Chapter 126: Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Three: Power Fluctuation in LT

Qube dreamed. 

 

She was immersed in numbers, and constantly fluctuating equations. She was travelling somewhere, reaching out for answers amongst the formulas that flickered like stars. 

 

Was she doing the right thing? Was she being Good? Could she fix everything? Could things even be fixed? Was the Evil Emperor really Evil? How did he feel about being controlled by the Dark Prophecy? 

 

Would she be able to face him without wanting to kill him for what he’d done to her people?

 

She knew she should be compassionate, should think about how little choice he’d probably had, how he’d been forced into it, but she couldn’t summon more than a shred of empathy. Instead, when she thought of him, she felt white-hot rage burn through her. It was scary, how intense the emotion was, but also somehow exhilarating.

 

The numbers flew by, faster and faster, although she felt like she was somehow standing still. Their movement mirrored the swirling thoughts in her mind, and made her feel dizzy. 

 

The movement-without-moving slowed, and she was travelling towards a castle built of numbers. Closer, and closer, until she passed through insubstantial walls that flickered equations at her. She was pulled into a huge hall with high arches overhead and hundreds of doorways lining the walls. It was filled with numbers, save a small hole torn in the numbers, next to a jagged chair that overlooked the room.

 

In said chair there was a man made of maths. He was big, with a cape that shifted as the numbers changed. Why was he there? Did he have answers? Did he need her help? She reached out, and saw him mirror the action, his giant hand ghosting along her face. His head was a strange shape, oddly spikey.

 

No. That wasn’t a head. That was a helmet.

 

She knew this man.

 

This was the Evil Emperor.

 

The mathematical formulas vomited out of his eyes as he looked at her, into her, tens of thousands of tiny numbers twisting towards her, grabbing, pulling at her, trying to take away pieces of her, trying to change her numbers. She staggered back, away from him, throwing up her hand to ward him off when —

 

She was jolted back to awareness by Squiggles launching herself into her lap.

 

“I’m awake!” she shouted into Squiggles’s flank. “I wasn’t asleep!”

 

Nobody paid any attention to her, which was probably just as well.

 

That, Qube thought, had been a particularly disturbing dream. Clearly, sleeping anywhere other than in bed was a bad idea. She hoped that didn’t mean that the Chosen One was having bad dreams. What if he was facing off against a digit-based version of the Evil Emperor too? Or maybe he would dream of fighting against the Evil Devs! That would be even scarier! She would have to warn him about the dangers of non-bed sleeping, and insist on them spending the night in an inn.

 

Also, the music was back. Was it getting louder, or was she just getting better at hearing it? Was she starting to learn combat music? There didn’t seem to be any combat happening though. Maybe this was non-danger music? DId that mean the Chosen One had to listen to this music any time there wasn’t fighting?

 

That would be so annoying!

 

“Thank you, Lady Squiggles,” Sewer Bard said calmly from somewhere behind the mass of flesh covering Qube’s vision. Oh, yeah. They were in the middle of a Temple. Life or death stuff.

But what about the music? The others had said it was instinct that let them know when there was danger, so it was probably more of a metaphor than literal music. This must just be a side effect of Sewer Bard’s spell.

 

“Although perhaps next time, my little darling, we might be a bit more gentle with waking people, hmm?” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady cooed, scooping up the sharktopus while simultaneously helping Qube up. “The boys are eager to experiment together,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady informed Qube. “They think they’re ready to take it to the next level.”

 

“That is correct,” Definitely Bad Guy said, as Sewer Bard hastily stepped towards Sexy Screamy Spider Lady.

 

“Hunter of my heart!” he started, as the arachnid threw him a saucy look over her shoulder. He seemed to relax at that, and took off his hat, placing it over his chest. “Oh, how you tease me,” he said soulfully.

 

“Oh, how you love to be teased,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady replied, tossing back her hair in an effortless move that Qube secretly envied.

 

Oh no. They were going to start flirting again. Once they began, they could keep it up for hours.

 

“I’ll go cover my ears in the other room then,” Qube said, deliberately leaving it vague as to whether that was in response to their flirting, or the spell. It wasn’t that she had a problem with them flirting, except for the fact that Sexy Screamy Spider Lady was in a passionate romance with the Chosen One, and she was scared that Sewer Bard was going to get his heart broken, and half the time she couldn’t understand what they were saying…

 

But aside from that, no problem at all.

 

Her words seemed to remind the duo of where they were and what they were supposed to be doing, however, and she was quickly joined by everyone except for Sewer Bard. The Bard stood alone in the room full of maybe-constructs, maybe-ghosts and, after glancing back at the group to make sure they were all covering their ears, he began to play.

 

Qube couldn’t hear the song. But she could feel it. It felt similar to her almost-dream, in that it both was and was not real.

 

It was very disorienting.

 

The colour was different now, too! Woven throughout the virulent greens and reds, there were streaks of silver, the same delicate shade as her own mana. She watched as it surrounded the bandage constructs, causing them to violently spasm in place. Then they seemed to settle back down, looking around (as much as creatures without visible eyes could look), their empty mouths open as if they were singing along with the Bard.

 

Then, one by one, they stopped scanning the room, and focused on one spot. One particular object caught their attention, and held it.

 

They were looking at Qube.

 

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Sewer Bard stopped playing, and spun on one foot, giving flourishing bows to all corners of the room. He looked delighted. Qube risked taking her hands away from her ears.

 

“Thank you, thank you!” he was saying to the now silent bandage constructs. “Truly, my greatest performance yet. I see you are all spellbound!” The Bard started laughing to himself.

 

“It appears to have worked,” Definitely Bad Guy said, ruthlessly interrupting the Bard’s self-congratulations. “Now take one of them, and we shall see if it can infect the beetles.”

 

“Why have they stopped singing?” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady asked from the other room. The two men looked at her, each other, and then the bandage constructs.

 

“That remains to be investigated,” Definitely Bad Guy said at the same time Sewer Bard answered, “I don’t know. That’s strange.”

 

After a few seconds, Sewer Bard reached out and gently took one of the bandage construct’s arms. He tugged on it, only for the arm to unravel. He gave it a look of dismay, and the bandage construct held up its arm stump and waved it back and forth in front of its own face. At least it wasn’t eyelessly staring at Qube anymore.

 

“Ah. Oh. Um. This way, please,” Sewer Bard said, desperately attempting to recover. Leading the figure through the chest room, the rest of the party trooped behind him. They reached the beetle room, where the insects were still rolling around. Sewer Bard gently pushed the bandage construct forward and stepped back.

 

The bandage construct and the beetles observed each other.

 

“So when should it spread?” Sewer Bard asked Definitely Bad Guy. “Why isn’t it singing?”

 

If the spell wasn’t supposed to affect them, Qube wondered, why did they need to cover their ears when Sewer Bard performed it? Or had they only meant that the singing afterwards wouldn’t affect them?

 

“Should we be further back?” she asked the Mage and the Bard, drawing back into the chest room The others instinctively clustered around her. “What if —”

 

But before she could continue, the creature began to hum to the bugs.

 

It still wasn’t singing, not in the way that Sewer Bard had sung, and it clashed slightly with the music still playing in the back of Qube’s head, but it seemed more passionate, and directed, than the humming from last time. The beetles, who had stopped their rolling around to watch the party, started shivering in place.

 

After a few minutes the construct stopped humming, and turned around, wandering back towards the other constructs, brushing past the party. The beetles followed after it for a bit, but stopped in the doorway to the chest room, piling up on top of one another.

 

“Interesting,” Definitely Bad Guy said as Sewer Bard backed away from the insect mob and joined the others milling around beside the treasure chest.

 

One of the beetles, who looked like it was from the first wave of bugs hit by Sewer Bard when he initially unleashed his spell, tentatively reached out, and tapped the floor of the chest room. When nothing horrifying happened, it tapped a bit further out. The beetle next to it mimicked it, tapping the sandstone tile next to it.

 

Soon all the beetles were tapping away, some on the tiles, a few on the walls, even a few edging into the chest room just so they could tap something like the others. It was no humming, which was probably a good thing as the mental image of a horde of insects singing had the potential to be horrifying, but it was still noise.

 

The whole party backed away as the tide of beetles rolled into the chest room. Rather than rushing after the bandage construct, however, they seemed content to mill about the chest room, tapping away and rubbing against the walls.

 

Qube looked down at Squiggles, who was watching the beetles with an expression of disgust.

 

“They’re a bit like how you were when we first met,” Qube said to the sharktopus. Squiggles gave her a very unimpressed look. “You were cuter, obviously,” Qube reassured the team mascot.

 

Squiggles snorted.

 

Retreating out of the chest room and back into the bandage room, Qube noticed that the rest of the bandage constructs had started exploring their space. They would shuffle around, moaning and occasionally humming, stopping to stare at various sections of the walls, coffins, and each other.

 

“Does that mean the spell worked?” Qube asked, watching the bandage constructs.

 

“Further research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn,” Definitely Bad Guy said.

 

“That just means you don’t know,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said, frowning slightly. “Well, the poor darlings certainly look like they’re now thinking for themselves. And I don’t feel like I’ve been affected at all. I am still myself, whatever that means.”

 

“I don’t feel any different, either,” Qube said, then paused. Unless… did the dream count? No, she’d been having dreams long before coming to this Temple. Why, she was practically a dream expert at this point! “I have been hearing music, though. Similar to when we were at the circus in the Thorny Crown Trials. So I don’t know if it’s related or not.”

 

The others all looked at each other.

 

“I don’t hear any music,” Sewer Bard said thoughtfully. “Only the song that forever resides in my heart.”

 

“Music thrills me,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said, shifting so she was slightly taller, “but I only hear them.” She waved a claw vaguely in the direction of the bandage constructs. “Have you infected my cute little Healer?” she asked Definitely Bad Guy, raising herself higher still.

 

“I hear no music,” Definitely Bad Guy said worriedly. His eyes flared as he activated a spell and examined Qube. “Given you were hearing music before the spell was even conceived, I find it unlikely to be related.”

 

Squiggles just drooled on Qube’s boots.

 

“Oh,” Qube said, before giving an Understanding Smile. “Well, that’s all right, then! Shall we continue?”

 

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