Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
First Impression: Well...this is one of our very rare relaxation chapters I think. We get to see a very rare mildly adorable moment there and it looks like before we dive into possibly less physical but nonetheless still dangerous situations in a little bit, we are going to be catching a small break.
Anyway let's get right to it,
I set my hand on the armor and let the haze wash over my bones. Bit by bit, I tugged wisps of energy into my marrow. It tickled, pin pricks of spice on the cold of the apkallas spirit. But it was difficult to consume its spirit, nothing like harvesting a soul. I wasn’t sure I could actually collect the entirety of the djinn with how much effort it took just to snatch these scattered pieces, but he didn’t need to know that.
“All right! I believe!” The djinn recoiled from my hand as if magnetized.
“Then you'll promise not to harm Hasda?”
“I cannot swear that no harm shall befall him, surely you understand.” Its voice was whiny.
“That's not what I said.” I folded my arms and leveled my weightiest stare at the djinn. “Neither through guile nor pact, inaction or misdirection, shall anything within your power cause harm to hasda. An absolute, soul binding Oath that everything you do is only for his good.”
Well that sounds like the sort of thing that just ends up encouraging those loopholes to be found there Charax, are you a 100% sure you want to do something like that. As safe as it sounds somehow all I can sense from this is danger especially with the kind of attitude this djinn has so far proved to have.
The djinn hissed. “My aide doesn't come from nowhere. To fulfill wishes, to provide power, prices must be paid. That is unalterable.”
“Then you'd best make sure he gets the best prices, eh?” I had the spirit practically pinned beneath my gaze. “I sense a cent of profiteering, and I'll rip you out at once.”
“As you say, Old One!” The djinn’s tone was sour. “But I cannot contract with any other, besides the binder which has bound me.”
“Have you ever pissed off a god?” I lowered myself to one knee, my eyes level with the djinn’s. “I don’t give a shit about your code, or tradition, or whatever oratory you want to hide your sorry ass behind. So you will swear, or I will carry your soul within my frame and let you fester in the knowledge that any day could be your last, and only my whims keep you from oblivion.”
Yup well...this is certainly starting to heat up quite a bit and from the looks of things Charax is going a little too far out in terms of the yelling and threatening. Its making it looks like he's pretty desperate at the moment and this djinn if its been anything like what we've seen so far is going to pick up on that. As reasonable as it is for Charax to act in the way he is at the moment I can't help but think nothing good is going to happen as a result.
I grunted. “I’ve had few enough dealings with efreets, but what I know of the stories makes me justifiably wary of their deals.” I jabbed a finger at the djinn, who flinched away. “This one is going to mind itself, or it’s going to learn the hard way about circumventing oaths.”
“We stand by our bindings always,” the djinn hissed.
“My interpretation is the only one that matters.” I put a bit of my power into my voice, making them both flinch. I hadn’t meant to hit Hasda with that, but it was unavoidable. “Are we clear?”
“Yes.” Its purple energy churned at the edges of the chestplate. “Anything else? Or are you going to incessantly vex me with your endless taunting?”
I poked the fringe of its aura and smiled as it squealed. “For now.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the djinn slipped back into the jagged scar on the breastplate. It might have been my imagination, but the unnatural weld didn’t look as angry or out of place, the metal lumps withdrawn and closer to flush with the surface. What wasn’t imagined, however, was the splash of color that returned to Hasda’s face after the djinn hid. I pulled myself back to my feet and smiled at him. “Much better.”
Yeah...this is definitely going to backfire before this story is done...but for now I suppose we can put the djinn to the back of our minds until this whole thing ends up going ahead and becoming a massive problem again sometime later in a future fight of some sort.
He didn’t look convinced. “Was that really necessary? He hasn’t hurt me, and he’s been nothing but honest with me.”
“Thus far.” I gave him a look. “When was the last time you looked in a mirror?”
“Huh?”
I grunted. “That’s what I thought. You’ve been growing progressively paler ever since you and the djinn bonded. Now, I trust you to be able to handle yourself with it, so I need you to trust me when it comes to mortal limits.” I glared at the armor. “It putting you on the edge of your grave before your time is where I draw the line.”
Well...that seems like a good line to draw although I do have to say Hasda standing there sort of having to watch two people kind of argue a little bit about using his life force is probably not very nice on him.
“Oh, when we established the contract, I made sure he couldn’t kill me with any of his prices.” Hasda rested the eggs against his sides and smiled.
Well, I had to give him credit for that much. But he still had a lot to learn. I tapped the armor, which seemed to vibrate at my touch. “That would only prevent it from outright killing you. Slowly sapping your strength and letting you fall in combat because you spent too much on it? A letter of the law execution of your agreement.” I sighed. “But you did good, putting such a clause in.”
“Thanks.” He beamed.
Hmm and therein lines the classic loophole that you can always find when you try and actually bind something like this. On the bright side I do love that Hasda was smart enough to do something like that. It seems like the sort of basic rule that gets forgotten a little often in some stories.
I jerked my head at the eggs. “So. More lizards in my temple?”
Hasda barked a laugh. “I haven’t thought about them in years.”
“Yes, well, I spent many a night with your forest finds scurrying across my lap while you slept.” I shuffled past him to sit on the fountain and patted the stone next to me. “You going to tell me how you managed to get those from the hydra?”
Well that was an oddly adorable moment that I did not see coming. I do love to see little things like that happen ever so often. Although I suppose the bigger questions besides the adorableness is a far more interesting thing to see.
He set himself carefully on the ledge, struggling to balance the eggs without exacerbating their cracks. “When the mongoose attacked, she split her brood among her heads and hid them in her mouths. That was why she wasn’t breathing fire and acid everywhere at first.” He rubbed the left egg. “Since she still has surviving eggs to raise, she couldn’t abandon her brood to help us. But she offered me the weakest as a reward for protecting her young.”
“So knocking the eggs together was to determine which of the runts was the weakest?” I wasn’t sure that the thickness of its shell was a good indication of the strength of the hydraling inside, but I also wasn’t a hydra myself. Yet both had given before the other, a near miracle.
He nodded. “She wasn’t expecting both to break. It had never happened before.”
“Did she tell you how to raise them?” Even as I said it, I had a feeling this was going to be a group effort no matter Hasda’s intention.
OKay..well raising a Hydra is an idea that I don't believe I've ever seen before in a story, so that's definitely going to be very new and probably very disastrous and hilarious. Well that certainly sets up a very intriguing situation to come here.
He shook his head. “She said they wouldn’t be much work, I would just need to keep them well fed.”
I let my fingers dangle in the water behind us. “Mm, she makes it sound so simple.”
“They eat a lot?”
ver
“Yes. But that’s a worry for when they hatch.” I nodded at the cracks. “Will those hurt the younglings before they’re ready to come out?”
“I hope not.” He ran a hand over the left bumpy blue shell, tracing the break with his finger. “Perhaps I should swaddle them? Oh!” His eyes lit up. “Maybe Phaeus will let me incubate them in his forge.”
Oh dear...well this is certainly setting itself up to be the hilarious disaster you expect something like this to turn out to be. The whole well fed thing also seems like one of these things that sound really simple but are going to end up causing mass chaos.
Now there was a thought. I smiled. “I don’t think they’ll need that much heat. But here.” I took one egg from him, wincing as it crinkled. As steady as I could, I lowered it into the fountain water and let the cool liquid bathe the breaks. The water couldn’t repair the damage, but it could seal the cracks until the hydras were big enough to hatch. I hoped, anyways.
“I will see if Seppo knows anything about keeping hydra eggs.” I left one egg to float as I handed its twin to Hasda. Though bumpy, the shell was still slick from its dunking, and my fingers lacked the flesh that made dexterity less difficult. “We can worry about their nurture once they’re hatched.”
Hasda nodded, a motion punctuated by a crack splitting the air. He jerked, clutching the eggs tight.
I get the feeling these eggs are going to join the list of things on the back of the reader's mind until they just decided to hatch at possibly the worst moments that can be conceived for them to be hatching.
She gave me a tight smile. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to discuss my vision before. I’m afraid it’s a little too late now.”
Oh, right. Phemonoe had been about to tell me about her sudden vision when she’d burst into the Spinster’s garden. I frowned. Come to think of it, she’d come through a portal then, too. I hadn’t paid attention to its color, but generally mortals required a deity to open one for them. In the rush, I’d thought she must have followed me through mine, but then, I would have closed mine behind me. Especially since the Spinster was a threat.
“Yes, the portal is mine.” She seemed to read my thoughts on my face. “Your presence is needed in the throne room. Seppo has convened a meeting of the Seated gods.”
“That’s bad, isn’t it?” Hasda cradled the eggs as he leaned forward, worry tracing lines on his features.
The High Oracle nodded. “Congratulations on completing your Trial. Unfortunately, I fear the celebration will be postponed due to current events.”
Oh well naturally just more mysteries to be thrown our way ever so casually, well I am certainly not going to try and dissect that just yet since it seems to be fairly inconsequential given there does seem to be our very next plot point emerging right here.
“Care to give me a rundown on the way?” I shouldered on some extra pounds, feeling the satisfying weight of muscles settle onto my frame as I strode towards her sparking portal.
“Bring those with you.” She nodded at the eggs in Hasda’s arms. “The feast might be delayed, but Seppo isn’t going to ignore your accomplishments.” Sighing, she gathered her robes and met me at the portal. “Your maas has a nice smell.”
“Thanks.” I swept an arm through the portal and waited for her to go first. “So, what news?”
She frowned as she passed under. “Bad, and not just omens. The Paedens have invaded Tingin again.”
Hmm...well I suppose that is at least one of the less violent cliffhangers we've had of late so I am totally going to take that although I am pretty sure this is definitely one of the worse bits of news we've received so far.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall, it seems this is the one little break we're going to get before presumably that new bit of news leads to some more craziness in the times to come. At the very least I am looking forward to seeing how this trial is going to be received by everyone else.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
Tingin is the place the first Trial happened--the mines and all that. The *plan* is for the hydras to be more than just backdrop material, but I have no idea when that'll come to fruition. Other stuff is getting rafo'd (read and find out) lol
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