The Mother of Monsters

As the minutes ticked by without an immediate decision, Teyva tried to back out of the prompts to see if she could check out the other Aspects and get a feel for their trees as well. Much to her disappointment, the prompts warned her that if she backed out now she would lose the power within the Aspect Shard she had already used. She sat down and racked her brain. So far her build was almost exclusively melee with the added benefit of having her Mockeries at her disposal.

Initially, she was inclined to agree with Azrael, the addition of a ranged attack would be a great choice. There was also the sheer cool factor of it all, of all the powers she had gained the ability to cast a ‘spell’ from her hands was hard to resist. Mechanically speaking, Nephral was probably right in insisting on [Withering Halo] but she just couldn’t stomach the idea of getting yet another passive ability when she was so strapped for attack powers. [Dawnstrike] would have been a great supplement but the same problem applied.

There was also a larger concern with [Withering Halo] it entirely relied on infecting an enemy with [Chilling Weakness] and right now the only way to do that was to get them in melee to begin with. If she had both [Grasp of Frost] and [Withering Halo] she could quickly weaken enemies in her immediate area. But what if they had a healer supporting them? Or if they had resistance to afflictions? She couldn't possibly be the only thing alive that had resistances. She also had to consider just how little damage she could take all at once, even with [Hungering Cold]. That one wolf bite hadn't been an ability or spell and it had taken a whole chunk of her health. Could she reasonably count on a silencing abiliity right now at this stage? No, she needed something direct she could rely upon.

In the end, she chose [Pale Bolt] and the window vanished. Instead of some dramatic light show or display of power, the Aspect Shard simply crumbled to dust in her hand.

“What did you choose?” Azrael asked.

“Pale Bolt this time,” Teyva said, looking down at Nephral who turned his head away, “Sorry little guy, I had to agree with Azrael there.”

The sphinx marched away, hopping onto one of the rolls of padding and cloth. He coiled up and watched the pair of them from afar, his eyes narrowed.

“Sensitive little creature,” Azrael scoffed.

“Go easy on him, he’s new,” Teyva admonished.

Azrael shrugged and Teyva pulled out the next shard. She activated it and selected the Facsimile.

As before, Teyva explained the abilities to Azrael and Nephral. Nephral tried to look disinterested but his tail whipped back and forth excitedly as she went through the short list. Unlike before Teyva felt like the choice was not all that difficult. [Animate Object] was neat but it seemed very situational to her. [Alter Self] was the same, not an offensive ability she could take advantage of in the coming quest. [Grasp of the Mimic] was a cool option she could pair with her sword attacks but in the end, all three of them agreed.

“Mother should pick Improved Mockery, without a doubt,” Nephral cut in before Azrael could speak. Azrael shot the feline a glare but nodded her agreement.

“Right, I felt the same way,” Teyva said and made her choice. The shard dissolved and she pulled out one more, activating it and selecting the Labyrinthian. This one was the most mysterious to her, having not fully grasped the theming yet.

Shoot! She wished she had used her shard on this one first! She immediately saw the connection between [Create Wall] and [Animate Object]. She sighed and explained the abilities. When she eventually arrived at [Create Wall], Azrael winced. She’d have to wait until she was higher in level to select more abilities using shards.

Rubbing her face she focused on what she could do in the moment. [Mind Trap] was a solid crowd control ability that could probably save her in a pinch. [Wisdom of the Sphinx] on the other hand would reduce her overall mana cost. Right now her abilities didn’t cost all that much but she’d noticed that a few of them had gone up in cost when she leveled up. [Eyes of the Halls] sounded like great utility though. A hallmark to be sure, Darkvision was something she really had to consider. She had to figure in their next destination as well. Would she be able to see in this Aberrant Grove place?

“Wisdom of the Sphinx, of course,” Nephral said immediately, “It only makes sense.”

“Mind Trap,” Azrael refuted, drawing a cold look from Nephral. Teyva looked between the two of them and let out a sigh, they weren’t going to get along anytime soon.

“I’m picking Eyes of the Halls,” Teyva said, surprising both of them. She shrugged at their expressions, “Look, I don’t know if it's going to be dark where we’re headed. I’d rather not stumble about blind if we lose what light we have.”

“So long as it leads to mother's inevitable conquest of all life, it matters little to me what she chooses at such an early stage,” Nephral said, stretching his back and hopping off of the cushions to prowl across the room and rub against Teyva’s leg.

“We are not-” Teyva groaned and Azrael gave her a mock sympathetic look. “What? Say it!”

“Nothing! Oh mighty Labyrinthain Queen,” She said, offering an exaggerated bow.

Teyva rubbed her face; “You both suck.”

She sat down and collected herself. She’d checked off every point on her list. She’d memorized the hand of the guardian, used her aspect shards and the stone of the Labyrinthian. With all that out of the way, she felt a weariness wash over her and she yawned, rubbing her eyes. Nephral crawled into her lap and curled up. This was responded to with an eerie buzzing sound that broke the momentary silence of the room. Five large glints of gold darted into the air before beelining towards Nephral. The sphinx jumped, hissed, and was chased for several minutes by the jealous mockeries.

Azrael sat down next to Teyva while she laughed, ignoring the feline’s cries for help. “We’re not done yet, we should go over how to use your abilities. You need to be ready for tomorrow.”

Teyva nodded, leaning back against the wall and sighing; “I should probably make a few dozen more Mockeries as well.”

“That would be wise, have you figured a way to carry them?” Azrael asked.

“Not yet, but I think I could probably buy a purse of some kind tomorrow in town,” Teyva said, scratching at her chin before finally showing mercy on Nephral and calling over her Mockeries. The flying coins landed, retracting their wings into their amorphous bodies before returning to the shape of coins. They scuttled into Teyva’s lap. They opened their eyes and mouths, hissing at Nephral as he approached. Nephral stared at the creatures and seemed to wilt a little, his white wings folding up against his sides.

“Hey now!” Teyva scolded, “Be nice to Nephral, he’s family.”

The mockeries hesitated and then returned to her side. They slowly climbed up Teyva’s arm one at a time to bunch around her shoulders. Nephral quietly stepped into her lap and lay down, burying his face against her leg. Teyva looked down at the feline and then up at Azrael. Azrael smiled and leaned up against the wall with Teyva. The two stared into space for a while before Azrael got down to business.

Teyva and Azrael were up late into the night, going over various uses for Teyva’s powers and strategies to make use of them in a fight. It wasn’t proper training by any means and Teyva had no illusions she could take on someone half as good as Azrael in a straight-up fight. At the very least though she had some ideas for how she could use her abilities to stay alive. As they talked, Teyva slowly summoned more and more Mockeries, resting between bursts to recover mp with the help of the sleeping Nephral.

At some point, after midnight she got a notification.

“Thirty,” Teyva said tiredly, nodding to the pile of writhing gold coins at her feet. “Looks like that’s my limit.”

“That would be one terrible way to die,” Azrael said with a shudder as one of the Mockeries opened its horrible mouth and yawned.

Teyva smiled at it; “You know, a small part of me knows I should be frightened of them,” She admitted, “But for some reason, I can’t help but adore them. They’re so precious.”

“Sometimes summoners develop an attachment to their creations, but I’ve never seen one this strong,” Azrael said, “It was one reason why my teachers warned me against summoning magic.”

“Huh,” Teyva grunted. Her mind drifted a bit, the cloudy feeling of exhaustion weighing heavy on her mind. She rolled her head to the right to glance at Azrael only to find her friend fast asleep. She smirked and rested her head against the wall. Right, sleep wasn’t a bad idea.

The two of them woke the next morning to the noise of activity in town. People called out to one another as early morning work was underway. They had almost dozed back off when a knock came to the door. This time the door didn’t open immediately and Teyva had enough time to call her Mockeries into her gambeson. It weighed heavily on her with the sheer number of them clinging to the cloth inside. The door opened only after Azrael called out for him to come in and the big orc slipped inside. He inclined his head to the two women.

“I hope you are rested and healed? Sari does good work,” Etal said and paused, taking in Teyva’s new appearance. He blinked a few more times and rubbed his eyes before clearing his throat. “All better?”

Teyva rolled her arm and glanced at her stats before turning to inspect Azrael. They both were back at one hundred percent. “Looks like we’re in good shape,” Teyva said, getting to her feet. Etal glanced down and saw Nephral stalk out from between Teyva’s legs. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. “My familiar,” She explained and knelt to pat the Sphinx on the head. “His name is Nephral.”

“How do you do,” Nephral said in his unsettling baritone.

The orc blinked and then cleared his throat; “Right. Well. There are some folk who would like to see you off this morning. Word has gotten out about what you intend to do today, as well as what you did for my sister, thank you for that by the way.”

“Anytime, you took us in, we can’t thank you enough for that,” Teyva said and glanced at Azrael, “Right Azrael? You’d do anything for Etal here, yeah?”

Azrael gave her a look of mixed rage, confusion, and warning before taking a breath and inclining her head to Etal; “What my friend here means is that I am in your debt for your hospitality.”

He looked between the two women, confusion plain on his face. In the end, he shrugged and thanked them both before slipping out of the building. “I’ll wait outside while you gather your things.” As soon as he shut the door Azrael gave Teyva an elbow to the side. Teyva laughed and walked over to the pile of stuff she had pulled out of her [Old Satchel]. The two put on their footwear, Teyvas having to be put in her inventory and re-equipped from there in an attempt to make them fit magically. To her relief that worked.

“You ready?” Azrael asked, standing at the door.

“As I’ll ever be."