Rising Shards

Stella reacted a lot better than I expected to the news of how our next leg of the journey had gone, from getting separated from Mahina and Ko to our father making an appearance. Especially that last one.

“I did make sure Zeta was OK as soon as he wandered in,” Dr. Diast said as we called her.

“Thank you.” Stella said.

We had stopped for a moment before entering Chumbler’s apparent new casino that had plopped right in the middle of where we were headed. Oka suggested a quick snack break. She gave us all granola bars that were quickly wolfed down, as well as some mini water bottles that were also quickly finished off.

Diast told Oka and Lillia they’d have to put their new horses away soon and wanted to give them goodbyes (despite Diast telling the two they’d be able to summon their new friends after this, they didn’t want to part with them just yet). This seemed like a good time for Diast and I to step away from the group a bit to check in back home. Marmalade stayed with Oka and Lillia, still a bit rattled after the escape.

“And he was a few rooms away,” I said. so we didn’t have to really come in contact with him. Still…”

“Yeah…” Stella said. She didn’t sound angry, or even mortified. I figured that was her tone for thinking things through.

“If I knew that he’d be around…I dunno if I would have let Zeta come with.” Diast said.

“I would have given it more pause.” Stella said. “But I do trust you, and I think if I went in knowing my dad would show up kind of nearby, but still visibly nearby…I think that’s a doable situation, all things considered.”

“Yeah!” I said, clenching my fists. “I don’t even feel super freaked out right now!”

“Well, it’s no problem if you do,” Stella said. “He put you through a lot very recently. But if he pops up again just get out of there, alright?”

“I’ll make sure the closest he gets to Zeta is showing up on a security camera.” Diast said.

“Good,” Stella said. "I'm actually in the shelves right now, since you mentioned the Sharai Daggers, I found a book about Sharai history and artifacts."

"That fast?" Diast asked.

"I'm a pretty damn good librarian, in my opinion." Stella said. 

"Don't swear, Stella..." I said.

"Oh, shush," Stella said. "I got the section on the daggers here; I'm not sure if it has anything you don't know, but if you'd like, I can read it to you."

"Yeah, go for it, that would help us out a lot, Stel." Diast said.

"Actually, can I send images with this?" Stella asked. "I think there's a camera on the wristband they gave me..."

"Yeah, click the three dots dealies on the menu and scroll down to 'add media.'" Diast said.

"Alright...hold on." Stella said. "You said three dots?"

"Yeah..." Diast said.

"This might take her a bit." I said.

"Oh, shut up." Stella said. Diast's wristband received a projection of pages. Stella's left hand pointed so a drawing of the daggers.

"Can my wristband do that?" I asked.

"Faculty/staff feature only, sorry." Diast said.

"I guess I can just use my phone." I said. "Sorry, Stella. Continue."

"It says the daggers were symbols of power for the Sharai," Stella read. "They were brought from void node to void node, inducing Beast Tendency where they deemed it necessary, such as battlegrounds they were losing, places they wanted to destroy, so on and so forth. It's not known if there was only one pair or if there were multiple, but given the Sharai's reach, it's highly likely there are more than one set. They're powerful at channeling the energy of a Cani to forcibly transform them into the Beast Tendency, but run out of energy quickly, necessitating charging stations in...hold on..." Stella turned the page. "Charging stations that powered the daggers in a convoluted ceremony utilizing Sharai vehicles with Cani inside them that were effectively used as batteries."

The diagram showed what looked like an entanglement of highway on ramps, or maybe slides on a waterpark, with bulky cars driving around in them. In the center was a statue of a monstrous looking being with the daggers held at their chest.

"So that's probably where Ovie and 09 are headed," Diast said. "This casino hopefully will slow them down a bit."

"Oh, it looks kinda like Highway Adventure Burst, doesn't it?" Stella asked, pointing to the diagram again.

For some reason, that made Dr. Diast's face red. "Heh, yeah...that's. You're awesome."

"What's Highway Adventure Burst?" I asked.

"An anime Evy showed me, I love it!" Stella said.

Dr. Diast grinned widely, her face somehow redder now.

"Ohhhh I think I've seen posts about that." I said. "Hey, to get on track..." I nibbled on my bottom lip with one of my fangs as I grimaced. Thinking about the daggers and my father, I had to ask. "It's not going to be an issue if I'm close to them again, is it? Like it won't make me...go back to that?"

Even just almost going to Beast Tendency mode was one of the worst moments of my life. To have myself transform into a monster like that...I obviously wanted to avoid anything that could put me at risk of that again. And chasing after the tools that helped put me in that state seemed like it could be very dangerous.

"Yeah, I'd like to know as well." Stella said. 

"For you to get back to where you were then, you'd have to be in the exact scenario they put you in last time."

"So...tied to a chair, blood on the walls..." A chill went up my spine thinking about it again.

"Yep." Diast said. "If you end up close to the daggers on their own, that shouldn't do anything. But if we come into contact with them, I'll handle the ancient evil thinguses."

"Got it." I said.

"Alright, sounds...well, not great, but again, I trust you to keep Zeta out of trouble," Stella said. “I have to do some clean up back here, so make sure to get everyone back home safe, OK?”

“I will.” Dr. Diast said. “Before we go…I forgot to say it last time, so I wanted to make sure. Love you, Stel.”

“Awwww!” I said. “Well, you didn’t forget, I just said it for the both of us!”

“Right, right,” Diast said.

“I love you too.” Stella said. “I bet Zeta has the dopiest grin right now, doesn’t she?”

“Uh huh.” Diast sighed.

“It’s cute!” I said.

Fortunately, the others didn't bat an eyebrow to how long we were gone, still focused on the horsies. Not that Lillia or Marmalade would be an issue knowing Stella and Dr. Diast were romantically involved, but in the middle of this mission probably wasn't the best time to find out. Oka and Lillia were both a bit dejected having to put their new steed sprites away.

“Bye for now,” Oka said. “I’ll try to come up with a name for you by the next time we see each other!”

They turned into sparkly dust before zipping into their wristbands. It reminded me of a Raina Starlight arc about her going to a land of ghost horses. I was never a horse girl, but I did like that book a lot.

“Hey, so not to be morbid,” Marmalade said. “But what would have happened if that saw speeder deal caught up to us?”

“We’d get seriously wounded, I guess?” Oka said.

“But isn’t one of the big things about void trips for Cani nowadays how like safe they are?” Marmalade asked. “I guess I’m just curious if the stats there are for real or fudged a bit, like they don’t count if someone dies if they’re in the void on a Tuesday or something.”

“We have a couple methods,” Diast said. “In the event of a real calamitous moment, there’s a thing called the airbag protocol. It’s not perfect at preventing injury, but they have a pretty stellar rate of preventing any deaths. Like, virtually zero.”

“Virtually.” Marmalade said.

“They have a real stellar rate.” Diast said.

“Hm.” Marmalade said.

“They do!” Diast said.

“How does it work?” I asked.

“OK, say that saw deal did catch up to us, and we’re imminently about to get sliced to hell,” Diast said. “The airbag protocol kicks in across your adaptive gear and wristbands, and you get zapped to an airbag building, which is like landing in a room filled to the brim with pillows basically. The landing can kind of hurt but the methods they use are pretty foolproof for keeping us safe. You have to stay there for at least a week, generally more so they make sure you're safe. Then, since there’s only a few per state, you usually have to figure out how to get back home, which is a pain because—"

“What if they don’t have their wristband on for some reason? Or their gear?” Marmalade asked.

“It's very technical and would take a very long time to explain the nuts and bolts of it, but they do have a method specifically for tracking danger for students and faculty even if they lose their main protective measures.” Diast said. “The biggest downside past any light injuries landing in pillow room or the travel back is that those guys bitch you out hardcore—er, forgive my language there.” Diast stopped when I admittedly maybe looked a bit spooked with a guardian saying a swear. “They cuss you out hardcore if you end up there.”

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.” Oka said.

“Let’s just say dying would be easier than talking to those guys.” Diast said. "Killer paycheck if you can stand the grind of training for it and an intensely stressful job working with jerks. Helpful, life saving jerks, but still jerks."

“Shall we carry on to the problem in front of us, then?” Lillia said.

“Right, that leads to my next question,” Marmalade said. “What exactly is a Chumbler?”

“Er…” I said. “She’s kind of hard to explain.”

“So she’s…a person.” Marmalade said.

“I’m not gonna bother, it’s gotta be Zeta,” Oka said.

“Why me?” I asked.

“Because you’re actually Chumbler’s friend unlike the rest of us!” Oka said.

“Maybe we should worry about Chumbler lore later,” Diast said. “I tried to find a way around on the maps, but this casino is our only way forward. Going by the bridge’s height, we’re gonna be entering on the second floor, maybe third. My thought is we sneak through, get to the other side, and block Ovie’s group from there, hopefully wrapping this whole thing up before they get any further, because there is a charging station just past us that I'd like to not let them get to.”

“I like the sound of that.” I said. "The stopping them part, not the charging station."

"We got that." Lillia said.

It felt like the bridge wasn’t supposed to connect to the casino, as the point where they did looked warped, as though they were painted together with some kind of brush that could mush metal and stone together.

“You see this a lot when things are hastily merged together in the void,” Diast said. Our way in was a glass window that Diast had us step back so she could smash it with a conjured metal bat.

“I’d say we should be a bit sneakier but…eh,” Diast said. “We can start sneaking once we’re in there.” She helped us through, making sure none of us fell on the broken glass.