Lament of the Fallen

Dee cracked her neck with weariness clear on her face. She had spent the last two weeks getting interviewed and questioned by various officials of the Radiant Order. As she had suspected, the interviews and debriefs had been conducted under the effect of spells that could spot lies. Also as she had suspected, being careful with her words had been enough to avoid any blame. “No I don’t know what destroyed the city. Yes I have some assumptions, something big and powerful. No I was not conscious when it happened. Yes there’s a good reason why I survived where so many others didn’t. Check the boxes for regeneration, high level of power, Lumen’s blessing and demonic heritage.”

Of course the questioners hadn’t been as sloppy as dear Captain Sarfina had been so many years ago when she questioned Dee about Wraith. These people had some experience when it came to questioning people, and they knew to ask questions in different ways, demanding differently worded answers. However, Dee knew how to avoid such traps and the fact remained that she didn’t exactly know what had happened. She had learned that immediately after the questions stopped and Croestia told her, but anything before that was just guesswork on her part. At least her missing arm had mostly regenerated. Not to top shape yet, but it was getting there and looked like a proper arm now.

Dee and Razark were leaving to meet with a craftsman that had skill and interest in building gear for a psion. They had just left the quartermaster where Dee had gotten the new gear custom made for her, which she had ordered before the whole debacle with the rift. Dee had left the corpse of the dragotaur behind for that purpose. It was a good timing too since most of her gear got thoroughly destroyed in the fight against the Crimson Witches. The new dragotaur scale armor was pretty snazzy. Now all she needed were proper weapons and whatever Razark’s friend could come up with.

“So are you ready tell me now?” Razark asked after they had gone through the gate and away from prying ears.

“Those people died because of me. I was the one who killed them. Or at least my body was. You know I’ve got two rather high ranking blessings, right?” Dee knew what Razark wanted to know and got right into it.

“Right, from Umbra and Lumen.” Razark confirmed with anticipation.

“Well, I might have forgotten to mention I have a third blessing.” Dee’s voice quieted a bit towards the end, as she was pretending innocence. Not from the deaths but from not telling Razark about the blessing.

Razark’s eyes narrowed, though he wasn’t looking at Dee but keeping an eye on the city surrounding them. They were in the north part of the Day city and they were surrounded by Saurians on all sides. “You did fail to mention that.”

“Well there’s a reason for that. I’m not sure of the deity’s identity. The blessing is a bit weird as well. Apparently the deity is related to the two goddesses in some way. He was worried that the dual blessing might come with some consequences, so he gave me his blessing as a last resort of sorts. I don’t really have any control over it, but it kicks in when I’m close to dying. The result you know.” Dee fudged the facts a little, she felt better doing it that way. She had also noted that after the incident her ocean of holy power had drained a lot. Specifically the power granted by Eternity was gone and recovering very slowly.

“So a deity that blessed you destroyed the city to save you? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a deity with power like the corruption I felt from the ruins.” Razark mused. This was a reasonable explanation, although he knew Dee wasn’t telling him the whole story. That's just the way Dee was. She never told the whole story despite all their training. However, he could infer some things on his own. The deity had to be a powerful one to accomplish what Dee had mentioned.

“Not exactly. Apparently that was the power of future me. It’s a bit complicated, and I’m not entirely sure on the details myself. I had no idea what would happen before that happened. The deity did mention that the blessing might feel more like a curse until I learn to control it.” Dee had strange confidence in Razark not blaming her for what happened, and she was right.

Razark was no stranger to death. He mourned the death of innocents, but what was done was done. He had no bond with those people. There was also something numbing about the number of people that had died. Another contributing factor was that he had been the one who caused such deaths on several occasions previously. The Blades of the order were the last resort, but they were deployed on occasion when there was no other way. Their deployment usually meant the deaths of a lot of people to root out some greater evil. Razark wasn’t happy about it, but that was the policy of the paladins and an extreme example of an organization dedicated to order. Destroy the corruption no matter the cost!

“The Crimson Witches knew somehow.” He suddenly commented.

“Yes. More specifically, Anastasia knew. She has met me before.” Dee said.

“An odd way to phrase it.” Razark noted.

“I was not conscious myself at the time.” Dee explained with a shrug of her shoulders.

-----

An hour later they came to a building that Dee could really admire as a craftsman’s paradise. It wasn’t just a blacksmith's shop, enchanter’s atelier, or an alchemist’s laboratory. The building was constructed into the side of an active volcano, and held space and tools for all different fields of crafting. All the tools were first rate quality as well. Dee saw many rare materials scattered around the shop, and some she didn’t even recognize. There were several apprentices running around, most of them being Saurian but also a few elves and dwarves. There was even a High Orc hammering away on one of the anvils.

A large Saurian with ruby red scales saw Dee and Razark come in, and gave a wide and toothy grin. “Razark you old satyr!” The Saurian was clearly fairly old, and it was weird seeing one of his kind wearing something akin to glasses. They looked somewhat silly around his snout. He somewhat resembled Mazatl in Dee’s opinion.

“Zazk, you old coot!” Razark walked forward to embrace the much larger Saurian. The two hugged and patted each other’s backs with familiarity. Dee noted that he seemed to have a lot of old friends.

“What brings you here? You always bring me such interesting projects? Need another torture gadget? A new hidden weapon?” The old Saurian took a glance at Dee. “A love potion? She looks a bit young for you.”

“Oh shush you old pervert. Besides, I seem to recall your latest mate being two hundred years younger than you, so you can’t afford to comment. No, we’re here to get her some gear suited for her needs. You always said you wanted to work for a powerful psion. Now’s your chance.” Razark waved his hand to hush the large lizard.

“A psion is it? Well. Step in. This will take a while. Making the items as well. I don’t exactly stock materials for psion gear around here.” Zazk said both happy and slightly apologetic.

“What do you mean? I saw pretty much every conceivable high level material out there. Where did you even get Elementium and Iceheart? Those materials only appear in the first two circles.” Razark asked incredulously.

“There and in the Grand Wilderness. The tribes have been making expeditions to many places lately. I think they’re up to something that requires high level weapons and armor. Anyway, those would be great materials if I was equipping a mage or a warrior. Psion’s gear works a little differently.” Zazk replied happy to talk about his favorite subjects.

“Explain.” Razark asked with a frown. He had prepared some fairly rare and expensive materials himself, just in case. Now it seemed they might be less useful than he thought.

“Well, most of the materials that mages and warriors use are either those that conduct mana or ki well, or already contain large amounts of natural mana. The Elementium you mentioned is found in places with heavy concentrations of at least six types of elemental mana. That’s how most of the high level metals are made in fact, normal metals subjected to certain outside influences. Psions don’t really gain much from that. I mean yeah of course they like enchanted and powerful magical weapons as much as the next guy, but it does nothing for them as psions. Additionally other people tend to like pure materials, while the materials for psions are usually synthetic materials created from a mix of other more natural stuff.” Zazk’s voice had real enthusiasm. This was his favorite hobby, although he rarely had the chance to let his creativity in the field out.

They reached a study filled with schematics and books. Zazk took a seat behind a desk and pulled out some notes, some blank paper and several pens. “Now. To make you gear that is actually useful, I’ll need to know everything about you. And I do mean everything you can manage. It would be a damn shame to create something with great difficulty, only to find out you have no use for it because you already have another skill that does the same thing. So start talking.”

It took hours of persistent questioning and explanations with examples before they were close to being done. Razark was also helpful in pointing out some of Dee’s habits that she didn’t even pay attention to. Finally Zazk leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “Well, I guess we got most of what we can for now. To me it seems you need two things badly. There are other things that could be useful, but not as important.”

“And what would those two things be?” Dee asked curious of the Saurian’s opinion. She had her own opinion of course.

“You need something to help focus your psionic abilities in your other forms, which by extension would still improve your angel form as well. That means you need a focus. It will improve your base level enough that your psionics are worth a squat in your other forms and will make your angel form downright scary. That’s the easy part. The harder part is that you need a way to really utilize your power in battle. Preferably at range. This means a weapon, but perhaps not in the sense you’re thinking.” Zazk said with some confidence.

“Explain.” Dee prompted simply. Her own thoughts weren’t too far from the Saurian’s.

“Well, I think creating a big hunk of metal to act as a sword or a spear would be a bit of a waste. A normal enchanted sword will do that job for you well enough that you don’t really need me for that. I can whip up something from the materials Razark is no doubt carrying, but that’s not the point. What is the point is that you need a better way to weaponize your telekinetic abilities, especially against powerful foes. Those cute little psionic weapons of yours are fine against weaker foes, but you’re not really utilizing your strength against powerful opponents. Specifically, you’re not really utilizing the advantage that comes with you having thicker and more refined power than normal psions. You’re aiming for better control to cover for your weaknesses, which is good don’t get me wrong, but you’re not really gaining the full benefit of your strengths. You must have noticed the lack of power if you fought anything strong enough.” Zazk explained.

“Ok, you got my attention.” Dee said.

“Well, what I’m proposing is pretty simple in theory. Most magic and ki, as well as psionic power I might add, is just a flashy way of projecting as much power as possible. When fighting an army you want to project that power into a wide area, but in a duel you want it in as small of a packet as possible. A mage dropping a meteor on someone is just doing a fancy attack with mass multiplied by velocity, with some fire effects for a bonus. A big object traveling very-very fast to crush your enemies and to cause an explosion.” Zazk tried to articulate his thoughts.

“A bit simplistic, but basically true.” Razark confirmed.

“Right. Now, you have the ability to make things move very-very fast in a way that is much simpler and faster than a mage. You could simply throw things at your enemy. The more mass the better. Your little daggers make a nice explosion, but they have no mass. They have a certain amount of kinetic energy due to your power, combined with a sharp edge and an explosion, but what if you instead tried to move something with a large mass as fast as possible? I would imagine your thick and refined power to be excellent for that. You could launch large projectiles at great velocities. Quick and effective too, much better than a long chant followed by a meteor from a mage. Even a pebble could be a weapon if it moves fast enough.” Zazk suggested.

“Wouldn’t throwing a mountain be a bit unwieldy? I’d also have to carry around that mountain. Plus it might not be the most effective way to go about things. I did test that tactic, and it takes less power to stop a rock flying at you than it takes for me to move it.” Dee pointed out.

“Ah, but that’s where I come in. The things you move don’t need to be large, in fact that would defeat the whole point. What you need is something with great mass in a small package. Something very dense in other words. Theoretically there can be materials with the mass of a star squeezed to the size of a fist. Though we can’t reach that, we could go a long way towards it. Especially if we equip it with some enchantments. For efficiency, that’s where psionic specific materials come in. Some materials are stupid heavy to move by hand or by magic, but light as a feather to move when you use psionic power to do so. Or conversely, things that only become heavier when your power touches them, more power more mass. Or at least they will act like that after I’m done with them. I don’t really have the materials though…” Zazk’s enthusiasm turned into sadness. “I could really use some Obsidium right about now.”

‘Uh, Dee.’ Croestia suddenly interrupted. ‘You do remember there’s some stuff inside me, left behind by your mother. We didn’t really find a proper use for them yet since they were non-magical materials, but in light of what the Saurian said, things are making more sense. Your mother would know you’re a psion right? And she was a scientist of sorts. So it wouldn’t be too much of a reach to think she had created some materials for psions specifically.’

‘Ah.’ Dee also realized the fact, feeling a little silly. She had simply assumed her mother had just thrown in some junk along with the useful materials. Selvaria was certainly scatter-brained enough to do something like that.

“Wait a moment. I think I might have something. I’m not sure what all this is, but you could check.” Dee suddenly started pulling out materials out of Croestia’s storage. Most of them were rather non-descript bars of various metals. There were some liquids that Dee had determined not to be drinkable and fairly pointless for alchemy.

“Wh….where did you get all this!” Zazk demanded. “This is all psion specific materials! I’ve never seen such high level materials either! Dear goddess, that’s several bars of pure Obsidium. How did you even turn them into bars? Is this Tears of Darkness?” He held up one of the bottles and a bar of crystalline dark metal.

“So…something you can use?” Dee prompted.

“Yes, yes. This is exactly what I need.” Zazk mumbled distracted.

“When would you be ready with the items?” Razark asked.

“Give me a month! No, month and a half! I’ll need to do a little bit of testing first to achieve the best results. I don’t get to work with these materials very often.” Zazk declared with excitement, though still distracted.

“Well then. We’ll expect a lot from you.” Razark declared with grin and led Dee away. They had another visit to make.

-----

The two entered a dreamlike forest filled with illusions and a heavy fog. They had come to the fourth circle of the same north quadrant of Day city, and spent several days traveling over mountain ranges to reach this weird forest. Dee felt quite jumpy as her surroundings were filled with mana and spells designed to distract travelers. Razark carried an amulet that made the spells ineffective, but the spells were still there. Unlike Razark, Dee could still see all of the spells and she felt constantly on edge with all the hostile spells surrounding them.

“Don’t worry, the amulet was given to me by the kitsune. We’re perfectly safe.” Razark tried to reassure her.

“That’s not the point. You’d feel a bit jumpy surrounded by several weapons pointed at you, even if you knew they were not going to strike.” Dee shrugged with nervousness. There was also the fact that she didn’t like being observed, and some of the spells did just that.

“The kitsune are just being careful. They are often hunted for various purposes by the other races. They often have to rely on us to help recover their missing people. That’s why they hide their home with all these spells and move the whole forest around sometimes.” Razark explained.

“I sympathize. I really do. But that doesn’t make me any less nervous.” Dee replied. It was just her nature, and a few words from Razark wouldn’t change that.

Soon they came upon a series of Torii gates built over long stone steps. “Finally we’re here.” Razark said with a smile. He had often visited this place and quite enjoyed the company of the kitsune. They shared the same kin-centric ideals of the Alpyrans. They also had a playful side fond of parties and merry-making, so this was a place where he could relax and let go a bit. That was one of the reason he had accepted Dee so fast, as he had good experiences with kitsune here.

The stairs lead them into a small valley with a temple surrounded by a village of courtyard houses Dee knew were called siheyuan. All in all it looked pretty similar to the temple of the old man, where she had spent three years training in. There was a large number of kitsune of all ages moving around the village, some of which had already noticed their approach. The kitsune invariably stopped to stare at them, while some recognized Razark and threw pleasant greetings his way.

“We’ll be going to the central temple. That’s where the heads of the tribe live.” Razark explained.

Dee only barely heard as she noticed the looks directed her way. Her tails and foxlike features were clearly open to be seen, and they elicited many emotions from the surrounding kitsune. Some eyes held fear, some eyes held hate, some held curiosity and some held wonder. Most looks were at least somewhat negative, as if looking at something weird and possibly dangerous. Very few of them were welcoming.

It was a quirk of fate that made Dee more like a fox than any of the actual kitsune. In their humanoid forms the kitsune had the tails and the ears and in some cases whiskers of foxes and a slight bit of fur here and there if the fox heritage was strong. That said, they were clearly more human than beast. Dee on the other hand was thoroughly a beast standing upright. The kitsune didn’t have the head and face of a fox unless they shifted into their fox form, while Dee did. It was doubly ironic since she wasn’t a full-blooded kitsune. It was just that the kitsune heritage had mixed with her Rakshasa heritage to produce this appearance. While the others looked a bit like a mix between a human and a fox demon, Dee looked like a mix between a Rakshasa, a wolf and a fox demon, which made her much more beastly. And the pure kitsune were not taking it well.

On the steps of the temple a mature looking woman with nine fiery red tails stood waiting for them. “Razark. It’s good to see you again, though you’ve brought something extremely strange with you this time. Something that should not exist.”