The Mother of Monsters

Teyva and Azrael went over the abilities she gained from the Aspect Stone in her journal. At first, Azrael didn’t seem overly impressed but as Teyva worked to break down the general meaning of MP, how much she had, and what the regeneration meant, Azrael began to warm to it. Even so, Azrael wished that the Aspect Stone had provided some other kind of offensive ability. Azrael eventually gave in and the two agreed to summon the creature before attempting to use the Aspect Shards to fill out Teyva’s abilities.

“I have no idea how big this thing is going to be,” Teyva said, standing on one side of the room.

“Are sphinxes supposed to be big?” Azrael asked.

“Honestly I’m not sure,” She was familiar with the one in Egypt back on Earth, then there were stories and games. Most of the time Sphinxes were about the size of a big cat like a lion or a tiger. Though if it was that big why couldn’t it participate in combat?

She pulled up the ability one more time before she used it.

It didn’t describe any sort of combat ability besides providing a passive mana regeneration.

Deciding there was no point in beating around the bush she held out her hands and activated the ability. Like with the Mockeries she felt her body go through the motions of activating the power; it was like muscle memory or instinct. Words she could barely understand poured from her lips until a mote of light formed on the ground between them. It swirled, growing to the size of a basketball before growing brighter. There was a brief flash that pulsed out from the sphere and the magic faded.

Standing in the spot where the sphere had been was unmistakably a house cat. Barely larger than your average tabby and covered in sleek white fur. Two wings about the wingspan of a crow stretched out from its lower back before folding up. Its tail whipped left and right as it examined its surroundings with open disdain, eyes so light blue they looked white finally falling on Teyva. The creature made a face that Teyva could have sworn was a frown.

“Are you a frog?” The cat demanded in what could only be described as a masculine voice, refined if a bit harsh.

Teyva blinked; “What? No! I’m confused.”

“If you are not a frog, then please close your mouth lest you consume a fly,” the sphinx said cooly. Nearby the Mockeries hissed angrily at the sphinx, some of them crawling out of their hiding places to show their acid-soaked teeth and clack their legs against the wood. The sphinx stared at them before returning his gaze to Teyva. He opened his mouth to speak but then sat down, frowning again in concentration. Eventually, he got back up and walked around Teyva, examining her.

“They call you mother,” He said.

“You can understand them?”

“You cannot?” He shot back.

“I mean I can get bits from the feelings they send me, sure, but I don’t speak their language.”

“They certainly understand you, they are quite fond of you, I wonder why? You do not seem so very special,” He quipped.

Behind him, Azrael stepped forward, her hackles raised, “Watch your tone,” She hissed, her hand immediately going to her weapon. Teyva’s hands quickly shot up, and Azrael scowled at her; “Such disrespect, from a summoned beast!”

“Beast!” The sphinx scoffed, turning its feline head toward Azrael, “I am a noble creature with a will of his own, I will not be compared to some lowly pet! Who are you, anyway, creature? Are you this one’s slave?”

“Enough!” Teyva shouted, her nostrils flaring as he looked down at the Sphinx.

The small creature’s head whipped around and looked up, wide-eyed. It stepped back as Teyva loomed over it, her teeth bared and her bright yellow eyes wide with anger. He shrank back until he had found himself sitting again, his tail wrapped around himself and his ears flattened in fear.

She knelt until she was in the Sphinx’s face and spoke in an even tone; “Do not ever speak to my friend that way again, do you understand?”

The small creature wilted beneath her gaze and inclined its head; “Yes, mother.”

She reached forward and picked him up without resistance, bundling him up against her chest and stroking the back of his head. She looked up at Azrael who had relaxed visibly. Her friend nodded and leaned back against the wall while Teyva held the sphinx. “What’s your name?”

“Nephral,” The small creature said.

“Well, Nephral, this is Azrael,” She said gesturing to her Azar friend. The Sphinx turned his head and stared at the woman for a long time before bowing his head. “She’s my friend.”

Nephral looked back up at Teyva before looking again to Azrael, “Forgive my impropriety, Miss Azrael, my mother needed to remind me of my place,” he pulled himself free of Teyva’s grip and spread his wings, gliding from her arms to Azrael’s feet. The warden almost jumped a little bit but relaxed when he began to trace circles between her feet, purring out a clear apology. Azrael looked up at Teyva and gave her an incredulous look.

“What?”

“How do you do that?” Azrael demanded.

“Do what?

“Never mind,” She grunted, running her fingers through her hair and glancing toward a window. “We’re losing daylight and we need sleep.”

Teyva nodded, snapping her eyes away from Nephral’s weaving body to pull out her Aspect Shards. She chided herself for becoming so distracted. Yet for some reason, every creature she made felt so close to her. Like she knew them already without having to spend a minute with them. She had instinctually understood that Nephral was not one to bow his head to weakness, so she showed strength. The Mockeries were infants and craved the attention and adoration of a mother. So she gave them that adoration. It was simple really, but it did feel like it was coming from a different place than what she was used to.

Pulling her focus back into the moment she picked one of the shards out of the pile of six and held it in front of her. Unlike Aspect Stones, these things looked like frosted glass and had no strange aura to them. Unless the Journal had said otherwise, Teyva would have been convinced they were just glass. She didn’t feel anything at all unusual about them. That was until she gave the item a good squeeze in her palm.

She selected yes.

“It wants me to pick one of my Aspects,” Teyva said aloud.

Azrael looked up from where she had been watching Nephral and rubbed her chin; “What do you think?”

“Pale Dawn gave me [Chilling Touch] and that’s my only personal attack power. I know from experience that Pale Dawn can do more than just close-range stuff. I’d like to start there,” She said. Azrael nodded but said nothing, leaving the ultimate decision to Teyva. Teyva chose The Pale Dawn.

The abilities were arranged in branches, with [Pale Bolt] and [Dawnstrike] branching off of [Chilling Touch]. [Grip of Frost] and [Withering Halo] branched off of [Hungering Cold]. There was a number next to each level, with the first two abilities showing a one while the next four showed a two. The remaining tiers of abilities were all grayed out but she could see that there were nine in total.

“I’ve got four abilities to pick from,” Teyva said.

“You get to choose? Fascinating,” Azrael said, putting her hands on her hips, “When we perform a shard ritual the ability simply manifests outside of the will of the Aspect user,” she paused, “What have you got?”

Teyva explained the four abilities and what they did. Each of them had its uses and was in some way a step up from the previous ability. [Pale Bolt] was appealing for sheer versatility, it would be nice to get out of melee range for once. That said, [Dawnstrike] was such an obvious choice given how she had been fighting so far, especially with her sword arm. Then there was the other branch; [Grip of Frost] was an obvious crowd control ability with a bonus of giving her healing over time thanks to [Hungering Cold]. On the flip side, [Withering Halo] increased her survivability while in melee range and could be used to hamper stronger enemies.

Azrael remained stonefaced for a while, Nephral had stopped twirling between Azrael’s legs and was looking on with equal interest.

Azrael spoke first; “I’d recommend Pale Bolt, it seems like the best way to increase your versatility and give you a bit of range. I’d prefer to keep you out of combat if at all possible.”

“I disagree,” Nephral said, stepping forward on his tiny paws; “Withering Halo is the clear choice to subjugate mother’s enemies with.”

“Subjugate?” Teyva blurted.

“Of course, mother’s enemies should be made confounded and kneel before her, powerless,” The creature insisted, flaring its wings out proudly.

“We are not subjugating people!” Teyva insisted. The sphinx merely grunted in response, sitting down and licking his paws. She let out a sigh and rubbed her face, trying to wake up a little. She had a choice to make and it wasn’t going to be an easy one. On top of that, if this one was any indication, she had two more tough choices to make. It was a shame she couldn’t use all of her Aspect Shards in one go, but she supposed there were limits to everything.

She scratched her head, sat down, and read over the abilities again.