NOVEL NEXT (Vol 5) Chapter 36: A Weirdly Thorough Lass
As Ash cracked open her notebook and moved her stylus to the paper, Sammy replied, “I will keep this even from others in my realm, even my Servitors. And I can read any runes, I believe.”
Ash’s eyebrows raised though her eyes did not move from the paper, as she began to draw runes with a furious scribbling. Pulses of magic indicated the stylus was no normal item, but then that was standard for wizards. “Truly? A pity I didn’t have you back in… well, I’ll just say I could make use of such a talent. There are some puzzling languages no one has ever cracked.”
“Not even the Sage- er, sages? The First Sage?” Fuck. Not everyone knows about the Big Kahuna Sage, Sammy. I need to remember that.
The young sorceress’s hands stopped and her eyes came up at that. “No. Not even him — as far as I know, anyway.” She went back to writing and added, “It could be a question of secrecy. Or even interest level. They’re a bunch of old, crusty fucks obsessing over oft-useless minutiae, after all.”
Sammy burst into laughter. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Ash’s face was blank in response. After perhaps a straight minute of drawing runes, she walked close to the mirror and — eyes shifting around in paranoia — held up the notebook completely flush to it, blocking any other view.
When Sammy first looked at the runes, she didn’t see them. It was the most bizarre thing, like her eyes slid past it, like it was blank even though she knew it wasn’t, knew she had seen something right in front of her eyes. There was even a sense of memory, but it was as if filled with a transparent substance she couldn’t focus on.
“You can’t read it, can you?” Ash asked doubtfully. “I could try Perescellian knot-tying, but-”
“Hnng, j-just give me a moment, please!” Sammy called as she redoubled her efforts — she forced her eyes to stare unblinking right in the middle where she knew the runes were, then began invoking things to buttress that determination. [Magineer] first and foremost, and [Magical Invention] which included versatile mystical understanding. [Comprehension (Grandmaster)] gave her a massive +4 EL bonus.
She began to see wisps of something there, which she focused on so hard, and with such strain that her head began to hurt.
Forcing something into memory… it has to synchronize… but this is intrinsically hidden. It’s… clandestine, it’s illusory.
“Are you giving up yet, Goddess?” Ash asked, voice poorly holding back the superior energy of ‘Just admit defeat, loser!’ “You really should have seen it by n-”
“You just shut up and wait, Ash!” Sammy commanded with a growl. Muttering to herself, Sammy pulled out some glasses with a rather testy flick of her wrist, donning them for perhaps some circumstantial benefit through [Analysis Mechanism] though she knew that was more for spells.
She combined the invocations of the [Goddess of Illusion] and [Perfect Vision: Behind the Veil], hoping to pierce through the insane wall of obfuscation the runes were etched upon.
It was like peeling the paint off of a car with just one’s eyes. Hers began to blur and tear up from the unblinking strain, and her brain was no better, an intense headache starting between her eyes and radiating deeper. But painstakingly, like dragging what was underneath the surface of reality over the lip of the edge, she began to see more and more imagery of the runes.
Letters translated bit by bit…
M… or… t-e-n… Everything but the letters turned to a multicolored haze around it, as though it was part of a hallucination it was melting back into — that it desperately was trying to flee back into. She didn’t let it. With the iron grip of her will, she forced it to reveal itself.
Mortenhaus. Even just the thought of it held a power to say as if it were shouted into a grand canyon as big as a planet. But no echo returned.
Fascinating. So much depth laced within it, terrible and beautiful and tragic… It means…
Sammy reached through the new blossom of a connection she had through the name, to the waiting mind of Ash behind it. “Death’s Lover?”
The paper came away as Ash dropped her hand, smirking mildly. She might’ve been smiling for a moment, but Sammy saw nothing but a blur at first. In Sammy’s mind came a crystal clear reply. “Well done, Your Majesty. Close. You’re applying the wrong meaning, but it is intimate in the metaphorical sense. Lover of Death, Record Keeper, Merciful Taker, Balancer.”
Sammy, still blinking through the mirror rather bleary-eyed from the weird mental exhaustion she’d just endured, marveled at Ash’s mind connected to hers. It had great clarity, great resolution, and was clearly a powerful will. It wasn’t quite like Redberry’s, like an overwhelming force, it was smaller and sharper — a precision blade compared to a great oak.
I wonder how I appear to her? Anyway, best to move on…
“Alright,” Sammy sent mentally, “Let’s do the switcheroo now. Just keep looking into the mirror.”
“Can I put on a cloth mask in case someone can see through?”
“Good plan. Go ahead and put it on so I can contour the illusion correctly. I’ll make sure it applies with and without the mask the same, but if you alter other articles, the illusion isn’t stupid — it’ll adapt. Strip and she strips.”
“Hmm. Noted.” Ash pulled a mask from her satchel and donned it — it covered the eyes with something dark and mirrored, but not the mouth. “A sophisticated illusion indeed.”
Sammy waited until she was ready, then used [Mirror Other] on Ash, this time quadrupling the cost and duration so there was a whole day if need be. Ash became a perfect copy of the leather-clad Audrey from head to toe. Immediately, Ash started looking at herself, then inspecting and comparing in the mirror. She removed the cloth mask.
“So you know,” Sammy sent mentally, “your name is Audrey and you are a marine sentry on the day shift. You stick with the boat no matter what. As you can see, you wear light armor. You have a spear and a brace of javelins, but attacks are pretty rare between the two locations so you shouldn’t need to worry. The crew is small, totally loyal, and everyone knows what is up, so all of this is just for outside show.”
“Impressive,” Ash replied. “Everything seems sound. To even get this far in this timeframe will undoubtedly leave them befuddled.” She began ‘removing’ leather pieces from her illusory outfit.
“Um, what are you doing?”
“I can see the illusion in a mirror. I want to study differences in our bodies so I know. And perhaps to spot oddities. Does it capture birthmarks? Realistic variations in skin tone and texture? So on. Besides, no one sleeps in their armor.”
Weirdly thorough.
“Right. Okay. I… guess I’ll leave you to it, then. Do actually get some rest if you need it. Her cot is right outside the door in the corner. You’re supposed to get up before dawn. If this whole shebang takes that long. I think it will.”
“Understood. I will try.” She got through a chunk of the leathers and was unfastening the ties of her own dress.
Sammy left the ‘Audrey’ mirror down on the crate and turned the other mirror around to vacate it from the premises. She hesitated at the door.
No way is someone going to open this with her undressing!
When Sammy looked down, there was the customary gap under the door, so she slipped the mirror out from underneath. The captain was immediately nearby, so she handed off the mirror to him and his ‘bird’ to deal with while telling them not to disturb Ash until necessary.
The mirror would be taken away by Porthos momentarily, just in case it was tracked, though that seemed unlikely. The ship would soon dock in Stokefield for a brief period as something of a Red Herring exchange was made mimicking other routine incidents.
In something under two hours, they’d head back upriver, partly on the pretense of some urgency but also on utilizing the speed enchantment most efficiently. If they stayed, they’d either have to cast it again or return much slower against the current and somewhat against the wind. Once in Mot Mekess, they’d pull a mirror switcheroo on Audrey again to ‘return’ her, and otherwise, the plan was to expedite Ash via [Mirror Walk] to The Farm outside Caneboro.
Finally, Sammy found herself untensing mental muscles that had been taut for hours and hours. Her brain still ached. In her throne on Heavenpeak, she sat back and closed her eyes.
Might’ve been slightly less of a struggle from end to end without this stupid debuff. Being ‘killed’ is quite a fucking drag.
Azure’s presence was suddenly felt straddling her face-to-face in the seat. As Sammy’s eyes opened, soft, blue hands were pressing fingers to her temples and rubbing with pressure.
Sammy’s eyes drooped back closed with a bit of a whimper escaping her mouth. “Mmph…” Hand and finger massaging continued from the temples to little spots around the eyes. Forehead. The bridge of the nose. Her crown was removed to rub at other places of her skull.
Somewhat mysteriously, it helped, and Sammy relaxed even more than she intellectually wanted to right then. Still with her eyes closed, Sammy murmured, “Human brain want sleep… ugh… no time. This is great, though, Azure… maybe I can learn to do this myself?”
Azure grunted disfavorably. “Some things simply don’t work right doing them yourself. Hardwired into the mortal psyche, perhaps. Just leave it to me. I’d prefer it.”
“In that case: granted. I made my bed of pack animal limitations, after all.” She chuckled suddenly. “Reminds me… your other you… she referred to my mortal existence as ‘waddling around and shitting in a primate sleeve.’ Hilarious.”
Azure sniffed derisively. “Yes, hoity-toity higher beings slumming it up among the dregs, that’s us. Though I admit I don’t miss certain limitations.”
“I know, right? Like periods. Periods are totally banned in the glorious future of Progress! Hmm, are Naugites even primates? Did Calrenazzod develop like that?”
“There are primate influences. Naugites are modified stock from various sources, including a… seemingly otherworldly one. Demons. This was combined principally with elf, human, and satyr.”
Detecting something subtle in her Blueberry’s tone, Sammy peeked her eyes open. Indeed, Azure had her eyes slanted off to the side. Of course… the Mirror Demon created them, right? Or what became them from her initial hybrids.
Azure continued, “As for Calrenazzod’s history, it seems ah… On worlds, such as I noticed within the… hallucinations of the Hall… evolution is simulated one way or another. Things occur pretty similarly with minor variations. The eventual sapients advance more quickly depending on the limitations.
“I do recall studies about how there are no ‘world names’ with mixed technological levels among the same world. So someone with caveman dinosaur world past memories is one world, and someone in a world with steampunk is a different world. They’ve never been noted as the same world.”
Sammy raised her eyebrows. “So the System simulates before the target technological point where, presumably… ‘the game starts,’ so to speak.”
“Based on what we know,” and she made a ‘me and you’ motion with a finger, “that is a strong possibility. But it could simply manage souls in a way that avoids pairing people with memories of multiple time periods being in a world.”
I doubt it, but maybe. Who knows?
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