Bog Standard Isekai

What could Brin do? He could warn the servants. There was absolutely nothing they could do with a warning. It made his heart sick, because he knew that he could never get there in time, and there wasn't a thing he could do against a hundred Easterlings even if he could.

Hogg. He could save them. He didn't know exactly what was going on with the Shadow Elementals, but theoretically they should be as easy to unsummon and resummon as easily as Brin's Mirror Images. If that was the case, then Hogg should be able to deploy his army anywhere in the Tower.

“Can you–”

“Take it easy. Just watch,” said Hogg.

Brin let out a trembling sigh of relief. “Sancta Solia, Hogg, you really had me worried there. But how are you going to stop them?”

“Just watch,” said Hogg.

It wasn't clear what that plan was, or more importantly, when it would start. The Easterlings were ready, and the human slowly opened the door. None of the servants noticed. Brin had been averting his gaze as much as possible from the servants, not wanting to watch the slaughter. But now that he knew Hogg had a plan for them, he looked a little closer and felt a faint tingle from [Know What's Real]. These servants weren't an illusion, per se, but they weren't completely real.

The human led the way, creeping towards the first of his victims. Then he froze, but the Easterlings behind him kept moving.

“Wait!” he hissed.

They didn't wait. They raised their hooks, ready to unleash the distance-jumping strikes at the furthest servants so that none would get away.

One of the servants, his back to the human, suddenly stood up straight. His head twisted all the way around, and then he smiled. It wasn't until all the color drained from his face that Brin understood what was going on.

Shadow Elementals. All of these servants were Hogg's Shadow Elementals in disguise.

“It's a trap! Run!” the man shouted, but the Easterlings ignored him again. Perhaps excited by the challenge, they charged into combat as the rest of the servants dropped their disguises and leapt at the Easterlings with shadowy weapons. Only the human ran the other way, dodging Easterlings in his haste to escape, calling them fools all the while.

He made it to a stairwell, and Brin lost his Invisible Eye trying to follow. Some kind of new anti-detection Skill he'd never seen before. By the time he got another Invisible Eye back, the man was gone.

“Damn. I missed Fowler. Hopefully I’ll get another chance at him. Chaos put a personal bounty on that pirate,” said Hogg.

Tower message. Your assistance is no longer required. Please exit towards the elevator immediately. An emergency requires your attention on the Fourteenth floor.

Hogg’s fight against the Easterlings was by no means an easy battle; the insectoids fought with military tactics now that they saw the Elementals weren’t easy prey. Even so, there was no danger to any regular people, so Brin was safe to turn his attention back to his real body.

“We have a situation.”

Vitor looked down at the remains of the dead [Water Mage]. “I hadn't noticed.”

“They’re attacking all across the Tower. Hogg and the other [Grand Magi] are mounting a defense, but no one seems to know how to kill these things permanently,” said Brin.

“But why here? Why today of all days?” asked Vitor.

“You weren’t watching? Cobol lost control of the Motley Shroud, and it came here,” said Brin.

“What? No. That’s… that’s impossible,” said Vitor.

“It happened,” said Brin. “I’m sorry about your friend, by the way.”

“Me too. He’s going to be really annoying for the next few hours,” said Vitor. There was a keening wail, echoing harshly against the empty swimming pool, and then a solid blue body separated itself from Vitor’s back.

It was Calixtum again, but in his sorrow form. Rather than attack anyone, Calixtum wrapped a blue tendril that could’ve been an arm around Vitor’s shoulder, latching onto him. He buried his face in his back and began to sob.

“Why? Why doesn’t anything ever go my way?”

Vitor shook his head in annoyance. “Now stand back for a moment, if you please.”

Kneeling down beside the dead [Water Mage], Vitor began to chant in the Language. “<Dry, The Winds of Time, Desolation. All Water Departing, Only Dust Remaining. Evaporate!>”

The spell he formed wasn’t quick or flashy, but over the next sixty seconds, the gore and flesh of the dead [Mage] dried out, leaving a thin, mummified form that seemed one breeze away from collapsing completely.

“It’s the only way to prevent him from rising again as a Shrouded,” Vitor explained.

“I remember you telling me you never saw any water ghosts,” said Brin.

“The Shroudlings are new. A new part of their lifecycle. They used to have to pull you into the water,” said Vitor.

“And drying them out like this works? That’s how you kill them permanently?” asked Brin.

Vitor nodded. “It’s harder with living Shrouded, though. You have to dry them without killing them too quickly, or they’ll just reform in the nearest body of water.”

“You getting this?” Brin asked Hogg through Silent Voice.

“I heard it. I’ll have the [Grand Magus of Fire] put a team together,” Hogg responded.

Brin was glad that Vitor had actually been forthcoming for once, but that was all he really needed him for. He turned to begin climbing up the side of the cement. He ended up needing to do a wall run to get the height, and nailed it smoothly on the first try. It was really nice to be back in his armor again. The way it empowered his movements made him feel as good as if he’d never been cursed. Once he was back on the platform with his friends, he ushered them to get moving again. He noticed that Jeeves had gone somewhere; his help was probably needed elsewhere, but at least Bedelia had stuck around.

“Where are you going?” asked Vitor. The [Thirsty Blade] had leapt to the doorway with annoying ease, even with Calixtum clinging to his back.

“Just doing what I can,” said Brin.

Vitor didn’t take the hint, and kept walking alongside Brin. “I don’t believe that for an instant. You know more than you’re letting on. Why did the Motley Shroud attack us here? Today, of all days?”

Brin had a pretty good theory on that. Everyone said that Duke Cobol would never rebel against Lancarote, and he hadn’t believed them, but they were right. The [King] was never Cobol’s enemy. The Tower was. There’d be no point in trying to explain any of this to Vitor, though.

“Why?” moaned Calixtum. He was smooth and nearly featureless in this form; his head was a round ball with only a single frowning hole for a mouth. “Why do I have to be a creature when you get to be a hero?”

Brin said, “However we got into this, it doesn’t change a thing. The fact is, a lot of people are in danger, and I’m going to save who I can.”

“On that, at least, we can agree,” said Vitor. “But you still need to tell me…”

Brin ignored the rest of Vitor’s questions, and they quickly reached the elevator and pressed the directions for the fourteenth floor.

It was strange to say, but he was almost more worried about this floor than he was for the one with all the servants, just because this was the floor with the ghost. Logically, the lives of a bunch of people were more valuable than the half-life of a ghost he only kind of knew, but his gut feelings didn’t always line up with the perfect lines of logic. He was really worried about that little ghost.

It made it worse that something was killing his Invisible Eyes on that floor. As soon as they reached the floor, there’d be a flash of gold, and then it would go empty.

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As he waited for the elevator to make its climb, he let his attention wander to the rest of the Tower. Hogg’s Shadow Elementals were still locked in combat with the Easterlings that had attacked the fourth floor. Now the Easterlings were only fifty, but they fought with furious determination, and showed no signs of quitting. There were two black-carapaced Easterlings that seemed to be particularly troublesome. They had some kind of shield ability that even Hogg couldn’t manage to break through.

The Easterlings were keeping a group of a hundred Shadow Elementals busy, and Hogg sorely needed each one for the fight on the ground floor. From the looks of things, he was barely hanging on by the skin of his teeth.

Brin’s other minds were helping against the ghostly Shroudlings. He wasn’t even waiting for Marksi, Bia, and her friends to destroy the water ghosts; as soon as they identified one, he just took care of it with a laser. It was draining his Mana, but it was easier for him to beat these than anyone else.

Though, once in a while, he noticed a flash of concentrated Light magic that didn’t come from him. These weren’t lasers; they were made by a lens of bent light. Valentin was fighting as well, and who knew how many other [Illusionists].

They reached the fourteenth floor. The second that the doors opened, Brin heard a screech of delighted laughter.

The carpet on the floor was wet, and there were gouges across one of the walls, as if some manner of magical artillery had scored a long scrape in here. It opened up the wall to the offices in places, and he noticed that one of the doors had been blown off the hinges to reveal a fairly spacious laboratory. These doors weren’t all to offices like Hogg’s, then.

He gingerly stepped across the rubble, and walked towards the sound of laughter.

“Shouldn’t we go straight to the top?” asked Sion.

“Why? What’s at the top?” asked Calixtum. In a flash, he turned from blue to yellow. Not the perfect light yellow of joy, but tinged just a bit with green. He was very humanlike in this form, and even bent his body shape to give the outline of trousers and a shirt. He still didn’t jump off of Vitor’s back, though, and Vitor seemed determined to ignore him.

“The Tower won’t let us keep going until we clear the floor?”

“It won’t? Why not? And clear the floor of what? Are we to help with repairs?” asked Calixtum.

Brin summoned another Invisible Eye, and this time he got a look at the thing destroying them. A grinning yellow woman appeared in the air, slapped his Invisible Eye, and then disappeared again. He only saw her like a flash of lightning, but that was enough to tell that this was another Joy Shrouded.

They reached the end of the hallway, turned, and the gaping hole in the wall of this hallway revealed their destination.

There was a wrecked laboratory, a big one, with smudged runes covering the floor and all kinds of smashed magical machinery. The only thing he sort of recognized was a table with straps on it where a person’s hands and feet might go. He shuddered to think what this might have been used for.

The yellow woman flew around the space, chasing after a dark smudge in the air as it cavorted around, finding hiding spots or swimming in circles around discharges of energy from the wrecked magical equipment.

Now that he got a better look at her, he saw that this one was more distinct that the other Joy Shrouded he’d seen. She was more like Hogg’s Shadow Elementals, where even though he only used black and white, the shades of gray gave them a more life-like appearance. It was like that with her, too. Her hair was so dark it was golden, while the teeth of her smile were a perfect white.

He recognized the dark smudge. That was the ghost, and she was in trouble.

“Get away from her!” Brin shouted and shot a laser at the Joy Shrouded. They were fast, but light was instantaneous, and he nailed her straight in the stomach. She laughed in surprise and then pointed at him.

“Again!”

He spun up a couple dozen Mirror Images, of himself and all his friends, and poured them into the laboratory, while making all the real people invisible.

The Joy Shrouded closed her eyes and then brought one hand up straight while making a fist with the other. It was like a kung-fu pose by someone who’d heard of kung-fu movies but maybe never actually seen one.

“Hya!” All at once she disappeared and reappeared in every corner of the room. Every single one of Birn’s illusionary copies burst apart from a direct punch or kick, all over the course of the next two seconds. The effect was as if she also had a dozen Mirror Images, but he got the impression that she really was just that fast and that each of copies of her he saw were mere afterimages.

She reappeared in the center of the room again, took in a deep breath, and then blew out hard enough that the blast of air disrupted his Invisibility spell.

“Not that!” she ordered. “Do the light beam again.”

He obliged. He shot several, but this time, she managed to dodge them all just by predicting his aim. She giggled all the while, and it turned into a real laugh when Ares backed him up with a lightning bolt.

The lightning strike didn’t hit her, but it did manage to hit a stray crystal that exploded in a dazzling show of red sparks. The Joy Shrouded found it absolutely delightful.

Then she looked back at Brin’s company with a smirk of mischief. “My turn.”

She held up her hand, and a brilliant beam of golden light burst from her palm. For the first time in a long time, Brin felt his Death Sense activate.

He ducked behind Rhun who got in place just in time with his greatshield and tanked the entire blast, pushing the beam back in a wave of violent energy.

When it cleared, the Joy Shrouded was standing right in front of Rhun. “That was so… cool!”

Brin would only get one shot at this–he’d lured her close, and now it was time to see if Hogg’s potion could do the work. He gripped the one that Hogg had called an Eveladis equivalent behind his back, ready to throw.

Before Brin could move, she reached out and tapped his forehead. “Boop! Don’t do that. You might need that potion later.”

Her eyes drifted across the group. “Hi Vitor! Hey Cal. Who are your friends?”

Sancha gasped in surprise, which was more than Brin could do. The most he could get out of his tensed throat was a sort of “ack” sound.

Vitor seemed resigned. “Nephella. How are you?”

Nephella squeezed her eyes shut and pulled her mouth so wide it was more of a grimace than a grin. “So, so, so good! I’m wonderful, Vitor. You wouldn’t believe how wonderful! You couldn’t comprehend it! But Cal could, right Cal?”

“Well, yes, but I’d still love to hear from your perspective!” said Calixtum, who was still infected with an emotion that Brin would bet was curiosity.

“My perspective is joy, Cal. Real, enduring joy. I never knew how beautiful this world is, how wonderful life can be. My perspective is that being like this is better than being an [Archmage] ever was!” said Nephella, doing a swirl in the air.

Brin raised a shaking finger. Nephella. He’d hear that name somewhere. “No.”

“Yes!” she said, pointing back at him.

“No.”

“Yes!” she pointed with her other hand.

“No!”

“Yes!” She grew two more arms so she could point more fingers.

“You’re the Nephella. The [Archmage of the Crashing Wave],” said Brin.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Nephella cheered.

Nephella was supposed to be older than Hogg, but this girl looked to be Brin’s age. The Motley Shroud was doing her some real favors.

“And you are..?”

“I’m Brin the Mistaken. And this is Sancha, Ares, Rhun, and Sion. The servant is Bedelia." Each of his friends bowed or curtseyed in turn as he introduced them, except for Rhun who only nodded.

“Pleased as pie!” said Nephella. “What a nice group of weirdos you all are! Oh, and you should meet my new friend. Come on out, Cecildis!”

The ghost appeared, still a shadow, only this time she had the vague outline of a girl of about eight. It was the most corporeal that Brin had ever seen her.

“We’ve met. We’re actually already friends! I was afraid you were going to hurt her,” said Brin.

Nephella raised her eyebrows in alarm. “I would never do that!”

“I can see that now. Can I say that you seem a little more… cogent than the other Shrouded?” asked Brin.

“Aw, thank you!” She grabbed the hem of her shift and did a twirl.

Vitor stepped forward. “The rest of the Motley Shroud is out of control. They’re hurting people. Will you aid us in defeating them?”

Nephella nodded. “For sure, for sure, I can see why you’d reach out to me about this. Some might even go so far as to say that this is, in some small way, all my fault. But the truth is, I’m not really here for that. I’m more, like, taking advantage of the chaos to grab a few of my old things. But then I’ll be out of your hair! Oh, thanks for reminding me. I have someplace I need to be.”

“Wait!” said Vitor. “Your duty to your house–”

“Bye-bye! It was so nice to meet you, Brin!” said Nephella, and then gently floated to the ceiling and broke through three feet of solid stone to the floor above.

Tower message. The emergency on this floor has been mediated. Please exit towards the elevator immediately. An emergency requires your attention on the Twentieth floor.

Before he had any time to process that insanity, Cecildis starting to move. He shone a light in the room, and then sensed her intentions through the conflict in the Wyrd. Nephella had been fun. She was going to follow and see what she’d do next.

“Wait! You can play with us!” Brin said. Cecildis didn’t understand language, but he hoped that his intentions would get through to her on some level.

It must’ve worked, because Cecildis paused. He sensed that she’d noticed Marksi playing some sort of game down below. She’d be interested in doing some of that.

“Can you… can you damage color somehow? Or dry out water?” Brin asked. He tried to use the same feelings he summoned with [Commune with the Elements] to imbue his words with their true meaning in his thoughts.

The answer was immediate and forceful. Yes! Yes, she could do both of those things.

That was convenient, but how was that possible? How could she coincidentally do exactly what he needed right at this moment? A sudden discovery jolted into Brin. “Wait!” he shouted, but she was already gone, down to play with Marksi and the water ghosts.

Brin groaned. “Ugh. It’s so obvious. How did I miss this?”

“What is it?” asked Sion.

“I mean, I’m smarter than this! I know how science is done!”

“Ah. I see. You are enjoying dragging us along. Then by all means, continue,” said Sion.

“I will, and thank you,” said Brin.

“You are quite welcome, of course, my friend.”

“Science is done by making a hypothesis, and then testing it to either prove or falsify the hypothesis. But what do you do when every single hypothesis you have on a subject is proven correct?”

Sion shrugged. “I couldn’t say. But do babble on.”

“Do you pat yourself on the back for being a genius? No. You have to assume that your hypothesis is poisoning your test data,” said Brin.

“Very entertaining. And you know I would dearly love you to continue, because after all there is nothing else pressing upon our time at the moment, but I feel I must ask you to tell us all what you’re talking about,” said Sion.

Sancha figured it out first. “Cecildis is no ghost. Or, at the least, she was none until we began to think of her as such. We did nary discover her nature—we did define it!”

“What? Then what is she?” asked Sion.

“A curse turned upside down. A bit of Wyrd. A bit of Chaos. A piece of Lumina, and if I’m not mistaken, a crumb of Hogg as well. She’s a person now, because we’ve been thinking of her as one,” said Brin.

That revelation left everyone stunned, except for Calixtum who was still light green. “Then, in a way, that would make her your–”

Sion tapped Calixtum on the shoulder and said, “No, it’s his moment. Let him say it.”

“You’re right. My apologies,” said Calixtum, and waved for Brin to continue.

“Cecildis is my sister.”