243 - The Calm

Rufina looked exactly like Lexie remembered. Same sneer, same pale, freckled skin, same dumbass haircut.

She was also with her usual crew of Tweedle-Dee, Tweedle-Dumb, and Tweedle-Dumber, all wearing varying degrees of apprehension.

As much as they tried to hide it with indifference and dislike, they were clearly scared. It made sense. They had to have already heard the rumors of Lexie's transformation and the fact that she could teleport in and out of dungeons. They knew she was more powerful now, which made it even more stupid that they would attempt to provoke her. 

“You know I warned everyone you were possessed by an Eldritch, but they didn’t believe me," Rufina scoffed. "Only for you to get yourself stuck in a dungeon and come back looking like that. Let's face it. The only way you managed to get out of there was by selling your soul to them. Right?"

Lexie cocked her head. “You’re not very smart, are you?”

“Excuse me?”

She shook her head. She still didn’t understand what the point of this was, why Rufina was trying so hard to prove that Lexie was consorting with Eldritch.

What was Rufina’s goal here? Even if she managed to prove that Lexie was indeed an Eldritch-possessed, then what? What would that do? It wasn’t like Lexie was still a student and would get expelled. At most, she would get investigated by the association, and it was safe for any rational person to assume at this point that the association had already examined Lexie, given her unusual return, and would have already found evidence of demonic possession if it were there. They had set her free anyway.

So, it seemed that the only point of Rufina's insults was to irritate Lexie, someone she was convinced was demon-possessed and who could very well kill her if she wanted to. 

“You still haven’t changed the hair,” Lexie said. “I don’t get it. It looks really dumb, and yet you insist on it.”

Rufina’s face flushed.

Lexie didn’t plan on making a scene. She didn't like drawing much attention to herself when she didn't have to, but there were very few people in this courtyard, and she’d always wanted to tell Rufina exactly what she thought of her, especially given how much torment the other girl had dished out to Lexie during her first month here. 

Rufina got out of her concrete seat by the fountain and crossed her arms over her chest. 

“I’m not scared of you,” she said stubbornly. 

“You should be,” Lexie responded. 

Lexie. Her father echoed in her mind. Walk away.

Lexie bit her lip, contemplating, then backed up. I was going to anyway. As much as she wanted to, fighting Rufina was probably not worth it.

She wondered if Aiden could see her from the courtyard or if it was his psychic tag relaying the information of what she was up to.

She could sense that he had changed the nature of the tag this morning, so maybe he could now use it to keep an even closer eye on her. She didn't really mind. As invasive as it was, she understood, and it was kind of comforting to have him in her head.

However, eventually, she would need him to dial back on the overprotective behavior. She was giving him leeway right now, because he was still recovering from the trauma of losing her, but eventually, they would need to talk.

In the meantime, though, she was looking forward to his adding another tag today, one that linked her with Dewie so she could always find him wherever he was. Even in a dungeon.

Lexie planned to continue her departure at that point, but then she felt them move behind her. She heard a piercing whine in her ears, so harsh that it would have made her eardrum bleed and driven her to her knees were she still human.

As it were, she was an Eldritch, so even as the vibrations clamored into her brain, disregulating her muscles and, sure, injuring her eardrums, she merely turned around and regarded Tweedle-Dee with an exasperated look. 

“Really?” she said. “I mean, I’m impressed that you seem to have improved your skill, but don’t you think it’s a little dumb for you to attempt to use them, unprovoked, against someone you think is demon-possessed?”

“Shut up,” she said, and her voice shook a little while she said it. “We're not scared of you either.”

“We’re warriors from esteemed clans," Tweedle-Dumb parroted. As she frowned, Lexie noticed a glinting constellation across her forehead, gems that marked her as a woman from a Southern District 4 tribe.

Now that Lexie thought about it, Tweedle-Dee and Dumb both looked like they were from District 4, and they hung out almost exclusively with Rufina from District 8.

Was there a reason for that?

Well, obviously, the two districts were linked by a certain involvement with Vulcan, but was the conflict in District 4 directly funded or aided by District 8 in any way?

Probably. It would be good for them in terms of the arms trade. 

Or maybe Lexie was reading too much into it. After all, what kind of grandfather would make his granddaughter befriend people just to further his political ambition?

The same kind of nutcase that would lock up his enemies and torture them in dungeons.

Tweedle-Dumb used her ink powers to once again attempt to cover Lexie’s hand, but Lexie deflected it instantly. She raised the group in the air using <True Windbreaker>, used Phantom hands to hang them upside down, and started swirling them in a really speedy circle. 

Their squeals were music to her ears. 

The girls tried to attack back, and the ear-whining became an unbearable screech.

Lexie activated<Music to my Ears>, turning the torment back on them. Their screams got louder, and Rufina said, “Turn it off, you idiot!”

Instantly, the distracting sound stopped, but Lexie kept spinning them for good measure. Just to prove a point. 

“Do you want to surrender yet, or should I keep going, warriors?” she asked, but they only kept screaming. She somewhat hoped they kept up the fight, because the evil, chaotic part of Lexie was enjoying this, though she knew she shouldn't be.

It reminded her of beating creatures in the dungeon, the light of defeating something that sought to defeat her. 

Lexie, her father cautioned in her head. It’s enough. 

Lexie nodded in agreement, but before she could stop on her own, a familiar voice called out,

“Okay, okay, you’ve had your fun, and you’ve proved your point.” The tall, slender form of Kai Skysoarer sauntered across the grass from the cafeteria tower, executing a dramatic slow clap.

“Lexie,” Kai greeted with a sparkly-eyed grin. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but you’re kind of stealing my shine here. When did your wind powers get that good? Hell, I would have thought you were a Skysoarer if I wasn't looking closely. Then I realized that your technique lacks flair and still lands flat like a normal person's."

“Thanks.” Lexie finally lowered the three girls onto the grass. They groaned and held their heads like they were trying to keep them from spinning off their necks. They looked fine, apart from a minor ear bleed, disorientation, and the nauseated look of someone reconsidering their life choice.

Hopefully, though, that would teach be enough to teach them a lesson and this time the lesson would stick.  

"I've had Windbreaker for a while," Lexie said. "It's one of my favorites, so I've practiced a lot with it."

“Yeah, I remember. Although you never told me how you made it."

Didn't I? Lexie could have sworn they'd had a conversation about this before. "I learned from Cara.”

He laid his hand on his chest with a dramatic gasp. "And my cousin just revealed our secret family techniques from the goodness of her heart?"

“No, I bribed her with snickerdodles."

He went still. Then he slowly, reverently nodded. "A powerful and ancient currency."

"Is Torin back in school?”

“Kinda. He doesn't sleep on campus much anymore. He's more so back and forth these days. I get so lonely.” He gave a damsel-in-distress sigh and brushed his chin. "Maybe I should try bribery by snickerdoodle method."

"It's very effective," Lexie assured him.

As Kai escorted the three girls to their mentors, Lexie simply went on her way in search of Professor Ta-Ron-No, Builder of Brains. 

He was in his office as usual, but he wasn’t alone. He was having what seemed to be a lively conversation with another student about the intricacies of baking a key lime pie.

Lexie waited at the door, concerned that their lively conversation wouldn’t wrap up soon enough for her to actually have a conversation with the professor. 

But she needn’t have worried. When the student caught sight of her, she gasped and jumped out of her seat. “Oh my God, you’re Lexie Sparrowfoot!”

Lexie was quite used to the reaction already, so she simply waved. “Hi.”

“Holy shit! Do you remember me? I sat behind you in Extraterrestrial Politics."

“Um…” Lexie actually didn’t remember her, but since she needed a favor from the girl, she chose to lie anyway and swallow the bitterness. “Yes, I remember. Um…”

“Alicia!” She volunteered.

“Yeah, of course, Alicia. Sorry, um, do you mind if I talk to the Professor for a few seconds? I kind of want to pick his brain, and I’m on a time crunch.”

“Sure.” She hopped out of her seat. “Can I get a picture? Just one, I promise.”

Lexie internally sighed, but she externally smiled and said, “Okay.”

One picture and a surprise hug later, Alicia was skipping down the hallways, and Lexie was taking her seat in front of an amused and surprised Ta-Ron-No. 

“Your popularity has exceeded what it was last term, Ms. Sparrowfoot,” he said by way of greeting. “Just one picture and you made Alicia happy as an oyster.”

“A clam,” Lexie corrected. 

“Ah, of course. Those damn mollusks are forever eluding me.” He straightened and stared at her with that Fae elegance.

Nevertheless, Lexie felt like she could instantly tell there was something off about him, that he was not quite Fae enough.

She hadn’t been able to tell the first time she’d met him, because she hadn’t had much experience with the Fae then. But now that she’d spent time with Ryn and Little Fae and even the Ambassador, she could instantly note the influene of Ta-Ron-No's human DNA, even just in his expressions and the way his ears didn’t wiggle when he spoke. 

Why isn't it the same for the Ambassador? Don't all Earth Ambassadors have some human DNA?

“Ms. Sparrowfoot?”

The call prompted Lexie to shake her head. “Oh yes, sorry, I got distracted. Anyway, I wanted to ask a question about the differences between the Fae planet system and the human Earth system.”

He frowned. “Why do you want to know?”

“Curiosity,” Lexie admitted. "I’m writing a paper about it.”

"Ah. Only a few weeks out of the dungeon and you're ready to take the academic world by storm. You’re very voracious, Ms. Sparrowfoot.”

”Yup. That’s me. Greedy Lexie.”

“Well, there are several aspects of that that I cannot divulge, due to strict confidentiality that are sworn to the Fae. But I will speak in broad generalities of things that you might learn in a human scholarly program. Since you are a scholar, that should be fine.”

Oh, right, I am. Lexie had almost forgotten about her scholarly class.

Speaking of which, how did her class and rank work now? Was it still dungeon rules? She also had a bunch of dungeon points she hadn't spent yet.

Could those help her?

“The Fae System is, by and large, far more sophisticated than the Earth system and far more complex. By scale, the human system would be only good enough to run perhaps a small island on the planet, one with not that many inhabitants, and with not that strong a magic.”

"So the Earth system isn't designed to handle powerful magic."

"We can say that."

"It used to be, though. In the beginning."

"Yes, that was before the system was fully designed. It went through a lot of trial phases, and eventually had to be whittled down to handle what it can handle, and then expanded laterally to accommodate the broad scope of the human experience, to serve humans the way they needed to be served."

“By giving them access to the magical realm?"

“Yes and no. You can still access the magical realm without a system in place, just like how the Guardians allegedly did it. However, the system makes things safer and more streamlined. And through that, it also coordinates access to other realms as well. It lets you store things in the magical ether, heals you of minor injuries, all without effort from you.”

“And it regulates your powers.”

“Yes.”

"Every human is born into the system.”

“Yes. Every human is born into the system of the place where they were born.”

That piqued her interest. "So if I were a human born on the Fae planet, I would get automatic access to the Fae system.”

“Yes, but that does not mean you will be able to use magic the way the Fae do. Think about it, humans really only awaken at the ages of 10 to 11, and that’s after the system has evaluated their physical, mental, and mana stats and decided how much the humans can take."

"Their potential."

"Yes. It’s a very complex calculation made only possible by the Earth Oath, which applies to all humans. Even if they were born on the Fae planet, they would be able to use Fae communication and Fae storage systems, but their magic would still work by human rules." He gave her a gentle smile. "The same way being restricted to a dungeon would still give you access to system healing and system storage, but a few things would be different."

“So the system is attached to the Oath?”

“Yes.“

Ah. That made sense.

But that made things more difficult for her, also. It meant that for her to mass-produce her cards, she would need to collapse or change the Earth Oath entirely, and she didn't even know where to start with that.

The System Engineers, probably. And the architects and the researcher. But the identities of those people were top secret and probably not even on Earth.  

“I heard from a friend in the dungeon that the Fae planet initially used a converter to create the Earth system," Lexie said. "They basically took the system they already had on their planet and made a weaker equivalent on Earth."

"I wouldn’t call it a converter per se, but yes, different planetary systems are typically just variations of the Fae system converted to make it more palatable to the population. We have Fae scientists and mages working with those of the other planets, and together they create something.”

“What if that planet doesn’t have scientists or mages?"

“They are primitive and must be brought under the Fae protectorate.”

“You mean they’re colonized against their will.”

“Well, that’s a harsh way to see it.”

“How is it harsh if that’s what’s happening?”

He sighed. “Most of the time, this is for their own good.”

Lexie decided to stick with the topic at hand. “How do they convert their system to ours? Is it by the Oath? Do they just keep adding lines to it? Why is the Fae Oath so powerful anyway?"

“That is all classified information. I cannot tell you anything about that.

Darn it.

That was the most important information she needed.

She blew out a disappointed breath, tempted to use her soul card for some mild persuasion.

But she didn’t want to get into the habit of mind-controlling people unless she hadto. While it was fine in the dungeon, now it felt icky.

Alternatively, she could keep asking questions and simply use Charades Champion to read when he was lying, but she got the feeling he would see right through that and refuse to answer questions at all.

“Are you sure there’s nothing I can offer you to get you to tell me?” Lexie asked him honestly, and he thought about it but shook his head. 

“All Ambassadors in training are under oaths. I could not tell you even if I wanted to."

Ah. So it seemed like the trick was to figure out exactly how the Fae Oaths worked and how the converter tied into it.

Somehow, Lexie didn't think that would be easy.

There had to be something else she could do, a loophole she could exploit.

Maybe she would find it at the Ambassadorial Islands. Or maybe Cecilia might be able to tell her what direction to work in. She worked at the ISTS, but she might know a system Engineer or may know information about them to help Lexie.

On the way back to the visiting tower, Lexie saw Zakhar Shadowsbane walking in the opposite direction.

She wondered if he knew what had happened to his Aunt. According to Vacek, all the rescued researchers were now in a safehouse and would likely be given refugee status for now in Capital City. He’d used whatever was on that docket to convince the Emperor to leave the rest of the family alone, and Lexie thought he might be plotting to depose the Emperor entirely.

Lexie wondered if that would be good or bad for the Shadowsbanes. More instability would probably not be great at a time like this, so probably Vacek would have to hold off on that for now.

Zakhar didn’t look any different than when she’d last seen him, and he was one of the first people encountered who didn't seem to even notice her when she was standing there. He kind of looked right through her, like his mind was somewhere else, but he stopped, suddenly staring ahead.

Lexie turned and found Dewie and Xena approaching with their invisible bodyguards.

“Where are you going?” Zakhar asked Xena.

"Since when do I have to tell you?” she answered saucily.

He clenched his jaw, then, without another word, he walked off.

"What's his problem?" Lexie asked Xena.

"I don't know, but I think the stick up his ass is getting bigger. You're lucky we were able to get this day off on such short notice.  Lionel had to pull strings."

"Tell Lionel I said thank you."

"He'd rather you just went to tell him yourself. HE's been wanting to meet you."

Not a chance in hell. "Maybe later."

Lexie led them back to her father, who stood and led them out.

"Did you see Stein?" Lexie asked.

He shook his head. "I'll catch him later."

While on the trolley, Aiden finally placed the marker on Dewie, attaching it to the one in Lexie's head.

"There," Aiden said. "I'll teach you how to tap into it when we get home, Lex."

"That's it?" Dewie said. "I barely felt anything."

"What did you expect to feel? A slight pinch."

"Yeah."

"I can pinch you," Xena offered immediately.

"I can pinch you harder," Lexie said.

"No, it's okay," Dewie said. "No pinching necessarily."

"Bummer," Xena said, turning to stare out the window like a disappointed cat.

Aiden took them to the same amusement park he'd taken Lexie to when he'd talked about her mother. It reminded her of the second thing she had to do with Dewie, but she didn't want to just come out and say it. Not to mention that Xena seemed a little distracted.

Lexie thought maybe she might have been upset that the tracker was just between her and Dewie, and so she asked her, "Do you want to get a tracker in your head too?"

She turned sharply.

"Ew, no," she said. "Ignore me being mopey. I'm just jealous that you and Dewie have this weird secret thing you share now, and I don't."

"You and Dewie have something you share, too. They told me aboutthe lessons you had together."

"You're right." She pursed her lips. "I guess, Dewie's now the center of our Universe."

"He's our sun."

"The suns aren't the center of the universe," Dewie pointed out, cheeks heating. "We have no center."

"Yes, we do. It's you."

Not to be undone, Lexie said, "We should elect him president of the ADM for life."

"Yeah. Maybe we should have been a Brotherhood after all, since Dewie's the most important member."

"Brotherhood of Dead Mother's does sound stupid, though."

"Not if the sun says so."

"Stop, guys," Dewie said, his face now a full tomato. "Please stop."

They grinned and stopped. Mostly.

"Let's go on the Ferriswheel," Lexie said. "Can we, Dad?"

Her dad, who had been listening to the conversation with silent amusement, nodded. "Sure. I'll get you guys some snacks for when you get back."

"Thanks!"

They ran to the Ferrishweel, and as they got on, Lexie made the decision to pull Xena in on what Dewie had found about her mother's gem.

Xena was already feeling left out, and it wasn't fair for them to keep doing that to her.

But Lexie decided to do it after the first ride.

The first ride, she wanted to dedicate to their friendship. She just wanted to be in the moment for once, and enjoy the experience of Dewie's squealing, Xena pretending to barf, and Lexie throwing her hands up and going 'Whee!"

She indulged in feeling almost young and free and human again. She forgot about all the things that haunted her, and the things she needed to hunt, and just enjoyed the increasingly rapid circling of the wheel.

It wouldn't last, but she savored it for what it was. A nice, uncomplicated return to the simplicity of childhood.

However, somehow in the back of her mind, Lexie felt like this was only the calm before the storm.