Coye 6.16

I'm currently behind on editing. I have up to 18 finished right now, but I'm fighting this deadline and it's not going well lol. We're going to see if I can finish all of this by the 4th, but yeah.

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Chapter 16 - A New Addiction

A tingling sensation started creeping from the center of Coye's forehead out into the rest of his body, his every nerve ending alive with magic. Coye's eyes widened, his pupils dilating as his vision went sparkly. The world slowed- his breathing sped up.

A bird was drinking from the pond a few feet away- that grass over there was swaying prettily- was it always so bright out? Coye's mind was swallowed by countless thoughts and feelings, his head darting around to take in as many different visions as possible. Left, right, up, down, and all around... if he went any faster, his neck would snap.

Everything was so beautiful, so pure, and the tingling...! It was like Shayla was big enough to hug him, only from the inside out. Phenomenal. Phenomenal, and arousing. Coye was mind-numbingly horny, even though nothing had set him off. The sheer act of passive existence was enough to get him going, and it was so bad he suddenly felt as if he hadn't had sex for days, his balls taking on the familiar ache that Coye was growing all too used to.

And then it all stopped suddenly, ending with Coye staring up at the sky, wondering when exactly he ended up flat on his ass behind the rock he was sitting on.

"Coye? Hello?!" Shayla was straddling his neck, slapping his cheeks with both her hands. "For fuck's sake, what the fuck just happened?! Baby?! HEY!" She wasn't strong, but she was adding enough magic to make it sting.

"Holy shit..." Coye breathed and rapidly blinked his eyes, which shrank back to normal.

"Oh, thank the gods..." Shayla ceased her assault, and now that he'd proven he was alright, it was back to business as usual as she showed him her typical sass. "I thought I told you not to scare me like that, damn you!"

Coye didn't hear it, wracked with residual aching testes and a strange sensation clouding his mind, not unlike a hangover. It took him another few seconds to process what Shayla was saying, and when he did, he barely knew what to say. "Sorry, I... wow..."

"Wow? Really? That's the best you have to say for yourself? Explain what just happened, damn it!"

"I think I know what being a pixie feels like now..."

"...What."

"Everything was all... wow, and like, amazing... and I was so horny, but everything around was just so interesting that I couldn't keep up with it all! And the tingles, oh gods, every last inch of me from the inside out...!" Slurring his words, he trembled to remember. "How the hell do you live with yourself when every second of your existence feels like... that? Also, my balls really hurt right now, but I don't even care. It still feels so, so good..."

As she kept up with his incoherent rambling, Shayla reached clarity. If pixie dust was a drug, then fairy mana was like a supercharged version of the same drug. Coye was unbelievably high right now, even if the worst effects were over in the blink of an eye. Contrasting his state of bliss, Shayla could only cringe from mental exhaustion.

"So, that about sums it up... can I have some more?"

"No, you fucking moron!" She balled her fists and flew in closer to his face. "I don't know how you keep finding ways to make this slippery slope you're barreling downhill on even slipperier, but here we are yet again! First, it was the dust. Now you're addicted to my mana..."

"I'm not addicted!" Coye pleaded. "I just want-"

"One more hit, and then you'll stop, right?"

"Yeah, exactly! One more hit would be great, and then I'll stop, just like you said."

Shayla rubbed her temples. "Sorry, Tiph, but I'm cutting you off for today. I'm not saying we can't experiment with this more in the future- I think we sort of have to if we really wanna get the most out of our magical bond or whatever- but I have to draw a line here. You aren't getting another drop of my mana until we get some answers."

"Aww..." dejected, Coye frowned and slumped his shoulders. There wasn't going to be any convincing her. "At least we'll be able to ask Dorothy soon. You saw how much she knew about fairies yesterday- she's gotta know something about all this."

Shayla was impressed he currently had the capacity for rational thought but agreed with his sentiment. "Probably, so don't fuck it up. A lot is riding on you hooking up with her... more than just getting your dick wet, at any rate. Even if she doesn't have any answers, she'll be the one who knows how to find them."

"Right..." Coye nodded along, thinking briefly of his date tomorrow night. His high was leaving him, and it gave him some nervousness to dwell on the thought of Dorothy, but he wasn't allowed to linger on the future for long. Coye's intuition was acting up, sensing danger.

He scanned the environment, picking up on the threat immediately. Out of the corner of his eye, three large bushes were crawling along the grassy plains a few inches at a time. Tadpoles. To survive in the wild, lushbacked toads grew their foliage at a young age. They kept to small ponds like this one until they'd grown legs, at which point they would start to venture out independently. Although their bushes were bigger than their bodies and acted as suitable camouflage, their wriggling tails gave them away for what they were.

Maybe sensing danger was a bit of an exaggeration. These things posed absolutely no threat to Coye, but after what the parent did to that poor child, there was no way he would pass up a chance to reduce the population further. Coye hopped off the ground and turned to face them, cluing in Shayla to what he saw.

"Oh boy, just what we needed... more trouble. Are you gonna be able to hack it while you're still coming down from that high?" She asked.

"Not like it's going to take much out of me to do something about a couple of tadpoles," he posited. "Just give me a second, and I'll make this... quick...?" Coye paused as he unsheathed Gleamrender, noticing it now glowed bright blue- the same color that Shayla's body emitted. Furthermore, he felt its power had returned. That shouldn't have been the case. Shayla had zapped and slapped him several times, which should've reset the twenty-four-hour counter until Coye could use his beam projectile again.

Yet here it was, ready to go. Better than before. Gleamrender thrummed with power as if it, too, was experiencing a high. Coye continually sized up his weapon, all while the tadpoles sat frozen in fear of being spotted.

"Another one of Marlie's tricks?" Shayla assumed.

"No..." Coye raised his sword arm, staring down the monsters. "I think it's one of yours."

He struck the air, firing off a beam aimed at the nearest of the three tadpoles. It shot out like it always had, but it couldn't have been any more different. Whereas what used to be a minor burst of light energy was now significant and potent- its light now matching the color of Shayla's magic and even mimicking the way her magic broke off into sparkling glitters and swirling crackles of energy.

The beam hit the first tadpole, and another difference was made clear not even a second later. Instead of inflicting nondescript 'beam' damage, the new and improved projectile burst into an explosion of fairy magic. The beam wasn't the only thing that exploded. The tadpole did, too. It popped like a balloon, though much of its chunks were destroyed instantly in the aftermath of the attack, and all that was left was a few stray scraps of rubbery hide and leaves.

It'd been burned up, just like with Shayla's Gleam Needle.

The two tadpoles remaining were in utter bewilderment- the suddenness of death creeping over their animal instincts for the first time. Only seconds ago, their sibling was right there by their side, and yet now he was not. Truly, it would be an existential crisis in the making if it weren't for Coye swinging his sword twice more and reuniting the trio in death.

"What... the... fuck?" Shayla's jaw was so low it was close to touching grass. "I thought your sword was out of power, so what the hell was that?!"

"Nothing," Coye smirked. "Just my new special attack. I was thinking of calling it Gleam Needle."

Shayla's forehead twitched along with her eyelid. "Sorry, I missed that. It almost sounded like you wanted to find out what it'd be like to go without pixie dust for a week?"

"Shayla, I was just joking! Come on, I-" Coye laughed and turned to face her with a smile, but all that was waiting for him was a sudden kick to his nose. "Ow!"

"You sneaky little bitch boy! I worked for like... at least an hour and a half on that new move, and you just steal it from under my nose?!"

"It wasn't actually Gleam Needle! Shayla-" he shielded his face from further blows, but she calmed down when he pointed out the obvious. "Besides, I didn't just randomly get a power-up or anything- you made the sword stronger! Or at least your mana did."

When phrased in such a way, Shayla could rid herself of her crankiness and replace it with a smug sense of superiority. "Hm. I guess you have a point, there... you're forgiven." Coye stared at her in quiet contemplation, in awe of how easy she was to manipulate. "But didn't I tell you fairies don't mix well with metal? My mana shouldn't really have that big of an effect on your sword, so... how is this even possible?"

"What about when you turned my sword into a torch?"

"Giving Gleamrender a glowing aura is a touch different from charging it up with enough fairy juice to fire off fucking explosive laser beams."

"Sure, but that's not what I meant. I was talking about the first time you did it. You said it was weird how bright the light was, didn't you?"

"Oh, shit... I did, didn't I?" Shayla rubbed her chin and knitted her brows. "At the time, I thought I was just getting stronger, but... now I think it's your sword that's special here. It might be reactive to fairy magic, maybe? I don't know, that's just my best guess."

"Have you ever heard of anything like that?"

"What, a metal fairies aren't allergic to? Sure. Most fairies make imitation metal with their magic-" Shayla finagled her silver brooch with the big sapphire clinging to her collar. "For instance, this is just polished rock, and the gemstone is a crystallized dew drop. As far as actual metal goes, there's one from the fairy realm called mistallantia. Pretty sure we had some tiny swords and a few suits of armor made of it back at the Fleeting Bough, in case of emergency..."

"Think that's what we're looking at here?" Coye inspected Gleamrender again, though he was unable to detect anything that set it apart from ordinary steel.

"I'm a fairy that gives you exposition on fairy-related topics, not a metallurgist," Shayla shrugged. "This sounds like a good question for your new bestie."

"Ugh," Coye groaned. "I was already trying to keep my ordoghite knife a secret from him... now I have to tell Auguris I might have a whole-ass sword made of rare fairy metal?"

"Gotta play the hand you're dealt," Shayla clicked her tongue.

"Unless you're Dorothy."

The two shared a knowing smile, and then Shayla suggested they do a bit more testing with the sword before Coye got on with cutting up his kill. The first thing they tested was whether or not Gleamrender's perceived weakness was still even a thing at all. It was possible that getting Shayla's mana reset the twenty-four-hour counter and not eliminate it. Figuring that out was simple- all Coye had to do was prick his thumb on the tip of his blade and fire off another beam.

Nothing stopped him. The projectile shot off into the distance before fading away twenty feet from where he hit it, becoming little particles that dispersed without any target for them to sink into. That left the question of how long he could do this, and the answer to that was quite a while. He continued firing attacks for a minute straight, at which point they started getting noticeably weaker. They dried up, becoming thinner and refusing to travel as far. Not long after that, and they wouldn't come out at all.

Devious as he was, Coye saw a chance to exploit this. "How about you send me some more mana, and we'll see if that charges it back up again?"

It was a long shot, and he knew it wouldn't get very far. Shayla rolled her eyes and wouldn't hear of it. "No way. You're just going to get high again, and no one here can help drain you if your libido spirals out of control! I'd only make it worse, and you'd have to stumble back into town with a crazed look on your face... or take the long way to Byng's camp and pray to the god of your choosing she's there to help. Is that what you want? To Quick Step around the outskirts of Cransmere with aching balls jostling around?"

"Hey, you can't blame me for trying."

"I can, actually," Shayla smirked playfully. "I'm doing it right now. Besides, there's another thing we can try. Hold the sword out."

Coye did as commanded, and Shayla flew down to his wrist and sat there like his leather gauntlet was a saddle. Even if Gleamrender really was made of mistallantia, she had her misgivings. The thought of touching metal was unpleasant, and it wasn't just because her species had a general anxiety toward it. Where others saw a sword, Shayla saw memories of an iron cage receding into the distance.

Shayla shook her head- dismissing it before Coye noticed anything was wrong. She took a deep breath, then placed both her hands on the winged hilt of Gleamrender. Strange enough, her anxieties washed away the moment Shayla made contact. It didn't feel like metal... not that she had any firsthand experience with that, but still. She was certain Coye's sword was made of mistallantia after getting her hands on it. Something about it felt otherworldly- familiar, even- in a way that she couldn't have noticed simply by looking at it.

Her hesitation gone, Shayla channeled her mana inside of it. She'd never done this sort of thing to an object before, but it came even more naturally than it did when transferring some to Coye. Gleamrender almost seemed hungry for her power, gulping down everything Shayla offered as it radiated blue light and gave off a glittery fairy effect.

"There you go," she smirked and returned to Coye's shoulder. "Give her a go, baby."

And so Coye did, yet another beam of light unleashing itself from the sword. Shayla was disappointed to see it looking less powerful than before. It wasn't as bad as when the last charge was drying up, but it was narrower than at its peak. The fairy particles, whirly swirls, and all that other shimmery junk weren't as noticeable, either. All in all, it looked closer to the beam of light that Coye's sword used to produce.

"What the hell! I did the thing like I was supposed to, so why isn't it as strong?" She scowled at the blade, who betrayed her after all.

"There's a bunch of explanations for that," Coye shrugged. "If you want my guess, maybe it's different if I'm powering it with your mana filtered through my body compared to the mana coming directly from the source?"

Shayla scratched her head in thought before sighing. "I guess that makes sense. Really enforces the whole 'we're stronger together' fairy knight theme and all that, but I'm not giving you more mana to test that theory with. At least we know I could pump some in during an emergency if nothing else."

"Think that about wraps everything up, then?" Coye asked, looking over to his fallen enemy and planning out the parts he would bring back.

"I think so. We made a lot of progress today. Both of us are definitely stronger post-Auguris, and between your sword and the whole mana transfer junk, we've got a lot of room for development. So much so that it's a little dizzying, honestly."

"I agree. I almost don't know what we should be focusing on."

"Nothing at the moment. There's no rush. One day at a time, remember?"

"Right..." Coye smiled. The path ahead was unclear but bright. So many questions still remained, but it was like Shayla said. They were stronger together- and he expected whatever kind of powers and fighting style they developed from here would reflect that.

"Now quit dawdling and strip that toad for parts! By the way, I'm gonna need you to drop me off at Suzette's when we're done here. Preferably before you visit..." Shayla cupped her chin, unsure whether Mervyn or Tiph deserved the title 'my least favorite alchemist'. A case could currently be made for both. "That back alley creep."

"Oh, sure. Were you planning to work on your side hustle tonight?"

"Uh, did you forget? I told you this like two days ago."

"You mean when I was napping on and off during my recovery?"

"Shit," Shayla looked askance. "Okay, that's on me. Probably should've made sure you still remembered. Yeah, so Suzette's been spreading the word, and tomorrow she's going to try putting some of my clothes on sale as a test. See if we can drum up some interest, y'know? Don't worry- I'll make sure I tell her about Dorothy, and we'll make sure we wrap it up before seven."

"Really? That's great!" Coye smiled on her behalf, filling up with secondhand excitement for her business venture. He thought this might've been a little fast since Shayla would've only had to work sessions to make clothes, but if it was just a little test, it would probably be fine.

Coye's excitement drained when he noticed her looking at him with a telling grin. "You know you have to be there, too, right?" She teased.

The meaning behind her veiled threat was all too obvious. "I have to model clothes, don't I...?"

"Have to? Why, of course not. You don't have to do anything. No one's saying you can't choose not to show up and ensure Suzette and I are deeply disappointed in you, likely inspiring us to inflict passive-aggressive vengeance on you for days to come- don't be silly! If that sounds like a good time to you, then that's your prerogative."

Sighing profoundly and removing his hunting knife from his belt, Coye advanced toward the defeated toad. "It better not be skimpy."

"I assure you whatever out that I provide will be tasteful."

"Your assurance means nothing."

"No," Shayla clarified. "My assurance often means the opposite of whatever I'm assuring. Learn the difference- it could save your life one of these days." She clicked her tongue.

"So it will, in fact, be skimpy."

"Don't you have a giant frog to systematically dismantle, baby? Stay in your lane and leave all matters regarding fashion to little old me." Shayla flew away from his pauldron and settled down on the big rock by the pond, grinning at him in a most threatening manner the entire time.

Coye wasn't looking forward to tomorrow- at least not the first half. On top of that, his balls were still aching. Hopefully, he'd get some relief before his big date, but at least the worst of it had passed.

He walked to his kill, only stopping in his tracks after getting closer. His eyes opened wide in disbelief, looking straight at the giant severed toad head to ensure it was dead. Far as he could tell, that was the case. This feeling he felt couldn't be coming from the lushback, then... that could only mean...

This fear he sensed... perhaps?

"Ew, gross! What the fuck are you doing...?! Is that really fucking necessary?!" Shayla almost vomited when Coye shoved his upper body inside the toad's neck. She was used to blood and monster guts and could even stomach Coye's butcher routine, but watching him voluntarily crawl into some things brought out a primal fear in the girl. It might've been something to do with the fact that she was only eight inches tall.

When Coye returned, though, she gasped and covered her mouth. "Okay... I'm willing to concede that was necessary, but please don't do that again in front of me without a heads up first."

"I'll make sure to remember that," Coye grinned, carrying a half-dead little girl in his arms- with an optimistic emphasis on the 'half' part of half-dead.

Her flesh and clothes were tattered and rotting away thanks to all the stomach acid, but the will to live is robust even in the smallest among us. The girl survived so long by driving a half-digested bone into the top of the toad's stomach lining, which must've caused it a bunch of pain but allowed her to hang on for dear life and avoid the worst of the acid.

"Got enough mana left for some healing?" He asked, not bothering to hide his voice since the girl was barely conscious. "Might be nice if you could make her clothes a bit more presentable, too."

"Yeah, sure, but... are you seriously saying she was there this entire time? We killed that thing like an hour ago, and we've just been fucking around-"

"Please don't ruin this."

"...Right," Shayla coughed awkwardly. "Bring her over. She's gonna need a real healer, but I'll do what I can to stabilize her for now." Coye brought her closer, and before starting her work, Shayla looked up to deliver a shit-eating grin. "You know bringing back a little girl presumed to be dead is only gonna make the town love you even more, right?"

Coye had not thought of that. Thoughtlessly, he mumbled, "Fucking damn it..."

"Hey, if you want to leave her here-"

"Shayla!"

"That's what I thought," Shayla smirked even wider. "You big hero, you."