Ch. 2.34 | Glorified Errand-girl
PoV: Sanya
Two humans-turned-eldritch-entities walked into a bar.
That is, to say, Sanya and Esmat entered the first floor of the guild hall. They had walked right to the hall after Sanya's Anchor brought them outside Calderae's walls. Or its sad excuse for walls, anyway.
“That took you . . . time,” Aisha criticized, arms crossed.
“Sanya still doesn't have a guild hall Anchor.”
“Tsk.”
“Silly Sanya!” Mai exclaimed fondly.
“So, what's the report?”
Sanya gave Aisha a scowl. Her attitude had been almost infuriating. First, the fear, then this unnecessary coldness and lack of patience for her . . . and, like, just, argh! “Two groups of twenty-four, Esmat's and another, are dead. Everyone else should eventually be accounted for.”
Aisha frowned.
Nadiyya nodded. “The two-thousand finally made it to Hope.” She used some sort of spell to see through one of her animals. There was no incantation, and her stick of a staff was nowhere to be seen.
Either she was frauding or Fauna magic was just weird. It was probably just weird. Pocket spells like [Pocket Repository] did not need a staff for Spatial mages because they could store their staff in it, so maybe it was something like that. Or the basic magic of the Elemental or Temporal magic types, where one did not need either.
How would mage types be categorized and where would they overlap with certain skills and functions? Celestial Summoning did not seem to have any sort of staff-less magic. Basic Spatial magic was little more than aimlessly moving mana around. The parasites had helped to let their hosts basic magic into the Abyss realm of Spatial mana. Sanya had used it to “blind” people before she really knew what she was doing.
“They would have been late for the battle,” Aisha noticed. Right, something about the two-thousand finally arriving at Hope.
“Chirp! a wolf has seen a murder of twenty-four arrive to Calderae,” Nadiyya notified.
“A murder? What?” Aisha's head snapped to attention.
“Backlash! That is, to say, a group of twenty-four has perched.”
Aisha put a hand to her head and shook it. “I didn't realize they were late, that's not the one that stayed in Hope, yeah?”
“No, it's not.”
“Sanya, can you teleport the army and the twenty-four that stayed in Hope over to Calderae?”
Sanya nodded.
One cast of [Globetrot Anchor - Hope] and she was outside of the academy town. The town did not have anything in the way of walls at all. Buildings just appeared sporadically and the density increased as it went eastward, towards the academy and the lakefront. The cathedral ruins poked up around the new academy complex.
An [Organic Displacement] later and she placed herself in front of the two-thousand. All of that barely took any time. The longest action she took had been orienting her gaze in the correct direction to Displace herself towards.
The two-thousand soldiers of Calderae were awkwardly standing around, in their neat ranks. They wore a lot of metal gear, because metal was both abundant and thus cheap, as well as being easily workable.
The twenty-four group of mages stood around in no particular rank-and-file.
“So!” Sanya started. “Um, I've been instructed to teleport you back to Calderae. As you know, Zulfaqar is already gone. So, uh . . .”
Sanya summoned her extra hands and cast a bunch of [Globetrot Anchors] to Calderae. These people had not seen those limbs before, so there were probably stunned looks and maybe even fear. Sanya did not bother to look.
Yes, her Calderae Anchor, so, still outside of the city.
“You're to go back to the garrison or to your regular activities if you were employed under the Guild's Calderae-Hope allegiance clause,” Sanya said.
She didn't feel like walking, and also wanted to disappear before anyone asked any questions.
So, a quick [Organic Displacement] later and she appeared in front of the entryway into the city. Sanya had a really high tolerance for channeling mana, she could probably do things like Globetrot thousands of troops around all day, now. Maybe.
She remembered three months ago, during the initial Abyss portal opening, where she had felt swamped after a night of beating the monsters that had emerged from the portal. She could probably do that without breaking a sweat now, and with far fewer spells.
Sanya nodded to the guards on duty at the entryway and walked inside of the city.
Sanya was the most powerful individual in Calderae-Hope, and yet she was still playing glorified courier. Whatever, at least she could do it better than everyone else. They used her because they needed her.
Soon, she found herself back at the guild hall.
“The task is done?” Aisha asked.
“Yes. Everyone is back. I sent them on their way.”
“Good.”
Hmph. Everyone else was lounging around while Sanya did everything. She saved Esmat. She returned four thousand people back over to Calderae with a couple teleports.
“You can rest and prepare for when the eldritch entities break through.”
Sanya exhaled with relief.
“I would like a report from you, though,” Aisha smirked.
Sanya sighed. “I wanted to see if my clothes were ready, so I went. Only . . .”
Sanya continued on about how the parasite completely took over her, the host. How her form morphed into the entity and how she was able to fully connect with the eldritch, in mind and everything, communication included. It finished the teleportation to Speleothem and drained people and plants for life force, a requisite for casting spells and everything else eldritch, stored somewhere. She gained control of her actions by annihilating the naughty parts of her brain with [Organic Consumption]. She vanished and rebuilt a humanoid form and then went to pick up her clothes.
“So you're not actually human, are you?” Aisha asked.
“Not in body, no. In mind, yes, still? Just with eldritch additions.”
“Huh . . .”
“My girlfriend is an eldritch entity,” Mai grinned, completely unfazed.
Sanya continued on about eldritch portaling abilities, and using that to transport the troops. She used a powerful Celestial Summon seven times at once with the help of better brainpower from her eldritch side.
“Okay . . . Explaining it makes it slightly better,” Aisha said. “Good work today. Zulfaqar will not be a threat to us, and by proxy, all cities will probably shy away from any thoughts about attacking us once they find out. You secured Esmat—”
“‘Secured’?” Esmat repeated with a scoff.
Aisha only spared them a glance before continuing. “And you brought back all the soldiers and spared them those hours of walking back. Not that it would do them any harm—keeping them in shape.”
“Can you praise us too?” Mai asked.
Aisha snorted. “Sure. Thank you, as always, Nadiyya. Your work as a Fauna mage continues to be indispensable.
“Uhhhh . . .
“Esmat, good job on gaining control of your parasite or whatever. I'm sure you'll be valuable in saving the world from the eldritch entities to come.”
Mai raised an eyebrow, then gestured for Aisha to continue.
“Well . . . Let me think.”
A bat flew into the guild hall, it dove and then transformed into a pale woman in a sparkly red dress, who stood and posed as if for a painting. “What about me?”
How did she get here and how did she hear as far back as the praise thing? Did vampires have excellent healing? Had Calinichia just been hanging around by the ceiling upside-down like a bat until she wanted to make her entrance? Was she as mysterious and spontaneous as the librarian?
Ah . . . Her. I wonder what she's doing now. Is she even still alive?
Calinichia's eyes sparkled. “Do I get praise?”
“No. Shut up,” Aisha said.
Calinichia gasped. “The gall! I'm going to suck you dry tonight, you will be crying in pain for weeks!”
Mai giggled. Why? . . . Oh, there was a dirty joke in there somewhere.
“Go ahead and try,” Aisha challenged.
“She doesn't exactly have blood, I don't think? Her heart doesn't beat, anyway,” Mai added.
“Right,” Calinichia made a show of dusting off and adjusting her dress. “I knew that.”
Mai coughed.
“Lania, thank you for not draining and killing any citizens of Calderae that I know of.”
Lania just frowned and shook her head. Weak praise, or had she drained and killed someone—”Nadiyya has all the blood I need,” she said under her breath.
Oh.
“So . . . Borrowed Time,” Fazl spoke up. “What's some praise for yours truly?”
“Heliux, I hate that title.”
“What? ‘Yours truly?’ You wound me.”
Aisha glared.
“I think the point is to hate the title, Borrowed Time.”
Sanya almost forgot about that particular sad excuse for a title. And wow, did it deserve to be forgotten. It wasn't cool or fun at all. What was the whole lore or joke behind it, again? It probably didn't matter, it was so belittling. A truly tragic title for both a Temporal mage and someone who was dead, but alive.
“Can't any of my fans have spread an endearing and powerful title?” Aisha exhaled.
“Chrono—”
“You too, shut up.”
Fazl's shoulders slumped. “Aw.”
Oh! That one, which basically restated “Temporal mage” but fancier and meaning nothing. It was used to distinguish stronger Temporal mages but wasn't unique or anything at all.
Aisha wasn't having any of this. Perhaps that was why Fazl was having so much fun picking on her with the titles. Sanya could do that too. She had already run through Aisha's patience for her.
“Aisha, the Cantankerous Corpse,” Sanya mumbled.
“What was that?” Aisha's gaze snapped towards Sanya with a glare so deep and sharp she could cut Spatial staff metal in half and then make it give up its will to exist. Aisha, the Scowling . . . Specter? Close enough to an undead creature, Sanya supposed. The Glaring Ghoul.
Aisha looked about one word away from jumping on someone and beating the living daylight out of them. So hard that Heliux wouldn't be able to reclaim their souls.
Had Sanya said either of those out loud? . . . Ha. Maybe she should.
Aisha grinned in a way that sent a shiver down Sanya's spine. And nothing was supposed to shake her anymore. “Actually, Sanya, there's one more thing I need you to do . . . Would you mind taking a package over to Hope? I'd give it to you but it's actually at the alchemist's. You'll have to stop there, first.”
Something danced down Sanya's spine. It coincided with a ping in her special eldritch sense ability thing.
Sanya felt the very fabric of reality crack . . . crack . . . crack . . . and then shatter like a glass pane to a particularly spiteful rock.
Esmat glanced towards Sanya with concern. Sanya exchanged it.
Aisha laughed. “I didn't realize the joke would get you so—”
“Hope. Great golden shell of the divine! The first breach is over Hope,” Esmat gasped.