Icarus Awakens

Music still played in the courtyard as the sun began to set, though Daniel had retrieved his Focus. Reception to the foreign music had been mixed. For some that was understandable since neither he nor Spinner could put what Bards did into it. The extra layer of emotion that enhanced you gave the regular stuff a hollow feeling if you were used to it. That wasn't counting the slight distortion from the webs or that almost no one could understand what was being sung.

Khiat's parents had been the first to head back under, though this was in part to make their breakfast. Gtoll remained to try and figure out more of what Spinner's deal was, treating her like he had Hunter and Daniel before. At least he wasn't sparring this time, with Builder prices what they were Daniel did not have another renovation in the budget.

With that secured it was time for the first of two chats, this one held between himself, Lograve, and Alex. However, Daniel couldn't quite resist checking something out on the way.

Kettlebranch (Material, Magical, Level: 7)

Magical wood that imparts special properties when used in Crafting.

Material Bonus - Enchanting: Enhances Items related to Potions. Its most common added Effect is to increase Potion: Potency. Item: Cauldron gains an additional bonus chance to duplicate brewed doses, scaling with both the item and Crafter's level. If triggered, the brewed doses then have an additional chance to duplicate again, also increasing in potency. This tertiary effect may sequentially trigger any number of times.

Whoa, this is… useless. Granted, Daniel would love to make a cauldron for someone with this. An Alchemist had to be able to use one as a Focus, and while the durability trick with those wouldn't increase the item level for the duplicating effect, it would make a pretty sturdy pot.

There were two problems. One, he didn't have an Alchemist he was especially close to, and two, he didn't have a cauldron formulae. Not even a basic one. Freeforming the shape of a cauldron with another wouldn't allow the material bonus to function. He could just use the wood for other things, like giving Murdon level 7 armor, but it seemed wasteful for something this rare to not make full use of it. Arpan could probably do wonders with it, but screw that guy.

He shoved the slip of paper that had fed his Encyclopedia the details back into the bag of holding and sighed. On my way, Lograve. You might want to pour a drink or something. It's not going to be a fun talk.

I'm already two fifths into my grave, don't worry about me.

…are you alright, Lograve? His eyes locked on the aura visible through the walls. The Arcanist shifted uncomfortably, then seemed to realize what he was doing and straightened.

Right as rain, and today the rain's alcoholic. The Arcanist was fully composed by the time Daniel could directly see him, using Aquakinesis to freely levitate a globe of refreshment near his head. "Quite devious of your sister, not even I noticed they were setting that up. She should be here soon."

Daniel stared at him nonplussed. "If I ask Murdon if he thinks anything is up with you, what do you think he'll say?"

"That my arms are too flabby to properly hold a shield?" The Arcanist waved a hand under Daniel's continued gaze. "You just had to go and turn your Focus into a shield, didn't you? I have to admit I'm a bit hurt. Mimicry is the best form of flattery, and I had really thought I'd made a bigger impression on you."

"Lograve," Daniel said, completely serious. He'd seen enough signs to know something was wrong.

"Peh." He portioned off a small stream from the globe that flowed into his mouth before taking a sip. "A man nearly dies and everyone acts like he's made of glass. I think I very clearly proved I'm made of sterner stuff. Well, colder, if not sterner. After that potion I'm better than ever, even."

"I'm just going to ask again when Alex is here. Do you feel like lying to her too?" Lograve's reaction to that made it seem like Daniel had kicked him in the kidney.

"I- that's rather hurtful. Here I thought this was a meeting to discuss your next insane undermining of order and reason."

Instead of taking a seat, Daniel walked right in front of Lograve and leaned in, to the point that the Arcanist pressed his back into the wicker chair. "I'm worried about you. The entire team is, and this started before the war. Was it Earth? You didn't have the worst time of it, but I wouldn't blame you if being there for so long in the condition you were in had an effect on you. You were there for some of my bad moments and I'll give you the same support you gave me, but if you keep pretending like everything's fine I'm siccing Quala on you."

"Little Tyrant," Lograve huffed. "You can't just throw her at every-"

"Stop deflecting. Lograve, I am worried about you," Daniel said slowly, maintaining eye contact. "Tell me what's wrong."

The Arcanist continued to wear his confident half-smile for several seconds, but then it broke and he looked off to the side. Daniel backed into a chair and sat down, a bit wary for the appearance of another joke to distract from the real issue. He'd pull out Reassure if so. The power wouldn't work, but it'd probably provoke Lograve into taking this seriously.

Thankfully, it wouldn't be necessary. Lograve gently lowered his drink back into a glass and then activated his muffle sound enchantment. "It's nothing you need to worry about. Gods know you have enough to deal with. In fact I believe that's part of the problem."

"If you're suicidal, it is my problem," Daniel said bluntly.

"Suicid- where did you ever get that idea?" Lograve spluttered. "No. Certainly not. What did I do to make you think-"

"All of those jokes about being the mentor figure about to die?" Daniel asked rhetorically. "At least you've seemed more down than usual. Thomas bet it was because of Tounaki but I'm sure that's not everything."

"You're not ruling that out of the equation, though?" Lograve asked knowingly. "I'm happy for him, as I am you. Especially with Claire… but I'm digressing again, aren't I?" The Arcanist picked underneath one of his fingernails self-consciously, then raised his glass and drained the rest of it. "I've only advanced three times since reaching level 4. That defensive power I awakened, Ice Coffin? The only I've gained since Ritualism as well."

Daniel blinked, considering all the strength he'd gained since the Thormundz. True Lograve hadn't hunted as aggressively as he had and had been stuck in magical purgatory for a time, but to only gain and use three advancement potential since before the lightning dragon? "Oh." The conclusion was obvious. "You've hit your wall."

"It appears that way," Lograve sighed heavily. "I can't be sure, but it's… I can't find another conclusion. The others sent to Earth weren't affected like I was, and my difficulties began before that." He picked up his chin, driving as much of the dour attitude away as he could. "It's not so bad. I'll live for centuries, and both Ritualism and Aquakinesis give me enough to continue developing in some ways."

"But you'll still have level disparity."

"I'll do what I can for that," Lograve replied airily. "Daniel, I appreciate your concern, but I'm honestly fine. Someone hits their wall every day. It's just my turn. It's not like you'll ever have to worry about it."

Daniel stood again, filled with nervous energy. "We can get the gods to fix this. Hand, Star or Cloak would help you. There's nothing wrong with you so it has to be a conflict in the Octyrrum's coding. Maybe-"

"Daniel, I'm making peace with it," Lograve said forcefully. "Perhaps there is a way, but I have time. More than the world does. This is precisely why I didn't want to tell anyone, and if you dare tell Murdon I'm freezing you into a wall for a couple of hours." A bit of ice collected around his pointed finger to underline the threat. "Perhaps I'll retire for now. It's not like it'll be the first time. I can continue developing rituals, and try to find a way to help Alex get back home."

Daniel heard the regret there and realized there was more than one reason Lograve's heart would be heavy. At least that burden may lift once they finally questioned Chris. Assured now that Lograve wasn't as bad as he'd feared, Daniel tried to lighten the conversation. "Tak could use a tutor."

Lograve held his forehead as if he'd just gotten a migraine. "Oh yes, that. You just had to let him sign that contract."

"He did that himself!"

"I'll see what I can do, then." Lograve rubbed the side of his face, fingers lingering over where one of the larger scar lines had once been. "Who knows, maybe he'll take the Arcanist class at level 3."

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"That would be weird with his advancement penalty to intelligence. Still, it could make an interesting combination. Good idea." Lograve gave him a horrified look because Daniel had indeed been genuine, sort of. He didn't give the Arcanist time to banish the mental image or rebuke him and moved on. "Thanks for telling me, though. I'll keep the secret, but you should at least let Murdon know. In the meantime, Alex is almost here."

Lograve wanted to protest, but the approaching Virtuoso did indeed beckon the end of their conversation and the beginning of a harder one.

"Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Spinner wanted me to help her nail down how a trumpet sounds." Rather than take a seat, Alex sat on the ground by the fire and then lay back, a contented look on her face. It scrunched up as she realized the ambient noise from the compound wasn't there anymore. "Everything alright? I know you're having some kind of talk with Shuni later."

"It's not that," Daniel said through a forcibly straight face.

"You sure?" She peered closely at his face while still relaxing. "It's normal to run into problems when you're dating someone, you know. Having no disagreements at all can kind of be a red flag."

"We've argued about stuff," Daniel said evasively, a bit amazed at how Alex had just taken over the talk with only casual effort.

"Name one thing," his sister challenged, flipping over and propping her head up with both arms. "Not that I want you guys to fail but it almost seems like things have been going too smoothly."

Daniel's mind blanked for a moment. The issue was he had a very good example: Shuni's discomfort with how his bond worked and his uncertainty in how to cleanly handle it. But that was far too heavy to get into before the real thing he had to talk about with his sister. Neither was Alex going to let this go easily without drawing blood. He finally remembered something and his mouth started moving before his brain caught up. "I made a dumb comment about her shedding feathers in the bed. In my defense I did get stabbed once while I was sleeping, but-"

Lograve snorted, and Daniel realized only then what he was implying. His cheeks reddened as Alex laughed and hid her face. "Ok, a bit TMI. I thought she still had a separate room. Is she sneaking over at night?"

The Arcanist guffawed with that and, somewhat tipsy, struggled to remain seated. "Oh gods, she literally is! I'd bet only Spinner could catch her in the act too. Or them!"

Alex's expression turned scandalized, the Arcanist going a bit farther than he would have sober. "I thought she wasn't watching inside after dark anymore."

"That is correct Alex, I do not," Spinner affirmed like a smart house gone rogue. All three warily turned to look at different spots around the room. "Thank you, thank you for all of your help, again! That was wonderful!"

"You're, uh, welcome, Spinner. Would you mind turning your webs off here? This is a private conversation."

"Of course!"

Daniel was a bit unnerved that he couldn't tell if she'd actually done it or not. Oh well. At least Big Sister derailed us from that train wreck. "Anyway, I, uh, need to confess something," Daniel said awkwardly, cheeks still burning. "Nothing with Shuni. This happened before she made the hints obvious."

"Here we go," Lograve moaned dramatically. The stopper of one of the nearby bottles rose from the pressure of a brandy rising below, which flowed to refill his glass. "Honestly I'm not sure how you're going to top everything else you've done. There's only so much more room to go before it gets too fantastical to believe. You've been burning through my incredulity at an unsustainable rate."

"Daniel, why am I here?" Alex asked, tension building in his sister as she brought herself to a sitting position. "She asked you out minutes after you got back to the compound with Hunter for the first time. What could have happened before then that would have me and Lograve in the same room?"

Lograve's sarcastic smile slipped and he put his glass down. Both waited for him to answer, and the best way Daniel could was to begin. "I was a wreck when you came through. At that point I was off of two fights, both of which I nearly died. Bringing Hunter back was an entire ordeal, and immediately after that I'm face to face with family I thought I'd never see again." Daniel's voice was pained, despite what he said next. "It all felt like a huge triumph. I knew Soraso was still going to be a problem, I had the memories of what Hourglass did carved back into my brain, but for one moment it still felt like we'd done everything right. My brother and my friends were alive, my team back together. But even that victory came at a cost."

Daniel looked down into his hands. "If we hadn't opened that portal, would it have been better? Worse? Chris may have found a way to get Alex across at some point. Maybe throw Lograve hints at making a better ritual. But I still felt angry and guilty and… and I needed to let it out somehow." He had them truly transfixed, as if he were about to reveal who in the room was the murderer. "I took it out on the Spoke inside me after everyone else left. It was the only thing nearby that was keeping Alex trapped. I had no reason to believe it would help, or do anything really, but I still asked it for something."

His stomach was hurting from how tightly his gut was clenched. Both Alex and Lograve had some vague notion of what he was going to say, but it was like he'd gotten a wish from a genie. His Spoke could alter reality. It may not have any limits either, considering he was able to go as far as overriding the protections around Bekali's soul to cleanse her.

"I asked it to give Alex special treatment. As far as I can tell, it worked." 10 full seconds of silence passed as they waited for him to elaborate, but that was all he said. Eventually Lograve stretched one ear as if to check it was still working.

"What?"

The word jolted Alex into action. She scrambled to her feet and backed up a few steps. "You did what?" There was a familiar build up in her tone that did not bode well. "You-"

"I just wanted it to protect you!" Daniel exclaimed. "It's worked, hasn't it? You got a class way more advanced than you should have, and-"

"I didn't want one at all!" As if seeing it for the first time and mistaking it for a venomous insect, Alex tore the bag of holding off her side and threw it on the ground. "I didn't want magic to change who I was!"

Lograve held up both hands. "Let's hold and talk about this. I assume I'm here because Daniel isn't sure-"

"No, fuck that! I don't care about if it worked or not. I told you-"

"After!" Daniel cut Alex off, it taking every ounce of self control to not try and Reassure her. "You told me that after. I only got proof a few a days ago."

The argument that was completely reasonable to Daniel didn't move his sister. "Bullshit. Either way, you didn't tell me about this until I'd already sold my soul."

"I didn't know it had worked! I didn't have proof until a few days ago."

"Proof?" Lograve seized on that point, desperate to bring the brewing fight back into balance. "What do you mean, proof?"

"My Spoke hasn't answered or even reacted to anything else I told it to do, not counting when I was in that soul space with it," Daniel answered, trying to make the plank he was walking into an olive branch. "There were signs this worked, though again, I didn't see any until it was too late. Then I asked for it to give me something that left no room for doubt." He used telekinesis to move to his new function, Lograve's eyes widening as he read the projected screen.

Alex didn't even glance at it. "You lied to me."

"I didn't-"

"You lied the moment you kept this a secret! I told you how I felt about this world, and you didn't think this was worth mentioning!?" Her breath started to shake with effort. "I thought I was doing well. Adapting. But what if this game's just making me into its toy because you told it to pay attention to me?"

"That's not how it works!"

"How the fuck would you know that!?" She stabbed a hand into his chest. "You don't know what you're doing. Said yourself you barely understand what that thing inside you is."

"Alex." Lograve stood and reached for her, but she jerked her shoulder away. "The Octyrrum doesn't work like that. Everything we know about the system suggests it doesn't override someone's desires."

"Really." Alex rounded on Lograve, her sparking fury striking him. "So, Tyrants? Or what about Khiat? I heard about what happened to her in Aughal."

"Don't bring her into this," Daniel shot back, glaring at Alex.

"Why not? That was your fault too, wasn't it!?" She was finding his weak points, pressuring them to make him hurt as much as she did. A bit more effectively than before, her enhanced attributes demonstrating their worth. She could've gone for some kind of cheap shot by involving Shuni but aimed straight for deep set guilt instead. Alex was also making a good point while kicking him in the emotional gonads.

Thing was, Daniel had the confidence to lose the argument and walk away. "I'm sorry I kept this from you for so long, but I also wouldn't take it back. For all we know, you would've died when we were ambushed by Kahvin and Rikoor. If all you're going to do is burn, then you should go cool down. I'm not fighting. I don't want any more regrets when it comes to you."

His sister took in a few deep, heavy breaths, and must have seen that he'd put up a wall too strong for her to knock down. She still wore all the hurt in the world but couldn't vent it anymore. With a shaky exhalation she charged off.

"Alex, wait!" he called after her. "This has your violin in it."

"I'll take it to her," Lograve said carefully, placing a hand on the bag of holding as he watched Alex storm away. "That… wasn't what I was expecting. I have to admit her argument has some merit."

"She's still my sister," Daniel denied, willing to debate the point when it wouldn't fan the flames. "She still chose to gain a class when she saved Willow."

"Playing monster's advocate, couldn't your Spoke have maneuvered events if it was trying to provoke her into advancing?"

He thought about that, and then shook his head. "Quala told me she was already on the road to getting one through spontaneous advancement. It didn't need to do anything, and I only told it to give her the best class it could if she wanted one."

The Arcanist sighed. "Either way, you should have told her sooner. Or me, at the very least."

"I wasn't sure it worked." He was repeating excuses now. "Damn it, I wanted to talk about opening the gate with her too. We're moving on the Arcadian soon. She should decide if she wants to be in the room when we talk to Chris beforehand."

"Then you picked the worst time possible to bear your sins." He leaned in to whisper, which was unnecessary given they were still under sound suppression. "I'll talk to her about this, if you trust me. I've built up a rapport with her but this crosses a line into family business."

"Wanted you here in the first place, didn't I?" Daniel grabbed at his hair with one hand as he deliberated. He really needed to stop stacking difficult conversations one after the other. It was beginning to feel like Festra would pop out of the floor and declare war on him. "Do what you can, give her space if she needs it. I've only seen one person calm her down when she gets really worked up, and I don't want Hourglass here right now. Otherwise, she just needs time."

"That's a rather risky way to handle a relationship, just let someone stew in resentment and hope they get over it. What happens if it doesn't work?"

"Then my sister and I have another falling out." Daniel shrugged. "Last one only took five years to settle."

"Now who's trying to put a brave face on their woes? I suppose I'll have to do my best to reconcile this, though it's not going to be settled until you tell her everything."

"I have, pretty much. I told the Spoke to defend her, it has to be the reason why she got an evolved class off the bat." Daniel started ticking off on his fingers. "I also think it's affecting how she advances, she's getting way too much advancement potential for what she's doing." He thought a little harder, recalling the exact words he'd shouted up into the clouds. "Other than than that, I just asked it to kill anyone that tries to charm her."

Lograve blinked at Daniel several times. "Well. Good to know. Not that I had any intention at all in that direction, but I'll have to be extra professional when trying to talk her down. Thanks for the warning."

"I meant people like Kahvin, fucks who use charm powers to seduce people at random."

"Evalyn was like that, once," Lograve said, with a finger extended and a cautious glance to make sure the Bard wasn't right behind him.

"She had her reasons." He didn't feel good about it, but Daniel's eyes finished tracking Alex's aura as she reached her room. She wasn't doing anything stupid, yet Lograve should go talk to her. He had places to be as well. "Thanks, Lograve. Reach out to me if you need anything. Otherwise, I'm going to go have what maybe an even more explosive encounter."

The Arcanist looked curious, but didn't ask. He walked away, saying over his shoulder, "I can do that. At least I'll be in another building if the fireworks start."