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For a while, just for a little while, I virtually forgot I was only along for the ride. My self-proclaimed little sister’s mind whirled almost too fast for me to keep up as we zigged and zagged around the cave, keeping Tuck the pooka distracted for as long as we could.
I don’t know if the worry I felt for the hellspawn girl escaping down the mountain slope was mine or Kiki’s. Logically it should be mine, since Kiki had no personal connection to Shindzha, but just as I felt Kiki’s constantly spinning thoughts calculating where and how to avoid the lunges of the angry monster’s grasping claws as if I were her, I also felt her experiencing the same worry about Shindzha as myself.
“Pooka slow slow!” we taunted the creature. “No eat Kiki! Pooka starve!”
I felt her intention to draw Light as she dashed into the cave opening where that element was pouring in, so I opened up the channel from my core and poured a thick stream of my stored mana into her pathways.
Kiki understood instantly, and took command of all of it, adjusting her spell to use the greater quantity, pushing it all into the fairy magic we silently cast, the true, original pixie magic version of [Fairy Light].
As our thoughts synced up once more, [Pixie Light] poured out in a stark blaze of pure radiance, lighting every square inch of wall floor and ceiling with a brilliance like sand under the desert sun. It stayed that way, too, not fading a bit.
“Gaaaah!” the pooka shrieked as he threw his arm over his eyes.
“Pooka dumb dumb!” we giggled, ending with bright laughter as we orbited him at high speed. Once his eyes adjusted and he began grabbing at us again, now in this well-lit space that a creature who prefers the dark was surely uncomfortable with, we stealthed, using a technique I couldn’t quite follow, and flew up to the ceiling near the cave opening to watch him lunge this way and that, still trying to find us despite losing sight of us.
He kept that up for a solid ten seconds before he let out a bellow of rage.
“Stupid pixie!” he declared. “Tuck go!”
He marched toward the opening, forced to leave on foot because we had made the place too bright for the [Shadow Step] technique that he arrived by. It seemed that no single point source existed for the light, because everything in the space was perfectly lit.
For a moment, we differed on whether to stop him. I thought we should prevent him from leaving, but Kiki wanted to let him pass and follow him. She won as soon as I understood her thoughts and saw what she saw, that Shindzha had finished her scamper down the slope and disappeared into the woods beyond the ruins.
She already understood the vampire magic through me. We needed to keep up with Shindzha in order to protect her. If we lost our sense of her location, our [Vampire Cloak] on her might dissipate.
Following him, our thoughts merged once more. The creature leapt into thin air, dropping onto the slope to slide and bound down, unfortunately following the exact route that Shindzha had taken. He was going the right direction, so we stayed right behind him.
Once we became certain it wasn’t coincidence and guessed he was following her tracks, we zipped around him and began blasting Wind downward on the general region where she had passed, remaining in stealth even though the downward gust betrayed our position.
Misdirection is a pixie’s favorite trick. After blasting Shindzha’s tracks into oblivion for many paces, we slowly veered off in a different direction than she had traveled.
A Rock Beaver pond lay in our path. Still blasting the non-existent tracks beneath us, we flew a course straight into it, raising a spray as we blasted the water surface to the middle of the pond. There, we stopped the Wind technique and zipped away unseen.
We had indeed fooled Tuck for a distance, but he had guessed our strategy and stopped already, and he was now investigating the edges of our swath of wind-blasted ground, looking for Shindzha’s diverging trail.
The next move simply had to be done! With a bright giggle, we pulled Water mana straight from the stream feeding the pond, drawing another healthy dose of mana from the core for the power, then we did something I never experienced before but now knew was quite easily done! By combining the mana with the full force of our desire, we could coerce the water in the stream by sheer willpower to leap out of its bed and flow in a grand arc through the air, right to where Tuck was searching for tracks!
It came pouring down on him, fish and all, in a violent deluge that just happened to wipe out more of Shindzha’s tracks while we were sweeping it back and forth to chase the fleeing pooka. Our pixie voice filled the air of the meadow and forest with bright titters of glee, amplified by a fun Wind technique for extra effect, as he ran away.
It was so terribly, terribly tempting to chase after him! Tormenting the surly little creature was fun fun! But somewhere deep inside, concern for Shindzha overcame desire to play, so we held our laughter and searched for her instead.
She crouched with fear still burning in her eyes below a half-fallen standing stone that pointed at a sharp angle to the southwest like an incorrectly pointed sundial.
The reason for her fear was obvious. Around the stone and her spun a trio of pixies. One had butterfly wings, another had bee wings and the third had dragonfly wings just like ours. All three were carefully examining the spot where they shouldn’t be able to see Shindzha. Finally, they stopped, seemingly staring right at her.
Butterfly wings tipped her head and asked, “New fun?”
Bee wings did likewise while asking, “New game?”
Dragonfly wings flew up directly in Shindzha’s face and wondered, “New toy?”
Suddenly, filled with vigor, we dashed forward, dropping our stealth on the way, to bop a pixie head.
“No toy! Kiki friend!”
“Grandma?”
“Grandma!”
“Grandma?! No toy?” Dragonfly wings asked with disappointment as she rubbed her head.
We knew these three, through Kiki’s memories. Many of our descendants lived in these mountains. These three were very old, despite their childlike manner. Some descendants younger than this trio had long since evolved into lesser fairies, but these three had too much fun playing together to care about boring stuff.
“No toy!” we repeated, hands on our hips.
“Why hide?”
“Demon girl bad?”
“Demon girl sneak sneak?”
“Run away?”
“Make angry?”
“Grandma chase?”
“Bad man chase!” we corrected, with another bopped head, this time choosing Bee wings for our target. “Pretty demon girl friend! No bad!”
“Friend? No bad?” echoed the bee-winged girl, looking confused as she rubbed her head. She pondered, while tipping her head, “Demon but no bad?”
“Big sis make pretty demon girl good girl! Pretty demon girl friend!”
“Big sis?”
“Big sis?”
“Big sis?”
“Kiki big sis,” we repeated firmly. “Tia Na!”
We said the name that way, in proper, old-fashioned Xa-Ne pronunciation.
“Mmmmm,” all three said, with their little chins on their fists. Finally, dragonfly wings replied, bobbing her fist in her palm, “Oh! Auntie! Grandma big sis is Auntie, yes?”
“Auntie, yes?”
“Auntie, yes?”
I had mixed feelings about being called ‘Auntie’ somewhere deep inside as we nodded. “Yes!”
Shindzha had been frozen and all but holding her breath during the conversation. She finally looked in our direction and asked, “They can see me?”
Before we could answer, dragonfly wings turned, looking right at her, and answered, “Nope nope!”
“No see!” Butterfly wings declared
Dragonfly wings supplied, “Feel a little!”
Bee wings added, “Hear a little!”
Butterfly wings expanded, “Smell a little!”
Dragonfly wings explained, “Something darkly, something monsterly, something demonly. No see demon girl, but not same as forest!”
“Not same as rock!”
“Not same as trees!”
“Smart smart! Know demon girl there!”
“But no see,” Bee wings assured her with an encouraging tone, apparently wanting to make her feel better about her magic.
“I’m Nana!” Dragonfly wings introduced herself.
Bee wings zipped up next to her and announced, “I’m Nana!”
“I’m Nana!” Butterfly wings exclaimed.
The [Vampire Cloak] was still active, only allowing us to just barely make out her face, but her eyes widened with something between bewilderment and disbelief.
“Dumb dumb kids!” we yelled. “Why all Nana?”
They flitted around while erupting into bright laughter, then Butterfly wings said, “I’m Nana One!”
Bee wings announced, “I’m Nana Three!”
Dragonfly Wings disagreed, “I’m Nana Three!”
“You’re Nana One!” disagreed the one who had just identified herself as Nana One.
Shindzha’s face had settled at last on bewilderment. She just held her head in her hand, and endured.
“Girls smart like Kiki, find you,” we told her. “Pooka no find!”
“Pooka?” Dragonfly wings echoed.
“Pooka?” the other two chimed in.
“Pooka chase. Pooka bad. Red Tower Mean Lady spy.”
“Oooooh!” the three chorused.
“We chase!” Dragonfly wings declared
“We trick!” Butterfly wings decided
“Fun fun!” Bee wings explained
“Good Toy!” Dragonfly wings added, in clarification.
“Be safe! Pooka eat!” we warned them, but they just went streaking off anyway, giggling and playing as they flew an interweaving path in Tuck’s general direction.
Whatever would be, would be for those girls, so we left it and flew up to Shindzha’s bust. Dropping our wings, we snuggled in and curled up there.
<Kiki stealth now. Big sis rest.> Kiki told me as our thoughts briefly diverged again. But my [Vampire Cloak] vanished without me bidding it. It seemed we were still enough in tune for her to control my magic. Her own stealth magic, mysterious enough that I couldn’t grasp how she did it, covered both us and Shindzha.
She looked up at the hellspawn girl looking down with confusion at her and explained, “Kiki hide pretty demon girl! No see, no hear, no smell! Big sis rest now! Demon girl rest now!”
Her mind was working overtime to make clear statements, trying with all her might to be understood. As I went through the process with her, I saw how intensely frustrating mortal speech was for her. Mortal sentences just demanded too many details. Suddenly, I was filled with new appreciation for how hard she was working to help.
In order to do my part as well, I made the effort to sync up with her again. And we chose that time to get some better information about the situation.
“Why Pooka chase?” we asked. “Why too mad mad?”
Shindzha, whom we could now see clearly, here within the bubble of stealth we shared with her, licked her lips and confessed, “I messed up. I thought I could hide from her, but that Elemental woman saw me clearly and sent her people after me. But then, they suddenly left and went flying in Miss Hiléa’s direction, so I tried to warn her. I guess she left the pooka behind to deal with me. I guess he’s mad because I made myself hard to find.”
I could feel Kiki’s confused question and pushed thoughts of what Lhan was, as best as I could. Our synchronization was lost in the process, but she seemed to understand it to a degree.
<Kiki know. Big Sis two now, one later. Yes?>
She seemed to actually get it, better than I did. <That’s how I understand it. Although I don’t really understand it.>
<No problem. Kiki know! Kiki smart smart!>
By this point, I understood just exactly how smart smart this tiny genius was, so I simply agreed.
“Mmmm,” Kiki pondered, while staring at Shindzha’s chest like she did before. Right at the center of the breastbone, near the heart. I worked to sync with her thoughts again and found we were actually using [Pixie Sense] to study a deep, dark mass within, that blazed like a tiny black sun embedded near her spine.
“Demon core tired, yes?” we asked.
Shindzha looked at us in surprise. “What? What did you say?”
“Demon core!” we repeated, pointing at it.
“I… have a demon core? But… that’s not possible? I’m a hellspawn! Demon cores are for demons!”
“Mmm,” we considered the question, then realized we couldn’t explain it in these words. So we said, “Don’t know. See demon core though!”
“Well… I’ve really been overworking my magic, so I am tired.”
“Rest now! Kiki hide, pretty demon girl rest, Big Sis rest, everyone rest!”
Except we wouldn’t be resting? The little bundle of energy that was this pixie body didn’t know the meaning of it.
But Kiki disagreed. <Big Sis rest! Goddess lady bring back later!>
Then I was in my bed, looking at Mireia with surprise.
She smiled. “You’re back?”
My disoriented brain finally caught up as I blinked.
“For now. I guess I’ll be going back there or something?”
“Yeah, I will send you back after you’ve taken a break, My Lady.”
Her words revealed that it was still Rhea speaking through my Servant. Then I noticed how clammy I felt and that she was still naked and tightly glued to my lightly-clad body.
“You’ve been sweating,” she agreed. “I suspect an autonomic response to all the exercise the pixie was getting. Your brain was still connected to your own body, even though your senses weren’t.”
If she knew, she could let go of me, though?
