Bioshifter

So Hannah, Teboho asks me as we trudge away from camp, exactly how much experience do you have, in terms of hunting and fighting?

I squirm slightly, firmly attached to his fuzzy shoulder as he walks. When we get closer to our destination I'll get off and walk by myself, but until then it's more efficient to hitch a ride.

Uh… well, remember those cultists we fought? I ask.

I'll never forget it, he assures me solemnly.

That's it, I say. That's the first time I've fought anyone or anything.

Have you never even hunted? he asks. How were you feeding yourself when we first found you?

Well I ate tiny burrowing animals, I tell him, since I guess I did do that once. Nothing like what we're supposed to get today. They couldn't hurt me at all. Other than that…

I… I'm not actually sure what I ate before that. Because my spider body has been alive, right? It's been alive just as long as my human body, or at least as far as I can remember. Was I eating the wood of the tree? I've swallowed that stuff before, but it never really felt all that filling. I guess my two bodies are connected somehow, though. Maybe I was sustaining both of them with the food from Earth, or maybe I can eat wood even though it tastes all bland and… I dunno, woody.

I have mostly been fed by kind humans, I decide to admit, since it's true.

There's a pause, and I feel a confused mix of worry and amusement coming from Teboho.

…Ones that got too close, or…? he prods.

What's he… AGH OH I GET IT, FRICK. I sputter with indignance and terror, my flailing wild enough that I end up falling off Teboho's shoulder.. He quickly twists around and catches me, chuckling lightly.

I don't eat people!!! I insist. Other than that one time! That… I don't know what that was! It was a stressful situation!

So you only eat people when stressed, he muses. Good to know, good to know.

I hiss at him and scuttle down his torso and leg, unwilling to dignify his japes with my proximity.

Why is this so funny to you? I grumble. I ate someone! Isn't that super messed up?

He calms down his laughter and gives me a more sympathetic look.

Ah, that's right, you were raised by humans, he muses. Killing a person for the purpose of eating them would be a grave crime indeed, but to simply eat the corpse of a man who was slain in self-defense? Most people of the Mother Tree would find no fault in that. We dentron do not eat much meat at all, but many of our neighbors do and this sometimes includes the bodies of intelligent people. The nychtava in particular are known to devour their enemies en masse when they are moved to war. To consume the flesh of the fallen is a natural thing, Hannah! It is not shameful for the predator and it is not shameful for the prey.

I hesitate, very unsure of how I feel about all that. It feels wrong, but it makes sense. Murder is bad, maiming someone is bad, that's all bad. But if someone is going to be dead anyway, well… a corpse is just a thing. People might get really upset about corpse desecration, but that's just part of human culture, it doesn't hurt anyone outside of sorta rubbing in the trauma of someone being dead on those still living. Most of the really bad things eating bodies can do are things that just happen to whoever does the eating: diseases, mainly, but also stuff like mercury buildup I think? I dunno, I'm not really an expert, I just know it isn't healthy to eat your own species.

Isn't it likely to make you sick, though? I ask.

For dentron? Yes, certainly, Teboho agrees amicably. We can't handle much meat in our diet in the first place, however. I don't think it's healthy for humans, either, but I'm not sure.

It's a pretty bad idea, Sindri confirms, startling me slightly. I… I mean, I guess we're using his spell to talk, so it makes sense that he's hearing our conversation, even though he's nowhere near us anymore. It's disgusting in general, but it's very much unhealthy as well. Do 'prions' mean anything to you, Hannah?

Those are like, the weird things that kill you by making your brain proteins fold wrong or something, right? I ask.

Hmm, that's very close to correct, Sindri confirms. Interesting. Regardless, while I certainly wouldn't recommend you eat people, it might not be a problem for you depending on your personal biology. Plenty of living things, particularly predators from the Tree of Souls, have a robust set of resistances towards the types of diseases and issues one would normally associate with the dangers of cannibalism. I'm not sure if you're among their number, but if your instincts are telling you that corpses are food I'd say it's at least somewhat likely. Perhaps your Order magic assists you in that manner as well. Still, maybe just don't.

Or do! Teboho encourages. You're not human, you don't have to think like them.

I scuttle through the grass, not really having any way to respond to that. He's right. I'm not human. If I ever was, I'm obviously not now. In the stories, this is usually a pretty big plot point. The plucky protagonist wakes up as a monster and their goal is to fight their way through trials and tribulations to be reborn as a human once more, to reclaim the humanity they've lost over the course of their journey. That's what I'm supposed to want, but… I don't, really. My body is weird and annoyingly tiny, sure, but… it's fine? I don't hate it and I don't understand why I should. At least this way I have all the limbs I'm supposed to.

Teboho, thankfully, picks up on my silence as the desire to end the discussion that it is. We're descending pretty far down the branch now, and I'm noticing a lot of consequences of that which remind me of descending in altitude, even though we're still way higher up on the tree than the branch we were on before. Regardless of why, the air seems to be getting thicker and more humid, and the temperature is rising a bit as well. Consequently, the foliage is growing thicker and thicker, until eventually I'm walking through grass that's even taller than I am.

…Oh my god I'm a random encounter. Some ten-year-old-jerk is going to stumble into me and throw an animal at my head any second now! …Except not actually because being stuck in overgrown foliage doesn't stop me from having perfect knowledge of everything within fifty feet of me. I'm still less blind than I was before my eyes grew in, so it's not really a huge deal.

No, the truly weird part about this experience is the fact that I can't blink. When I lift a leg off a blade of long grass and it comes shooting back up towards my eyes, my instincts get confused. I want to scrunch my eyelids together and pull away, yet I also want to step forward and lash out. So I end up doing a lot of both: sometimes I jump and twitch away, bringing up a leg to protect my eye. Other times one of my legs lashes out on its own, cutting a blade of grass that moves too quickly past my vision. All of it, I soon learn, is unnecessary: whenever the moving grass gets past my defenses and pokes me in an eye anyway, it doesn't even hurt. Whatever my eyes are made out of, they're not squishy or vulnerable like my human eyes are. They don't rotate, they don't move. They're just solid orbs, and I'm fully capable of poking or pressing on them directly without discomfort. It's very strange.

About fifteen minutes later or so, the first trees pop into my spatial sensory radius. They're gnarled, twisted things, with jagged, uninviting branches and needles instead of leaves. Conifers, I suppose, though they don't look anything like the straight-trunked pine trees of home. There's something odd about them, about the way their branches split and seek outward, like the stepped leader of an incoming lightning bolt.

Ah, a forest of devourer trees, Teboho muses. That's a good sign. Let's go in there.

Uh. Devourer trees?

That doesn't sound like a good sign at all! I protest. That is, in fact, the least reassuring name for a tree I've ever heard!

Teboho chuckles.

Ah, worry not, Hannah. They are harmless to us, only devouring other trees, you see. Look at where their branches meet.

I do that, following the tangles of wood wherever they grow towards other trees, and sure enough I see it. When a branch tip encounters another tree's branch, or even the trunk itself, it doesn't stop growing. Instead, it burrows, lodging itself into the bark like a parasite. Each one of the trees is stabbing all of its neighbors, drinking their sap and creating an incestuous network of consumption and counter-consumption. Even their roots, now that I'm tracking how low they go, seem to jut straight down, digging as deep as they can go and searching not for fertile soil, but the flesh of the world tree itself.

Devourer forests are fairly common, Teboho explains, and they are prime hunting grounds. Devourer tree branches are sturdy, rigid, and often anchored at both ends, allowing much larger creatures to live high in the treetops without risking the collapse of their handholds and footholds from their own weight. Many of my own people prefer to live in devourer trees as well, though these look a bit too small and young to support a dentron population.

I send a mental acknowledgement of the information, scuttling closer to the forest and keeping a careful eye out for any animals around. I'm a bit anxious, what with us being here to try and kill likely-dangerous creatures and all, but I'm also weirdly energetic. Like, in a good way, that way which happens in the month before a new Pokémon game comes out and my brain wanders over to thinking about the days until release and everything I'm looking forward to and just overloads with joyful energy that makes my body wiggle and kick in happy ways. I guess this isn't anywhere near that exciting for me, but… yeah. 'Exciting' is the right word, isn't it? I'm excited to go hunting. What a weird thought.

I start moving forward a little faster, enjoying the rhythmic tapping of my legs against the lush dirt. It doesn't take long to reach the trees, and on a whim I decide to see if I can climb one. The movement comes naturally to me, my claws digging ever so lightly into the bark and easily giving me the grip needed to ascend the trunk just as quickly as I would run across the ground. I want to laugh, to giggle, but my body can't so I just send the feeling over the mental link, the need to share this utterly unexpected joy strong enough to overcome my usual preference for keeping things like that to myself. Teboho grins below me, and with an impressive leap he reaches the lower set of branches, grabbing onto them and pulling himself upwards with ease, following me up into the tree with natural, monkey-like movements. He called this forest 'small and young,' but all the conifers around us are still probably seventy feet tall, at least. I guess it makes sense that the people of the world tree have high standards for forests.

I find a branch that connects to another tree's trunk and start skittering along it, my legs not having any problem traversing a walkway thinner than my body for what I'm fairly sure are just naturally good coordination reasons, not fourth-dimensional reasons. Teboho seems to be enjoying himself as well, swinging around from branch to branch with acrobatic leaps and catches that alternate between all four of his arms. I reach the next trunk and scuttle straight down without any sort of vertigo, making it to the next branch and rushing across that to try and keep pace with my fuzzy, four-armed friend.

Enjoying the forest, Hannah? Teboho prompts, grinning nearly from ear to ear.

Yes! I confirm. I can see why you like these trees, they're fun!

Indeed! Teboho laughs. You take to it like a natural! Perhaps you're not from the Slaying Stone after all!

Thanks, I think? I answer him. I'm not sure how to take that!

Neither am I, Sindri grumbles.

Haha! I mean nothing by it, friend! Teboho assures him. Those from your rock aren't often very good at climbing, is all. Now be sure to stay vigilant, Hannah! We're getting deep enough in to start seeing some good prey.

I don't need him to tell me that. There are weird fantasy animals all over the place, and I've been eyeing them with interest. I've already seen a dozen different types of birds, uncountable amounts of bugs, a weird-smelling sack-plant that I'm fairly sure is eating those bugs, and a collection of fuzzy snakes that remind me of those adorable little worm toys, which I have decided to name 'friend noodles.' Mmm. Yummy. I wanna eat a friend noodle. Chomp and slurp!

While appreciating the many noodles of the forest, however, my focus falls on a creature that just entered the edge of my range, lounging lazily on some lower branches. It looks like a giant starfish the size of a human being, with five radial limbs the color and texture of bark. Wrapped sinuously around the trunk of the tree, it appears more like the kind of weird growth common to randomly occur in tree trunks than any kind of animal, at least to my eyes. My spatial sense knows better: judging by the many sharp teeth I can see inside of its closed mouths, this thing is almost certainly an ambush predator.

And yes, I really do mean 'mouths.' Plural. Rather than a singular mouth in the center of its body like I have—or for that matter, like starfish have—this creature has five, a massive, gaping maw on the end of each limb. This isn't a giant starfish, not really. This is a starhydra.

I think I see something I'd like to hunt, I tell Teboho.

Oh? he answers, immediately stopping at the next branch. What is it?

I stop as well, pointing at the creature… and then realize there's currently a tree between me and it so I scuttle a little closer and then point again.

That thing, I tell him. With the five heads.

Five… hmm. I don't… oh! I think I see it! A [dangerous, monster, magical, threat], probably!

Yeah, I didn't understand that, so I'm going to call it a starhydra.

A what?

I feel the need to sigh, but since I can't, the energy ends up being used to quickly rotate my body in a circle. Sindri's mental communication spell can be a bit silly sometimes.

The name isn't important, I tell him. Is hunting it a good idea? I picked up the fact that you thought it was dangerous.

They're dangerous because of their potential for magical potency, Teboho explains. It might have a particularly powerful spell or two, and without Sindri here there's no way for us to get a hint as to what kind.

Teach me that Aura Sight spell already, Sindri! I whine at him.

Okay, okay, we can work on that today, he answers. After you get us breakfast, of course.

Bah! Why's he so insistent on getting me to kill some food for him, anyway? …Well, I guess now that I think about it, I should do this regardless of his reasons. I've more or less been freeloading off of these people, eating their food and riding their heads and getting them nearly killed and not really doing anything for them in return. Like sure, they owed me to some extent for the horror of how we first met, but that was definitely paid back and then some after the whole cultist problem. Plus, they're my friends! I should be helping them out, and this is something I can do to help. It wouldn't be fair for me to not do this. And since I'm certainly no vegetarian, I don't have any moral problems with killing animals to eat them.

I'm just slightly worried about how excited I am about it. Killing to eat is fine. Killing for fun is… a bit worrisome. But I guess it makes sense for a predator to get excited about the thing it has to do in order to eat? Like, biologically speaking. Though I guess cats seem pretty excited to hunt things and so they end up killing a lot of stuff they don't eat, like the cute little jerks they are. I don't know. I suppose I could say that I just won't do that, but I'm not exactly confident in my capacity for self-control. Still! Sindri wants food, I should get him some food. If there are problems, I'll likely understand them better after I've given this a shot.

I drum my legs on the branch I'm perching on, anticipatory energy coursing through my body. I need a plan of action. The starhydra and I are both ambush predators, and while it's a much bigger ambush predator, I'm (hopefully) smarter, and most importantly I'm the one actually doing the ambush in this situation. My Spacial Rend spell is crazy powerful, and while the starhydra is very big it's also pretty flat. I think I can stick my claws deep enough into its body to hit something vital. Assuming, of course, I can figure out where its vital areas are.

The inside of the starhydra's body is weird. It doesn't really have five heads so much as it has five mouths and zero heads. It certainly doesn't have five brains; my best guess as to its nervous system is decentralized throughout its entire body, with a relatively small node in the center but a pretty substantial chunk of neural matter winding down each neck-arm. In essence, I'm not confident that stabbing the central bit of brain matter will be lethal to this weird little goober. Like, it's certainly not going to enjoy the experience, but I've heard that an octopus tentacle has a similar sort of brain structure and those things can keep trying to grab stuff after they've been cut off. This guy has octopus tentacles if tentacles had mouths as big as my entire body, so… let's just not take that risk.

Unlike octopi (which I know is technically less correct than 'octopuses,' but I've always liked it more), the starhydra only seems to have one heart, so that's probably my best bet at killing it in one shot. I'll have to sneak up on it from above, pop out of the fourth dimension, stab it through the center of its body and retreat until it bleeds out. Easy!

I think I can take it, I tell Teboho. Or at the very least, I want to try. If things go badly, can we get away? It doesn't look very fast.

It's faster than you might think, Teboho muses. But it's still slower than I am. We're also close to the edge of the forest and I doubt it will follow us past the treeline.

Hunt safe, little Hannah, Kagiso sends, feelings of worry spilling over the mental link.

I'll do my best, I promise her.

Go for your killing stroke, Hannah, then retreat towards me, Teboho instructs. Don't wait to see if it dies first, just immediately start running. If it is dead, great. If it isn't, you'll be glad you didn't hesitate.

I understand, I tell him, and start scuttling along the branch network to the space above my target. The slow rise and fall of its body suggests that it's napping, but it's hard to say for sure. I search for barren zones when I get close, and… wait, what? There aren't any? There are normally a ton! Why aren't there… hmm. No, I'm probably looking at things wrong.

I pause, focusing my perception on fourth-dimensional space. It's a difficult thing to consciously wrap my head around, even if I have quite a bit of intuition guiding me. It's not like adding an axis merely increases the volume of stuff; adding an axis makes the concept of volume insufficient for completely describing space. 4D space has volume, sure, in the same way that 3D space has area. But it also has hypervolume, and it's just… gah. I'm glad there's no light in the barren zones, because I'm an actual fourth-dimensional being and even I have no clue what the heck that would look like. Projections only go so far.

My point is, it takes more than a metaphorical flick of focus to properly survey the nearby fourth-dimensional space. There's a lot of it, because adding one dimension makes every choice of movement many times more complicated. I wait, perfectly still, as I figure out what's going on with my perception. Why could I move into 4D space whenever I wanted while I was inside the trunk, but I can only move into barren zones now? That doesn't feel right. I am 4D. I should be able to move along the w-axis any time I like. I should just be a small step in… woah!

I stumble slightly, nearly falling out of the tree as I make an experimental movement outside of normal space. I was right! I can do it whenever I want! So why they heck can't I see anything in that direction!? It's like there's nothing there, which… uh. Which… makes perfect sense, actually. Gosh, I'm an idiot.

The wood of the world tree is fourth-dimensional, like I am. I can go into w=1 space in the trunk any time I want because there's wood in every direction, there's something to sink my claws into. But out here on a branch, the wood of the world tree is a good forty-plus feet below me most of the time! In normal space, there's a huge layer of dirt and rocks on top of the branch itself, on which all the plants grow and all the structures are built and whatnot.

I can enter w=1 space outside the barren zones… but only if I want to fall four stories and splat painfully on the ground below. When I see 'barren zones,' that's just my brain filtering areas where the wood in 4D space has bulged upwards and actually given me something to stand on. And now that I'm up in the branch of a tree on the branch of the tree, I'm so far above my higher-dimensional footholds that no knurls or branchlets of wood reach me. I'm surrounded by a sheer drop on all sides.

This makes my ambush significantly riskier.

Hannah? Teboho asks. Everything okay?

Yes, I tell him. Sorry. Planning my approach. My spatial movement is very limited up here.

Oh? How so?

Basically, my movement is better the closer I am to the Mother Tree, I summarize. Out on a branch there's a lot of dirt between us and it, and up on a tree we're even further away. So I'm much more restricted in the places where I can step out of view.

Hmm, Teboho rumbles, seeming vaguely pleased about my magic's limitation. I guess when his religion reveres the world tree as a creator goddess, that makes a lot of sense. You still think you can do it?

I'm certainly still willing to try, I confirm.

Then I'm ready when you are.

I send my affirmation and slowly creep across the branch, my spatial sense guiding my claws to soft bark that won't crack or make a sound. I can see, in that ephemeral way that isn't sight at all, how the internal structure of the bark is laid out, where it's dry and thin, where it's wet and flush with life. Carefully, ever so carefully, I make my way over to the same tree as the starhydra, crawling silently onto the trunk. I barely feel the slightest hint of vertigo as I creep down the sheer vertical surface, stepping around a slowly-breathing mouth and right next to the creature's core. The heart is in pretty deep, but I'm sure I can reach it with magic. I lift a leg and channel my energy into it, the essence of extra space pushing aside the air around my claw. Hmm. It's hugging my leg a bit too closely, I need it to be a bit longer. More powerful, but not so much that I accidentally get the goddess to say Spa—

The world seems to stop. A personified pressure crushes me with the weight of its attention, her casual giggle like drumbeats hammering into my mind. The air is pulled from the vents on my side that I have instead of lungs, thin pages of gill-like filters which whisk oxygen passively from the air. She steals it from me, inhaling it with a horrible, razor-sharp smirk on her invisible face.

"Spacial Rend," the goddess commands the world, and the world obeys. Power blooms from my claw, adding an extra six inches to the length of its blade—just about doubling it. But also, of course, waking up basically everything in the forest.

Crap in a sack of beets. I stab as quickly as I can, my extra range cutting a deep, bloody gouge into my victim… who is unfortunately already awake and moving.

"Hana!" Teboho cries out fearfully, but I hardly need the warning to know I need to jump. Two gaping, drooling mouths of razor-sharp teeth converge on my location from mere moments ago, and though I swipe my bloody claw at them as I retreat, I already know I've messed it all up. I missed the heart, and while it certainly has a chance of bleeding out from the deep gash I gave it, it isn't going to be quick.

I let myself drop, gravity accelerating me downwards just a few feet before my legs latch onto a branch and I start to skitter away as fast as my tiny little claws can carry me. I've gotta get to Teboho so he can protect us! Yet behind me, the massive monster also drops from the tree, reaching up with one of its limbs to bite the branch above us and start swinging mouth-over-mouth like a horrifically toothy monkey. It is angry and it is coming for me and I so wish I could scream right now.

Hannah! Teboho mentally cries out. Why did you incant? You were doing so well!

It was an accident! I snap back. I wasn't trying to speak the spell, I don't even have a voicebox!

Wait, did you say Hannah spoke an incantation? Sindri asks. How? Isn't she still learning the basics of her magic?

The branch I'm scuttling across jerks violently, nearly flinging me out of the tree as the starhydra chomps down on the wood just behind me, yanking it downwards. It roars at me from three different mouths, furious and aggressive beyond what I expected from an injured animal. Spittle flies, teeth dig deep into wood I'd been running across moments before, and my death rushes ever closer all the while.

Can everybody just shut up and focus on the monster that's trying to kill me!? I shriek over the mental link.

Help? Kagiso asks.

Backup would be good just in case, Teboho confirms, but I think I've got it. You're almost to me, Hannah, just a little more!

Just a little more. He's right. He's right in front of me on the branch, one arm grabbing the trunk, one arm reaching out to me, and the other two gripping a long stone spear. He stabs it right at me, and I'm immediately thankful because I can also see the starhydra chomping upwards at me from below. The spear barely passes by my back legs, and Teboho manages to lodge it into the roof of one of the starhydra's mouths, saving me from an untimely demise. I reach his legs and scamper up the side of one, and Teboho quickly drops his spear, takes a deep breath, and—

"Stone Shield!" the goddess says with Teboho's voice.

Darkness flares around us as light is cut off, the wood cracking dangerously beneath us as it's suddenly an anchor to a hollow orb of rock, encasing us safely inside. A horrible slamming sound rings out as the starhydra bashes against the exterior, but the rock easily holds. Teboho has encased us in a cocoon that the beast can't penetrate.

There. See? I got it, Teboho sighs. Now we just wait here for it to bleed out or leave. It's just an angry animal, it'll rush off to lick its wounds when it figures out it can't reach us.

Thanks, I shiver, crawling up to his shoulder. Sorry for screwing up like that.

Ah, well, we all learn to speak to the goddess in our own ways, Teboho reassures me. You didn't do badly for a first hunt.

That's kind of you to say, I send back, not really believing him.

It's the honest truth! Teboho insists. Why, on my first hunt, I—

He stops sending words, wincing as a horrible sizzling sound rings out from above us. I focus on the area, and to my horror I see the stone start to melt away, something invisible to my spatial sense devouring the rock at terrifying speeds. A gas, maybe? The starhydra starts wrapping its body around the stone shell like we're a clam that needs prying open, its five maws all leaking the horrid something that's eating away at the rock.

Teboho! I yelp. Why didn't you tell me these things have acid breath!?

They normally don't! he protests. That must be its magic! Death, maybe? Or Matter? It could be Chaos for all we know!

Both of you calm down, Sindri says firmly. Kagiso is en route.

We're out of time! I insist. It's about to break into the shield!

I scamper down Teboho's back as at that very moment, a hole is burned through our protections. Light streams into our once-protective ball, and with my eyes I can see my guess is correct: a faint green vapor pours from the starhydra's maws, eating through stone and gradually sinking down towards us. Teboho drops his protection and leaps away, but ends up jumping right through a cloud of the stuff on our way out. I wish I could scream again, but Teboho manages one that's agonizing enough for both of us.

In barely a second, Teboho's upper body is scoured of fur, and the skin starts to bubble away immediately afterwards. I don't fare well either, my exoskeleton no more resistant to the acid than Teboho's rock was. I instinctively stick all but three of my legs out of normal space, but the three I need to hang onto Teboho with feel like they're being boiled into nothing. The moment passes and we make it into open air, Teboho out-swinging the starhydra even with his badly damaged and bleeding arms, but despite no longer being in the cloud of death his wounds—and mine—keep getting worse. It's not a gas anymore, not after making contact with our bodies. It clings to us, eats at us, and just keeps digging deeper into our flesh. Teboho tries to grab a branch and his arm just gives out, nearly causing us to plummet to the forest floor before he thankfully catches himself with one of his three other hands. But we won't last at this rate. We're dying. If we can't get this stuff off of us, we might already be dead.

An arrow whisks past us, clattering into the trunk of a tree behind us, yet somehow bouncing off instead of imbedding itself. It hits a branch, then another branch, picking up speed with each sudden change in direction. The entire length of the arrow somehow rotates instantly whenever it hits something, flying straight and true even though there's no way physics could have given it its new vector. In the blink of an eye, it finds its ultimate target, stabbing deep into the starhydra's flank. It's then followed by a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth all in frighteningly rapid succession, pincushioning the poor creature from every direction and finally forcing it to plummet to the forest floor, not quite dead but definitely dying. The chase is over.

…But the burning remains. The acid isn't going anywhere. Teboho quickly drops in altitude, using a few branches to safely land us on the ground where he promptly collapses in agony. I'm in much better shape, as while I can see and feel the acid eating away at my flesh, I'm now on the ground. I leap into a nearby barren zone, leaving the acid behind to plop on the ground and start dissolving the grass. Then I emerge on the other side of Teboho, injured but safe. Teboho himself, however, has no such cheat. He groans in agony as I try to figure out what the heck I can do. Water, probably? Water can wash off most things, there's even an emergency shower in our chemistry classroom that I've never seen anyone use. Kagiso rushes towards us, firing another few arrows into the unmoving body of the starhydra for good measure, but nearly makes a grave mistake as she skids to a stop next to us.

Don't touch him! I warn. It'll stick to you, too!

Dying, Kagiso sends, her mental voice as flat as ever. Needs help.

Do you have water? We might be able to wash this off.

She nods, pulling out a waterskin and starting to pour it over the worst of the burns. …It doesn't seem to help. Why isn't it helping!? Gosh dang magic! I start to panic as more and more of Teboho's blood starts leaking up from his rapidly-dissolving skin, mixing with the acid and being no more effective at removing it than the water was. What can I do? What can I do?

Kagiso reaches over, a firm hand gripping the top of my carapace and squeezing hard enough to hurt. I freeze, confused and terrified by the gesture.

Save him, she commands me. Order magic. Heal.

Oh. Oh, she's right. I am an Order mage. But… I don't know any Order spells!

Hannah has never healed anyone before! Sindri reminds us. Do not use unknown magic on an injured person! I'm on my way, just keep trying to dilute the acid!

Hannah strong, Kagiso grunts back. Hannah heal.

She might not be able to, Kagiso! Sindri insists.

Her grip just grows tighter.

Hannah heal.

Is… is that a threat? No. It's stress. She's terrified of losing her brother. I force my terrified brain to think, to focus on magic. To try and get back into that calm realm of self-reflection that I used to accidentally accelerate my transformation. But rather than look for my Transmutation magic, I need to look for my Order magic. I have to heal him. I have to heal him. I have to heal!

…Nothing. I feel nothing. No resonance, no instinct, just… nothing. If I wasn't panicking before, I certainly am now. I can't have nothing. I'm supposed to be a super-powerful Order mage! That's the whole reason I'm hanging out with everyone here in the first place! Why can't I do this? I should be able to do this! Order magic heals!

No. No, no, no. Wait. Order magic is order. It is the application of systems. Order is not the bringer of life, life is merely one of its many facets. But… but what if that means I can't heal him? No, stop, focus. Life is one of its many facets. I have to find my facet. What makes me Order-aligned? Where is my place in its domain? I think back to how it felt to use my Transmutation spell, how I saw the ephemeral thread between my sleeping, partially-human body back on Earth and my hyperspider body here on the world tree. I remember how I took that connection and tugged, drawing the two closer. That's not what I want. I focus on that thread, focus on the incredible power flowing through it, the impossible magical might connecting two completely different universes together, and I draw it into myself. I feel it flow into me. I'm ready. I'm ready to… uh. Hmm.

I need a bucket, I realize, sending the message to my team. No, wait. I need like… a beaker. A glass cup, basically. Teboho, can you make glass?

I'm currently dying, he reminds me with startling calm.

Yes, and before you do that I really need you to make glass.

Is this truly important right now!? Sindri demands.

I don't know! I answer honestly, the magic roaring inside me, demanding an outlet. I can't hold it for much longer. Teboho, can you do it or not!?

He groans in agony, but manifests a crude glass container on the ground next to him. Perfect, now… agh, something's still not right!

Dump out the rest of your waterskin! I tell Kagiso, and she does it without hesitation. Now I'm ready! I let the magic flow, the power rushing out of me… and nearly all of it flowing right back into that thread between my bodies. Hey, what the heck!? But the rest of it does enter this world, it does what I command, washing over Teboho, passing over his body, into his body, and… not healing him in the slightest.

But the acid is gone. The blood is gone. My heart soars for a moment, but Teboho quickly continues bleeding a moment later. No, no no no! What did I do wrong? I followed my instincts! Hmm, wait. He's not covered in acid anymore! That's good, that's really good! In fact, for a brief period of time, Teboho's body was completely, perfectly clean.

Oh my gosh it's a cleaning spell. My mighty magical aura has finally shown the full extent of the potential I was nearly mind controlled into slavery for, and it's a gosh dang cleaning spell.

I… have no idea how to feel about this.

"Fala Hana!" Kagiso shrieks happily, releasing my body and quickly retrieving bandages from her pack to start binding up Teboho's wounds. I glance over at the crude beaker that Teboho made, and sure enough it's full of horrible, murky green acid. I cleaned it up. That's what my magic does. To my surprise, though, the acid bubbles furiously against the glass, and somehow it actually starts burning that too. What the heck? It's supposed to go there and stay there, because glass is the proper receptacle for acid. It needs to be in its proper place! That's very annoying in the nagging OCD way I usually just ignore, so I do my best to ignore it now. I guess the acid isn't going to get the ground dirty, really. …Oh, and what matters is that Teboho is safe. Obviously.

First it's electrocution, now it's a magical dissolving spell, Teboho groans, letting Kagiso poke and prod at his wounds with only the occasional whining noise. You're saving me from a lot lately, Hannah.

Not before you end up saving me from something that's my fault in the first place, I answer back. You only keep getting hurt because you keep helping me! Please, please don't die.

Will be dizzy, Kagiso grunts. Not bleed out, but maybe bad infection. Need healer.

I notice Sindri running towards us, the man finally entering my sensory radius.

We'll march as fast as we can for the nearest town, he promises. Is the [animal, dangerous] dead?

Another jolt of panic re-fires the parts of my brain that had recently stopped producing adrenaline, and I quickly focus on the last place I remember the starhydra lying. …And it's still there, dead as a doornail. No heartbeat, no breathing. Kagiso got it good.

It is, it's over there, I tell him, pointing briefly before realizing there are way too many things between the two of us for him to be able to see me. Agh, I'm so dumb. I drum my legs to try to let off some stress, but that just reminds me of all the pain in my body which happens to be rapidly getting worse as the stress hormones die down. Yeah, okay. That hurts. That hurts a lot. Frickadoodle fries, that hurts so much wow wow wow wow. I lie down in the grass and mostly give in to my body's sudden urge to completely shut down, but annoyingly the pain prevents me from passing out. No going to another universe to escape the consequences of my actions, unfortunately.

Sindri finally reaches us, rushing past us a bit to go check on the starhydra corpse that he apparently didn't need my help to find anyway. He balks the moment he sees it, returning to us with a furious look on his face.

Teboho! he demands. Did you seriously let her fight that!? It's fully grown, what did you think was going to happen?

She wanted to hunt it, Teboho says, chuckling lightly for a breath before wincing in pain. Who was I to tell her no?

Have you absolutely no sense of self-preservation? Sindri demands.

His smile drops at that, and his lack of answer is an answer in and of itself. Oh, gosh. I wish I could comfort him somehow. He's so positive most of the time, it's easy to forget how much he's lost recently. He and Kagiso both grieve… strangely.

Well, Sindri sighs, his anger quickly deflating at Teboho's response, I'm very glad that everyone is safe. We're not far from our destination, so even if Teboho falls ill we should be able to get him treatment before it's too late. Hannah, I certainly hope you've learned your lesson about aggravating monsters outside your weight class.

Yeah, I agree. Sorry. That was stupid of me.

It's okay, he sighs. Learning is what matters. Kagiso, can you carry your brother once his wounds are tended to?

She nods, and that seems to be the end of the conversation. Sindri returns to camp to finish packing it up, carrying his, Teboho's, and Kagiso's gear as Kagiso carries her brother in a piggyback… and once again insists I rest on her head. I snuggle up onto her scalp, clinging to her body with four of my uninjured limbs and resting the three heavily burned ones in the cool darkness of higher-dimensional space. The trudging walk begins, my body alternating between intense pain and intense itchiness. Gah, I just molted, but I'm going to have to molt again to heal all of this, aren't I? Maybe even more than once. That's certainly one advantage of having skin.

I suppose I promised to teach you Aura Sight, didn't I, Hannah? Sindri muses.

Uh, yeah, I guess you did, I confirm. I'm guessing there's more to it than just saying the incantation?

Always, Sindri confirms. Be careful when you say the names of spells, Hannah. You must be certain you fully understand the spell you're trying to cast, or at least fully enough to satisfy whatever arbitrary system judges that understanding. I highly, highly recommend never speaking the true name of a spell—or trying to name one of your own spells—until after you've cast it normally at least a hundred times. If your name isn't approved, there are painful consequences.

What happens, exactly? I ask.

It depends on what you were trying to cast, Sindri answers. Generally, it spawns a magical effect of the same category of what you were trying to cast, except it's always highly dangerous and directed exclusively at you.

The Mother Tree's displeasure is fickle and fearsome, Teboho agrees. But I would not worry so much. When I heard her speak your words, Hannah, I got the impression that she liked you quite a bit. She will be lenient with you where others might suffer.

Regardless of whether the essence of magic truly has opinions, Sindri grumbles, prudence is always wise. So I'm going to start by explaining the nature of the soul as we understand it, so that you can understand the nature of aura.

He pulls a waterskin from his belt, idly uncorking it and bringing it to his mouth.

So far as we can tell, he continues, since drinking something doesn't prevent telepathic communication, the soul doesn't actually con—

He sputters, coughing, hacking and looking down in horror as he chokes up a hideous mix of blood, viscera, and dirt, all of it dripping from his mouth and the waterskin in his hand as he spits furiously, desperately trying to clean out his mouth. Ah. Uh. I guess when I cleaned up the acid and put it in the beaker, I put everything else in the waterskin.

S-sorry, I whimper over the link. That's my bad.

Wh… is this blood? Sindri yelps back. Is this Teboho's blood?

Don't worry, Sindri! Teboho grins. We've already discussed my views on cannibalism! Go ahead and take another swig!

The look we get from Sindri makes me suspect I won't be getting a Pneuma lesson today after all. Fooey. Though on the bright side, I guess I do have a new opportunity to test my cleaning spell.