by Tamryn Tamer
“That’s right,” Mirage said as she blinked toward the front gate while being chased by soldiers and familiars. Both Mortiax and Aldo were faster than her, especially in her wounded state, but if they kept their distance maybe she could make it to the gate. She pulled out a second tiny flask of dragon bile and tossed it in the air along with an incendiary potion. “Just let me kill myself.”
The white flaming orb did its job forcing the familiars and soldiers following her to take a detour. She jumped and twirled in the air while throwing dozens of steel caltrops at the miniature sun. They quickly melted and splashed down like molten raindrops on the pursuing soldiers.
She guzzled down a health potion while blinking toward the gate. She was shapeshifting new muscles as her others burned away. Anybody else would have already melted but she was pulling fragments of her guts to rebuild her muscles as her flesh bubbled and burned.
“She’s heading to the gate,” Whim announced.
“No shit!” Aldo growled while leaping maintaining a safe distance. He had no interest in approaching her, and for good reason given his fur covered body. Mortiax approached from the sky as Mirage avoided his dark spears while slicing away others. “Goddammit, Mortiax! Kill her already!”
“Shut up you stupid mongrel,” Mortiax yelled as Mirage’s arm was torn off by a dark spear.
“It’s fine,” Mirage said to herself as she reached the gate. With her remaining arm, she quickly cut through the bars and jumped through. She reached the exterior of the stronghold. She knew there was no way she was going to survive until the portal but she had to try. She owed it to her master to try her hardest, just like him. “That’s just less to regenerate.”
The last bit of fire from her dagger finally melted away and the deterrence keeping Aldo away from her was gone. She could feel him rapidly approaching and knew that as soon as she caught her, she was dead.
She sprinted forward while rebuilding her legs. She didn’t need most of her guts other than her heart and lungs. How important were livers and kidneys anyway if you weren’t eating or drinking? Digestive tracts, completely unnecessary. And the arm she still had wasn’t really going to do much in its condition so she could steal from that as well. She just needed her legs, her head, and the energy to run as far as she could.
“Not gonna happen!” Aldo growled while tackling Mirage a few hundred feet from the stronghold. It might have hurt but she was in so much pain that any additional pain was lost. She tried to squirm away and fight but the powerful werewolf had her pinned down. “Damn if you don’t have some balls on you.”
“Hold her there,” Mortiax snapped. “I’m going to kill the bitch.”
“Huh?” Mirage laughed as the werewolf pressed his knee into her back. “What? No. Where’d it go?”
“I think she may have lost her mind,” Whim said as he arrived with several soldiers. “She’s sustained a lot of injuries.”
“What?” Mirage laughed hysterically as her sixth sense subsided. “How?”
“What is she…” Mortiax stopped and fell to the ground as a darkness infused arrow pierced his throat. A second arrow followed and landed right in Aldo’s stomach.
“Really?” Mirage groaned as pain permeated her body. “Her? Of course it’s her…”
“Mort,” Aldo yelled while dragging the gurgling Fallen out of the line of fire. Several players fell to the ground as standard arrows landed in their skulls from the tree line. “Fuck! Whim. Fall back.”
“Goddammit,” Mirage whined as Owl’s familiars ran off. Another dark arrow fired and she heard a scream from Whim. “Goddammit.”
“Fuck,” Terra said as she rolled Mirage over and began funneling health potions into her. “I’m going to skin them alive. What did they do to you?”
“Good question,” Mirage chuckled. “I guess Mortiax pierced my thighs and cut off an arm and Aldo tackled me.”
“Then how the fuck did this happen?” Terra was panicking. Mirage imagined she didn’t look very good. She hoped her darling didn’t see her in whatever nightmarish condition she was in. All she could feel was her insides burning. “Is there anything else I can do here? Or just more potions?”
“Why are you here?” Mirage asked as Terra fed her another potion. “I didn’t tell you where I was going.”
“You’re not that hard to figure out,” Terra said while firing a volley of arrows at some incoming enemies. They were already pretty scattered so the ones approaching were easy for her to kill. “You wandered off after a meeting about summoning a creature that could kill your family. You’re stupid when it comes to protecting your family.”
“I’m not stupid,” Mirage grumbled. “You’re stupid.”
“Oh my god!” Terra dumped four healing potions on Mirage’s head. Mirage had enough energy to at least shapeshift into a somewhat healed form and get her arms back. Terra started to help her up. “You are infuriating! I came all of the way here to save your stupid ass…”
“Fine,” Mirage said as her legs gave out. Terra caught her before she could tumble back to the ground. Something still felt off, like her insides were slowly disintegrating. She looked at Terra and forced a smile. “My hero.”
“Shut up,” Terra said as she helped life Mirage. The elf ranger pulled out a scroll and infused it with spirit magic opening a portal back to Dayrose. “A legitimate thank you would be nice though. I was really worried.”
“You were worried about me?” Mirage asked.
“Yes,” Terra answered. “Why?”
“Because you hate me,” Mirage answered.
“I don’t hate you,” Terra groaned. “I can’t believe you’d even say that. You just aggravate me.”
“I hate you,” Mirage said as they got closer to the portal.
“No, you don’t,” Terra laughed. “Bitch.”
“No, I don’t,” Mirage chuckled as they walked through the portal. “Thank you.”
Chapter 7
Creating Life
Jericho stared at the soul in his hand while concentrating on the various components needed to create Valaria. The soul was one of the primary components but he wasn’t exactly sure how it connected to the rest.
“Why didn’t you ask her to teach you before she killed herself?” Eberis asked furiously.
“She didn’t give me a chance,” Jericho said defensively. It wasn’t Jericho’s fault that Eberis’ sister went and scorched herself before teaching him to use life magic. “She made it sound like all I needed to do was think about her.”
“Then do that!” Eberis said while pacing back and forth for the hundredth time. “Have you tried that?”
“I’ve been trying that for the last thirty minutes!” Jericho clenched his fist. “As I told you before, I can see the components I need but I don’t have any of them and even if I did, I don’t know how to use them. It’s like I have a list of ingredients for a cake and a picture of how it looks. No actual ingredients and no instructions.”
“Shit, shit, shit,” Eberis said trying to calm himself down. “New plan.”
“I’m listening,” Jericho said ready to try anything.
“You can perform a simple soul swap,” Eberis said confidently. “Since you own both of our souls you can just swap them so she gets this body and I have none. Once she has a body, she can create her own and then we’re just a couple transfers away from completion.”
“Except I have no idea how to do a soul swap either,” Jericho said. “I can only infuse a soul in an empty shell.”
“Then you’re halfway there,” Eberis said assuredly. “You just need to detach my soul from this body.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jericho chuckled nervously.
“Listen here,” Eberis grabbed the collar of Jericho’s coat. Red lightening flickered not only in the surrounding clouds but in the god’s eyes as he growled at Jericho. “You will bring my sister back or I will tear you into a thousand pieces. I know that you’re thinking. You’ll just die and
resurrect in a graveyard. But that’s not what’ll happen because I’m a fucking god. A fucking god Jericho. A thousand pieces and you’ll be alive for every second with no escape. Or you can figure out how to fix her right fucking now!”
“Stop it,” Jericho smacked Eberis’ hands away. “First off, we know that you can’t do that. Second, that’s not helping. Don’t you think I want to get her back?”
“Do you?” Eberis said irately. “Do you even care about anything other than gathering up more magic? My sister loved you and you can’t even bring her back to life! You promised not to hurt her and the first thing you do is turn her to ash!”
“She did that to herself,” Jericho snapped defensively.
“Don’t you dare blame her,” Eberis said threateningly. “Just fix this.”
“What do you expect me to do?” Jericho threw his hands up in the air. “Should I just conjure her out of thin air? Here! Let’s try that! Oh, let’s grab a little oxygen and hydrogen! Oh, how about some essence of cloud? Maybe I can snag up some of that red lightning, huh? We don’t even have the materials and I don’t know how to work them!”
“She was able to conjure a dragon inside of that castle so obviously the materials don’t matter,” Eberis said gesturing at the castle. “I’ve seen her summon griffins and golems out of thin air! You’re doing something wrong!”
“Obviously,” Jericho gritted his teeth. “But I don’t know how it works. I can picture her in front of me. I can picture the items that make her up. But I can’t figure out how to create them out of thin air.”
“Goddammit!” Eberis said. “Wait, I have a new idea. Give me my sister’s soul and I’ll portal down to my temple and put it in one of my priestesses. She’ll create her new body and we’ll be done.”
“Okay,” Jericho nodded. “Finally, a good plan.”
“Wait,” Eberis stopped himself as he reached for the soul. “Shit. If I do that it’ll piss off the rest of my siblings. They can’t blame me for helping you but if I help her, they’re going to lock me up next time.”
“Seriously?” Jericho said judgmentally. “All of that bluster and you’re chickening out?”
“She told you to create her body,” Eberis said accusingly. “And you don’t understand how vindictive my siblings can be.”
“Well,” Jericho gestured at the castle. “They did lock their sister up for god knows how long for essentially no reason. I think I have an idea.”
“Exactly,” Eberis said.
“Goddammit,” Jericho grumbled as he went back to focus on creating a body for Valaria. “Okay, so let’s go one ingredient at a time.”
Jericho looked around at his surroundings for any of the ingredients that her body required. There were fragments of raw materials scattered everywhere but not in the amounts he needed. Additionally, he still had no idea how to manipulate them the way she did. She pretty much looked at them and summoned a dragon.
The only thing around him was wind and clouds. Maybe if she were made up of a swirling wind elemental he could manage something.
“Hm,” Jericho grinned deviously. “Okay, I have an idea. Stand back.”
“Alright,” Eberis said while creating some space between them. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to create the materials I need,” Jericho said. “I think.”
“You think,” Eberis grumbled while preparing for another failure. “Have at it.”
Jericho activated elemental overload and began summoning earth, water, fire, and wind. He stared at all of his magic and began visually deconstructing them with life magic. The way he saw it, life magic was similar to body magic in that you could change the shape of things.
Eventually with body magic, Jericho realized that his transformations were only limited by the size of his building blocks. When he visualized the body as a living creature, he could only change into other living creatures. But as he started to shift his body, he realized it wasn’t a living creature, it was a piece of a living creature. Soon, he was able to transform into monsters of molten stone and even elementals.
Life magic was similar except he wasn’t changing his body, he was changing other things. If Valaria didn’t create a dragon out of thin air. She created a dragon out of the smallest building blocks she could work with.
Jericho focused on the swirling stream of water in front of him and tried to transform it in the same way he transformed himself. He didn’t want it to be water, he wanted it to be blood. He imagined the exact compound of Valaria’s blood and focused on the water’s makeup changing.
“Is it working?” Eberis asked
“Do you think asking helps if it isn’t?” Jericho responded sarcastically as he continued trying to morph it. Finally, he felt a small shift. It was almost nothing and nobody would ever notice it by looking at the water but it changed its composition just slightly. Jericho fixated on that feeling and repeated it while gradually forcing the water to change.
“Holy shit,” Eberis said excitedly. “That’s blood! You’re doing it!”
“Not yet,” Jericho said as he started manipulating and shifting the other elements into bigger and more important components. Gradually he started swirling them all together like an alchemist looking to create exact ratios until a giant blob of amalgamated life floating in front of him. “Almost.”
He closed his eyes and remembered every inch of Valaria’s beautiful soft body. Jericho thought about her adorable pointy ears as she perked up from the blankets and the curl of her lips as she smiled. He imagined her standing in front of him and opened his eyes to see a body forming in front of him.
He accessed his illusion magic and began creating a perfect replica of Valaria in his mind. It was a million times easier to get every detail right and after a minute of building he placed the illusion next to the Valaria he was sculpting as a guide.
“Almost,” Jericho repeated as he nearly completed.
“Wouldn’t know,” Eberis said irritably. Jericho glanced to the side and saw Eberis with his back turned to the spectacle. “You decided to create her naked.”
“Done!” Jericho said as a perfect copy of Valaria stood in front of him. He examined her and everything seemed to be a perfect duplicate of the woman from inside of the castle. Jericho leaned forward and placed the soul inside of her mouth.
“Okay,” Valaria said pensively as her spirit gave life to the body. “Jericho, I don’t want to sound accusatory or anything, but did you make my pussy tighter on purpose?”
“What?” Eberis growled as the clouds around them turned black. “You fucking…”
“It’s a joke Ebby,” Valaria giggled while wrapping her arms around Jericho. “He did everything perfectly. Now, which one of you has some clothing for me?”
Chapter 8
Sacrifices
Terra rushed to the alchemy laboratory with Mirage in her arms and the rest of the familiars following behind. They’d been feeding Mirage health potions since they arrived home but her health wouldn’t stop depleting.
“I think I might be poisoned,” Mirage said while leaning against Terra’s chest. “It feels like poison. And it’s getting worse.”
“You’re not poisoned,” Terra said as her heart pounded. She wanted an answer as to what was happening. “I’ve already used every antidote I had on you.”
“If it’s poison it’s not like any I’ve ever seen,” Cynthia said while inspecting Mirage’s body. “Even when her body is fully recovered it doesn’t stay that way. Every second she’s not healing she’s dying. The only reason she’s still alive is because she’s a shapeshifter.”
“Here,” Ariel handed Mirage her Caeresis Sphaera. Almost immediately the regenerative magic of the orb seemed to slow the rate of her decline. “Does this help?”
“Good idea,” Terra said while glancing at the orb. “Whatever we can do to keep her health up.”
“You said she’s only alive because she’s a shapeshifter,” Sable said as the large group entered
the alchemy lab. The red-eyed Nyxian rushed to the shelf on poisons and pulled down all of the books. “How does the poison operate?”
“I think it’s killing my body,” Mirage answered. Terra set her on the table and held her hand. Her body felt like it was on fire even more so than usual. “Cell by cell it’s killing me. But I’m moving them. Eventually though, there’s going to be nothing left to move.”
“Undress her,” Sable commanded. Terra and Theia saw several portions of skin burning as they opened up her assassin’s tunic. Even though Mirage shapeshifted to cover the burns, they slowly appeared in other areas. Each time she healed them the new growing ones appeared slightly larger. She was right, whatever was killing her was getting worse.
“It looks like sun poisoning but that’s impossible,” Luna said while staring at the burning spots.
“Sun poisoning?” Terra asked as the pieces started to come together. “Shit. Radiation poisoning.”
“If you know what it is then you know the cure right?” Ariel asked hopefully.
“You all need to stay back. Away from her and away from me.” Terra gestured at the group to move further back but they refused to budge. “Luna, sun poisoning. It sounds like the Ethereals are familiar with it. How do you treat it?”
“Terra,” Luna shook her head rapidly as panic filled her face. “It’s not sun poisoning. It’s something else.”
“Why?” Terra asked as she watched fear fill the normally optimistic woman.
“It’s not sun poisoning!” Luna yelled. “It’s something else! You just need to look!”
“Sun poisoning isn’t curable you idiot,” Mirage laughed while squeezing Terra’s hand. The blonde shapeshifter seemed to be getting slightly skinnier as she rested and Terra was getting more concerned. “That’s why she’s insisting it’s not sun poisoning. It was the daggers, wasn’t it? I guess they were like two miniature suns. I was carrying them for a while.”
“I said it’s not sun poisoning!” Luna screamed as tears filled her eyes. “You only get sun poisoning from teleporting too high in the sky for too long! You don’t teleport! You don’t go high in the sky! You don’t have sun poisoning!”
