ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 68: The Favor

Chapter 68

The Favor

Thursday

Time Until Integration: 1 Month, 29 Days, 9 Hours, 44 Minutes…

Class ended without too much fanfare. Alexa wanted to call a meeting, to have everyone gather but still didn’t know where to begin. She wanted to go into the dungeons to start her next stage of the Trials of Ascension, but first she had to get through her required extracurricular activities.

“Hey, can I ask a huge favor?” Luke asked.

Alexa looked up from her desk to realize that Luke was standing right in front of her. Blinking, Alexa wondered how he got there so quickly. A quick scan of her periphery showed that the other students, her former packmates, all were packed up and ready to go. But no one dared to move, as all eyes were on Alexa.

Only now did Alexa realize she had been staring off into space. She was tired, it had been a long day, made even longer by the fact that she had spent all night fighting for her life in the Dungeons.

“Sure.” Alexa said.

At that Luke looked flustered for a moment, but then his eyes scanned the room noting what Alexa had already noted, that all eyes were apparently on her.

“Can we talk in the hallway?”

“They will still be able to hear you from there.” Alexa noted.

Luke blinked at that, then turning to Julie as if for confirmation, she just nodded her agreement. At the agreement, Luke looked visibly flustered, but then just continued with his thoughts.

“Fine,” he began, then taking in a deep breath, he continued. “Could I borrow any and all mental augmentation crystals you might have lying around?”

Alexa was about to say that she doesn’t have any, but then realized that was a lie. She had her last batch, along with the ones that Mr. Mackie had collected for her. That reminded her, she still needed to go and see what was available. Mr. Mackie made it sound like he had collected all of the crystals, and given his capabilities, Alexa was certain he had found most if not all of them.

“Okay, come with me.” Alexa said, rising from her seat.

Screech.

As she arose, so too did eighteen other seats. Her pack had risen as one with her.

Seeing them and their look of Reverence that they all were displaying, at least according to her Perception abilities, Alexa wondered what it would be like to feel emotions at this point. Then she quickly squashed that idea, as she remembered her rule one from this morning. No more emotions in public. Still, Alexa felt it would be nice to acknowledge their act of bonding.

Smiling, Alexa nodded her head in the direction of all her pack members.

Alexa was about to tell Luke to follow her, but remembered at the last moment the wards that were in place to prevent boys from entering into girl’s room.

“Let me grab my stuff and I will meet you at your room.” Alexa said.

With that Luke nodded, “thank you. I owe you big time.”

With that Luke and Julie broke off in the direction of the boy’s dormitory. Or at least the building for the Juniors and now one Sophomore. While Alexa and the remainder of pack went off to their rooms to change before extras.

Her flock of wayward children followed her in a long procession. Valerie on her left, Kylie on her right and everyone else flowing in a procession after her. The entire thing would have been a bit unnerving for Alexa if she could feel, as it was the entire act felt somewhat nice. Being all supernaturally enhanced people, the pack followed her with precision and ease, flowing around obstacles that appeared on campus without losing step or cadence.

Their movements drew more than a few looks from people who were still gawking at the cordoned off battle arena. Though now most of the area was filled with lab techs who were clearly trying to remove large chunks of dragons without ruining their tools.

Gnnnnnunnnn. Gnnnunnnn.

Metal blades hissed and spun as they tried to cut their way through the dragon’s thick scales. Overseeing it all was the TSI captain and her two Lieutenants, though the Lieutenants were at the far end of the fight area to prevent curious students from getting too close.

Alexa felt Captain Johnston’s gaze on her, but knew she wasn’t doing anything overt like staring at her directly. Instead, she seemed to be doing something similar to what Alexa did with her own heightened Perception, but to a much larger scale.

Feeling the presence of just the Attribute being used on her was something new for her. While she could mentally tell that logically the Captain always did something like this, something about her own perceptions had changed to allow Alexa to be aware of the Captain’s viewings. Alexa wanted to think about what could have caused this, but honestly there were a lot of changes to her recently. Many of which could explain this sudden awareness of her surroundings. Her most obvious solution was that her recent increases to her Attribute Increase title and her new Rank of Baroness drastically heightened her Perception Attribute by more than 35%, especially considering that both compounded off of each other. This meant that her base 150 Perception, which had been at roughly 225, after the previous 50% bonus, was now at 318 with her Rank and title increases. Logically Alexa didn’t know if 300 was some sort of threshold, but assumed it almost had to be, especially given the way she was now able to see and experience the world around her in much more clarity.

This was but one of her recent changes she noted. There were of course the obvious increases to her magic, most of which were on full display before everyone right now. The next was how she was certain her ability to move was increased, again she noticed most of this during her battle with the muted invasion force. Most of this change was of course brought on by her numerous Dragon Slayer and Dragon’s Bane title increases that occurred during the battle. Her physical increases didn’t take place until her Rank for completing the quest, and her absorption of the dragon essences were applied evenly to her attributes. Still, he felt much more powerful than before, the only problem was she didn’t know how much more powerful.

Still all of this was secondary. Once she got to the dorm rooms, she turned to thank her pack.

“Thank you.” Alexa said, the stopped. It was clear she wanted to say more but stopped herself short as she didn’t know what else to say.

“Don’t worry boss. We are still here for you.” Lilly said, as she patted Alexa on the shoulder and went in. With that, Alexa just looked at the hand, but watched the procession of people as they all slowly walked past.

“Glad you are back.” Kylie said, as she patted Alexa’s other arm.

Then like that the pack broke up into two lines and all made their way past Alexa, each giving her a reassuring pat on the arm, before entering the building. At the end, Alexa didn’t quite know who the pat was for exactly, whether it was for her or them, but she found herself appreciating the gesture all the same.

Only once the last two passed her did she turn and enter her room.

In her mind, she made a note that their reactions was a little close to hero worship, but figured tomorrow would be a day to address such a concern. For now, she had larger fish to fry.

As soon as she entered her room, she saw Sabrina Macon, her roommate changing.

Upon hearing the door open, Sabrina turned to look at Alexa, then she did something unexpected.

“Oh my gods. Are you okay?” Sabrina said as she ran over and hugged Alexa.

The gesture was a bit much, especially for Alexa, but she forced those thoughts away as she realized what this was.

“You really are a good person.” Alexa said, as she wrapped one arm around Sabrina to complete her portion of the gesture.

At her words, Sabrina broke off and looked up at Alexa. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Alexa just shook her head at the question. She wanted to say that it was due to the way she had seen her twice after harrowing events, and both times she asked to make sure she was okay. Such actions spoke volumes about a person’s character, of course all of that was too complex of a concept to express simply, so Alexa just put on a forced smile.

“It means you are a good person. Nothing more, nothing less.” Alexa responded.

Sabrina looked up at Alexa, then shook her head. “I heard about the party, about what you did. How you rushed in to save those officers. That, that was the sign of a good person. Me, I just stayed…well here.” She said, fidgeting.

Looking at the girl, Alexa noted a few signs that she had failed to notice her first time. She noted Sabrina’s unusually pale complexion, her near bloodshot eyes.

“Want to see a magic trick?” Alexa asked.

The girl looked like she wanted to say something, but then looked to her sash and finally nodded.

“Fine, but if it is anything mean, like setting me on fire, I will be mad.” Sabrina said it in a half joking manner, but parts of her words spoke of a deeper resentment.

“Has that happened to you?” Alexa asked.

At that, Sabrina’s eyes went wide with shock for a moment before she regained her composure.

“Let’s just say, I haven’t always had the easiest time fitting in.”

At that Alexa nodded. “I understand. I too have had a hard time.”

Scoff.

“Oh please, as if someone like you could have a hard time anywhere. You are practically a goddess made flesh.”

Alexa thought about answering that, but instead felt that train of thought would be counterproductive to her goal for the moment. Realizing she had already been given permission, and this line of conversation was a waste, she focused on her original goal.

Focusing her will, she summoned forth energy from her body. Energy that began pooling out of her into the shape of a floating rune that was interconnected with power and intent.

“Wha…” Sabrina began, as her pale face was illuminated by the bright glowing light of the rune. On reflex Sabrina first raised her hand to protect her face, but then she realized she was fine, she kept her hand up as she moved it closer to the glowing rune. It was clear that she was curious about the item, then slowly moved her hand closer to see if there was any residual heat. Of course, there wasn’t this was only a manifestation of light before her. Then Alexa spoke the word into being.

“Hope.”

Woosh.

A pulse of purifying light flashed through the room.

SKREE!

At the sound a shadow creature that had been hiding unnoticed in the corner of the room suddenly cried out in pain, before disappearing in a poof of black smoke.

The two girls turned to the corner where the still raising trail of smoke. Just as Sabrina found herself asking the question, “what was that?” Alexa was hit with a system message that answered their question, while raising so many more questions.

Absorber Class Material Found: Would you like to absorb: Essence of Greater Shadow Fiend?

“Yes.” Alexa said to the message.

Sabrina could only nod at the reply from Alexa, thinking it was her way of confirming what she had been thinking.

“Should we tell someone? If so who, how do we explain we saw a random smoke cloud form in our room?” Sabrina found herself asking hundreds of questions all at once.

“It was a Greater Shadow Fiend. As for why it was here, well I have no clue.”

“Wait, how did you know that? Have you seen one before?” Sabrina asked.

Alexa just shook her head. She didn’t quite want to tell her roommate that she got a system message about the creature after she was given a prompt letting her absorb the monster’s essence. Not wanting to give away too much, she went with a partial truth. “Class Ability.”

At that Sabrina’s eyes went wide. “Wait, you have a slotted class, already?”

Alexa nodded.

Then Sabrina paused as she realized something was off.

“Hey, what did that spell do exactly?” Sabrina asked, as she instinctively felt for her neck, towards the spot where the phantasmal collar that had been slowly chocking her since she was born existed. A collar that now felt like it was missing.

“Do you feel better?” Alexa asked.

“Yeah, actually, I do.” Sabrina said.

“Good.” Alexa said, as she went over to the far side of the room, the one draped in blackout curtains and opened the window.

Woosh.

“Wait!” Sabrina yelled, as sunlight flooded the dark room. Sabrina herself raised her arm above her eyes, as she expected a burst of pain to begin tingling her sensitive skin any second.

Alexa turned to see the girl, standing with her arms crossed over her face. Then slowly she lowered her arms and looked down at the appendages like they were new. As if her arms had suddenly been replaced by these fake ones that were suddenly attached to her body.

Alexa just stared at the girl for a moment. Then realizing Sabrina had nothing else to say, just moved out of the way, and let the fresh air from outside blow the thick cloud of dark smoke away.

“What just happened?” Sabrina asked, as she nervously stood still in the light, half expecting her momentary invulnerability to the light to end at any moment.

“You should be better now.”

“For how long?” Sabrina asked, a not of caution in her words.

Alexa shrugged. “I don’t know, I assume for life, but we only have a limited data set. You should be cured from your condition, Vampyrism, right?” Alexa asked.

Sabrina paused, as she looked up at Alexa. “Yes, but how did you know?”

Alexa just smiled and pointed at her sash. “Your pins for one. Also you seem to suffer from more of the hereditary conditions of the disease than others.” Alexa noted.

Sabrina nodded. “Yeah, those of us that are born to the curse have a harder time, generally.”

Alexa nodded.

Then after a second of awkward silence she went over to her bag that was on her desk. The bag was a lot larger than Alexa had first expected, but shrugging she decided to empty out her school backpack and replace its contents with the contents from the bag on her desk.

“What are you doing with all of those crystals? Going to do Enchanting?” Sabrina asked.

Alexa paused and was about to dismiss the question off hand, as she didn’t like the idea of wasting crystals. But suddenly the idea of Enchanting didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. At least not the way it once was, also if she joined Enchanting, she might be able to explain her sudden lack of interest in absorbing all crystals.

“Maybe.” Alexa said, “but first I need to go to the healer’s hut. You should come.” Alexa said.

Sabrina looked visibly flustered by that, “oh no, I couldn’t I have a slip allowing me to skip most classes and extra curriculars during daylight hours.”

Hearing that, Alexa nodded.

“Okay.”

With that, Alexa left the room and a perplexed Sabrina looked on in confusion first to the leaving Alexa. Then once she was gone, she turned to face the light of the sun that was still beating through her window. The light that had just two days before burned her when she was inattentive while walking to the bathroom had a third degree burn form on her left hand, now just felt warm. Not scolding hot, not like it was burning her skin away slowly while she dropped into a vat of acid. No, it was just warm. No, beyond warm, the sun felt, inviting. Choosing to neglect her studies for the moment, Sabrina carefully crept forward and touchedthe glass.

While Sabrina was discovering the new limits of her new condition, Alexa made her way back to Luke’s dorm. As she entered she could hear hundreds of conversations going on all at once.

“…Did you hear about the dragon that got loose?”

“…Did you hear what happened to Frank?”

“…What do you think caused all those people to go missing in Madison?”

So many different conversations were going on, that at first it was hard for Alexa to find what she was looking for. Then finally the voice she had been looking for came to her ears.

“Fine. I admit it. You were right.” Luke’s voice said.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear that. I was what?” Julie asked.

“You were right.”

“What?”

“You were right. You were right, you were right. There. How many times do I need to say it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe as many times as it takes for me to finally get annoyed by it, probably not going to be for a few hundred more times.”

“Look I am sorry. I should never have compared you to Judge okay.”

“Look, it’s cool I get it. You see her up there in that tight leather and think. Wow, what would it be like to kiss those lips.”

Bleh!

“Look stop. Enough. You have won.”

“I’ll be the Judge of when to stop.”

“Stop, just please don’t…”

At that point Alexa opened the door to Luke’s room. Just as she had expected Julie was towering over top of Luke who was hiding in his bed.

“So he finally knows.” Alexa said, as she entered the room and closed the door behind her.

“Wait, you knew too?” Luke asked.

Alexa just stared at him.

“Of course you know, you just know everything.” Luke said with a huff as he flailed his arms over his head in exasperation.

Then there was a momentary pause, as Luke looked to Alexa and finally asked.

“Wait, why are you here exactly?”

Alexa just took off her backpack and let the crystals clank around loudly.

“That many?” He asked, as his face grew visibly paler at the thought of consuming so many crystals, ever.

“No, these were all the crystals from my battle.” Alexa said, as she moved closer to the bed.

“Oh, phew. For a second there I thought…” Luke’s voice trialed off as Alexa opened the pocket with just the crystals that increased mental attributes.

Tinkle, clatter, plink.

The crystals poured out over the bed, then finally stopped after a few dozen rolled out covering the half of the bed that the two were not occupying.

Alexa made a quick scan of the room and noticed something was wrong. Looking around it took a moment for her to realize, that Luke had taken down a picture of their mother in her work uniform from the wall. This was the poster that sat at the foot of the bed, a spot that was clearly visible from where Luke would rest his head every night.

A quick look at the waste bin showed that the poster had been torn down rather recently, that or Luke was just bad at taking out his garbage. Either way, the torn up poster was still in the trash, a confirmation of the recent changes Luke was going through.

Seeing the fact that the poster was now missing, Alexa couldn’t help but state, “I am proud of you. No longer needing mom to watch over you at night.”

GAH!

Luke made a gagging sound, as Julie couldn’t help but cackle hysterically at the comment.

“Oh, that is so good.” Julie began, but then paused as a thought filled her. “Oh wait, did you...?” Julie began as she looked at the spot where the poster used to hang.

Fortunately, Alexa was out in the hallway and focusing on leaving before Luke could respond to that question.