Chapter 96: Sidestory 4

Auratic

In the late morning, a lithiline girl lolled high upon a tree limb reclining against the main stem. Fresh gusts of cool winds that caused the nearby woods to noisily sough roused her from her languor but for a brief moment. The surrounding woodland and the occasional mountain breeze carrying the chill of night, often reminded her of her home, the gently drifting snowflakes, the nival mountaintops, snow-laden trees of cedar and pine, and of course the snow hares she would hunt. The temperate forest that she was in now was no substitute for the home she matured in, yet she couldn’t help but feel affectionate with it and its untainted nature. Though she had quickly learned that the surrounding natural beauty hid terrible dangers. Giant landwelling avian that waits in ambush, prowling panthera that stalks through the foliage, hairless bears, forest giants and fat ogroids. Few of which she had an unintended confrontation with. It was timely for the canids to arrive.

They guarded this part of the forest, yet it was not their territory. Strangely they followed a large hircine. The caprine in question answered to her new master’s servants. From them emanated an air of danger, one that far outshadowed that of any one monster within the forest, each with different qualities. They always seemed to come up to her unawares until the last moment. These individually powerful… beings… waited upon her master who didn’t have such an atmosphere, rather she had no aura, she had no scent, she had no presence, it was as if she didn’t belong to this world. A spider spirit masquerading as a human, ‘she’ was different from her retainers - whom she could notice their presence eventually. Hers, she couldn’t feel at all, she would only become aware of her existence only after she herself makes her presence known.

Couple of days ago she had made a deal with her to join her cause… Despite the differences, somehow she was persuaded and once the pact was forged, she realized the true depths of her being, the power that she had hid and the nature of the kindred bond. As much as Alicia took from her, there was something to be gained in return, that she found out last night. The night after the kindred bond had formed she had a dream, not like any other. She dreamt about her home, yet it wasn’t her home. The trees were made not of lumber and leaves but from crags and crystals, black snow fell from dark skies with no stars. Ground was bathed in the glow of cosmic blue. Everything felt off, as though it was poorly reconstructed from one’s memory… her memory.

The familiar blended with the unfamiliar, and as she explored the bizarre forest she found herself standing at the start of a strange new path. Ebon stones suspended in air supported twisting and turning, they were like temple steps beckoning her to proceed, and despite the aversion there was a strange compulsion that drew her in, so she had ascended. It felt as if her body was no longer her own and moved according to a will of something greater, something ancient. Up and down lost their meaning as she followed the winding treads that curled into all manner of planes, there was no down for her to fall to for whichever step she stood upon became her ground that pulled her. She went through steps unnumbered and after time untold she had finally found herself at the end of the treads leading to some impersonation of an altar.

Few breadths above hovered a mass of crystal in the shape of a snowflake. In her dream she never found it strange but looking back it was no natural snowflake for it had eight asymmetric points. The crystal invited her through some unknown means and she answered, reaching out to it, just as she had made contact with it, it burst open leaving behind where its center was, a tear in her dreams. Whereby the rift that had opened came a sound most unnerving characterized by crackling and snapping followed by a segmented… tendril. It looked like an appendage of an arachnid, yet by the way which it bent and turned it could never have belonged to a living thing. She now understood what those sounds of crackling were now in retrospect. Those were the sounds of something breaking at each turn the tendril made.

This appendage that should only exist in her nightmares contrarily did not frighten her. Her body was still bound by the unseen will and dared not to move. The tendril changed in its mannerism just as though it had taken notice of her just now. It pointed to her and froze, as if appraising her. At long last, the bounds that had come over her had been released and she could move once more. In a state between awake and dreaming she had become lucid, looking around and aware of her situation. However the dream did not end, the tendril waited, waited for something… waiting for her. It then moved towards her belly, her gaze naturally followed.

There she saw something, lines and lines of… things… glowing through her body. They moved in a tangled mess. There were many of them in great variety and color. Some of it she could see in her limbs too… and she knew these were living creatures, inside her, draining her of life and power, feeding on her. Revulsion and disgust came over to her for a brief moment but then the tendril caught her attention once more again. It said nothing, it made no motion, there was no action that could be correlated with any attempts of communicating but she knew through some preternatural medium precisely what it conveyed.

An offer has been made, a trade of give and take, it would take the… organisms… that plagued her body, ridding her of their malignance and in turn it would give her… something. She knew now why her will had returned to her. It was giving her a choice… to take its… gifts or refuse it. Thinking clearly for the moment she thought through her options and accepted it. These… worms that prevaded her body clearly did no good. There was nothing to lose by giving them away and in return she would get something. If it's anything that could help her survive, she would take it. And as she made that decision, the tendril pierced her in the abdomen wherefrom insufferable pain radiated.

Looking down onto her belly she saw the writhing creatures glow bright orange, like coals pulled out of a furnace. Instinctively she held onto the protuberance involuntarily, to ease the pain. Driven by the whips of agony, she exhibited immense strength, with such power and intensity that she could almost feel her arm muscles shred and tear, all of that did nothing to hinder the tendril. No amount of brute force could overcome its otherworldly might. A scalding pain as if her stomach was being marked by a branding iron spread through her belly. Her eyes started to water, obstructing her vision, yet still she could make out what was happening to her body. The appendage that pierced her guts were drawing those creatures in, devouring them. Those were the last things she remembered from the strange dream. She had most certainly passed out from pain shock, unable to tolerate the excruciating anguish.

Despite the grim conclusion of her dream this morning she had woken up well rested and full of energy. What she believed was just a strange dream had become more real to her than she had previously assumed when she discovered that after investigating a lingering heat from her belly, she had some sort of alien iconography on her stomach from where she was impaled by that… thing from her dreams, warm to the touch, burning from within. Before worry overcame her the heat subsided before long. She could infer that most of her newfound vigor was the result of that entity… ‘cleaning’ her of those parasitic creatures.

The other part of her power was most likely given to her. As she eyed a common chiffchaff sitting on a twig looking around itself cautiously, her claws started to protrude more and gained a tint of dark violet. As soon as the tiny bird took off to the skies far out of the reach of any terrestrial being;

in a single swift ‘jump’ that tore through the veil between worlds she had snatched the bird mid-flight, now standing anchored to nothing, upside down in the air she held its fragile life between the tips of her claws. Against her nature, she gently patted the little bird and let it fly once more. Although to a bystander it seemed as though she was flying, there was more to it than what meets the eye. The constructs of the void was invisible to the unbaptised.

When she recalled her time in that strange dream, she could pull it into the real world. By summoning ‘platforms’ composed of ebonstone from that changed the direction of gravitational pull her dream, those who made contact with it could travel in any plane imaginable. But only she could touch the treads, as only she overcame the trial of the temple steps. Now the limitless steps leading to the altar and its mind-boggling geometry that warped gravity itself was now hers to command. She returned to the ground by dismissing the tread that bound her to the skies to return to Rosalia’s room. Though she disliked how clingy the human girl could be at times, she didn’t dislike her company.

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‘The new limbs…(?) from therianthropy are useful in multitasking… I never knew how helpful an extra set of… appendages could be. The whole last few months have been about making strange discoveries. Though it should be mentioned that the limbs are quite flimsy, just by size and mass alone. So it won’t be taking over mimicry any time soon. However it does give the ability to climb walls without having to turn fully into a spider, not that they ever became an obstacle for me. As for their offensive capacities… it is quite limited, rather I would consider them a liability due to just how fragile they are… but in a pinch, the claws at the end of the limbs could be used to stab or scratch something… lace it with venom and it might do ‘something…’ that’s better than nothing I suppose.

As for the mobility part… it is depressing to even think about it… The limbs cannot support my body, not that they don’t have the strength. It is just that trying to balance my entire mass on what is basically two spindly stilts doesn't come naturally to me. Walking on them is even more awkward than trying to walk around in high heels, which is strange now that I think about it. I thought it would be easier if you’re a female… which I am now. Do girls take a secret training of walking with high heels that I don’t know about…?

November and her kin have already started to put therianthropy into good use especially in making new clothes. The time investment of creating a new clothing from scratch decreased greatly. A single Crypt weaver could make about two to three articles of clothing in a 24 hour span, now they can consistently make more than five in the same amount of time, that is about a fifty percent increase in productivity. Too bad I'm not half as good at manipulating my new limbs… well I don’t think there’s any other person out there with spider limbs coming out of their back…

At least someone is making good use of the skill… that’s all I could hope for.

‘Thanks to Kindred I learned some interesting facts about Grimalkin or Lithilines in general. Although not traditionally a spellcaster it seems that they are nonetheless able to use magic to a lesser degree. I’ve noticed that they can channel their magical energy through their body and express it through their claws which enhances their attack power somewhat. The internal circulation of magical energy also seems to contribute to their enhanced well… every athletic feat they possess. Jumping, running, hand to hand combat? Is it paw to paw…? Unarmed…? No they have claws… that's cheating… Err… close quarter combat capabilities, heightened sense of scent, sight, hearing all of it is improved by their magic, they just don’t consciously think about it so they don’t even know that they’re using magic.

Though frost seems to have earned new talent… from the void. Which showed up on her belly of all places… the symbol looks like a child tried to mash the  fast-forward video icon with the pause symbol with some sort of interpretive lines… I honestly don’t know what to make of it. However I noticed that she could make a small leap similar to trespass. Unlike trespass she doesn’t fully step into the void but rather… tears a rip in space that brings void to the world, large enough to make a path in which she could travel at accelerated speed. Concerningly, her claws imbued with the void’s energies can slice through solid rocks like hot knives through  butter… Good thing she’s with us… Now if only I could somehow make myself a some sort of void-cat proof scratching post, that would be great. Especially when rocks are not enough to satisfy her need to scratch things… I wonder if I could trick her into cutting stones for me……’

Auratic

Also this is a chiffchaff.

Sounds british.

btw grimalkin/tundramorphs most have tabby fur patterns with rarer tricolor(calico) patterns and are based on Siberian and Norwegian forest cats. Here's a reference.

Also did I mention I originally aimed for 3.5 rating or above average. This series currently as the time me writing this has 4.4 aggregate. I think i reached that goal, what do you think? By the by next month's special, guess what it is.

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