-Collab with
@Arty Fox-
Ryteb was back on the ship, decided to return to his room to do whatever it is that he does in there. Of course, in a fashion that had become fairly typical for the forest boy, he was lost again. Why did all the corridors look the exact same? And why was the map written in some form of moonspeak? These were the questions running through the young mage’s head as he ran through the various hallways on the Gummi Ship. Finally thinking that he had found the right door, he flung it open and said: “Kitty, welcome to my- the hell is this?”
Cheese blinked and stared at Ryteb standing in the doorway to her room. She had left the door open for when he and and the others did finally arrive but she hadn’t expected quite the entrance.
“Finally. You’re here.” A twist of her wrist brought one of the floating orbs of light to her. “How’d you mission go? Aren’t the other two with you?”
Ryteb shrugged, and replied: “I don’t know about Taka, he’s been pretty quiet for a while now, but Mai is with Toscax. The mission went… alright. Himmler is dead, and Retsam isn’t returning to this world. But on the other hand, the bastard’s still alive.”
Cheese shrugged in acceptance. “Fair enough. Mind sitting just over…”
She gently pushed the orb of light ahead of her and it drifted lazily through the air before finding a comfortable place to hover.
“There.” She finished. “And thank you again for offering to help me gather ingredients. With a bit of luck it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Ryteb stepped over to the marked out area, and sat down, with his fox toy still in hand. “I’m happy to help. Your spellweaving seems similar to a branch of magic on Terra Atum, though it seems to have taken a different direction on your world.”
“Really? How so?” Cheese enquired as she drew the remaining orbs to circle around her, though her eyes were intently locked upon the stuffed fox. “May I see that for a moment.” Her hand already outstretched.
It was more of a demand than a request, but she had been told many times it was polite to make demands sound like requests.
Ryteb glared at the fae woman, before reluctantly handing Kitty over to her. “I swear if you hurt him, you’ll learn how much pain an elemental mage can inflict upon a person. On my world, there were a sect known as Dream Catchers, who could bottle abstract concepts like hope and fear to create wonders. They were pretty few in number though, most people tended to draw towards more tangible magics like Black and White magic. Plus in a world where you could literally bend the laws of nature, dreams never really seemed that far away from life.”
“Bottled Hope?” That had taken Cheese’s interest. “Couldn’t do anything like that in my world. Sure we could create it or even take it but could never actually bottle it or anything like that.”
She then went very quiet so as to concentrate upon the stuffed animal in her hands. Cheese held in up to one of the orbs and tilted it from side to side and even seemed to be listening to it when she held it to her ear. There was a loose thread of silver poking from one of tattered ears that hadn’t been there before.
“He says he enjoyed playing pirates.” Cheese smiled softly. “There were dream catchers in my world too. At least my grandfather said so somewhere on the....Southern Plateau I think. They caught the Dreams that floated through our realm and sent them back to communicate with the Humans in the Mundane.”
Ryteb pouted slightly. “Of course he did, he always got to be the captain…” he said, “Literal Dream Catchers then. I’d compare ours more to alchemists of the mind. Very bookish, and having that madness which comes from handling poisonous substances for far too long, though I only met them the once at a council of Archmagi.”
Cheese had taken hold of the silver thread by wrapping it around her finger. “Well, handling anything vile or poisonous for long enough and it will poison you. That's why if you ever craft spells you should always have a box of tricks.” And with that Cheese tugged at the thread.
With a sound of fabric being torn several objects were ripped out violently from the stuffed fox. Some looked like little light bulbs, some like spikes, a few cubes, but the majority looked like small blobs. The fox itself however was pleasantly unharmed, though looked a little bit perplexed by the whole ordeal.
“Vibrant Fancies, Prickly Fancies, Grim Figments and a whole load of Malleable Fantasies.” Cheese nodded approvingly at each of them in turn as they drifted above her though kept close by the spinning orbs she had set. “Not bad for a childhood toy. Just need a few more things from around the ship and I can put those to good use.”
Ryteb took the stuffed fox back from Cheese and looked him over. “Pretty impressive magic.” he remarked, “Though it does currently seem like a parlour trick. What things do you need to complete the spell?”
Cheese bristled. “Depends on the spell, or curse even.” Another flick of her wrist and the ingredients from the toy tumbled into the box beside her. “Sometimes simple things like thimbles and lightning, or even hearts and livers. Sadly I’m not allowed to make spells that are too violent or endanger human life.” Again Cheese bristled and made a face like someone had stepped on her foot.
Ryteb flashed her a cheeky grin. “I guess compared to elemental magic, your fae sorcery is pretty lacking in that respect.” As a gesture, he waved his hand and snow began to fall from the ceiling.
“Count your blessings that Mac ordered me to not use your name.” Cheese let her eyes flash dangerously violet. She didn’t like being teased.
Ryteb simply laughed. “I lived in a world of magic. The first rule they teach you growing up is to never give your birth name to anyone. Ryteb is no more my real name than Cheese is yours. Trust me, it took at least a hundred demon summoners before people started learning that rule.”
“At least in one world humans learn.” Cheese shrugged, slightly impressed. “But having a fake name can’t save you from everything, didn’t do Mac much good against The Goblin King.” As she said his name, a kaleidoscope of emotions flushed over her face, ranging from respect to outright hatred for the being.
From Ryteb’s view, the woman obviously had very mixed feelings about this ‘Goblin King’. “You are right. Many of the greatest magi have been felled due to the weakness of their birth name. But without the risk of failure, without an Achilles Heel to remind you of your mortality, you become a god. And that is something no one wants to see happen again.”
Cheese raised an eyebrow, and snorted. “The heck are you on about? Mac knew our laws and all. Even as just a hobby thing the laws of humans in the fae realm are pretty simple and he followed them to the letter. Truth is the Goblin King had just set up the poor idiot.” She gave a short sarcastic laugh. “He lost his name the moment he fell into the Fae Realm. Damn idiot wouldn’t have survived a minute in the forests without some force leading him along. And that’s without even coming across any Grimm or hags that live within.”
She placed the lid on her box preferring to look at it’s familiar worn carvings and chips on the corners than anywhere else.
“Lost his face to boot. Gained a decent control over magic in return but he doesn’t use it.” She shrugged and turned back to Ryteb. “He made a mistake. That’s all there is to it.”
“At least his mistake only lead to some personal loss…” Ryteb muttered, looking into the eyes of Kitty, “You should count your blessings instead of lamenting your failures.” He could feel the darkness pulsating on his left arm, as the darkness continued the slow movement towards his death.
“So, you doing anything about that poisoned magic running up your arm?” Cheese jabbed a finger at the affronting affliction of Ryteb’s appendage. “You keep feeding that thing and it will eat you up, trust me my friends aunt got devoured by something like that when I was a child. Although you’ve lasted much longer than she did.” Cheese leant forward slightly and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Guess it’s because this world is at a lower frequency than the Fae realm or something.”
Ryteb sighed, and removed the gauntlet from his left hand, revealing something similar to that of a Heartess claw. “It’s no poison… or rather it’s the ultimate poison.” he explained, “This is pure darkness from the aptly named Realm of Darkness. It is my curse for meddling in something I couldn’t hope to ever understand, and the only reason I’m not a mindless Shadow is because of my now deceased master. Best guess, I have about 3 weeks left to live, at most.”
Cheese resisted a roll of the eyes, this child was nearly as ‘edgey’ as the kids who tried to get into her and Mac's club. But given the state he was in she supposed it was only forgivable.
“No I don’t mean it’s poison, but it feels like poisoned magic.” Cheese chewed her lip as she tried to explain. “I craft spells so I know what magic that's gone wrong feels like and this feels...very similar. Not the same of course but maybe...No, nevermind.” Cheese sighed, frustrated. “Guess it’s just different types of magic.”
“When are the other two going to get here anyway?” With their mission complete Cheese had assumed they would’ve all arrived at the same time.
