Kanin Fyre: Chapter 38 - Linked

I cast one last look around the circle. Fyre is speaking with Dizzi and Ollie in urgent tones. Shirasil is waiting for me expectantly. Noli is at my back, frowning with equal parts concern and awe at the portal to the Heavens. It seems she’s always got my back.

I begin to step forward, and she catches my shoulder.

“Wait,” she signs. “I’m coming with you.”

“What?” I sign. “I thought you were trying to avoid all this god stuff?”

She smiles, worry crinkling the corner of her eyes as she glances toward Shirasil. “I think we’re a little past that concern by now.”

“No, you can still back out,” I tell her. “It’s not too late. And what about Rezira?”

Noli smiles sadly. “Kanin, I stood against Lorata’s champion. It absolutely is too late to not be involved. Rezira will understand. Besides.” She pats a bubble of our void that is floating nearby. “I’d never forgive myself if I let you two run off into danger alone.”

Man, I really don’t deserve a friend like her. Ink, at least, is delighted by her loyalty. But there’s still one problem.

“You can’t come,” I reluctantly tell her. “Not because I don’t want you to—but if anyone without System access enters the Heavens, Lorata will be notified. She’ll find us in an instant.”

Noli’s face drops. “Are you sure? There’s nothing we can do?”

I sadly shake my head.

“Well,” Shirasil says, abruptly right at our side. Noli jumps. “There’s not nothing.”

Oh, great, what now? “What do you mean?” I ask sharply. “You were the one who said only people with the System could enter undetected.”

“Technically I said only those who are connected to the System could enter undetected.” Shirasil grins broadly.

“What’s the difference?” And more importantly… “You’re saying you could add Noli to the System?” Because if so, hell no. She doesn’t need to get saddles with one of these Role Requirements.

Shirasil waves his hands placatingly. “Oh no, nothing like that. My, you’re so suspicious! Whatever have I done to earn such distrust? I’m helping you retrieve the soul you seek, aren’t I?”

It’s true that he hasn’t actually done anything to make me distrust him. More than anything, it’s just a general vibe I get from him. Plus, you know god of chaos, and everything. But I also doubted Aquenno when he didn’t deserve it. I can at least hear him out, if he really is trying to help.

“What do you have in mind?” Noli asks before I can make up my mind. “Connected to the System but not in it?”

“More specifically, connected to someone who is connected to the System,” Shirasil clarifies. He raises an eyebrow at me.

“And how would she connect…” I realize what he’s getting at even as I speak. “My Core Bond spell? But that’s just for tying an energy source to… a vessel.”

Shit, it probably would work. I mean, I’m already using it to tether my soul to a glass bottle. And I used it to tie Noli’s soul back to her body. So he’s saying I could also use it to connect my magic to Noli, or Noli’s magic to me? I can see how that might trick a spell designed to make sure an individual’s magic is connected to System.

I also have the Sever Bond spell, which I could use to end the Bond whenever I wanted—assuming it doesn’t expire first, when the mana sustaining it runs out. These are all spells I’ve already used on Noli’s soul before, when I bound her soul back to her original body, so I know there’s no risk involved.

Yet, I find myself hesitating. “I don’t know about this. We’re going into the realm of the gods. Ink and I can take care of ourself, but you don’t even have any arrows left.” What could she do against someone like Shirasil? At least I could hide—or try to.

Shirasil glances toward the portal. “Best make up your mind soon. We don’t have much time left.”

“And no time to argue,” Noli agrees, face stern. It’s a face I rarely see, but when I do, I know it’s time to shut up and listen. “Kanin, please. You helped me get home. You helped me get back to my body. You saved my life. At least let me do this much for you.”

I still want to argue, despite her scolding, but Ink interrupts my thoughts. Let her come! We want her to. Now we must hurry!

Without my consent, Ink forms our Core Bond spell circle with its void, drawing out the lines beneath our feet. We’ve made it so many times by now, it’s second nature.

“Okay,” I cave. Ink is right that I do want her to come. It’s hard to hide your inner thoughts from an inner demon. I still have reservations, but we’re out of time.

And I need the help. I want her help.

Shirasil steps back as I take Noli’s hands, the spell circle illuminating beneath us. I make some quick adjustments to the default circle Ink had created, changing the focus from my core to Noli’s magic. It won’t bind my soul to her body, but it should provide some sort of magical connection between our two souls.

Abruptly, I realize how much weight this moment has. Tying our magic together, even if temporarily, is a pretty powerful gesture. We’re in essence baring our souls to one another. But I don’t have time to linger in the moment; I activate the spell.

Ink watches with eager excitement as a new thread materializes from my soul, extending toward Noli. The moment it makes contact, an electric shock passes through my soul. Noli gasps, squeezing my hands.

[Core Bond complete,] Echo says.

I let go of Noli. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she replies, looking down at her hands. “I feel energized. Is that supposed to happen?”

“You have access to his mana pool,” Shirasil says, stepping back in. “Which is significantly greater than your own.” He nods to me. “You can throttle how much she has access to, if you like.”

“Uh, okay.” I’m not sure how I’d do that, but if Noli has access to some of the bonus mana Ink and I are currently holding onto, then I feel a lot better about her coming along.

[Title processing incomplete,] Echo abruptly speaks up. [Title pending.]

“What?” I say aloud. “Title?”

[Role evolution failed. Resetting parameters. STAUS=NULL. Establish new parameters?]

What the hell is all this?

Shirasil grins. “Interesting. Not what I predicted. But unexpected outcomes are more fun, anyway. I look forward to seeing how things develop!”

“What?” I demand, rounding on Shirasil. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” He laughs, turning away. “Take some accountability for your own actions, won’t you? Honestly, so quick to accuse. Well, I’d love to stick around and watch how things play out, but I’m afraid our time is up. Please don’t hesitate to reach out again if you need anything!”

“Shirasil,” I call, starting after him.

He vanishes, only to reappear by Dizzi and Fyre.

Just Dizzi and Fyre. Wait, where did Ollie go? How does a massive dragon just vanish?

“You’ll be needing a ride down, won’t you?” the god asks Dizzi, pointedly ignoring me. Okay, now I’m getting annoyed.

Dizzi is crouched on the ground, doing something with a piece of chalk. She looks up at Shirasil, blinking in surprise. “I don’t know. My wing is still pretty stiff but I can try to—”

“Not to worry.” Shirasil puts a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll take care of it. Good luck, Travelers! Try not to get caught. It would really be a shame for the fun to end here.”

And with a flourishing wave, Shirasil and Dizzi vanish.

“God dammit,” I grumble. Every time I need answers, he beats a hasty retreat. I swear he does that on purpose. When I next have a minute to spare, I’m going to be asking some very pointed questions through the System’s Contact list.

But a minute is not something I have to spare at this moment.

“Come on,” I tell Noli, stepping before the portal. “We can’t afford to wait any longer.”

She nods, stepping up beside me in front of the tear in space. A white, marbled room glows before us.

“Wait!” Fyre summons a jet of flame to hurry after us, landing at my other side. “Ollie and I are coming, too.”

“Fyre—”

“I’ve made my choice,” she cuts me off. “There’s no sense in playing coy now; the gods know of my presence. If this is our one chance to free other Travelers, then my accompanying you will maximize our likelihood of success. Besides,” she adds. “With Mirzayael still in the city, if something were to happen to me, the Fortress would still have a leader.”

“Thank you,” I say. I wasn’t going to argue with her, anyway; I need all the help I can get. Then I glance around. “Where’s Ollie?”

“I’M HERE!” Ollie’s translator says. It takes me a second to figure out where the voice is coming from. A puppy-sized dragon is sitting between Fyre’s feet. He clutches his translator gemstone between his claws, now that it can no longer hang about his neck. It’s almost as big as he is.

Noli gasps in delight. “So cute!” She crouches down to offer a finger and Ollie obliges, humming happily as she scratches behind his horns.

I stare. “Could he always do that?”

“Dizzi cast a cargo shrinkage spell on him,” Fyre explains. “However, it only reduced his size; his weight is the same. So take care not to let him land on your shoulder.”

“Wait, so he’s still a thousand pounds?” I ask, baffled. “Like some kind of Ant-Man?”

Fyre’s brows crease. “Like what?”

“ANT-MAN!” Ollie exclaims, his tail whipping from side to side in excitement. “OH MY GOSH! I AM! DOES THAT MAKE ME A SUPERHERO?”

Fyre looks between us in obvious confusion. “I am not following.”

“You need to watch more movies,” I say.

Ollie’s tail thumps against the ground in his delight, and the stone cracks.

Fyre glances between the damage and myself. “As I said: Don’t let him land on you.”

“Noted.” But a one thousand-pound, Level 42 dragon in our corner might be exactly what we need.

“There is one drawback,” Fyre adds, as if him being able to crush my body on accident isn’t already a drawback. “He’s so large that the mana used to cast the spell will only sustain it for about an hour.”

“I guess we better be quick, then.” I gesture to Ollie’s translation stone. “Leave that behind. I’ll be stashing mine as well; we need to be quiet. Noli and I can use sign language.”

“AWWWW,” Ollie says when Noli stops scratching him and straightens up to pay attention to what I’m saying. The dragon rolls onto his back to juggle his translation stone between his paws. “BUT IT’S SO BIG NOW! I WISH I HAD TREASURE THIS BIG BACK IN THE PALACE.”

“That’s fine,” Fyre says to me. “We can chat via the Contact interface.”

And I can pass their messages on to Noli via signs. It’s not a perfect system, but we’ve already delayed long enough.

“Alright then.” I add my translator into my Inventory, then add a bunch of Chained glass to the second slot.

I leave the other two empty, knowing I’ll probably need every advantage I can take. My clothes were already discarded in the midst of the fight, so right now I’m just glass and void. And weirdly, I don’t feel as naked as I thought I would. My body is only vaguely humanoid shaped, partially reassembled from the fight with Lorata’s champions, and extra sets of hands and pieces of glass float around me, ready to form into additional limbs at the ready.

I remember a time where I struggled to maneuver a dozen shards at once.

Ink holds most of the control over our void right now. It leaves some to fill in the joints of my glass body, but the rest of it is in constant flux, some bits separated and floating like my glass while the rest keeps carefully close to my core. The void clings to my glass chest, shoulders, and back, with limbs occasionally splitting off and re-merging. The effect means it sometimes looks like a cape, other times like arms of a sentient scarf. I let it take whatever form Ink wants. Creepy appearances are sort of the least of my worries at this moment.

I hold out one hand to Noli, and the other for Fyre. They both take it. Ink reaches our void out for Ollie, since it doesn’t stand to get crushed, and the dragon pounces on it like a cat going after a string.

Holding tight to all three of them, we step through the portal.