Blue core, p.21
Blue Core, page 21
part #1 of Blue Core Series
This close to the Retreat, it seemed that most of the dangerous monsters had been culled. Aside from red-throated, humming flowers and gnarled trees that moved of their own accord, it was almost as quiet as the wilderness around Blue. "From here on in, we’re under the authority of the Retreat," Annit told her. "So no infighting, theft, any of that. Not that I expect you’d try, but just so you know. Everyone else knows too, and there’s some really high-level Classers to enforce it. So you’re safe from poaching or bullying within the Retreat at least."
"I appreciate that." Actually, she was probably the only level one in the whole place. Of course, if that was an issue she could artificially inflate her level with [Illusory Presence] but that was asking for its own sort of trouble. Especially if people figured out she could fake her Status. Even with Blue’s backing that could get ugly.
She slipped back into [Ghost Step] to follow Annit through the remaining distance between them and the entrance to the Retreat. Despite the fact that [Ghost Step] was, to her, an absurd ability, the fact that she could only just keep up with Annit showed how much of a gulf there was between her level and Skill ranks and people who’d earned their second tier legitimately. A few weeks worth of practice and one or two encounters didn’t do much to make up for the years of experience people like Annit had, no matter what her Skills were.
Both of them returned to more normal movement as they approached the gate of Wildwood Retreat. It was oversized, to account for whatever exotic beasts Classers might bring along, but the guards looked normal. In fact, to judge from their attire they were [Shield Soldiers] just like Dyen, and one of them waved at Annit as they approached.
"Another fortune-seeker from Khiral?" He asked, lifting his eyebrows at Shayma.
"No, this one’s actually important." Annit waved at Shayma, who bowed before producing the royal seal.
"My name is Shayma Ell, and I am a messenger from Queen Iniri. I wish to speak to Sir Monat, if he is still in charge."
The guard whistled. "Yeah, that’s important, but it’s not my call to make. Let me get you logged on the Status sigil, ma’am. Annit, will you take her to the Captain?"
She made a face. "If I must."
"I’d appreciate it…"
"Fine, fine." Annit shrugged. "Get her processed through then, and let’s get it over with."
"Miss Shayma, just over here." The guard beckoned her to an alcove set in the wall between the inner and outer gates, where there was indeed a Status sigil placed in a pedestal that constantly fed it magic.
"ID checks, huh? Makes sense, especially since a bunch of people are from out-of-kingdom. I wonder what it takes to get yourself banned?"
"Let’s not find out," Shayma muttered, putting her hand on the Sigil stone. She suppressed her real race, keeping herself as a "fox-kin demihuman," but otherwise let the real Status show.
"Level fucking one? What? Patron or not, I wouldn’t have taken you here if I’d known you were that low-level!" Annit’s scowl was thunderous.
"Look at the Skills though," the guard suggested. "That’s not a tier-one Class, with those skills. What’s going on?"
"Just blame it all on me. That should shut them up."
Shayma rolled her eyes, but it was good advice, and probably what she would have done anyway. "I’m also a representative of a Power. All that is his influence." She waved at the Status screen. Although Blue had told her about some of her Skills leveling up, and she could even tell the difference, it was still nice to see higher numbers next to [Ghost Step] and [Phantom Pocket].
"Right, definitely take her to the Captain." The guard looked a little spooked. "Nice to meet you, ma’am."
"And you, sir," Shayma said politely before following Annit inside the Retreat proper.
Everyone looked like proper adventurers, most of them kitted out in armor and bearing weapons, which was far from what Iniri’s cities looked like. It was predominantly swords and shield, staffs and spears, and a sprinkling of bows, daggers, and maces. But here and there were more exotic weapons, like whips or massive mauls or sharpened discs Blue identified as chakrams. Some people carried nothing at all, but Blue whispered in her ear that most of these people had really scary sounding Classes and the weapons themselves weren’t obvious.
The streets were well-kept, and lined almost exclusively with shops and crafthouses. Whether parties were heading to the woods below or the tree itself, Wildwood catered to their needs by supplying food, materials, equipment, healing, and of course entertainment. Shayma spotted three separate pubs on the short walk from the gate, each one proclaiming to have more delicious ale than the last. Though, given that they probably used high-magic ingredients from Wildwood to brew it, they probably had a reason for boasting. The building they were headed toward was squat and thick-walled, standing out from the colorful signs by its sheer drabness and the helmet sigil of a guardhouse.
Shayma could tell exactly why Annit didn’t want to deal with the Captain the moment the pair of them stepped into the room. The man had a natural sneer, and maybe even a natural leer. He was probably handsome enough, but Blue had rather altered her perspective on that sort of thing. "Well?" He said, somehow managing to put the exact right intonation into the single word to imply they were wasting his time and really shouldn’t have come in the first place.
"Jonas sent us," Annit said shortly, flipping a hand in Shayma’s direction. She took the cue, stepping forward and offering him a bow as Blue muttered the man’s Status in her head. Goral Granson, Level 52 [Bulwark of Tempered Steel]. A tier three class by the look of it, probably an upgrade from [Shield Soldier].
"My name is Shayma Ell, and I’m a messenger from Queen Iniri," she repeated, producing the seal. "I wish to speak to Sir Monat."
Goral leaned forward enough to touch the seal, verifying its authenticity, then straightened up. The sneer vanished, but the leer didn’t. "Of course! I will escort you to the Grandmaster myself!"
"I don’t trust this guy. Maybe if you bring Annit with you he won’t flirt so much I get annoyed. Besides, once you deliver the message maybe we can see Keri."
"Thank you," Shayma gave Goral a smile and then looked over at Annit. "My Patron would like you to come, too. We can conclude our business once I deliver my message."
Annit’s eyes widened, taking it for an order and nodding. "Yes, of course."
"The invitation isn’t extended to you," Goral said dismissively. "As Shayma is the Queen’s messenger, of course she can, but -"
"Her Patron is a Power," Annit said, interrupting Goral with apparent relish. "I’m not going to argue with him. If you want to, I won’t stop you."
"That seems unlikely…" Goral frowned at Shayma, and she shrugged.
"He’s the one who is protecting Queen Iniri against Vok Nal," she said, exaggerating only slightly. "If Blue wants her to come, she comes."
"Hmph. Fine. I will let the Grandmaster decide." He eyed them. "I assume neither of you have flight? Then I’ll have Lockert bring us."
Lockert turned out to be a long, rainbow-colored ribbon that dove down from the sky once Goral puffed on a rune-carved whistle. "What?" It demanded, in a gruff, grumpy voice that did not fit the tiny, multi-eyed head of the floating beast at all.
"Uhh, this guy’s actually human. Level 44, but his Class says "Overridden: Wind Beast." Kinda creepy."
Shayma merely nodded. Up close, Lockert’s body undulated slowly, rippling along the color-striped length, not quite touching the ground, no more than a thumb thick but wider than she was tall, and half as long as the street, to boot.
"We need to take these two to the Grandmaster’s place," Goral said, and Lockert sighed loudly, then flew in a circle about them. She could see the wind Affinity, but couldn’t feel the air do more than move slightly before both she and Annit were lifted off of the ground, abruptly soaring into the sky. Goral was left behind, the breeze blowing away a curse as Lockert snickered.
"You don’t like him either, huh?" Annit ventured.
"He knew me before I got turned into this and he still treats me like a brainless beast," Lockert said, still grumpy and gruff. "And he knows the stupid whistle hurts my ears."
"I’m sorry to hear that," Shayma said politely, trying to ignore the tilting horizon as Lockert’s Affinity pulled them along. "Do you have to obey him?"
"Eh, mostly. Cost of being protected by the Retreat. Otherwise the Classers might mistake me for a beast and...well, not like I can use any of my Skills anymore!"
"What happened to you?" Annit, bless her, asked the question Shayma was too polite to.
"Old story. Made a mistake trying to overload on mana so I could evolve my Class." The mana-rich food and drink often served in Wildwood and similar places gave people a little extra edge in trying to break through in evolving Classes or Skills, since such things required stretching yourself to your limit. But some people went beyond normal, moderate consumption and actually hoarded Affinity mana in an attempt to boost themselves even further.
Sources did something similar, making it easier to use your Skills and, it was said, tempering your Class in the direction of the Affinity of the source you used. Given that [Seeker] didn’t actually have an Affinity, she hadn’t paid too much attention to how that worked. Now that she had [Illusion] she probably should, though she’d never heard of an illusion Affinity source.
"I jumped in a wind Affinity pool," Lockert added, and she and Annit shared a look. That was an incredibly dumb thing to do. How’d he even find a pure Affinity mana pool?
Neither of them had time to ask before they touched down on solid ground. Lockert had brought them to the top of one of the towers, which had been turned into a miniature garden. Half-sized trees and flowering plants grew wild, crowding over a paved walkway that led toward a log cabin. Lockert himself shot away as soon as they were deposited on a small paved circle, leaving them to their own devices.
"Have you ever been here before?"
Annit shook her head. "I’ve never had the honor of meeting the Grandmaster."
"He’s on the front porch of the cabin. He’s whittling." Blue, of course, had been paying attention and could see things she couldn’t. "Just follow the path and you’ll make it there. As far as I can tell there aren’t any other people up here. Sort of weird to have a log cabin in the middle of a city, but I guess rich people get to be eccentric."
"Well, Blue says it’s just this way, so…" Shayma followed the path. Annit came behind, looking almost as nervous as she had when she’d realized Blue actually was a Power.
Really, the man sitting on the porch of the cabin when it came into view didn’t look like he was some sort of terrifying high-level Classer. He was just an elderly man with fraying hair wearing a pair of rumpled shorts, sitting in a chair and working a piece of wood with a knife. Not that most elderly men had muscles that rippled with each flick of the knife, nor a piercing gaze that seemed to assess her with a casual glance.
"Thul Monat, level seventy-seven! He’s a ‘Grandmaster of the Fist,’ which sounds like a hell of a Class, let me tell you."
A fourth-tier Class, by the sound of it. Though with that level, she’d expect nothing less.
"What are you youngsters doing up here?" He asked, his voice gravelly but kind, exactly the sort of tone she’d expect from her favorite grandfather.
Shayma produced the seal for the third time, repeating her lines as she held it out. This time she followed her verbal message with the actual missive, ribboned and sealed, producing it from [Phantom Pocket]. "I don’t know the full contents of the message, but I do know she wants high-level Classers. Even if they aren’t her subjects, she’s willing to reward them for coming to her aid."
"It warms my heart to hear she’s still alive." Monat said, taking the missive. "And fighting back! She’s just like her dad. I fought under his command back during the days of the Black Pirate King, you know…" He stopped and chuckled. "But don’t let me get started. This old man will talk your ears off. Instead, let me ask you a question." The kindly demeanor faded slightly, revealing an edge of steel. "What exactly are you, girl? There’s more than a whiff of dungeon about you, but here you stand before me with the Queen’s message."
"Ah…" She should have guessed that a high level Classer would be able to tell she wasn’t quite a normal fox-kin. "I’m Blue’s emissary, too. He’s a Power, and a Dungeon."
"I’ve never heard of him." Monat mused. "But you’ve got entirely too much strange about you for it to be a complete bluff. So what does Blue want from us?"
"I don’t want anything. Oh, except maybe some floating tree seeds if they’ve got ‘em. But we can buy those if they exist. I don’t want anything as a Power or whatever."
"He doesn’t have any business here himself. He’ll just be providing the teleportation, through me."
"I see." The Grandmaster pursed his lips in thought. "Well, I will need to keep an eye on you anyway, for replies and, as you say, any teleportation that may be needed. Where are you staying?"
"Haven’t gotten that far yet," Shayma said. "But Blue does have business with Annit, and given she knows the city and we don’t, I’ll leave it up to her."
Monat’s gaze shifted to Annit. "Are you sure you know what you’re doing, young Miss Annit?" His voice had an edge to it, though whether he was trying to warn Shayma, Blue, or Annit she wasn’t sure.
"Yes, sir." Annit was subdued. "I haven’t agreed to anything yet."
Monat nodded and turned his attention back to Shayma. "I’ll send Lockert to get you when I have something to report. Until then...enjoy the Retreat!"
Day 99 - Blue (Explicit)
Honestly it was more a resort than a retreat, to my eye. Maybe it was just the sheer wealth of the clientele, but the services were a lot fancier than Khiral’s. The moneychanger provided little capsules of Source dust in exchange for one of Shayma’s gems, the mana-impregnated stone serving as both a currency and crafting resource for the locals. It seemed to me to be rather less convenient than gold, but I guess gold had fewer uses. Source stuff made magical equipment, and if I could still use equipment I would have been all about that.
But, fancy facilities. The sheer level of ambient magic and a ready supply of Source materials meant that they had all sorts of amenities, starting from when Shayma walked through the door of the Flowering Branch Inn.
"Oh wow, it feels nice in here!" She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
"What do you mean?" Genius Loci didn’t quite get me the feel of the air. Touch and temperature had always been a little difficult, all the way from the beginning. Even now at best I could mostly only guess at how comfortable things were. Shayma had needed to tell me how hot was too hot or how cold was too cold for the farming areas.
"It’s cooler and easier to breathe," she explained, then her mouth curled into a smile. "If you used the sense-sharing you’d be able to tell yourself," she added archly.
"I’m not sure either of us would pay much attention to things if I did that."
"I can take it if you can," she challenged, looking around the interior of the inn. It was more like a hotel, all rich wood and polished stone, the kitchen and dining room separate from reception.
Annit gave her a look. She didn’t know what we were talking about but she was clearly happy to flee from any Power-touched discussion. "I’m going to go find Keri," she said. "I’ll meet you back here in a while?"
"Works for me," Shayma said, and I waited until Annit walked out the door before activating the Purifier Breeding Station on my mischievous fox spirit.
The skintight clothing that it manifested wasn’t even my doing. It was what I wanted, but it wasn’t something I consciously shaped, which implied to me that as things evolved they moved from some sort of system template to more me. Not that I had any objections. Not when it meant I could feel every inch of her skin, smooth and warm and soft, from the swell of her breasts to the ticklish spot just above her tail.
With it too, came her sensations, how I wrapped her softer and smoother than even the fine clothing she was wearing, stroking softly along her arms and legs without any conscious input from me. So too did I understand what she was talking about when it came to the inn’s atmosphere. They had air conditioning! A faint breeze of cool air, not too dry or too humid, blew across her face, smelling of flowers and green things. I definitely hadn’t tried to scent my air but I did have the resources...
"Mm, that’s nice," Shayma said, walking further into the lobby, such as it was, leaving it ambiguous whether she meant the climate control or the soft caresses now running down her back. Like I’d warned her I wasn’t too much interested in the surroundings, more in how she was planning to negotiate a room while I squeezed her rear, stroking at the base of her tail and running slow rings around her breasts.
The breeding station still made it nearly impossible to hold back once I touched Shayma, but it was softer now, and teasing was almost as satisfying as anything more direct, so I kept things light as she stepped up to the counter. Just some minor nibbling on the nape of her neck, a long slow caress down her sides to her hips. Her voice was steady as she portioned out two capsules of Source powder for a room for a few days, but I knew she was enjoying it both through the link and by the wetness I licked away between her legs. Honestly I hadn’t realized Shayma had this side to her, but then, there were certain benefits to having a lover closer than your own skin.
She finished up at the desk by choosing a key type, and she selected a wooden pin inscribed with a flowering branch. When she attached it to the front of her tunic, her fingers trembled oh-so-faintly from the feel of me rubbing at the base of her tail, slowly stroking up her thighs as I watched her try to suppress any reaction. It was a fun little game, and out of curiosity I pinched her rear as she walked away from the counter. Her hips had rather more sway than usual, and the clerk couldn’t help but stare as she twitched slightly. "None of that!" She whispered at me.
