Within the Seal

Through the wooden bird, she watched. She witnessed the beginning of the fight and the exchange of words. She saw the unsown Erlkin dare the pits of the tower, carrying another fragment of the Sentinel.

Alexan nudged the sleeping proto Sentinel wrapped around her. With its aid, the enchantment broke, and Alexan rejoiced.

And finally, the boy approached, a Human of all things. That should have been impossibly by regular means, which meant something greater had intervened. Alexan couldn’t smother the slight emotion bubbling at the core of her soul. Dare she allow herself this emotion? Allow herself this feeling she knew all too well she didn’t deserve? Ultimately, she couldn’t help herself.

Alexan allowed herself to hope.

Teacher Nolsa

“You saw them fall?”

“Yup!” replied the Gnome, a light seed user by the name of Bardie. He smiled and continued. “There was no mistaking it, the two of them wrapped up together, the girl as naked as the day she was born. Then a bird made of dark mana appeared and grabbed your Tal by the shoulders. Looks like it hurt, but the way they were gliding, I think they made it.”

Nolsa sighed, her shoulders slumping with relief.

“You are familiar with that bird,” Seft asked.

Nolsa put her elbows on the desk and rested her face in her hands. “That bird is another copy of the Sentinel,” Nolsa explained. “Perkay made it a body and kept it alive for a long time. It carried us down into the main chamber.”

“Ah,” Seft replied. The sounds of him shifting where he stood filling the air of the office.

It wasn’t much of an office. The shelves were still covered in dust, and the chair was cracked with age. It just happened to be a part of the house where the Heart residents had put Nolsa to rest and recover. With shelves bare and the desk empty, there wasn’t anything to look at or read, but at least it gave her a spot to meet with people.

Nolsa pulled her head from her hands and smiled at Bardie. “Thank you very much. This means a lot to me.”

“Hey, I got lucky,” Bardie replied. “I’m happy I could pass that luck along! Now, if you’re done with me?”

And Erlkin boy entered the room, shoulders shrunk with apprehension.

“Yes, and thank you again,” Nolsa answered.

“A pleasure!” Bardie replied, turning and stepping into the hands of the Erlkin. Bardie gave the nervous pat on the chest as he was carried out.

“Told you it was good news!”

Nolsa glanced over at Easil. He was sitting in his own chair on top of the desk, beaming up at her.

“And even better news,” Easil continued, losing his smile. “You didn’t even have to die for it to happen.”

Nolsa couldn’t hide the twitch of her shoulders and the sudden tension in her back. Taking a long breath, she pulled herself together and replied. “No, Perkay took my place in multiple ways.” Her left hand went to her braid. It wasn’t a solid grey as she had initially expected it would be. Thanks to his help, it only carried heavy streaks of grey, allowing her to keep some of the deep black.

“You didn’t expect to survive the encounter with Darisen,” Seft realized, his expression clouded.

“No, I didn’t,” Nolsa agreed. “And I attribute my survival to luck and things outside my control. I should have died. I didn’t know all of what Darisen was capable of; I just knew I wasn’t a match for him.”

Seft released a heavy sigh, “More reasons to thank old Perkay.”

“So when do we want to go?” Easil asked brightly.

“Go?” Nolsa asked with a blank expression.

“Well… we’re going to chase them, right?” Easil continued. “Our kids are wandering around out there right now, and one of them is probably naked.”

“There’s absolutely no way to be certain we’ll find them,” Seft countered.

Nolsa smiled. “You should go too! With the barrier down, your duty here is done. You’ll need to find another purpose to fill your time!”

Seft glared at her with a stern face and quickly lost it as a corner of his mouth crept up to form a smirk. “I’ll ask Meyla how she feels. Then we’ll have to make a kite or a bunch of kites to carry people down.”

“I think the proper term is ‘glider’,” Easil poked.

Seft grunted at him.

“You don’t seem that worried about them,” Nolsa complained.

Seft frowned again. “Because I’m not. I can’t shake the feeling that they’ll be fine.”

“Even though Alamia’s naked?” Nolsa asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Well… Alamia will probably be fine?” Easil said, trying but not entirely succeeding in reassuring Nolsa. “It’s Tal who’s going to be having trouble there.”

Seeker Talkarn

“I found something!” Her voice called from inside the old cabin.

“Oh, thank the Gods and Incarnates both,” Tal whispered furiously.

“I heard that,” Alamia called from inside.

[You’re cute,] Alexan said, her voice dripping with amusement. [The way you’re talking, a girl might think she’s ugly!]

Tal growled with annoyance. “She’s not ugly!” He snapped.

“I heard that too,” Alamia called out with a note of pleasure.

Tal could feel the heat radiating from his face as Alexan laughed in the back of his mind. The wooden bird on his shoulder fluffed its feathers and warbled as well.

Tal glanced at the old body of the Sentinel. There wasn’t anything of that creature left; now Alexan used it as her puppet, a surrogate body for her to enjoy. It wasn’t a proper body, of course, but Tal only felt gratitude from Alexan for having the gift of mobility.

Not that it was perfect by any means. Alexan resided in Tal’s body, not the old body of the Sentinel. She was just able to use it as it had been made for a creature closely related to her. And that use came with a strict limitation in range. Fly too far away, and she’d lose awareness of the body, and that wasn’t something she wanted to happen at all. If she lost control of the bird, there was a serious question about whether or not they could find and retrieve it from wherever it fell.

Alexan had needed that fragment of the Sentinel to feel it in the first place, and that fragment was gone.

At least Tal didn’t need to charge it up with the custom glove. Tal had ruined that during the fight and the fall.

[So, which is it?] Alexan asked quietly, limiting her projection to Tal alone. [Will you make me whole or purify my soul?]

[I don’t know,] Tal admitted. [They tore you into pieces for obvious reasons, I guess. I think you’re a decent person as you are, but would that stay the same if I put you together?] Tal heaved a great sigh. [But I can’t imagine just… just killing you.]

[It’s no more than I deserve,] Alexan whispered back. [There is no one left who would grieve for me.]

[But I think I might,] Tal admitted.

For a long moment, there was silence; only the sounds of Alamia shuffling around in the building did anything to break it up.

[I suppose you will have to seek your own answers Talkarn,] Alexan finally offered, bringing the conversation to an end.

Alamia stepped through the door, exiting the old cabin. She’d found herself a jerkin that was too big for her and made it into a dress. It hung down to her knees at least, which was much better than the absolutely nothing she’d been wearing before. She’d tied a thin cord of rope around her waist to hold the clothing still.

“How does it look?” Alamia asked with a smirk, twisting her body side to side to show off.

“Much better,” Tal replied, sighing with relief as he no longer had to avert his eyes.

With the jerkin covering her milk-white chest, Tal could handle seeing her furred legs. As he looked at Alamia properly, he realized he could see the same shape of Nolsa’s slightly pointed nose, the same tilt of her head, and the same gentle eyes. However, Alamia’s smile of mischief was purely her own.

She also lacked the darkening that came with age; only her hooves, her horns and bits of fur around her ankles were dark with the usual imbuing of dark mana. And her solid black eyes, of course. Alamia’s horns were still short, little more than smooth pointed nubs sticking straight up into the air. Those would only become longer with time.

Alamia dragged a bag into sight. “I found some stuff that might be edible. Finding this cabin was a stroke of luck!”

“Yeah,” Tal agreed, “I really can’t believe how good my luck has turned out.”

Alamia smiled at him, and he allowed himself to smile back.

[You’re both cute,] Alexan interrupted, amending her previous statement.

Tal’s face heated up, and Alamia looked away.

“Anyways!” Tal exclaimed, trying to push past the embarrassment. He turned around and looked out from the cabin. “We have some exploring to do!”

A shaft of light shifted into view in front of them, touching the water of the lake from the sunstone above.

[We should go east,] Alexan offered. [There’s a city that way, or at least there was seven-hundred years ago. It’s a pretty big river junction, though, with a beautiful waterfall. I can’t imagine there won’t be anything there.]

“East then?” Alamia tentatively agreed.

“East it is!” Tal answered; he took a step and stopped. “Which way is East, Alexan?”

[Turn left, head away from the lake.]

Alamia laughed as Tal turned and walked, quickly joining up next to him.

“You know what?” Tal asked of her, trying to distract himself from his conflicted feelings. She was attractive, beautiful, but it felt wrong to look at her like that.

“What?” Alamia asked.

“I always wanted to see the sky. This is nice too, but I still want to see more.”

“Now that you say that, I want to see it too. The sky, and everything else.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do. Let’s look for the ends of the world!” Tal shouted, pointing into the air with Alamia laughing with pleasure next to him.

[You’re both just adorable.]

Fin