NOVEL NEXT 11. The Dreamer and the Dream.
I was staring at the backs of my eyelids, getting ready to enjoy the plush bed and the surprisingly relaxing vibrations of the train when I felt that same tug from the System again. I opened my eyes and sat up before dragging it into my perception.
[Experience Threshold reached, you are now level 13]
[You have 5 unspent Attribute points. Would you like to use these now?]
Huh, something I was doing seemed to count for one of my classes. I would guess Survivor, but I was technically hitting some vulnerable spots on Helanna for a while and making her even more fond of me so maybe Heartseeker? I snorted at my own stupid joke. Either way, something I was doing gave me experience.
I accepted and found the usual free point to my Coordination then looked at my Status. I was worried about a lot going forward, but my mental well being seemed the most in danger. So tossing three points into Willpower not only helped that fear but also gave me a nice round thirty. Extra good! The remaining two I tossed into Endurance, almost as an afterthought. I just… I’d been roughed up too much in the short period I could remember and having more buffer between me and death was a balm to my worries.
Then I had a thought. “Carmilla? I haven’t gotten more notifications about sharing experience with you since you reached one. Are you still getting that?”
“Hmm? What was that, love?” She sounded almost drunk “I was just basking in the afterglow. You two certainly had fun, didn’t you?” she laughed that intoxicating laugh of hers again.
“You could feel that? Actually no, I’m more interested if you’re still getting experience from my gains.” I could force myself to stay on topic if I needed to, see?
“Oh that? Of course love. I don’t think you’ll get more about that now that I’m, well, awake? I get my own updates through the System, I’m level five now just so you are aware.”
“That fast?”
“I’m fairly certain Contracted Elementals reach level ten rather quickly, but after that it should slow down to something closer to your level of growth. Though we don’t have the same connection to the System that mortal races do. We gain levels and it passively increases our own abilities without any Attributes or Skills or Spell. We have Elemental Evocations and Innate Powers, but those are honestly extremely difficult to explain to non-Elementals. Simply put, what I am gives me certain abilities that will grow stronger and be joined by more abilities as I level. I have less flexibility than a mortal does within the System, but I also am a being of my nature. Trying to be something else would be…” she left a long pause as she thought about how to describe it. “Imagine you trying to be a bear. No matter what you did you would still just be a human playing pretend, no matter how hard you wished for it you could never truly become a bear. Even if you had some magic that changed your body, your mind would still be a human one and at best you would be a human trapped in a bear’s form. Me trying to be anything but a blood elemental, doing anything other than what a blood elemental does would be playing at most.”
I scrunched my nose in thought “Then how do the bands work? Are you just naturally a medical marvel capable of telling what’s wrong with people at a glance?”
“Yes actually. To a degree at least. Blood elementals need blood, we’re a bit vampiric that way. But we’re also susceptible to the frailties and illnesses of the living things we feed on. So even the weakest of us can tell quickly if a creature has some dangerous impurity in them. The runes on triage bands simply enhance and focus this ability and turn it towards medical use. I can understand the draw for mortal races to use devices like that, even if I disagree with the ethics of it.”
“Hang on.” something she’d said stuck in my brain “Mortal races, plural? There are more than just humans?”
“By the gods, love. That brilliant brain of yours really is full of holes, isn’t it? Yes, humans are the most numerous of the races, and from my memories in the band I think that other races are at least rare in the extreme in Pitrak, but you are not alone on this world.”
I felt a bubbling excitement inside me, my smile stretching wide “Really? What ones are there? What are they like!?” I let out louder than I intended.
“Well of the few I can remember, the orcs are-…” her words cut out suddenly and I could feel her suddenly move inside me in a way I hadn’t before. Like she was suddenly running through me in a panic “Oh no, no no no! Esme! Call for help!”
I didn’t hesitate or question her, I’d figure out why I was doing this later. “HELP! HEEEEELP!” I screamed as loud as I could from the bed. The door opened after only a few moments and the two soldiers escorting Helanna and I rushed in, pistols raised. They moved to secure the room, speaking in the Uvtrayl language. One of the men turned to me and said something, questioning me about what I was screaming for most likely. “Carmilla, what do I need help for?”
Another moment passed and Helanna rushed into the room, uniform jacket half buttoned and her own pistol in hand. “Esme, what is it, what’s happening?”
“I don’t know, Carmilla told me to call for help, she’s not responding. I think she found another problem.” and before anyone could say anything more, lights wrote letters in the air over my arm once more.
[Warning: Extreme Mutation Effect Catalyzing. Significant loss to Health Pool expected. Seek medical aid immediately.]
“What? What the hell is that supposed to-” and every muscle in my body seized. Every nerve lit up like fire had been driven into my skin and I could suddenly quite clearly taste blood. I was glad for the Willpower boosts, I don’t think I could have stayed sane otherwise. It was still absolute hell, but I was holding on through it. Though I still felt a wave of relief as I slipped from consciousness.
“You don’t have to do this you know.” ____ said, her hand squeezing mine as we watched the sun rise over the mountains. Spring hadn’t fully arrived yet and the chill of the night bit at my ears and nose. I should have worn my scarf after all.
“I don’t do I? What, I can run? I’ve been called to serve ____, if I don’t report they’ll label me a deserter and I’ll have no place in the entire Republic. No place for me here, at my home.” I barely kept from snapping at her. She didn’t deserve my anger, she was simply afraid of losing me to the war. Losing her friend. I pretended I didn’t know she thought more of me than mere friendship, as I had done for years now. “Besides, I’m not good enough for combat. I’ll be assigned to sweep an office and make meals in a mess tent, mark my words. Can’t say it’ll be any worse than Lord ____’s bed.” I shuddered at the memories of that man’s hands on my skin.
“Then maybe I could-”
“No.” I cut her off. “You’ve an invitation to train as an inscriber at the capital, an invitation! You don’t have to test for it or pay your way through a scribe school, you have an open door to a good life! I won’t let you throw that away.”
“But I-” there were tears in her eyes as she looked at me.
“____ please, please don’t do this. I… I know how you feel about me.” she tried to pull away but I held her hand firm. “But think about how I feel. I’m a worthless orphaned whore and that’s all I’m likely to ever be. Don’t argue, just let me speak, please.” I stopped her attempt to interrupt and took a breath. “I’m not much, and maybe I’m wrong and maybe one day I’ll be something more. But that is a distant dream at the very best, ____. You? You can be more than anyone thought street trash like us could be. You will be someone great, someone important. If you throw this chance aside simply for my sake I will never forgive you.”
She couldn’t stop the tears and simply nodded. She knew I was right. “Then before you leave tomorrow, be with me. Give me the memory of your touch before I lose you forever.”
My heart felt like it was going to burst screaming from my chest, like knives were digging through my breast to tear it free, dripping my life’s blood on the ground in a sick imitation of ____’s tears. I hadn’t wanted this. I wanted her to forget me so I might forget her. I wanted our love to die before it rose from the dirt so that we might be more apart than we were together. I wanted her to live beyond me, for her own sake.
But I kissed her anyway, I took her to bed and felt every inch of her skin and tasted her core and shuddered in breathless ecstasy, dancing to the music of her moans.
Then the next day, I left, and I left the shattered remains of our hearts with her.
I watched the train pull away from the station, taking my body to train to be a weapon for a war I cared nothing about. “Well that felt…”
“Dramatic?” a voice spoke in the air beside me. I turned and saw a… a… gods, how do I describe it? Like a pond and a star and a bonfire and a dancer wreathed in silk veils and fingers trailing down my spine and the entire shining universe bursting with light and power all at once. But also a beautiful woman who’s skin was the night sky and who’s hair was a thundercloud and who’s eyes were eight pointed stars that somehow sparkled like joy and lust intertwined. She giggled, the sound filling my ears in a way that made my very heart sing. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a moment. The first time seeing a god outside of an Avatar is always overwhelming.”
“A GOD!?” I felt my mind reeling. Okay so dreaming, yes, dreaming. I’m just dreaming.
“I mean, yes? This is obviously a dream. But I’m still very real.”
“Reading my mind without permission is rude!” I yelled, I’m not proud by the outburst, but I was panicking. Everything about what was happening was freaking me the fuck out. I could remember what happened before I passed out, I was damned sure that what I’d just watched and relived at the same time was one of my memories, and now there was a god in my dream. A god that I was just then realizing was completely naked, that night sky skin on full display.
“I’m inside your mind, you can’t think quietly the same way in a dream. Your thoughts and emotions might as well be lights in the sky spelling themselves out for anyone here. For example, I can feel you staring at my breasts.”
I pulled my eyes up to her face and stammered “S-sorry, uh, not… not very brain right now?”
She giggled again “It’s fine, if I wanted to be covered up I would be. Go ahead and look. After all, it’s going to affect you once you awaken.”
I wondered what that could possibly mean, and let my gaze drift down again. Though this time there was less appreciation(though not zero appreciation) and more examination. Something about her body would affect me once I woke up? Had to be something to do with the mutation effect. “So are you the cause of that mutation thing?” I just asked while my eyes traced over her sizable bust and trying to not get horny from it.
“Not solely, but yes. You’re not in danger from it, or me for that matter.” Then a pause before she added “...directly.”
“What about that strange error condition.” I moved around her slowly, looking at her shoulders, back, her bouncy and perfect ass- FOCUS Esme.
“Again, not solely but yes. Enjoying the view, mortal?” she giggled.
“You know I am. Okay so unless I’m going to look like a panorama of the northern lights I don’t see what-” and as I came around to her front again she spread her legs and my brain froze. There… was a dick. She had a cock swinging between her legs “Uh… the effect you talked about…”
“Sorry, that’s gonna be awkward for you I know. But we need you to have at least a few little ones and we hadn’t realized you were not into men until after you’d been selected.” She tried to sound like it was no big deal but the fact she avoided looking directly at me was telling.
“That is a pretty big thing to fucking miss all things considered.” I tried not to sound as angry as I felt.
She sighed, that sigh rushing over my ears and making me shiver and my pussy clench. “Look, we’re… I can’t tell you much or it would put you and us in danger but we’re desperate. We threw together our plan in only a few hours. MORTAL HOURS.” She said, the words pulsing like an earthquake in my bones. “So we missed some things, some important ones. But you are even more incredible than we thought you’d be, even managed to stay sane through the- wait no, can’t say that one yet. Okay look.” She straightened up and tried to look serious, though the worry evident in her face and voice ruined it a bit. “I’m sorry, we’re all sorry and no I can’t say who. I can’t even tell you my own name yet. But we’re trying not to die, and we… we tied ourselves to your fate out of lack of options.”
“Why me?”
“You fit the criteria, well… aside from that one that we are changing now and I am still sorry about that. But to be blunt, you died. You didn’t survive like you thought you did, we pumped life back into you as part of what we were doing so show a little gratitude.”
I paused “I… met the Ferryman.” the realization hit me. That’s how I got that skill. I mean, I figured it was something like that but literal divine intervention? Shit.
She blinked and looked confused. “You did? Oh… wow we cut that closer than we thought. You uh… didn’t do anything to upset him, did you?”
“Actually, I have his ‘favor’?”
She smiled brightly and cheered, throwing her arms into the air in celebration “Wohooo! I knew it! You are going to be the best Champion! Good job! Look, we’ll work on doing what we can to make things easier for you but until you’re stronger almost anything we do puts us all at risk. It’ll be a while before I can contact you again, but know that I am watching over you. Don’t tell anyone about us! Oh, aside from Carmilla, she’s cool!”
“Wait, I have ques-” and then I was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling “-tions.”
