Soul Merger

Alissa hurt.

It wasn't a specific pain either. The dull pain throb randomly pulsed through her body, refusing to settle anywhere. Her head and eyes got the most attention, but even that would randomly ebb and rise at the whims of fortune.

Sandpaper on her soul was an excellent description for this hell.

She wanted to ask Rosalina if they were done, but right now she was gagged to keep her from biting her tongue. Also probably to muffle the screams.

To her great relief Rosalina opened her eyes and put down her rod. "There." The dragon woman carefully removed the gag and set it aside. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," Alissa croaked. She winced as her toes complained. "Why the hell does my entire body hurt?"

"Humans aren't designed to take soul injuries, so your brain is trying to make sense of the pain in your soul. It does that by randomly deciding the pain is coming from a body part," Rosalina pulled out a set of lozenges. "Here. Sugar, painkiller, and throat relief all in one. You probably can't tell with all the other pains, but I bet your throat's pretty raw."

Alissa accepted one of the sweets and popped it in her mouth. It was really stupid how her brain was insisting her eyes hurt just because it didn't know where the pain was coming from. But she'd have to just deal with it for now. "Don't suppose you can heal the throat thing?"

"Only if absolutely needed," Rosalina said before yawning and stretching. "I'm done with non-emergency healing for the day.

"Fair." Alissa lay there as the medicine drop dissolved. After a few minutes she almost felt human, if still raw inside. She popped another into her mouth then slowly sat up. "Well let's see about getting some actual food. Akari did find something right?"

"She did and once again she proved she's much better at being a Saint then I am." Rosalina helped Alissa stand and they walked to the living room.

Akari and Kotori were at the table, a stack of pastries with jelly topping in front of them. If she wasn't in general misery Alissa would worry about the amount of sugar she was eating, but right now that was a problem for future her. She grabbed something with blackberry jelly and wolfed it down.

"Are you okay?" Akari asked softly.

Kotori looked concerned as well. "You were screaming a lot. It sounded super bad." Alissa still felt weird about the murder bird being in her house, but at least she was polite.

"I'll live," Alissa replied. After a moment she added. "I don't recommend it though."

She let everyone else grab their preferred danish before taking another one. "Did you decide how we were going to handle people trying to kill us for airing the city's dirty laundry?"

"I hope that's pessimism from the soul treatment and not a premonition," Rosalina muttered. "But yeah. Might as well stick around as your neighbors for a bit. Especially since the big apartments aren't allowing tamed monsters to stay anymore. I'd like to hole up in my place, but it'd be cramped with four people, much less seven."

Alissa gave a weak nod. It had to be that way. At least they didn't all need to pile into her little shack. "Might get someplace better to stay when the guild war starts. I'll talk to Clara about what she might be able to pull together."

"You seem very confident a war will happen," Akari said. "Are you sure it will come to that?"

"Sure? No. Decently confident? Yes. The question is more how long the fighting will last." She sipped some of the tea Akari had prepared. "I'm sure there's going to be a riot demanding justice. After that it'll depend on how the guilds break, and how many of the guilty are still alive. Best case scenario the war lasts a day and then its just cleanup."

"Won't the Delver's guild be the deciding factor?" Rosalina asked. "It seems the group with the most trained fighters would pretty much always win. I know the religious orders and some companies have a lot of fighters but..."

Alissa blinked and looked over the three. It wasn't surprising Akari and Kotori were clueless, but Rosalina not knowing what was up was a bit odd. Perhaps it was because she grew up in a place without a delver's guild. "Rosalina, our guild is a joke. A pretty fiction designed to be useless specifically because if all the delvers worked together we'd own the city. It barely makes enough to pay its staff and perform basic maintenance, and the city constantly has to toss it extra money to set up new branches. But it always does everything it can to make delver life relatively easy, so that we don't get the bright idea to make a real guild."

All three of her friends were looking at her in surprise. "That seems like it would be difficult to maintain," Akari said. "Powerful warriors tend to gather in groups and demand political status. Unless you throw enough money at them to make those warriors merchant lords. At which point they demand power for different reasons."

"Yeah," Alissa said. "But you're assuming the guilds just let powerful people run off and form their own groups. Almost every major delver crew is either tied to or directly subsidized by one of the bigger guilds." She looked over at Rosalina. "You don't think the Pacio Engraver's guild led us to Clara purely out of the goodness of their hearts did you?"

Rosalina was frowning now. "Hey, Clara's just friends with a guild master. She's not a spy or anything."

"Friends with and owes a debt to," Alissa replied. "But yeah they haven't moved to really connect with us yet. Imagine they wanted to see how we did with our new gear before offering us some nice contract work. If we turned out to be hot stuff they'd have another group of delvers they could ask to handle difficult requests and private guild matters. Of course we'd have the option to do whatever, but since they'd be offering good money and excellent supplier rates..." Alissa shrugged. She hadn't been opposed to the idea really. The guild seemed decent, and it wasn't a binding contract or really anything more than a good contact.

Akari seemed mildly surprised, while Kotori was sort of confused. But Rosalina looked actually disturbed. "Thought I'd gotten out of politics," she finally muttered. "I'm not used to people manipulating me like that."

"You must have a hard time at the market, because it's just business," Alissa said. "Don't overthink it. It was just a cheap investment in possible return. We don't owe anyone anything. Well, politically. I have no idea what your bar tab looks like."

That brightened the dragon woman up. "I'll have you know I'm banned from running a tab in seven different establishments! I don't owe a thing!"

"Probably for the best," Akari added. "Especially since Ibaraki will be going drinking with you." She looked over to Kotori. "On that note, don't let Ibaraki talk you into drinking too much. Or drinking at all if you don't want to. Her idea of light drinking would kill some people."

Kotori rolled her eyes. "I know the rules. Don't drink and fly."

Alissa wondered if that was something the harpy knew innately or if the angel had taught the woman that. Monsters were still a black box to her it seemed. Perhaps she'd ask Fili when the woman got back.

They'd be spending a lot of time together in the near future after all.

Fili hadn't been this nervous since the advancement exams. She knew she was stepping into big trouble.

But she wasn't going to take the disaster that hit the city lying down either.

She looked over her shoulder where Clara and Raiel were standing. "A warning, it's going to be super loud."

"Been to a printer's before," the larger woman said with a grin. "Though kinda impressed the place is working so soon after a Rampage. Figure it'll be a few days before the city's up and running enough to want books."

"Books? No. Flyers? Yes. Gotta get the news out when everyone's interested in it," Fili replied. "I imagine they're actually swamped with orders."

Raiel shook her head. "It will be interesting to see printing up close. I've heard about it, but never seen it before."

"I'm sure you can ask them about it in between their questions." Fili loved her friends, but Bryan was even more obsessive about learning monster lore than she was. Raiel would need to distract them in order to catch her breath.

But first there was other business. She opened the door and the clatter of print molds falling and recycling filled the air. Bryan was using foot pedals to print out small fliers on a press, while Sally was typing away at the lithograph, her kyuubi fox sleeping next to her despite the racket.

Bryan was first to notice. "Hey, Fili!" he waved her over, not stopping the press that was stamping out flyers. Looked like details on what stores were reopening in one of the shopping districts. His eyes immediately latched onto the angel. "Oh! You contracted with an angel? That's amazing! Do they have a lot of knowledge for us?"

Fili shook her head. "Not a lot, though I'm sure we can learn something. Right now we've got something more important. Is it common knowledge that this Rampage was because of an underground brothel yet?"

The werewolf blinked. "There were rumors from some of the boat wreckage found, but nothing concrete. I take it you found something?"

Fili held up the black book. "Ledger. Accounts received."

That got Sally and her fox to both turn and look over, the clatter of the lithograph fading. "You have what?"

"Six months worth of ledgers for the assholes who caused the Rampage," Clara explained cheerfully. "Using real names too. And yes the local human purity street preacher is on it. Just in case you were wondering."

Sally swayed to her feet, the move emphasizing her serpent attributes before hurting over to the book. "Good condition, very clear, has dates.... Oh my this is a treasure trove of information."

Fili nodded. She wasn't as obsessive about 'the Truth' as her friends, but she understood the spirit here. "The plan is to spam out copies and give this one to the Tower. If you're up for all the danger associated with that."

Bryan held his hand over his heart. "Fili, you know us. Having the opportunity to rub the Truth in people's faces is worth any amount of danger."

"Doubly so because we'll likely survive this move," Sally added with an angry hiss. "I hear the Sacred Band of the North and the Wolf Brigade are both looking for the parties responsible for this Rampage."

Clara offered the book. Sally took it and grabbed an expensive stand attached to the reservoir for the printing mold. "Alright Poru, time to go to work."

The fox huffed and glared at her mistress but then looked over to the duplication stand. It uncoiled its seven tails and started pouring magic into the system, crafting molds that matched the pages. It was an expensive method in both magic and money, but far faster than trying to piece the whole thing together by hand.

"So while we wait for the molds to finish before stamping out pages," Bryan turned to Raiel, eyes gleaming, "I have a few questions for you, if you have the time."

Fili stepped back and acquired her notepad. Bryan was over zealous but she had to admit there was a lot of stuff to ask.

Raiel nodded. "I will happily offer what little information I know. But I'm afraid there's no 'angel school' where we get told the details of the universe. I just remember things from here and there."

To Fili's surprise it was Clara who spoke up first. "I got a question. What was that about monsters being programmed to die to humans? You made it sound like the whole 'attacking unmerged people' isn't picking on the weak but actually aiming to die."

Fili blinked. She'd been focused more on Alissa's breakdown at the time, but the angel had hinted at that.

Raiel seemed similarly confused however. "Didn't you know? Someone should have figured it out and written it down by now."

"The Towers are pretty stingy with those sort of details," Sally replied. "Probably graduate level."

"I see." The angel shrugged, her wings bobbing along. "Well then, I suppose I can explain. Yes, those with composite souls are trying to die. Specifically trying to become part of a merge. Once those soul pieces become part of a merge they're entered into the cycle of rebirth for this world instead of stuck cycling as monsters in the labyrinth. Their magic joins the natural magic of the above, and they can incarnate as a real human with a full soul."

Fili paused as she considered the angel's words. That made sense, given the urge for composite souls to become whole. But something seemed off as well. Then the implications hit her and she shivered. "Wait, the magic becomes part of our world as well? So every merge that happens pours more magic and soul energy into our world."

Raiel looked her right in the eyes with the same cool determination the angel frequently adopted. "Yes. And yes that means your world becomes more like the labyrinths. Eventually the boundary between the two will become so muddled monsters can live and give birth on the surface. At which point the era of labyrinths will end, and the era of magic will begin."

Everyone was staring at the angel now, including Sally's kyuubi. Fili was trying to piece all the details together. How would that exactly work out? The world Collapsing all at once? Or perhaps the Labyrinths would emerge? Or maybe they'd just start seeing complete souled monsters having kids like normal people? She shook her head to try to clean out the mess. At least she knew why that detail was kept from most people.

Clara said what they were all thinking. "Who knew the human purists were somehow right about something?"