“Hush, dear,” the older Satellite urged. “Staying calm will help.”
Them? Aegrim's voice asked. They can't...wait. They are not normal mortals. What are they?
Pieces of one that was saved, Vinclum replied somberly. And pieces of one that has sought to save all of the others in her worlds.
Pieces... Aegrim puzzled. The Starsown? There are none left! Their doom was written in the Dusk Era!
Doom is not absolute, Vinclum replied. Your own failure is proof.
She is not enough to help him, Pain insisted. Not with only two pieces of herself... wait, what are you doing?
“Guineve?” I heard Breena ask.
“Yes, dear? And hold his head while I'm casting.”
“Got it,” she replied, but whatever they were doing I still couldn't feel through the mind-numbing haze. “Is someone else here?”
“Yes,” Vinclum said with his voice instead of his mind. “Greetings, Starsown remnants.”
“Who are you?” Breena asked dangerously.
“A friend of your Challenger. I came to help him.”
“We've never heard of you,” Breena replied. “And there are no dragons or other monsters on Earth.”
“I wish that were the case. But the fact remains that Earthborn deal with far more monsters than I am able to ward off. They just do not realize it.”
“Please state your name,” Guineve interjected calmly. “So that we may draw better conclusions.”
“I am Vinclum, the Dragon of Honor and Bonds, and I have soul-bound with your Challenger. The influx of my power, alongside the flesh-bond of the Dragon of Affliction is damaging his mind. He has successfully adapted to the physical augmentations we have both bestowed, but magical knowledge is too far removed for his race, and he is having difficulty exceeding the limitations that came alongside his ability to Rise.”
“Which Magic?” Breena asked. “He came here able to handle three Ideals, two of which were opposing.”
“He appears to have picked up a fourth along the way,” the sunwyrm replied. “And now he is dealing with a total of at least five Ideals, two pairs of which are in opposition. Furthermore, all of his foundational Ideals have been over-saturated with comprehension. Our giftings are causing him to make magical connections and insights faster than his waking mind can keep up with.”
“That shouldn't be possible,” Guineve replied, her voice rising just enough to reveal her concern.
“I am led to believe such comments are common around him,” Vinclum said carefully.
“Don't offer us false sympathy!” Breena snapped, and I suspect she hadn't meant to. “If you helped cause this, you must know how to fix it.”
“Indeed. I have incurred a debt to your Challenger and my next action is part of my discharging said debt. Deeds of favor should be reciprocated. Especially back to the righteous.”
Ha! Pain sneered. Good luck getting them to believe tha—
“Of course they should, but if you're lying and you do anything to hurt him, you'll have to deal with the both of us,” Guineve replied calmly, but firmly. “We do not care which kind of dragon you are, or how powerful you might be. We owe him enough to battle you on his behalf.”
I must be cursed to deal with absurdities for the rest of my life, Aegrim grumbled. To deal with this mindset, after all the impossibilities of yesterday and today.
On the contrary, Vinclum replied. Their behavior is quite normal. You have forgotten that you are no longer on Earth.
“I will begin,” the golden dragon answered audibly. “I suspect you will benefit directly from my actions as well. I apologize that the relief I am about to provide will be so temporary.”
Silence then, as if the wyrm was taking a breath. And then...
“As the Dragon of Bonds, I hereby acknowledge the bond between Challenger and Starsown. I hereby grasp on the bond between Stell Starsown and Challenger-Lord Wes Malcolm. Stell Starsown, come forth.”
I heard more shimmering, and then a voice I had been missing for over a day. Longer, if one counted days of torture, and not dreams.
“What? Where?”
Stell. The Starsown of Avalon was back.
“You have returned to Avalon,” Vinclum said. “I apologize, but we do not have much time. My summoning is only the gentle pulling on a bond, and you will return to your prior location all too soon. Examine your Challenger, so that you may help me repair him.”
“Who are you?” Stell demanded.
“Vinclum, the Dragon of Honor and Bonds. Current custodian of Aegrim, the Dragon of Affliction, bonded by soul to Challenger-Lord Wes Malcolm. There is no further time to explain. Examine your Challenger, that you may help me repair his mind and help him adjust to the magic it now contains.”
“What...I...Wes,” Stell said, apparently shaking herself out of confusion. “Wes, okay. I'm here, Wes.”
She was now addressing me directly.
“I'm here. You're going to be okay. Now let me take a look...”
I heard the hum of the magic Stell normally worked around her glowing stones.
“His Risen level has almost doubled... his Traits... Breena, what happened to his Traits?”
“What I warned you would happen!” the tiny fairy shouted. “He pushed himself harder than every other Challenger and then on top of that, all sorts of stupid things happened to him! And now he's bursting with power that he's never had any experience dealing with!”
Emotion came out of my familiar in a rush.
“He's scared, Stell! And he doesn't think anyone else notices and every monster we meet is saying all sorts of horrible things to him and he shakes and twitches without realizing it and he talks to people that aren't even there! And now this meanie—” I got the feeling she was pointing to the golden dragon—“And some other meanie we haven't even met yet went and said 'oh look at you, Wes, you're clearly not dealing with enough issues in your life! But I know how to fix that! Me and some other jerk are going to perform a flesh and soul-bond on you right at the same time, even though it's like twenty Rises too early for that kind of thing and you already have access to almost all of the magic we're providing you with! But hey, that's no problem, we'll just make sure we overload you with all of the Foundational Ideals and just hope nothing goes wrong! Oops! Something went wrong'!”
She had begun bawling her eyes out halfway through that diatribe, but she still managed to do a solid voice impression there.
In fairness, though, it's not like I just started tormenting you, Pain protested. I've actually been pretty consistent about it for a while.
Noted, I managed to think through the haze in my mind. Now shut up, and go eat a dick.
“Okay, Breena,” Stell said. “We'll get Wes fixed, and then we'll yell at everyone afterwards. Deal?”
“Deal!” the tiny fairy sniffed. “Let me and Guineve make sure he's comfy, and under.”
Under what? I started to ask, but then I became very drowsy and the white haze faded into a soft blackness.
When I awoke, I realized I could see. Three beautiful, tired, and relieved women were hovering over me.
“Wes?” Stell asked worriedly. “How do you feel?”
Her appearance had changed again. Her skin was in that gray, shifting stage, where her features were back in the process of filling out again. Her eyes were a piercing gray, and her hair color was concealed by dozens of shimmering water droplets from the mist. Once again, I could only wonder what kind of woman, what kind of color she was becoming, and the mystery captivated me all over again.
But more importantly, she was safe.
And she was back.
“Stell!” I said excitedly, with far more relief than I meant to show. But I couldn't move.
“What?” I asked, looking back down at myself. Faint bands of mists were wrapped gently but firmly around me. They didn't hurt me; I just couldn't move. Kind of like having someone tie me down with pillows, then fastening those pillows to the ground or something.
>
“Guineve's idea,” Stell said awkwardly. “She says you keep going off somewhere and getting hurt when we're gone. And—” she swallowed—“It looks like you've died too many times to come back if it happens again. In fact, it looks like you're in your original body, not your projected one.” She bit her lip.
“Yeah,” I said, uncomfortable too. “There wasn't much time to talk earlier. A lot of bad stuff has happened. And... Avalon has to be my home now. I can't go back to Earth.”
Stell's lip trembled. Breena looked ready to bawl her eyes out again. Even Guineve trembled a bit.
“Wes, I'm sorry,” Stell said. “I'm so sorry. It's not supposed to be like this for a Challenger. You're supposed to gain at least as much as you sacrifice! That's how it's supposed to work! You're not supposed to lose everything!”
“I didn't,” I replied.
I would have touched her as I said that, boundaries be damned. But they had tied me down.
So, maybe boundaries had already been breached.
“I didn't lose everything, Stell. I told you I hadn't given up, and you're one of the reasons for that.”
The three women suddenly blinked, blushed, and spoke as one.
“What?”
“Stell,” I insisted. “Stop thinking this is all your fault. You didn't ruin me. Coming to Avalon didn't ruin me. The things I've suffered? Every one of them started on Earth. My disability. My dad's murder, and framing as a child predator. The persecution I've suffered. None of that would have gone away if I hadn't come to Avalon. And the problems I've faced here all had their roots in the things that followed me here. Even Cavus came here because other people from Earth enabled him. And not five minutes ago I would have probably apologized for it, like you're doing now, but a tiny part of me is finally realizing that my enemy's actions are my enemy's fault. So I'm not blaming either of us for what went wrong.”
“Oh,” she said quickly. “That's what you meant.”
“I meant more than that,” I said. “I've gotten my legs and brain working again. You gave me that opportunity. I know you were desperate then, but you still chose to trust me. And you and Breena didn't have to teach me all the crazy things I asked about, but you did. Probably because you knew all the crazy exercise and studying would help me back home. It did, because I got better faster than my enemies were aware of, and I learned how to get my power back when they took it away from me again. Because you showed me how power works, Stell, at least outside of Earth. And when the reverse problem, having a body and mind that were too capable, showed up? You stepped in again and took care of it. It looks like that happened about five minutes ago.”
“Yeah, I did. We did, technically.” She looked at Breena and Guineve. Having multiple bodies, each with different traits, must make first-person statements a little difficult, I reflected. “Your mana channels in Fire, Earth, Air and Water were all over-taxed. We spread them out a little bit, and I upgraded one of the safety restraints I put on you a long time ago.”
“Safety restraints?” I asked suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“I mean Breena has a right to be upset, but I didn't ignore her completely. In addition to those annoying pre-recorded messages you've probably gotten too many of...”
For a moment I thought I saw another blush flash across her gray cheeks, and then it was gone.
“In addition to those, I put some restrictions regarding the most dangerous skills into your mind-screen. Specifically the magic ones, because there are unproven stories of people advancing too quickly into their Ideal magic and blowing themselves up. That actually let you reassign a few of the bonus points you gained through your recent change, though some got lost for good. Sorry about that. I also made it to where you wouldn't tear yourself apart again if you gained another pair of oppositional Ideals. Which you did,” she grumbled. “But whatever. Comes with the territory, I guess. At any rate, all you have to do is to find a way to link them with each other, like you did with your Air and Earth magic. I'm not worried about it, because again, it's you we're talking about.”
“Uh, thanks,” I replied cautiously. “I think?”
“It's definitely a good thing, Wes,” Stell said, biting her lip. “Wes, I know you don't want me apologizing, but I'm sorry. We're supposed to be about empowering Challengers. Breena got her frustration over you from me, when she should have been finding a way to make everything keep up with you. Which probably means I wasn't supporting her enough.”
“Talked about it already,” the little fairy grumbled. “You owe me all the sweets. All of them.”
“Yeah, Breena, that's fine,” Stell said with a smile. “I'll let that happen. I won't even ask Guineve to rein her baking urges in.”
“Thank you, Little Star,” Guineve said with a smile. “That's sweet of you.”
“And, Wes,” Breena added. “I'm... going to share the sweets. So you can have some. Because you earned them too.”
Stell and Guineve turned their heads toward Breena and blinked.
“This time, I mean,” Breena said quickly. “The others know I don't like to share sweets. So, um, don't get too used to it.”
“That's fine with me, Breena,” I added. “You've been an awesome help. You can have all the processed sugar you can handle. As long as it doesn't give you fairy cholesterol or something.”
She suddenly bounced up and down in midair.
“That's the sweetest thing a Challenger's ever said to me,” she buzzed. “I told you he was nice. I don't care if you both already knew, I was still right. I'm gonna hug him now, okay?”
“That's fine, dear,” Guineve said, and then a little pink light buzzed over and hugged my chest.
“Nuzzle-nuzzle-nuzzle! Bestest Challenger ever!”
I chuckled, and then realized Breena had actually grown a good bit. In fact, she was well over two feet tall now, and it was more like being hugged by an extremely short, beautiful, and clearly feminine woman, instead of a little Barbie doll.
But the best part of the experience was that I didn't even have it in me to be embarrassed about the contact this time.
“Oh,” Stell said suddenly. “Umm... hey, Guineve? Maybe he shouldn't be tied up anymore?”
“Hmm?” the deceptively older-looking, but statuesque, woman asked. “Why? Has he complained about it?”
“Guineve,” Stell pleaded.
“Alright, Little Star. But only because it's good to see you again.”
The soft bands of mist around me loosened, and I could stand again. Breena still clung to my chest and I decided I still wasn't bothered by it. I looked to the two other women who had helped save my life again, and gave me all kinds of opportunities. Guineve still looked a little worn out, but she had recovered greatly from our mad flight yesterday. She was thankfully clothed again, wearing her misty white dress that was still cut too low in the front for my probably puritanical tastes. Her skin was still pale, but healthy, and her raven dark hair curled comfortably over one shoulder. She smiled at me as I rose to my feet, and I could feel her relief over my well-being.
Stell looked exactly like I had noticed three minutes ago, although now that I had a better angle, I could give her an honest statement about her wardrobe.
“I like your shirt,” I said with a grin, and she looked down and smiled shyly.
Brace For the Wolves Page 48
