"So, I think the darkness might be one of Ember's soulmates", Scarlet finishes, she'd been telling them about the lake in Ember's dream.
"A soul inversion was expected since they are suffering from [Fractured Identity] and dreamscapes often mirror soulscapes", a bassy voice rumbles to Scarlet's right, it takes her a moment to pin it to the gaunt [Spirit Sage], Joyful Whispers, they hadn't spoken yet and the deep voice was unexpected from the gaunt figure.
"What's a soul inversion? Does this happen to all pluralities?", despite [Safe Intent] a note of panic is starting to creep into her voice.
"[Fractured Identity] isn't a system denotation of plurality, as it isn't considered an affliction, but a natural state of being", the sage shifts slightly making eye contact with Scarlet, "Instead [Fractured Identity] means that there is misalignment of [Soul] and [Mind]."
The sage holds her eye for a moment longer and turns back towards the window, "While a unification metamorphosis is started by unifying [Body], [Mind] and [Mana], it actually also requires one to align their being towards both their soul inwards and the world outwards."
"Soul inversion is one the ways this can be achieved during the process, most of the soul is expelled into reality where it is healed and reformed using the same magic that reshapes physical form", Joyful continues, "It can be dangerous, but if this darkness soulmate has stabilized the form, the riskiest part is over."
The sage's explanation is interrupted by a series of notifications from the main console, the darkness had dropped every energy value to a perfect zero according to her instruments, but ambient mana levels were rising again. She quickly runs the data through a few dozen models, a few return a likelihood of an elemental or spirit, but it's hard to confirm with emergency shielding still up and blocking her normal sensor suite.
Scarlet casts [Substance Analysis] through the chamber interface, hoping to get a bit more data, the skill eats mana like crazy if she uses it continuously like this, but it's the only way to extend her senses through the shielding.
She's used to a hefty mana burden from the skill, but this time it hits like a truck draining her pool in seconds, but before it can fizzle a hand gently touches her shoulder and the flood of mana that follows easily keeps her topped up.
"You're doing great honey, but don't forget we're here to help as well", she feels the slender fingers gently gripping her shoulder and when she looks back Titania gives her a warm smile, "These things are always scary, I've been there for more than I can count and trust me, it hasn't gone of the rails yet."
Scarlet refocuses on her skill and tries not to think too hard about the 'yet' on the end of that sentence. There is a mana construct in the center of the room with an astral and psychic imprint, it's slowly gaining mana, but shows no signs of instability. Just as [Substance Analysis] confirms it as living, they start to make sounds, she can measure the volume, but frustratingly the shielding is preventing her from hearing anything. The mic and speaker setup work with the vibrations of a few wall panels who are now held rigid by the kinetic dampening.
The construct suddenly bursts forward toward the viewing window and impacts the mana shield, Scarlet worryingly tries to figure out if they're doing OK, but can't figure out more except that's they're still moving and making sound.
The tenseness in her chest tightens more and more as her finger dance across the console trying to figure out construct stability, shape, composition, harmonics, density, volume, speed, radiation, anything, just... anything.
She tries to keep breathing, but she can feel the artificial calm of her passives reaching their breaking point, except she can't afford to panic, she can't afford to fail, she can't...
Another squeeze of her shoulder brings her back to the room, "Morgan, could you give the room a good once over?", Titania calls out to her back and turns back to Scarlet, "Nothing like a [Shaman] for figuring out nonsense and no one does it better than our [Shaman of Unknown Truths]."
The middle aged Orc moves forward in what would be a casual way, except the atmosphere in the viewing booth suddenly goes quiet, not a sound or mana fluctuation while even the light dims a bit. He slowly strokes his beard and, without an ounce of urgency, unwraps a small sweet and pops it in his mouth. He spends the next few moments making soft smacking sounds as he sucks on the candy while Scarlet's console starts showing increased activity.
Just as she is about to scream, the Orc crunches down on the candy and points to the middle of the room, "It's alive, called Zoom and only a bit distressed", he turns to Scarlet, "That mean anything to you?"
Except Scarlet is already too busy to talk, working on jury-rigging the audio setup through the shielding. He shoots Titania a look, "Guess it does".
Scarlet did her best to hide her blush as Ember carried her across the forest floor, the lethal vines, roots and undergrowth instantly vaporizing when they tried to strike at her ankles.
It had taken Ember several months to convince her to come along with one of her trips deeper in the nightmare realms, no matter how strong, it was hard to trust the goofball to keep her safe.
It wasn't until she got a [Quest] to gather [Tar Blood] escorted by Ember that she dared to go, she trusted her system not to send her into unreasonable danger. Well that wasn't entirely true, but she'd accidentally told her mom about the [Quest] and she and Esther had convinced her to go.
It quickly became clear there wasn't a thing to worry about, Ember dealt with any threat quickly and efficiently. Ember was usually a bit scattered, bouncing around, making jokes, but she'd been more calm and collected while they were travelling. Carefully taking out anything remotely dangerous long before it could become a threat, while constantly gently checking up with her, calming her down when she was nervous and pointing out interesting landmarks when she wasn't.
They'd completed the quest a couple of hours ago, but Ember didn't have to try very hard to convince her to come along for a sight-seeing tour. There was lake of blood speckled with black lotus flowers. There was an eerie clearing with hundreds of figures ossified mid dance around a giant mountain of bones. They had a short rest on a hilltop with a view of the [Burning Lands] turning the sky orange and crimson.
She'd always thought she was straight, but as she was being princess carried in Ember's strong arms, face slightly smooched into her chest, getting told she was brave, well, it made her reevaluate some things.
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Nestling a bit deeper into her arms, Ember smelled like a hot summer's day and lemonade.
She was jostled out of her reverie when they crested a hill and Ember started excitedly, "We're close to the last stop of the night!"
Scarlet looked up at Ember's shining face, "One of my very best friends is up ahead, they usually hang out by the [Steelworks], but I'm pretty sure they're gathering charcoal along the border of the [Dark Forest] and the [Burning Lands]!"
She had to hold on while Ember half skipped down the hill towards a cluster of burning trees, "ZOOOOOOOM WHERE YA AT! I WANNA SHOW YOU MY NEW DREAMBUDDY!"
As they passed the burning treeline they were startled by an explosion a bit further into the forest, "Oh! I bet that's them, they aren't the quiet type", Ember said with a smile, "ZOOOOMMMM!!! ZOOOOMMM!?!"
As they went in deeper the terrain started to show damage, broken branches, toppled over trees and as they got close, large gouges into the ground. Another explosion shook the forest, a lot louder and a lot close by this time, "WHY DO THEY NEED EXPLOSIONS TO CUT DOWN TREES?", Scarlet yelled out in fear.
"Huh? Oh!", Ember chuckled, "They're grabbing the heart of a [Burning Elder Ent], they burn a really pretty shade of blue!"
Another explosion followed by a giant crash and an unearthly wail cause Ember to put Scarlet down on the ground, "If that ain't the sound of a dying Ent! That was close by!"
Scarlet follows Ember up a hill and as they reach the top, she sees the still burning body of the slain Ent, a giant crater in it's chest, but she doesn't spot anyone else.
"ZOOOOMMM? ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM! ZOOMMMM?!? WHERE YA HOE ASS AT?!?", just as Scarlet was about the question the wisdom of insulting someone that can do that to an [Elder Ent], she was blinded by a bright pulse of blue light.
Rubbing the spots from her eyes she quickly turned to Ember, holding a blue sparking ferret from it's tail in one hand. "Hah, too slow!", the sunlight girl teased them before thrusting her hand and the creature towards Scarlet with a wide smile, "This is my friend Zoom! They're awesome!"
The ferret trashed around a couple of times, making annoyed squeaks at Ember and when that didn't do anything it went limp in defeat, making a few more annoyed beeps at their jailer. "Yeah yeah yeah, that ain't why I'm here, remember? I was gonna introduce you to my new friend, her dream name is Hemlock and she's really fuckin' nice!"
The ferret turned their head towards her and made a single resigned squeak. "Um, hello Zoom, I'm Hemlock, it's nice to meet you", Scarlet carefully said. She wasn't sure how much the ferret understood, so she grabbed a few blueberries from her pocket, those were always a big hit with the rats back home. Ferrets apparently agreed because they quickly shoved them in their face with a series of delighted dooks, causing Ember to giggle.
Making use of the distraction Zoom slipped out of Ember's hands and straight into the pocket with blueberries, staying in there the entire trek back home, snacking on blueberries, making contented squeaks.
Scarlet is tabbing past her various stats screens, hoping to distract herself while [Grand Sage] Virabell is restoring shield functionality. She'd been playing around with Ember and Zoom for years, the cute little ferret would show up every few weeks to play around for a night and Ember never mentioned anything.
She thought Ember trusted her, Hells, she thought Zoom trusted her, so why didn't they say something?
"Alright everyone, I reestablished the kinetic shields", Virabell shouts down one of the maintenance shoots, "You should be able to start the audio sui-", she cuts herself off when she flies in the room and sees Scarlet's face. "Oh kiddo, don't worry, this is just technical difficulties, they aren't in any danger."
Scarlet blinks away her thoughts, "No that isn't- I mean yes, no, that's also- but I just...", the sentence dies in her throat as guilt works it's way up, why is she worrying about this when her girlfriend is in danger, she's such a stupid selfish coward.
A hand on her shoulder breaks her out of her guilt spiral, "It's all confusing and hectic and awful, these things always are, but it'll all work out", Titania squeezes gently, "I promise."
Scarlet is still panicking, but the audio is back up, so she slams her hand down on the broadcast button, "Zoom is that you? Are you OK? What is happening?"
They all hold their breath waiting for a response, before "HOT FOXY LADY?!?" rings over the intercom. Scarlet ignores Esther's snort as she replies, "YES! It's me! Are you OK? What is going on? Why didn't you tell me anything? How many of you are there? Is Ember OK? Is, is the lake OK? Do you need anything? I have medical supplies, food, advisors, if you want I can also go get some stuff from outside, I have some favors I can call in, so if you need anything specific just ask!"
A giggle crackles over the intercom, "Damn you're even more yappy when you're awake, but I suppose I wouldn't mind some candy or do you have any fun games up there? It's been a while and we never talk! Guess can't really blame you what with the whole me being a cool ass dream ferret, no voicebox!", Zoom laughs, "So what's up with you, found any cool poisons lately?"
"Um, I'm fine, do you need candy or games for the metamorphosis, anything specific?"
"Oh right, that whole deal, sorry bit distracted by you being real, I owe Ember 10 bucks now, do you guys have bucks? Or are they like magic coins or some shit? Well whatever, don't really need anything, got this under control, though this is kind of a scam, you told us it was automatic and here I am, still having to do shit!"
Scarlet was about to respond, but Titania reached for the mic from behind her, "Zoom, this is [Fey Queen] Titania, while we are all excited to get know you, we were hoping you could focus on the life redefining magical transformation first, is there anything we can do to help with that?"
"I'm not real great with authority figures, is there maybe like a mechanic or a janitor I could talk too instead?"
"I'm afraid all the people with real jobs are busy, just us layabouts here, but we're willing to give helping a try"
"Well, not really, got a nigh infinite power source in an infinite dampening field, I just gotta figure out some modulation scheme for that biz and Nem can do the rest"
"Nem? Is that another one of your soulmates?"
"Erm, I'm not really dating anyone, that's just between Ember and Hemlock"
Titania glances over at Whispers, "The humans call them alters, they use soulmate for romantic connection", they reply shrugging
"I was just informed that humans use the term alter, is this Nem one of you alters?"
"You guys call alters soulmates? That's actually kinda lit, but yeah, it's me, Ember, Quinn and Nemetona. Nem's the one who actually makes healthy decisions, so Imma just make sure it has some power to work with and it'll do it's thing." A loud sigh sounds across the room, "Guess I'll get started on that now, candy is probably nicer once I figure out how to make a mouth and tongue"
Zoom refocuses on their skill list, hot fox lady being real is an issue for later, for now she fires of an [Inspect] at [Energy Manipulation]
Well that's a fucking headache, a quick check shows the manipulation skills are all collections as well, Mana, EM, Kinetic and Gravity are more or less what they would expect, Nuclear contains the weak, strong and binding forces, Spirit the various psychic and astral functions.
But it's [Information Manipulation] that's really revving their processing power, it contains a shitload of skills for inscribing, reading and manipulating energy patterns, even with their new sped up mind and overclocked memory, it's more than they can handle.
They should be fine with just Spirit and Mana though, just a matter of reshaping the inner mechanics of their soul, easy peasy!
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