Somebody Stop Him [A Progression Fantasy Epic]

After a flurry of quick illusionary adjustments, we emerged from room 818 as a group of six male Omnids. Cinder, back in her bulky masculine form, took the lead, her gait deliberately swaggering as we headed back towards the elevator.

Vespera, also disguised as a broad-shouldered Thunderlander, bounced at my side, occasionally sending out controlled sparks that crackled against the silver walls scanning the wards. Lilith and Magdaline adopted more stoic, reserved male personas, while Io simply shrunk further into his robes, making himself as inconspicuous as possible. I, in my fox form reinforced with fluffy cosplay bits and makeup from my bag, marched merrily beside Vee, looking around.

In about a minute of observation, I noticed that the silver-white fox was following us across a multitude of paintings. I elbowed Vespera and she too squinted at the fox.

Argentiss dove behind a rock, her ears flickering behind it cutely.

"Oi, we can totally still see ya ears," Vee commented with a chortle.

The fox made a huffing noise and vanished completely behind the rock.

We passed by the Keeper knight without issues, him nodding at us.

"Ugh," Cinder commented. "Running outta mana. Shifting this many people is hard."

Her masculine illusion flickered, the edges of her form shimmering and wavering, as did the rest of our disguises.

"Poor Ci needs a steak nom to refuel," Vespera chuckled, her own male illusion dissolving, revealing her curvy frame again. She grabbed onto my elbow with a smile.

Cinder glared at her, but didn't retort, simply shaking her head, her silver feathers slightly ruffled. "Let's just… get to dinner."

We descended in the crystalline elevator, emerging into the bustling ground floor corridors and then emerged into the Grand Refectory.

The dining hall was even more impressive than the Central Hall, a vast, high-ceilinged space echoing with the clatter of cutlery and the murmur of a hundred conversations. Hexagon-shaped tables stood across the hall, each adorned with an Ignix Kitlix lantern, some already laden with steaming platters of food. Banners of the five Houses hung from the rafters, their colors vibrant against the stone walls.

The Refectory was segregated by House. Silverfox tables were towards the right, a sea of silver and argent robes filling the designated section. To the left, Pyroclast roared in crimson and gold, their section noticeably louder and more boisterous. Further down, Hexacomb hummed in their gold and black, Wormwood's green and brown section was quieter, more contemplative, and at the very far end, in the dimmest corner of the hall, sat Gorefield in their muted blood-red and black.

My eyes immediately scanned the Gorefield tables, searching for that familiar glacial blue shimmer. And there she was. Katherine sat alone at a hexagonal table, her blue scales catching the light, her posture rigid, almost defensive. She was sketching again, her head bent over a large leather-bound book, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings.

"Um, Silverfox section is over there," Vespera gestured towards the tables of our house, but I was already moving, my feet carrying me and her towards the Gorefield section before she could finish her sentence.

"Alex, wait!" Cinder called out, but I was already weaving through the tables, ignoring the curious glances and muttered whispers that followed in my wake.

Katherine didn't look up as I approached, engrossed in her art. I stopped in front of her hexagon table.

"Katherine?" I said.

Her head snapped up, her green eyes widening slightly, then narrowing with a weary, almost guarded expression. She took in our group trailing behind me like colorful, slightly confused ducklings. Her gaze flickered over each of my companions, lingering for a moment on Io before returning to me.

"Can I… help you?" she asked, her voice cool, polite, but distant.

"It's me, Alex," I said.

"Alex?"

"Alexander Stratos-Kilborne. We… we know each other. Well, knew each other."

Her brow furrowed further. "I don't think so," she replied, her voice flat. "I don't recall meeting you before, Mystagogue… Stratos-Kilborne." She emphasized my name with a slight inflection, as if it were a foreign word.

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"Ah," I said. "Anyways, we were friends. Before the Celestorm."

Her gaze sharpened. "Before the Celestorm?" she repeated, her voice laced with skepticism.

I nodded with a smile.

"Jan, is this your attempt at Silverfox trickery or something?" Katherine asked her brother. "Cus I heard you have to fuck with someone to get into your tower or something."

"Nah," Io shook his head. "We already got into our tower, so this isn't a trick. All of these guys knew you before the Celestorm rearranged reality. Haven't you read about the worldwide shift on the Net?"

"Ain't got time for news," Katherine said. "Go bug someone else, I'm busy."

I ignored her words and sat next to her. "Nah."

Katherine made a deep rumbling noise.

"You're sitting alone," I said. "Don't you want company?"

"I am sitting as I prefer," she fired back. "Please piss off before…"

I waved my friends on encouragingly.

Io sat beside Katherine. The others followed, filling the dark hexagonal table. Vespera stole a chair from another empty table and squeezed herself beside me. We were a spot of bright, clashing silver amidst the darkness of the Gorefield. Other Gorefield house Mystagogues were giving us bothered looks.

I slipped my phone over to Katherine. "Look, Kat, this is us delving on Arx as a team. This is Katsburg, the city I made for you."

Katherine squinted at the slideshow of us on Arx. "Hrm? Did you AI-generate these to mess with me? Amusing. Now buzz off."

I sighed. Kat was a stubborn loner before the shift and now she wasn't any better off personality-wise.

"Where do you think that dress you're wearing came from?" I asked her.

"My parents got it for me." Katherine said, her tone dismissive.

"Did they?" I asked, leaning closer. "Did you actually talk to them about it? Or did you just find it in your room?"

She paused, her gaze flickering away from me for a moment, considering.

"I… found it in my room," she admitted, her voice sounding a little less sure now.

"And you think that your parents," I pressed on, "can afford to buy you a dress like this?" I gestured to the intricate beast core studs that shimmered within the dark leather fabric. "An outfit that's practically glowing with beast cores?"

Katherine frowned. She glanced down at the dress, really looking at it this time, as if seeing it for the first time. She ran her fingers over the embedded gemstone spheres, her touch lingering on the smooth, cool surfaces. The silence stretched, filled only with the surrounding Refectory din.

"They… they work hard," she finally said, still trying to justify her line of logic. "Maybe… maybe they got a bonus? Or… saved up?"

"Katherine, darlin', look at this thing. This ain't no 'bonus' dress. This is top-tier artificery. We're talking premium Arx leather, studded with like… twenty million O-bux worth of beast cores. This dress screams 'mind-meltingly expensive', not 'saved-up'." Vespera pointed out.

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Katherine lifted her head, her green eyes locking onto mine again. This time, the guardedness was still there, but something else had crept in, a flicker of… doubt? Confusion? Maybe, just maybe, a nascent spark of recognition. She opened her mouth and closed it again.

"Our parents wouldn't be able to afford an outfit like that for you, Kat," Io commented. "You know that, right?"

"Fine," Katherine huffed. "I don't know where it came from. If this is really twenty million o-bux, why the fuck would you spend that much on me? What are you, my secret admirer or something?"

"Nah," I said. "Already got a Quetzi and Thunder waifus. I got it for you because we're besties."

"Besties?" She chewed on the word as if it was a foreign object. "Doubtful."

"You taught me how to dive into the deep," I said, nodding towards her sketchbook. "Remember? Echoes? Centipede-people?"

Katherine's green eyes flickered down at the open sketchbook in her lap. She was sketching a stylized centipede-like creature with multiple eyes and sharp claws. She snapped the sketchbook closed and squinted at me with a look of deep suspicion.

Just then, a Kitsune waitress approached our table. "Good Evening, Mystagogues," she said with a polite bow, her blue eyes flickering over our mismatched group. "Here are your menus. What would you prefer for drinks?"

Everyone ordered various herbal teas and mana-wine.

"You do know that this is the Gorefield House section, right? You're Silverfoxes," Katherine bluntly pointed out as the waitress departed. "You're supposed to be at the other end of the hall."

"Nobody said it's a crime to eat at a Gorefield table," I shrugged, leaning back in my chair. "Besides, we're here with our friend."

Katherine snorted. "Friend. Right."

Suddenly, a tall figure approached our table. I looked up. It was a wolf-man upperclassman with piercing amber eyes, and a confident, almost predatory air. He wore Gorefield robes, but his bearing was far more… assertive than most of the practical-minded Gorefield students I'd observed around us so far.

He stopped beside Cinder, a wide, toothy smile spreading across his lupine features. "Songbird! Fancy meeting you here, so far from the silver den. Did you come here to see me?" His voice was deep, smooth, almost… too smooth, like polished obsidian. His figure began melting toward an excessively handsome human.

"Eh?" Cinder turned towards the wolf-man. Her silver feathers ruffled slightly.

"Uxtish?" she said, her voice a little hesitant.

"The one and only," the wolf-man chuckled with a bow. "Scion Uxtish of the House of Legon, at your service."