Ch. 2.21 | Control
PoV: Sanya
So, it seemed that teleporting created an opportunity for the eldritch entity to either communicate with its brethren beyond the barrier, or to suck Sanya dry to create a portal. If Mai's earlier teleportation back in the vampire realm meant anything, then Sanya was not safe from other people's teleportations either. Regardless of who cast a teleportation spell, they all moved Sanya's essence into that strange dark plane. There, the world Sanya knew, and the place where the eldritch beings waited, attempting to break through, were closer . . . maybe?
That is what Sanya thought, anyway.
The strain probably came from the entity siphoning off her power. It was a parasite after all, and those were not known for being nice to their hosts.
Sanya was on her hands and knees, grass blades poking at the palm of her left hand and the fingers of her right, curled around her staff. Her body throbbed—writhed?—in aches. The little passenger on her body was probably doing something malevolent. How did it open portals up in places far away from Sanya, anyway? How did any of it work? Maybe she'd never know.
“Of course,” the librarian rolled her eyes. “[Nebula Cleansing]. What's your plan now, Sanya?”
Had the librarian read all the grimoires, or at least all the ones she had given out? Why had she limited herself to just two mage types, then? Was Oracle even a mage type? A magic profession or whatever, then? Anyway, Aisha has three—Temporal, Elemental, and Necrotic—so why did the librarian have at least that many?
Sanya could not see amidst the darkness of her spell, nor through the bright oranges and blues and strange lights of its field.
She had overtaxed the librarian's mana channeling—and her own . . . oops? That's what the spell did—it was just a large “no” to spellcasting and spell effects around the caster.
It also meant that Sanya would not be able to cast a teleport spell back towards Mai and the others. Ah well, someone would just have to fetch her, or them.
Sanya did not know what to do with the librarian. She was a threat to Sanya, as long as she lived, or at least until the eldritch entities broke through. She had decided it was right to kill Sanya off, and maybe she was right.
“The plan is to get strong enough to beat the eldritch,” Sanya muttered through gritted teeth.
The librarian scoffed. “You're dumber than I thought, then.”
Ouch? Yet also very fair. Sanya did not think she was anywhere near the upper echelons of intelligence. Below average, probably. “It is what all my friends chose. We’ll figure it out.”
“You have a miniscule chance. And what about the hundreds of thousands in the tempest area? How about the hundreds of millions or so on this planet?”
Is she trying to moralize about sacrificing a teenager? “I doubt they'd choose to kill a teenager to save the world.”
“You'd be surprised at the kind of horrific things humans would do. There's non-humans on the planet too, they're usually better, though.”
Sanya blinked, her brain stuttering. “How do you even know this information? Isn't this a little beyond being an oracle?”
“I read a lot.”
“Right,” Sanya did not buy it. “What books? There's nothing from under the tempest, certainly not from outside cultures.”
“I'll keep my secrets to myself,” her voice came closer.
Sanya's heart skittered. The librarian could still try and kill her the old way—without magic. Maybe she'd bludgeon Sanya with her staff, or maybe she'd just choke Sanya to death or something.
There was something there about the sweet release of death. Yet also, something vehemently pushed back against it.
“How’s your little friend doing?”
“What friend?” The librarian would have to be more specific than that. Mai or anyone else in Sanya's group? Or maybe her annoying passenger? It was probably that—the librarian would not call anyone in Sanya's group “little friend”, probably?
“The parasite,” ah, right.
“If you want to kill me. Now is your chance,” Sanya laughed.
“Hmm. Oh. I can't divinate because of your spell.”
“You know—”
“I do know.”
Sanya rolled her eyes. When had the librarian gotten so insufferable? “This whole oracle thing is probably a curse. It's habitual for you to check and check and find a good outcome. Are you ever really living in the moment? Doesn't it take the surprise out of life? Especially always knowing that the destruction of our world is just out of reach, but slowly arriving?”
“I divinate to save the world, so that others may have that privilege,” the librarian responded simply.
“Hey. How about the other millions on this world, what if they are doing things or events that are happening that result in the world's destruction? Does it show those to you? Do you ever really know their outcomes?” The spell's visual effects began to part. Sanya could actually see her hands and her staff now. Her gray hands—not gray like Aisha, but an ephemeral, misty gray, as if her hands might vanish into thin air on a whim. She supposed it was kind of like the way that cavern folk looked, except further beyond that and going from slightly translucent to entirely so.
She could also see the librarian looming in front of her.
“I pity you,” the librarian frowned. “I'm sorry that things developed this way. Giving you and Esmat grimoires . . . it was a contingency in case you lived, but even more than that, back then, the chances looked better. Yet, Nur won the roll and opened up the portal to the abyss. It's been bad chances and bad events happening in front of us and in the background for months, that led us here.”
“So maybe the bad chances can happen again, we can defeat the eldritch.”
“If you survive, then we shall see,” the librarian held her staff up, ready to swing down. “I'm so sorry. I don't like this at all, but it must be tried.”
There was a ring around them that still had the visual effect of the spell, it too, dissipated.
The librarian swung her staff down towards Sanya's head.
Sanya's memory flashed through that one terrible night in the academy. The one where she had murdered Thamina with one swing from her staff.
Sanya swallowed. She guessed this was it. How fitting that she would die the way she had taken that first, and perhaps only, life. She supposed the vampire in its depraved form counted, so first of two? . . .
She was about to die, when a ghostly arm of bone appeared from somewhere behind her, shooting out towards the librarian and catching hold of her arm. It restrained her swing. Sanya noted that she felt the librarian's arm, as if that ghostly limb was her own. Sanya could almost control it too, but something else currently seized it. It felt like something was controlling one of her own limbs, which was weird, because it wasn't hers.
Yet, it was.
The librarian's eyes widened and her mouth gaped.
With a decisive flick of its wrist, a sharp crack rang out.
The librarian screamed, and she lost her will to stand. Her knees fell, pressing against the ground. Her staff slipped from her now broken arm.
The ghostly arm removed its grasp from the librarian's arm, only to move in a blink, suddenly around her throat.
Sanya gasped. Fear coursed through her veins. Yet, at the same time, an odd, comforting calm pulsed against the fear. Something was telling her that this was fine, that this was just sweet vengeance getting its due. No—it was merely protection, stopping a variable from ending her life.
For if her life ended, then the eldritch would not be able to break through this world. It would be much more difficult, and not a guarantee. The timeline, looking like less than a week, would extend and extend into the unknown.
No—if Sanya died now, she would not live a long and fulfilling life, she would not be able to grow strong and talk with friends, or her maybe-mostly-kinda-okay-definitely girlfriend. The being within her would not see greatness and prosperity from such a small, meek, and insignificant individual.
It would not be there to witness the destruction of its kind.
In any matter, it wanted to live, and to grow. It feared weakness . . . It feared death. It wanted to see and consume all these strange little worlds.
The librarian let out a struggling gurgle.
So, this was fine. What was another fleshy little creature dying? This would help turn the odds in favor of the eldritch, or even the little creature it rode on.
No!
Sanya would not kill her! The librarian was not a threat to her anymore.
Well, maybe while that other arm remained unbroken . . .
Urgh . . .
Through pain and suffering, through a throbbed, aching body trying to make room for something from another world—something it should not have to make room for—Sanya pointed her staff towards the librarian.
“[Organic Displacement],” Sanya pointed off into the horizon.
The librarian vanished. The ghostly limb floated there, as if not catching up to the fact that its prey was now gone.
Suddenly, Mai appeared off to the side of Sanya's vision. She took a single step, then processed what lay before her, then paused, face laced with concern and confusion.
She ran towards Sanya at the sight of her. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Sanya stared out in front of her, not looking towards Mai.
“And, uhh, what is that?” Mai pointed towards the ghostly limb, eyebrows scrunched. “That doesn't look like it'd be a Spatial or a Celestial Summoning spell.”
“It's not. It's from my parasite.”
“Huh—oh! Your hands! What happened to your hands?” Mai bent down and picked up Sanya's left arm, examining her gray hand.
“Also the parasite, I assume.”
“Would you like a hug?”
That came so out of the blue that Sanya's mind blanked. She had not expected that, but also she maybe should have. Just, asking about a hug after all the inquiring about the parasite and everything felt jarring.
The entity inside Sanya found these “hugs” strange. They were interested in the way they made Sanya feel, and how much “humans” seemed to enjoy them.
It almost . . . enjoyed them, too.
Ew. Was her little passenger enjoying the care that Sanya got from Mai? Evil terrible thing, hmph. What would (or could) she do about that?
Feeling the pain receding, Sanya pushed herself off the ground, somewhat supported by her staff.
“Yes.”
Mai carefully wrapped her arms around Sanya and embraced her. Sanya liked the way she handled Sanya with care, making sure not to accidentally set off any pains.
Somehow, Sanya did not think that would be a worry any longer.
“Hey, since you won't do it with me, do you think your parasite would? Look at how long and spindly those fingers are,” Mai grinned mischievously. There was definitely a bit of truth in her words—she was not just joking.
Sanya scowled at Mai.
Still in the hug, Mai strained her neck to look behind her. “So uhhh, where's the librarian?”
“Off in the distance. I teleported her to try to stop this limb from killing her.”
“Hmm. I'm kind of disappointed she did not end for what she did to us—to you. Yet, also, I think it's good we didn't end another person.” Mai did not seem to think much about death as maybe she should. She had kind-of shrugged off that whole thing about Sanya murdering a student quickly.
“Mmm.” No thoughts, no responses, head empty. Just the nice warm embrace Sanya was getting from Mai . . . Just a few more moments, or maybe an eternity, if one could be spared?
“Sooooo, what now?”
“Now?” Sanya broke away from the hug. “We head back to Calderae. The red portal was scouted and closed. We'll report everything to Aisha. We'll get stronger so we can stop the eldritch when they come.”
The entity within her shuddered with anticipation. Stronger . . . defiance against its own, against its superiors . . . Its human would make things so interesting.
The arm still floated there, as if forgotten. What if Sanya could do something with it, as she had felt it earlier? She still did. Sanya felt it, and then tried to see if she could take control of it, now.
She got the fingers to twitch. There was still some resistance—the entity had some lingering control over it. It was one of its limbs, after all.
Yet, all of it was also Sanya.
Sanya moved the fingers, opening and closing the fist. Then, she made it vanish, as if in a resting state.
There was an awareness at the back of her mind to some sort of space. Sanya prodded it, found the arm, and then moved it as naturally as if it were a third limb.
It appeared beside Sanya, as it first had. She twirled it in the air, moving joints—which had as much freedom of movement as she wanted, far beyond what a human limb allowed.
“Woah!” Mai exclaimed. “What's it doing?”
The entity within her shuddered again, but not in anticipation.
In fear.
“That's me,” Sanya said.
Sanya reached into that space in her mind, it was like a mini portal—or breach. Too small and insignificant for the eldritch beyond to use, it was only her own. She could reach through and find the entirety of her parasite. It had six—no, eight—no, an ever-changing amount of arms and other body parts. It could meld itself to its will.
It would meld itself to Sanya's will.
Sanya conjured three more of its arms, suddenly surrounding her, coming from a bit behind her shoulders, and then a small amount above and to the side of her waist. She could move them all as easily as her own two arms. As if she suddenly now had six arms, and always had.
Mai's jaw dropped. She muttered something about wanting Sanya so bad.
The entity within Sanya screeched.
She smiled.
The parasite was hers now.