Chapter 188: Calm

The safe zone is a beach, as always. I stagger onto the sand. Bleeding, without mana, patches of frozen skin… In fact, I think most of the others look better than me. As usual, really. Them and their high heart stats. Imagine being healthy, couldn’t be me.

I barely catch myself before falling onto the sand. With quick, staggering steps, I head for the palm tree in the center of the beach. It’s a little different here - the place feels a little more full. There are even a few umbrellas in the sand. Not the bright, plasticcy ones I’m used to from Earth, though, but ones woven from white, thin cloth, filtering the sunlight. 

After just a second, I make it to the tree, as do most of the others, and soon, my coconut falls down, softly landing in my hands. I breathe in for a moment, then look at Trey. Kuro gets the hint, quickly slithering off the kid, turning into a centipede, and skittering towards me across the sand.

The kid gives a small shiver at that, but he gets over it quickly, grabbing for his own coconut. I open mine, give Kuro their part, and eat. Instantly, health flows through me. I feel the cold receding, the budding frostbite vanishing from my limbs, and even the recently exploded stump of my fingers grows back slightly - only to the first joint, though.

[Your stats have been reinforced!]

Taking a shaky breath, I smile, then manifest my shadow-mask again. Just in time for Coldscar to stagger through the portal. 

Interestingly, this time, the tree does sprout a coconut for him. It’s paler than ours, though, looking more like a husk. But with swift steps, the scithian makes it to the tree, takes the fruit, and tears into it like a rabid animal. Then his wounds close.

I tilt my head as I watch, but my mana doesn’t leave my body. For the first time in forever, I’m low on it, so I give myself time to recharge. So, instead, I just mundanely observe him with my regular human eyes. Kuro purrs as they wrap themselves around me, and I smile, happy to be reunited with my friend again.

Coldscar turns to us with a hateful glare. “Where’s the falling fishbowl?” he demands. 

Thatch smiles helplessly and just shrugs. “Sorry,” he says, “I don’t know what you mean.”

The scithian’s face darkens even more, and the everpresent frown on his face tightens. I wonder, did they not realize Trey was the one wearing the shadow-cloak? I suppose he isn’t that much shorter than me… Really just one growth spurt away from reaching my height. And with the cloak hiding his silhouette…

Of course, right at the end, my fishbowl-hat was broken. Did Raven recognize me? I sure hope not.

“Yuki!” they screech, barrelling through the portal.

Hm. Truly. It’s a mystery. We’ll never know if they know. 

“Where is that fucking enchanter?! I’ll kill the fuck myself!” they roar, tearing forward to the tree. The coconut gets shredded through by a maw that appears on their palm. Then, their eyes sweep over us again, lingering on me. “Kuro,” they hiss. “Why do you always wear that mask?”

I tilt my head as if confused, giving no answer. Raven stalks towards me while the rest of their crew stumbles through the portal, soon followed by the oracle and her two guards. The safe room starts to feel just a little crowded, really. I shuffle backwards a bit on the sand.

Not that it stops Raven. “Show me your face,” they demand. “Kuro, I need to know what you look like. I didn’t imagine it, I’m sure. Yuki was there. And now, instead of them, there’s some feryran kid. No, no. That’s not how this works. People don’t vanish like that. Where is my enchanter?”

Inu steps in front of Raven with a calm, measured motion. “Excuse me,” she says with a smile, “I have to ask that you don’t bother my friend.”

Raven hums in annoyance, their temper flaring high, and reaches out to push Inu aside. Her authority flares for a moment, partially restored by the healing coconut, and resists the motion. The hum of displeasure from Raven grows deeper, darker - only to be joined by a hiss of mana.

The density of it rises as the Monolith warns us. Fighting in safe zones is forbidden, after all. 

“Now, now,” Delfine says calmly, a thin smile on her lips. Her wings are flared wide behind her, a brilliant gold, and her hair shines with a faint metallic gleam. She must be half-scithian and half-feryran, I guess? “Why don’t we all calm down a little?”

Her words are polite, but remind me of her authority. Already, I can feel my defiance rise again. And I smile a little at the thought. Isn’t defiance really just the anti-authority amongst authorities? How fitting that I earn that one for myself. 

Efficiency is almost fully internal - something to prevent myself from being slowed down or stopping by external factors. It’s good for a support role, mostly, making my skills hit a little harder, letting me improve a little faster. But it’s also a bit general.

Defiance doesn’t really do much, but the thing it does, it does well - and that’s resisting other authorities. Even right now, I can feel it clinging to me like a loose chainmail of razorblades. Ready to rip and tear into any authority that tries to lay hands on me. Delfine looks at me, then tilts her head.

Ah, she must know who I am, since she felt my authority. How troublesome. But despite that, she remains quiet, and even Raven takes a step back at her request.

“Thank you,” she says to the gang leader, patting his shoulder. “We’re all climbers. We should work together under Respitia’s light.” Her smile doesn’t reach very high. It’s thin. How curious.

Sylves floats happily at that. “I agree entirely,” the faerie lies. “Let’s all share a meal.”

I roll my eyes at the blatant trap, but Delfine just smiles. “That sounds rather brilliant,” she says. “Please, let us do just that.”

At this point, I realize that this oracle might be an extrovert. My greatest fear made manifest. How ever shall I survive this? I give a soft sigh, meant only for myself, and get even more distance from the others, while Richard starts a fire and pointedly keeps Opal away from the cooking.

And despite that, Delfine sits down next to me. “Hello, Kuro-”

I get up and sit down somewhere else. 

She sits down next to me. “Now, please, let’s just-”

I get up and sit down between Inu and Thatch. 

Delfine just looks at me, and her expression is pretty funny. She stares as if she couldn’t believe what’s happening. Somewhere between confused, annoyed, amused and impressed. I stare back at her, meeting her blindfolded eyes. For a few seconds, it lingers, then the oracle just laughs and shakes her head. “I see how it is,” she says, though her voice holds no malice. 

There’s a faint curiosity there. One that’s so strong I can feel an echo of it brushing my defiance. The razorblades rise against her authority. Does she have multiple, too, then? Her curiosity cuts itself on my defiance and I see her wince slightly as she draws back. She tilts her head at me.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d ask if you were related,” Opal notes with a grin. 

Raven gives their best impression of an annoyed grimace. Coldscar frowns entirely unhappily. Meanwhile, Dove looks at Sylves with raw fear and Anna shoots Inu and Thatch jealous looks.

There are too many people for me to keep track of properly. So, instead, I give up. They can do whatever they like. They can glare or grimace or frown or talk. I’m almost tempted to summon my fishbowl again, but it’d instantly give me away to Raven. Right now they still seem at least a little undecided on whether I’m Yuki, which is good for me. 

I use [Suppression] to tune out the noise of their talking as I reestablish my limiters. First, my attunement loop, acting on my vessel. I put it in place now, before I regenerate enough mana to blow myself up. Then, the cruncher, to make sure I train my body properly. It’s funny how oddly mundane it makes me feel. 

Time passes as it usually does. I eat a meal, then lay down to sleep. After all the fighting, I’m pretty tired, and we are in a safe zone so surely nothing bad will happen. Surely.

- - -

When the middle of the night comes, I wake up. Mainly because someone appears to be trying to push mana inside me. Of course, this goes expectedly poorly, really. The little packets of solid mana I kept under my skin diffuse as the foreign mana touches them, dispelling it.

Sighing softly I open my eyes, finding Delfine crouched above me, staring down at my masked face. I stare back at her. 

“Safe zones are meant to be calm, you know?” she asks politely. “So it’s not seen as an attack for me to help people sleep well. No one will wake up, for now. Which means that we can have a conversation, you and I. So, let’s talk, Ion.”