Arcane Apocalypse ~ 159 (Patreon)

“We need to talk,” Mia said, arms crossed as she stared down at her brother sitting at the table while he nursed a cup of tea in his hands. He winced, refusing to look at her, and Mia’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. He was acting shady already. Why was he doing that? He shouldn’t have known what she wanted to talk to him about, and she knew just the words ‘we need to talk’ wouldn’t have elicited that response. He looked guilty. “And now we need to have another talk before that. Dear brother mine, were you perhaps … eavesdropping on our spar?”

Gabe winced again, and Mia’s eyes glinted dangerously. She could understand being protective; hell, she appreciated it even, but she knew that he could have just set up an invisible barrier around the old gymnasium she and Camie were using. He didn’t have to listen in on what the two of them were actually doing. Mia couldn’t yet limit what she heard, but Gabe’s magic was especially suited for filtering out things from reaching him, including specific sounds or noise coming from a room on the other side of the building.

“Do you want to get your head shaved again? Because that’s how you get your head shaved,” Mia said, and Gabe twitched. That had been his more than deserved reward when he thought it was okay to pay off another girl to flirt with Mia at a house party back when they were both stupid teenagers. He should have learned his lesson; he never did anything like that again and kept out of meddling with her romantic endeavours … even if there wasn’t much to meddle with. 

“No- … Not as such,” Gabe said, not managing to look any less suspicious even as he tried to meet her eyes. “Not at first. It's … vampires-“

“I trust her,” Mia said, cutting him off. “Don’t be weird, I know you have Skills that let you make sure I’m safe without actually eavesdropping on me making out with my girlfriend.”

“My Skill isn’t really made for detecting hypnosis, charm and any of the other dozens of ways vampires have to enthral someone,” Gabe said. “It’s best used to detect impending physical harm.”

“Then put a Ward on me or something, if that’s what it takes to help you sleep at night,” Mia huffed. “But as I’ve said, I trust her. She isn’t going to charm me … she doesn’t need magic for that.”

Her brother’s face twitched once more, a teasing smirk appearing at the corners of his mouth, the kind that often signalled he was about to say something particularly annoying. But it faded, a small sigh escaping him. 

“If you say so,” he said softly, nodding. “But I will try to get my hands on some jewellery with mental fortification enchantments, and some poison resistance enchantments too. Also, for the love of everything that’s Good, don’t drink her blood even if you fell head over heels for her. Your magic wouldn’t take well to that.”

“Okay,” Mia said, agreeing easily. She wouldn’t say no to being safer from having her mind messed with or from getting poisoned. From what Gabe implied, the latter would also help against other types of magical substances, like a vampire’s saliva, which was supposedly not all that different from a drug. “And another thing. Could you stop freaking out, Nikki? She is my friend, she fought with us with her life on the line, and I know you freak her out for some reason. You didn’t do anything, did you?”

“Do you trust her, too?” Gabe asked, his expression and voice a strange mixture of curiosity and wariness. Like, he was a bit disappointed that she was so naive about trusting so easily. She wasn’t. She trusted only the people living in the same hotel suite as her. No one else. Not with her life, anyway. “She is from Starhaven, I know that much. I told you what they are like, especially their nobles.”

“I know,” Mia said. “And she ran away from all that, gave up her fancy, noble family name, all her privileges. She gave up everything for a life where she could actually control her fate. So, yes, I trust her … maybe not as much as the others, but she hasn’t given me reason to distrust her either. She also helped me with my rituals without asking for anything in return.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Gabe said, finally answering her previous question. He had a strange note of confusion in his voice. “I … may have stared a bit too much? She seemed familiar, maybe I’d seen her at one of the balls or noble gatherings Arwen had forced me to attend. Probably a member of House Frostguard based on the bluish hair and Ice magic. Maybe a branch member?”

“House Frostguard?” Mia asked.

“The family of the Queen, her brother is Duke Frostguard,” Gabe explained. “They are one of the most powerful families in Starhaven, probably the second strongest, with the Duke’s elder sister being the current Queen Consort. They also have like half a dozen Branch Houses specialising in different aspects or uses of Ice magic.”

“Neat,” Mia said absently, filing away the fascinating new information. It still felt strange to hear about the political makeup of some fantastical kingdom. It was a bit of a challenge to make herself believe it was real when it sounded like something straight out of a new fantasy TV show … then again, her entire life was like that now. She shook her head, refocusing. “And you didn't do anything? No threatening to turn her two-dimensional with your barriers if she betrayed us?”

His face twitched into that familiar smirk again. Despite her annoyance, seeing it again warmed her heart, filling a part of it that’d been lying empty for the last year. He could be a little shit, but he was her brother, and she loved him dearly. No matter how the last five years had changed him.

“I didn’t,” Gabe said, a smile in his voice. “But I’ll have to remember that.”

“Then why is she acting weird around you?” Mia asked, though it was more thoughtful now, lacking the previous accusing tone. “She’d been avoiding you, hasn’t she?”

“Yes,” Gabe said thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I’ve never been too outgoing or social in Starhaven; it’s surprising she’d even recognise me. I can count the social events I actually attended on my two hands and have fingers left over. I spent most of my time delving into the Rifts, hunting monsters or attending the Academy in the capital. Maybe she knew me from there? She could have been from a grade below us; there were hundreds of them, and I never made an effort to remember their faces or names.”

“From what little information she offered up about her past, it seemed like her parents were controlling,” Mia mused, only to be interrupted by a snort from her brother.

“That doesn’t narrow it down,” Gabe said. “That’s just noble parents for you, and the Frostguards tended to be worse than most. The few I met were as frigid as the magic they wielded, the only exception was maybe- … Huh.”

He trailed off, looking thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head with another snort.

“What?” Mia asked, giving Gabe a strange look. 

“Princess Veronica, the Queen’s only daughter and the only child of the royal family who inherited her blue hair and talent for Cryomancy,” Gabe said. “I’ve met her once when she was a young girl, and a mere handful of times since, but Arwen spoke of her sometimes, and it sounded like the Queen failed to stamp out her spirit entirely despite spending years trying to do just that … not that this Nikki girl could be her. Princesses can’t just leave, especially not young ones with non-combat Classes. She’d have been guarded at all times by Rank 4 Shadows with all the chaos of the Planemeld.”

“A runaway princess,” Mia hummed with an amused grin. “Right out of the fairy tales, that one. The name fits, too.”

“Impossible.” Gabe shook his head dismissively.

Mia just shrugged in response; he knew Starhaven much better than her anyway, so if he said it was impossible, then he was probably right. “Alright then. Just … don’t poke her, okay? I don’t know why she’s freaking out around you, but I don’t want to make her unnecessarily uncomfortable, so please play nice?”

“Okay, sis,” Gabe said with a helpless smile, as if he could do nothing but obey her tyrannical demands. “I’ll do my best.”

*****

Mia hummed, looking out over the deserted shopping mall while trying to suppress the grim feelings the sight caused in her. She’d come here to watch new movies that came out with Gabe and Mark ever since they were small children. She remembered buying ice cream cones at that overturned stand back when she was a kid. She remembered getting her favourite pair of jeans from that store, where a rotting monster corpse hung from the cashier’s desk. 

“So this is what a market hall looks like here?” Nikki mused aloud. 

“Yep,” Mia said, popping the ‘P’ with all the enthusiasm she could scrounge up. She’d wanted to do this, wanted to enjoy it, and she did, even if it was overshadowed by a vague sense of loss. So she’d pretend and continue pretending until it was true. “Just a bunch of shops all in the same building, every kind of shop you could want, from clothes, jewellery, books, restaurants, to general stuff and electronics. Our target is the clothing shops. Anything edible has been looted months ago, and most of the rest is probably junk by now.”

“Some jewellery could be useful for enchanting,” Nikki mused aloud, her gaze wandering around as she took in the rather unimpressive scenery of the ruined mall. 

It was a last-minute thing, but Mia had decided to ask the blue-haired girl whether she wanted to come along, and she’d accepted easily. 

“The military guys must have looted that place down to the bone then,” Lina said. “This new Lord of ours already had groups of alchemists working for him weeks ago. I think I heard he also had some enchanters, so he probably got everything they might need for them.”

“He’s trying to have them create magical electricity generators,” Camie added softly. “They’ve had some success, coming up with a machine that turns Rank 0 mana crystals into electricity … but it’s a bit unstable for now.”

“Define ‘unstable’?” Lina asked curiously as the group continued down the hall. 

“It’s more like one of those Tesla towers than a proper generator we could reliably use to power anything,” Camie said.

“How do you know that?” Mia asked, making sure to keep any note of accusation out of her voice. She suspected how, but didn’t blame Camie for it, so it wouldn’t do to make the girl believe otherwise. 

“I try keeping an ear out on what everyone in the city is up to,” Camie said. “The military is getting better at being sneaky, but not quite sneaky enough yet. The unionists and Jeff’s group aren’t even trying.”

“Magical counter-espionage?” Mia hummed. “Anything interesting? What are they using to be ‘sneaky’?”

“Elemental wards, mostly,” Camie huffed. “Things similar to your Alert ward, silencing barriers and guards that probably have fitting sensory Skills.”

“Clothes first, magical spy games later,” Lina cut in, wearing a playful pout on her face. “We have a fantasy princess to scandalise with Earth fashion.”

“Not a princess,” Nikki said with a wry smile. “And you’d be surprised at the kind of things bored, centuries-old nobles come up with to spice up fashion in the Mystic Realm. I doubt you’ll be able to ‘scandalise’ me.”

“Like?” Mia asked curiously, following the enthusiastic blonde on her stroll into the abandoned clothing store. “I know our own nobles used to wear some strange things back when we still had aristocracy.”

“There was a trend to have small, cute magical beasts act like scarves,” Nikki said after thinking for a moment. “I’m half convinced it was a ploy of some kind, either a political play to incite conflict with the Beast Realm or just a simple marketing ploy to sell more pre-tamed magical beasts. It was also a way to show off; the rarer the critter sitting on your shoulder was, the more prestige you got. There was also a talent aspect to it. Some managed to tame them fully, keeping them obedient, while others had to keep them paralysed to keep the creatures from clawing off their faces. There were also some 'accidents' where someone mistakenly cast a Dispel spell on the paralysed magical beasts.”

“Huh, that’s … cool,” Mia hummed, though she was mildly disturbed by someone wearing a living animal as part of their clothing. As far as she was concerned, whoever had to keep the paralysed more than deserved to have their faces scratched and bitten. “We had something similar. Fancy people used to wear taxidermied animals as hat ornaments in Victorian England, didn’t they?”

“Taxidermied?” Nikki asked.

“Err- dead and stuffed,” Mia said. “Made to look as if they were still alive with preservation techniques.”

“Can we really just loot this place?” Lina asked, looking left and right over the rows upon rows of racks still holding everything from socks to jackets. 

“They are planning to do a much more thorough effort of gathering up everything useful left in Graz,” Mia said, recalling what Brent had said when she asked the same thing. She wasn’t stupid; she had asked whether it was fine for them to go looting for clothes, and even had Sparkle on watchdog duty to make sure no one snuck up on them while they relaxed. “Perishable stuff is either already gathered or, well, perished, but non-perishables like tools and clothes were left behind. That won’t remain the case for long now that we can focus on the long-term. Everything here will be gathered and redistributed, or offered as ‘rewards’ that people can barter for in exchange for services. We just get to have first picks by virtue of having been useful, so we shouldn’t be entirely shameless in our looting.”

“Well, I doubt the chain store survived the apocalypse, so it’s not like they can complain,” Camie muttered. 

“Neat!” Lina said with a bright grin, then spun around and turned to the other three girls. “Who do we start with?”

“What do you mean?” Mia asked, tilting her head at the blonde. It … wouldn’t be a lie to say that this was the first time she’d been on a proper girls’ outing. Whenever she went shopping before, it was usually either alone, with her mom, or with Gabe and Mark as her pack mules.

“Well, I say the best use of our time would be to throw together a set for everyone, maybe two,” Lina hummed thoughtfully. “One person at a time, especially considering Camie sadly has the fashion sense of a broody pebble, and Nikki doesn’t know much about our fashion. So we help them!”

“I’m not that bad,” Camie said a bit defensively, glancing down at her current choice of apparel. “Right?”

“No,” Mia said. “Although … those are my clothes, so something which is actually your size wouldn’t be amiss.”

“And something with a bit more colour.” Lina’s eye roll was almost audible. “The broody vampire aesthetic suits you, but you could spice the set-up with a colourful shirt or something, maybe a necklace too.”

Mia hummed thoughtfully, stepping away to take in the now flustered Camie and then imagine her with the suggested additions. 

“Agreed,” Mia said. “So we start with Camie then?”

“Might as well!” Lina happily agreed. “Come along, I think I saw a cute tee over there that should match your hair.”

*****

Nikki stared at her reflection in the mirror, and a strange mix of emotions roiled in her heart at the sight. She wore pants shorter than some underwear, and what looked like leggings made of a net of all things. At least the frilly half-skirt over it all kept her decency to an acceptable level … for her, at least.

Her mother would be furious to see her daughter in such ‘garbage’, but that just made Nikki like the set a tiny bit more despite it offending her eyes with its mere existence. It wasn’t exactly to her tastes; she liked brighter colours, mostly in hues of blue and silver with white as the main colour, but this wasn’t too bad either. She had half the colours of the rainbow worn on her body, which made her look a bit of a mess.

She probably wouldn’t keep this one. Not really her style, despite what Lina said. Her … friends. Yes, they were friends, weren’t they?

They don’t even know my real name. Nikki’s stomach twisted into an uncomfortable knot at that thought. They barely even know who I am. But how could I just reveal it? 

Mia had almost been killed by an assassin from Starhaven, and now Gabriel was here, too. Her brother’s … friend. At first, she’d thought Gabriel was here at Arwen’s orders, probably to apprehend the runaway princess and bring her back. Nikki damn near got a heart attack right then and there but as it turned out, Gabriel had betrayed his liege.

Nikki wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Should she be outraged on Arwen’s behalf? Be grateful that Gabriel wasn’t here to throw her back into that frilly golden prison she’d lived in all her life? 

Gabriel had probably been meaning to betray Arwen ever since they’d met. By the stars, it was hard to even recognise him sometimes with how much Gabriel smiled now. She’d never seen him do that in Starhaven, nothing more than small, forced quirks of the lip weighed down by melancholy … not that they were all that close. Her mother had made sure of that.

Arwen and the ‘lowborn rabble’ he surrounded himself with were not appropriate people to have around her perfect little puppet of a daughter.

All that put her in a rather tough spot that she had no idea how to wiggle herself out of. Did Gabriel hate them all? Did he hate Starhaven enough to take it out on her if he recognised her? Would he blame her for that incompetent Shadow’s botched attempt on his sister’s life? 

Nikki didn’t want to lose this; she didn’t want to throw away all the relationships — as few and tenuous as they were — she’d built here in Graz. For the first time, she had the chance to make friends who didn't have to go through a vetting process that lasted months. Nobody who wanted to be friends with Nikki would ever be willing to put up with the hassle; the only ones who did wanted the title of being ‘friends’ with Princess Veronica.

That was just how nobles were, and the higher ranking the noble family you came from, the worse it got … unless you were Arwen. He’d somehow played the clown so well that their parents told him to do whatever he wanted as long as it didn’t cause a scandal. Sure, he was written out of the King’s will, but that was a worthwhile trade in return for freedom in Nikki’s opinion. But that was only because he was the spare of a spare, not the Queen’s favourite little doll.

She’d always thought he’d be the one to run away and become an adventurer or something, while she’d be forced to play the games of nobles till the day she died. She’d always envied him for the freedom he enjoyed, for him having actual friends who had his back for who he was and not just because they were paid to do so. But in the end, neither of them had any true friends, did they? He ended up betrayed by one of his so called friends all the same. 

Fate must have thought it fun how their roles had been reversed. She was a runaway hiding her name, and Arwen was the Regent Lord of Starhaven. 

“Nikki?” Mia’s voice called out. “You okay in there?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Nikki replied a bit too quickly. She gave herself another once-over in the mirror and shook her head, banishing her worries to the back of her mind. For now. They were never gone for long. She dragged the curtain to the side and stepped outside, ending up under the scrutinising gaze of the three girls.

Mia and Camie both ended up in skirts despite their protests, and Lina wore the most ridiculous outfit the other two could find. Unfortunately for the two who thought it’d be appropriate vengeance for the skirts, the blonde had no shame and wore the frilly abomination with a grin. 

“Too many colours,” Mia said, giving voice to Nikki’s earlier thoughts. “It’s still a mess, even now that she’s wearing it.”

“ … yeaaah,” Lina admitted reluctantly. “The more intense colours really don’t like her. Bummer.”

“I did like the previous set,” Nikki said. She found she quite liked Earth fashion, especially their casual wear that mixed style with comfort. 

“Well, that was the safe choice,” Lina said. “This was … an experiment. You've gotta try out some weird stuff sometimes, or you'll never know what looks good on you. Still, this is a bust, but we could swap out some colours and … “

The blonde continued mumbling under her breath while Mia rolled her eyes next to her. The halvyr girl was still putting on a show of acting like she loathed wearing that pleated skirt, but her genuine annoyance vanished the moment Carmilla mentioned how nice it looked on her. If Nikki had to guess, the girl was preening inside. 

“I’m going to change back,” Nikki said. “It’s getting late … do we have any other plans for today?”

It’s been hours since they arrived, and while this entire outing had been unfamiliar to her, Nikki still found herself enjoying it. She also recognised that all four of them needed to relax after the mess that had been the last few weeks. Especially the other three girls. Nikki had been trained for combat and had even fought before, since it would have been embarrassing if a princess didn’t even know how to wield the ice magic her family was famous for. But the others? From what she’d learned of Earth, and especially this ‘Austria’ region of it they were currently in, they’d never fought anything more dangerous than a rat or uppity cattle. 

“Nope,” Mia said. “We can head back, I need to grab a new Lexicon to cannibalise in a bit anyway.”

Right. The girl just went through runic lexicons at a ridiculous pace with that pointy hat of hers. The other two agreed too, with Lina sporting a large, pleased smile as she lifted a pair of massive paper bags filled with clothes. They’d agreed to limit themselves to whatever they could carry in their own two hands without using any magic or enchanted storage devices.

Nikki quickly changed back into her previous set: a neat white pair of jeans and a loose, icy-blue shirt that matched her eyes. It would have been a bit scandalous in Starhaven, but Nikki was perfectly aware that fashion in her home Plane had been one of the most prudish in the Mystic Realm. 

There was a trend on one plane, whose people were famous for their widespread mastery of Illusion magic, in which people wore nothing but illusory clothes. The trend made everyone try their very best to create the best, most lifelike illusions they could … and also to hone their skills in subtly breaking or seeing through them, which, of course, set off a bit of an arms race. 

People made their illusory clothes firmer, harder to see or break through, because who wanted to expose themselves to someone else? Of course, wearing anything under the illusion was all but equivalent to admitting you didn’t trust your skills to hold up when shove came to push. Of course, higher Rank people could break through lesser Rank illusions with little trouble, but doing so was greatly frowned upon as extremely unsportsmanlike and dishonourable.

It was a rather fascinating case, showing just how intertwined magic and everyday life could become.

Nikki couldn’t help but wonder how this ‘Earth’ planet she now lived on would turn out once it got over the initial hurdles. A part of her wished she could have visited Graz before the monsters and Rifts brought it down to its current state; there was something utterly fascinating about a civilisation that became so advanced without the use of magic. She hoped some of the locals' previous culture would survive the hardships that came with the advent of magic and the arrival of the System.