Chapter 57: Mitera
Kyle followed Akiko down into the parts of the lodge she'd never seen before. The walls seemed to close in around them as she moved, though of course the stone and cement couldn't be moving. But there was magic in the stones, magic that responded to their steps, wrapping around them like a straitjacket with each foot they traveled.
She should probably be thinking more rationally—would Monday really want her to walk down into captivity to save their own life?
Probably, she'd met them on the deep web. They wouldn't want to die over a stranger. Though they did come all the way out here, and even try to break in.
"Cells first," Akiko said, taking them casually through a set of heavy metal doors, into a room lined with cells. Each one was made of thick, clear resin, with a doorway of lowered bars and only cement on all sides. Two of the five were already occupied. First they passed her grandfather, who sat on a folding chair at the center of his cell without the door shut. He leaned back, lifting an invisible cigar to his mouth.
"He can't hear you," Akiko said, as they passed. "Or anyone else. Replacing the damage you did will take some time. But every soldier in my sanctum is loyal to me first and foremost. So long as that body walks out of here again to return to his organization, they won't even have a hint of your little interruption."
"It's evil to do that to people," Kara said. "Whatever you did to him, he hated it. You're a monster."
"So was he," Akiko answered. "You think it's easy to twist a human mind? The things his organization did for power would horrify you to be related. All that damage left his soul cracked and broken, dominated by his desires. Criticize my methods all you like, the Orders certainly do. But he's not trading in guns or people anymore. On the net, I suspect I've done the world a service."
She stopped as they reached the next cell in line, which was empty with its door already open. "Kara, step inside, if you'd prefer to live. I don't need you for this experiment, but I can't trust you not to get into trouble."
"If you hurt my sister, I'll never cooperate," Kyle said. "You'll have to kill both of us."
Akiko rolled her eyes, groaning under her breath. "Were you listening, horse? I know the strength of the sympathy between twins. I would never destroy a clear means of controlling you in the future, one that doesn't wield the powers of a god. Step inside, Kara. You will not be harmed."
She leaned forward, embracing Kyle in a brief, last hug... then she retreated. "My sister is stronger than you think," she whispered. "She'll get us both out of this, bitch. You'll see."
Akiko didn't even blink, just took hold of a heavy knob on the other side, and rotated it across. A clear door slid up from the ground, sealing with a thick rubber gasket. "Perhaps. But your sister would be wise to be aware that I had these cells built to house my own kind." She turned on Kyle, smiling smugly. "Now that it is armed, that cell is airtight. Any magic targeting it will flood the space within with nerve gas. Even if you do get it open, she will be in agony for the rest of her life. Or if she's lucky, slip into a permanent coma. Good luck writing a spell to heal that without melting her brain to sludge."
Kyle swallowed, then nodded. "I won't." There has to be a way. I just saw you teleport. Too bad Monday never taught me that trick.
"I suppose you should say hello to your old teacher before you continue." Akiko gestured towards the end of the room. "You'll have to get close to the glass for her to hear you through the seal. Her cell is armed as well, so be mindful of your magic."
Kyle continued on. The infant on her back was growing more agitated by the moment. But every time she looked up, she found Akiko glowering over them, and hid her face again. "I know, sweetie. I'm gonna..." The pressure built on her, one stone after another. "Get us all out of this. Somehow."
Then she reached the next cell.
Whatever she was expecting from Monday, this wasn't it. She was an Irish woman, about the same age as Akiko, though with an entirely different bearing. She didn't give off the impression she would dissect anything and everything around her to see how it worked.
Confinement hadn't been kind to her. They'd left her in her underclothes, wrists and ankles bound with zip ties. Even worse, she sat directly on the ground, in the center of a complex circle of runes on the floor. She was surrounded by a few empty food trays, and worse for her other needs.
It was the kind of abuse to have nightmares about.
She looked up as Kyle approached, shaking the strands of red-orange hair from her face. She looked Kyle up and down, without fear. Only recognition. "You must be Kyle," she said, her accent slightly muffled by the intervening acrylic. "Don't look like you're here to rescue me."
"Not yet." She didn't dare touch her hoof to the glass, for fear of the magical traps Akiko threatened. "What do I do?"
"If Akiko thought I could tell you, she wouldn't let us talk," she said, voice grim. "Do something she doesn't expect. If you can kill her, I'll coach you through opening this cell. Magic detectors all have to be magic, in the end. We can use that."
"Enough, Kyle!" Akiko called. "That's suitable evidence she's alive. Not well treated, but... that's something you could change. Behave, and perhaps your magical instructor can be given better accommodations."
"I'm going to get us out of this," she whispered. Monday nodded, though there was neither confidence nor trust in her face. Only resolve.
Kyle left her there, left her family, following Akiko down another set of steps.
"It's a curious thing," Akiko continued, her tone almost conversational. "When I started measuring spells inside the observation area, I thought the transformation process used on an established mage was the reason for your uncharacteristic strength. Yet, this was not the case. My test subject did have his abilities enhanced, but nothing like you. Were you even awakened prior to your encounter with the specimen?”
"No," Kyle said flatly. "I didn't believe in magic. But if you want me to cooperate... you need to make promises. Promises not to hurt Fay, or my family upstairs, or... well, even Monday."
They passed many soldiers along the way. She'd seen many of them guarding outside the containment area before—none were intimidated by her, or even slowed down.
Their guns are only my second worry. I have to stop Akiko.
"You misunderstand the nature of our working relationship." They stopped in front of another heavy metal door, almost as large as the one outside. It swung inward, painfully slowly, and more guards saluted as they passed.
Inside was a vast space, with exposed cavern visible in some directions and heavy structural pillars around the outsides. The floor was practically planar-flat, so flat it made her hooves unsteady at first on the cement. But just because there was no furniture or walls didn't mean the space was empty.
At the very center of the room was a crystal larger than a man, a single piece of quartz with only a few faint cracks along its length. It glowed faintly with its own white light, feeding the construct spiraling away around it.
Fay started to squirm, sliding along her back, trying to get out. Her wings spread, and she started to hover.
"Right." Akiko turned, looking annoyed. She yanked something out of the hands of a soldier, a tool shaped vaguely like a gun. Before Kyle could react, she pointed it at them both, and fired.
A cloud of thick smoke blasted into them, smelling of hospitals and nausea. Fay dropped right out of the air, landing in an awkward heap just behind her. Kyle jerked towards her protectively, but stumbled, coming up short. She swayed on her hooves, the whole world drifting in and out of focus.
Akiko's voice was distant, as much as everything else. But something tugged her, and Kyle no longer had the strength to resist. She moved, walking a strange path through the room and its many openings and diagrams. Some of them would've been readable to her, if she still had her senses. Without them, she was entirely pliant.
Eventually they stopped within a circle of steel on the ground. The pulling stopped, so she settled onto her haunches, wings opening and closing as she watched blurs that were people move in ways that didn't quite make sense.
The effect faded slowly, though she couldn't say whether it took minutes or hours. One sound cut through the noise before her senses had fully recovered: Fay's crying. She spun, moving towards the noise—but she couldn't get any closer.
Finally, the world refocused around her, and Kyle saw what had happened.
In the center of the circle, right beside the crystal spike, was the locus of this machine, a rotating sphere of coils and crystal studs. Fay was inside, her body restrained by straps with no regard for her comfort. Her magic surged and pulsed, but instead of exploding outward to transform the space to something safer, it just made the disk spin faster, glowing yellow for a moment before the light seemed to flow into the gigantic crystal.
They're draining her. It's the same thing Akiko did to Kara on our first day.
"You can't do this!" Kyle surged forward, directly towards where Fay was contained—only to smack into a barrier she hadn't seen. It glowed for a moment, the same yellow as the crystal, surrounding her in a sphere that sunk into the floor and rose above her halfway to the ceiling.
When it faded, Kyle could see the rest of the spell. Far simpler than the one around Fay—probably not enough to drain her.
"I suggest you stop struggling," Akiko said. She emerged from behind the crystal, wearing an ordinary lab-coat and a pair of mirrored lenses over her eyes. She held inscrutable tools in her hands, and had clearly been in the middle of working when Kyle attracted her attention.
"The specimen is far more magically potent than you are. I still don't know why this would be, given your superior age, mass, and mental abilities. Don't feel self-conscious—it's a flaw I intend to fix. With both your powers marshaled, even the Body Invisible will respect me. I will wield in days what took them years to gather. No darkness will be deep enough to conceal, and this universe will finally give up her secrets."
Kyle slumped to the floor, feeling utterly defeated. Fay's screams echoed in her ears, not just frightened anymore. Could she survive what these machines were doing to her? After everything Kyle had survived, everything she'd done to protect Fay, everything she'd sacrificed... this was the end.
She couldn't save her sister, couldn't save herself, couldn't even save her baby.
Akiko turned away, grinning to herself in satisfaction. "That's right, Kyle. Be content that you're part of something greater. The world will change because of you. Stagnation and neutrality is over after today. No more hiding—the Awakened will rule, as we were always meant to."
My baby.
Kyle struck out against the barrier containing her, with force this time instead of her hooves. It solidified as before, a bubble of Fay's magic thinner than skin, but stronger than steel. Her attacking spell reverberated along the inside, echoing painfully in her ears. Then it died.
"You're wasting your time!" Akiko called. She didn't even turn around. "And her strength. It isn't my power trapping you, after all."
I'm sorry, Fay, Kyle thought, gritting her teeth. This might cause the baby a little more pain before it was over.
She lashed out again, modifying her spell slightly so the force was spread in a wider area. The bubble appeared, stretched and deforming slightly. The coils of thick wire around the base glowed faintly orange for a moment, but then the moment passed, and they cooled to blue.
I'm making a difference, she thought. I'm coming for you, Fay.
Kyle gritted her teeth together, blasting out with all her strength on a spell that would probably turn anyone it hit to paste.
The sphere around her rang like a drum, lighting up bright orange this time, and spreading until it surrounded her on all sides. It faded slower this time, and she collapsed to the floor, panting. Raw force wasn't enough.
Fay's cries grew louder, raspy and strained. The sphere around her lit up, as though she too were trying to escape. She was just as unsuccessful, only crying louder for the attempt. She was still trapped.
"I told you, it's a waste of your strength," Akiko said. "You can't get out. By the time you leave this spell, you both will be entirely drained of magic and no threat to me. But don't be afraid, it won't kill you like it would your sister. You'll recover, and my source of magic will be renewed."
Kyle suffering would be one thing. She'd certainly suffered enough to get this far. But she couldn't let that happen to her baby. Fay would never survive it, despite what Akiko said.
"No," she whispered, rising to her hooves again. Her legs shook beneath her, but it didn't matter. what happened to her after this was irrelevant, so long as Akiko could be stopped.
Kyle reached out as she had done with her grandfather, feeling the lines of the spell wrapped around her. It was reactive, even to something as passive as a sensing spell, draining her strength.
There was a structure there, a pattern of power that created and maintained the spell. But it was so strong, actively reinforced by the flow of Fay's magic into it whenever she tried to tear or damage it.
"Whatever you're doing..." Akiko appeared outside the bubble, expression darkening. "You're going to hurt yourself if you continue. Cease now, or I'll have to put your sister into this spell next. She will die, and you will watch."
Something changed. Kyle couldn't see it, except in the bubble reappearing. It went from yellow to orange to bright blue, humming and vibrating like a piece of machinery about to shake itself apart.
Her eyes no longer saw it—she didn't see the spell, or even Fay trapped and tortured a few feet away. Finally her role was clear, how could she have failed to realize it after all this time? She wasn't a good samaritan—she was Fay's mother. No matter what it took, Kyle would keep her safe. She'd protect Kara too, and Monday, and even her grandfather.
Her flanks burned, and her hooves lifted off the floor. Her magic seared brighter than the bubble, stronger than the spell containing her.
A foot away, something cracked. She didn't turn, didn't look away. Her eyes were focused singularly on Fay, and the spell that separated them. "You are undone," she said.
The spell exploded, taking coiled wire and machinery and everything else along with it. Akiko lifted into the air, flung backward into the ruin of her spell. It was only the beginning.
Kyle stepped forward, crawling over the wreckage towards Fay. The disk around her still spun, her body still draining. But not for much longer.
The containment crystal behind her cracked again, this time far deeper. Kyle glanced to the side, watching light spill out.
An eruption of pink fire shattered the spell, tearing the room to pieces around them. Kyle's world faded.
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Usually when someone has 2 moms it's for a different reason.
Cutie Mark?
10571265
Obviously, unless something really weird is going on.
I am more interested in Monday maybe being Sunset Shimmer
Way to ramp up determination! Someone forgot about how self-sacrifice actually works ...
10571275
I'm thinking that maybe Akiko is actually Monday. How else would she know about them?
If mamma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.
Feel the power of Kyledance.
10571281
Didn't we see Monday actually in cage?
"Whatever she was expecting from Monday, this wasn't it. She was an Irish woman, about the same age as Akiko"
10571297
Like she couldn't fake
10571317
Obviously not, since the Irish girl recognized Kyle, and seemed pretty legit. Beside, where is the point in making them think Akiro is not Monday?
10571335
Akiko could have coached this person on what to say to Kyle.
Willworkers could probably write a thesis the size of War and Peace on all the things Rowling got wrong, but there's certainly one thing she nailed: Never underestimate the bond between mother and child.
10571349
Indeed. That said, even those who respect it might not include adopted children, nor those where the child clearly adopted the parent first.
Well, there’s a villain who really needed to learn about the Evil Overlord List. She just broke at least three rules. First Aikiko exposited her plan all over the place, then she tried to deal with not one, but two power sources bigger than her head, and finally she gloated over her victims’ predicament.
10571395
I live my life by Peter's Evil Overlord List.
10571349
By Mage the Ascension rules, I wonder to which Order Akiko did belong. Technocracy?
never doubt the depths a mother will go through to protect her young.
I thought Akiko being a chick would understand this but forgot she's a cold hearted bitch.
Aikko, you dun goofed
How come there's no fifty seventh chapter?
And this sounds deeper than has ever been implied before, like she's literally a clone of who she resembles, and now incidentally has additional memories. Technically two separate beings, yet biologically the same. This kind of stuff is usually irreversible in these kinds of tales, FF being one of those marvelous rare exceptions. This keeps piling further changes on.
And this seems similar to another subset of stories that seems so common in these circles: Magic is literally life, and to remove it is death across the board. It's development in any and all beings that last long enough is a foregone conclusion, and it's only a matter of how it will manifest. Only the type and its usage can be guided. Much like UV currently sustains all life and ends it, and still does here, only thaumic energy is an additional inescapable force that'll show up and envelop all whether they like it or not. And once any being is even passively exposed to it, it's forever embedded into their being, and removing it will cause sure harm. I really don't think Alex, Jacob, Chance or Jacqueline would be remotely envious of this.
We all know what popular recurring character has brilliant, flaming red hair, do we not? If not her, some equivalent. Her eyes would not be green by any chance.
Never mess with a mama and her baby. Even if she's a surrogate mama.
No one ever suspected that there was another mama bear on Earth. And this one is doubly pissed since the fool also threatened her family as well.
10571275
Could still be... Akiko's voice was uncannily similar to Twilight's so she's probably Earth's evil version of her.
10571338
Okay, but why? Also Akiko could have then anticipated Kyle's spell if she was Monday. Imo, it's no making a lot of sense.
10571395
No, she broke a 4th rule, one that no Evil Overlord dares to do...
She harmed an infant to further her means, that is punishable by death
10571676
I refuse to holup, I hunger now.
10571536
Except in some cases a beginner can be more dangerous against an expert than another expert, because the expert is more predictable, while you never know what the beginner is going to try because they don't know how things are normally done.
Aww, Kyle, look at you and your cutie mark moment.
10571436
Probably Awakening, actually, which would make her a Seer of the Throne. In Ascension terms she seems closer to a Hermetic.
The Body Invisible is a reference to general occultism (from Blavatsky, I think) with its Invisible Masters which also gets partially referenced in Lovecraft.
The non-interference rules come at least partially from Imperial Mysteries, with the Pax Arcana directly referenced if I remember right.
10571897
Make me.
Idiot. First rule: If you shove the World, the World will shove back three times harder.
And it will cheerfully harness whatever tools around it can find to do the job. Ponies included.
10571687
That was said in much shorter way before.
Professionals' are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs.
Murphy's law of war, also found its way into The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries.
10571257
I have a feeling Cadance would hire Kyle as a permanent nanny.
Twilight: That's the signal! Battle station everypony!
Rainbow: We have signal? Whatever works for me!
Achievement unlocked:Demigod Ascension
Akiko, you might want to bend over and grab your ankles right now, because you're fucked.
10571275
10571297
Monday = Moon's Day...
Also, like, she met Monday on the dark web - 4chan isn't the dark web!
10572365
You are correct. I misremembered the 7th chapter story. I thought she'd gone to /x to post about her transformation, but I didn't actually say that. I said the dark web. I'll have to revise this chapter to fix that.
10571335
I don't think she is fake. Not ruling it out.
10572072
I remember that saying "The best warrior in the world does not fear the second best warrior in the world. He fears the worst warrior in the world because he has no way of predicting what the idiot will do."
Whelp, those up top, prepare!
Can't wait to see Twilight's crew break in and put a stop to all this.
Akiko is really doing her best to kick every available puppy on this prisoner walk.
Yep, Monday is Sunset.
It's alicorn magic time.
Here we go.
10572716
Mark Twain (kinda, ten times changed in retelling)
The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to.
-Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
That book might be considered one of the first fanfictions involving time and universe crossover
one vary pissed off Kyle and a full on magic surge this is going to be fun .
10572000
In fact that's how paradox works on Mage.
10574866
My favorite thing in Mage is Wrinkle, a paradox spirit of Time.
If you fuck with time hard enough, he shows up and gives you the chance to go back and not do that thing. If you refuse or you still fuck with time on your second chance, he simply goes back and makes it so you were never born.
I guess you could say Monday left her broken.
0:37
All caught up. Good stuff as always.
...Okay, I know some epicness just happened, but I’m just thinking about what Kyle’s parents will say when they find out he got a butt tattoo.
In matters of Will, nothing comes close to a pissed off protective mother.
That's what happens when you piss off mama bear.
Ohshit. Cutie Mark Event!
nice; loved the build up and catharsis