Tatiana’s magic slowly begins to fill the ritual, a small trickle at first, that soon becomes a wider stream. But even as the volume increases, each drop of it makes its way through the entirety of the runes I’ve carved, and is slowly transformed. It’s a gradual process, each step stripping it of its unique identity, removing the bits that make it Tatiana’s magic, and slowly transforming it into a more pure, more primordial form. A perfect blank slate for me to use.
I reach out to my own magic, and it answers easily, anticipating my contact. It’s still odd, the fact that it knows me as it does. But I do not dwell on it, and together we take control of the magic that is now slowly seeping into our blood. Blood that contains us still, that is still part of us.
The flow of pure magic is slow, but it is enough for now as we weave it into a sieve. A sieve for magic, that is, it is an enchantment of its own, though it is much more nuanced, as well as modal, than the one carved into stone. This one is a construct held within our blood, the pieces of it still pulsing and flowing even now. The cocoon’s liquid is our conduit as we enter the blood of the abomination, it can not shield itself this way, and the construct we have woven, still fed by the larger enchantment, begins its work, it does not make the magic pure. Pure magic is not natural, after all, even for us. Instead, we use the construct to convert the magic of the abomination into our own, the process is slow and arduous, each piece of its blood that we take into ourself takes a concerted effort.
Even now, with its host dead, the abomination fights. It is no surprise, really, as the abomination is not the flesh, but the magic. A corrupted failure that consumed its host. It is wrong, it failed its purpose, and now it must die. We consume and change as we go, tearing apart that which should not be, and then, we take the small bits of it that are not inherently wrong, and make them our own.
Eventually, however, we reach the organ itself. It is more resilient still, even with the liquified cocoon, it fights against us, but its resistance is futile. We are inevitable. Especially when more of our blood joins the rest, a deluge that needs power. Power that we draw from its source, the trickle widens into a stream and feeds the construct, aiding it in its growth, in its change as we become more adapted, more capable at consuming this foe in particular.
We breach the walls of its cells, we seek out what makes up its very essence. A small nucleus of magic, infinitesimally small, but in it, the being resides, and we strip its very existence from this world, one cell at a time we tear it apart and consume it. It is a veritable feast, one that we have yearned for, that we wish to indulge in for longer, but eventually, even the greatest of feasts comes to an end. We breach the last cell that remains, it, much like us, tried to adapt and survive. But it, unlike us, is a failure, and thus it has lost and dies. We savor this one, the final piece of an abomination, a cancerous growth that was never meant to be, finally snuffed out.
Then, we return to us. We take each piece of us that we sent out, and leave behind that which we do not need. The blood becomes not us, the construct becomes us, and the enchantment feeding it is rejected, for it is not us.
As we become us again, we are greeted by a deluge of sensations. A sticky wetness on our shoulder, shouting nearby, and a great deluge of emotions from Mia. Her care for us is evident in her concern, though we are not sure why she is concerned.
It takes us a few moments to gather our wits, before we realize that the sticky wetness is the source of the blood that joined us before. Though as we send our awareness to it, we are unharmed, our body has healed already from its wound. It makes it hard to determine, however, what has caused the wound.
A question that is readily answered as Mia notices our renewed awareness. “Ada! She’s back with us again! Naya, make sure Tatiana doesn’t attack her again.” There is a resolve within her words that we missed before, she seems to have regained some of her strength at least. “Ada, are you alright? You went into another trance, and started growing new limbs all over the place. Tatiana, somewhat reasonably I have to admit, thought you were being taken over, especially when you started draining zer magic. But… since I didn’t notice any distress from you, I am fairly certain that wasn’t the case. So, did you succeed?”
We mull over her words for a few moments before we reply, even as our eyes wander towards where Tatiana and Naya are standing. Naya stands in between us and a rather wound up Tatiana, one that is slithering back and forth, spear in hand. “Yes, we succeeded. The abomination is no more, its defilement of this world has come to an end.” The words we speak are our own, but they are more. An undeniable truth proclaimed. “We’re okay now.” We slowly make our way towards Tatiana, folding our many tails into one behind us, something that seems to calm zer, at least a little. “Tatiana. We apologize for harming you.” Our voice is still serious, as it should be given the circumstances. “We hope we can still work together well, especially as we believe we may be able to aid you in returning home. Eventually. We are not sure when that will be, however.” An apologetic pattern flashes across our skin as we incline our head, at which Tatiana’s tension seems to lessen even more. Hopefully ze will accept our apology.
Tatiana on zer part eyes us for a few long moments, before exchanging a glance with Naya and letting out a small sigh. “I… don’t think she’s talked like that before? A bit concerning, I must admit.” Ze looks towards us, fixating us with zer gaze, and a serious, but no less melodious tone colors her voice. “But yes, Ada, I do accept your apology. And I must apologize for reacting the way I did.” Ze gives us a small bow in turn, before rising and addressing the others. “I apologize to you both for causing distress, and for harming your friend. I should’ve implored the opinion of you both before acting, as you are more familiar with Ada and her capabilities.”
We did not anticipate this reaction, nor zer apparent expectation that all things are good between us now. Though, as far as we are concerned, nothing really changed, thus, instead, we look towards Naya, and send a probing thought towards Mia. It is eventually Naya that speaks up. “Your actions made sense, so I don’t think we can fault you for them. Maybe I would’ve done the same if she suddenly started draining me of my magic…” Naya sighs a little as they consider their next words. “I can’t say that this doesn’t change anything, though. We are strangers, despite having fought alongside one another. Ada here is my priority, because she is the key to helping Mia survive. If you try to harm her again, regardless of the why, I can not promise that you will survive.” Their voice grows more severe as they continue, and they hit the hilt of their scythe on the ground to punctuate the statement.
A mix of emotions reaches us from Mia as Tatiana inclines zer head towards Naya and us. ”I understand, and will make sure to properly earn your trust in the future. I hope you can reciprocate that effort as well. Even now, I know little of any of you, and I have laid my trust, maybe foolishly, in your words, for lack of an alternative.” Ze looks towards us, zer gaze inspecting the patterns flowing over our skin and our tail, before ze continues. “I do not have a way back home, so I will have to go with my best option for the moment. And that is Ada.” Ze sighs as ze raises to a taller posture once more. “I hope you’ll have me for now, and that you can, in fact, aid me. I will do my best to aid you in turn.”
We consider zer for a moment before flickering understanding across our skin. “We do not mind. You may have tried to hurt us, but we are fine now, so it matters little. Though I’d prefer you let Naya and Mia check on me first, next time.” We then turn our attention towards Naya, and flash our appreciation across our skin. “We appreciate your interference. We know you’ve not been without your own concerns about us.” Naya just gives us a short nod, relaxing as they do. The tension slowly leaking out of all of us.
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Our claws sink into the ground as we stretch out our back, our tails splitting once more and fanning out to their full length as we let out a small yawn. “It seems that both of them need to rest.” Mia’s voice is low and soothing, mostly directed towards Tatiana. “I am not sure this is a good resting spot however, despite the original intent to rest here. How about you Tatiana, you are most familiar with these creatures, will resting here cause trouble?”
“Not from the abominations. They usually do not come in from the same place twice, not within living memory at least. I can not say anything about other threats, however.” Ze slithers over towards the tunnel we came through earlier, and curls up on a large flat rock. “I shall take first watch.”
Naya exchanges a glance with us before shrugging and summoning a bedroll for themself from their ring. We follow suit and bring out a few cushions which we curl up on. “Wake me for the second watch, then.” Naya calls out towards Tatiana before slipping into their bedroll, their words only acknowledged by a short nod.
We watch Tatiana for a few minutes as ze keeps vigilant watch, but eventually we turn our direction towards Mia. Communication without words is still complicated in its own way, though doing it more often has been making it easier. We send our emotions her way, an inquiry about her state, and about what happened, mostly, but we also thank her for keeping an eye out for us.
Her response is a burst of reassurance, that keeping us safe is her priority, for a lot of different reasons, though the main one we can feel is that she cares for us. She worries about us, about our well-being, she cares about our development, and worries how it affects us. There is the unspoken and unfocused concern about the change in our address. But we feel her concern comes from a good place, there is no aversion, but curiosity. On our part, we send her some reassurance, that we are us, and that we are fine. That it just feels more natural to refer to us as such now, as our magic and body are part of the same entity, after all. We are one, but separate in some aspects, but none meaningful enough to warrant a distinction of I and it. Not anymore, at least. Though we aren’t sure whether it is a direct effect of the ritual, or merely a side effect from our deeper understanding of our own nature.
Mia though accepts our explanation, and she sends us an impression of her own patience. Related both to our new state of being, and our understanding of it, as well as other matters we have not talked about, matters that may require talking at a future date, but not now. We respect her wishes for the time being, and send our affection her way as we settle in for sleep. Mia’s presence settles around us in a warm embrace.
Soon, we drift off to sleep, and the last we know is Mia’s assurance to care for us, to keep us safe, that she will not have any harm come to us if she can. There is a slight suspicion still towards Tatiana, but the worry is little.
The morning begins by Naya waking us. They let us rest for a long while, Tatiana is already preparing a cold breakfast nearby. Ze seems rather relaxed, much more so than last night and ze only throws us a glance before going back to zer work. “Time to get up, Ada.” We uncurl from our resting place, our many tails moving away from our body and forming back into one.
Mia’s presence is also roused by Naya, we aren’t sure if she fell asleep, or was just keeping to herself as to not wake me, but she soon makes herself known to the others too. “Good morning everyone. I’ve been keeping an eye out for any more anomalies, but the forest seems to be clear of them for now, so we should not run into any more extraplanar troubles for now.”
We slowly make our way towards Tatiana, who pulls out a box of fruit as we arrive. “Mia’s words are reassuring. I’ve prepared a bit of food from my home for us, I hope you can stomach it.” Ze curls up in front of the rock ze has used as a table, and grabs a fruit ze bites into. “They aren’t toxic as far as I am aware, but please be careful.” Ze directs the words primarily at Naya, who gives zer a nod before taking a fruit of their own. Apparently Tatiana has decided that we are resilient enough to not have to worry about poisons, which, we have to admit, is most likely the case.
We snatch up a few of the fruits with our tails, each a different one we have never seen before, though that has been a rather frequent occurrence recently. The first one is a fruit that reminds us of a dragonfruit from before the genesis, though it shares the same color palette as Tatiana, instead of red and green. When we bite into it, its liquid fills our throat in a familiar coppery taste, though there are many different notes to it as well, a cold seeping into our throat, slightly numbing us. Then, there is a stinging sensation, almost like a needle, though it is quickly gone. The taste of it however, is delicious, not just the reminiscence of blood, but there is a sweet note, and a lot of magic inside the liquid.
“Tatiana. You’re not from here, tell us a bit about your world? What you were doing before?” The rest of the fruits are sadly much less interesting in taste, though no less imbued with magic. Naya only eats a few before they’re full as they listen to Tatiana and us talk.
“Well, as I mentioned before, I am the princess of my people. With that comes the responsibility to keep everyone safe from external threats, be they abomination or not. That, much to my chagrin, involves a lot of politics.” Ze lets out a sigh and takes a bite of one of zer fruits. “We try to avoid open conflict and warfare, even when we have a superior fighting force. The queenmother prefers less bloody solutions, and we welcome all that wish to stay with us.” A small chuckles escape zer as ze straightens and slightly changes zer voice. “”It’s much easier to wipe out a country when the majority of its people are on your side.” Is what she always says, and she’s right.” We exchange a glance with Naya before refocusing on Tatiana.
“Oh, we get it! She doesn’t like to inflict suffering on those that aren’t responsible? That’s nice of her, we wish more were like that. We’ve not really been around long, but the kingdom doesn’t seem to be like that.” A small shudder goes through us, though it is quickly soothed by Mia’s presence drawing tighter around us. “We don’t like them. One of them really deserves to die, painfully. For multiple reasons.” We smile a little as we bite into another fruit, this one sweet and tangy.
Tatiana smiles back at our words. “Yes, she prefers to improve things, even if some people need to die for that, but she always has the interest of her people at heart. She’s taught me a lot since I have become the princess, and a lot of my actions are motivated by the same things.” Ze mulls over zer words for a moment. “I hope that they are fine, the second princess isn’t as strong as I am. It’d be a shame if xe dies, xe’s a boon to our people.” There’s a subtle shift in Tatiana’s composure as ze mutters the next few words to zerself. “And I’d quite miss xer.” Ze pauses for a moment before refocusing on us. “By your words, I gather you do not really have a people to call yours here? I’ve come across many travelers, most prefer the solitude of the wilds, they do not have a people either.” Zer voice is warm and soft as ze holds out a hand, offering another fruit to me. “It is not a lesser existence though, they do their own part for the health of our worlds.”
We flicker our appreciation for zer words before we take the offered fruit. It’s a nice and familiar taste, similar to a peach. “Thank you. And no, we do not really have a people here, not yet. There’s people we know from before, but things have changed, we need to learn more of this world first. Though, even then, we intend to help them, not just because of Mia and an old friend of ours.”
Naya gives a slight sound of understanding, while Mia wraps us more closely in her presence. “You’ll find somewhere, someday, hopefully I can be part of it.” Her words are silent to the others, and only meant for us, as are the emotions that come with them. Yearning, fear, and hope. We return reassurance to her, that we would like her to be with us, that we will find a way to save her.
Tatiana is quiet for a long moment, just watching us. Maybe ze notices something going on, but if ze did, ze doesn’t show it. “That is understandable. If not for the queenmother and the other princesses, I am not sure how much attachment I would have to my people. There would be some, but not as intense.” Tatiana uncoils and cleans up the rest of the breakfast with a swipe of zer hand. “We should head out now though, there is little point in thinking of the what ifs, especially when we can influence those what ifs. You all were on some sort of mission, were you not?” We nod our head and rise onto all fours.
Naya follows suit, and starts heading towards the way we came. “Yes, let’s go. We’ll fill you in on the details as we go, as far as Ada and Mia want you to know at least.” They give us a nod, and we all head out of the cavern. Hopefully Tatiana will not attack us again, zer attitude is interesting to us, and ze seems to understand us, to some extent at least.
