Born a Monster

474 Darksmile

I may not have spent enough time talking about illusions, sometimes also called glamours. The objective is to create something that looks, sounds, smells, feels, or tastes like something else. Usually, that something is air, mist, or smoke.

And usually, the magic is willing to make things seem different; the trouble is that the magic and the magician usually have entirely different things in mind. For example, if a small spirit wants to appear as a larger spirit, that’s usually a pretty easy thing to do.

And it fools normal senses. Use magical senses, such as normal dream sense, and the difference between real and glamour is like the difference between stone and sun. Or maybe that’s not obvious if you live in a volcano.

So when the big mouth of Darksmile came toward me, I struck with the Jaws of Wrath against the smaller spirit that was the actual entity. I missed, it bending and twisting, radiating [Enjoyment] at me, even as it bit at my elbow.

[You have been struck by a YELLOW critical for double damage on a base of four Emotional damage. No armor available. You have taken eight points of Serenity damage, 15/30 Serenity remain.]

“Bwa-ha-ha!” he laughed, flittering away again. “If you run now, you might escape. You can’t win if we keep going like this!”

I snorted. “I don’t have to win.” I said. “Sooner or later, Uma is going to know you’re here. THEN, little spirit, you are in trouble.”

“She knows.” Darksmile cackled. “She knows, and she fears me.”

“She fears YOU?” I asked.

.....

He chose that moment to strike; I struck at him with a tail lash that was actually the Jaws of Wrath.

We both scored normal hits. I went down to eleven Serenity, and he laughed as a few drops of blood fell from a lightly cut lip.

Its two charges per day used, the Jaws faded.

“Oh, it’s over, now!” he said. When he swung in, I attempted to grab him. He bit my wrist, and my forearm twice, before laughing away. “What do you expect to do without power? This isn’t even your mind!”

“That’s right.” Uma said, appearing at the top of the ridge. “It’s mine.”

“Oooh, if only you could hurt me. I might be scared.”

She snorted, and jumped, her course changing in the air to match his dodging. Because dream logic. She landed hard enough that the ground shook, and when she raised her fist, the form of Darksmile warbled a little.

“What was THAT?” he asked.

“Anything that bleeds can be killed.” Uma said, a maul appearing in her hands. “Anything.”

“What?” Darksmile said, bleeding freely. “You FEARED me.”

“That,” she said, pointing at me, “is the most worthless weakling RUNT on our team. I don’t know why my brothers keep him around. If he can hurt you...” she swung and Darksmile jerked back, “...I can crush you with my bare hands.”

“No, no, no.” he said, “That’s not fair. That’s NOT HOW IT WORKS!”

But he withdrew into the sky, and began chuckling. “If only you had the range.”

I blinked. “Idiot, to brag from that height.”

“What do you think you can do?” Darkgrin asked.

I leapt. Oh, I missed as he pulled to the side, smashed my face against the side of the suddenly rocky valley we were fighting in.

“Lady Uma.” I said. “Your leaps...”

“Already on it!” she said, taking to the air. “And you! Out of my dreams.”

He dodged her wild swing and the back-swing that followed. “I explained this to you when I arrived, princess. You don’t have the skill, the reptile doesn’t have the power, and...

“Wicker Flicker.” I whispered. “Come forth.”

Darksmile laughed. “A FIRE spirit? In the dreamtime? What’s he going to do?”

Uma gripped him in one hand, and then placed another on him. “All I need to do is get my hands on you.”

“Gyaaaah!” he yelled.

“Spirits of slumber, spirits of sleep,” I said, “it is I, Rhishisikk, walker among dreams. Hear my plea, grand me this boon; expel Darksmile from the dreams of Lady Uma. Dream Banish!”

Both Darksmile and Uma screamed incoherently as he was pulled from her private dream space.

“Fool.” she said. “I was winning.”

“Lady Uma...”

“Shut up! Shut your mouth.”

“Look at your hands.” I said.

“My hands,” she said, “are fine.” and she blinked, looking at the missing chunks of dream-flesh. “How is THIS possible? I didn’t even feel pain until I saw these wounds. They CAN’T exist!”

Ah, if only such were all it took to heal the damages from dream combat.

“I have methods that can heal you.” I said. “All I need is for you to believe they will work.”

“As if!” she snapped at me. “Get back, you inept boob! Don’t you DARE touch me.”

“Lady Uma, I’ve discovered a weakness in the colonizer army.”

She blinked at me. “COLONIZER. Army?”

I sighed. “Let me begin at the beginning.” I said.

“No. Deliver your report and get out.” she said.

And then the reason for her reticence showed himself at the lip of the valley. “Oh, lady Uuuuma!” he called.

“Is that... Gyrfalcon?” I asked. “A larger, more muscular...”

“Your report.” she said. “And then, go.”

“They’re too large to live off the land.” I said. “They depend on supply caravans from their homeland, containing mostly food.”

“Good.” she said. “Disrupt them, then.”

“How?” I asked. “I am one, and they are many.”

“And the spiders? Don’t tell me you’ve gotten none of them.”

“They aren’t... the warriors we thought they would be.” I said. “I’ve seen them in combat, and the enemy came prepared for them.”

“Then find better allies. You were a diplomat for three. Years. Don’t you have first level in that?”

I spread my hands. “I was a bit distracted with the surviving.”

“I’ve read the reports; that and finding a weakened people... whom you were AIDING at the time, whom then tried to kill you. Am I getting any of that wrong?”

“You are leaving out a great many details.” I said.

“Disrupt their supply lines.” she said. “I don’t care how. You say that’s their weakness? Prove it.”

“May I speak?” Wicker Flicker asked.

“And take your ... candle spirit with you.”

“My current elemental alignment is NOT my fault.” Wicker said.

“Uh. Both of you leave, or I’ll force you.”

“Of course, I can see that Gyrfalcon... grack...” I struggled uselessly, both of my suddenly tiny hands against her massive ones, trying to release her grip on my neck.

She brought my bulging eyes closer to her own. “You will tell no-one about Gyrfalcon. Especially not scruffy legs himself.”

Wait, did Gyrfalcon have scruffy legs?

Oh, right, I was fighting for air to breathe... because...

Because I’d forgotten that I was dreaming. I calmed my heartbeat, and tried to think only of the pain of her choke hold, not of the lack of AIR.

I failed, of course. Eventually, I had to open my gills and breathe that way. Not quite as refreshing in real life, but that wasn’t where we were, was it?

She pulled back, dropping me. “That is revolting!” she said.

I coughed up blood. Which, for me was weird, because none was leaking out through my gills.

“I don’t understand what’s so bad about... oh.” Because then I saw it, and knew it couldn’t be true. Could it?

“Adults are DISGUSTING!” I exclaimed.

“Heh.” she said. “Say that after you become one, if you survive that long. You say nothing. Repeat that order back to me.”

“It’s not my secret to tell.” I said. “Now, about reinforcements...”

“That would require troops, or money, and the empire can spare neither at the moment.”

“But between striking thousands of troops, or a few hundred guards, the latter has to be easy.”

“Yes, and we need YOU to make that happen.” she said. “We’re falling back to Rakkal’s Glory; it has the strongest walls, the strongest wards. Until we locate Rakkal, we don’t even know if we have enough troops to hold there. And that’s if that sneak Hortiluk has proper provisions inside the walls.”

“Yes.” said Gyrfalcon, suddenly with us (because dream logic; as a figment of Uma’s dreams he could be anywhere she desired). “You never trusted that bloodskin.”

“Why are YOU still here?” she brandished a fist at me. “Get out, runtiling, and hold your tongue on what you’ve seen here.”

With a final cough of blood, I turned and left her dreams.

.....

Darksmile came in from my left, and slightly behind me.

“Move Water, Water Wall!”

“Oh! Ah! That’s freaking COLD!” he said. “But it doesn’t stop me from going around.”

“Just go AWAY.” I said. “You lost.”

“Not while I still exist!”

“Flicker Wicker!” I said. “Get some distance from me.”

“Sending away your bound spirit? Let me show you why that’s a bad idea.”

I held forth the wicker cylinder. “Bind Spirit!”

“That won’t work.” he said, from inside the cage.

“It just did.” I told him.

He immediately began to gnaw at the cage. “This can’t hold me forever.”

“It only has to hold you long enough for the sun to rise.” I said.

“It won’t.” he said, more frantic in his efforts.

“We’ll see.” I said.

My scribes assure me that paper (such as this is recorded on) cannot survive such environments. My point is, it becomes easy to tell the enchanted from the not-enchanted.