Izzy Chapter 11: Don’t Get Me Drowned (Patreon)

[Summary for Mash, Displaced Soul

Classes:

Bound Spirit (5)

Advisor Spirit (2)

Total Class Levels: 7

Directions:

Helper

Mana: 70/70 (+3)

Skills from Bound Spirit:

Fount of Vigor

Fount of Mana 

Fount of Healing

Sight Beyond Sight

Skills from Advisor Spirit:

Akashic Knowledge 

Intuitive Advice

Non-Class Skills:

Soul Bond

Traveler

Identification

Force of Will

Quests:

A Lone Goblin is a Dead Goblin]

Mash looked over her Summary. There wasn't much else to do; while her body and its unwelcome passenger were sleeping, all that Mash could do was to hover around them, watching over them and thinking. She couldn't even go outside the tree; her Traveler Skill let her move farther from her body, but not far enough. Not yet.

The last few days had been confusing and frustrating. The last thing she remembered doing inside her body was the ritual. They'd captured a big, very pretty hawk, and had prepared it to receive a wind spirit, with what Old Rankle insisted was the normal deal. The spirit would get a body to play around in for a few years, while Mash would get a loyal familiar to protect her and share its mana and vigor with her. Very fair, everyone agreed.

Only, when the spirit came, that wasn't what happened. The humans had attacked. Someone had tackled her, and the next thing she knew she was watching herself run for her life through the camp, crawl through the thick brambles, and throw herself in the river.

Somehow, the spirit — Izzy — had taken her body instead of the hawk’s. And Mash had no idea how.

All the while, the glowing runes that told her what she could do had been telling her that she had Levels to assign. Levels! She'd had no idea what was going on! She’d been Level 1 her whole life, until Old Rankle taught her enough that she became a Shaman and changed to Level 3. She'd never assigned a Level or picked a Skill in her life!

Not that Mash had been allowed to pick her Class Skills, even once she figured out how things worked. They had all been automatic, just like her Skills before she got kicked out of her body. And they didn’t even help her! They were all for Izzy’s sake! Fount of Vigor, Fount of Mana, and Fount of Health let the bodysnatcher use Mash to recover her stamina and her mana, and to heal faster, just like Mash’s familiar was supposed to have done for her. And Izzy didn’t even know that she’d been doing it! She’d hung in that spider cocoon, listening to a fairy telling her that she shouldn’t have any mana at all, and she hadn’t even wondered why she did. Because she was using Mash’s mana, that’s why!

The fourth skill, Sight Beyond Sight, let Izzy see through Mash’s eyes. Sort of. For now it would just give her vague hunches if Mash had seen something Izzy hadn’t.

At least Mash had been able to pick her own Direction — which she chose solely because it said it would give her options that would let her talk to Izzy — and her second Class’ Skills, as well as her Non-Class Skills. She’d picked Advisor as her Class since it would let her talk to the thief immediately, and took the two available Skills that seemed most likely to help the reckless wind spirit keep her body alive: Akashic Knowledge and Intuition, which let her just know things and when and what to advise Izzy, respectively.

For her Non-Class Skills, the first had been automatic. Soul Bond would let them feel what the other felt, growing stronger as their Levels increased. It would also make it really hard to keep anything from each other. Mash was pissed about that, but she couldn’t do anything about it. For her other Skills she’d picked Traveler, to let her move farther from her body; Identification, since it would let her see what Class and Level everything was, and she’d never heard of a Skill like it before; and Force of Will, because it would let her resist what Izzy told her to do. Like when the horrible fart cloud had told her to be quiet. She’d only been able to say what she was already thinking, and then she couldn’t talk until she really had to give Izzy some advice. Mash hated it!

The best she could do, for now, was to not let Izzy know that she could push her around. That meant not provoking her into demanding anything, because then Mash would probably have to do whatever it was. Izzy wasn’t the brightest light in the sky, but she was no dummy, either. She’d figure it out sooner or later, if Mash gave her too many chances.

So, Mash would just have to be friendly. Or at least neutrally helpful. It wasn’t something that came entirely naturally to her; she was more used to telling than suggesting, but she’d do her best. 

It helped that the bodysnatcher wasn’t entirely unsympathetic. For now, at least, for the immediate future, they wanted the same things: find any other survivors from the tribe, stay alive, and get stronger. And Izzy hadn’t seemed completely unwilling to work something out. They’d just have to find a new body for her, find a way to move her to that body, and put Mash back into her own. That should be — well, maybe not easy. But magic was pretty great, so doable, at least. Old Rankle might have known, but he was dead. They’d have to ask someone else.

That would have to be one of their goals. They’d need another strong Shaman, or some other kind of spirit binder.

They’d figure it out. Somehow. And if their relationship soured, she’d just have to help Izzy get strong enough that they reached their next Direction. Because there was another Direction available to Mash, once that she hadn’t considered at first, because she’d recoiled from the idea of sharing her body at all.

She’d been offered a Direction called Possession. And it promised to do exactly what the name suggested.

  *

“You're wanting to cross the river? The river? Feck you planning to do that, mud-foot?”

Mash wondered the same thing as she trailed along behind Izzy and Caj. Gram had lent them half the clan, and something like two dozen fairies — might have been fewer, hard to tell — swirled noisily around them, chattering incessantly. Mash couldn’t see Classes with Identification, but she was sure that they were the younger half of the clan, since they were all Level 2 or 3. There had been quite a few fairies who were higher than that at the celebration, though they were hard to tell apart once they weren’t kids anymore. Gram was Level 13, which made her the highest-Level anything that Mash had Identified since she got the skill. Even the spider had only been Level 10.

Only Caj seemed interested in talking to Izzy. The fairies had all decided that she was completely out of her mind; Caj just didn't care. But Izzy didn’t mind. She had a new Viny to keep her company, made from a brownie skeleton. Her gourd was even slowly filling up now, while she had a vineling around!

“Not sure how to get across yet,” Izzy admitted. “Swim, maybe?”

Just talk to the naiads! Mash told her. They’ll know if there's anywhere safe to cross.

Izzy’s ears twitched, and she turned her head like she was listening to something. Like that made any difference when Mash spoke right into her head!

“Oh, right! The naiads! Caj, can fairies see spirits? Like naiads or aurai?”

“Some of us can,” the fairy. “Fecked if I know who here can, though.” He raised his voice, not bothering to turn around. “Hey, you lot! Who here’s got The Sight?”

There was a chorus of responses.

“Sparrow does!”

“Sparrow!”

“Yeah, Sparrow!”

“Oh feck all you arse-shites!” said a thin, red headed fairy. Mash thought he looked young compared to the others, though who knew with them?

“Get over here, then, Sparrow!”

“Crazy gobbo better not try to grab me! I’ll have her eye out!”

“Feck you will! And she ain't even a gobbo! Now get down here!”

“All right, what you want?” Sparrow said as he hovered well out of Izzy’s reach. Mash drifted around to get a good look at him, but she couldn't get much closer.

“I need you to find some water spirits once we get to the river,” Izzy said. “Might not need you if they’re around where I met them before, but I want you ready.”

“You want me flying over the river!? Trying to kill me, are you? There's hawks and falcons and all!”

“There's big forest cats, too, but you don't see me whining! Just stay under the trees where you can see the river!”

“Yeah, yeah. Damn crazy gobbo.”

“Can you even see spirits?” Izzy said suspiciously.

“Said I can, didn't I?”

“Can you see them right now?”

“Ain't got the Skill active, do I? Why would I?”

“Well, I don't believe you! Use it!”

“Why?”

“Do it or I’m telling your Gram!”

“Feck, all right! No call to get nasty,” Sparrow muttered. Then he focused, looked right at Mash, and yelped, flying off into the trees.

“Okay, he’s not lying!” Izzy cackled, and despite herself Mash sputtered, then giggled, and then laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

“Thought you'd like that,” Izzy said into the air, still grinning.

The other fairies were marginally less wary around Izzy after that. Once Sparrow started insisting that the bodysnatcher wasn't as crazy as they'd thought, some even went so far as to demand she blast them around with puffs of wind again, which she happily did.

The naiads weren't anywhere near the willow where Izzy had last talked to them, but after going away to look for a bit more than a finger Sparrow came back and said that he’d found them a ways upstream, not that it was easy to get it out of him. He was a bit worse for wear and complaining loudly; apparently a bird had tried to eat him, just like he’d feared, but he got away with some cuts and bruises. Izzy fixed him right up though, hitting him with Healing Roots as he sat on one of the willow’s branches. Not that he appreciated it, the mouthy bug.

A short walk later they stood — well, only Izzy in Mash’s body actually stood — by the riverbank. Izzy was waving her arms and shouting in the water nymphs’ funny, burbling language, trying to get the attention of the white naiad who was leaping and splashing happily halfway across the river. Finally the water spirit turned their way and saw them. She waved back energetically, and approached fast enough to leave a wake.

The fairies couldn’t see her, of course, but they could see the disturbance she left behind her, and started chattering curiously. Nor could the naiad see Mash, but she already knew that from before. What she hadn’t noticed the first time, though, was that the naiad didn’t have a Level. She was just a naiad, with no Class or anything. Akashic Knowledge told her that this was normal for most sapient creatures, except the ones that were considered monsters, like goblins and fairies, but it was still interesting to see.

“Cousin!” White said eagerly once she was within a few lengths of the bank. “Did you change your mind about the drowning? Come, come! Get in the water and let’s do this!”

“Ah, no, thank you!” Izzy said. Through Soul Bond Mash could feel that she was, inexplicably, embarrassed. She felt bad about disappointing the naiad because she… wouldn’t let the spirit drown her?

Mash really needed to get back in control if that was how it was going to be.

“Actually,” Izzy continued, “not wanting to drown was why I wanted to talk to you. Sorry for getting your hopes up.”

White blew a stream of bubbles. “Nobody ever wants me to drown them. I haven’t drowned anyone in, uh… moon’s gone around a couple of times.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“That’s all right. So if you don’t want to drown…?”

“I want to cross the river. And I’m not sure how to do that, you know, alive.”

“Oh. I don’t think I know about that, really. But my sisters probably do! Come, follow me upstream!”

“Thanks!” Izzy turned to the fairies and burbled, “We’re going upstream, everybody!”

“Gobbo,” Caj said, “are you dying? That don’t sound healthy at all.”

“Oh, right,” Izzy said, speaking normally, then repeated herself.

They found Green and Blue lounging in some rapids, but they were happy to come over and talk. They didn’t have any Levels either. “Oh, yes!” Green said confidently. “There’s one of those stone things the humans and elves build sometimes, not too far upstream. Sisters, is the troll still there?”

“No,” Blue said, “Gumble died a while ago. Some of those adventurers came and killed him.”

“Really? That’s too bad. He was funny!”

“I know. But apparently he ate some human or other, and they killed him. The dryad in the willow there told me.”

“Oh, Elira? She’s so nice! But there you have it, cousin. Just follow the river upstream for… I don’t know. Until you find the stone thing. And then you’ll be fine!”

“Thank you! If there’s ever anything I can do—” Izzy began, and White cut her off eagerly.

“Could I—!?” was all she got out before her sisters pushed her under the water. “That’s all right, we’re happy to help!” Green said cheerfully.

Blue nodded rapidly in agreement, watery arms straining as her sister fought back. “Good luck!”