Bolt Action Serenade

[Name: Esme Dreamsinger]

[Primary Class: Survivor]

[Secondary Class: Heartseeker]

[Level: 13]

[HP: 259/260]

[MP: 100/100]

[Strength: 11]

[Coordination: 23]

[Endurance: 26]

[Focus: 10]

[Willpower: 30]

[Force: 10]

[SKILLS]

[Scavenging: B]

[Hearty Constitution: B]

[Pain Tolerance: B]

[Sixth Sense: B]

[Courtesan’s Touch: D]

[Quick Rest: C]

[Soldier’s March: B]

[Sniper’s Eye: C]

[Favor of the Ferryman: D]

[3RR0R-Saint-3RR0R]

[Heartbreaker: D]

[Racing Heart: D]

[Find the Pulse: D]

[Untouchable Heart: D]

[Polyglot: E]

[Dream Touched: E]

[SPELLS]

[Soothe: D]

[Draw Dream: E]

“What the hell?” The fact that I suddenly had a surname was strange, but nothing compared to everything else. Not only had every single Skill and Spell I had ranked up, but I had new ones. Including a familiar one. I pulled the recent additions up for a closer inspection.

[Polyglot: Greatly increase the rate and ease of learning new languages.]

[Dream Touched: Your connection to the Dream is stronger than mortality normally allows. Your ability to converse with dream entities is increased, as is their draw towards you. Your mundane dreams will also feel more real and vivid.]

[Draw Dream]

[Cost: 50 Mana]

[Range: Touch]

[Target: 1 sapient being]

[With a touch you can cause a target’s dreams to rush to the surface of their mind, making them experience the dream in the waking world as a hallucination. You have no control over what dream is drawn forth. This effect is a mental Status Condition and can be resisted. Effect lasts for 10 minutes or until dismissed.]

“Well holy fuck on a cheese stick.” I muttered to myself. I’d have to ask someone about dreams and what they mean, like, magically speaking. But I got a feeling that this was a bigger deal than it appeared, and it appeared to be a relatively big deal.

Carmilla’s phantom arms wrapped around my waist. I could feel curiosity and guilt. She didn’t want to push me to be so intimate as to share my Status with her even if she wanted us to actually be that intimate. But fuck it, I had decided to trust her completely and I meant to do so fully. I read off my Status to her entirely and told her what had changed.

“So any idea what any of this means?” I asked after describing it all.

“Not a bloody clue, love. You received a new name from the night sky goddess? I didn’t know that was possible. I know the System keeps up with people’s legal and personal identities, but this is beyond my knowledge. Which, I admit, is somewhat lacking in this regard.”

“Think this was all from the mutation effect?”

“It would make sense I suppose. You met your-, our goddess in a dream so perhaps that is her area of influence? This would at least suggest that to be the case. A dream focused Skill and Spell are unlike anything I have heard of.”

“Polyglot however, we have heard of.” I tapped my chin. “I suppose if I’m meant to be a Saint, which my broken Skill says I am, the ability to pick up languages wherever I go would be extremely useful. So that makes sense if we’re meant to travel in my service of our goddess.”

“I think you should keep this quiet. Including Polyglot.” she said while squeezing me.

“Agreed. If nothing else picking up oteva without people knowing means I’ll hear things I’m not supposed to.”

“My brilliant love, how proud I am of you.” she laughed and kissed my neck and I sighed happily. Things might suck, but I wasn’t alone and I’d figure out something to do to change my luck soon enough.

Soon enough was apparently the very next day. As Jaina was chatting with me over breakfast about pot glazing the door opened and someone walked in. I saw Jaina’s back stiffen and her face flicker with fear for a moment as she looked at our guest, but I knew why and wasn’t concerned.

“General Devatius, been too long.” I said with a smirk.

Helanna gave a small tense smile and looked at Jaina “Give us some privacy, nurse?” which Jaina was very eager to do, rushing out while mumbling she’d see me in time for my next appointment. The door closed and Helanna stepped over to take a seat where Jaina had just been. “You look… good. Strange, but good.”

“I’m still adjusting to everything, but I have to admit that I like the hair.” I shrugged and she smiled and avoided looking into my eyes.

“She seems friendly.” She started with a smile before getting to the meat of things. “I heard you had an incident yesterday, I’m hoping you’re not taking our your frustrations on the staff.” Just as Carmilla and I expected. She was waiting for me to be doing physically better but mentally strained before visiting. Damn it.

“I’m adjusting to some things better than others.” I admitted and reached out, taking Helanna’s hand in mine. I want to say it was just a test to see her reaction, but I actually did miss her even thought I was sure she wasn’t being fully honest with me about, well, probably quite a lot.

She threaded her fingers through my own and finally made eye contact. THERE! GUILT! Only for a fraction of a second but I saw it. In fact, as I did I felt that same sense of surety as I had when noticing the weak spot on that carrion eater weeks back. I knew it, my Heartseeker skills were vague because they did more than the obvious. I could see the vital locations of more than just the bodies of enemy combatants.

“That doesn’t mean you can lash out. They’ll understand but you should still do better.” She said, covering up her emotions with a flirty tone, lips curling a bit as she leaned closer. “Maybe you need someone to help you vent your frustrations?”

I took a breath and readied myself, wondering if this was the right thing to do, if this was smart. Carmilla stirred inside me “Love, it’s a risk but I do still trust her. She still feels safe. I’ll go along with whatever you choose either way, but you know my feelings on the matter.” she spoke into my ear.

The pause made Helanna look nervous for a moment, but I think she was just worried that I somehow stopped finding her attractive. It just felt like a personal nervousness, not a professional one. “I’m sorry, that was probably inconsiderate considering what you’ve been through.”

She tried to pull her hand away and I squeezed it tighter. “Isn’t that what you sent Jaina for?”

She froze and stared at me. “What are you talk-”

“Please don’t insult me Helanna. Either I or Carmilla were going to notice sooner or later no matter what and I do have awareness Skills that make the sooner more likely.”

The silence that followed told a story on its own. She was not expecting me to figure out so quickly, but the slow lowering of her shoulders and slight smirk said she wasn’t very surprised I had. “You’re too damned smart, you know that?”

“Who am I?” It was a guess, but I had a feeling that my identity wasn’t as big of a mystery as I was lead to believe. Or at least, I expected Uvtrayl Intelligence to be looking into me with some expediency. “Am I actually someone super important and just can’t remember?”

She laughed and shook her head “No, we thought you might be but…” She took a breath and looked down at our hands, I still wasn’t letting go. “Your name is Lietri Dawnlight a twenty two year old from a town called Gessinburg. You might not remember but Dawnlight is a surname given to unnamed orphans in the Empire, named after their first great Saint who demanded that the Empire take care of it’s children.”

“So I’m just some nobody orphan whore after all?”

“Everything we can find supports the idea you told me on the train actually. You were drafted to join the war, got assigned to Captain Bernson’s unit, and spent more time in his bed than in combat.”

This made sense, but also didn’t make any. “Then what’s with all this cloak and dagger bullshit?”

“Cloak and dagger?” she looked confused. Dammit, tired of these weird sayings no on else knows.

“The spy shit, Helanna. Why? What do you want from me? What does Uvtrayl Military Intelligence think I’m going to give them?” I let my voice carry more and more frustration without meaning to.

There was a pause. “… I don’t know. I swear to you I don’t. But the orders come from farther up than even I have clearance for. Someone in the Prime Minister’s inner circle probably.” That was not comforting.

“What are the orders anyway? What are you supposed to do?”

“Make you friendly to Uvtrayl. The military, the government, the people. I’m supposed to make you think of Uvtrayl as home.” she said with a small smirk that made me want to kiss her. But not until I got more, she wasn’t lying as far as I could tell but there was still too damned much to think about. Too many questions I needed answers to.

“So on the train, you were just-”

“No.” She cut me off. “In fact, I was reprimanded for it. That was…” She cleared her throat and fought a blush off. “At first the teasing was in fact just manipulation but I started having dreams almost immediately. Dreams about you and me, carnal and intimate dreams. Every night.” She laughed nervously before fighting the outburst down. “Gods, they are so vivid.”

“Are?” I lifted a brow.

She nodded “Still have them, not every night anymore but still frequent enough to stay in my thoughts.” I smiled and felt a warmth spread through me as I pulled Helanna’s hand up and kissed it softly.

Carmilla stirred “Wait, dreams? You don’t think our goddess was influencing her, do you?” I nodded so Carmilla could get my thoughts without having to distract my General from her current line of thought.

“Do you regret being with me?”

“No, I regret having to manipulate you. Which I admit is somewhat of a novel experience, you don’t get to where I am without being very good at using people and not feeling bad about it.”

“Maybe I’ll help you feel better then.” She smirked and glanced down at my body “Not like that. At least, not yet. I trust you but I’m still hurt.” she had a moment of disappointment cross her face.

“How then?”

“Jaina, what’s the deal she made? I assume it’s about treating her sister.”

She nodded “The medicine her sister needs to combat the mana taint is being provided free of cost as long as she continues to befriend you. With a promise of full treatment once you officially defect and publicly renounce Pitrak and the Empire.”

“Get her sister that treatment immediately.” it wasn’t a request and I could see a small sign of shock at my tone in Helanna’s eyes. “If you don’t, I stop cooperating and you can just toss me in a cell and forget whatever plans your higher ups have.”

“I’ll make the call as soon as I leave today, I’ll have a different nurse assigned to you and-”

“No.” the General blinked “Me and Carmilla like her, we trust her. She stays with us.” She looked, honestly a bit jealous, I was happy to show her the feeling was unnecessary “The same goes for you. We trust you. We like you. So tell whoever you report to that you’re staying on to keep me happy with Uvtrayl, as per your orders.” I sat up and leaned over and kissed her. Her tension melted against my lips and I tasted her tongue after only a few moments.

Once our lips parted she had turned pink and let herself smile. “You taste better than you did before. A bit sweet, like a blackberry.”

I smiled “Well we’ll have to have you test how I taste now elsewhere soon.” She smirked at the thought. “Also, not to kill the mood but I know you’ve been keeping a real prosthetic in a case somewhere to offer me when I’m about to snap completely, just fucking give it to me already. That cheap wooden thing is such a piece of crap even the therapist was pitying me over it.”

She chuckled and shook her head. Likely amused that I’d gotten that right too. Which to be fair I wasn’t sure of that guess, but my accuracy had been on point so far. “It will be ready for you by your next therapy session, which you should be getting ready for in fact.” She stood and started to turn, but paused and bent down to kiss me again. The kiss was brief but powerful. “Carmilla, thank you and I’m sorry. I swear I won’t betray your trust in me.”

[I hope so, I’m looking forward to spending time with you once I grow strong enough to have a body.]

Helanna blushed deeply. Gods my love is such a wonderful tease. The General bit her lip and nodded “I’ll get right on all of that immediately. Thank you for giving me this chance, both of you.” she turned to leave.

“Oh! Wait a second. Soul Containment. What is it?”

She looked troubled, I got the impression she decided to drop her mask with me. At least somewhat. “I don’t know that one either, but Itran and I were both ordered to never speak of it. If you brought it up we were to tell you we had someone looking into it and encourage you to keep quiet about it. And yes, that is an odd order all things considered.”

I sighed “Thank you Helanna.” She simply gave me a small smile and nod before leaving the room. “Well, that’s something to think about, isn’t it?” I muttered.