Falling with folded wing.., p.52
Falling with Folded Wings 3: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy, page 52
“They’re made from Sun Silver, and yes, quite valuable,” Tiladia replied, quickly adding, “Please release my shard before you store them!”
“Yeah, of course. Don’t worry, Til.” Morgan smiled and reached out to touch the cage holding Tiladia’s shard.
“Til?” Tiladia said before his fingers made contact.
“Yeah. Human’s like shortening speech. It’s called a nickname.”
“I’m aware of the concept, Morgan. I just hadn’t been called that before. I like it, but you should know: Tiladia is already a nickname. You’ll see when you touch that cage.”
“Oh? All right, let’s see!” Morgan rested his fingertips on the warm metal, and suddenly, a menu opened up in his vision:
***Pain Stimulus ❑***
***Summon Entity ❑***
***Prime Containment ❑***
***Destroy Shard ❑***
***Open Containment ❑***
“What the hell? Pain stimulus?” Morgan frowned, wishing he could get his hands on Vormendion.
“Yes. Please don’t activate that, Morgan.” Tiladia floated very close, brushing her mists along his arm as if to remind him she was there.
“I won’t. Which do I push? I’m guessing not Summon or Destroy. What about Prime Containment?”
“No, Morgan, that’s needed to place a new shard within. Simply open the cage.”
“Right.” Morgan touched the button next to Open Containment, and another notification appeared in his vision:
***Warning! This is the shard of Til’danishea, the Steward Spirit for this tower. Releasing the steward will result in the loss of some automated features, such as admitting and banishing guests, note-taking and reminders, and general dwelling information systems. Are you sure? Y/N***
Morgan suddenly understood what Tiladia had meant about her nickname. He wondered if she liked being called Tiladia or if that was how Vormendion had instructed her to style herself because it was simpler to say. “Was he really this much of an asshole?”
Morgan snorted and pushed the yes option. The cage clicked open, and the shard within shimmered and disappeared from his vision, apparently moving in a way that he couldn’t detect to join with Tiladia’s whole. It must have worked because she launched into a circular race around the room, and all of her tinkling crystal bits broke out into a ringing crescendo that echoed in the round, metal chamber while she whirled around, faster almost than Morgan could track with his eyes.
“Thank you!” Tiladia’s ringing, chiming voice said over and over, and Morgan’s cheeks started to hurt from smiling as he watched her celebrate.
After a few moments, however, he laughed and called out, “Tiladia! Come on! Let’s go see if Issa can finish the process! You need a body!”
“Yesssss! Morgan!” She streaked out of the chamber and away, clearly not intending to match his slower pace through the tower.
“Heh.” Morgan shrugged and scooped the soul fragment cages into his storage ring. That done, he locked up the secret control center of the tower and made his way back to the workshop. He found Issa setting up all the parts of Tiladia’s new body on one of the longer workbenches near the rear, and he immediately saw why the dragon spirit had wanted to keep her new body a secret. The unmistakably humanoid arms, legs, feet, and hands gave away the secret: Tiladia wanted to look like the people she lived with. Well, at least him and Issa, Morgan corrected himself, not seeing any long spider legs.
“These are beautiful,” Morgan breathed as he drew nearer, seeing the shimmering, silvery metal of the body parts etched with tiny, perfect lines of runes, though only in certain areas; Morgan had no idea what had determined their placement.
“I’m going to look like a human, Morgan!” Tiladia chimed, swooping out of the air where she’d been continuing her celebration of the wholeness of her soul.
“Really, Tiladia? Is that what you want, or is that what you think I want?” Morgan asked before he could think better of it.
“Of course that’s what she wants!” Issa snapped. “Do you think we didn’t have many long conversations about this?” She scowled at him, trying to make eye contact, and Morgan realized his reaction to Tiladia’s announcement hadn’t been ideal. The little cloud of mist and ethereal crystal was now slowly moving around the table, and Morgan couldn’t help seeing that much of the excitement had left her.
“Tiladia,” he said, clearing his throat. “I couldn’t imagine a better compliment to humankind. You’re such a wonderful spirit, such a wonderful person! I’m so honored that you’d like to take the shape of my people.”
“Oh, thank you, Morgan!” she exclaimed, swooping close again. “I love all the humans I’ve met. I love little Ykleedra, too, but I like your form better. It’s not very unlike one which I used to take when I was a dragon!”
“Really?”
“Yes! I would take the form of a fae from time to time to make travel and trade easier when I visited their realm.”
“You … visited the Fae Realm when you were a dragon?” Morgan, once again, berated himself for not knowing enough about Tiladia.
“I visited many places, Morgan, and having my spirit whole again has helped me to remember many things I’d let fade. Thank you again for my freedom!”
“This is lovely,” Issa said, “but we have a town to save or something, and I can’t concentrate while you two chat.”
She grunted softly, and Morgan saw she was carefully slotting rods into one of the silvery legs, her slightly protruding belly bumping against the workbench.
“Can I help?” Morgan asked.
“No. Please just sit on that shop stool and watch. If all goes well, everything will be done in a few hours, and then you’ll really see the magic of this new alloy!” Issa had a gleam in her eyes and a smile on her face, and Morgan felt very glad that she’d agreed to take the inheritance and that he hadn’t frivolously used the skills to keep them out of someone else’s hands. He pulled up a stool and settled in, watching Issa put her legendary-ranked Artificer class to work.
Morgan
Issa gently lifted the globe of sparkling, gem-filled liquid and nestled it among the thousands of curled, hairlike copper, gold, and silver wires in Tiladia’s new head. A shimmer of Energy passed through the nest of wires before fading. Morgan watched, with rapt attention, as Issa carefully placed the top of the silvery skull over the dome, gently running a finger along the seam to seal it with a pulse of Energy.
“Wow. Issa, that looked incredibly complicated. Where’d you get the materials for that … um, crystal brain?”
“I purchased all the raw precious metals I needed, but many of the more esoteric items, like the memory gems, came from Vormendion’s stockpile. I should have talked to you about this, but I knew you’d say it was all right.”
“Yeah, of course—”
“Well, I should mention that some of these objects would fund a household in Tarn’s Crossing for years …” Issa said more softly, sort of trailing off, glancing nervously at Morgan while she worked.
“Huh. Well, it’s only money, right? This is worth it.”
Issa didn’t reply, but Morgan could see the smile on her face while she worked. Tiladia’s silvery body was nearly complete. As Issa had finished the interior of each limb, each digit, she’d been slowly, steadily assembling the body. Once she placed the head atop the neck, carefully closing the seam where the artificial vertebrae touched the base of the skull, Morgan could see a complete, silvery woman lying on the bench.
“She looks like an early Noah Unit,” he commented, forgetting for the moment that neither Tiladia nor Issa had any idea what that was.
“Noah Unit?” Issa asked, only half paying attention to him.
“They were, uh, artificial people that we developed to help manage our spaceships. The early ones had metallic bodies like this.”
“I’m not artificial,” Tiladia noted, hovering behind Issa and watching her progress.
“No, that was the wrong sort of comparison to make. I’m sorry,” he apologized.
“She won’t look metallic for long. When I finish and she bonds with the new body, it will take on an aspect from her mind. I’m so excited to see how it looks; this alloy made it possible!”
“Really? This is incredible, Issa.”
“It’s all made possible by many lucky circumstances, really. I can’t take credit for everything. My class is part of it, but Vormendion worked for decades to acquire the skill and spell I learned. Put that aside and look at the fortune of materials we had access to.” She glanced at Tiladia’s amorphous form and added, “And a very special spirit willing to go along with my design!”
“I’m eager to be part of this, Lady Issa. I couldn’t possibly thank you enough.” Tiladia curled gently around Issa and then floated back, giving her room to work.
“Everything is assembled,” Issa said, surprising Morgan as she straightened and gestured at the silvery body. “Two more steps are needed: Tiladia, you need to bond with the body, but it will remain inert until someone primes the Core with a surge of pure Energy. Morgan, I’m not sure I have enough, but if you hold hands with me and push some of your pure Energy toward me,” she paused and spoke very clearly, “Not your void Energy, Morgan.” He nodded, and she continued, “Then I will be able to draw on it as I activate the body.”
“I’m ready,” Tiladia declared, her crystal voice speaking so quickly that the independent notes ran together, making it hard for Morgan to understand.
“You’ll feel strange, Tiladia, maybe even lose consciousness while we prime your Core. Don’t be worried; I promise it won’t last long.”
“God, I feel like we should have some sort of ceremony or something. This all feels so . . .” Morgan grasped for the right word and finally settled on, “momentous. We don’t have time to mess around, though. Til, when you’re ready.”
Morgan stood up and moved beside Issa, holding out his hand. Issa took it, resting her other hand on the silver body’s stomach, right above the carefully sculpted navel.
“Tiladia, just settle down over the body. You’ll feel the pathways meant for a spirit. Flow into them, and I’ll cast Vormendion’s spell, binding you to the vessel.” Morgan heard Issa inhale and knew she was holding her breath while they watched Tiladia gently settle down.
The spirit rested above the body—an amorphous, glittering, tinkling cloud—for just a moment, and then she seemed to flow into the chest, right between the two small breasts Issa had crafted. She was gone in the space of two of Morgan’s breaths, and he thought he detected a brighter shimmer emanating from the body’s silvery skin.
Issa concentrated for a moment, Morgan feeling Energy surge from her, and then the body pulsed with a brilliant silver-turquoise light. Morgan squinted against the glare until it faded, and soon, the body returned to its usual luster. “Ready? Morgan? Push a thread of Energy into my hand, please.”
Morgan had spaced out, watching the light show coming from Tiladia’s new body, and it wasn’t until Issa said his name that he registered her voice. “Right, here it comes.”
He teased a thread of Energy from the maelstrom circling his Core, pulling the pure Energy out along his pathways and pushing it toward Issa. He felt her take hold, and his instinct was to resist, but he tamped down on his will, letting it flow. Soon, a steady ribbon of Energy was pouring out of him and into Issa.
She began to radiate with the Energy, and when he looked at her hand touching Tiladia’s new belly, he saw the bright silver-turquoise Energy signature again. As it grew in brightness, he became aware of an almost subsonic hum coming from Issa. Looking at her, he saw her partially open mouth and thousand-yard stare, and began to worry.
Had she taken on something that was too much for her? Should she have to use his Energy to jumpstart her creation? Was she hurting herself?
He needn’t have worried, however. Almost as soon as his thoughts began to spiral, he felt the tug on his Core lessen, and then the stream of Energy flowing out to Issa tapered off. The pulsing Energy around her hand subsided, and Issa inhaled deeply through her nose before smiling, looking up at Morgan. “It’s done.”
Morgan looked at the inert but softly shimmering body. “She’s not moving or anything.”
“I can see that, Morgan.” Issa tsked and gently brushed Tiladia’s brow. Even with her shimmering skin, Morgan could see Issa had put a lot of love and attention to detail into crafting Tiladia’s face. It was faintly heart-shaped with a pert nose, full lips on a small mouth, a gentle indentation above her upper lip, and a graceful jawline stretching up to her finely detailed, elegant ears.
“Will she have hair?” Morgan asked, noting the utter lack of it.
“That’s the plan. I think right now she’s settling in. As her soul meshes with the body, it will start to read her intent, and then she’ll take on her new aspect. I’m not sure how long it will take …” Issa trailed off, gently resting her hand on Tiladia’s belly again. “It’s working, though. I can feel the Core pulsing and feeding Energy into her pathways.
“Will she be able to shape-shift?” Morgan asked, imagining the body shifting to look different based on Tiladia’s intent.
“No, silly. Her intent is subconscious, and this is a one-time process. Look!” Issa pointed to a circle on Tiladia’s chest where the shimmering surface had grown cloudy, resolving into a patch of pale pigment. Morgan watched as the color spread, dulling the reflective, metallic surface and gradually shifting to look like actual skin. “Morgan, hold your arm up here.” Issa took his fingers, too impatient for him to register what she meant, and pressed his hand on Tiladia’s stomach. Their skin tones were a perfect match.
“She’s copied my skin.” Morgan laughed. “God, it feels real. It doesn’t feel like metal at all!” Morgan quickly pulled his hand away, aware that he’d been resting it on Tiladia’s naked stomach. As his eyes drifted upward, he jerked his head away—Tiladia’s breasts had taken on a fleshy aspect as well. “Give her a blanket or something!” he sputtered.
Issa laughed, pulling her magical cloak from her ring and draping it over Tiladia’s torso. As she did so, Morgan saw little hairs start to sprout from Tiladia’s scalp. He pointed, watching them lengthen into a lustrous mane of wavy, shimmering, silver-colored hair.
“Oh, it’s beautiful, and I don’t think this is a remnant of the alloy. Tiladia told me her dragon scales were silver!” Issa clapped her hands together.
“Damn, it looks amazing,” Morgan said, noting that Tiladia’s eyebrows had also sprouted thick, silver hairs. A moment later, the reborn dragon spirit shuddered, opened her mouth to reveal sharp, white teeth, and inhaled. Then her eyes shot open, and gleaming silver irises regarded Morgan and Issa.
“Am I alive?” she asked, her voice clear, wholly unique, and beautiful. It rang with clarity and had a lilting tone, very different from her old incarnation’s false chiming voice.
“You are!” Issa said, taking up one of Tiladia’s perfect, delicate hands. “How do you feel?”
“I feel … I feel … I feel!” Tiladia exclaimed, her voice rising in excitement with each repetition. “Lady Issa! I can see you more clearly now! I can feel you! Oh, Gods, you’re warm!” Tiladia sat up, Issa’s cloak sliding down and revealing her pale chest, but she didn’t care. She reached out and grabbed Morgan’s hand, pulling it close. “Morgan! I’ve wanted to hug you, to touch you. Oh, Elder Gods! Thank you! Thank you both!” Tears formed in her perfect, bright eyes and began to stream down her cheeks, and Issa was suddenly sobbing, pulling Tiladia into an embrace.
“I’m so happy for you, Til. I’m going to give you a minute to get dressed. I’m sure Issa has something for you.” Morgan turned away, but Tiladia laughed, pulling back from Issa.
“I’ll get dressed, but don’t worry, Morgan. I spent much of my old life without clothes. This doesn’t bother me.”
“Right,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “You’re not a dragon anymore, though.”
“Well, the System still thinks I am, at least partially! My race says Dragonkind.” Her lilting voice was so clear and her humor so evident that Morgan couldn’t believe it was the same Tiladia whose emotions he’d struggled to read for so long. She smiled as she shrugged into the silky black shirt Issa handed her, and before he could turn away, she stood up to pull on a pair of matching leggings.
“God,” Morgan blurted, looking away quickly.
“So the System recognized you right away?” Issa asked, cutting him off.
“Yes! I’m only Base Zero, so no class or levels, but my Core is Improved Five! I can’t wait to start leveling again, Issa. You did a perfect job!”
“That’s fantastic! And your race?”
“Base Seven! Don’t you think that since the System ranked it, I can continue to improve it?”
“Yes, that makes sense!” Issa agreed, picking up her cloak and slipping it back into storage.
“This is all wonderful,” Morgan said, watching as Tiladia tried out her legs. She was slender and nearly the same size as Issa, and she had a natural grace to her movements which spoke volumes, either about Issa’s ability to integrate her into a new body or her existing knowledge of bipedal locomotion. “But do you mind seeing if you can go outside? I need to get out there as soon as possible.”
“Of course! The townsfolk! They must be counting on us,” Tiladia exclaimed, hurrying past Morgan for the stairs. She started down once she got to them, and Morgan and Issa followed. In a few steps, he walked into the entry hall with Issa, but Tiladia was nowhere to be seen.
“What the—” he started, but Issa laughed.
“She doesn’t have permission for the stairs, Morgan. Can you grant it?”
“Oh shit,” Morgan said. Staring into space, he reached out to feel the tower. He concentrated on the spot where he felt Tiladia, her Core blazing brightly with pure golden Energy, and with a tweak of his will, he granted her permission to the staircase and, while he was at it, permission to enter and exit the tower. Seconds later, Tiladia came stumbling down.
