Time and death intertwined

by SilverHoof1

Flightless

My sword flashed to the right as Inum’s scythe sliced a line towards the side of my head, parrying the strike as my body twisted up and into the air, my arm flicking out almost instantly in a counter. Inum noticed, and frowned in concentration as fire suddenly propulsed the scythe as she let go, letting the blade spin and force me to retreat, creating a foothold out of the darkness of the room to jump away. Another burst of fire slowed the spinning scythe and she grabbed it by the hilt, spinning it in her fingers before going to a ready stance.

Her scythe was black, the metal at the end jagged and sharp like broken glass, while her usual clothes had been replaced by not even her darker robe I had seen her wear before, but a form-fitting black combat suit, allowing her easy mobility. I wasn’t wearing much at all, just some tight workout pants and wrapping to keep my chest from getting in the way. I glanced at my sword, making sure the edge of the weapon created from the night wasn’t damaged from the earlier deflection, but its surface still shined like stars.

I looked up to see a blast of flame heading for me, and I dodged to the left as swift as a cat. That wasn’t quite fast enough though, and the fire grazed the top of my right arm, singeing it a bit. It hurt a little, but instead of taking a second to pause at the pain I kept my forward momentum, using a small aspect of the night to make the weapon appear in my left hand before slashing. Inum was caught off guard, and the butt of her scythe was barely enough to keep the blade from going deep into her side, instead deflecting the edge and causing it to run off of her skin leaving a red line.

She was on guard now, and the swing with the second sword missed completely, Inum launching herself into the air by pushing her scythe into the ground and backflipping in midair, swinging with her momentum towards my head. Both swords flashed into position, and the jagged point of her scythe was stopped cold inches from my face, the force of her swing sending me down to one knee. The point started to extend with blue sparks and I pushed up with both swords,causing her to step back and try to regain her balance. Then with a thrust both swords went deep into her stomach the moment her guard was up.

She cried out in pain and jumped back, causing the swords to leave her stomach in a splatter of red, while all I had to wipe off was a scratch on my left cheek. She was panting, and after watching her for a second I clapped, and suddenly the black, dark room we had been fighting in lit up, then deteriorated. With it went the wounds on our bodies, and she sighed in relief, her scythe poofing away in a small burst of blue fire.

My own swords dissipated with the light, and a bit worried I walked over to her, checking her pulse. “You need to work on utilizing your fire more, you did better but if you had used fire to push me away when I thrusted you could have forced me back,” my voice sounded out a bit horsley, and I cleared it before patting her back.

“Damnit do we have to use the ‘real pain’ simulator when we fight? It feels like i'm dying at the end of our fights,” she whined a bit, rubbing at the spot the swords had gone.

“Sorry Inum, but pain is a motivator, and you wouldn’t have died from that, in fact if you reversed your power over death you probably could have even put the wound into stasis and not felt anything,” I responded flippantly, frowning a bit. Since Inum and I had gotten home, I had asked her for some combat training and she had agreed, since we were both out of practice. Or at the very least I was, she had never trained her skills. The second fight she had done a lot better in the first though, in the first I had to coach her on how to bring out a weapon, and she had been clumsy. She was a fast learner though, and this time had manage to both singe and cut me.

She stopped panting, seeming confused and looked up at me. “I can?”

“Well technically, I mean personifications have a reservoir of power they use to attack and use their special magic, some have a set amount they can use while others have no limit, but instead of a limit their power can physically or mentally hurt them,” I explained, bringing her over to the couch so we could sit while I explained.

“For example your boyfriend Morrow, he has no set amount of power, but his eyes hurt the more he uses it and based on how intensely he messes with time it can hurt more and more, if he pushed as hard as he could he could go partially blind and would need powerful magic to heal it, and if he did that…” I went quiet for a second, thinking before continuing. “I think if he went full power until he couldn’t, he could reverse global time for up to 5 minutes, the size of a city up to 3 hours and the size of a place like this house around a day… if he focused his power into a single spot it could probably rip a hole in time, which would probably act as an instant anti-aging sphere, turning a sword back into ore, or a patch of skin into cells incapable of forming skin,” I finished, frowning a bit. Inum seemed shocked, and looked at her own hands as she made small flickers of flame appear at her fingertips.

I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her too me smiling a bit. “Don’t worry though, for you it's nothing as bad, since you were made early your power isn’t as vast, and you have a limit based on your temperature, if your more cold then its higher and warmer then less, I noticed you used your fire less when you had a cold sweat going,”

“Ah… i see,” she said, frowning a bit. I realized I probably wasn’t exactly cheering her up, and I gave her shoulders a squeeze smiling more. “But anyway your improving a lot in just those two fights, so great job,”

“Thanks,” she responded, and a small smile curled her lips. I sighed softly in relief, then out of the corner of my eye noticed a couple blue feathers fluttering in the air before Pomella decided to jump into both my and Inum’s lap. “Hey there!” she greeted with a squee, taking Inum’s hand in hers before shaking vigorously. While Inum stared at her dumbfounded, my eyes were rapidly switching to the feathers on the floor, and the pomella currently in our laps. Damn, the girl was fast.

Inum gave a shake back, then smiled a bit. “Well hello, i’m guessing you're the one Axia and Morrow brought back?”

“Mhm! My name is Pomella, it's nice to meet you!”

“Its nice to meet you too, I’m Inum,” Inum replied with a wider smile. Pomella smiled just as wide back, before sitting up onto Inum’s lap looking at her. Inum wasn’t exactly the tallest person in the house, but even she was a bit taller in Pomella, the blue ball of excitement a bit bigger than the size of a child. After we had brought her back she had wandered off before the others were back, and I had to guess had been there to great Amelia and Byron when they came back home with Inum.

I reached over and slowly petted Pomella’s hair, smiling a bit myself. The small girl gave a small sound of happiness, and Inum’s eyes got wide and shiny. “Did you just - cute!” Inum wrapped her arms around Pomella, smiling wide as Pomella hugged back, smiling even though I had the feeling she had no idea what was going on. I had to agree with Inum too, the little blue ball of excitement was cute.

Amelia peaked over the couch to my right, smirking evilly as she looked between me and Pomella. She saw the look and smiled, giving a loud “Hey!” as she saw her. Byron walked up behind Amelia and picked her up, slowly tracing the green lines on her body. Her face resembled a smirking cat’s, pointing between me and Pomella as Byron brought her to the opposite couch and placed her in his lap. “Red thread~” she sing-songed, relaxing back against Byron’s chest as I looked to her, confused.

I looked to pomella, but she was currently being pampered by Inum who was fusing over her like a mother. Morrow came over next, smiling and sat down on my right, before saying softly, “Hey Axia, what are your thoughts on Pomella?”

“Hm? Oh, well she is cute but I don’t really feel romantic interest towards her,” I responded, rubbing the back of my head. I didn’t understand how I would be able to fit with the child, especially with how energetic she always was. Right now she looked like she was vibrating in Inum’s lap from all the attention. Morrow considered, then waved to Inum, catching her attention before nodding his head to their room. She tilted her head at him questioningly, but nodded gently sliding Pomella off her lap next to me before getting up and following Morrow into their room. Byron, catching the singal retreated with the still smiling Amelia into their room, leaving me and Pomella alone.

As I looked to her, I noticed immediately how calm she was, especially compared to most times. She looked to me and smiled a slightly shy smile, which seemed to contrast with how she had been since I met her. “Is everything okay?”

“Mm? Oh yeah, I just tend to get excited with others around,” she said embarrassedly, and slowly slipped into my lap, and without thinking about it my arms slowly encompassed her and pulled her closer. She smiled and leaned back a bit, and to our surprise her head was just high enough to find its way past the wrapping on my chest and slip under, leaving her head in the middle of my chest. My cheeks heated, but I didn’t attempt to remove her from the spot. Instead we sat in silence for a second, before she gave a happy sigh and leaned back a bit more. “This is one of the comfiest places i’ve been in a while,”

“W-well, i would hope so…” I mumbled softly, and she giggled pulling her head away looking up at me. “Sorry didn’t mean to do that,” she apologized, and I shrugged. It had been a surprise, but I couldn’t say it had been unpleasant. Her head had been like having air conditioning pressing against my skin, and it had felt nice. “So Pomella, what are you the personification of?” I asked instead, trying to change the topic. She looked confused, tilting her head at me before asking simply, “Your all personifications? What's that?”

“O-oh, you don’t know,” I stammered, surprised. She had seen like one who would know, but she didn’t, staring at me blankly. “Nope, I mean some guy a while ago when i was like 13 told me I was one and that he was one, but I can’t remember what he said exactly,” she said slowly, as if brining up a distant memory. “You forget a lot in 12 years,” she finished, shrugging simply a smile. I stopped, surprised having half expected her to be an early bloomer.

“Oh, your not a mature incarnation, are you?” I muttered to the air, and she frowned a bit.

“What do you mean, i’m mature I -”

“No no, sorry I mean as in you didn’t become a personification when you were supposed to,” I corrected quickly, thinking for a second. Her head had felt so cold, it was probable she had control over ice, but that didn’t narrow the spectrum enough. Immature personifications tended to rely on their secondary powers, like inum with her fire and I was guessing Pomella with her Ice. Those who matured tend to be better at using their natural powers, such as Morrow with manipulating time with ease, or myself with my magic.

I ruffled Pomella’s hair gently, trying to think of what she could be before a small sound that escaped her lips caught my attention. It was a soft “chirp” sound as she pressed her head to my hand, smiling happily. “Wait a minute, did you just chirp?”
“Mmm? Mhm, I did it earlier too,” she responded, looking up at me a bit confused. That put a few possibilities out of my head, and I smiled, hugging the small bird girl up against me. Inum was right, she was definitely cute. She chirped again at the hug and did her best to hug back and I smiled, giving her a gentle squeeze. My heart gave a small flutter, and I paused realizing the small bit of feelings that my heart now felt. I smiled and rested my head on top of Pomella’s, relaxing a bit with her in my arms.

I needed to make sure this small flightless bird got her wings.

I had to help her become a full personification.