Chapter 13 - Cord of Light and Shadow
It was a bit of a cliche that when you are about to die your life flashes before your eyes, but even cliches contain a kernel of meaning, of truth. The rapids swept Light Breeze along, dashing her against rocks and pulling her underwater. In the grip of shock and panic, the mind can wander, and for a brief moment she understood why so many cultures told stories of the spirits living in waterways, eager to pull humans under.
But I’m not a human! she insisted to herself, fighting against the current, eyes squeezed shut against the cold, gasping for breath whenever she dared. She tried to remember the warmth of her mother’s body, even after a swim on one of the ocean’s more frigid days, the uncanny way a pegasus’s thin coat of hair was more than enough to stay warm, even in the midst of a storm.
But the magic wouldn’t come to her, and her body—her real body—felt so far away.
The current dragged her under again, and Light Breeze felt cold gnarled hands around her, tugging at her clothes, her hair, her skin. She thought for sure the dark shadows she’d seen before must also live in the water, that they’d seized hold and would finally drown her.
It’s not fair! It’s not fair, I never even got to live first… Her mind was a daze, and all she could think about was Fillydelphia, the good memories and the bad, and the future she’d planned out in her dreams, but had never come to pass.
It took her a moment to realize that the hands weren’t pulling her downward, that she’d stopped tumbling through the wake. Her lungs burned, and she fought for the surface, reaching it with the tips of her numbed fingers first, before pulling herself up the rest of the way.
She found herself pressed against the bank of the rapids, white water roiling past her. It wasn’t hands that had grabbed her, but the exposed root system of some nearby trees. Her limbs were shaking as she pulled herself up, and she found she could barely walk. The air was, if anything, even colder than the water, and it didn’t help that she was soaked down to the bone, wet clothes clinging to her woefully human form. She kicked off her shoes, at least—those were largely useless to her now. For a moment her anxieties spiked over leeches, but the more rational part of herself remembered that they probably didn’t like swift currents anymore than her human body did.
Of course, there were other kinds of leeches, as Adam had shown her, and she shuddered to imagine them clinging to her body. The possibility of those little buggers slid out of focus the more her immediate situation became clear to her. Her little trip down the river had thoroughly disoriented her, and even if she ran back to the cabin, to Frank, would it even matter? In her heart was a cold emptiness where she’d felt what little bond they shared sever.
No, Frank wouldn’t be helping her anymore, her best bet was to make for the road, any road, and hope to Celestia someone would be driving down it. Light Breeze scrambled up the bank, catching herself against the trunk of a tree with one hand before hauling herself up the rest of the way.
The exertion helped, at least a little. The energy that would have been spent shivering was instead poured into pushing herself as hard as she could. The trees were thick, but she could still feel the sunlight on her back through the wet ruin of her t-shirt, and she did her best to keep it that way, using it to orient herself and keep the forest from steering her in circles. Crashing through the undergrowth, she had to ask herself just how much noise she was making, how far away Adam might be.
Not very far at all, apparently. Up ahead there was a break in the trees, and she could see the road from where she was. Putting on as much speed as she could manage, she didn’t even see or hear the older boy before he was slamming into her side, something Adam must have done a thousand times on the football field. She definitely couldn’t fault his form after being pulverized into the forest floor, her head knocked painfully against the roots of an old tree.
“Owen!” he hissed through his teeth. “You had me worried sick, falling into the river like that! You’re way too valuable to go and freeze to death. Here, let me help you get warm.”
Adam’s weight was more than enough to pin Owen down on its own, and the older boy shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over Light Breeze’s dazed and crumpled body.
“Stop…” Light Breeze hissed through her teeth. “Don’t…”
“Don’t what?” Adam had to speak around his breaths by now, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. His muscles were taut with adrenaline, and the way he looked at Light made her feel like something hanging in a butcher’s storefront window. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he reassured, rising to his feet with hands pressed to Light’s arms. “Not before my friends get here, anyway. We’re going to meet them now.”
As soon as Adam’s weight shifted, Light Breeze bolted, slipping from his hands like a fish in a stream. Adam cried out in surprise and reached out. For a moment in time, one blissful sliver of a second, Light Breeze believed she was free, that she was out of his grip and ready to make a run for it through the trees.
But that moment was cut short when Adam’s grip tightened around the back of her collar, and he yanked back. The wet fabric didn’t tear easily, and that just made it worse when her older brother tugged it back against her throat. Mingled with her choked surprise was a loud tearing sound that seemed to fill the clearing, and Light Breeze tumbled back from the force of it, sprawling out in the dirt and weeds.
The collar of her shirt was long and stretched out, and the rest of it rested on her shoulders like a deflated tent. Somehow, of everything she’d seen, Frank’s red-eyed desperation, Remi’s fearful dismissals, or her human mother’s deliberate detachment, the very worst thing about her situation had to be just how calm about all of this Adam was. For anyone else in her family, the violence would have awoken something in them, fear or rage, but for Adam this was all old hat, as if he’d done this sort of thing before—like it was normal.
“Dunno why you always said you were bad at sports,” Adam said, kicking her in the side hard enough to make her wince. “You’re a slippery little eel, with the right coach you could have been a good running back, or whatever sport you wanted, really.” Adam crouched down, looming over her like a shadow, and for a moment Light Breeze saw behind those eyes to a soul hollowed out and empty, as if its insides had been scooped out like ice cream.
“But it was never about sports, was it? It’s this world, what it does to people like you. Feels… wrong.” He spoke the last word in a gravely, hungry voice, distorted from its ordinary human tones. “Not like me,” he whispered, sliding closer on his knees. “I had no idea what a joke everything was until she showed me the truth.”
Light Breeze had no idea what to say, massaging her neck where the collar had slammed into her windpipe, the skin was red and raw, and her ears were filled with tears. Even if she could speak in that moment, what would she say? How could anyone say so much that made sense, in so wrong a fashion?
“My friends can wait,” Adam sighed. “I just need a taste, something to keep me going—the wolf that brings the prey down gets first bite, anyway. Shira always says…”
Light Breeze readied to bolt again, but before she could, Adam’s hands came down on her wrists again, and before she could respond he was on top of her. Where his skin made contact with hers, there was a prickling feeling, a bit like touching one of those old plasma globes, but it picked up in strength and intensity, passing through her body like electrical current. She could feel it lighting up her nervous system, penetrating into each and every cell. Her mind wandered back to her lessons in Equestria, the magical component of a cell—the Pneuma. It was so much more than that, her unicorn brother would explain, but… humans don’t have those, do not have that.
Her body could certainly stand to hear that lecture, because in that moment, every cell Adam touched burned with agony, and she could feel something flowing out of it, out of her. Deep breaths escaped her mouth, and the air carried on it shimmered and shined, glowing like magic from the spiral of a unicorn’s horn. Adam inhaled, sucking in every bit of magic he could, light and color returning to his eyes and his skin.
“Hoowah…” he sighed, eyes fluttering in disbelief. “Can’t believe I ever humored adding you to the club… this is pure, unfiltered…”
Another wave of fire passed through her, and Light Breeze screamed, her voice echoing through the forest, the rush of air from her lungs only seemed to help the magic flood out of her more quickly, and Adam almost seemed to be exerting himself just to keep up. His hands moved up along her arms whenever the breath of pneuma seemed weaker, more faint, and after a few moments he was clamped on as tight as a boa constrictor.
It’s not that magic—pneuma—was finite, far from it. Based on what she’d been taught, it was the most inexhaustible force in the universe, any universe. The real issue, as countless unicorns had learned, raising the sun and moon over the centuries, was channeling it in moderation, to avoid frying out every circuit in your body. With every breath, Light Breeze could feel Adam ripping the magic from her body, and in response every cell fired all pistons, her body was going to give out long before the magic ever did.
Still, Adam didn’t stop. Even though it was in his best interests, he seemed barely aware, barely sapient, a slathering wolf desperate to consume as much of her as he could manage. Something was going to give, and with every passing second, Light Breeze knew it was going to be her.
Time stretched and distorted, a familiar feeling for her, being ripped about from one universe to the next, spending days in one and hours in another. Why bother trying to make sense of it? Time was relative, and in a moment like this, it felt like the least important thing by miles. And, yet, it was all she could think about, counting her breaths as every second in the world seemed to slow down, to pass her by, as if time warped around her, as though everyone else in the world continued about their daily routines while for her, time slowed to a stop.
Her muscles spasmed, her tendons were clenched so tight she thought they’d snap, and in that moment, something in Light Breeze did give, just not how she expected.
Adam’s eagerness gave way to surprise, and his grip on her eased, but he didn’t pull back in time. Feeding back into him, electric current ripped through his body, sending him sailing across the clearing and against the trunk of a tree. In a rush of magic and a flurry of energy, Light Breeze could feel her body shift and change, her pants tearing from expansion of her hips, hands and feet like rigid claws shimmering as every digit seemed to bleed into one, capped with strong sturdy hooves. What remained of her clothing burned away in response to the outpouring of magic, and wings stretched to the sky, before her entire body shuddered and gave out under her, forcing her to the ground, barely able to open her eyes.
Light Breeze couldn’t see much, but realization slowly dawned—she’d changed, and for a moment she half-believed she was back in Equestria.
“What the hell is this?” Adam groaned, rising to his feet and cradling his arm, it was bent at an odd angle, but he popped something back into place with a grimace, making his way over. He didn’t seem any more interested in moving it after the fact, though.
“... Owen?” he called with a brow raised. “... that you in there?”
Light Breeze struggled to stand, to run—or even fly—once she took to the sky there would be no way for Adam to catch her, but her body stubbornly disagreed, too tired, too fried. Magic brimmed, overflowing, just beneath the surface, and when push came to shove her body had apparently decided it would be easier to keep up with Adam’s advances as a pegasus, rather than a human boy.
“Just wait until the rest of the gang gets a load of you.” Adam smiled. He didn’t reach out and touch Light again, but the hunger was still there.
Falling back against a tree at Light Breeze’s side, Adam pulled out his phone and read through some messages. How he was still able to get a signal out here was beyond Light Breeze’s comprehension, but maybe it was just part of his gang’s depraved dark magic. Her wings flared and flapped uselessly, like a bird mired in a lake or pond, and Adam stilled her with a hand.
“Shhh… just twenty minutes now, give or take.” His grin widened. “You’re going to like Shira, she has a ranch—plenty of room to run around in once we take care of those wings.”
Light Breeze opened her mouth to scream, but only slurred whimpers came out.
“There’s just so much about the world they don’t tell us, you know?” Adam said, settling down with his back against a tree. “You’re a… pegasus, I suppose. And I’m a, what, human?” Adam tossed a stone, listening for it tumble down the slope of the hill. “And what even is that? Norse peoples said the first humans were made out of wood, the Mayans think we’re corn, and the Greeks say we’re made of clay.” He fidgeted a little before continuing. “Our ancestors were right about one thing, at least: the world was born in fire and ice, in blood and bone. None of this ‘God made the heavens and the earth in seven days’ schlock. Chaos, that’s what the world is. You and me are living proof of that.”
Adam turned in place, meeting Light Breeze’s eyes. “I’m not your enemy, you understand? I’m just asking you to share—redistribute things a little.” He paused as if waiting for a response, and when none came, his lips tightened. “You hanging in there, Owen?” Another beat passed between them, and he scowled. “Don’t bother playing the malevolent transmogrification card, you and I both know this is the real you. So you can cut the ‘I’m in shock!’ routine any minute now.
For the past several minutes, Light Breeze’s ears had been swiveling and focusing on every little sound with what amounted to a mind of their own, but now both of them perked up, rising high on her head. With a groan, she managed to lift her head, craning her neck.
“See, that’s more like it. Maybe now we can have an actual—” but Adam trailed off once he noticed the sounds, too “—conversation.”
The road wasn’t far, Light Breeze could just make it out through the trees, if she squinted. Admittedly, pegasus eyes helped, but she could make out a brick red truck with an off-black cap covering the bed. Not far off from the clearing itself, a tall Black woman moved gracefully through the underbrush, followed closely by a smaller, paler woman with bright freckles and red hair.
“You’re sure this is the right way?” The smaller woman asked, her voice carrying through the trees. “We’re getting pretty far from the road, and I don’t see…”
The black woman looked recognizable—Jaime and Aisha’s cousin? But Light Breeze had never seen the other woman before in her life. Together, they stepped into the clearing, and the witch crossed her arms.
“Witness it for yourself, and draw your own conclusions, Child.” Luna’s voice seemed deeper than usual, and elegant in a way she’d never been herself.
“... Princess?” Light Breeze rasped, stretching a hoof out toward her. “He...hel…”
Adam looked between Light Breeze and the newcomers, while Moira stared in shocked fascination. With each passing moment, he seemed more and more put off by the slowly reversing nature of the situation.
“Now hold on,” he growled, rising to his feet. “I found her first, so I have first dibs, Shira and the rest of my gang will be here any minute, and you don’t—”
But he didn’t get to finish his thought, because Moira was already racing forward, wrapping her arms around the filly’s neck. “Oh my fucking gods! She’s a little darling!”
Adam bristled, but Luna commanded his attention, turning his gaze away from his prey, and the fawning older woman.
“Our subject appears to be in a great deal of distress,” she spoke, carrying the air of a disappointed queen. “You will explain how she has come to be that way.”
Adam instinctively reached behind himself, fumbling for a gun or knife, but, given the circumstances, he’d come to his father’s little camping trip unarmed. Cursing under his breath, he shrugged his shoulders, and smiled as best he could. Right now, his nerves were electric with magic, and he’d never been this full before in his life—why was he so afraid of this woman? He still had control of the situation.
“You mean, how did I stumble upon a pegasus in the middle of nowhere?” he asked, deflecting her question. “There’s not much to it, really, but I’ll tell you everything I know.” Reaching out his hand, as if offering her to take it, he smiled. “You just have to let me in.”
If Luna noticed the magic at work, she made no sign of it, and Adam pushed forward, extending himself beyond his eyes, beyond his body. Shira had taught him all about entering another person’s mind, experiencing their thoughts, guiding them along by suggestion—in a few moments, he’d have the taller woman eating out of his palm, and the smaller witch would be easy prey.
But what he found beyond his body is not what he was expecting, at all. Silhouetted against the witch’s body was a dark blue specter, a mare much like Owen, but vastly larger in size. From her crown spiraled a horn, matching her gleaming coat, and her mane flowed around her in the breeze, tiny constellations swirling around her. From around her side, a smaller mare poked out her face and frowned, fangs peeking out over her lips.
“I think you’ll find this vessel is a bit crowded at the moment.” Artemis glared, eyes shining in the half-light of the dense forest. The rushing stream behind them seemed to accentuate her words, illustrating to Adam just how quickly control of the situation was flowing away from him.
“However, invitations such as these go both ways. If your master failed to teach you this, then they have done you a grave disservice.” The mare—the goddess—was speaking now, and Adam could not pry his eyes away from her. There’s no chance anyone in his gang could consume the amount of magic radiating from her being, their bodies would simply break down. With a breath, she stepped free from Artemis’s body and brushed past him. “I will have the answers I seek, one way or another.
Before Adam could even respond, he felt awareness of the world around him falling away, and his very being tumbled with the violent shifting of events around him, it was like being drugged, like collapsing into a drunken heap for the first time. It was like having everything that made him “him” violently ripped out of his hands. He could only look on in horror, as though from a great distance, as his body picked itself back up, dusted itself off, and calmly spoke, “We must move with purpose now, my student. This boy’s threat was not idle.”
Boy? Boy? No one had referred to him so dismissively in years. Adam opened his mouth to speak, to rage, to lash out in every way he could, physically or magically, but the mare inhabiting his body only turned, meeting his eyes. In place of brown, they were a brilliant turquoise blue, like a crystal clear ocean at midday. The current carrying Adam away intensified, until all he could see was inky blackness.
“Christ on a cracker you’re heavy,” Moira grunted, one arm wrapped around Light Breeze’s barrel to help support her weight. Luckily, enough time had passed that Light could speak again, and eventually she managed to get her legs under herself. She eyed Adam dubiously, but the older boy carried himself with a completely different bearing, and his eyes were not his own.
“Sorry…” She cried softly, feeling overwhelmed. “I’m sorry…”
The road was close now, and Moira eased her down so she could lower the tailgate and raise a section of the cap to offer more space to climb up. “Adam” climbed up into the bed of the truck first, and stretched out his arms to help—even compared to how he was before, the boy was wickedly strong.
Luna, she reminded herself. That’s Luna right now.
Sucking in a deep breath, Light Breeze prepared to pull herself up into the truck bed, but stopped when Moira wrapped her arms around her tightly.
“Hold up,” Moira ordered, combing a hand through the soft hairs of her coat. She brushed it back and forth along the width of her neck, and if Light’s knees weren’t capable of locking in place, she’d probably have teetered over.
“What is it?” Artemis frowned, nursing what appeared to be a massive headache, coming up from behind. “Did you see something?”
“Maybe,” Moira frowned. “Selene, can you look this over for me?”
“I am presently engaged,” Adam replied with a royal cadance. “But, help the filly up, and I will take a look.”
Working together, Artemis, Moira, and Selene managed to hoist the young filly up into the hold of the truck, the chassis sagging under her weight, before rising back up, rocking in place.
After a few moments of combing through, Selene pursed her lips, or rather, Adam’s lips. “I don’t see any…”
There, half hidden by hair and dug into the skin of the filly’s neck, was a shadowy black cord, sticky like spider silk.
“Oh my gods,” Moira whispered while Light Breeze shifted about, struggling to see for herself.
“What is it?” the filly whimpered, feeling increasingly anxious. “Did you find something?”
“We did.” Selene brushed her side in an attempt to reassure her. Knowing it was the princess and seeing her brother proved to be two separate things, though, and Light Breeze reflexively recoiled from her touch. Frowning, Selene pulled her hand back and settled in against the opposite wall of the truck bed. “I’m beginning to understand what might be keeping you here in the first place.” The princess wrapped her arms around herself uncomfortably, and closed her eyes. “For now, get some rest, we have a long drive ahead of us. “Artemis, Moira? It is now more important than ever that we transport my subject to a warded location.”
Moira nodded eagerly, but Artemis was still wrestling with the whiplash of being ridden and the goddess’s subsequent sudden departure.
Light Breeze lowered her ears as the tailgate went up and hatch went down, wishing that she could just have a few minutes of peace, time to revel in being free of her awful human body. “Princess? Everything is okay, right?”
Shifting in place, all Light Breeze could see of the princess in the dark was her eyes, which shined their old familiar color, that at least was comforting.
“It will be,” she replied. “Now, rest.”
“Do not ignore me!” Adam shouted, wrestling in the darkness. In here, in dreams, his form was inconstant, shifting back and forth between all the various forms of people he’d… “known” in the past. Right now, his hair was long, strawberry blonde, and he wore the face of a girl who was all too familiar to him. They’d been dating when he met Shira, and part of his initiation had been leading her to them, like a lamb to the slaughter.
But gods, the first taste of magic he took from her had made it all worth it. Now he raged with her voice, her features shifting to that of a quiet man they’d ambushed on the street a few months later.
“You can’t keep me here forever…” he whimpered. It’d been years since he’d had a single, solitary dream—but that was normal, everybody said so.
“I am not ignoring you,” a woman’s voice echoed from the deep. The goddess of the moon stepped from the shadows, towering over him here. “And I have no intention of doing so. You are of the darkness now, Adam Hall, and the darkness is my domain.”
That gave Adam some pause, and his wildly fluctuating form halted while terror seized him, he knew what he had done to others, and the prospect of a “god” visiting the same on him…
“Be at peace, those days are far behind me.” She pressed forward, her nose to his cheek. “They can be behind you as well, if you wish it to be so.”
“I d-don’t know what you’re talking about,” he warbled. “I need magic, you don’t. You can’t possibly understand!”
Luna pulled away, a look of sadness in her eyes. “No, Adam, it is you who does not understand. You are a victim of this world as much as Light Breeze—as much as Owen, your father, everyone—and I will not let you or any of them go, ever.” She lingered, body framed by the darkness. “I can be… quite a bit more aggressive than my sister when it comes to rehabilitation. But, then, she never understood the stakes quite so well as I.”
Adam listened for her, searched for her presence with wary eyes, but now he was alone, and in that moment, he realized with terror his one burning wish—that she’d come back, because even having her here to rage against was better than being alone.
How had he lost control so thoroughly? How could this have happened to him? It was Owen, had to be. This was all his fault.
Shira would come looking for him, except… no, no she wouldn’t. He understood that better than most. If he was gone, that meant he’d been captured, and that meant he was a liability. Whatever she and the others were doing now, it wouldn’t be planning a rescue. More likely they’d be moving shop across the country, ditching apartments and luxury lofts for RVs and trailers.
In the darkness of what remained of his own dreams, Adam hugged himself tightly, and wept for all that he had lost.
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Not exactly my debut in these stories, but I hope y'all enjoyed it! I worked really hard on it.
I apologize for how long it took as well, as after the holidays I've hit a particularly vicious depressive spiral, and I've been finding it really hard to connect with this story emotionally, which can make writing feel like pushing a boulder uphill.
"for sure that dark shadows she’d seen before"
"for sure that the dark shadows she’d seen before"?
re the pony transformation:
Well! I wasn't expecting that! :D
Now... can she get airborne before Adam rallies?
...Oh. Understandably but unfortunately not, apparently. Weeeell back to hoping for the calvary to arrive soon, and especially before Adam's "friends"...
"through some messages, how he was"
"through some messages; how he was"?
"I’m not your enemy, you understand? I’m just asking you to share—redistribute things a little."
Ah, so now we see the most important benefit of the pony transformation!
Three other legs to mount bells on!
Because... seriously, Adam? After how you've been acting so far since the reveal, basically every single thing you've said or done, you expect there to be any chance she buys that? Good grief.
"the bed, not far off from the clearing itself, a tall black woman"
"the bed; not far off from the clearing itself, a tall black woman"?
"followed closely by smaller, paler woman"
"followed closely by a smaller, paler woman"?
Also, the cavalry, yay! :D
"stared in shocked fascination, with each passing moment"
"stared in shocked fascination; with each passing moment"?
"Shira had taught him all about entering another person’s mind, experiencing their thoughts, guiding them along by suggestion"
...Which he is proposing to try. On not just an alicorn. But on Princess Luna herself.
...Yeah, this is going to go great for you, Adam. :D
(I mean, yes, he doesn't know who he's facing there... but this is still an unknown magic user, who has another, apparently allied, unknown magic user with her and right next to him. And how long have you been using magic, Adam? Because, sure, you might be buzzing right now, but for all you know this unknown witch was born under the reign of Pharaoh Taharqua and has been refining her craft for over two and a half thousand years. Even knowing only what I know you know, for someone as young and inexperienced as you, looking at someone who carries herself with authority and power but is otherwise a complete unknown and saying "Yeah, I can take her!" is not a good survival strategy.
As it is, you're lucky that Princess Luna may be merciful to you, and isn't even at her full power here (not that you're making much use of that by trying to challenger her in one of her strongest areas). If this was an ancient human vampire or something... well, actually, I'm sure you wouldn't need to worry then, either; she'd just be asking you to redistribute things a little, after all...)
"in a few moments, she’d have the taller woman"
"in a few moments, he’d have the taller woman"?
AND WOW ADAM'S PLAN WENT POORLY FOR HIM, WHAT A SHOCKING SURPRISE THAT NO ONE COULD EVER HAVE PREDICTED BEFOREHAND.
[facehoofs]
...Yeah, if I'd been rooting for Adam, this'd be pretty disappointing. Fortunately... :D
(I mean, just to be clear, I'm not finding this suspension-of-disbelief-breaking behavior on his part. It's stupid, but I think it's quite understandable in-character stupidity given what we know of him and his current circumstances.
...Just... yeah. Wow.)
"No one had referred to him so dismissively in years."
[facehoofs again]
...Argh. Adam. Please, in fact, look at your situation? What grounds, does she actually have, to not be dismissive of you, please?
Sigh.
Well, given that Luna was, again, nice enough to leave him alive but suppressed rather than ripping him to pieces for his knowledge and stored power and leaving his body a possessed husk, as I'm sure a great many of his "colleagues" if in similar positions of power would happily do, maybe he'll learn eventually... presumably/hopefully coupled with some moral improvement too, of course.
"arms to help, even compared"
"arms to help; even compared"?
And thank you for writing, Solana. :)
"Adam - absolutely screwed."
Weeeeell. Actually he's kind of lucky? Because, yeah, he did something really dumb and picked a fight with an ancient goddess in her own domain, but she's a nice one and a great believe in the ability of people to find redemption. So he's in a pretty good place to actually get that, if he gets some sense and empathy into his head and does his part of it.
Oh, sure, if he doesn't, then he's absolutely screwed. But that he even has the option, which the goddess wants to help him take, means this has gone so much better for him than it could have.
"At last, Light Breeze gets to be herself all of the time! Even if some of that time she isn't going to be home - for now."
Hm, sounds like that might at least hint towards an answer to my wonderings about what happened with her body on the other side, whether it vanished or whether the bodies switched places.
(I'm also wondering if being physically present in this body on this side will make it harder to get back -- but as you say, we can expect to find out more next time! :D)
10619149
Oh, I"m sorry about your depressive spiral; I do hope things improve for you soon, and already have.
(And I did enjoy the chapter, yes. :))
edit:
10610856
What do you mean by "diesel engine", if you don't mind me asking? I've a bit of an interest in compression ignition engines, not what I'd call a major thing but still there, so I'm curious.
(But I hope I'm also providing you some useful kind words, either way. :))
10619320
Adam is an entitled POS, but in this case, operating with his assumptions about how the world works, attacking someone with all that stolen magic was not that stupid -
Unfortunately for Adam, Selene is an out-of-context problem! And he's an entitled jerk yes.
Selene didn't really plan on offering him a choice on being redeemed, either :3
10619327
"Adam is an entitled POS, but in this case, operating with his assumptions about how the world works, attacking someone with all that stolen magic was not that stupid -"
...I question those assumptions, then. Because if she has all that stolen magic, a: she's been good enough at stealing magic to acquire that much stolen magic, and b: she has all that magic she can draw on to fight back. And Adam does not know how skilled she might be, or in what, beyond a somewhat high lower bound. He does know that he is very young and inexperienced as far as his type of vampire-mage can go. Yeah, maybe that wasn't a stupid thing to do according to his assumptions... but based on what I've learned of this world so far, at least, it would have been bad enough to mark at least one of those assumptions dangerously flawed even if his target wasn't an alien goddess out-of-context problem.
"And he's an entitled jerk yes."
Right. :D
Like I said, I didn't think it was unbelievable he'd do it, given the premises I knew of for him. More the opposite. :D
"Selene didn't really plan on offering him a choice on being redeemed, either :3"
Ah, well then. :)
I still think he's not all that unfortunate after all, due to that. Better paths he could have taken, for himself and others, but so much worse, same.
10619348
Oh he had no idea how much Selene had going for her until he started. That was definitely a very bad thing to discover halfway there.
10619350
Oh, sure, but that's the point, she was an unknown. Who both seemed very confident and had him outnumbered. I mean, even if the strange witch couldn't beat him, couldn't even stalemate him, all she had to do was lose slowly enough for her ally to bash his head with a rock while he was distracted -- which for all he knows was the strangers' plan all along. Any confidence he had from the amount of power he'd recently drained from Light Breeze should, had he been thinking clearly, been tempered by the knowledge that he's very new at this. I mean, what, I forget the exact timeline, but, two years? Five years or so at most? When he personally knows someone who's been doing it for centuries? Raw power isn't much good if the skill deficit in your enemy's favor allows them to be where your attacks aren't and your defenses also aren't; in a case like this, it just makes you a bigger prize.
If he was thinking clearly, probably he should have tried to take a more neutral approach while he felt things out. After all, they don't know how powerful or skilled he is, either, as far as he knows, and while they outnumber him now, it's not by much, and his allies are almost here. So stay defensive, hostile enough to not make himself look like easy prey but not so hostile that it looks like he needs to be dealt with immediately, and mention his allies will be here soon. Maybe these strangers will take that as a sign they need to attack now -- but he'll be ready for it, and maybe he'll win even two on one, with the power he has now. But maybe they'll also be willing to do a deal, you found the pegasus first but we outnumbered you at it first, let's haggle over distribution, etc., and maybe even if that breaks down he and his allies defeat and eat the strangers. At the very least, if he can stall until his allies get here and they decide the strangers seem too dangerous to mess with, the group should be able to retreat safely; the strangers take the pegasus, but Adam and allies keep the power he's already stolen and their lives and freedom to keep hunting others.
Now, that approach would not have worked here, but it wouldn't have worked because Selene is an alien goddess out-of-context problem. Just off the top of my head, though, it seems to me like the most likely plan to work based on what I believe he knew.
But, nah. He can take 'em. :D
10619320
As far as Luna is concerned, Adam and everyone like him doesn't have a choice. She's not going to ask nicely like her sister, and then lock them away somewhere where they can do no harm if they say no. Luna wasn't redeemed because someone made her see the error of her ways, her soul was sandblasted with the elements of harmony. Harmony isn't a subjective quantity that can only be debated in her experience, it's a force that can be brought to bear. The only reason Adam gets a choice in the first place is because it will be both easier on him, and a potentially more uplifting, transformative experience. But if push comes to shove Luna will spiritually clean his clock, and anyone else that stands in the way of her healing this benighted world she's stumbled upon.
She's the princess of the night, I like her to be scary/spooky.
From my perspective, the real boon is that she's interested in using her power to leave him with an enriched life that sees him better equipped at dealing with others in a healthy and social manner, because friendship is magic. If she were any other goddess, she'd be using brute force to take what she wants for her sole personal gain.
Which is a bit what Adam was trying to do earlier, whether or not you think he deserves to experience the same is a matter of personal opinion.
10619348
Shapeshifting one's astral body/hame/etc isn't complicated, and doesn't require magic as some energy source to sustain it. He believed Luna and Moira were like him, and were posturing to scare him away from his 'Kill', he attempted to call their bluff and got smacked down because of it. Humans on earth do not have any recent examples of deities to contend with, so they're used to being on roughly equal footing, particularly when he just glutted himself on something he didn't understand, with all the accompanying highs that come with it.
According to his training, what he was trying to do was subtle, rather than outright mind control. He was interested in stalling, not dominating. That this wasn't more clear is a failure on my part as a writer. The chapter has its issues that, if I were in the spirit of diligent editing, wouldn't persist into a final cut. I just hope people can enjoy it for what it is.
10619360
Discretion isn't exactly common in the face of raw talent and machismo.
The plan you just presented isn't one that would have worked, Adam was attempting to use the power of suggestion, he wasn't unaware of his surroundings until Luna booted him out of his body. What Adam was attempting relied on a powerful sense of empathy - he opened up to them in an effort to get them to open up to him, it backfired when Princess Luna decided: "Don't mind if I do."
Consider the possibility that it says something about this universe that he has no understanding of what it would mean to deal with an 'ancient one' they way you keep describing Luna. You are, ironically, making a lot of assumptions about magic based on your understanding of the situation - which is exactly what Adam did. It's just that his working body of knowledge is very different from yours.
That is literally exactly what he did, again, from his perspective. He believes they're there to steal his kill, the last thing he wants to do is inform them of how much of a threat he is. This is why he uses passive, pleading language. Anything else would risk exciting his opponent, and make them less open to suggestion as a result.
If Luna hadn't been present, he would have Belial'd the shit out of Artemis and she would have come to her senses an hour later, wondering why she's besties with a human-changeling.
10619399
Ether Echoes already touched on that some, but thank you for the elaboration.
:)
Aye.
Oh, I'd hardly say any other goddess. I'm actually very curious why you did, if you don't mind me asking? Or is this just "any in the two worlds covered in this story so far", possibly with a "currently living" added in. Though that would still include Celestia, either way... hm. Which would still seem to be in conflict with what you said about Celestia just above, which makes me think that I'm still misunderstanding you somewhere.
Right. I'd tend to think that, while not without benefit, that's more likely to be suboptimal than otherwise when considering the good of all involved within a reasonable margin of available knowledge.
Thank you for the added details.
Though, if they tend to assume that, even with potentially very large experience gaps, any given vampire mage is about equivalent to any other given vampire mage, that would make the numerical advantage of the other side even more prominent, I'd think.
Right; I'd guess that was a pretty significant factor in it.
Ah, I'm sorry about that; for what it's worth, I did still enjoy the chapter.
Yep. Like I said, not at all straining my suspension of disbelief that he'd do the thing even if it actually was as stupid as a thought.
Ah, thank you for the clarification.
It is an interesting possibility, yes. I do not, based on my current knowledge, know of anything that would prevent such an ancient one from being active -- if there are in fact none, however, that would indicate I don't know or properly understand something.
Now, my working assumption had just been that he was young and dumb and overconfident, but if that's not the case...
Aye. Not sure what else I can do, though. And I'm at least open to having my assumptions changed here as new data comes in -- and, you know, not staking my life on them. :D
Hm. I guess it depends on how much one interprets his attempted suggestion as a significantly hostile act in and of itself.
(And, as you say, from his perspective, with my updated information, it looks like it wasn't.)
Don't get the "Belial'd" reference and thank you for the clarification on just what would have happened, but other than that, aye. Unfortunately, based on my understanding (though as has just been demonstrated, that's known to be imperfect here) of their abilities and energy reserves at the point, I don't expect Adam would have lost to Moira and Artemis even taking them both on at once there, if it was just them.
One part Hyperbole, another part defining 'other' as 'someone not possessing traits related to her own', where Princess Luna is at partially defined by her compassion for others. I tend to refer to gods in the metaphysical sense, not the individual sense, so I did not mean "Just another deity with a different name and identity, but otherwise the same beliefs and values. Goddess isn't a racial affix, to me, it's much more nuanced than that.
If it were anyone else, he would not be perceived as hostile, because he would be using the power of suggestion to alter the person's perception of events. But Luna is the Princess of Dreamland.
Granblue Fantasy reference/joke. Adam thinks he's hot shit, a real Belial/Hazama/cocky anime villain.
10619149
I did. Nice chapter. I'm kinda surprised you had the attempted soul sucking lead to transformation. A little sad and excited as well for the paths both now closed and opened.
10619809
What door would you say has closed?
You joked (I think?) that Adam was sucking out Light's soul, to clarify that is not what was happening. What he was ripping out of her every cell was magic (which certainly is vital to the having of a soul, but as I explicitly stated in the story, magic doesn't run out, the body just gets fried when trying to handle too much of it).
It was my sentiment that Light Breeze's earthly body was always going to change this way, as transformation spells would actually be far beyond Artemis or Moira's ability right now, and are difficult to make permanent in the first place. Light Breeze's body was transformed because it was a moment where her body could either bend, or break, and it chose the bend, instead.
10619945
The door that closed was exploring her gender and species dysphoria on earth in a safer place while hiding. The door that opened is figuring out how to merge her two bodies while keeping her earthly existance a secret.
10620147
I'm curious how much more you felt there was to explore that wasn't already covered in the chapters leading up to this one. Was there anything you feel we missed?
/levitates note quill
10619531
Ah, thanks! Interesting. I don't think I fully understand your position there, but it sounds like something quite a bit too complex for part of one paragraph of a comment.
I thought he wasn't able to start using that power until the connection was opened, though? Or was I misunderstanding?
Also, even if Luna had just been another human vampire mage, she wouldn't have had any significant chance, even, of mounting a defense or counterattack? Hm. But... would have still thought she might, and thus still opened the connection? ...I think I'm still missing something here, sorry.
Ah, thanks! Yeah, that went completely over my head; I'm at most aware that I think I've read the word "Granblue" somewhere before, and I'm guessing from context here that it's, or "Granblue Fantasy" is, an anime. (No idea who or what "Hazama" is, either, though also from context I'd guess another cocky anime villain.)
10620734
I don't quite get why you'd thank me for clarifying something if it did not actually clarify things at all.
It's an expression, in this situation 'Any other goddess' does not mean 'another goddess', it refers to a 'different kind of goddess'. Consider the supposed differences between Old Testament God and New Testament God. "Any other Goddess" means "If Luna wasn't compassionate and concerned with harmony."
His "Let me in" comment was him trying to be playful before vamping someone. This makes himself vulnerable because he is stepping beyond the fortress of himself, it's what allowed him to see Luna and Artemis as they truly are. It wouldn't have made a difference if he hadn't, because Luna is gifted enough at this specific sort of thing that she could have done it even if he hadn't lowered his defenses. But to clarify, there is no "Neural Link" before forged. Connection is used metaphorically, not literally.
The amount of proverbial mana in Adam's mana pool in this moment means anyone he is likely to deal with would not be able to resist. Again, take the situation in its context, understand that Adam isn't a complete and utter buffoon, and this will lead to the realization that there are no elder vampires running around looking to crush a few neonates. Adam and his friends are the equivalent of human Changelings, and Adam is stuffed with magic, so he reasonably believes that he can best any other changelings that come poking around. It was an alicorn, so he got stuffed.
Granblue Fantasy is a Mobile App RPG, it has an anime spin-off, an upcoming JRPG console game, and a fighting game called Granblue Fantasy Versus. You could just Google this stuff, really.
You could google 'Hazama', too. The character I am referring to is like, the first six results that pop up, taken with the additional context I provided, and it should pretty easy to figure out who it was.
10620799
Um. It did definitely clarify things, I thought? I didn't think I understood fully, but I definitely thought I understood significantly more than I did before the clarification.
I'm not sure where the confusion's coming from here.
Thank you for the further clarification. I still do not think I fully understand your system, but, to be clear, I do again think I understood what you meant more than I did before the clarification.
Ah! Thank you. Yes, combined with rereading some text in the chapter, I think that cleared things up for me there.
Ah, it's that overwhelming relative to what others might be carrying around? Thanks.
I think that my two problems there were 1: not having that good an understanding, apparently, of how the magic system works here and 2: while I assume "complete and utter buffoon" is more hyperbole, I really hadn't gotten that good an impression of Adam's competence, particularly in his current altered state.
...And this, with the emphasis, feels like it's meant to lean on a particular set of changeling mechanics?
I could have, yes, but it'd sounded like you provided all the information you thought necessary for its appearance in the conversation, I also thought that I had enough of an understanding of what you meant, and I wasn't at the time interested enough to pursue it further independently.
If you like, I suppose?
[does that]
Okay, it looks like he's a character in the BlazBlue franchise of fighting games (which apparently isn't connected to Granblue Fantasy).
(Also, it seems like our conversation is still having problems, but I don't know why, since we're no longer talking about the thing I thought was the source of the earlier problems. Apparently there's something else involved. I don't know what to do about this...)
I mean, most telecomm companies are probably practicing the dark arts, but not for cell coverage. I think.
An overwhelming quantity of magic resulting in the body changing into a form better adapted to handle it. Makes sense to me.
In any case, Adam's cabal did indeed do him a grave disservice. Not just by failing to note that that psychic connection is a two-way street, but also by failing to instill one of the key lessons any magical being needs to internalize: there's always a bigger fish. And if a random woman comes out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere, declares the pegasus who used to be your brother her subject, and demands an explanation, assume you are in the presence of a whale, if not Leviathan itself. At the very least, don't begin a mental handshake protocol without getting some sense of the other party's grip strength.
I reserve the right to mix metaphors as I see fit.
In any case, Adam is in better hooves now. The question is what will happen when Artemis returns to Equestria. I can't imagine he's going to sit quietly and wait for her return. And, of course, there's the fact that these two have been abducted. That'll have some repercussions on its own.
10622500
Hahaha yeah they totally are.
Re: Adam's actions - as we mentioned to Reese, his actions were reasonable in context. We outsiders are just used to Luna and know the score.
To make a rough analogy, he's in the Old West holding a shotgun to her head dead to rights, but the other person happens to be an alien with an invisible psychic forcefield. It's just not something within his ken. To his perspective, she's a cthuloid monster from beyond the stars, but the audience has been with her from the moment this started, so to us it looks stupid because we have that context.
Was he cruel and arrogant and got what was coming to him? Hell yes, but I don't want that to be mistaken for him being stupid.
10622500
I dunno, as someone who spent a lot of time in the pagan community I guess I'm just used to strange women with witchy vibes declaring others their subjects and acting imperious.
It is after all, where I got the inspiration for 'horsing' a goddess to begin with.
Okay, I've finished devouring everything so far; hopefully I can fall asleep now.
10623676
Hah!
I know that feeling. I'm really flattered - when you get the chance, let me know your detailed thoughts. I'd like to hear them!