Scientific Sorcery : Beware of Kittens!

"What do you mean it says 'Have a Good Tomorrow'?" Cali demanded as we walked back into the pub. "That can't be right. It must be some kind… you’re just screwing with me, aren’t you?!"

"That's what it says,” I shrugged. “Take it or leave it."

Cali's tail lashed back and forth. "But that doesn't make any sense! How can such a... a mundane phrase be written on the moon by gods?"

"Maybe they weren't gods," I replied. "Maybe they were just people, like you and me.”

Cali opened and closed her mouth.

“Now I know that you’re screwing with me,” she said. “If you’re not going to execute me today then at least…”

I ignored her demands, handing her a jug of life-water.

"Drink," I said.

She did.

I watched her neck as she chugged the water and then wrote what I saw into the Codex.

When I finished my note-taking, I walked to a corner and grabbed a shovel. "I have a job for you."

Cali eyed the shovel warily. "What kind of job?"

"I want you to dig out all the dragonglass from the ruins of Svalbard," I told her.

Her eyes widened in horror. "But... but that will burn me! The dragonglass is incredibly dangerous to handle directly!"

I nodded. "Exactly. You need to experience what you were planning to do to the Nordstaii people. You need to make amends."

“Amends?” She blinked. “For what? Why?!”

“A wise Yaga once told me that the nature of magic is cyclical,” I said. “Death begets death. Misery begets misery. You are practically a walking curse. Go and clean up Svalbard. Do something good for once in your life.”

“But,” Cali's ears flattened against her head. "But... it’ll burn me… without my lavalier, it’ll peel off my skin and…"

"Then I suggest you be very careful," I replied, unmoved. "And remember the feeling the next time you consider using others as disposable tools. What were you going to make the Svalbard men put it in anyway?”

“A triple-shelled null-rock-urn, reinforced by ground dragonscale,” she said. “It’s in my Sleigh.”

“Then grab it and off you go,” I waved a hand at Cali. “You’re wasting moonlight. Endalaus-light? I’ve got things to discuss with my lovely companion.”

Cali stared at me.

“You are not my companion nor are you lovely,” I commented. “You are essentially an incredibly hostile, albeit temporarily weakened entity that I’m experimenting on, so that I can figure out how to combat Sorcerous Charisma magical allure. Don’t think that I haven’t noticed you subtly trying to manipulate me with your magic threads.”

“W-what?” Cali blinked. “I…”

“You’re constantly radiating mind-control magic,” I said. “I almost gave into it just a few hours ago, when I gave you a head pat. I can see it. Little wiggly blue threads. Not as big or obvious as ones cast by your lavalier, but still… quite bothersome.”

“Men can’t see magic!” Cali insisted. “I… don’t control it that well since the tattoos and the piercings are so weak! I just wanted… to make you not be sad about things! Because the contract-order stipulates that you’re my best friend!”

“I can see magic,” I said. “Less backtalk, more digging. Off you go. Do come back in regular intervals, maybe about every hour or so that I can examine you.”

“You want to examine… me?” Cali blinked. “Why?”

“So I can track what dragonglass actually does to people,” I said. “So that I can cure its effects.”

“You… you can’t cure dragonglass, that’s absurd!” Cali sputtered.

I shrugged in response, handing her the shovel.

With obvious reluctance, Cali took the shovel from me. She looked at it for a long moment, then back at me, as if hoping I'd change my mind. When I didn't, she sighed heavily and trudged off towards the ruins, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

As she disappeared from view, I pulled out the Codex once again and turned to Stormy, who was still perched on my shoulder.

"Alright, Stormy," I said in English. “Is Cali going to cooperate and dig dragonglass without issues?”

[YES]

“Excellent,” I smiled. “Now. Let's figure out what to do about this warband from Bernt. Will they arrive in two days?"

Stormy's paw landed on [NO].

“Three days?”

[NO]

“What?” I blinked. “Four days?”

[NO]

I kept upping the number, waiting for Stormy’s paw to land on yes.

“Fourteen days?”

[YES]

“Two weeks? Why so long?”

“Mrbrbbrrrrr!” Stormy jumped onto the windowsill and waved a paw at the river.

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, that’d do it. Normally they’d just ride over the frozen river, right? They would have to go through the forest around the cliffs now, just like Cecil did. That ought to take them much longer, yea?”

[YES]

“Great,” I said. “That gives me more time to experiment on our resident Sorceress.”

[YES]

"Are the men from Bernt a serious threat to us?"

[YES]

I frowned, considering our options. "If we stay and fight, will we win?"

Stormy hesitated, then put her paw on [maybe].

"If we run, will they catch us?"

[YES]

I nodded, processing this information. "Is there a way to avoid fighting them altogether?"

Stormy's paw hovered for a moment before landing on [NO].

"Negotiation?"

[NO]

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "Is there something specific we need to do to avoid conflict with them?"

[maybe]

"Does it involve Cali?"

[YES]

"Do we need her to convince them to leave us alone?"

[maybe]

“Let's hope Cali survives her dragonglass excavation adventure then,” I sighed.

[YES]

“If Cali dies, do we die too?”

[Maybe]

“How?” I demanded.

[Maybe]

I rubbed my forehead.

“Can I not drown all of these men in my earth?”

Stormy blinked at me like I was an idiot. Then she slowly slid her paw to [NO] making a face like she was judging me.

“What if you and I… just hide inside our glade like witches do?”

[NO]

“What the hell?” I sputtered. “Does Jarl Bobliss know how to kill witches or something?”

[YES]

I almost asked ‘How’, but then I stopped myself with a sigh.

This was going to be a long night.

I proceeded to ask Stormy more and more questions, trying to shake information out of the kitten through guesswork of the positive, neutral and negative system.

In a moment of inspiration, I decided to try something new. I carefully wrote out the alphabet in English on a fresh page of my journal, hoping that Stormy might be able to spell out more complex answers.

"Alright, Stormy," I said, pointing to the letters. "Can you use these to spell out words? How does Jarl Bobliss kill witches?"

Stormy looked at the unfamiliar symbols, then back at me, her head tilted in confusion. She batted at the page with her paw, but it was clear she had no idea what to do with the strange markings.

"Right," I muttered. "I guess that was too much to hope for. Kittens can’t read.”

Resigned, I returned to our previous system of communication.

In the next hour of guesswork, I figured out that Jarl Bobliss was pretending to be an idiot, but was actually a very sly, dangerous, high-level hunter-cultivator that killed witches for sport. If I said anything wrong to him, he would obliterate me on the spot with a mere swing of his pinkie. Also, he worked for someone from the North, someone incredibly dangerous to us, an enemy that we would have to face later, an enemy that could somehow tell the future, just like Stormy.

“You’re certain?” I asked her with a frown. “Bobliss has a future-seer?”

[YES] Stormy replied with a low, deep rumbling growl.

“If Bobliss has a future seer, then can he predict our plans and act accordingly?”

Stormy affirmed this with another yes.

“Shit,” I frowned. “Well that’s really bad. I thought I was the only witch-man around these parts with a future-seeing kitten.”

Stormy let out a small, sad mewl.

“How does one even fight another Seer?” I asked. “Do we just not plan ahead?”

[YES]

I stared at Stormy’s answer. Planning ahead was my thing, damn it! I sighed and resumed digging for future threads that could help me unravel the tapestry of tomorrow.

"Was Bobliss using Cali against me somehow?" I asked Stormy.

The kitten replied with another ‘yes’.

“Is Bobliss planning to betray Cali when he gets here to take the gold of Svalbard for himself?”

The kitten tapped the ‘yes’ sign.

“Does Bobliss have some kind of an anti-charisma weapon to deal with Cali?” I mused.

[YES]

I rubbed my temples, wrapping my mind around the problem.

"So the merchant has been an unwitting pawn in his game from the beginning," I mused. "And now she's in danger because of it."

[YES]

The irony wasn't lost on me. Cali, who had come here intending to manipulate and enslave me, was herself being manipulated by some mysterious, far more dangerous player.

"Is there a way to save Cali from Bobliss?" I asked.

[NO] Stormy replied.

I stared at the kitten. Big violet eyes blinked back at me.

“Really wish you could talk,” I sighed.

The front door of the pub slid open.

Cali emerged from the night, with the magisteel urn in tow. She took a few steps towards me and then keeled over, sliding to the floor. Her fanciful winter coat was flaking at the seams, coming apart. Whatever dragonglass did, it didn’t just burn people, it damaged clothes too. Cali’s hands were covered in red blisters, skin peeling off in flaking, red and violet lines and bubbles.

I wondered if my chainmail of spirit rocks or my witchy nature had protected me against these dire effects, because I had roamed all over Svalbard for over a month now and didn’t notice a damn thing.

“Why is your coat coming apart?” I asked.

“Fibers woven with… and reinforced by… held together with magic,” Cali revealed with a whimper.

“I see,” I said.

“I’m… dying,” Cali hissed out, her entire body trembling. “It… it burns so bad. Everything burns.”

I handed her a large jug of water from the middle of my pile.

“Drink,” I said.

She chugged the life-water heartily, eyes rolling back.

I dragged her to the wooden table and helped her undress, using a witch-blessed dagger to slice apart her decaying top.

“I said come back regularly,” I said. “Did I not?”

“I… it hasn’t been that long,” she said. “I only got some of it scraped off the ground. I had to touch it, to make sure that it’s dragonglass. I’m… I’m a young Sorceress… dragonglass is a terrible poison to us.”

“What, more than to mortals?” I asked.

“Without the big Star-Shard in my lavalier… y-yes,” she nodded.

I studied Cali's burns closely, noticing that the dragonglass effects weren't just damaging her skin - they were actually flaking away her tattoos. The intricate white ink designs all over her body now cracking, peeling off in places along with her damaged skin.

"Interesting," I muttered, gently probing a particularly affected area.

“W-what?” She choked out.

"Your tattoos are coming off,” I said.

“P-piercings are probably not going to last much longer either,” she shook her head.

“What happens if you're not in contact with any Star-Shard stuff?” I asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Cali said. “I’ve been in contact with Star-Shards since I was born.”

“Don’t you have poor people in Iridium?” I asked. “Those who don’t get to use Star-Shards?”

“Lowborn-cursed,” Cali exhaled. “Drallus Arcanicx… They're... different from us. Weaker, less magically attuned. Sickly and grey. Less defined.”

"So there's a hierarchy even among your kind, based on access to these shards?"

Cali nodded weakly. "Yes. The more shards you have, the more powerful and more perfect, more defined you are by the beast of your house. The Drallus... they're just a pitch above mortals in our society."

“The beast of your house?” I asked.

“The Divine Beast of the Felix Liesl... is a white lynx, Goldara.” Cali revealed. “She unfolds herself into a girl when we sing prayers to her.”

"Ah. I see. So, if you were to lose all contact with Star-Shards, would you... devolve, in a sense? Become more like these Drallus?" I asked.

“That’s…. That’s not supposed to happen to a living Felix Arcanicx,” Cali swallowed. “I’d… preferred if you just killed me.”

"Nah," I said, “Science requires sacrifice!”