008

Dancing on Strings

Vaughan had no idea what was going on.

He considered himself a knowledgeable and intuitive man, able to assess a situation and figure out the general pattern of what was occurring. He deduced why the Red Seekers were shooting their own fire into the air and suspected it had something to do with that rather dangerous Red crystal of theirs. He even knew who Itlea was, judging on the glares she and Blue were giving each other and the greater unicorn’s official Purple robes.

What he didn’t know anything about was this balloon whale. What was it doing out here? There were no docks in Willow Hollow and the lift they were currently riding wasn’t one designed for Colored crystal transportation; it was intended for people. The blue and purple patterns draped over the whale weren’t of any culture Vaughan was aware of, and he knew quite a few.

Whatever this whale was doing, at the very least Vaughan could tell it wasn’t from Kroan, and he doubted the King would appreciate a foreign-owned balloon whale floating around without good reason. Given Itlea’s presence as an official wizard, chances were the whale was allowed to be here, but that wasn’t guaranteed.

What was guaranteed?

The name of the person they were going to meet was C-R.

Vaughan wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t like that name.

As they approached the whale itself, Vaughan checked his companions. Suro’s eyes were darting in every direction, trying to take in as much as he possibly could. Jeh, who had been excited about the ride at the start, was now impatient for it to get to its destination already. Blue, meanwhile, was almost exclusively staring at Mt. Cascade with only occasional glances elsewhere.

“You think…?” Vaughan began.

“I knew we should have done something,” Blue grumbled.

“If we had…” Vaughan glanced to Jeh. “Who knows where she would be now?”

“Very lost!” Jeh said, grinning. “I was thinking I’d hi—“

Suro let out a slight cough. “Let us not share information so openly, perhaps?” He flicked his tail at Itlea.

Itlea bared her teeth at the cat. “You’re a charmer.”

“Look, we are in an unknown situation, I hope you can understand our desires to know more before revealing our cards.”

“I wish I brought cards,” Jeh said. “Then I could play them while we’re waiting.”

“It only takes three minutes for the lift to reach the top,” Itlea said. “You are an impatient child.”

Jeh looked at her and blinked a few times. “Blue, this one’s mean.”

“No, really,” Blue deadpanned.

“Can I slap her?”

“Not now.”

“…Later?”

Blue bit her lip. “We will consider it.”

Itlea whinnied. “Feral plebians…”

Blue snorted. “I’m sorry, did you suddenly get a noble title between last time I saw you and now? No? Then put a muzzle on it.”

Itlea’s eyes flickered. “You do not know who you play with, Blue. I am a Purple wizard of the highe—“

Vaughan used the Purple in his scepter to send a burst of mottled light into Itlea’s face that made her stumble backward in shock.

“Your attitude gives wizards a bad name,” Vaughan said matter-of-factly.

Itlea, despite her disorientation, refused to back down. “And you took in a flunky! A flunky! You dare say I give wizards a bad name!?”

“Well, she’s more suited for it than you.”

Blue let out a delighted gasp. “Ooooooooo!”

Itlea’s face contorted, preparing for a retort she never got to complete, for the lift finished its ascension into the balloon whale’s gondola. It was affixed to the underside of the floating beast, composed largely of wood coated with a pristine finish and more blue-purple designs. Now that they were inside, Vaughan noticed the large number of Blue sparks floating around. Someone was using Blue magic and making no attempt to hide it.

The area they’d arrived in took up half the gondola and was cargo storage. It was mostly empty, with only a few crates scattered haphazardly around. There was only one other person there: a man in a black cloak and similarly colored hat which bore similar designs to what was outside the whale. There were a few doors on the other side of the room with labels in a language Vaughan didn’t recognize. Itlea wordlessly marched to the central door and all but threw it open with her telekinesis, revealing a very dark rectangular room. The walls had runes etched into the wooden grain that were filled with Blue crystal, some of which was glowing.

Despite this, it was basically impossible to see anything in the room. Colored glow never illuminated anything, one of the great mysteries of magic.

Vaughan did not like the dark, so he used Red to create a small fire in front of his scepter, revealing the rest of the room. Most of the walls just had more runes and not much else, but in the back of the room, there was a chair. Given its position, one might have been tempted to call it a throne, but it was of rather simple construction. What wasn’t of simple construction were the large numerous hourglasses behind the chair, all of which had sand flowing through them at different rates. Behind all the hourglasses was a tall, rectangular device of some kind that kept ticking. Vaughan had no idea what that was, but he was fairly sure it had to be related to time.

Given the existence of Blue magic and the prevalence of timekeeping devices, Vaughan was fairly certain he was dealing with a Blue wizard, or perhaps a distant Blue Seeker. However, the visual appearance of the seated individual matched neither of these. The being was a smooth, porcelain white with two legs and three arms—the third of which protruded from its back. Every joint the creature had was marked by a depression in its body that almost made it look like it was several disjointed pieces not even attached together. It lacked feet but had five-fingered hands on each arm. Worst of all, there was no face—only a smooth, featureless head.

“Greetings,” it spoke with a feminine voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. “I am C-R.”

“What… are you?” Vaughan asked, purposefully stepping to the front of the group in a defensive posture.

“What I am is unimportant and none of your concern. Who I am is another matter entirely, but not one you have the context to fully understand.” She folded her three hands together in a complex weave. Vaughan had no idea what the body language meant. “Though, even then, your relation to all of this may be tangential. I do not know. All I know is that you are in the midst of a situation that was already immensely complicated and that has potentially just been made a million times worse.”

“Stop being vague,” Jeh grunted. Blue quickly forced her mouth shut with telekinesis.

“The immortal child speaks well,” C-R said. Vaughan inwardly cursed—C-R must have seen Jeh crawl out of the Skyseed, somehow. She already knew. “Very well, I will cut to the chase and provide you some context out of good faith. Are you aware of the race known as the Kancathi?”

Vaughan shook his head.

“You actually are, since we received a report that one attacked your town.”

“The plast dragon?” Blue asked.

“They are plasts, yes.” C-R leaned back in her seat, using her back hand to stroke the ticking device behind her. “But their physiology is unimportant. The relevant information is that a large group of them have sought to turn the world into a game of life and death for amusement. The reasons behind their doing this are unknown—perhaps there are no logical ones—but they are a scourge across Ikyu. When we received word of activity here, we came to investigate. Wizard Itlea was picked up at the last sky dock since she was headed this direction, and before we could begin our investigation we saw a little jar with fins attached to it float up into the sky. And keep floating. It disappeared from sight so we went to investigate the Kancathi’s lair and when we were done there were several massive explosions and then a much, much larger explosion on Mt. Cascade.” C-R leaned in. “An explosion indicative of a Crystalline One awakening.”

Blue swore under her breath.

“Ah, so you do know something about that. Please, do inform us.”

Suro coughed. “It has nothing to do with the ‘Kancathi’ you are investigating, so—“

“Kancathi are not the only thing I investigate. You all have just become more interesting. So please, inform me of who you are and what has transpired.” She tapped her fingers together. “It is only fair you respect my exchange of information.”

Blue glanced to Vaughan with a raised eyebrow. Vaughan nodded in understanding and turned to C-R. “I am wizard Vaughan.”

“I am aware of that much.”

“This is Blue, Suro, and Jeh. We are currently working together to design devices that can go as far up as you can possibly imagine, to this place we call space!”

“And your explosions?”

“Well…” Vaughan rubbed the back of his head, trying to think of how to spin this.

Suro nudged him with a gentle paw, prompting Vaughan to look down at his stern, calculating eyes. The cat nodded very slowly.

Be true, but not foolish, Vaughan remembered. Lila had said that. Many times.

Vaughan folded his arms. “We made a mistake. The clouds rolled in and we realized Jeh had no way to know where to land. So I tried to set up a beacon to lure her here.”

“It would not have accomplished much, we only saw it because we were close by.” C-R crossed her legs over each other, exhibiting flexibility far beyond most races’. “And the larger explosion?”

“There’s a bunch of Red Seekers who live on the mountain that probably thought I was challenging them, so they responded in kind. By, apparently, doing an Awakening.”

“Morons…” Blue grumbled under her breath.

“How so?” C-R asked Blue. “The goal of all Colors of Seekers is to ultimately commune with the Colors themselves, and Awakenings are the most reliable method of doing so. From their religious standpoint, the unpleasant consequences are worth infinitely less than the potential for true communication.”

“Just because it makes sense in their mind doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid!”

“You would know,” Itlea grunted.

“You are so full of hypocrisy it’s hilarious.”

Jeh raised a hand. “Uh, so, when we dealt with the Red Seekers last time I understood nothing about what was happening. What… is an Awakening?”

Vaughan opened his mouth to answer—but C-R beat him to it. “Colored crystals seek to fuse to others of the same Color by some law of reality. If left to nature, this leads to crystals growing in size until they reach truly massive proportions. Once they reach a certain size and fulfill other criteria not fully understood, they become a Crystalline One.”

Jeh blinked. “Ooooh, those things that are the exception to every rule in the Races and Attributes of Ikyu book!”

“Precisely. That explosion you witnessed was them either Awakening or attempting to Awaken their Red crystal to get closer to their ideal of a god.”

Jeh turned to Blue. “So why’s that bad?”

Blue frowned. “Crystalline Ones are not born and do not develop like us. They are suddenly gifted with full reasoning and almost no understanding. To be born is chaos, to them.”

“That is not strictly true,” C-R said. “Those who Awaken in nature far from any spirited form gradually and with stability. The difficulty comes from those who form amongst the agonizing cacophony of a dozen spirits all screaming to them entirely different thoughts about who they are. And then there are those brought about by the Seekers, who almost invariably tend to believe that they are exactly what the Red Seekers believe they are. Gods of magic.”

Vaughan closed his eyes and scratched his beard. “Good for them, I suppose.”

C-R laced two of her arms under her legs, while using the third to tap the side of her head. What is it with her and all this strange body language? “It may or may not be good for them, depending on the bent of the new Crystalline One. It is almost assuredly bad for you and your town, for if you tell someone they are a god of fire, they tend to want to burn things.”

Suro cleared his throat. “Then, if you don’t mind, could you send us back down to Willow Hollow so we may assist in dealing with this crisis?”

“Not at all,” C-R said. “You’ve given me all I need to know.”

“What will you do?” Suro asked.

“I am going to go talk to these Seekers in much the way I talked to you. And, if needed…” She placed all of her arms behind her and grabbed the back of the chair while leaning forward. “Deal with them.”

Jeh pointed a finger at her. “That’s ominous.”

C-R turned to Itlea. “Return them to the surface. In one piece, please.”

Itlea nodded. “Of course…”

~~~

Joira, head of the Red Seekers (they had never bothered giving her a proper title), could not help but grin in absolute delight at the Red light surrounding the entire camp. Sparkles of the Color inherent within their great crystal permeated everything with such intensity that none of the standard colors could compete.

“This is the power of the Red!” Joira called to the rest of the Seekers. “To mute all other colors, shining true but never reflecting! The light of Red, so much more than the color of a simple rose or the shade of blood, it is the essence of heat itself embedded upon our very souls!” She spread her hands wide, using them to frame the brilliant source of this power: their great Red crystal, embedded into the roof of Joira’s home.

When they had seen Vaughan’s challenge from the ground below, the Seekers had started taking all of their larger Red chunks and fusing them to the already large crystal, only increasing its size further and further. It was now almost the size of two human beings and continually glowing with a Red aura. Fires started and stopped around the crystal with no one to initiate them, sparking and popping seemingly randomly.

Joira knew better. The seemingly spontaneous spells merely meant that the crystal was Awakening. Soon, it would be fully aware, and a new goddess would be born...

“Oh great manifestation of the heat within all things!” Joira declared, bowing at the crystal. “We bring you into this world to learn, and to listen. Speak to us, o Red one!”

And she did.

“Burn.”

There was a flash of actual light of such intensity to be blinding. Joira felt a shockwave that knocked her onto her back, but not out cold. She heard several seekers call out in panic as they caught fire.

Joira could only smile.

Finally, there would be no more excuses or uncertainty.

~~~

“Patience and peace are prime virtues,” Lila said, addressing the people of Willow Hollow. “Rest assured, we are taking actions to prepare for the worst and the unexpected, but we do not wish to show a violent front.”

“They were violent first,” Ripashi grunted.

“Revenge is an ugly thing.”

“We could try to barter,” one of the Sourdough twins suggested.

“Yeah! Buy that explosive thing of theirs off of them!” the other agreed.

“And, optionally, use it against them later.”

“Completely optional of course. They might behave themselves.”

“Maybe.”

Lila shook her head at the twins. “The Red Seekers care little for money. They seek understanding and power through direct contact with Red Magic and, according to their beliefs, the will of the Great Red One*.”

*The Great Red One is almost universally agreed upon in mythology to be a huge hothead.

“Why couldn’t we have had Green Seekers?” Mary asked. “That would have been much more… bearable.”

“They’re still a corrupting influence,” Krays huffed, crossing her arms.

“Yes, but restoration is a lot less likely to be violent than the magic of fire and explosions.”

“It’s the magic of heat, not fire and e—“

The explosion came from Mt. Cascade, but this time it didn’t appear as an orb of pure Red energy, but rather a flat disc-shaped shockwave of burning air that spread out parallel with the ground. Willow Hollow was in no danger whatsoever from this since their elevation was pathetic, but it just so happened that the balloon whale was a bit too close. They watched as the gondola was hit directly with the flames, breaking off several chunks of it.

A few of these chunks fell from the sky and landed rather harmlessly on the ground nearby. Most of it was composed of wood, but some of it had metal wiring and a lot of rope.

“The lift,” Darmosil said. “That’s gonna make it awkward for them to get down.”

“They’ll figure something out,” Lila said. “For now… that did look like an attack. But we do not know if it was an attack on us or on our mysterious visitors.”

“Who we also don’t know if we can trust!” Ripashi shouted.

“Please, remain calm,” Lila encouraged once more. “We are doing what w—“ Lila stopped talking, perking up her ears. Slowly, she turned her head around to see a hunched humanoid figure approaching, his cane making a repeated clacking sound against the cobblestone. “…Mayor.” Lila bowed her head slightly. “If I have overstepped my bounds as Keeper by taking control, do forgive me.”

“You save me a lot of trouble,” the Mayor said, his voice betraying a truly ancient age even though his face was shrouded by a pale mask that didn’t have any eye holes. “You have done well, keeping them all focused on your speech. But they argue with you.” He tapped his cane authoritatively on the ground. “They won't with me.”

The Mayor let the silence sit in as if daring someone to challenge his authority.

Seskii raised her hand. “Um… I might just be new here, but why do we listen to this guy?”

“You know,” the Mayor said. “Do not pretend you don’t.”

Seskii tilted her hand back and forth. “Eh? I think I know a reason but it isn’t the reason-reason behind the reason that is shown, y’know?”

The Mayor nodded. “Naturally.”

“…That was mostly just nonsense, Mayor. Are you messing w—“

The Mayor was suddenly behind her and smacked her upon the head with his cane.

“Ow,” Seskii said, rubbing the back of her head.

“Next time it won’t be as soft.”

“That’s still not an answer.”

Lila coughed. “Seskii, this is a potential crisis, let’s just listen to the authorities placed over us.”

A rare look came over Seskii’s face—that of shame. “All… alright.” She put on her smile again and saluted the Mayor. “What do we do, sir?”

“Guards will be posted at the mountain pass,” the Mayor said. “Ripashi, Darmosil, that will be you. The rest of you, return to your homes and your work. Lila, with me, we have much to discuss.”

Lila nodded, finding no need to say anything further. At his command, the people of Willow Hollow were already dispersing into their various homes, even if their work was no doubt going to be distracted due to the unusual circumstances.

“How can I help?” Lila asked when she was satisfied everyone was breaking up.

“I’m going to make this blunt,” the Mayor said. “I need you to start becoming more respected in their eyes so you can replace me.”

Lila blinked a few times. “Excuse me?”

“You are the closest thing this town has to a leader aside from myself, and my time is soon.”

“I am afraid I am devoted to the duty of Keeper above all else.”

The Mayor turned to look at her, a truly unnerving sensation since his mask had no eyeholes or even a printed face. It was a pale mask, although it had the oddity of being slightly fuzzy. “…I had a feeling you would say that. Even for me, you will not lessen your devotion.”

“Not in the slightest,” Lila said without a hint of hesitation.

“Good. That is exactly why you’re the perfect choice.” He started walking once again.

“Forgive me, Mayor, but I jus—“

“I am refusing your refusal. And I think, in time, you will refuse your refusal yourself. Oh, I suspect you will never let yourself take the title of Mayor, potentially finding a way to pass it off to that husband of yours or someone else, but you will serve as the center of this community in the end. They will come to you.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “You just need to stop letting them question you all the time.”

Lila shook her head. “Assuming you are correct about the flow of destiny—and I doubt that—I have no intention of changing that. It is wrong to assume oneself in the right.”

“Decisions need to be made in the moment.”

“Never from arrogance.”

The old man stopped moving entirely. “You are the perfect choice.”

Lila couldn’t exactly bring herself to disagree with him on that front. Greatness did tend to work better when thrust upon someone, not when it was taken. She herself had been both of those people already.

Lila flicked her ears back. “I… I do not want this.”

“It will be thrust upon you if I make it official or not. For who did they turn to in this crisis?”

“They should have turned to you.”

“Nobody should turn to me,” the Mayor grunted. “I am a man cursed to lead. It… will be nice to follow, when I return.”

“…Do you wish for any special rites?”

The Mayor shook his head. “I do not wish to be a burden on you. Whatever you see as appropriate will do.”

Lila bowed her head in respect. After walking a bit more in silence, she couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Sir, I…”

“I am aware of your disapproval of my distant ruling method. Trust me, it has to be that way. Though it does not have to be so with you.”

Lila nodded. “Then it will not be.”

“I expect nothing less.”

“In that case… I shall return to the Sanctuary and meditate for Dia’s blessing on our current situation.”

“Heh… always following my orders. Good, good, you go do that. I’ll be watching to see if I’m needed again.”

“You don’t believe you are?”

“Things tend to work out between the fantastical elements. I was concerned with a potential panic-ridden response.”

Lila smiled at this. “Thank you. For being our Mayor.”

“I deserve less thanks than that,” the old man said as he walked away from her. With a flick of her tail, Lila went her own way.

Yet, on her journey, she kept glancing at the top of Mt. Cascade with concern. Even after all this time, she was still a curious woman at heart, and the feeling of not knowing what was going on up there was bugging her. Clearly, a Crystalline One was awakening, but those could go so many ways…

It was possible they were planning an invasion right now, or that the new entity had slaughtered all the Red Seekers in a fit of birth rage.

She looked up to the balloon whale floating above them.

Do well up there, dear.

~~~

Suro had a pounding headache. “Mrrrow…”

“The cat’s coming to,” the voice of Itlea came to his ears.

“How useful,” a gruff voice Suro didn’t recognize deadpanned.

“Do not discredit one’s use with limited information.” That was C-R, definitely. “He is a man of words.”

“Words aren’t going to help in an attack!” Itlea shouted. “The Red Seekers just shot at us!”

“Maybe,” Blue said. “Maybe.”

“Blue is correct,” C-R added. “It is possible the Seekers and the new Crystalline One are not in agreement. To be given the minds and experiences of the Seekers does not mean one will not be horrified by it.”

“What do you intend to do?” Vaughan asked.

“I intend to drift this whale into the mountain and attempt a diplomatic solution.”

“And what about us?” Suro asked, finally standing to all four of his legs.

C-R folded all three of her hands behind her back. “Unfortunately, the lift was utterly destroyed in the shockwave and I don’t want to waste any more time on this, so you are along for the ride.”

“Ah.”

“Awesome!” Jeh shouted. “Maybe we can teach those Red jerks a lesson!”

“Or maybe establish peace,” Blue cautioned.

“You. Peace,” Itlea grunted.

Blue was about to let Itlea have another mouthful, but C-R interrupted the both of them with a loud clap with only two of her hands, using the third to point at Itlea. “Your incessant need to deride her at every turn is your biggest weakness as well as your greatest annoyance. Do cease, for the sake of my sanity as well as yours.”

Itlea stared at her, stunned. “W-well I’m no—“

“I do not care for justifications or nuances at this juncture, we have work to do.” C-R sat back in her chair and relaxed. “I need to prepare. All of you should go sit at the main window. It will not take long to arrive.”

With a bunch of awkward shuffling, they all left C-R’s room, taking another door to a room slightly longer than C-R’s filled with seats and windows. However, the windows were only on the left and front sides, as the other wall shared a side with C-R’s room. If Suro had to guess, the other door likely led to the pilot’s cabin and perhaps some beds.

Why the pilot wouldn’t be situated at the center of the gondala, he had no idea. Maybe C-R provided some special purpose herself.

Jeh was the most excited, taking a seat as close to the front of the gondola as she could manage. The tendrils of the whale’s “mustache” obscured the upper part of the view, but not by much. They could easily see a red glow on top of Mt. Cascade. It was almost welcoming.

That is, until it started shooting beams of Red at them. Unlike Vaughan’s attacks, which had dissipated extremely quickly once leaving him, these beams made it all the way to the balloon whale without faltering in any visible way.

However, this time C-R was ready. As the beam was released, an extremely large amount of Blue sparks flew off every part of the Gondola. Suddenly, the beam of light heading toward them was moving like a snail, and the entire balloon whale swam around it like it were little more than a stationary rock in midair.

Vaughan whistled. “Impressive control over Blue.” He looked out the side window to check if anything had lit on fire, and to his delight, it hadn’t.

“Perhaps she just froze the attack?” Suro suggested.

“The spell was much more complicated than that. If I had to guess, she used a high-level technique known as the acceleration boundary. Or just knew exactly how fast she was allowed to go.”

Suro glanced around to make sure everyone was occupied with the light show. He jumped up on a table so he could get closer to Vaughan’s ear and whispered. “What do you think she is?”

Vaughan could only shrug. “You tell me.”

“I am fairly certain she told us the truth about her reason for being here, but that explains little about the nuance of it. There’s clearly more going on here.”

“That she doesn’t want us to be aware of.”

“Quite. Understandable, though. She is an agent of some kind for… someone.”

“Hmm…”

Suro turned his attention back to the front. With C-R’s efforts, the balloon whale was getting closer and closer to the mountain without suffering a single hit from the incoming red beams.

“…Just how much magic power can she use?” Suro asked.

“I suspect every wall of this gondola is lined with Blue crystal,” Vaughan explained. “Potentially limited only by the amount of will she can muster.”

“Potentially…”

“Potentially.”

“I can hear everything you say, for the record.” C-R’s voice again felt like it was coming from everywhere, despite her not being physically present in the room.

Suro and Vaughan gave each other awkward looks and then wisely went silent.

~~~

Joira watched once more as an enormous creature of the air became enveloped in an aura of Blue and just dodged the holy attacks of Red.

“This is unacceptable! How dare they!” Joira shouted at the top of her lungs. “Whoever these people are…”

“They will burn.”

Joira was stunned for a moment—but then her face twisted into a malevolent smile. “I had always suspected the holy act of smiting was much more important than we considered, but out of fear for the others, I lessened my retaliation. I can see, now that you are here, how that was wrong. We should have burned them long ago.”

“Burn…”

“Yes, yes! Burn! You heard her, burn, burn, burn!” She lifted her hands to the great Crystalline One, overjoyed and awed by the ripples of heat wafting off her facets. There were no more spontaneous, seemingly random fires—everything the Crystalline One did had an intent, now. Currently, that intent was to shoot down the approaching balloon whale.

Unfortunately, someone on that whale was a savant at Blue magic and wasn’t even getting grazed by any of this. If only the new Crystalline One would adapt into her* new role quicker, and use some of the transcendental applications of magic against the fools.

*Technically speaking, Crystalline Ones are genderless since their method of ‘reproduction’ has nothing at all to do with any biological process. However, all of the Great Crystalline Ones are traditionally identified as female, so all Crystalline Ones are referred to this way. Most languages on Ikyu are gendered and in them, the feminine is generally used in uncertain situations as opposed to the masculine because of the Crystalline Ones. They are seen as the “default,” in a sense.

“Voice of the Red,” Joira addressed with another extravagant bow. “Perhaps another method is in order to bring their charred carcass to the earth.”

“Burn…” She sparkled and sent out another, identical beam of heat that the whale speeded around easily. “Burn it to the ground!”

“Yes! Yes, burn! But it’s not burning!”

“Not burning… not acceptable!” The temperature, which was already warmer than most summer days, flared for a split second, afterwhich the Crystalline One released another beam that was slightly larger than the previous one. Naturally, the whale wriggled out of the way.

Joira quickly killed the part of her mind that was beginning to doubt the creativity of the freshly Awakened deity. Her deity, the one that she’d spent so long growing from the ground up. Ever since she’d been a little Seeker, she’d dreamed of the moment where they’d finally have a palpable presence that didn’t require an unreliable prophet.

“Burn…”

“Yes, burn… burn…” Joira turned back to the other Red Seekers. Several of them had singed robes, but almost all of them were kneeled on the ground, pointing their heads to the Crystalline One. It was strange, in a way, for the Crystalline One physically looked no different from before her Awakening, besides being a bit larger. All that had changed were the actions: the fire, the heat, the words.

The glorious, glorious words.

“Why won’t this stupid whale die!?”

“Does the Great Blue One seek to impede our worship?” Joira wondered aloud.

“Blue must die!” The rage returned to the voice and another beam went out.

As expected at this point, it missed.

“Why aren’t we doing the shockwave thing again?” a Seeker asked from the crowd.

Joira whirled upon the Seeker in livid rage. “How dare you question her meth—“

The Crystalline One released another shockwave of heat, though she set it further out so as to not burn any of the Red Seekers this time. The incoming whale didn’t even use any Blue to dodge; it just increased its altitude slightly.

This infuriated the Crystalline One, prompting it to release more and more barrages of normal Red beams.

The whale continued to approach, completely unhindered.

“Red Seekers…” Joira said, holding up one of her hands. “Prepare to fight for the Red…”

“Hello.”

That voice hadn’t come from the Red Seeker—it would have been impossible for Joira to tell where it was coming from had an image not appeared in front of the whale, no doubt produced by Purple magic. It was a fuzzy image, but it showed the featureless head and strange body structure of who had spoken.

“I am C-R. I politely request that you stop shooting at us so we may sit down and discuss. I would invite you inside, but you have wrecked my lift.”

Joira turned to the Crystalline One. “They seek an audience, oh great one.”

C-R found this worthy of commenting on. “Seek? I already have it; newborn Crystalline Ones have no senses of their own and must absorb information about the world through others. By having my whale this close, I automatically connect my crew to the newborn. She must listen.”

Joira gasped. “We have failed you, o great one! We have allowed them to sully your creation, an unforgivable sin…”

“They will burn as they must,” the Crystalline One said. “What I see inside through their eyes are of no concern. I see you carry with you the enemies of the Seekers, the wizard and the cat.” Fire burst from every face of the Crystalline One. “There will be no escape! Our enemies will become as ash!”

The image of C-R folded two of her hands together. “I see you’re acclimating remarkably quickly. You are a near if not complete success of what the Red Seekers desired. You should be proud—but you should not throw your life away.”

“It is your life that is forfeit! For you… are close enough.”

Rather than shooting a beam of energy, the Crystalline One applied heat directly to the whale itself. Flames danced on every piece of its flesh and the gondola. For the first time, the whale let out a noise—that of pained agony.

“Yes!” Joira shouted.

“They have accelerated themselves,” the Crystalline One said. “They are planning… the Blue seeks a direct confrontation with me! There is nothing to withstand the power of fl—“

There was a ripple that spread forth from the whale, eliminating all the flames on it. Immediately afterward, Joira heard a deep noise that sounded like it belonged at the bottom of the ocean—somehow occurring quickly and feeling unbearably slow at the same time. Joira felt as though she were being both torn and stretched apart in one singular motion; the very air itself clawed at her and the world began to swim.

Drastic cracks formed in the stony ground of the mountain, including the foundations of the buildings themselves. It was as though a pocket earthquake had been unleashed, except it tore at flesh and sky as well as the ground.

A massive crack formed in the Crystalline One.

“No!” Joira shouted.

~~~

She had no name.

She knew what she was—a Red Crystalline One, aspect of Red magic, voice of Red itself, and lord of these Red Seekers.

But she had no name. There had been no time.

The crack. She could feel it. Actually feel it. Prior to the moment of assault, she’d had no sensations of her own. There had only been the sights and sounds provided to her by the Red Seekers, and later the occupants of the whale. She’d had to rely on them to even know what she looked like.

Now, she had a reference point. A sensation to connect to the image she received from Joira.

“What was that!?”

That voice was coming from inside the whale’s gondola. The unicorn. She was of no consequence to the Crystalline One.

“I didn’t know you could do that with Blue…”

“All of the colors have many highly complex uses that can only be used by lifelong practitioners,” C-R explained.

The Crystalline One hated that voice in particular. It was just so arrogant, aloof, and defiant. How dare C-R defy the will of the Red? How dare?

How dare she make this crack in what was undeniably holy!?

The painful crack coursed through her entire being, right down the middle, threatening to separate her into pieces too small to contain that which made her her. From this sensation, she became aware of the rest of her, the pieces that threatened to crumble to nothing. The… the everything.

She had lived for less than an hour and now she was going to die. Die in the instant she finally felt who she was.

This could not be.

This would not be.

She willed the crack shut and found, to her surprise, that she could move. Parts of her body could slide and slip from one place to another, and when they made contact all it took was a simple will from her to fuse it together. It was like casting a spell, except instead of trying to burn away only portions of herself in contact with the air, she burnt away parts in the middle so motion could occur.

Motion.

“She’s found herself,” C-R said. “This will be more dangerous now.”

“How do you know anything!?” The Crystalline One asked as she fused herself into a new form—tall, almost towering. Brimming with flames and heat and so, so much more. She could feel it, the connection to everything. The fundamental vibrations of the Red that ran through it all…

A thought, not hers, but from places unknown, entered her mind. A thought of heat focused at such a point in so specific a way that the substance of reality itself would collapse in an explosion so overwhelming… she didn’t have enough spare power to do that, but it would certainly solve the issue.

Where did that come from?

She continued to shape herself; never allowing any of the cracks from whatever C-R was doing to tear her apart. The sights and sounds of the small people no longer mattered. She was of the Red, and she would smite her enemies!

“...Yes, I’m talking to you, young Red One.”

This caught the Crystalline One’s attention—it was Suro talking to nobody; at least so far as his sensations were telling her. However, she wasn’t dumb. She knew that he was aware of how this worked. She just refused to acknowledge him.

“I know when you are this young you can’t tune this out even if you wanted to, so I’m going to keep talking, Red One.”

She tried to ignore him, but the direct address kept drawing her in. Even though this was Suro, the husband of that infernal Keeper, the sworn enemy of the Red Seekers! Dirt, fur-ridden follower of Dia. Dia was nothing.

“I’m asking you if this is really what you want. If you really wish to burn it all, or if it was just the first thing you were told.”

The fool did not understand the rage of a billion fires that burned within her facets.

“Red is not just the Color of fire and burning, but also that of heat and comfort. Of the warm feeling you get in the embrace of a loved one. Of passion and determination, of righteous justice and ideals.”

“You know nothing, you are a sack of meat,” she spoke directly to him—no one else would be able to hear it.

“I am,” Suro admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I know nothing. I have been around longer than you… and I know there’s more than this fire.”

“You serve her. You are the enemy.”

“Red One, tell me. Why am I the enemy? Do I want to harm you?”

“You’re attacking me and the Seekers!”

“I… would prefer a peaceful solution to all things. One where we sit around a fire and talk and not shoot at each other. C-R does not think this is possible. I am… taking things into my own paws.”

The Crystalline One could see what Suro saw, and noticed that he was on the inside of a crate, no doubt hiding from the others so he could have this conversation in private.

“They would not approve?”

“It would interfere with them,” Suro said. “You understand I don’t want them dead either.”

The Crystalline One didn’t fully understand but wouldn’t admit it. “You wish for peace. I do not wish for peace. I wish for conflict, for flame, for all to burn! It matters not if that who burns be a true enemy or just some cat—to burn is to purify, and you are not pure.”

“And I ask you again, is that really what you want? Do you want to burn everything? At the cost of your Seekers?”

“My Seekers are mine, and they will not be spent. I am to protect and guide them, not send them to war in my stead.”

“They’re suffering right now. The battle between you and C-R…”

The Crystalline One had to re-allocate some of her consciousness to process that—she had fragmented her mind into various pieces that each handled a problem. The part handling Suro and the part trying to repair her damage and the part fighting back had all been different lines within herself. Now they had to collapse together into one that could take all the information and make use of it.

She had a brief moment of confusion, wondering why watching her Seekers burn in agony was horrifying. Then she realized that of course it was horrifying—she was burning them without realizing it! Charring skin to a horrid black, boiling off—

“No!” she declared to the entire area as loudly as she could, immediately turning off the ambient heat and flames around her tower-shaped body, as well as ending all attacks on the whale.

To her shock, her perception of time had been thrown completely out of whack—or perhaps the extensive use of Blue had driven different parts of her to think at different rates. One part of her remembered the conversation with Suro as taking up the majority of the time, but the rest of her insisted it had only been a fraction of a second inside an accelerated whale. It was all highly disorienting, and she was a being who had some instinct on how to deal with it all.

“Do not hurt my Seekers,” she pleaded.

The voice of C-R came—but without the visual aid this time. “…Are you surrendering?”

“Are you going to hurt them?”

“Not unless they make me.”

Joira gasped. “You can’t be considering… surrendering?”

“The Red is more than victory at all costs,” the Crystalline One said. “Are you questioning me, Joira!?”

Joira immediately backed down, bowing to her. “No, no, of course not…”

“Good. Then we… shall discuss where we go from here. I will not destroy when it will put you in danger.”

“Then let me make this abundantly clear,” C-R interjected. “Any holy purges or smiting will be met with brutal, retaliatory force.”

The Crystalline One tried, again and again, to see things through C-R’s eyes, but there was no way she could do it. It was like C-R didn’t exist. That fact was deeply unnerving in a way the Crystalline One couldn’t fully put into words.

“By you?”

“Likely not,” C-R admitted. “I will be elsewhere. But I am far from the only force that would oppose you. Those who get burned tend to have allies and friends, and the kingdom you find yourself in will see you as a threat worthy of being annihilated. To go on a purge is to be purged oneself.”

“Does she speak the truth?” the Crystalline One asked Joira.

“The King would retaliate…” Joira admitted. “But with your powe—“

“My power!?” the Crystalline One blurted. “I’m barely able to hold my own here! Did you think just because I became able to think and use magic to a much greater degree that I would become unstoppable!? I am not the Great Red One, I am a newborn! What made you think I would be able to do this!?”

Joira was crying now, on her knees and shaking. “We... You… You wanted to burn… You always know…”

“The nature of a Crystalline One’s birth is almost always unfortunate,” C-R said. “When born, if they don’t go mad, they will do exactly what those around them at the time of birth expect. Even if that is an ill-advised holy purge.”

“So she woke up wanting to do something stupid because they wanted to do something stupid?” Jeh asked before Blue could hold her mouth shut.

“This is their fault…” the Crystalline One realized, putting her focus back onto Joira. “You made me do this.”

Joira could no longer speak, only tremble at the base of an object of worship that was deriding her.

It was at this moment the Crystalline One realized something.

She couldn’t stay here with them.

She already knew what they thought, what they believed, and what they sought. She had been born with it.

How could she know if they were wrong? She already knew they could be stupid, but what if it was worse than that?

“Suro,” she said—not trying to hide her voice from anyone, though. “Can you promise that my Seekers will be watched over?”

Suro let out a soft laugh. “My wife tries to do the best by them no matter what they do to her. If it is possible to live at peace, we will do so.”

“That’s not a promise.”

“I cannot promise anything for anyone other than myself. I promise that I will go as far as I reasonably can. And probably beyond that.”

“Are you… leaving us?” Joira asked, still shivering.

“…Yes,” the Crystalline One said. “I am.” Methodically, she removed herself from her fixture in the ground, sliding around not unlike a glacier. “I need to think apart from you. …Apart from anyone.”

“But… but…”

“Are you questioning my decision!?”

“No…”

“Then I will go. I may return, I may not. You are not to construct another of me unless I instruct you to. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Red Messenger…”

“And I am not a nameless chunk of the Red. I am…” She paused. “I am… I am Ashen.” At this point she decided manipulating her crystals to move around was useless, so she created a highly focused explosion under herself and launched herself right off the mountain.

She landed far, far away, creating a crater in the midst of the forest.

No visual or auditory sensations came to her. She was alone with her sense of self.

She could be herself. Just as soon as she figured out what that was.

~~~

As soon as Ashen had launched herself off the mountain into the wilderness, C-R had decided everything was taken care of and promptly ordered the whale back to Willow Hollow so it could unload its unwanted passengers.

They got down through “careful application of Blue.”

Suro didn’t even pretend to understand how C-R was able to use Blue crystals to effectively levitate them down like Orange could, and judging by Vaughan’s face he didn’t understand how she was doing it either.

There were no goodbyes or closing statements with C-R or Itlea. The four of them were just lifted out and told, quite frankly, that business was over.

“I hope you never have to be aware of us again,” were C-R’s last words to them.

The four of them landed on the ground next to Seskii’s fruit juice stand. She waved at them. “So, how’d it go?”

“Well enough,” Vaughan said, taking a moment to stretch his back. “I understand nothing about what happened, but after trying to get to space for so long, I’m used to that feeling.”

“It’s only been a few months,” Blue retorted. “You’re middle-aged. That’s not a long time.”

“It’s long enough to get used to it!”

Suro couldn’t take his gaze off the mountain, and the smoke rising up from it. “I… despite it all, I hope they’re okay up there.”

“They’ll either take the burns as badges of honor or use Green on it soon enough,” Vaughan said. “...Suro, what did you do, by the way?”

“I just talked to her. In a crate. Where no one could see me.”

“Ah. Clever. C-R, though...”

Blue stamped her hoof a few times. “Let’s not overlook it. Suro stopped a fresh Crystalline One from going on the usual rampage with words!”

“Hey, I’m just placed in positions I need to be.” Suro flicked his tail. “…I’m going to go find Lila, if you don’t mind. I think I need to ruminate on this for a while. Figure out… I dunno.”

Vaughan nodded. “Go ahead. We can debrief Jeh.”

“Debrief Jeh?” Blue tilted her head to the side.

“We still don’t know what happened to her in space!”

“Can we maybe give her a break after that endeavor?”

Jeh coughed. “I. Really want. To talk about space. Can we go talk about space now?”

Blue clicked her tongue and let out a dissatisfied whinny. “Jeh, you should wait for Suro before doing that.”

“Aw…”

“I won’t be long. I’ll be back sometime today.” Suro couldn’t help but smile as he went his separate way. That little project of theirs really was more important to them than the insane happenings of a mysterious puppet-woman in a floating whale.

Then again, it was far from the first time something like this had happened. Not with the Red Seekers, but with random mysterious travelers passing through and leaving no explanations. It wasn’t exactly commonplace, but it happened enough to be expected.

Besides, none of those travelers had ever gone to space, had they?

~~~

“Do you know what the most interesting thing about today was?” C-R asked Itlea.

“The Crystalline One seeing its own weakness?”

“No. That craft of theirs that went to space.”

Itlea twitched. “That’s insignificant.”

“I would forgive you for being shortsighted, except it’s not your intelligence that holds you back. It is your vendetta. A vendetta I find most distasteful and useless. Luckily, if you take me up on my offer, we will go far from here and likely never see anything related to her again. Until, of course, they fully achieve their goal. Then the world will never be the same.”

“They cannot succeed.”

“Your life becomes a series of unpleasant surprises when you say things with such vitriol and certainty.”

Itlea had nothing to say to this.

“Back to the matter at hand, do you accept my proposal, Itlea? Your projection to the Red Seekers was technically sound. Do you wish to remain on board?

“…Yes,” Itlea said. “Take me far and wide.”

“Then I shall. With you here, I can afford to distribute my resources a bit… Sig!”

The being in the black cloak loitering in the back of the cargo hold said nothing.

“Observe wizard Vaughan and his experiments. Report on your findings. Do not be seen.”

“Naturally,” he said. “When should I leave?”

“Immediately.” C-R used the Blue to ferry him to the ground. “I… need that lift… fixed… that is quite exhausting…”

“Valentia has a service station, albeit a small one,” Itlea suggested.

“Already adjusting course.”

Itlea couldn’t help but grin. Look at you, Blue, sitting in a sleepy little town working on machines. Meanwhile, I get to go out into the world and do real magic! I have won. Oh, if only I could say this to you in person to see the mortified look on your face…!

It basically goes without saying at this point that Itlea was utterly delusional.

~~~

SCIENCE SEGME—

What science? There’s no science here, just magic. Lots of magic! And some speculative psychology but I’m not a psychologist, so…

Until next time, I suppose!