NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1.41 – Worry
Fiona blinked against the harsh daylight, tapping Qae gently on the shoulder to let her know she was awake, the dragon putting her down.
"Thanks... Thanks for getting me out of there." She sat down on the ground, realized she was right next to the crack, and scooted over a bit. It felt wrong to sit next to it.
"Liddy! Are you ok?" She asked the gnome, who was shaking herself awake at the same time.
"Yeah, I - I'm sorry everyone. They just took me out of the mist, and touching those weird cloaks just made me feel... I don't know" Fiona saw Annabelle have a weird look on her face at that, but dismissed it. This was strange. Even for their situation.
"You couldn't help it" Fiona consoled her friend."
"Fiona is right - this was an ambush. There... Wasn't there one of those cloaks out here?" Qaerlyz was looking worriedly at the crack behind them, as everyone shrugged uncertainly. "I will ask Tialah to investigate."
"It's... Well, it's not fine. It sucked. It was scary. I'm just glad you're okay Liddy... I was really worried." She smiled at her friend, and then a thought got into her head.
"Your mothers - they were expecting your call? They'll be worried sick!" Fiona sat up quickly. "Can we still make it?"
Liddy sat up quickly too, a bit wobbly but up.
"Yeah, I think - It's okay though."
"It's... No, we are meeting them today!" Fiona said confidently. She was the leader - taking charge."We shouldn't discuss... that, here anyways."
"I agree. I will send a message to Mayor Wishstone, she should be able to prevent this." Qaerlyz moved away from the crack, walking back down the street. The goddess had mentioned her personally - even if Fiona didn't think lizard was meant as a compliment. She - and Annabelle - needed to have a proper conversation with the dragon queen. The Outsiders she had mentioned too, and the threat to the tower.
Fiona had always intended to climb, although getting back hadn't been at the forefront of her mind - it seemed important, but with the time difference, how many floors it just... She had other things to worry about.
The threat to everything though, to not just her old life but this one as well? For everything to be that unpleasant, disturbing nothing? No. She had to do it. She had to use her abilities - whatever that meant - take charge, and get to the top.
But first, she had to meet her friend's moms.
******************************************************
The Communication Centre - which had many different names, had just as many different ways of communication. Ash had declined hers - it was shouting into an old tree stump, and Qaerlyz had simply written down a message to be communicated to her own. Her device was in the first one there, as soon as they entered the message, and was some sort of crystal spire that just went up. And didn't seem to stop.
While some allowed messages, others allowed sound or pictures to go through - Liddy's was one of the latter. A large half of a clam shell, filled with water.
"My town has a similar clam shell, a bit bigger but the same species of clam - and when you flick it like this in here." She demonstrated, seeming a bit nervous despite her implied confidence this being the first time she used it. "It should work after a moment."
Ripples spread through the water, and suddenly it shifted and changed - and the group could see two shapes coming into focus. One sea-gnome woman, looking nearly exactly like Liddy would in twenty-odd years and if she stopped exercising quite as excessively for a while, and what Fiona would describe only as a sea-elf. Very similar to Tialah - Fiona tried to get the image of Liddy's mum like that - with light blue hair instead of white, but similar gills, and webbed fingers like what Liddy had. Did her sphere just have sea-versions of other creatures?
"Mum! Mam! I'm so glad to see you!"
"We were so worried dear!" The elf-mum started.
"Your mam was beside herself when you didn't call on the time - are you okay little one?"
Liddy had the awkwardness every young adult does when their parents call them by their childhood nickname in front of their cool new friends but blasted past it immediately.
"We just slept in that's all!" Fiona thought she could see guilt on her friend's face as she lied to her parents. "Anyways meet my new friends! We're climbing the tower together - This is Fiona, she was my first friend on the tower! Qae is a DRAGON QUEEN! Ash has really cool guns and Annabelle is Fiona's friend, from her sphere can you believe it?" Liddy squealed, and it was Fiona's turn to feel guilty about lies.
Everyone said their hellos - Liddy's Parents, Caenia the Sea Elf, and Givvy the Sea Gnome gushed over all of them, particularly impressed by the dragon queen.
"You all look so strong and powerful!" Caenia beamed, as Givvy lifted a finger at Fiona - Who Liddy had explained was the leader of the group.
"Look after our little girl! She's not as tough as she likes to think, all that muscle doesn't replace a good noggin" Givvy tapped her head, smiling.
"Shutupmum" Liddy said, but clearly over the moon to see her parents after the morning's drama.
They talked for a while longer, Liddy telling them about their adventures carefully avoiding any bit that involved Fiona. She also had positioned herself so her lower tummy was not visible to the water, and quickly ended the call once Caenia asked 'What was that thing that human has around her neck'.
The group reinvigorated by their monk's joy, headed off back towards the inn where they congregated in Fiona's room. She sat on the bed, Annabelle on either side of her with Ash taking up a spot on the floor. Qae leaned against the door.
"Can I ask" Annabelle started, looking at Liddy. Looking at Fiona.
"Your moms are like..." She looked at Fiona again. Liddy seemed confused, then her eyes went wide.
"Oh! OH! Noo I... I've never met anyone like Fiona in my sphere at least. I know they exist though. They found me in the reef and... Well they're my moms now. That's it." Liddy smiled again. "They call me their 'Gift from the reef'" She said, blushing a little.
"Sorry, I... My curiosity got away with me."
"No, It's ok! I love them even more for it!" Liddy gave Annabelle a small hug, and Fiona felt guilty again. She'd been lying to her wonderful friend. It had to stop.
"Right." Fiona said. She'd managed to tell Annabelle what she wanted to do on the way here, and her friend supported her.
"I need to admit something to you all. Qae already figured it out." She held Liddy's hand. "I hope you're not mad at me but... Well, ok."
"Say it already!" Ash joked from the floor, sprawled out with her tail tucked around her.
"I'm building up to it!"
"It's ok Fiona, I won't be mad." Liddy smiled, still so happy she'd phoned home.
"I know I've said my sphere is recently connected. That's not true. It isn't."
"Isn't what?" Ash asked.
"Connected."
"But that's not possible," Liddy exclaimed. "If your sphere's not corrected you won't have the tower portal - how do you get here?"
It was Qae's time to step in.
"Fiona and Annabelle are transcended. Chosen by the gods." Well, that wasn't true Fiona thought as the dragon queen helped explain it. She was just excessively horny and the artifact had been a sex toy - another question that she would have asked, but it didn't seem as important.
"Well not quite - it was random, kind of and Annabelle just followed me." Fiona started, but the fox and the gnome were not listening to her. Ash was stood up, ears on high alert while Liddy had grabbed both of her friend's hands.
"YOU'VE MET A GOD? WHICH ONE?" The gnome shouted in her face.
"Uhm... Inafarina, god of passion. I don't know who you met Annabelle?"
"Oniranfra, god of desires. She's lazy." The goblin woman finally spoke up.
"This is why you didn't say anything about your home world - makes sense." Liddy bonked herself on the head, then tried to shook it off. "How did you know Qae?" She looked at the paladin.
"My sphere is more informed than most, and we particularly care to know when other spheres are connected. We knew none have been for quite a while." Qae shrugged.
"Fiona - you said you had a collection like mine, is there a lot of toys in your world?"
"Annabelle"
"She asked"
"Ok, but the next thing I wanted to say first." Fiona looked at her best friend, her green cheeky little face smiling and then conceding to Fiona. A mischievous smile promising that this would be brought up again.
"Inafarina spoke to me on our way out of the nothing." Fiona continued. "I... I have wanted to climb the tower from the start, but it's been... I don't know. It didn't feel as pressured. I know you said it was important Qae, but it didn't feel it. Now..." She stopped for a moment, looking at each of her friends.
"The Outsiders - those little guys, and whoever is behind them, with their strange cloaks and weird world" Annabelle shifted oddly next to her, before taking her hand again. "They want to infiltrate the tower, get to the top floor and turn every single sphere, every single planet, every reality into... That"
Qae nodded.
"This is what I suspected - if the goddess of passion confirms it, it is likely true." Somehow the dragon's face looked even more serious for a moment, Fiona nodding along.
"I think we should take the climbing seriously. Move as fast as we can. Take every opportunity. Use... Use every ability." She looked at Annabelle.
"Mine and yours" She patted her friend's thigh, squeezing her hand. "And I think we should start using Annabelle's [Deepest Desire]." Her eyes wandered back to the sea-gnome on her other side, before going to Ash.
"We won't know what the desire is right?" Fiona pondered out loud.
"No... I've seen some weird and unexpected ones, I stopped using it with the people I partied with..."
"So who's likely to have the least unexpected ones - I worry ours will be something about going back to Earth."
"Earth?" Liddy looked up.
"Our planet - I'll tell you about it later, everything about it I promise."
"Oh! I think... I don't know, maybe you should have my desire first?" Liddy looked around at everyone.
"I'm not... I'm not as fancy as you transcended, and I'm not a big dragon queen. It shouldn't be too tricky, I guess." She almost looked a little sad, and Fiona felt awful cause she'd had the same thought, and was about to agree when Ash spoke up.
"Do you see what the desire is?" She asked Annabelle, who nodded her confirmation.
"Yeah, we both get a system message."
"Right. It should be me, I'm fairly certain I know what it is and... And I think it's doable." The fox woman looked at Fiona with an unreadable look in her eye, her dark tail swishing behind her her ears twitching.
"If you think yours is simple then I don't have any problems with it?" Fiona said, looking at the group who all nodded their agreement and indicated to Annabelle to go ahead and use her ability.
The goblin hopped onto the floor and stood in front of the kneeling fox woman, her hands at her temples, a soft purple trail of magic wrapping around the cannoneer's head before fading.
"Oh..." Annabelle said suddenly. "Yes. This is simple but... Are you certain?"
"mhmm" Ash nodded. "It's... It's not new to me. And if Fiona is okay with it, I would be very happy with it."
"I'm... I think she would be." Annabelle looked back at her friend with a smirk.
"Liddy as well of course - I wouldn't want you to be upset." Ash continued.
"Why would I be upset? What's going on?" The gnome squeaked in confusion. Fiona and Qae shrugged.
"Can you read it out? It's... It's hard for me" Ash said, which worried Fiona. The woman hadn't seemed shy about anything.
Annabelle took a deep breath.
"Ash's desire... Well, I'll read it out just as it's written I guess. 'Deep Desire: Ash desires to be owned and kept as a pet by a master, collared, leashed, and branded, made to serve at all times were feasible.'."
Ash nodded, looking at Fiona, pulling out a collar and leash she must have had in her inventory for... Who knows how long?
"When... When can you do another tattoo?" The fox woman asked.