Water Kanin: Chapter 47 - Partitioned

…Is this it?

Are we dead?

Again?

We didn’t feel anything. But the world is gone. There’s nothing to see but emptiness. It’s like an inverted Between. Too much light instead of the absence of it, but the effect is the same.

We try to move, and realize we can feel Zyneth. We’re still wrapped around his shoulders. We squeeze him, but he doesn’t react.

“Zyneth?” we try to say, but our translator isn’t working. What’s going on? This doesn’t seem like death. We hesitantly extend our void away from Zyneth, still keeping our core on his shoulder, and reach for something, anything, in the white. Silence presses around us. It’s unnerving. This doesn’t feel right.

It feels like being in the Inventory.

Fear and indignation crash over us. No, we will not be imprisoned again! We lash out, but find nothing to strike. We spin a different way, clawing at air. We thrash, still holding onto Zyneth, not daring to let him go. We can’t risk becoming untethered and cast out alone into the nothingness. But we refuse to accept this—we will tear a way out, just like we did before!

Calm down. We have to calm down. This isn’t an Inventory. Living things can’t be stored in an Inventory.

What if we aren’t alive?

The thought chills us, and even though Zyneth is still here with us, it provides enough uncertainty and distraction to allow us to start attacking our surroundings once more.

Stop! There’s no point to this. We can’t—

Our claw snags on a corner of reality. It’s caught on nothing—a rip in the air. We focus all our efforts on that spot. It feels thinner. Less real. We press and tear at the weak point, and a crack forms in the nullspace.

“None of that, now.”

A hand grabs our core. We lash out with anger and panic as we’re pulled from Zyneth’s shoulder. We twist around, searching for our captor—

#

“That’s it, Kanin!” Noli signs. She wiggles her hexapus limbs in excitement. “Now another step. You know, if you made more legs, it might be more stable.”

“No,” I sign. I attempt another wobbling step, flexing my brand-new knees. Four legs is already almost more than I can handle. And I’m not about to make some creepy spidery body for myself. This form is plenty humiliating and unsettling as it is.

One of my legs gives out, and I pitch over, smacking my glass into the dirt.

[1 point of Bludgeoning damage sustained,] Echo reports.

Goddammit.

“On no!” Noli scuttles to my side. “Here, let me help—”

#

The memory evaporates as reality slams back into us. Sight, sound, and sensation screams into abrupt existence. What had we just been thinking? There was something there, like a fading dream…

We’re not given much of a chance to think about it as we find ourself back on the street once more. Dust still hangs in the air from Yedzaquib’s attack. But not everything is as we left it.

For one, Yedzaquib appears frozen. Mouth part-way open, hand outstretched, flames mid-flicker. An orange dome of light surrounds him, crawling with runes and spell circle patterns.

We’re inside a similar, much smaller dome. It’s barely enough room to pace. Zyneth is next to us, in a separate dome of his own. Like Yedzaquib, he appears frozen.

“Oh, Curator. We knew you were ambitious, but I doubt anyone thought you this much of a fool.”

A woman stands on the street, facing Yedzaquib. She’s a felis, with a calico tail and ears, wearing strange white and copper clothes which almost seem to float around her form, as if she were under water. Her hand is pressed against Yedzaquib’s dome, from which more magic pulses and swirls. The field of magic begins to condense around him, pulling into a sphere.

We don’t intend to stick around and wait for that to happen to us.

We throw ourself at our dome, scraping glass and void teeth over the barrier. The magic pulses with each of our impacts, but doesn’t seem to weaken. Zyneth is just on the other side, only inches away. We have to get him out, too! We claw at the magic, prying with all our strength. Nothing. We activate a Ligthbeam and blast it into the wall. It doesn’t waver. Our mana is scraping the bottom of the barrel. What else? What are our options?

We reach for our void, hoping some of it is still with Zyneth. It’s not—but there is some still outside our prison. Hope rekindles within us. It’s from before, when we split our void in half. That portion still hadn’t made it back to us. It’s inside a nearby building, waiting and inert in the shadows.

Checking that the woman is still preoccupied with Yedzaquib, we activate Displace. It takes every last drop of mana we have to cast the spell. Silently, we pull our core through the void and reappear in an abandoned warehouse.

The rest of our void is stuck back in the dome. Not great, but maybe it will help conceal our escape for a little longer.

But what now? Zyneth is still trapped. Stuck in some kind of stasis. How are we supposed to get him out of there when we couldn’t even put a scratch on the barrier?

There is one way we know of: get the caster to dispel the magic. That would mean attacking the woman. Who is she, anyway? Where did she come from? What kind of magic are we dealing with here?

We edge just enough of our core out from behind the wall to get a good look at her. She seems entirely focused on the magic that she’s pushing into Yedzaquib’s confinement.

It takes some trying—we nearly have to pull our minds back apart—but after enough prompting, Echo finally gives us a Check.

[Name: Blair]

[Title: God]

[Class: Temporal Paladin]

[Level: 100]

[HP: 15,000/15,000]

[Mana: 99,324/10,000]

[Role: High Partitioner]

We freeze. God. That’s a god? Apart from her ethereal clothes, she looks no different from anyone else—a felis we’d pass by on the street without a second glance. But those stats are as clear as day. This is someone we can’t mess with. We hadn’t stood a chance against Yedzaquib, and he was only level 68. What are we supposed to do? How do we free Zyneth?

Blair steps back, hand held in the air before her, as the levitating sphere that contains Yedzaquib continues to shrink. It pushes against his legs and arms, folding them up against his body and bowing his head. She stops only when it’s barely larger than he is. Then the transparent orange shell clouds over. Without any warning, it vanishes.

She lets out a breath, dragging a hand through her short hair as she shakes her head. She glances back to the domes containing Zyneth and our void. As we watch, we feel a hint of… something coming from her. The faintest pinprick of unease.

“Ah. How did you manage that?” She’s looking at our trapped void, so we move it around, letting it pace agitatedly across the enclosure to continue the illusion that we’re still trapped. She smiles faintly. “You’re not attacking, yet you’re also not fleeing.”

Then, she’s right behind us, only inches away.

“Why?”

We jerk back, slashing glass and void between us. She reaches through, ignoring both, and grabs our core—

#

“Well, come on, let’s see it,” Noli signs in delight. She excitedly sits forward in her chair, scrunching her hands into her dress. She still can’t manage to walk for very long, but she’s getting stronger every day.

“Hard to see with,” I sign, levitating the Sculpted glass. My vision swims in a dizzying manner. It’s like having dozens of eyes each pointed in different directions, many of them crossing. “Don’t know. Might not work.”

“Stop stalling and show us already,” Rezira says, folding her arms as she leans against the wall next to Noli. She’s been significantly less excited about each of my body developments than Noli. Probably compounded by all the space my glass is taking up on their kitchen table.

“Okay.” I hold up my newly Sculpted head. It’s more like a mask right now, just the front half of a face. It’s as close as I could get it to my human face—and given my lack of artistic talent, that’s really not close at all.

Both women don’t say anything for a moment.

Then Rezira bursts out laughing. “That is the creepiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

Noli’s smile is tight. “No, no, it’s not that bad. Maybe with just a bit of practice—”

#

There’s a flash of white, and we’re back in the dome. We reel, trying to understand what just happened. Our mind feels scrambled. What’s going on? What was that memory? That memory of… of…

It’s gone. Only a void is left in its place. But the feelings it summoned in us remain. Something familiar and warm. But what was it? What did she do to us?

Shakily, we spin around, locating Blair only a few strides away. She’s on the street outside the forcefield, while we’re once more inside it. All of us, this time. No void left unaccounted for on the streets.

Shit. This is bad.

Blair watches us from outside the shell. Her ears are low and drooping. She looks sad. The expression catches us off guard. Angry or stern, we might have understood. But why is she giving us that look?

“Now, who do we have here?” she asks, turning her attention to Zyneth. She pauses, tipping her head. “Not a Traveler. Not in the database. Hm… innocent bystander, perhaps? Shame. Perhaps Quimalad can work a short-term memory restructure on him…”

What?! She wants to wipe his memory? Is that what she just did to us? No. We won’t let her!

We throw ourself at the barrier again, scratching wildly at the dome. When that doesn’t work, we attack the ground, trying to dig a way under, but the magic extends through the dirt, too.

The flurry of activity draws Blair’s attention back to us. She crouches down so we’re eye level. We stab our magic toward her face, only for it to harmlessly crash against the barrier.

She grimaces. “I thought I’d be able to find you sooner, Kanin. I’m sorry.”

We freeze. She was looking for us? She knows one of our names? We’re again reminded of Yedzaquib’s words and Noli and Rezira’s worries. The gods did know what we’d done. And clearly, they’re not pleased.

But Blair doesn’t seem mad. She just seems disappointed. We’re missing something. What’s going on?

Blair sighs, looking back to Zyneth. She lifts a finger, and his dome glows.

We panic. She’s going to do to him whatever she did to Yedzaquib. She’s going to take him away from us. Alter his memories. No, no, no!

“Wait,” we cry, the voice coming through our translator broken and garbled. We press up against the dome, desperately and uselessly dragging our claws down its surface. “Please!”

Blair stops, blinking. She looks back at us in surprise.

Maybe she can be reasoned with. Maybe she’ll listen! “Not him,” we say. It’s so hard to speak this way. “Leave him.”

The light dies from her fingers as she stares at us in disbelief. “Did you just speak?”

She stopped! We’ll take any win we can get. Anything to delay whatever she has planned.

“Yes.” We pull our translator from within our void and set it on the ground in front of us. As she turns away from Zyneth, we’re filled with relief.

She leans forward to get a better look. “A translation stone,” she says, surprised. “You understand me?”

This is working. We need to be able to speak with her better. With some reluctance, we pull ourself apart.

“Yes,” I say, the voice coming through much clearer now. I have Ink set my core down, then it retreats to roil our void back and forth in agitation, feeling frustrated, caged, and exposed. It understands why I wanted to separate, but it still doesn’t like it.

I walk to the front of the barrier, just an ink bottle with four glass legs. Blair watches me in fascination. “What did you mean when you said you wanted to find me sooner?”

Her look of shock is so sudden, I might as well have slapped her across the face. She rocks back on her heels, falling into a seated position. The tip of her tail twitches from side to side. “Kanin?”

“I feel like you already established that.” Okay, maybe not the best idea to be cheeky to a god, but I can’t help it; I’m nervous.

Her eyebrows pinch in the slightest frown. “Then what…” She trails off, reaching out a hand. Her eyes turn copper, and orange light flares at her fingertips.

[Your remnant has been identified,] Echo says. I can feel something prod at my mind—my soul. Ink raises its hackles, and I shudder.

The light fades, and when her eyes return to normal, they’re filled with uncertainty. “That is a remnant.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess so,” I admit. “I didn’t know what it was called at first. I still don’t really understand what it is.”

Blair shakes her head in disbelief. “It hasn’t consumed you.”

“Not for lack of trying,” I joke, which immediately falls flat, even to my own ears. I shift nervously. I need to keep her talking. Maybe she'll listen. If nothing else, it will buy me time to recover some mana and think of a way out of here.

“Look, I’ve got a lot of questions,” I continue. “And it sounds like you do, too. So, ah, I’d love to talk this all out without anyone threatening to kill anyone else.” I point a piece of glass toward Zyneth. “And I’d really appreciate it if you’d let him go. Without rearranging his memories, or whatever it was you were planning. I’ll cooperate, just leave him out of it, alright?”

Blair glances in surprise at Zyneth. “Who is he?”

“He’s, um.” I shift uncomfortably from leg to leg. “He’s very important to me. But he’s not involved in all of this.” I spin a leg around vaguely. “Well. That’s not really true. But he’s not tied to Ink, like I am. So please let him go.”

Blair doesn’t seem to be following any of this. “Ink?”

“Oh,” I say. “The remnant, I guess.”

Blair stares at me for several seconds without blinking or saying a word. “You named the remnant?”

“Uh, actually it named itself,” I admit.

“What?!” Blair demands.

I stand there awkwardly, not sure how to reply.

Blair pinches the bridge of her nose. “This is not what I was expecting. This is unheard of. It should be impossible.”

“Yedzaquib said the gods wouldn’t like what happened with Ink. Er, the remnant, I mean.” It’s not a question, but I watch her reaction anyway. She doesn’t seem like she’s about to smite me. But she’s not letting me out of this cage, either.

“What Yedzaquib attempted will be looked upon with far more scorn.” Blair shakes her head, lowering her hand. “But, yes, your connection to this remnant is problematic. Especially considering your partial integration.”

“Uh, well, I’m not sure what that means, exactly,” I say, “but I’ve gotten wrapped up in a lot of pretty crazy things lately and would sure love some answers.”

Blair blows out a breath, regarding me closely once more. Her gaze is stern. “Has Shirasil contacted you?”

“What?” I reply, caught off guard. “Who?”

“Lisari?”

“I have no idea what you’re asking.”

“Small miracles,” Blair mutters to herself. She scratches her chin, glancing around. “Is Noli here, too?”

“Noli?” Each question is leaving me more baffled than the last. “No. How do you know about her? What’s going on?”

Blair looks back to me, seeming to have reached some decision. Her expression softens to something pitying. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time now, Kanin.”

“How?” I ask. “I don’t even know you.”

“No,” she agrees. “But I know you.”