No Need for a Core?

The day after Carmilla's true self was revealed and all faerie broke loose through the dungeon, Fuyuko began her training in her room. Kazue had not explained exactly what was going on, just that Fuyuko was going to want the privacy. Once she had returned to her room after breakfast, she let Kazue know that she was ready.

The illusion platform flicked to life with Kazue's image. "Alright, this training requires a bit of background," she began. "The first thing that you need to know is that a shapeshifter with potential fine control over her form can influence her own growth, which we believe you have done accidentally. There's some speculation involved, but it seems to fit what we know about you."

"Okay," Fuyuko said, uncertain how this was going to relate to training.

Kazue took an unneeded deep breath before her illusion continued, "Here's what we think happened. You were in a stressful situation and didn't want to grow up in order to stay safe, and then you had your first blood. This increased your stress about growing up but also mentally added your cycle to your image of who you were. And you believed that you were supposed to get taller so that still happened despite girls usually not growing much after their first blood. But your desire to remain seen as a child suppressed other traits of growing up. Are you with me so far?"

After a moment of thinking, Fuyuko nodded, though she wasn't entirely comfortable with where this seemed to be going.

"Good. If that's what you've done subconsciously, then with conscious effort not only can you undo it, you can sculpt your body as you continue to mature." Kazue grinned at her. "And I think we know exactly what you want."

"I can? You do?" Fuyuko asked, trying to get a grip on this idea.

"Yes. It requires both fine control over your shape-shifting, which I lacked when I was younger, and a certain amount of dedication to this specific effect. For example, Shizoku could be training her body to grow taller, but the amount of mental effort involved would take away from developing her magical skills. Plus, I think she likes that Derek is going to be taller than her so she has even less motivation now. For you, the training meshes with your physical training as it involves awareness of your body. And you seemed very envious of this form." Kazue's image shrank to make room for a new illusion.

It was of Fuyuko, though not as she was now. This version was older, a little taller, and with a figure that was a close match to the one Mordecai's elven shape had. Fuyuko could see why this training wanted to be in private, especially with how little clothing the image had. "You're sayin' that I can look like that?"

"Yep!" Kazue beamed at her. "I tweaked the base design a little to trim down. Mordecai's form was built not only to be athletic but to entertain via her dancing. And, well, trust me when I say that while they might be nice to look at, these things get in the way. A lot. And you have a talent for stealth. So unless you are planning on adding seductress to your repertoire, I thought fitting into tight spaces might be a higher priority."

Seductress? Eww, no. She wanted to be pretty like that, but she didn't want to show off. Or, well, not like that at least. "Um, that seems like it might be interesting, but what does this trainin' involve?" Fuyuko asked as much to ignore the confusion her conflict stirred up as to get the training started.

"Well," Kazue replied, "we're going to want to go through this form in detail to make sure that it's everything you want. Once we do that, I will create several holograms in different poses so that you have images to focus and meditate on. To secure privacy, the gemstone that will create these images will only work in your room, with the door closed, and while you are alone. Once we have the images, you get to start image training. There are two parts to this: One is just meditating on the form you want, so you sit here alone and do that. I'm not great at meditation myself, but I can guide you through the basics. Mordecai could teach you of course, but I think on this subject you'd rather not have him directly involved."

It took Fuyuko a moment to think about it, and then she abruptly shook her head and looked down at her lap, her hair falling down to hide her face. "No," she muttered, "I mean, I know he wouldn't care or anythin', but, just, no. That would be too embarrasin'." Given how hot her ears were feeling, she was pretty certain they'd be turning as red as her cheeks. The idea of any guy seeing those images made her want to sink into the floor.

"That's what I thought," Kazue said with a gentle smile. "Well, when we're done here, you are going to go meet Mordecai in the arena. We'll need to discuss another matter together, and after that, you can work on the next part. He'll go into the details, but you will need to try and hold the image in your head while you are doing other stuff, especially while you are practicing your shape-shifting."

"Alright," Fuyuko said as she pulled her thoughts together, "so I meditate to get the image, then I practice while trying ta hold the image. And that part is also going ta be my other training."

"Right. Now the first question is, do you want to develop a tail in your base form? It's needed for balance when you become more wolf-like, but I am not sure how much it would help you outside of that. And unlike kitsune, you don't have power associated with your tail."

Fuyuko hadn't considered that as a possibility. She remembered her father had one, mostly because she had a hazy memory of grabbing it once when she was younger and how it made him yelp. She couldn't remember if her mother didn't have one or was just better at keeping her tail out of the reach of a little kid. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like it could be inconvenient most of the time, and she'd have to relearn her sense of balance. "Nah, I don't think so."

Kazue nodded. "Okay, well, let's get into the details then. And remember, this is a long-term process. The only visible difference between this and just growing up is that you get to influence the results." The two of them spent over an hour comparing and contrasting every bit of difference between Fuyuko and the image of what she could be, right down to examining every difference in muscle tone and bulk, and for the most part, she was happy with what Kazue had constructed.

Once they agreed on the final changes, Fuyuko spent until lunch time practicing meditation. After lunch, she went out to the Arena to find Mordecai. On her way, she passed by Bellona overseeing marching drills with the kobolds and the bunkin. The kobolds were spread out through the bunkin formations; Bellona said this was to keep them from learning bad habits from each other. Fuyuko could attest that the kobold warriors were good at fighting, better than her at least, but they seemed to not be very good at soldiering, and Bellona wanted them to learn that too.

For the most part, Mordecai and Kazue seemed to have turned that sort of training over to Bellona. Not that the orc champion was lacking in the warrior department either. Fuyuko grimaced as she remembered their last sparring session. Being taller did not mean being stronger, and that woman hit like a flying boulder. Lesson learned: do not try to parry even a wooden axe when wielded by someone like that. Deflecting only worked if she was mostly out of the way first, and blocking had no chance of working, not even with both daggers. Fuyuko had broken an arm trying and Bellona had cursed her out for being an idiot even while healing the arm. Hearing insults mixed into a healing prayer was a new experience at least.

Shaking off the thought, she finished making her way to where Mordecai waited. "Hello. Um, Kazue said you had something to talk about before training?"

He nodded and said, "Yes. Well, a few things really. The first is to resolve something I had intended to wait on until you had more time to get to know Deidre. I know what I did to capture her didn't sit well with you, nor should it have. So I'd like to start with asking you how Deidre seems to be taking it, and how you feel about the situation now."

Fuyuko frowned as she thought about it. That was one lesson that Mordecai had taught her early; if she had time to think about an answer to a difficult or important question, she should take that time. After a while she said, "Deidre seems sort of content, I think. At least, she doesn't seem ta be mad at you. She was upset at first because it was like when her core was enslaved, so of course she reacted badly. And it had ta have hurt. But she doesn't really want to work for the Puritasi, she knows there was no other way ta stop her, and ya only did what you had to ta make sure she couldn't hurt anyone. As fer how I feel," she took a deep breathe before she continued, "thinking about it still makes me a little sick. It was horrible to see and hear. But I also know you didn't do it to be mean. It was a bad choice, but all the other choices were worse. So, I'm not upset with you anymore, and I'm sorry I was to begin with."

Mordecai drew her down for a brief hug. "Thank you, and you have nothing to be sorry about. Your reaction was the correct reaction to have. You don't ever have to be sorry for being upset over something like that." He stepped back with a smile. "I needed to make sure there were no bad feelings before this next part." Two illusions appeared on either side of him. One was of Kazue, only she had wings like a pixie but larger. The other one was Moriko, but where Kazue's illusion was standing on the ground, Moriko's image looked like she was floating.

"Thanks to the events of last night, I now also bear the unfortunate title of Faerie King, with Moriko and Kazue gaining the title of Faerie Queen. These are the changes wrought on our true forms." He pointed briefly at his eyes, drawing her attention to their color. While most of his iris was still gold, it had an outer ring of emerald green and an inner ring of ruby red. "Thanks to what passes for logic when it comes to faerie magic, this has spread out and impacted those with close enough connections to us, especially to my descendants. After all, the descendants of a faerie king are clearly fey-touched people at the least. Never mind the little matter of when he became a faerie king."

He sighed and shook his head. "I'm just hoping it doesn't backtrack up to parents. Akahana will kill me if she's sprouted vines or something. Anyway, as our contractor, you are now a faerie knight, which is a type of mortal servant to a Faerie King or Queen. This doesn't affect you much immediately, but it does mark you for those who can tell and it can act as a boon under the right circumstances. You can also build that power. But there's another option." He paused and waited.

Fuyuko took that time to process what he'd just said. Being a faerie knight sounded kind of badass, but faeries were supposed to be all sorts of trouble. Of course, if you were already on their team, maybe it wouldn't be as bad. Wait. "Does this mean I have to start calling you 'Your Majesty' and stuff?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't want to deal with that any more than I have to. And thankfully faerie protocol is a bit different, Lord and Lady can be used even for Kings and Queens in most circumstances. That sort of also brings up what we wanted to ask you. I may not have wanted this power, but I will at least take advantage of what is available to me, and I would like to share a portion of it, if you want. We can make you more than a Faerie Knight, but this would be a lot less revocable if you changed your mind. The three of us could adopt you."

She froze at the thought. Initially, it was from shock at the idea of being completely adopted by them instead of being their ward. Then she realized the implications. Eventually, she managed to choke out, "I'd be a Faerie Princess?!"

"Exactly," he replied. "Which, to be clear, would come with its own side effects as well as perks. The most obvious drawback is losing the ability to lie. Clever wording can work around that, but only to an extent. You would also need to be very careful about promises and oaths. On the plus side, as this will involve deliberation and I can prepare, I should be able to tweak your manifestation of power to suit you. Oh, and one more thing you should be aware of; thanks to Carmilla's oath that thrust this domain onto us, she also made the faerie magic decide that she was our adoptive daughter. If you accept being adopted, you get her as an adoptive sister."

Fuyuko didn't like lying much anyway, so the first part didn't seem like a really big loss. Thinking of Carmilla as a sister on the other hand, well, that was a weird idea. "Ya aren't hard-sellin' the idea here," Fuyuko said.

"Aside from not wanting to pressure you in general, it's important that you only do this if you want to," he replied. "So I am making sure you know what you might be walking into. I don't want there to be any regrets. You are old enough that without something specific for you to gain from being adopted, having you as our ward provides as much as being adopted. But title inheritance needs adoption, both in mortal law and faerie law."

A thought occurred to her and Fuyuko asked, "Wait, so, ya have ta tell the truth all the time now too?"

Mordecai sighed at that. "Unfortunately, yes. I can be tricky with wording, but as a priest of Ozuran, that is not something I should do unless it is truly needed, not just because I want to wiggle out of something. I am not, however, required to answer a given question if I don't want to."

"How do all the little fairies get away with telling all those stories as if they were all true then?"

He smiled and replied, "Their grasp on reality is a bit loose. At the time they are telling a story, they believe it to be true. It is the truth as you know and understand it, not universal and objective truth."

That was sort of weird, but that also sounded a lot like Li. She suppressed a giggle at that thought, then grew more somber as she considered the offer in front of her once more. "I think I am going to accept, but, I want to know something else. What do you think the chances are that the Puritasi are involved in what happened to my parents?"

Mordecai considered the question for a moment. "It is possible; your heritage is something that they would dislike, but I don't know enough to rule out other possibilities. I think I have a feeling for where this question leads. Fuyuko, I don't have any issue with well-deserved vengeance, but at the same time, I am an example of how much a consuming vengeance can lead you astray. If you want to use this as an opportunity to find your parents' killers and deal with them, I will help only within reason. I do not want to see my mistakes repeated, even if at a smaller scale."

She frowned at that, it wasn't exactly what she'd wanted to hear, though she supposed his response was sort of dad-like. If she took this offer, he would become her adoptive father, so that might be appropriate. "I am guessing that as my king and adoptive father, you'd have the ability ta rein me in if ya thought ya needed to." He nodded a confirmation and she chewed on that thought for a bit more. Finally, she asked in a soft voice, "So, truth-bound Fairy-King, how do ya feel about me?" Asking that made her nervous, but she felt it was an important question.

Mordecai looked pleased as he responded, "A wise question, and a layered answer. When you first arrived here, I cared simply because of your situation and I was willing to help because you were in need. I started to get to know you when we walked down the path together, and the more I have learned the more I like you. I care for you and feel a strong fatherly affection. The line between affection and familial love is a blurry one, so I am not going to try to define anything more detailed than that. However, I only see my affection for you growing in the future. "

Kazue's voice spoke inside Fuyuko's mind, "I feel the same way, though I think of you more sisterly than maternally. But I want to protect you and help you and be there for you the same way. Um, Moriko can't really say that, since you guys haven't met yet, but she says she likes what we've told her about you and she wants to add you to her collection of younger siblings."

Oh yeah, she'd met two of Moriko's siblings. And she'd really liked her parents too. Fuyuko felt an urge to cry at the sudden welling of emotions and she forced it down, managing to just sniff once before she said, "Yeah, well, I like you guys too." She cleared her throat and asked, "So, what do we have to do to make this happen?"