Bog Standard Isekai

A single red and skinless man separated himself from the horde, running faster than an arrow flies. He bashed into Lumina's shield... and bounced right off. In a rage he slammed his fists against her shields, but again to no effect. Two more skinless red men reached her, and similarly were rebuffed by her shields.

A glowing, whitish-yellow woman arrived next, flying through the air. The Motleys of this color were the most human-looking of them. She looked like she could still be completely human if not for the yellow shade, and her clothes were nothing but a simple shift that flowed like water and looked like it might have the same makeup as the rest of her body.

Smiling, she slapped Lumina's shield, making a thunderclap that made visible migrations in the grass around the impact point. The red men flinched back as if in pain, and the yellow woman giggled and then floated off in another direction.

Lumina flew back as well, not as a reaction to the slap, but to avoid the bulk of the Shroud monsters that were near to reaching her.

A line of [Knights] stepped forward first, and then [Mages] behind them put down a wall of spells. Gouts of flame, beams of water, spells and explosions of every manner. They pushed the horde back, stopping and scattering it, but most of all, buying Lumina time.

She'd struggled against just one of these things three months ago, but now she'd had time to develop spells specifically for them. Also, she'd faced Calixtum in a crowded ballroom. Now she had the space to cast one of her big spells. "<Carrying the Bleaching Light under the Desert Sun, Starfall!>"

A hundred suns bloomed in the night sky, and Brin was sure that the limitations of Valentin's projections were the only thing keeping the sight from searing his retinas. The contrast was too much for Valentin to be able to adjust for, so there was nothing else visible, just a hundred floating white dots on a black screen. He saw that they were vaguely moving, but with nothing else visible, he didn't have any way to tell what they were doing.

The dots became lines, and then disappeared. The screen went black, and Brin wondered if Valentin had turned off the illusion.

The screen flipped on again, and this view was much higher up. Had Valentin lost the Invisible Eye closer to Lumina on the ground? The image wasn't clear at first, and then he could tell there was a cloud of mist that obscured most of the battlefield.

After a minute or so, another Fireball burst through the mist, scattering it to reveal... nothing. The entire plain that had hosted the Motley horde was now completely empty.

Valentin adjusted the angle, looking deeper into Cobol's territory. From the bird's eye view, he could make out a ruined village a few miles away. But there, in the distance, maybe only another dozen miles away, another village's walls still held. Valentin moved his Invisible Eyes closer, perhaps not remembering that this eye had an audience. Brin could just barely make out... yeah he was sure. There were men on the walls.

Not all of Cobol's territory had been ruined. What fields he could see were devastated. What livestock he could see were dead and rotting in the fields. But there were people there, in the town. How had Cobol kept the army from overwhelming them?

And where was the Motley horde now?

Valentin adjusted the view to look straight down again, probably thinking along the same lines as Brin. Lumina's army was unharmed. The horde was nowhere to be seen; nothing but a torn and muddy field gave any clue they'd ever been there.

Valentin cut the feed.

There was a chorus of moans from the assembled [Illusionists], and a guy called [Domino] even went so far as to put the image up again, using an Invisible Eye of his own, but Valentin snatched the illusion magic and pulled it back down again.

"Be easy!" Valentin called out. "As soon as I learn anything more, I'll let you all know. But don't we all have something better to do? We've got a festival to prepare for, don't we?"

Brin looked at Hogg. "What are the chances that Lumina really just destroyed that whole horde with a single spell?"

Hogg grunted. "We didn't get to see the spell land, really, so I won't say the chances are zero. But they're close to zero. Life is never that easy."

"That's about what I was thinking," said Brin.

Hogg pushed a bottle into Brin's hands, then another, and another. "Water Poison. Color Poison. And this one is a bit of both, with a spreading agent that Sion came up with. Should work like an Eveladis, but for Shroud monsters."

"We need to cancel the festival," said Brin.

"I'm on my way up to do just that," said Hogg. “I also want to go talk to Xeno again. He might have more to say now that the cat’s out of the bag. It’s a good thing I can be in two places at once.”

“Do you really think the Motley Shroud is going to show up here, somehow?” asked Brin.

Hogg tilted his head, face still covered by the sunny mask. “It sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? Paranoid. And yet, I’ve got this feeling in my gut.”

“Me too,” said Brin.

“Here. Give me an Invisible Eye,” said Hogg. He held out a black box and opened the lid. Brin summoned an Invisible Eye inside, and Hogg closed it again, tucking it back into his jacket.

Over the past few months, Hogg had made good on his promise to teach him how to navigate the Tower with Invisible Eyes. Some floors could be accessed through sewer veins, and some through heating ducts. Some rooms you could fly in through the windows, and some had no wards at all. But the most effective way to get an Invisible Eye into a restricted room was to get someone to carry it in for you. The same rules of Wyrd that protected Lightminds that were implanted into [Illusionists’] brains also protected illusions that you kept inside a bag, or in this case a box.

Of course, some rooms were warded even against that. Should Hogg ever find himself locked in one of the cells of the prison, he’d lose that spell in the box as well as what was left of his Lightmind.

They split up to exit through the labyrinth, then found each-other again at the elevator, and then split up again when they got to the ground floor. He sent another Invisible Eye to go find Marksi in the underground garden to ask if he wanted to come along, and then stomped through the terrarium, trying to find Vitor or Bia, whichever was first. Tonin had been waiting near the elevator, but he hadn’t seen either of them, so Brin was starting from scratch.

While his eyes searched, he kept walking, needing to move to ward away the growing anxiety building up from his gut. The terrarium was crowded; they’d already started letting commoners in to start setting up gambling stalls and games.

The great hall wasn’t any better. Commoner vendors had taken over half the room, and the other half was dominated by setting up the stage for various entertainments. He saw Ares and Sancha there, and while he was briefly tempted to just walk through without letting them see him, he decided against it. Friendships weren’t such an insignificant thing that he’d start avoiding them just because he didn’t feel like talking.

They were chatting with an older fellow who was setting up a dart game. Since even commoners had Dexterity that would contend with professional athletes in his old world, it was a bit more complex than just darts at a target fifteen feet away. There were also swinging ropes and spinning wheels in the way, more like an airborne minigolf than a simple dartboard.

“This looks like quite the challenge! I hope I get to try it,” said Brin. He tried to sound friendly, though he didn’t think he could totally hide the tension.

Sancha startled as if she were doing something bad. “Brin! I…I was only…”

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Brin shook his head. “Have you seen Vitor? Or Bia?”

“Oh. Um. Wherefore?” asked Sancha.

“Hey Brin, um. Have you met my father?” asked Ares.

Brin looked at the commoner again. This guy wasn’t nearly tall enough to be Ares' father. Though, there was definitely a family resemblance there, if you could get past the prodigious mustache, which, why would you want to? And Ares was sweating and looking a bit and looking tense and now Brin had been glaring at the two of them for way too long now.

Ares broke the silence first. “Right! Vitor! I think I saw him–”

“Whoa, hold on,” said Brin. He slapped his cheeks a couple times and shook his head. “I’m really sorry, my brain is in a hundred different places today.” He stuck out his hand. “It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you, sir. Ares has told me everything about you.”

Ares’ dad took his hand uncertainly, though he had a firm grip. “The pleasure is mine, of course, my lord. I apologize for–”

“No. No way. I’m still getting used to this ‘lord’ stuff, but I can’t have my friend’s dad call me ‘my lord’.” He shivered. “Too weird.”

“As you wish… young master.”

Brin grabbed Ares by the shoulder and shook him by the shoulder. “Ares is a great guy. You should be proud of him.”

That got a hint of a grin from the man. “I surely am. But don’t let me intrude. You have better things to do than butter up a poor old man. You sounded like you were looking for someone? Is it important?”

“A little,” Brin admitted. “I’m really sorry. I’m not usually such a jerk, and I really have been looking forward to meeting you.”

“Then what’s wrong?” asked Ares.

Sancha answered first. “The war! Oh, how fareth the war? We may well pardon thy distraction, seeing as how at this very moment, thy mother leadeth an host unto the field of battle,” said Sancha.

“Right, yeah, I bribed an [Illusionist] to show me what was going on,” said Brin. “They’re winning. An absolute rout. Duke Cobol ran out alone and told her that he’s lost control of his duchy and begged her for her help. Then she cast a single spell and boom the entire horde is gone.”

“Should I be hearing this?” asked Ares’ dad.

Brin shrugged. “It’ll be all over the papers tomorrow.”

“But this is good news! Thou hast prevailed, and thy long contest with the Cobol clan is ended in triumph. Wherefore then art thou so full of anguish?”

“I’m not full of anguish, Sancha. I’m… I’m… I don’t know what I am. I need to talk to Bia,” said Brin.

“Then Bia you shall have,” said Ares with a courtly bow. He looked back to his dad for a second, but the older gentleman said, “Oh, go on.”

Tonin cleared his throat. “My lord, if I’m not needed, I had in mind to go and help with the preparations.”

Brin nodded.

“Oh! Can I go with him?” asked Sanpurana, Sancha’s maid.

“Very well,” said Sancha.

Then they were off. Since Brin’s eyes had already scoured the bottom floor of the Tower, he decided to look outside in the garden maze at the front entrance. This too, was full of commoners coming to see the Tower on the one day a year when everyone was allowed.

By the time he spotted Bia, she’d already seen him, and she was on her way towards him.

“I’m so glad you came straight to me, so I can be the first to tell you ‘I told you so’,” she said, hands on hips and looking triumphant.

Brin spluttered. “I… you… what?”

“Come on. You saw what happened. Cobol isn’t a rebel. He’s been defending the kingdom all this time!” Bia said.

“Please. He was protecting his own pride and property, properly. He should have called in the Tower the second it all went south.”

“And let the whole world know Frenaria is vulnerable?” asked Bia.

“It doesn’t matter now. What’s important is that we’re on the same side now. The Motley Shroud is the enemy. So now you can finally tell us what that even is!” said Brin.

Bia looked to her left and right. The garden wasn’t in any way private, but did this really need to be a private conversation? If Cobol didn’t plan on using the Motley Shroud as a tool for rebellion, then there was no reason all of Frenaria shouldn’t know about its strengths and weaknesses. At the very least, none of the other Tower students were nearby.

“Well, you saw it. It’s this crazy magic thing that they came up with to fight Arcaena. It’s all way above my head, to be honest,” said Bia.

She was a [Scout] and focused on Body Magic, but he knew that she was smarter than she let on. There was no way she didn’t know more than that. She had [Scout] senses, so he didn’t even need to speak. He just folded his arms and let her feel the full force of his skepticism.

She continued. “I mean, the main things to know are that they’re all completely crazy, and they do whatever they want. Whatever Skills or attributes they had before are gone now; it’s a complete racial change. The color lines up with what emotion they represent, and no, they don’t all stay the same color so it’s really hard to tell them apart. Except for the [Crashing Wave]. She is always Joy. If you see her, run. Except don’t literally run, because she’ll think it’s a game and try to catch you.” Bia laughed. “But it hardly matters. Chaos is there, Brin. They’re going to take care of it.”

“So you agree it’s not already over,” said Brin.

“No. If killing them worked, Cobol would’ve taken care of this himself. They come back from the water. Oh, but killing them gives you the full experience every time. That’s why Vitor is so high level. I bet Lumina is feeling really good right now,” said Bia.

“And your thing. The Shroudlings. What was that?”

Bia opened her mouth, then reconsidered and shut it again. “I’ve told you enough, considering you don’t really need to know any of this. Like I said, the Mystical Elements and Chaos will take care of it. Now I want to hear you say I was right. Duke Cobol isn’t a traitor.”

Hogg spoke in Brin’s ear with Silent Voice. “Xeno spilled. The Shroudlings are how they reproduce.”

“I bet that rainbow puke disease you’re carrying is how they reproduce. Are you putting everyone in danger, Bia?” asked Brin.

“No! I… it’s not a disease and… and you. You’re scared. You really don’t think Lumina is going to win. I should be pumping you for information! What do you know that I don’t?” she asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. The Shroudlings first.”

“Fine. Yeah, it’s how they reproduce. But no one is in danger. They won’t start spreading until after they kill the host. They’re completely obsessed with it. The [Crashing Wave] must’ve been in a mood when she built this thing, because you can just feel the hatred dripping off of it. The Motley Shroud wants me dead more than it wants to survive. That’s good news for us, though. It would be a whole lot more dangerous if it wasn’t so mean.”

Brin nodded. “It’s not a disease, so it’s a curse?”

“Yeah. It’s almost enough to make a girl find religion. Does that really work, by the way?”

Brin started pacing. But everyone followed him, so now he wasn’t pacing, he was walking through the garden. His mind raced, and instead of parsing it with logic he started by following the chain of worst case scenarios.

“I heard that the original testing group was only like a hundred people, but I saw thousands of those monsters,” said Brin.

“Mostly undead. Cobol did a pretty good job of defending his own people. But the Shroud works on undead, which is why we thought it would be a good weapon against Arcaena,” said Bia.

Brin felt some of the tightening in his chest loosen.

“Whoa. Why did that just make you feel better?” asked Bia.

“Can Cobol direct the horde?” Brin asked.

“Just the three that swore to him, but sometimes the rest will follow where they lead. Again, why are you feeling like this is good news?”

“Indeed, why? It is a positively ghastly affair!” said Sancha.

“It’s just… that all sounds plausible.” Brin chuckled and shook his head. “I think my past experiences have me jumping at shadows. [Witches] aren’t the only ones who can give curses, though. I knew that.”

“My cousin has a curse! Got it from a monster bite,” said Ares.

“My cousin is a curse,” said Sancha.

Ares barked out a loud stream of laughter, while Brin and Bia were more confused than anything.

“Sanpurana,” Sancha admitted.

“Oh,” Brin said, drawing it out. “It all makes sense now.”

“It shames my tongue to speak such words,” said Sancha.

“Then shame it further, lady! I need the full story,” said Bia.

Brin wished her good luck, because he’d been pulling at that thread for a while now.

“You mustn’t let her know I said this,” said Sancha.

“Ask Brin how well I keep secrets,” said Bia.

Apparently, what Sancha needed was another girl to ask her about it, because she spilled the whole thing.

When Sancha’s uncle couldn’t be given an inheritance, her father had decided that giving his family employment was the least they could do. The result was a situation that didn’t suit anyone. The servants were lazy and entitled, and Sancha’s family had to scrape and scrounge to pay them. Sancha admitted that the majority of the money that she made with her gemstones went straight to Sanpurana, and she hated her for it.

Now that she finally opened up, her story was a gushing river of a thousand little slights, and a hundred small confessions. The story was interrupted once when they went back to Ares’ dad so that Brin could make a better impression and also try to embarrass his friend in front of his dad by outlining and exaggerating all his accomplishments.

Then it was interrupted again when Marksi found them and insisted Brin go talk to the [Beast Tamers] in the Life Circle about the animals that would be putting on a show.

Hogg never managed to get the festival shut down, but now it was looking like that wouldn’t be necessary. They spent the morning wandering the Tower, watching the set-up for the festival and helping when they could.

The Tower was just beginning to open its gates to the public when Brin heard Hogg again through Silent Voice.

“Stop what you’re doing for a second.”

Brin excused himself from his friends and found a quiet nook. “What is it?”

“Xeno finally cracked. He mostly repeated the stuff Bia already told you,” said Hogg.

“Nice to get a second opinion. What’s the bad news?” asked Brin.

“They wanted to test out if the Motley Shroud would subsume curses the way it did with Classes and Skills. They found a woman with a curse.” Hogg waited for Brin to respond.

“I'm with you so far.”

“The woman claimed that she had been cursed by Arcaena herself. A low-level [Carpenter] in the middle of nowhere claimed she’d been cursed by Arcaena. And Cobol believed her. Xeno still believes that story,” said Hogg.

Brin groaned. All the anxiety that he’d lost when he let himself believe Bia came back with a vengeance. Because [Witch Queens] didn’t go around cursing random women in Frenaria. Not in a way that would leave anything recognizable as human behind. This was something else.

“She was a clone.”

Hogg’s voice was unusually hushed. “They used the Motley Shroud to infect Arcaena herself.”