could navigate more naturally than me.

  My mind shifted through hers and I managed to follow some of her thoughts. They traveled to concepts like, distribution of economic and political power when competing nations rise.

  After a few more thoughts like that I pulled away. Trying to think in all those directions hurt my head. Don't get me wrong, I can multitask the same as any other Subadult. But I do it better within my own natural inclinations.

  "Cherish. Focus," I paused and said, "Wow that sounds weird coming from me. But whatever. What matters is the here and now. You're the one who always says to live in the moment."

  "Ruin, I…"

  I saw where her thoughts going and pulled her into a one armed hug.

  "I know, love. I know. There will always be people who seek power. Gods, I want power. Power to protect myself and others. But there are others who want power just to gain more power. To hold that power over others in order to control them.

  "We just have to make sure that whoever ends up in charge knows the difference between good and evil. Someone who understands the difference between ruthlessness, for the sake of necessity and ruthlessness, for the sake of expediency."

  “And if they don’t?”

  I grinned and said, "We’ll burn that bridge after we cross it. Burn it to the ground!”

  Alonzo, who had been silently watching us with growing concern spoke up. "I don't mean to intrude. And I'm sure I'm intruding, but is everything alright?"

  Cherish turned and smiled reassuringly at the Dwarf. “I’m fine. We’re fine. There is just a lot to deal with right now and things are more complicated than we thought. Can you tell us how to get to the west road?”

  "Of course, my dear. I’m sure that… all of this is an adjustment. From here you just enter the town square, yes I know it's a circle, and take the west exist. It's on the left side of Gary's statue."

  "Wait." I held up a hand. "What statue? The only statue I saw was the one on the fountain."

  "Yes, that's Gary's statue, the cities founder."

  "The cities founder was named Gary?" I asked.

  "The cities f
ounder was a horse?" Cherish asked.

  I paused. "Oh. Yeah. That's probably the weirder part. That's the bit I should of put empethis on."

  Alonzo scowled, well, frowned. No, pounted. I think. It was hard to tell with the beard.

  "He wasn't a horse. He was a Majestic Unicorn who, um… well, lost his horn."

  Cherish covered her mouth, pretending to cough to hide her laugh. I didn't bother.

  Alonzo frowned, yes definitely frowned, at us and said, "It was a very tragic tail."

  "A… unicorn's tail?"

  Cherish groaned me. "That's terrible! Be nice!

  "I'm trying! It's hard!"

  Through an iron will of superheroic effort I managed to stop laughing long enough to ask, "So what made him so majestic?"

  “Oh, you don’t know, do you? Well, there are two types of unicorns. One is little more than an animal with purifying elements and the other is a Majestic Unicorn. The Majestic are intelligent, can use magic and they talk. At length. Whenever given the slightest chance to do so.”

  “Why are they called ‘Majestic’ Unicorns?” Cherish asked.

  Alonzo gave her a significant look, as if warning her about something. “Because, that's what they named themselves.”

  Cherish and I thought about that for a few seconds before letting out a collective. "Ohhh…”

  I shook myself and said, “Okay, it's time for action! No more distractions! Goodbye Alonzo! You’re fantastic!”

  Cherish waved goodbye to Alonzo as I grabbed her by the shoulders and steered to the door.

  And into a very disgruntled Half-elf.

  “Watch where you're going you…” he abruptly stopped talking when he took in our appearance.

  We apologized and tried to go around him when he said in a sneering voice, “Is that all you have to say to your betters?”

  Before I could say anything Cherish spoke up, her voice so sweet you just knew it was going to be bad for your health.

  “I'm sorry. I don't think I heard you right. Did you say ‘your betters’?”

  “Oh no, he couldn't have said that.” I said. "Everyone knows how dangerous it is to say that to a Fallen. Its like us asking 'why' and then someone replying ‘Because I said so.”

  Cherish winced said, “Ohh… yeah…”