(Vol 2) Chapter 11: Fresh New Ending

“That is a nice bed.” Azure was at the doorway, taking an appreciative look around, then closing and latching the door. She leaned her back against it and sighed tiredly. “It’s been kind of a long day.”

“Yeah.” Sammy stood. “I’ll let you do your routine and crash. Just make it look like I’m under the covers.”

Azure nodded, walking over and putting her hand on her goddess’s shoulder with an expression of sympathy. “You did well. I know it’s difficult for you not to be your epic self. Sorry about the discomfort. Dart made it extra awkward.”

Sammy shrugged with a smirk. “It was a good one. I’ll get him back. No big deal. I mean, what, they think we’re randy? So’s everyone else here! There’s an army on this property and they weren’t delivered by storks! Anyway… this was a good experience and I like these people. I learned some things and made some friends. A good cap to my arrival.”

Azure grinned pleasantly. “I’m happy to hear it, Dearest Kallio.”

Keeping in character, are we…

A hug was dangerous right then, so Sammy did a ‘chip off the ole block’ pat on the shoulder maneuver before turning away, to walk around the bed. She paused briefly, to undo the laces of her boots and pull them off, setting them in view at the foot of the bed.

“Kallio?” Azure had stood there watching her the whole time, at most setting down the case for her flute.

“Yes, Glaysha?”

Her mouth opened as if she’d say something else, but it finally closed into a polite smile while she said simply, “Goodnight.”

Sammy nodded with an answering small smile, then sat down on the floor on the opposite side of the bed from the door. She began closing her eyes and focusing on Dematerialization.

Heaven help me, she is into me. Or thinks she is. It’s way too quick on the rebound, and I obviously have an allure that does things to people. Fucking hell. Why wouldn’t I, why wouldn’t a goddess innately do so? We’re supposed to conquer the lands or whatever. Influence the powerful. No. I can’t trust what I do to mortals.

She felt herself slowly fade, and in the last few moments, rapidly disintegrate, then re-integrate seated on her throne in her demiplane. She took a breath. It felt odd after all her time in-world. Not quite stepping into a dream, but definitely like stepping into a separate virtual reality. Things were either not as real, more real, or both. Different, in any case.

Shortly after she appeared, Azure contacted her. “Your Majesty, I was meaning to ask you something. The pool dream incident. We should have some sort of encore, but more willingly. It would be a nice way for everyone to meet, don’t you think?”

“It’s a nice thought. I could ask. Perhaps a more… clothed affair would work for everyone.”

“Yes! Precisely. You could do a ball or something like that. And another time, perhaps just the girls at the pool, if that would be more comfortable.”

“Not giving up on that one, huh?”

“Certainly not, Your Majesty.”

“Fair enough. We’ll see how it goes. Goodnight, Azure.”

“Goodnight, Samantha.”

The first thing that popped up to Sammy’s perceptions was the Naugite archer she had trapped in a Maze. The dead woman. She wasn’t exactly stressed out, at least. She was fishing, with multiple buckets of fish around her. A small frown was on her face.

Sighing, knowing she had to face this consequence sooner or later, Sammy created a semblance of herself to appear inside the trap, folding space into the shape of her common ‘casual’ outfit, immediately behind the woman, who was sitting on a small crate.

“Hey,” Sammy called simply.

The woman screamed and jumped up, pulling a knife and spinning around in alarm, her red eyes wide as they could go. “Wh-who the fuck are you?!”

Sammy made the wind blow dramatically to catch the skirts of her robes and her hair, in a super cool way. “Your captor. Closer to my actual appearance, in this case.”

“What? A woman?! A witch? It was a fuckhead sounding guy before!”

“Yes. A deception.”

“It fucking figures! Why?” The Naugite had not lowered her knife.

Sammy raised her chin, to look at the woman with heavy-lidded, mysterious eyes. “I’ll make you a deal, archer. You tell me all about why you were attacking that ship — everything about that ship and the captain — and I’ll tell you about all the whys. I’ll give it to you straight, brutal, real. And we can see how we’ll resolve it.”

Sammy felt a bit bad about the manipulation, but she needed answers before the woman quite possibly (and understandably) turned into a sobbing, distraught mess when she was told the truth.

And I’m the closest thing to her killer she’ll ever know. Unless she looks in the mirror, I suppose.

The Naugite woman stared at Samantha for a long moment, shaking her head in confusion, but finally she lowered her guard. Her eyes shifted over to the buckets of fish… every fish was a clone of another, and quite weird-looking. Like they’d been brought to life from a child’s hastily drawn imagining of a tuna.

Yeah, well, I was in a rush at the time, sue me…

The archer shook her head, took a deep breath, then dropped the knife to clatter on the deck. “You can do whatever you want to me, here, can’t ye? This is all a big farce.”

“Maybe. Do we have a deal or not?”

This made the woman sniff in mild, bitter amusement. “Yes. Ask your damn questions.”

“Why was the ship there? The ships, plural, I suppose.”

“Big-time coin from the Church. They got everybody wrapped into this dumbass war of the Demon King. Though some say he’ll win. Dominate the world. S’all horseshit if you ask me.”

“And what were they paying for exactly?”

“Whatever orders he had delivered. Wrae Wrae and that witch o’ his did nay allow none of his ilk onboard, though. That was part o’ the agreement. Last order was to take or take down any ships leaving or going to Fobent, and especially leavin’. We were spread thin, all these damn ships, since he has the bulk up and around the Crescent. But we got put close to the Wing o’ Hisbinnia, where most would make the turn sharp away from land to make for Geirkos.”

The Naugite woman scoffed. “Did nay even catch a sight of yer precious ship from there. Yer cap’n must’ve cut early ‘afore the Wing. But that godsdamned witch Telekek just starts barking to set out, saying her spirits saw it. Off we went, and ‘afore dark, we saw ye. Wrae Wrae was laughing, saying he smelled a fight. Sure enough.”

Zadkiel got two of my people killed. Though not deliberately, I guess. Trying to keep news suppressed as long as possible. But if Orswyth had been killed? Tashome? He’s lucky they didn’t.

Sammy nodded thoughtfully, looking out across the pretend sea. “The other ship, launching alchemist’s fire at us… that was a calculated risk, then. It might’ve burned down.”

The archer shrugged. “Telekek can put out any fire. Some fucking witchery o’ hers.”

“I see. So the plan was still to capture the vessel.”

“If ye hadn’t fought back at the start, maybe alive too. And maybe even after a few exchanges. But when the black flag was raised, that was to declare a fight and yer painful death, to a man.”

“That didn’t work out.”

The Naugite swallowed visibly while staring at Samantha. “Will ya tell me what happened, then? Are we captured? Who’s left? Will we be put to death? Don’t drown me, that’s all I ask. Hangin’, off with the head, stab me in the damn gut, but not a drowning. Please.”

Sammy stared at the archer and felt profoundly sad for her. “What is your name, archer?”

“Most call me Blum.” She paused, hesitated, then reluctantly blurted out, “Mum was a weirdo. Named me Rose In Bloom. Don’t tell anybody else! Ain’t no pirate's name. But someone ought to know, I figure. Someone that'll live on.”

Smiling slightly though she felt even worse, Sammy put a hand over her heart. “I swear that I won’t. But I like it.”

Blum grimaced and waved her hand dismissively with a “Bahh!”

“I told you I’d give it to you straight…” Sammy sighed and squeezed her eyes shut briefly. “After you were trapped here in mind and spirit, something — I don’t know what — happened to your body. It was… injured. Killed. I’m sorry, but… I can’t return you to your body… you’re dead.”

Blum stared back at her for a too-long moment. “Dead. I’m dead?” Her voice was faint.

Sammy nodded soberly. “If I release you now, you’ll reincarnate as normal for the System. Otherwise… well, whatever you like, I guess. For a while. I have complete control here.”

The Naugite’s eyes shifted to look out at the sea. In her distress, she’d gone a paler color. She stumbled over to the crate to sit down, practically falling into it. Sammy walked around so she was beside her, kicking a dead, ugly fish out of the way to get to the railing and lean on it.

“Knew it was all strange,” Blum muttered, mostly to herself. “Off. No body… yeah. It’s true, isn’t it? I’m a buoy that’s snapped, an’ now I’m out driftin’...”

“An apt analogy, Rose In Bloom. I would have returned you if I could. Even though your pirate buddies and you killed some of mine. Half the crew, including the captain.”

“Not my buddies. I’m a mercenary… a marine. I was there for the coin. Fuck… I knew this would get me killed, I knew it…” Blum’s eyes regarded Samantha. “I told ye to piss off, called ye a fuckhead, and ye were just gonna let me go?”

“That’s correct.”

“When ye could’ve tortured me? Punished me? Drowned me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I’m not big on unnecessary death, nor pain. I feared they would kill you if I held you too long. Also, you didn’t seem to have much of a guilty conscience but didn’t strike me as maliciously cruel, either. Intuition, maybe. Besides, your innate rebellious reaction was kind of amusing in a way. Like, who would do that? I think you earned your… hypothetical release.”

“It was stupid. I was angry, felt like a dumb rube. I do stupid shit when I’m angry… s’why I had to end up fightin’ for a living, I guess.” She looked out at the sea, squinting, contemplating. “How long do I have here? In this afterlife.”

Sammy blinked. “Afterlife?” I guess that’s what it is… “Up to seven years. I can’t hold you longer. Whatever you like, but… I can’t do extremely complex people and stuff like that. Limited by my imagination, here.”

“Seven years of no striving… no sleeping with one eye open worried about the fuckers all around me… no putting arrows through people… seems like heaven instead of hell.”

Sammy didn’t say anything, just studied the woman as she looked out, a hand idly rubbing her face as she was lost in introspection.

Finally, Blum broke her gaze, glancing at Samantha, then at the fish on the boat. She winced. “Could ya fix the fish? They’re disgusting, and they all look the same. And the shits are too easy to hook.”

Sammy laughed. “You want to keep sailing and fishing?”

“Why not? Always wanted my own ship. Ye did good on that. She’s a nice one. Can I name her? The Last Gasp. Seems right, I think.”

Smiling, Sammy dipped her head in the granting of a boon to a subject. “Of course… Captain Blum.”

The Naugite archer’s eyes widened, and then a smile broke out. “Captain Blum! It’s got a nice ring to it.”

Sammy set up everything a little more to Blum’s liking on the Last Gasp. She took tips on the fish to have them look right and to add variety. Listened carefully to model behavior, and make it more than a cakewalk to find and catch them. She added a magic stove to cook on. A magic ‘freezer,’ which Blum was absolutely amazed by. A pipe and weed to smoke. A pack of cards.

A white-furred cat with little bells on a collar, as a pet — something Blum had always sworn she’d own one day, since she was a ‘wee tike’. Her smile was one as if from such childhood at seeing that feline jog up to her, bells lightly jingling. She knelt down and scratched under its chin, face painted with joy.

The hidden quest “Fresh New Ending” is complete. 11 FE gained. 1 exp [Goddess] granted.

When Sammy returned to her throne, she sat back in it, feeling much more at peace about the entire incident. The woman was a killer, perhaps what most would call scum, and she’d essentially just paid the price such risk-takers knew they’d inevitably pay one day.

In the end, Blum felt lucky for the mercy she’d obtained, and aimed to take advantage of it. There was never even a shred of blame directed at Samantha for her role in the archer’s death. No resentment, no hatred. She accepted her fate as her own.

Sammy smirked when she realized that, ironically, she’d never even given her name. Not who or what she was.

She supposed it didn’t matter.

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« (Vol 2) Chapter 10 | Table of Contents | (Vol 2) Chapter 12: All Natural Fibber »

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Samantha, Virgin Goddess of Mirrors & Illusion
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Goddess Level 2 [12/20]; Minor Deity

Domains (3/4): Mirrors, Illusion, Fate
Faith Energy: 361/2500
FE (Mirrors): 6 ; FE (Illusion): 9 ; FE (Fate): 10
Followers: 34 (Daily FE Gain: 43 [47])

Devout: 6
Priests: 3

Brute: 0
Rogue: 0
Wizard: 1 [13/20]
Bard: 0 [5/10]

MP: 9/26

Special Skills: First Aid, Tarot Reading, Priestly Ordination, Holy Relic Investiture, Create Servitor, Read Runes, Spell Construction, Detect Magic

Special Traits: Token User, Immortal, Demiplane Domain, Conceptual Body, Fueled By Faith, Avatar (Samantha; Core)

Spells: Identify (5 MP), Icebolt (3 MP)

Powers: Faith Energy Utilization, Grant Prayer (Illusion), Grant Prayer (Fate), Mirror Sense, Mirror Communication, Intuition, Alter Fate, Create Illusion, Grant Invisibility, Dazzling Spectrum, False Auras, Mirroring Duplicates, Reflect Force, Mirror Maze

Status: Token User Promotional Bonus (8/30), Free Minor Divine Enchantment (Accessory; 1-use)

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Note: Next up is some work on an existing quest, a certain new section of realm creation, then some setup for bouncing back to another previously foreshadowed element...