[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 96: Chester Chompers the Third

Before Komachi could elaborate, Kai emerged from the screen of bamboo trees. “She is awake.”

Sam bent to scoop Komachi up, but Chompers had a different idea in mind. His dozens of paws sprouted once more, with a complicated execution of movements, he turned around and marched after the dumbfounded Kai.

“Should I be worried?” he asked as they made the trek toward the Tree.

“Nah, it’s a cutie,” Sam said. “Kind of like a dog, but a box. Komachi seems to love it and she had a pretty good—well, mostly good—sense of people.”

Raiko stared after the mimic, visibly stricken with anxiety. “Suppose I’ve never heard of a mimic feasting on trees….”

The dullahans, sensing her distress, closed in ranks around them. Those that were already around the Tree, formed a tighter ring around its base once they arrived and, as far as headless, eyeless stares went, Chester proved himself equal to the dullahans.

Komachi bapped Chester on the lid when it seemed to stare for too long, and the mimic shook itself before turning away from the staring contest at the Tree.

“Are they both arcane constructs?” Raiko wondered aloud. “Do they naturally get along, or is it… the opposite? I can’t quite remember.”

“Kinda seems like two strange cats meeting,” Sam said. “They don’t appear to be certain of each other, much less like one another. They’ll be fast friends in no time. Komachi has that effect on people. Even people who aren’t quite people.”

“Where did that thing come from?” Kai asked as they came upon the pool, with the researcher basking in it and gently sipping water from Matt’s canteen.

“A quest reward Komachi hadn’t chosen yet,” Sam said. He hiked a thumb at his pale cape edged in black fire. “The same one I got this from.”

“I could pick a mimic too,” Raiko whispered in horror.

“You could,” Sam agreed. “But somehow I don’t think the result would be the same.”

“Yes,” she continued softly. “That’ll vanquish the urge. I know all too well what would happen, and it wouldn’t be… a miracle like that. No need to satiate the morbid curiosity when the answer is plain.”

The researcher’s eyes lit up when she saw Sam and Kai. “You’re both safe? Excellent!” Her pointed ears perked up as she looked over Raiko. “And you as well, Sage Raiko! Thank you so much for saving me. I am beyond humbled.”

Lenal bowed at the waist, just short of drowning herself in the water she was partially submerged in. “I am feeling much better now, thanks to you.”

“This is Raiko’s Skyshard,” Sam explained. “And her Tree you’re getting healing from.”

“The tales of the Sage’s generosity and mystical powers surely were only scratching the surface!” She looked up at the majestic Tree with the awe of a small child. Her lithe, bird-like frame, revealed by the way her wet clothes clung to her, made Lenal look even more fragile than before. “To have a Sacred Tree so soon after Ascension? The stories do not do you justice.”

“Though it is the same one from Islegard, it is but a sapling for now.” Raiko crossed her arms and sat down beside the spring. Once more, she opened her Inventory to another feast of Earth cuisine. With that, they wouldn’t have to wait for the Zuu meat they harvested to cook.

“Surely you jest,” she said, staring at the array of colorful food boxes. “What is a ‘KFC’?”

“Some kind of poultry, I think. From the other world that shattered and Ascended with Islegard.”

“No cooked bird smells this good,” Lenal said, inhaling the aroma of some fried chicken. “And you are sure you have enough to spare for me? I… have not eaten in days, but I do not wish to deprive you of your sustenance.”

“No one will ever starve on my Skyshard,” Raiko promised, rather intensely.

Sam put a hand on her shoulder. “Eat as much as you want, but slowly. You don’t want to get sick again, yeah? Besides, we killed so many damn Zuu that we’re likely going to be packed to the gills with what I hope is chicken-equivalent meat.”

“I do not know what Zuu meat tastes like,” Lenal said slowly, “but I would love to try it. Even if it tastes foul, I would do it purely out of spite for what they did to my friends. They ate them. Then I shall eat the birds.”

Kinda dark. I like the way she thinks.

That really set the mood for the group.

“I’ll eat ‘em too!” Komachi declared.

Sam was tempted to ask what she would do with cannibals who had killed and eaten her friends, but he had the unsettling suspicion that the answer would be the same.

Are all elves like this, or is Lenal just especially subscribed to the “eye for an eye” methodology?

Everybody took some chicken from the white-and-red bucket, mostly eating in silence.

At the end, Lenal looked at Raiko. “Sage Raiko, how is it you have so much? Even our Skyshard, which consisted of mostly those from the Aker Academy, struggled to find enough food to see our small group through. We have come across others who were far stronger than us but had even less food.”

“She’s prepared,” Sam said. “Unlike me, she thinks ahead and tries to plan for every eventuality. Also, having an Inventory that carries over from one apocalypse to another is pretty handy.”

Raiko gave him a Look.

“Chester has Inventory too!” Komachi said.

The mimic, which until this point had been extremely still, hopped up on its dozens of corgi paws and danced around, much to the amusement of Komachi.

The blood drained from Lenal’s face. She screamed, a single terrified sound that ripped into the air and laser-focused Chester’s attention on her.

“Lenal!” Raiko knelt near the elf. “You’re safe and protected.”

Komachi immediately gave the mimic a soft bap-bap with her paw, reminding him to behave. The mimic hunkered down and contrived to look ashamed.

“I don’t think he likes it when you scream,” Sam said, wiggling a finger into his ear to try to restore some hearing.

“You don’t understand,” Raiko said. “Mimics have a history with Islegardians.”

“They are vile abominations!” Lenal told him. “Why is there one here? I thought we wiped them—”

“Lenal,” Raiko began calmly. “This one is different. It is tamed by a soul aeder. You are safe, as can be, but it is functionally… an infant. What you say around it matters. The way you act. Treat it with kindness, and that will shape its mentality. If this creature never knows cruelty, it will become good.”

Lenal stared open-mouthed at Raiko, then Komachi, then the mimic. She seemed to get a grip on herself, and in no time at all, her scholarly nature came through. “I do suppose if it is… an infant, it may be tamed and taught how to act against its instincts.”

She didn’t sound convinced, but if the Sage Raiko said it was true, she was not going to refute the claim. Least of all, until she had some sort of proof to bring to bear.

“For now,” she added, “I will endeavor to… treat it with kindness and respect. From a distance, you understand.”

“That’s all we can ask,” Sam told her. “Now, before you passed out, you were talking about your Academy? You think you can find them?”

“Oh! Yes.” Lenal withdrew a brass dial, much like a complicated old pocket watch. “With this, I can home in on the direction and distance of the Academy’s Skyshard. Professor Nihl would be grateful to have me back, and he is a master artisan. I am sure he could make you something that would knock your pants off as gratitude for my safe return.”

Matt looked down, remembering the bodies he had seen. Bones picked clean, so nothing was left but gleaming white bone. “I am sorry,” he told her. “About your companions.”

“It… is hard to admit they are gone,” Lenal said, looking down. “But the best we can do for them is to embrace their memory and live on. For their sake. They were all apprentice fellows like me. Their masters and teachers will wish to know of their fates as well. I cannot say whether they will be happy, but they very well may provide a gift out of the closure you bring.”

“We don’t require payment for doing the right thing,” Sam told her. “The birds would be dead whether or not your colleagues were safe or dead. There was no other outcome.”

Lenal gave him a sad little smile. “Spoken like a true Incarnate. I can almost see the Threads of Fate twist around you both as you sit here like heavy weights upon the Fabric. It is impressive. But most people, especially now, would not see it the same as you.”

Sam shrugged. “Their loss.”

Lenal glanced at Raiko, a look of faint disbelief on her sunken features.

“He is like me,” Raiko explained to her. “Perhaps not so vindictive. That remains to be seen, but the role of a just guardian is not exclusive to Sages. What use is power, if it is only for yourself?”

“I do not mean to speak out of turn, Sage,” Lenal said delicately, “but I am reminded of a story in which you razed an entire village because they had been found to send their orphans into the keltzer mines due to a child’s life force not triggering the explosive reaction of the valuable ore.”

Raiko’s expression darkened. “I’d do it again. The bastards.”

Sam raised a brow at that.

“My point,” Lenal said, “is that proper manners must be maintained. Especially after the apocalypse. We need society and kindness more than ever before. Many will think it is the time for the ‘strong’ to seize everything they can, but they always forget the strength of the community.”

Sam patted the air between them. “I get it, I get it,” he said. “We’ll gladly accept any gifts your Academy wants to bestow, but first we should find them, don’t you think?”

“I agree,” Lenal said, giving her compass a study. “It would appear we are almost heading toward them. I suppose that is the best we can hope for, given the reality of our circumstances.”

Raiko couldn’t help a sly grin. “And what circumstances are those?”

“That there is no way to direct a Skyshard, of course. We are adrift at sea, so to speak, without any means of propulsion. The best we could find is that some Skyshards are able to slow or stop, but that is hardly the same as directing its course. Sails do not work well, we tried that.”

“How can you be so sure of that? Look at the branches above you. Settlement Cores are the beating heart of these Skyshards. This Tree, the land’s core, harnesses the Wind and the mana currents themselves.”

Lenal looked up, shielding her eyes from the rising sun as it peeked over the bamboo tops and illuminated the Tree’s branches, casting the rejuvenation pool in dappled shadow. “You cannot be serious. The best and brightest professors of Aker Academy have been putting their considerable talents to solving this problem we thought plagued every Skyshard!”

“The Tree can attune to the currents and even generate some of its own. It isn’t… strong, I’d say, but it’s similar to a sail that can guide the ambient currents in the direction we wish.” Raiko got up and went beneath the Tree itself. She knelt, placing a sachet down. Some kind of offering, it seemed.

“Whether this is a special facet of a sacred Settlement Core, who knows?” Raiko continued. “If you could show me, or the Tree, the compass, we’ll turn gradually more on course.”

Lenal furrowed her brow. “This is the second time you have mentioned Settlement Cores. I have not seen one, the professors gained access to their Skyshard through a key that appeared after the Ascension. It granted them the rights to claim it and use it as they desired. Is that what you mean?”

“No,” Sam told her. He motioned up into the sky where the dawn’s light glinted off the large [Sourcestone] as it drifted about in the wind. “That is mine. A [Sourcestone]. It grants me the ability to level up my Skyshard, improve it, and put Tiles down.”

Lenal looked from the distant [Sourcestone] to the Sacred Tree in amazement. “Little wonder that you are Incarnates.”