NOVEL FROG (Vol 5) Chapter 40: Every Little Change
Tashome glanced up at Samantha, then looked down at the arrow. He sat back in his chair and picked it up. His brows furrowed instantly upon touching it. He inspected it for a long few moments. There was a feel of him weighing it in his hands — a weight nothing to do with physical mass.
Haunted eyes closed as he asked softly, “Do you want… the original way of this thing, or the altered? Does that make sense to you?”
Sammy couldn’t keep the scowl off of her face. She crossed her arms. “The original. Some kind of wide-scale buff effect?”
Tashome opened his eyes to study her. He nodded slowly. “The other is quite powerful. A slayer.”
“Yes, I’m intimately familiar with it, Tashome,” she replied, probably with too much passion for something intended as mere snark. “I don’t care if it spears a hundred at a time and danced a jig afterward, I want the original intent restored as much as possible.”
“Mmn. And what of your own pain?”
Sammy blinked in confusion. “What?”
After a significant time with his eyes locked with hers, he set the arrow down carefully on the table, as if for a priceless artifact, then steepled his hands on the desk, looking down at them. “If you prefer to extract the maximum potential out of this item, you would transmute the full gravitas of the story it holds. And you would bond it to its logical possessor. The owner it calls for.”
“He’s long gone, Tashome, so I don’t-”
Tashome raised his head and a weary eyebrow at her. “I mean you, Samantha.”
“I’m not an archer.”
“That’s wholly irrelevant — it can be made into a dart or javelin. Again: if you want the true full potential, it must be yours. And that will change it.”
“How exactly?”
He shrugged. “Based on the little I know of your experience, I’d say it’ll be far less happy-go-lucky. What it did to you is of course quite significant.”
“No shit, man — it shot through my fucking heart! It was lodged there!” Just barely, her voice stayed animated enough not to turn into a sob as the discussion dredged back up the raw emotional trauma of the incident. But she could feel a flush, feel her heart racing again as if to assure its owner it was functioning properly.
I don’t need this right now, but damn it all, I need this thing to be changed. Need something tangibly useful out of that hellscape. That’ll be some closure.
Tashome nodded in understanding, eyes cast to the desk. “I’m sorry if my words are insensitive.”
Sammy sighed and took a deep breath. Then she took another. “It’s fine. Just… tell me what you have to. Rip the wax off in one motion.”
“Okay… blood still stains it, Samantha. Your blood. It will resist being discounted. Do you realize what it did in a wider conceptual sense? It killed — or kill-shotted at least — the Goddess of Fate. Nothing conspired, no artifice to arrange, it authentically almost ended you for all intents and purposes. At least in the way the metaphysical world works. This heavily begs for ‘steering,’ if you will.”
“Are you trying to tell me this thing could be made into a fucking god killer?”
Tashome — horrifyingly — nodded his head, which felt like damnation to Sammy. “I can’t say what that looks like, but it being anti-god and exceptionally dangerous to them is a given.”
Sammy’s mouth opened to respond, then closed. Then opened and closed again. Finally, she sighed and sagged, suddenly fatigued by the whole matter and wishing she’d never bothered. Her hands found the desk to lean over.
Ridiculously dramatic nonsense! It’s not a big deal! It’s… — The giant standing over her, mocking / she can’t move / she tries to crawl / the pain, every twitch and thought licks of liquid flame / an arrow all the way through / death one step back / you lose —
… damn it. Please, just go away…
“On the other hand,” Tashome declared, overly even, as he seemed to have picked up the arrow anew, “integrating it into the buffing item… perhaps it could be made to reflect your defiance of death. The fact that… this blood was a payment in advance to all the things and people you hold on for. Emulating your determination to push on in the face of apparently certain defeat.”
Sammy’s head came up as she eyed Tashome doubtfully. “Really? Equivalent? Close to it?”
“Yes, really. Something useful still in a mass engagement, like it once was, but flavored differently and more powerful.”
It was something of a lifeline thrown to her. Sammy stood back up straight and forced a little, sorry laugh. “Ha! Well, why didn’t you say so?! Let’s do that.”
“Apologies. I had to take a second look, so to speak. These things aren’t always obvious. And you’re certain you want this, hmm?”
“Absolutely. I’m not even sure what sort of message I send as the spiritual head of a Pantheon having a god killer on tap. Right? Not only that, but my enemy isn’t even a god.” Briefly, her mind flickered to her potential issues with Glae, but she deliberately blew past it. “I’m sure we’ll need something else for him.”
“You do have a point.”
“Okay… thanks, Tash. Whenever you can get to this, alright? I’m sure you have other priorities.”
Tashome set the arrow down once more, this time with seeming reluctance. “Of course. But it calls to me. Soon.”
“Fantastic. Well, I gotta run, sorry. Otherwise, I’d hang out. Cramming some tasks in before I finish up the latest ordeal.”
“Another key member then, hmm?”
“Very key. We’ll talk later, though — byeeeee!” Sammy did a little wave and hurried out, closing the door behind her. She tried not to be conscious of her heartbeat.
Okay, time to hit the water! Hopefully, I can avoid random Sea Entity Ooglers checking out my goods this time…
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Tashome watched Samantha exit and his eyes lingered on the door, lost in a typical admixture of thoughts and impressions. His own and… various other voices that contended. They grew less like his own thoughts by the day — he knew they were changing. Evolving. Over a long, long period, they would almost certainly compete. If one ever won…
I remain in control.
Tashome found himself staring at the arrow. Through his newer senses, the object ‘glared,’ saturated thick and rich with novelty and meaning. It had so much power on the inverted ‘other side,’ just waiting to blossom into reality. Sacrifices already made, hidden pain not yet reflected.
Much like its new owner. Or the other.
That thought sent a disturbing shiver up his spine. Azure. He’d always felt some odd mix of attraction and repulsion toward her. It had magnified into the sun since he’d taken that terrible step into greater understanding within the Fortuneteller’s realm. As soon as he saw her again, in passing. Sheer madness.
Because she was targetable. She was like an artifact, a construct. One little eye pointed and peeking from a hidden mass. Like all of us, but with her I can sense it so much stronger through this damnable specialty.
Virtually infinite pain warbling through the latticework of reality. He was fairly confident he could touch her and bring out an apocalypse. At least, if her willpower couldn’t block it — that he didn’t know. With enough control and expertise, perhaps he could just bring out a little bubble or two without murdering the world, but he wasn’t confident.
Practice makes perfect. Clarity will come. Or not. It is likely some forbidden thing that should never be done. That would be pretty typical.
He pulled a cloth from the desk and wrapped the arrow so he didn’t have to make skin contact again, and then rose to stow it in a chest. Finally, he closed it shut and took a deep breath. The calls and whispers from it on the promises within abated.
A bit of temporary relief from the bed I made.
It had gotten worse when he offered a bit of himself into the equation, which he’d done when he’d seen how desperately Samantha wanted the arrow to be constructive rather than destructive, as was its new, overriding nature. There was no way to alter the path of its potential other than to transmute it as he’d effectively already done.
A small sacrifice. A necessary sacrifice. I didn’t make it lightly, Samantha. I won’t ruin the end we crave. But I know you need this.
He plopped back down at the desk and took another swig of whiskey. Two. He was feeling optimistic he could get some sleep again soon. His little maneuver had quieted the urges and the din within him. It was wise to take advantage when he could.
There is not a lot of Time, not to do all that we’re called to, all that we’re capable of. But there’s just enough. I can taste it — the closeness of the breakthrough. We have to align to Her Way, to the hope and drive always for more beyond the horizon, perpetually unattainable and external. Her and her precious tools ever building higher…
Tashome leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling — at nothing, lost to himself and caught up beyond it all.
We can finally end this. Restore balance. Then, Her Way will be Our Way. Everything can change. Everything.
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Sammy went under the ocean near Geirkos much as she had before, all except for the fact that — thanks to her new, more physical phantasms — she was in a pretty legit bikini. Unlike before, she was not there for meditation, but instead to craft her first [Mana Item] through [Magical Invention]. Considering it only took an hour, she wanted to make her first ‘backup,’ expendable, non-regenerating version.
I can do a regenerating one with a really nice stone for a bonus, and spend some extra time on it to boot, but no reason not to have some expendable ones. Hmm. Maybe even a group ritual for the regenerator…
Going into the water in the first place was simply due to the necessity of a High Mana zone. Through her [Mark of Serateia], being underwater always counted as that for her.
After settling down to a stony bottom, she utilized Hard Light to fashion a crystal material suitable for the ability, forming it into a simple earring. She then utilized a special buffing spell she’d uncovered was available from level 7: Inventor’s Inspiration, which gave a +3 Effective Levels bonus to any form of creative crafting endeavor, including adding caster levels to enchantment spells.
She got to work enchanting it — with a small bubble of excitement. Though she’d done lots of creating things, including permanent things essentially, it felt different to make an item through enchantment. It was not technically deific, but arcane. It was something special to her as a Magineer and Wizard.
Sammy channeled her personal mana into it painstakingly, minute-by-minute, focused on the slow, meditative spellcasting, with occasional shifting hand signs. It was… a lot of mana. The requirement was 6 MP per 1 MP in the item, which at caster level 13 became 26 MP.
156 mana points poured through her, certainly enough to feel, but with each passing moment, the little crystal transmuted and glowed a tiny bit brighter.
Temporary Mana Storage Item of capacity 26 MP has been successfully created.
Grinning as much as she dared underwater, Sammy took the slowly dimming blue crystal in her hand with great satisfaction. She might not ever use it, being a last resort, but that was the life of those intent on Being Prepared. Micro adjustments, micro evolutions completed as part of a greater whole.
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