Interlude: Attaboy

Attaboy’s second breakfast was sitting heavily in his stomach as he followed the short white girl to Doctor Quimea’s place. She wasn't much bigger than he was, and everything about her fascinated him.

For one, she was white, not just of skin, which Attaboy had seen a few times now, but her waist-length hair and eyes as well. A second intriguing quality was the object she wore at the side of her flowing red robes. It was long enough that she kept one hand at her side pushing on the handle so that the other end did not drag on the floor, but protruded behind her like a stiff leather tail.

“What that?” he ventured, as they passed into the giant building, a place he had learned was called Las Lajas.

The girl turned to look at him with a sniff. “Stop talking, or you’ll find out.”

But he wanted to find out, so did that mean he should keep talking? The words of these people were so confusing, Attaboy wondered how they could get along at all.

“Yes. Attaboy would like to find out.”

There was a sound, a captivating sound, hushed and metallic. Attaboy fell in love with the sound in that instant, even as a three foot long, razor-sharp piece of steel was leveled at his throat.

“Does that answer your question?” the girl asked with a snarl. Attaboy reached to grab hold of the shining metal, but it was whisked away before his fingers got close.

“No.” he replied. Now he had even more questions.

The girl sighed, and retrieved the holding part. With only a little trouble, she maneuvered the metal back into it, creating just a hint of the earlier sound.

“Come on,” she said. “No more talking.”

Doctor Quimea’s place was called a ‘laboratory’, Attaboy discovered. Buried in the depths of the stone beneath Las Lajas, the room contained many large round vessels, a variety of differently sized tubes running from place to place, and several glowing square panels.

“Welcome, Attaboy.” The doctor said. His back was turned, and he was looking at one of the squares. Attaboy could see lines of symbols on it that reminded him of the day when he had selected the square with lines in his display. Since that day, he had seen those symbols in a number of places, and was coming to suspect that they had some kind of meaning.

"You’ve been here before, though I don’t expect you remember.”

Attaboy wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“I wasn’t here at the time, of course, but I’ve had a while to look at the results.”

He spun around abruptly to face him.

“Attaboy, what do you want most in the world?”

That was easy. He wanted to complete his quest. But he wasn’t supposed to talk about it with anyone. Grabby had made him promise. There was something though…

“Long metal.” He made a gesture imitating the girl to convey his meaning.

“Oh, a sword has caught your fancy? Was Nykka showing off again?”

Attaboy nodded and then shrugged.

“Well, how would you like to have a sword of your own? We can even teach you how to use it. How does that sound?”

He nodded. “Good.”

Chapter 24

After class, Lilijoy set off through the labyrinthine halls toward the rear entrance, hoping Rosemallow would be at the pond. She hadn’t gone far before she heard Skria’s voice calling her name from the other end of a crowded hall. Braving the forest of moving legs, she made her way through the crowd, to find Skria perched on one of Jessila’s broad shoulders.

“Now that’s a good idea!” she called up to her friends. “Is there room for one more?”

She had been kidding, but before she could clarify, Jessila reached down, picked her up, and plopped her on the shoulder across from Skria.

“Hi Lily!” Skria chirped. “We were just headed to lunch. Care to join us?”

“Wait. There’s lunch here?”

Skria nodded. “Yups. It’s kind of a habit for the Insiders. We don’t strictly need it once we become tempered, so it’s more of a social thing. Plus, the food tastes good and sometimes it has magic that raises traits for a little while.”

“Who makes it?”

“I don’t know. Probably students working on their cooking skill.”

As they talked, Jessila was making her way down the hallway, the crowds parting around her. Lilijoy noticed her hair was braided into three long plaits that ran down her back, which made her think of Mr. Sennit.

“I like your hair, Jessila. Did Skria finish it last night?”

Jessila grunted.

“It took forever,” Skria added.

That gave Lilijoy an idea. “After lunch, we should go into town and visit my friend, Mr. Sennit. He’s a master level braider.”

“No way!” Skria exclaimed. “We’d love to, right Jess?”

Jessila grunted.

Then Skria’s face fell. “Except, I have an appointment with my advisor.”

“The Dean?”

“That’s her. Believe me, you do not want to miss an appointment with Dean Reunification.”

Lilijoy believed her.

Skria continued. “But you two should go. Jess doesn’t have many classes, ‘cause her trainer is a jerk.”

Jessila grunted.

“You’ll be fine,” Skria reassured her. She turned to Lilijoy and whispered over Jessila’s head, which seemed a little pointless to Lilijoy, since Jessila’s huge pointed ears were only inches away. “She gets a little nervous when I’m not around to talk to people.”

“I’ll be with you, Jessila,” said Lilijoy. “We’re roommates, so we should take care of each other. Do you mind if we head out back first, before we go to town? I’m looking for my trainer.”

Jessila grunted, which Lilijoy understood to be acceptance of her request. Just in case, she glanced over at Skria, who nodded.

Lunch was a nice way to break up the day, Lilijoy thought. The dining area was actually dozens of smaller rooms with three or four tables, and a central buffet where they could find food suited to their taste and species. The selection was eclectic and some of it was unrecognizable, but Lilijoy didn’t care. She just had fun talking with Skria and trying various foods she had only read about. Almost every student eating was an Insider, as far as she could tell.

After lunch, Skria headed off, gliding down the empty halls with a little assist from her air magic. Lilijoy and Jessila made their way out the back and down toward the pond.

“I hope she’s there,” Lilijoy was saying, as they came to the small cliff looking over the still water. The day was hot and clear, and the cicadas were at it again, buzzing from the safety of the trees. To her relief, Rosemallow was indeed there, sitting on the muddy bank. Lilijoy thought she saw Betty and Sweetums zooming around near her feet. With Jessila by her side, she felt the need to be more formal with her teacher.

“Hi, Master Rosemallow!” she called.

“Hey, Three Bites. Brought a friend I see. This the one who offered to spar?”

Lilijoy had almost forgotten she had mentioned that. “No, that’s Magpie. This is Jessila.”

“Well come on down here, and bring Jessila too. Jessila, careful not to step on her!”

They joined her on the bank, and Lilijoy saw Rosemallow’s third eye whirling as she looked at Jessila, who was staring at the mud by her feet. She sighed, and then grunted in surprise.

“Right… okay. Huh.” She seemed to be having a small conversation with herself over what she was seeing. Then she took a step back. “This won’t do. Unacceptable!” Her voice rose as she spoke. Jessila seemed to shrink, hunching over and crossing her arms in front of herself.

“Well crap,” said Rosemallow. “Jessila, when did you spend your points?”

Jessila continued to study the ground. Lilijoy felt a sudden fear for her withdrawn friend. Rosemallow had never struck her as the patient type.

“Look at me girl! I asked you a question. Did you spend all your points before you got here?”

Jessila grunted something that might have been a ‘no’.

Rosemallow placed one of her huge hands under Jessila’s jaw and guided her head up. From Lilijoy’s vantage, it looked like an adult handling a difficult child, as Rosemallow dwarfed even Jessila’s substantial size. “I need you to look at me.” Lilijoy was surprised by her gentle tone. “Someone’s making a weapon out of you, and I’m putting a stop to it. Who’s your advisor?”

“M-master Spurkis,” Jessila stuttered.

“The rat?” Rosemallow said with surprise.

Jessila nodded. Then she added, “No one else would take me.”

Lilijoy nearly fell over. It was the most words in a row she had heard from her roommate.

Rosemallow swore and her eyes rose briefly to the top level of the Academy building. “This is all your fault, Eskallia, she’s one of mine,” she said under her breath. She looked down at Lilijoy. “You didn’t hear that.”

“Hear what?”

“Good.” Rosemallow released Jessila’s face. “Damn it!” she said, and she took several steps away from them, before spinning around. “Damn it!” she said again. “This is the kind of crap that made me retire in the first place!” Two large strides brought her back into Jessila’s face, or where her face would have been if she wasn’t trying to bury it in her neck. “Fight me,” she said. “Take a swing, right now.”

From Lilijoy’s vantage, she could clearly see the alarmed expression that crossed Jessila’s face. She rushed to intervene. “Master Rosemallow, Jess didn’t mean to make you angry--”

“Shut it kid. This is within us,” Rosemallow said, her tone impatient. "This needs to happen. Now."

Jessila looked back at Rosemallow and a hint of defiance flashed in her eyes, before she put her hands around her head, as if to protect herself from a beating.

“Is this what you’ve learned? Take a beating until you snap?” Rosemallow punctuated each sentence by hitting the back of one hand on her palm. “And then what happens, Jessila? What happens when you snap?”

Jessila mumbled something through her arms.

“Damn right people get hurt!” Rosemallow replied. She waded further into the water, kneeling down to put her face near Jessila’s. “Do you think you can hurt Rosemallow World Crusher? Do you? This isn't a beating or a trick. You need to fight me right now. You need to mean it and you need to get angry."

Jessila took her arms down and looked into Rosemallow’s face, only inches from her own. Her blue eyes were defiant and filled with tears.

Rosemallow had no pity. “Do it or you’re out! Out of the one place you are safe! No more room! No more friends!”

Lilijoy watched as Jessila’s expression slowly transformed. Her lips pulled back into a snarl, revealing sharp fangs in her blunt protruding jaw, her eyes narrowed and a wave of heat bloomed under her skin as her face flushed with rage. The fist that came up under Rosemallow’s jaw moved so fast that Lilijoy only heard the crack of bone on bone and saw the result, as Rosemallow’s entire eight foot frame was lifted out of the water and propelled back onto the muddy bank.

“Yes!” the Oni yelled, somehow laughing. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” An evil grin crossed her face. “My turn.”

She lunged back into the water, calling, “Defend yourself!” as she launched a flurry of jabs to Jessila’s body. The girl did her best to block, but there was no way for her to match the Oni’s speed, and Lilijoy could see hit after hit landing. Still, it was clear to her that Rosemallow wasn't putting any force into the blows, and she began to feel that, perhaps, her trainer wasn’t psychotic after all.

Jessila took the repeated jabs for a few seconds, before she stopped trying to block and went on the offensive, swinging wildly at the cackling Rosemallow. Lilijoy could see a few blows land, sending up sprays of water off Rosemallow’s soaked blue sun dress.

She reevaluated her trainer’s sanity once more, when she grabbed Jess by the hair and arm and spun around to throw her out of the pond and down the hill. Lilijoy could hear the sound of Jessila rolling and crashing through the brush and trees.

For a moment there was silence, other than the buzz of dragonflies and the water dripping from Rosemallow’s body. Her trainer looked over and gave her a little wink and raised one finger.

Then Lilijoy heard it. Steps. Slow at first, then faster and faster, and as the rate increased the ground began to shake, and the water of the pond rippled. Jessila emerged from the small grove of trees, emerged through the small grove of trees, in an explosion of splintered wood and leaves. Her face was contorted with rage and effort, and Lilijoy could see her feet plunge into the rocky soil as if running in muddy water. But it didn't slow her down.

Rosemallow crouched and braced for impact. Jessila’s last few steps sent up geysers of mud and water.

They collided.

Lilijoy caught a flash of Rosemallow folding around Jessila, her enormous arms wrapping around the girl, her legs trailing as the two flew across the waters and crashed into the cliff face. The impact caused Lilijoy to loose her footing, so she didn’t see the aftermath, only a wash of mud that swept over her as the geysers returned to earth.

She wiped the muck from her face in an attempt to see what had become of the two titans. There was a huge cloud of dust all around the cliff, so she couldn’t see much, just the outline of the two forms embedded in rubble. Then she heard a sound, a great heaving sound of sobbing, and the dust cleared to reveal Rosemallow, her arms still wrapped around Jessila, gently stroking the girls back as she cried and cried.

Some time later, after Rosemallow had somehow banished the water and mud from everyone's clothing, they sat together on a relatively dry patch of grass near the pond.

“Did you level up?” Rosemallow asked.

Jessila nodded.

“Speak, girl.”

“Yes.”

“Address me as master, unless you want to go through all that again.”

Lilijoy twitched a little in sympathy.

“Yes, Master Rosemallow” Jess mumbled.

“Good. Use those new free points to raise Charm: Sentient by two points. Quickly, no time to waste.”

Lilijoy’s jaw dropped. That was thirteen free points, as Charm: Sentient was five free points to raise for the first and eight for the second point. Coming from Rosemallow, who protected her student’s free points as if they were her children, this was shocking.

Rosemallow’s third eye was spinning as she watched Jessila.

“Good! Was that difficult? And speak, girl, no grunts.”

Jessila hesitated, before saying, “I didn’t want to do it.”

“Do you know why?”

She shook her head.

“Because someone told you not to. Then they told you to forget.” Rosemallow gave Lilijoy a significant look, then turned back to Jess. “Your Charm: Sentients trait was at one, so now we’ve tripled it. I expect you to raise it every time you gain a level until it is at least ten. Additionally, you will join Lily in her sessions with Professor Anaskafius for the rest of the term, in order to learn how to better resist Charm attacks of all kinds. Understood?"

"Yes, Master Rosemallow." Jessila looked up with her eyes as wide as Lilijoy had ever seen them. "Does this mean you will be training me now?"

"Yes, of cou-" She was interrupted by Lilijoy squealing in delight. "Can it, Three Bites. As I was saying, I will be advising you now. You will meet me before sunrise, and we will start to address your pathetic K.A." She looked down at Lilijoy. "With the assistance of this tiny creature."

Lilijoy clapped her hands, unable to restrain her excitement. "This is going to be so much fun!" Then a second thought occurred to her. "Master Rosemallow, what exactly is going on? Who has been charming Jess? Isn't that against the rules?"

Rosemallow frowned. "I've seen this before. They take a vulnerable student, get their hooks in early, and control their leveling and points, keeping them pliable while making them strong in very specific ways. For instance, I'm sure all of Jessila's points were assigned to Power and her Ability. Maybe Invulnerability if they needed to use her more than once."

"But isn't that kinda what you do?" Lilijoy regretted the question as soon as it came out of her mouth.

Instead of the explosion she was expecting from her volatile trainer, Rosemallow sighed. "I'd like to think there's a difference. There's no charming involved, for starters. I'm trying to help you build a foundation, the strongest possible, deep and slow. With Jessila, they didn't care about that, just built the tallest tower possible, because they didn't care whether it fell or not."

"What was it she did when she ran back up here? Was that her ability?"

"Don't ask me," Rosemallow chided. "She's right here in front of you."

"Oh! I'm so sorry Jessila. I've just gotten used to you not talking."

"It's okay… Lily." Jess nearly stumbled over the name, as if she was afraid she would get it wrong. "I don't like to talk." She took a breath and forced herself to continue. "But it's been really bad since I came here."

"Probably part of the Charm conditioning. They wanted to keep you isolated, particularly from the teachers." Rosemallow said. "It took strong emotions and struggle to break it, and if you hadn't leveled up from our fight, you would have ended up right back where you started."

Jessila nodded, as if she had exhausted her capacity for words for the time being.

"Do you mind if I explain the ability you used to Lily?" Rosemallow asked.

Jessila nodded, then shook her head. "Sorry. It's fine."

Rosemallow launched into her lecture mode. "Abilities range from universal, like Scan, to common, such as Low Light Vision, all the way to completely unique abilities. Jessila's is just short of unique, and might best be called legendary. She's not the first to have it, but it is exceedingly rare, and she may well be the only living person to have it. It's called Juggernaut, and it allows her to increase her mass proportional to her speed. At her tier of the ability, she probably weighs over a ton when she’s running at full speed.”

Lilijoy looked over at Jessila. “Jess, that’s amazing!” The corner of Jessila’s mouth twitched, which was as close to a smile as Lilijoy had seen from her roommate. “But Master Rosemallow, who did it? Who broke the rules?”

Rosemallow shook her head. “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you, kid. The rules are for the students, and it was no student behind this. I doubt her trainer was involved beyond taking a payoff. He would probably even pretend he was developing her strengths if he was confronted.”

She sat back and rubbed her head. “Best you stay out of the situation. The charm is broken, and it will be harder to re-establish. Another few levels and it will be extremely difficult for any but a master-level charmer to do more than influence her, especially once Anaskafius has helped. Lucky for Jessila, you have a decent facility with Charm, so you can keep an eye on her. Again, Ani will help with that.”

Lilijoy assumed ‘Ani’ must be Professor Anaskafius. “So what do we do now?”

“I’ll arrange things with Ani, so plan on meeting with him later today. Don’t let Jessila out of your sight until then. I’ve got to go and fix this mess, and change Jessila’s classes, so I’ll see both of you before dawn at the outdoor obstacle course. It’s just past the arenas.”

With that, Rosemallow left Lilijoy and Jessila on their own.

“You still want to go into town?” Lilijoy asked.

Jessila grunted, then grimaced. “Maybe. I need to stop running. But you don’t want to be seen with me.”

Lilijoy took a moment to remember that not only had Jessila been charmed, she was also Despised by elves, humans and orcs. She wasn’t sure what that that meant in practical terms though. “Will you be in danger?”

“Depends. Worse for you.”

“Why?”

“Reputation.”

Lilijoy kept her patience. Jessila had been through a lot, probably way more than she could imagine. Plus, single words were still far better than grunts. “It will hurt my reputation to be with you?” she asked.

Jess nodded.

“Well, I don’t care about that!” Lilijoy exclaimed. “Besides, maybe it will help your reputation to be with me.”