Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

798 - Thrice Enshadowed

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“I’ll be...fine...”

From his vantage point a short distance from the two, Lex clearly registered Solvei’s dissatisfaction with Silla’s answer to her question, frowning at the injured warrior. “We’re at the edge of the forest. It’s not very likely that anything will bother you here if you want to rest some more. Or at least, nothing you can’t handle.”

She managed a smile at that last part, and Silla returned it wanly. “The way I...am now...I doubt that...I could defeat...a newborn pup...” he murmured, leaning his head back as he took a moment to catch his breath. “Besides...the tribe...must be told...”

He paused then, and out of his peripheral vision Lex caught sight of Silla looking his way, his strained grin giving way to a frown. “Everything...”

More anxiety came from Solvei then, but Lex ignored it in favor of continuing to look the area over via the magical spectrum, finding what he’d been looking for a moment later. “Here,” he announced, lifting the pair of sickles in his telekinesis and floating them over to the downed adlet. “Your weapons.”

Practically snatching the weapons out of the roiling purple aura, Silla closed his eyes as he gripped them tightly, a shudder running through him. Solvei didn’t miss the opportunity to send a smile Lex’s way. Thank you, Master. For a warrior to return without their weapons is a sign of cowardice in our tribe. I wanted to at least spare Silla that.

His wounds should be proof enough that he didn’t turn and run, responded Lex matter-of-factly. Despite his having done his best to heal the adlet, Silla was still in bad shape. Beyond his missing leg, Lex’s imperfectly-augmented healing spell had left scars where his cuts were, and although his restorative spell had recovered much of the adlet’s stamina, it couldn’t make up for the blood he’d lost, nor the fact that he hadn’t eaten since losing consciousness.

Solvei’s smile faltered, likely coming to the same conclusion about the injured warrior’s state. Yes, they should be.

But Silla himself seemed unconcerned, taking a deep breath as he opened his eyes. “Alright...I’m going...”

Solvei’s ears flattened at that. “Try not to push yourself, okay? Taking to the wind can still be tiring, and right now you need to pace yourself.”

“I’ll...be careful...” murmured Silla, tucking his sickles into his belt. “You do...the same...”

Nodding, Solvei hesitated for a moment, then pulled the warrior into a hug. “Remember what I said, okay? This isn’t the end of your life as a warrior. So don’t do anything foolish before we come back with everyone.”

Lex scowled at that, watching as Silla’s brows rose before he slowly hugged Solvei back. “But I can...do something foolish...after that, right?”

Giving a soft laugh, Solvei released him, stepping back. “Sure, since Yotimo and the others will be there to stop you.”

“Just so long...as you’re...there too...” smiled Silla, though his expression turned grim when he looked at Lex. “Take care...of her...”

The animal inside of him gave an indignant snarl at being lectured by wounded prey, but he fought it down, instead giving a curt nod. “I intend to.”

Silla stared at him for a moment before grunting, directing his gaze skyward as his body began to turn translucent. Several seconds later he was little more than a humanoid-shaped patch of mist, flying upward to hover in the air for a moment before flying away.

Solvei watched him go, crossing her arms under her chest as she fidgeted in place. “He’ll be fine,” she murmured quietly. “There isn’t much that can catch up to an adlet in that form, let alone actually hurt one. He’ll make it back without any problems.”

“Right now we should be more worried about the adlets that were abducted,” announced Lex. “He said they were being taken to Hvitdod’s lair. Do you know where that is?”

She paused for a moment, then shook her head. “Hvitdod dwelt north of here, where to this day the dragon’s rampages have left the land barren and the hunting poor, but I don’t know the exact location.”

Biting her lip, she glanced around them. “Master, how are we going to find them? There’s still a lot of blood from the attack, but other than that, there aren’t any tracks to follow! And without knowing exactly where Hvitdod’s lair is-”

“Then the best tactical option is to pinpoint its location as soon as possible, and try to get there before Sissel and her prisoners,” concluded Lex. “Since she and her siblings are covering their tracks, it’s better to beat them to their location, scout the area, and set up an ambush so that we can take them unaware. That’s our best chance of defeating them and freeing the adlets.”

Solvei drew in a slow breath, and Lex waited for her to point out the major flaw in that plan.

“Master...if what Sissel said is correct, and Hvitdod is alive...your strategy means that we’ll have to fight it. The legends all agreed that the dragon was extremely aggressive, and slew all that approached it. Trying to set up an ambush anywhere near its lair isn’t something it will overlook.”

“I know,” answered Lex, recalling when Akna had told him what she knew of Hvitdod, just before they’d reached the Shrine of the Starless Sky. “And Sissel knows that too; in all likelihood, she’s anticipated everything I just outlined, and is already making preparations to avoid the trap she knows we’ll have waiting for her so that she can get whatever it is Hvitdod has that she wants. Which is why we’re going to follow a different course of action.”

Solvei was silent for a long moment, and Lex registered bewilderment, then amazement, then excitement. “Which is?”

“The one Sissel’s worked hardest to prevent us from taking, and so is least expecting,” answered Lex. “We follow her trail, and catch up to her before she ever reaches the dragon.”

Her enthusiasm dimming slightly, Solvei glanced around, as though expecting to catch sight of some tracks which had eluded her up until now. “But Master, how are we going to do that?”

A smirk crossed Lex’s lips then, as he began to mentally order his tulpa to bring forth copies of the religious paraphernalia that he’d seen in the Shrine of the Starless sky. “By having faith.”

Then he began casting another of his newfound divine spells.

The liturgy was long, requiring several minutes of chanting prayers to the Night Mare, praising her as an exemplar of all that ponies should strive for and subjugate those who lacked the will to follow in her hoofprints. It was only toward the end that the recitation changed, calling upon the goddess to recognize his worthiness to use one of her divine minions, entrusting her to send forth one skilled and cunning that would serve him faithfully and true.

Around him, the candles that his tulpa had brought forth – and which had burst into soft blue flames that shed no heat during his prayers – flared up, the azure fires climbing higher despite having been fed no additional fuel. Solemnly picking up the thin razor of black crystal that his tulpa had also made, Lex held it in the flames of the nearest candle, watching as a thin layer of frost formed on the blade.

After several seconds, he withdrew it, eyeing it just for a moment before turning to the large urn set before him. Filling it with snow, he plunged his left claw into it and waited, letting his body heat melt the frozen mass. It was only when it had turned to water that he closed his eyes, calling upon the Charismata to sanctify the water.

Upon feeling the divine power suffuse the liquid, Lex withdrew his claw from the urn, which he then overturned onto the razor, whispering another prayer to the Night Mare. Slowly, he rose up on his hind legs, bringing the blade around to his other claw. Despite his potent natural defenses, the anointed blade cut through his palm just as easily as the neart a’staigh had.

Fortunately, this spell’s casting was nowhere near as elaborate as the ceremonial invocation had been, and so called for only a small amount of his own blood to be shed. Specifically, just enough to quench the flames of each candle, Lex silently bearing the pain of the super-cooled flames – which, being another manifestation of the Night Mare’s power, completely bypassed the ward against cold that Solvei had previously placed on him – as his blood dripped down and snuffed the wicks one by one.

And when the last candle was finally quenched, and he heard Solvei gasp, Lex knew that his spell had worked.

“The Night Mare bids me to appear before you, who has Her favor,” came a hushed voice, female in tenor, from behind him. “I am called Nisha, and in the goddess’s name I offer you my service.”

“ “ “Command me, so that I might draw/avoid/earn Her praise/wrath/forgiveness.” ” ”

The three identical voices – each a perfect match for the original speaker – speaking over each other, their statements not quite in unison, made Lex frown as he turned in place. The spell should only have called a single servitor of the Night Mare’s from Darkest Night, so why-

Then he got a look at exactly what he’d brought forth.

Standing a short distance away was a black wolf.

The sight of it made Lex tense up, flashing back to the creatures he’d encountered just a few hours previous, when his inner beast had overwhelmed him. It took only a moment’s examination, however, for him to see that the similarities between those creatures and this one were superficial.

Unlike those wolves, this one was smaller – roughly the same size as himself – and only had four legs instead of six. But any appearance of normalcy that it might have possessed was ruined by its eyes, which seemed to lack irises or pupils altogether, being a uniform shade of purple that glowed with a soft luminescence that was visible even to Lex’s darkvision, which shouldn’t have been able to register anything except shades of black and white. Indeed, that was stark enough that he almost overlooked the patch of grey fur forming a ring around its neck, the shape so jagged and irregular that it took him a few moments to realize that it approximated the appearance of barbed wire.

But all of that mattered less to him than the wolf’s shadow.

Or rather, shadows, as there were no less than three of them trailing behind its body at different angles.

That shouldn’t have been the case. Not only should his darkvision seen through a mere lack of light, the local area simply wasn’t bright enough to cast any shadows; even with the snow amplifying what little illumination remained from the rapidly-fading dusk, it was far too diffuse to outline anything. And yet the black wolf in front of him was casting three clearly-defined shadows on the ground behind her, as though spotlights were shining on it – no, on her – from different directions simultaneously.

If Lex was shocked by that, though, Nisha seemed no less surprised as she got a good look at him, drawing in a sharp breath as her eyes went wide. “A bloodstained horn. The goddess’s symbol etched into his flesh. A servant the color of snow. You’re him! Lex Legis!”

“ “ “The bearer of the Charismata/wielder of Severance/vanquisher of White Wraith!” ” ”

The overlapping voices sent a shudder down Lex’s spine.

Just like he’d suspected, they had come from Nisha’s shadows. And that was enough to let him recognize them for what they were: rogue portions of her own mind, given semi-independence. That they were able to speak out loud was unprecedented, their lack of animosity toward her was curious, and the fact that she had three was nothing short of astounding, but the dissimilarities weren’t enough to shake Lex’s conclusion, immediately identifying Nisha’s condition.

Tulpas.

The wolf in front of him was afflicted with tulpas.

Author's Note:

Calling forth a divine servant of the Night Mare, Lex is shocked to find that the one who appears is suffering from the same affliction that he recently mastered!

What is Nisha, and why does she have multiple tulpas?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Hmm, I sense another opportunity for Lex to learn how to utilize his own tulpa in other areas than the ones he has learned. Perhaps that is why Nisha was summoned...

Also, it seems that Lex's reputation among the Night Mare's realm has grown even further though some may be outdated given that he no longer wields Severance.

[harts fire]

hum interesting Nisha i am wondering just how much she will be allowed to help.

[Booster Spice]

Very intresting. A temporary or permanent follower, with some intriguing variations.

An awakened anamial, or deific polymorphed adventurer?

Tulpas, or her transformed cubs as punishment, given the charismata snare or Night mark would be Suicide Squad otherwise?

[Alzrius]

11504318 It's clear that Lex has some fame (or perhaps "notoriety" is the better word) among the denizens of the Night Mare's realm. We've known that ever since Harrowing Ordeal taunted him about it back in Chapter 396, though in this case it does seem like some of the information is either outdated, incomplete, or been distorted, what with the reference to Severance. But that's probably inevitable, given the lack of mass communication; when everything's a game of telephone, inaccuracies are a given.

The funny thing, at least for me, was that Nisha's character wasn't supposed to be introduced until later in the story, based on the outline I've made (which admittedly exists only in my head), and under very different circumstances. But when I noted that Lex's Wisdom score had gone up by 1, that gave him access to 4th-level clerical spells as per The Inner Fire (Eclipse: The Codex Persona, page 120), I couldn't not have one of those spells be lesser planar ally, since it fit so well with the Night Mare's theme in general and with what Lex has been going through in particular. Naturally, that sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole, and the result is that Nisha's character had some last-minute changes made, and she debuted early.

Things like this are how the story manages to keep surprising even me, and I'm the one writing it!

[Alzrius]

11504361 That's actually a very insightful question, based on what I suspect is going to happen in the next chapter.

[Alzrius]

11504377 Normally, the d20 System is very stingy with granting permanent followers...or at least, granting them for nothing. That's because companion characters tend to exist in a grey area between who controls them, the GM or the player running the PC that they follow. There's no real consensus there (though I note circumstantial evidence suggesting that it falls more on the GM's side of things), but the general idea is that the more closely they're bonded, the more they're basically another PC that the player gets to run.

So some mercenaries that the PC hires are entirely under the control of the GM; they might abandon, betray, or otherwise break from the PC when the GM feels it's appropriate. A cohort and followers that the PC gets because they took the Leadership feat have guidelines with regard to their loyalty, so they're still under the GM's control, but will generally do what the PC says so long as the "leadership score" is kept sufficiently high. Animal companions and special mounts (for druids/rangers and paladins, respectively) are treated as having some level of mystical bond, and so are often allowed to be played as extensions of the PCs they're attached to, and that's even more the case for wizards' familiars.

In each case, you can see a level of escalation with regard to the game mechanics used, representing a greater in-character bond. Just paying some mercenaries represents nothing but a loss of gold, while taking a feat represents a greater personal investment, but nothing too substantial. A class feature, by contrast, is a major investment on the character's part, being essentially part of who they are more than anything they do (though even then, there are gradations, which is why some bonds are stronger than others).

All of which is to say, you can't really expect to simply cast a spell and get a permanent follower (or at least, not a very powerful one; necromancers who reanimate the dead can innately control some basic undead, but anything more than basic skeletons or zombies requires another method of controlling them).

[TheAbsoluteRadiance]

Lex just summoned a new aid that may be permanent or temporary. Seeing how many tulpas Nisha have The Nighmare could have the mind in her portfolio somewhere and she may be freely giving them out too, I can even see her logic seeing how he resolved himself.

[Alzrius]

11504734 Given that Nisha was sent in response to Lex casting a spell to essentially summon someone who can help with his current task, there's no doubt that the Night Mare thinks that she can be of use to him somehow. Indeed, the fact that she has tulpas of her own is kind of a big flashing sign in that regard. The question now is if Lex will be able to recognize that, and if he'll be able to take advantage of her properly.

The salient question in that regard, which he hopefully can figure out, is if Nisha can simply solve the problem of tracking down Sissel and her captives (rather than trying to get to Hvitdod's lair ahead of them), or if the Night Mare sent her for some other reason...