LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 42 (Patreon)

"I don't like this," Adra said for the third or fourth time as he and Mira waited for confirmation that the rest of her party was fully occupied elsewhere in the building. They were in the bedroom, where Mira planned to make her attempt at contacting the System directly.

"I know, darling," she commiserated as she patted his cheek. "I still need to try."

Getting out from under the conservatorship was only part of her goal, now that she'd had a chance to think of the full scope of possibilities available to her once her magic wasn't being hamstrung by the System.

Her phone blipped with a text message from Syrith: [They are distracted. We have disabled elevator access to your floor and locked the doors from the stairwell. Move fast; the System is complaining directly to me about something called a 'fire code.']

"It's enforcing the fire code now?" Mira commented with a grimace. This state of affairs was rapidly becoming the ultimate Nanny Government—granted, she planned on using the System however it benefited her, but she could see people start to complain about overreach soon, if they weren't already.

She lay down on her bed with Adra perched anxiously nearby. This was so she didn't risk falling down later. Adra had described the experience as something she would perceive as astral projection or all those times the Veiled Goddess had yanked her out of her body for a chat, but it would be at the hands of something less than a god and possibly less than Adra. He'd implied they were similar creatures, but his accounting of the story made it sound like he'd scared it.

"System," she addressed the empty room. "I request an audience."

This was the point where the plan could fail. If the System wasn't open to meeting with her, it would just ignore her. Adra had the ability to chase it down and address it directly, but Mira was anchored to her material body and would need assistance.

For a second, she worried that nothing would happen, and then there was a great swooshing sensation that encompassed her entire body and she was elsewhere.

It was not the same liminal space that she was used to meeting the gods in, but it was similar.

The System's Core entered the space with her and perceiving it didn't hurt her head the way the Veiled Goddess' presence did. She didn't feel like she was fraying apart at her edges. In fact, the System's Core was sort of nice to look at. It reminded her of a miniature quasar with a dark center bit and a kind of brilliant accretion disc.

At first it seemed impossibly huge, but then something even stranger happened. Mira started to feel squashed; not like it was squishing her, but like she'd been crammed into a small space and finally had room to stretch out. What happened next felt a lot like she was standing up from the table at a dinner party and discovering that she was much, much taller than the person she'd been sitting with.

She and the System Core regarded each other in mute surprise for a long, weightless moment. It finally broke the silence.

[Query: State your request.]

It communicated in a language like the gods', but not as intense. It was similar enough that Mira could wrap her head around it and formulate her reply.

[I want an alternate identity within your framework, one that is legally distinct from Samira Bellamy.]

The System Core contemplated that.

[Declaration: Your background and metaphysical presence qualify you for a secondary account. Warning: This request will be fulfilled at a cost. At a point in the near future, you will be issued a mandatory quest. Failing the quest is not optional.]

[Query: Do you agree to these terms?]

She hadn't expected to get this for free, so she agreed, [Yes. Your terms are acceptable.]

[Declaration: Affirmative. Request: Please stand by.]

Well, Adra had warned her that the System would make its decision quickly, one way or the other.

She felt it start to try to squeeze her back into her body, but that was when things started to go wrong. Leaving her body hadn't hurt, but going back in was apparently a different story. She felt like a memory foam mattress being squeezed back into the box, but she sensed that it was going to start hurting soon.

The System Core was struggling and she could sense its growing agitation. The thing was, she couldn't help. She had lost sight of where her body even was and she was starting to get confused.

Around that point, a familiar presence entered the space they shared. Mira felt the same old pressure she recognized from the Veiled Goddess, but the being that joined them wasn't Her. It was another god that she had fewer dealings with; one she tended to see associated with heroic verse, war, and theater.

It was Glory.

He wasn't one of her favorite deities. It wasn't because he was evil or cruel. No, it was because every one of her party had a God who liked them best. Mira and Cece enjoyed the protection and guidance of the Veiled Goddess, but Glory's favorite was and always would be fucking Andre.

She wasn't sure how he'd respond to her, now that she and Andre were on opposite sides.

Glory regarded her and it didn't feel as bad as the attention of a god usually felt. Being disembodied actually seemed to make the incomprehensible something she could almost comprehend. She could even understand most of it when He said, HOW DID YOU GET OUT?

He picked her up or, more specifically, enveloped her in part of His presence. If Adra had been an angry pet trapped under a laundry basket during his imprisonment, Mira felt like a small animal who'd gotten out of the house and was being carried back inside under someone's arm.

Glory turned His attention onto the System Core and demanded, WHAT WERE YOU TWO DOING?

Mira didn't catch the System Core's response, but she could feel it when Glory's enthusiasm suddenly engaged.

FASCINATING! He boomed and the space surrounding them vibrated like a tuning fork. It was deeply unpleasant to experience. A FINE START, BUT THIS TALE GROWS STAGNANT. IT BORES ME. WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT.

He held up Mira and she could sense his amusement. TIME FOR YOU TO GO BACK TO YOUR WORK.

She felt herself shrinking down again, compacting neatly this time in ways that made sense. The last thing she heard Glory say before she felt herself begin to fall was:

BE GOOD. PLAY NICELY. MAKE FRIENDS.

Mira startled awake in Adra's arms. She'd ended up on the floor somehow and the room seemed dark as she blinked blearily awake. Her body felt weird. For a second she'd felt like she'd been crammed into a cage so small that her sides were bursting through the bars, but the feeling abated after that second passed.

She drew in a deep breath and that was weird too. It was like she'd never used her lungs before and they were fresh out of the packaging.

Adra's grip on her changed.

"Mira?" he sounded deep and echoing like he'd shed his physical body—in fact, it sounded like that was exactly what had happened. The room wasn't dark. It was covered in shadow matter. She just hadn't noticed the fiery sparks yet because her eyes were taking a while to focus.

"I'm here," she rasped and—alright, her voice sounded weird now too. It was huskier than the one she had in this life, which was higher and trended towards a slight nasal inflection.

She was also, she realized with a jolt, completely naked.

"Adra! Where are my clothes?" she squeaked.

The shadow matter coating the bedroom converged into onto place and took on the form of a man. Once there was some light, Mira could see Adra's Illya body laying on its side in the bed with its limbs splayed wherever they'd happened to fall. He'd abandoned that body in a hurry.

"My love…" Adra didn't answer her question. He was staring at her and his tone of voice sounded shattered.

She reached up to touch him and stalled out halfway at the sight of her own hand. It was darker than she remembered it being. As Samira, she could pass as being white. She looked like she had a really good spray tan, but it was actually her natural skin color. Her hand was now much darker. Even the shape of her fingernails seemed different. Her manicure had vanished, for one, and the nail beds seemed longer than she remembered having when she lay down earlier.

Mira looked down at herself and realized she was sitting in a pool of long, loose, black hair. It was long enough that it would be floor length if she stood up, or even longer.

"You're joking," she wheezed. "Mirror! I need—!"

Adra picked her up and carried her over to the floor length mirror in their bathroom. For once, she actually needed it. She felt like a newborn foal when he set her down on her feet and it took real effort to get her knees to not fold underneath her when she tried to stand on her own.

That effort tripled when she finally looked at herself in the mirror and recognized herself.

Standing in the mirror (or trying to) was a face she hadn't seen from since the very beginning of what she perceived as her first life.

Mira touched the glass and whispered, "It's me."

She'd been put back into her original body.

Note:

Mira: System, I need a sock puppet account to win my legal case.

System: That sounds reasonab….!

Glory, as he kicks in the door: LOL, HOLD MY BEER.