Ones last and just another
Senarre jolted awake, she looked immediately down to her leg, feeling it with her hand, expecting to trace fingers around bleeding wounds, but found nothing. A very tall, cloaked figure stood before her. Her eyes focused on the surroundings, a forest ground covered in snow. She said, “Who are you? Am I dead?” The tall figure walked over and extended a hand. The face was shrouded by a finely woven black scarf bearing geometric patterns, eyes of piercing indigo. The figure said softly, “I have a name, but you will learn that in time.” Senarre took her hand and said, “What is this place?” The tall woman walked over to a patch of the snow and waved her hand. A series of snowmen formed one tall one with a black scarf and another shorter one with a white scarf. “This is similar to the field, an old magic refined for use by the woman I used to be; she was a genius, her sister not so much.” “That doesn't answer my question.” The tall woman walked deeper into the forest. “Follow.”
Senarre walked behind the woman, and she reached for her holsters to find them nonexistent. She walked carefully, watching every step on the snow for traps or an ambush. They walked into a clearing the area shifted; it was now a schoolyard. A little girl with indigo eyes and half-elven ears stood over a boy, her fist raised, and the boy's face was bloodied. The tall woman scanned the scene. “Is this one of your memories?” Senarre nodded, “They kept making fun of my half ears, so I beat him and the other girls up.” She smiled, “Pa told me to never take shit from anyone, so I didn't.” The environment faded back into the frosted forest, and the tall woman rubbed where her face should be. “Hmm, I wonder if the next is going to be one of mine or hers.”
They walked through the first, coming to another clearing, where two figures, faces obscured, were lying on the ground, swords at their sides, and were lying shirtless. The ground around them was warped, burnt, and cracked. The tall woman rubbed her face again. “Hmm, this must be where she decided.” Senarre said in an impatient tone, “Decided what?” The tall woman stopped and said, “It is irrelevant if fate wills it, you will come to know.” The scene faded back into the forest, and they kept walking until another clearing materialized.
A cabin partially on fire, a man lying in the snow outside, and a boy no older than 13 in a pool of blood. Senarre and the tall woman walked into the house. She reached out and touched a well-loved stuffed eagle; images flooded her mind. Senarre said, “This was mine, I think I remember it.” She walked off to another part of the burning cabin, a room where the fire originated. Two cribs stained crimson were in the room, a lantern turned over, igniting the room was on the floor. She walked out of the room and back into the living space, and opened the partially open back door of the cabin. She pushed the door open and saw two figures standing above one figure lying prone, and another of a small child clinging to the one on the ground. Senarre stood eyes wide for a moment. “This feels familiar, I can't place it though.” The tall woman placed a hand on her shoulder. “It should and shouldn't, this is where the minds of two intersect one’s last, and just another in the other’s.” Senarre walked over to the scene, that was frozen in time like statues at a museum exhibit. She saw the woman lying on the ground, one hand clutching a wound on her abdomen, and the other extended out, as if attempting to crawl away. She saw the child with half-elven ears, brown hair, and eyes of indigo. She reached out her hand to touch it. “Is that me?” The tall woman said, “I wouldn't." Senarre ignored her and touched the outstretched arm of the younger version of herself. Her mind was flooded with memories. She stood up and turned around to her horror. Her stomach was in a knot. She fell backwards onto the snow. “No, no thats impossible he said he found me after bandits attacked my house all those years ago.” The figure standing in front of her was none other than her own father, Paulida. She fell back through the ground, a terrible sensation like falling overcame her.
Senarre shot awake from the bed. She pulled a mask with a tube attached to it off her face, gasping for air, and she pulled the IV from her arm, causing a small stream of blood droplets from her forearm to fall onto the bed. She looked around the room. It was dark. Vera was sitting by the window. She said, “Finally.” Senarre tried to speak, but her throat was dry; she coughed out the words “Finally, what?” Vera walked over to the side of the bed and sat on it. “What's the last thing you remember?” Senarre thought for a moment, “water ?” Vera pulled over a glass of water. “Don't tell Carmilla she said you weren't able to have anything to drink until after she checks you out first.” Senarre took a sip of the water and said, “I remember fighting the archdemon. He messed up my leg and arm. I remember falling through a gate of brimstone, and then after that, I remember the frosted forest, and then after that is now.” Vera said calmly, “It's been almost three weeks since then, you've been asleep for three weeks. That said, how are you feeling?” “Like shit, what happened?” Vera lay down across the foot of the bed, “well an official record doesn't exist, but according to Paulida, Carmilla and little Lorea, you were able to push the archdemon back but then he tried to take you with him when he was gonna fly off little Lorea tried to use a new ability then lost control and then absolutely obliterated the archdemon. Then turned on Paulida, then Carmilla, and then Ryvr dropped by obliterated him with little to no effort, then brought everyone back, ironically,y you're the only one who is for the most part uninjured.”
Senarre leaned back against the headboard, and Vera leaned over. “Pretty much Paulida was impaled, and Carmilla lost an arm, but they are ok now, just need some bedrest, well, except Carmilla, she just regrew her arm after Ryvr gave her a couple drops of blood.” “What about Ro-Lorea?” Vera smiled, “He's ok, got a cool new scar though and has spent the last three weeks on his hands and knees apologizing for what happened, although I think no one really cares, Paulida, because at least you're alive and well and Carmilla is probably more interested in getting more research on his peculiar situation, you should see him he's been spending like at least 16 hours of the day in here with you talking to you.” “What does he talk about?” Vera shrugged, “Don't know.” A knock on the door was heard as Carmilla walked in. Her green eyes opened wide. “You're awake? How do you feel?” Senarre said her throat was dry for the second time, “Like shit, why are my arm and leg not fixed?” Carmilla walked over and said “well you were unconscious and its hard to detect how much mana you have same goes for Lorea for that matter, so i decided it was best to just bandage you up and let your body do the healing for you, what's more fascinating to me is that you are seemingly fine cognitively considering you were comatose for three weeks.” Senarre said “well I'm aware that my arm and leg hurt and aware of this current moment, so can you get some healing magic going? I feel like I smell and would love a bath right about now.”
Carmilla walked over to the side of the bed, seeing the blood on her arm from where the IV was once inserted, and pointed to it. “May I?” Senarre shook her head, and Carmilla licked the area and said after a moment, “You seem fine physically aside from the arm and leg, and your mana seems stable, so why not? Do be warned, healing magic does indeed hurt a lot, but it shouldn't hurt too much, since the leg isn't broken; it's just what can be quantified as stab wounds. Essentially, cranking your natural healing factor to the max should fix it. I won't fix it all the way since it's better to let it heal naturally for the most part, but just barely enough for you to walk unassisted, and as for the arm, it's already been 3 weeks, it should be another 3 weeks minimum for it to heal.” “But I need it to get better now because we were going to go out and explore with the airship.” Carmilla smiled, “In that case, I've got an even better adventure for you.” “What is it?” Carmilla smiled maliciously and said, “I think I'll wait for you to be up and about for you to hear about it.” Carmilla pressed her hand on Senarre’s leg, wrapping her fingers around it and grasping tightly. Senarre winced, and Carmilla said, “On three, sound good one two.” She pressed her hand down tighter, and white-hot pain burned through Senarre's leg as the injuries quickly turned to scarred tissue. Carmilla pulled her hands back and said, “How do you feel?” Senarre was sweating, “What the fuck was that? I thought healing magic was nice and floaty and not actual torture.”
Carmilla pulled a lollipop from one of her pockets and handed it over. “Healing magic as it currently exists is essentially just the amplification of the human body's natural healing processes, but it's also susceptible to both the doctor and the patient's mana.” Senarre took the lollipop from her hand. “What's this for?” Carmilla cracked a smile, “Sorry, it's just a force of habit; it would make the kids feel better after their shots.” Senarre hung her legs off the side of the bed. Carmilla stopped her.“Wait, I don't think you should try to walk, your leg is still-” She pushed off the side of the bed and stood wobbly. “Not quite like it was before, but it will do.” Carmilla stood up, attempting to hold her, but she stumbled past her unsteadily. “I really don't think you should be up and walking just yet. Healing magic is useful, but it doesn't fix everything.” Senarre stumbled to the door. “I need to talk to Lorea as soon as possible,” she said, looking down at herself. “Where are my clothes? Why am I in a hospital gown?” Carmilla rushed to the door, blocking her exit. “I'll go get Lorea and some clothes for you, but can you please take it easy? You've just spent the last three weeks essentially comatose with major leg and arm injuries.” Senarre hobbled over the bed and sat on the edge. “I'll go get Lorea. I doubt he will be awake, though it's like three in the morning.” Carmilla walked to the door. Senarre shouted to her in a dry raspy tone, “Get some ice cream from the kitchen, too. My throat hurts.” Carmilla walked out the door and stopped ducking her head back in the room.“Why of course, my lady,” in a sarcastic tone, before walking out, then poking her head back in the room, looking at Vera, “Don't let her get up, please.” Vera said in a flat tone, “Yes, sir!”
He sat on the floor in his room, legs crossed, his hands across his lap, his left hand extended out flat, and his right in a fist pressing against the palm. His eyes closed as if in meditation. He stood in the field of flowers, the smoking mirror across from him. Both sat in chairs of black stone. He said to the smoking mirror, “So how do you control it then?” The smoking mirror said, “You don't, it's not worth it dont use it, I've been telling you for how much time in your place?” Rosario leaned back in his chair. “21 days, 3 hours, and 31 minutes. Please, I need this. I was able to kill an Archdemon with it. If I could control it consciously, I would be able to defeat any threats.” The smoking mirror stood up and pointed at the shimmering wall between them and traced his finger across it. A crack in the shimmer between them. “This is why I don't think you should have it. You're undisciplined if you were unable to control it in an incomplete state, what makes you think you can bear the full weight besides the crack in the wall between us leads me to more sinister conclusions.” “And what are those sinister conclusions?” The smoking mirror sat back in his chair. “Well, judging by the fact that you can hear me when awake now, I'm gonna guess some sort of merging between the two of us, I can't be sure. Do you know any isolationist elves ?” Rosario exhaled, defeated, “No.” The smoking mirror leaned forward in thought, “This appears to be a creation of elven magic, but i don't know why my Yeli would do this, when you lost control i was able to see my death, im dead, which doesn't make sense because if the me here is my actual soul then it should've gone under and not hung around on this planes metaphysical wavelength. Which means that Yeli worked some sort of magecraft that bound my soul here, but I can't figure out why I'm in you, of all people. I should've just turned into a cursed sword or something. The obvious answer would be I sired a child and am connected to you because you are progeny, but that simply cannot be the case because in life I wasn't the type to sleep around.” Rosario scratched his forehead in thought. “Are you sure? Like, not to be crude, but you didn't stick it in anywhere?” The smoking mirror leaned back in his chair and frowned. “The woman I loved, and I couldn't be together, it would've re-ignited the war for one of my species to be with her in any official status. I was relegated to the status of a member of the Queensguard. It hurt so much when I watched her marry and sire offspring with the one she had no desire to be with. If I were more like my brother, I could have turned the continent to ashes for her.” Rosario leaned forward in interest, but heard a voice from the outside. Carmilla said, “Cousin, she's awake and wants to see you.” Rosario turned to the Smoking mirror and said, “I'll be back soon, gimme a sec.”
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Senarre was sitting on the bed cross-legged, eating ice cream out of a small glass bowl. Carmilla walked in with Rosario in tow. Senarre looked at him and said, “What's with the outfit?” He was wearing a black shirt with an open, oversized green cardigan rolled up to the forearms, black denim pants, and a pair of boots. “I went shopping, I got bored waiting for you to wake up, got some more slime meat too, how you doing ?” She placed the ice cream down. “Pretty good, but I have some more questions for you, though I'll wait to ask them in private.” Rosario sat alongside the bed. “Are we going to have another bathtime conversation ?” Senarre said, “Yea probably I really need a bath.” “Sounds good, then I'll have the maids run the hot water.”
Senarre hobbled into the dressing room of the bathhouse, pulled off the hospital gown, and leaned against the wall as Rosario carefully undressed and gently folded the Pink scarf with pompoms before placing his clothes in one of the cubbies. She pushed open the door to the Bathouse, the long tub of warm water in front of them. She hobbled slowly and slipped, falling backwards into Rosario’s arms. He caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Don't fall, walk slowly, I don't need you getting hurt on my watch, I'll never live it down, oh, and sorry, didn't mean to, you know.” She wrapped her arm around his neck, “Don't care, bigger things to discuss than accidental cleavage contact.” he helped her into the water before walking in slowly himself. “How long until you're back up to normal walking?” She raised her hand, splashing water on her shoulders and hair. “Carmilla said my leg should get better shortly, since she artificially sped up the healing on the puncture wounds, so it should be a couple of days or weeks, and I'll be all good. The arm is non-negotiable for three weeks.” Rosario sat down in the water. “Well, that's good. What's this you wanted to talk about in private then?” She leaned forward, careful to keep her casted arm out of the water. “Are your dreams accurate?” He leaned forward, interested. “What do you mean?” “The dreams from back in Sernissima and the visions and stuff, are they accurate, are they memories, or are they just dreams?” He leaned back and closed his eyes before opening them again a moment later. “Yes, Smoking mirror says they are memories, his specifically, although sometimes our wires get intertwined, and I see his and he sees mine. That's what it was like in Sernissima. I think he was able to see mine, and I was seeing him. That's why it was hurting me. Imagine someone forcibly digging around in your head. I can't imagine that feeling too good.”
“Ok, good now, can you ask the smoking mirror or whatever if there's a way to get back there on your own will?” Rosario repeated the process and opened his eyes again. “he says I should be able to pull you with me, whatever that means.” “Ok, some over here then, if all you gotta do is go lights out like that, then we'll just do it together.” He stood up in the water. “i dont know if I feel comfortable being that close to you without clothes on.” She leaned forward, “Don't be a pussy, what happened to how you were when I tried to fluster you when we first met?” he walked over and sat down next to her. “I can't give you that victory, so I'll oblige you.” He sat next to her, and she wrapped her casted arm around his shoulder. “How does this work then?” He leaned his head back. “The most consistent way I've found in the three weeks I've been experimenting is clearing your mind and imagining a field of flowers.” “Ok then lets do this.” They both leaned back, arms resting over each other's shoulders, eyes closed, imagining a field of flowers.
She opened her eyes, seeing a field of flowers before her warm sun picked at her skin. Her leg and arm were in their normal states. Rosario sat a short walk away on a chair of black stone. She walked over, and he held out a hand, generating a second chair of black stones. “Wow, this place is beautiful, and you're getting pretty good at that by the way.” He turned and smiled, “Thanks, been taking art classes with Xue while you've been asleep.” She sat down on the freshly generated chair, the Smoking mirror stood up, pacing in front of the two of them, “So this is the young woman you speak of so fondly, Lorea?” he said, “yep she has questions for us and our situation.” Smoking mirror sat down in his chair and said, “Go ahead, then what do you have to say, little one?” “I had a dream when I was asleep for three weeks, and I woke up in a frosted forest, a very tall woman was leading me through what I think are memories, not sure if they are mine, hers, or someone else’s.” The Smoking mirror leaned forward in interest. “This woman is she an elf? Senarre thought for a moment, “I don't know, I couldn't see her face, she was wearing a black scarf, but her eyes were like mine, I think.” The smoking mirror leaned forward. “Strange, this whole situation, yours, mine, and Lorea’s, has elven magic written all over it,” Senarre said. “What about elven magic? Why is it any different than say the ice needles or firemotes ?” The smoking mirror leaned forward. “Magic has existed as long as there's been existence, granted my memories are still scrambled, so I can't really even tell you when I lived, but I know this, first elven magic as close to pure divine magic as there is, and secondly all currently applied human magic is descended from it.” Senarre scratched her chin “what do you mean descendent from it like it was taught or what ?” The smoking mirror said, “If my memories are reliable, it works like how demons work, one original point that flows down into a series of other points.” “Like the archdemon that Lorea killed?” Smoking mirror leaned back. “Exactly, there are different classes with weakening power every subsequent generation. For example, the highest class of demon would be an original sin, followed by Archdemon demons and imps, then what humans call beastfolks, but when demonic blood is given to humans, they become Vampyr aristocratic undead.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe I was a demonologist, I remember that off the top of my head, perhaps not i cannot imagine myself in church attire, anyways, the magic of the elves is the oldest unchanged lineage of magic, it is likely elven magic is what's forming this place as we speak but usually magic is dispelled when the caster dies so that means the caster of this place should still be alive by normal means but when it comes to elven magic i know to never rule out any possibility especially since it can sometimes affect the metaphysical.” Senarre leaned back in her chair. “Ok then, how do I access this place on command?”
Smoking mirror said, “That's out of my knowledge base. Your friend here is the one who figured it out once the crack in the shimmer appeared after he went as the people of your time would say Ape shit.” “So how did you do it, Lorea?” Rosario scratched his chin. “I kinda did it like a meditation thing. I was able to do it by clearing my mind and seeing the field of flowers, the smell, the sensation, everything like that.” “Ok then, how do we leave this place?” “Just imagine being back where you were, or waking up from sleep, I guess. It's weird, I can't really say how I do it, I just do it.”
They both jolted out of the dream and back into the bath. Rosario said, “What's next, you gonna try to see yours now? Want me to go back across the pool?” He began to stand up, she grabbed his hand, stopping him, “stay i want to see if you can come too?” she laid back her arm around him and closed her eyes, imagining the frosted forest. He closed his eyes, and they both opened them again in the frosted forest with the clearing with the half-burning house in the middle of the clearing. “What is this place?” Rosario said, crouching down to touch the snow, she grabbed his hand, pulling him along. Senarre walked through the burning house, opening the half-opened back door. Rosario ran his hand down the wall, peeking into the room with the stained crimson cribs. “Something bad happened here. Is this one of your memories?” She pulled him through the back door of the house to the frozen scene with four figures. “I don't know the tall woman said this is a place where two memories intersect, which, if two memories intersect, that means that the woman on the floor should be my mom, but the bigger thing of importance is that” she pointed to the dark-skinned man with short hair holding a sword with tears streaming down his face. Rosario walked over and craned his head, inspecting the man carefully. “Is that?” She cut him off, “Yes, he killed my family, he killed them, slaughtered like cattle.” He walked over to her. “So what do we do now? Is this accurate? Why don't we ask him?” She sucked her teeth. “I don't know what to do, I'm not going to lie and say I'll pull my gun on him and interrogate him, I genuinely don't know what to do. He's my father, but to find out he killed my parents and siblings, and that I've been traveling with a killer for all these years, I don't know what to do.” Rosario looked around the scene carefully, analyzing it. He pointed at the bald man next to Paulida.
“Look, this guy's tag says Marw. Maybe he was being compelled or something; he killed Marw, so maybe it's something like that. It still doesn't change the fact that he probably killed them, but maybe he had no choice.” Senarre turned to Rosario, “That's not an excuse, just following orders isn't justification to murder a family in cold blood, I had a brother i think his corpse is over there, along with my father’s, the two cribs stained with blood were probably also my siblings, there's no justification of just following orders to do this, theres none, i dont know what to do.” He walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “We will figure this out. You helped me, now it's my turn to help you.”
They fell out of the dream when she awoke. Rosario’s hand was covering her eyes. “Listen to me and listen to me very closely, Ryvr is here with his wives. If you don't want to see why they call Ryvr the heavenly dragon, I would keep my eyes closed, and I will carry you out of the water.” Ryvr laughed and said, “Good to see you up, gunslinger. I was a little concerned that you and your brother were both seemingly passed out in a bathtub. I figured it wasn't that big of a deal, though cause Itzel checked you both out and said you're fine, so I figured i shouldnt interrupt whatever it is you were doing.” Senarre closed her eyes and said, “Yea i think I'd rather not see that. Can you carry me to the changing room?” Rosario said back to her shortly, “Sounds good.” He lifted her arms around his neck and shoulders and said, “Hop up, I'll set you down in the changing room.” he placed his arms beneath her legs and walked out of the water with her on his back. Ryvr said, “Can you please lock the door to the bathhouse on your way out, brother dearest?” Rosario said to his brother, “No.” Ryvr smiled and said while pulling Nysa closer, “I'll tell the maids to prepare pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast tomorrow if you don't." Rosario said, “Damn it, fine.”
Rosario set Senarre down in the changing room. “Vera left some clothes for you. I don't know if they'll fit because of your height, but she also brought your poncho you bought last month.” She quickly dried off and pulled on the shirt that had a logo of four dwarves, one with a guitar, bass drums, and one with a microphone, with the text “Masters of the forge, world tour” on the front of the shirt, with a series of dates and cities on the back the shirt hung a little short exposing her lower abdomen. She pulled on the gray baggy pants with cuffed ankles, followed by the socks and boots. She tried to tie the laces on the boots to no effect. “Hey, Lorea, can you help me out here?” he crouched down and tied the laces on the boots for her. She then pulled the poncho over the band shirt. She stood up, able to bear the weight on her leg better. “Hey Lorea, where are my guns at ?” He pulled on his shirt, followed by the oversized cardigan, and while rolling the sleeves up. He said, “I have them, they're in my room. I was dreadfully bored while waiting for you to wake up, so in between Ryvr’s training sessions and training with Smoking Mirror i took them apart, cataloged all the parts, and put them back together again over and over again. I even drew up their schematics.” She looked at him, “You reverse-engineered a piece of Texcoco demora’s finest craftsmanship?” He smiled and rubbed the back of his head. “I was bored, I didn't have anyone to talk to, besides, I figured out if you could seal the cylinder, you could redirect the gas out the barrel, so I went to FSOC and had Daniel help out with a side project, you could call it a gift i guess.”
He led her through the gardens and helped her up the stairs to his room. He helped her to the bed before turning around to his desk, littered with tools, he pulled out one of the revolvers, snaked with engravings, and pulled out a cylinder that was slightly longer and engraved with a flower and laurel wreath, and a long black tube with one hole on either side. He clicked a button on the side of the revolver, and it broke open. He gently pushed a tab and pulled out the engraved cylinder sitting on the weapon before gently placing the new one in and closing the weapon before raising it and twisting the black tube on the end of the weapon. “He handed her the weapon in her good hand and tossed her a cartridge. “You want me to fire it indoors?” “Blank cartridge, you know the usual, just don't point it at anything important, just to make the bang.” She slotted the cartridge in the cylinder and spun it into position before aiming it at the ceiling and firing. The sound that came out was like whooshing air. “What sort of magic is this?” Rosario smiled, “It's wind type on the suppression devices, and then I paired it with subsonic rounds, making her and her twin whisper quiet.” he sat down on the swivel chair and rotated it to look at her. “So what are you going to do? Are you going to confront Paulida?” She lay back in the bed, her legs hanging off the side, still. “I don't know what to do. I have all these feelings, I don't know how to externalise. I'm angry, sad, and feel betrayed.” He leaned back in the swivel chair. “No matter what you decide, I'll be there if you need me.”