Elegy for a Star Ch. 021-030

Chapter 21 - The Sphinx

Tess sat on the edge of the bed while Scirocca gave her length a much deserved tongue bath. She waited, eyes lidded and brain foggy with pleasure, while Scirocca tended to her. All too soon, it was over, and Tess began to regain her senses while Scirocca rose to her feet and began dressing once more.

"So," Tess said, pulling the blankets around her body for the illusion of modesty, "Was that the ritual?"

"Something like that," Scirocca mused, slipping back into her bottoms and squeezing her breasts into that front-clasp bra.

Tess was confused, but she couldn't complain about the process. It was beyond enjoyable. "So do I have a gift?" Tess asked.

"No," Scirocca responded immediately, full of confidence.

"No?" Tess was feeling the bitter pain of disappointment all over again, "I thought you said Ulrich-..."

"...was right," Scirocca said, donning her headdress and replacing her bracelets and necklaces. Tess knew she had a lot, but the sheer volume of them didn't dawn on her until Scirocca began wearing them one at a time.

"Oh," Tess said softly, deflated once more.

"But you have something else," Scirocca added.

Tess' lips curled downward in irritation, "Why didn't you say that first? What do I have? Is it a gift?"

"No, as I said, you have no gift," Scirocca spoke with some measure of annoyance, "But what you do have is arguably just as good. Some would consider it better."

Tess perked up, her lips parting in a smile. She couldn't find the words, struggling to grasp for details but not forming anything audible.

"I'll explain," Scirocca said, "But first, how much do you trust your team?"

"Gwen?"

"And the other two."

"They're wonderful," Tess said, even if she had some doubts about Joyona and Mairaela. It wasn't that she didn't like them--far from it--but she only met them a little bit ago. She didn't want to admit that to Scirocca though. Something told her to appease the woman to get the information she needed.

"I see," Scirocca said with some skepticism, "Well, you are finely attuned to the Wyrd."

"Magic?" Tess asked, recalling something about the Wyrd being a source of magic.

Scirocca nodded, "But it is complicated."

Tess decided to be quiet and listen. The way she leaned in for more must've told Scirocca just that. The winged woman continued, "There are four Wyrds, each a different source of magic. Those that command one of them are called Wyrden."

Nodding, Tess spoke, "Gwendolyn mentioned Wyrden using souls and stars."

"That's one Wyrd," Scirocca explained, "The Star Wyrd. But there are three others." Scirocca took a seat beside Tess, their hips together, but she otherwise didn't make any motion to touch Tess more. "The Blood Wyrd, the Heavenly Wyrd, and the Dark Wyrd." Scirocca held up four fingers and counted them off, "The Star Wyrd draws its magic directly from the stars, the original source of all Magic." She folds one finger down. "The Blood Wyrd draws its magic from one's blood. Usually this is for dragons, fey and demons."

Tess felt a pinch of anxiety at the mention of demons. Was her connection to a Wyrd the Blood variety, because of Miri's demonic nature? Could that cause trouble for her?

"It would be odd for you to have the Blood Wyrd, but considering what's between your legs, it's possible you have some Incubus blood, perhaps," Scirocca theorized before dropping the topic and folding another finger, "The Divine Wyrd is magic donated by the pantheon. Get into a god's good graces and they may give you some of their might."

"And the Dark Wyrd?" Tess asked softly.

"Draws it power from the Black Sun," Scirocca concluded, "This is limited only to agents of the Black Sun."

Tess thought of the summoner that brought her here. The one that Gwen had mentioned. According to her, she was wreathed in shadow and darkness. Was that woman an agent of the Black Sun?

All Tess knew was that she needed to get into the Void Exercise and then into the Black Sun so that she could learn more about herself. That's what Miri said to do. Tess was determined to learn more about her life before all of this.

"So what does it mean to be strongly attuned?" Tess asked, "What Wyrd do I have a connection to? Star, right? Gwen taught me how to do the rituals."

"I don't know."

"Your 'ritual' didn't show you that?"

"No," Scirocca replied, deadpan.

Tess turned to her, watching those narrow eyes staring straight at the wall ahead of her. Scirocca eventually turned to look back at Tess, and Tess found it hard to keep her gaze. It felt like Scirocca was reading her mind with how powerful that stare was, like Tess was giving everything away just by her facial expressions.

"So I can use magic," Tess said, looking down at her hands, "But that isn't a gift?"

"It is not," Scirocca explained, "Gifts are innate and intuitive. Magic is different. Some magic takes practice. Other magic is more natural. Divine magic is barely even your choice. Dark magic... I'm not sure."

"But the void exercise..." Tess spoke with hesitation.

Scirocca nodded, "If you trust your team, you should go."

"Alright," Tess said with a bob of her head, "What should I tell the instructor?"

"Tell her that you couldn't find Ulrich, so you couldn't have your gift tested. It's so rare to be giftless that they'll let you pass under the assumption that surely something would manifest for you," Scirocca advised, "Besides, it isn't like they have a problem if you go in and get yourself killed. It's unfortunate, but they won't cry over it."

Tess only thought about how Gwendolyn would feel, if Tess died. What would happen to Miri?

"Alright," Tess said with another nod, "Alright, I'm going to do that."

As Tess stood, Scirocca snatched her by the wrist. Tess turned back and Scirocca was looking her dead in the eye. "Tess," the tan woman said, "Your constellation..."

Tess cocked her head, "My what?"

"When you did the ritual with Ulrich," Scirocca said, rising to her feet. She was shorter than Tess, but not by much, and the two locked eyes. "I saw the result. I came to you after I saw it. It was a constellation. The small dots of powder."

"It was a random scattering of stars," Tess replied. That's what Ulrich had said. The giftless don't get a constellation in the ritual.

"No," Scirocca insisted, "It's a constellation. I saw it in one of the books in the library. I need to get it again to show you. I don't know what it means."

"But I thought no constellation meant giftless. How do I not have a gift if mine was a constellation?"

"These are questions I can't answer," Scirocca replied, "But perhaps if we meet again soon for another 'ritual.'"

Tess' eyes widened and she stammered, "I-.. you?"

"Did you enjoy it? I did. Why not do it again soon?"

Tess nodded dumbly and replied, "Okay." She immediately chided herself for not saying something of more substance.

"Hey, Scirocca?" Tess began.

Scirocca turned her head in Tess' direction and quirked a thin eyebrow.

"What are you?"

"My father had the head of a human, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird," Scirocca began, "And my mother was like you. Human. Soft." Scirocca concluded, "So you tell me."

Chapter 22 - The Void Exercise

"What are you doing here?" Gwen hissed under her breath toward Tess. She had been shocked to see Tess in the Void Chamber along with Mairaela and Joyona, as though she were a recruit of equal footing.

Tess replied softly, "I'm joining, too."

"Tess, you-..." Gwen stammered, looking for the right words, "This isn't a joke, Tess. You could get seriously injured, or worse. There are people that don't come back from this exercise because they were so unprepared."

"I'll be okay," Tess assured her.

That wasn't enough for Gwen, "You haven't studied up on the exercise, you haven't practiced, you were seeing things in the ritual. Tess, you aren't fit to do this, and I don't want you to get hurt."

Tess began to whisper back, "I met this person-..."

"If I could have your attention up here, please." A commanding voice took the air from Tess' words and drew her eyes up in front. The Void Chamber was just ahead, sealed behind a vault door of gears and pipes. A few guards stood by, wearing the silver-and-crimson of the Corps' Watch. In the center, atop a podium, was a woman bathed in red silk. A red hood shaded a pretty face with bright, pink eyes. On either side of her neck, a ponytail poured from beneath the hood. Blonde, and held together with iron banding. There was a small scar beside her right eye, but even that couldn't damage what was an undeniably beautiful face, with a button nose and a catlike curl of her lips.

When she spoke, the room listened, "My name is Philomena and I'll be conducting your exercise today." She didn't smile; didn't waver. It was a practiced line. "Let's make sure we've got the right people, shall we?"

"Joyona Virkian?"

A nod.

"Mairaela Aulidwulf?"

"Yes."

"Dame Gwendolyn Mirabenise?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Tess?" Philomena looked at Tess, nodding her head without a response from the woman, "I always enjoy seeing another lowborn here. In the Void, everyone's name amounts to nothing."

"Yes, ma'am," Tess replied, unsure if she was supposed to say anything at all.

"Good," Philomena concluded, "Then I'll go over the exercise." She took the scroll in her hand and set it aside, tucking her arms into their sleeves. "Two years ago, the Corps managed a ritual that extracted a piece of Void matter from the Black Sun. Normally when we depart to do battle there, we enter into the greater Void of the Black Sun. However, we severed a pocket of it--A small, separated void--for our own use," the red-robed woman explained, "We use it for training current recruits and evaluating new ones."

Tess looked around. It appeared like her companions already knew this, but were listening respectfully anyway. This was all new information to Tess though. She decided she needed to get used to that happening.

"Just like the greater void, this pocket is different every time we enter it, but due to it being severed from the whole, it tends to be weaker than most, making it perfect for new recruits," Philomena lectured, "I cannot tell you exactly what your experience will be, but we do know that it will be violent."

"Lastly," Philomena said, sounding as though she were going off script, "The Void appears small from the outside, but is its own expansive world within. Follow the light, and I'll see you on the other side. Don't dally. Staying too long can mess with your mind."

Tess looked to her other companions again. The danger of this was dawning on her. Was she really just going to take Scirocca's word at face value? Yes, she wanted this, desperately, but she didn't know Scirocca. And Ulrich seemed plenty knowledgeable to Tess. Would someone as young-looking as Scirocca really know more than him?

Before Tess knew it, the door to the chamber ahead began to open. The gears clicked and clanked, the pipes hissed with jets of air that carried a haze of heat, and a rush of wind surged from behind her into the vault as it opened. It was enough to be a surprise and cause her to shift her footing, but not enough to pull her in a way she didn't want to go.

As the vault door swung open, the view ahead became more and more haunting. Within was a marbled, pristine room, smooth on its six sides. In the middle however was a great orb--a vibrating, disorienting ball of absence. It distorted the light around it, bending and twisting it, giving a warped mirror view of the wall behind it. Before she knew it, Tess was walking forward with her three companions, stepping closer and closer to the destination of all of this rushing wind.

"Do not fear. For those of you that know your gifts, they are a good match with one another. You will make a strong team. Lady Morro be with you," Philomena said as they passed by, "And may your soul prevail."

The closer Tess got to the object, the more the light distorted. Everything around her was bent. Her fingertips were extended and stretched toward the Void when she looked at them. Gwen, who stood in front of her, looked like a smeared painting, and it took Tess some time to realize that Gwendolyn was reaching out for her.

The Dame said something, but the words never reached Tess' ears.

"Thank you," Tess replied to the nothingness, trying to reach for Gwen's hand but missing it by an arm's length due to the imbalance in her vision. She could hear her own voice, but only as it reverberated in her mind. The moment it left her lips, it was nothingness. Tess would hope Gwen could read her lips, but with all of the warping and distortion, there was no imaginable way.

After the next step, Tess was enveloped in darkness. Tess floated, weightless, through the nothingness.

A voice tickled her mind, "You came back."

Tess twisted around to see her surroundings, stopping when she saw Its wide, blank ovals for eyes. It reached its hand out for her, but was met with an unseen wall.

"My little Crow. You are here, but I cannot reach you. Where are you?"

Tess tried to respond, but she had no voice.

"Where am I? I have no idea!" Tess thought to herself.

The voice in her head was not hers, yet It answered, "Come home."

"You aren't making any sense!" Tess screamed in her mind, "Are you an Old God?"

"Why did you leave?" It spoke into her mind, "Come home."

"How do you know me?" Tess asked urgently, "What's my name? Little Crow? Please, give me some kind of answer!"

"Not you," It replied as though it were speaking to a completely different person. It sounded angry, and it looked at Tess as though seeing her for the first time. It made a dismissive wave of its three-fingered hand.

Tess was baffled. She wanted to scream in frustration, but before she could, there was another thought. Something different than the dark creature.

"It means me," Miri said.

Chapter 23 - Altered Reality

After that, the world went black. When her vision was restored, the world looked dull and gray. Colorless city ruins stretched out in one direction, a forest of dead trees in another. Behind her was a mountain with a dark blotch floating above it, and ahead of her was a bright, thin shaft of light. Light at the end of the tunnel, almost. The ground was a rocky, cracked wasteland, full of crags and hills. If ever there was a sight that could suck the life and joy out of someone, it was this dismal place. Did it look like this all throughout the Black Sun?

A light wind seemed to whip around her from all kinds of directions, tossing about her clothing. Oddly, it seemed rather breezier than normal, and it forced Tess to take inventory of her clothing. Around her hips was little more than a ribbon of string, supporting two red-and-gold panels of cloth to cover the front and most of the back. Her hips, haunch and thighs were entirely exposed along the sides. Even a bit of the crease of her plump ass where it meets the thigh was showing. A stiff breeze would expose her, which gave Tess a squirmy feeling.

Around her torso was a red wrap that criss crossed her hefty chest and was supported around her back and the back of her neck. This left most of her shoulders, mid back and midriff visible. Other than that and a pair of calf-high traveler's boots, Tess had nothing. She felt exposed, vulnerable and without anything to defend herself. If the void was going to change her clothing, couldn't it have given her something more protective, or something to fight with? At the very least, despite the breeze, she didn't feel cold. She was grateful for that.

"There she is," came a voice from behind, "Over here!"

Mairaela was hurrying toward Tess, carrying a wooden bow already knocked with an arrow. She was dressed in a similarly skimpy outfit: Knee-high iron greaves that left her thighs exposed until covered by the short, green skirt she wore that occasionally bounced and exposed her lime-green panties beneath. Her top was covered with an iron plate across the right breast, strapped with leather across her back. The rest was green wool. Shoulders exposed, only brown arm warmers otherwise covered her. A golden crown of woven jewelry gave her an elegant, regal appearance.

Behind her, Joyona rushed in Tess' direction, though it took a moment to recognize her. Covered from the waist up in black-and-gold armor with heavy pauldrons and layered plates, even her head was shielded by what resembled the maw of a black dragon, fangs and all. However impractical it was, her hips were exposed, as well as a section of upper thigh, before they were covered down to her feet by lobstered plate mail.

Tess' mind scrambled for questions, but she only ended up with, "What is happening?"

"We're in the Void. Or, well, your soul is," Mairaela answered, "But a body isn't much without a soul, so we need to make our way back to complete the test and, well, survive."

"Where's Gwen?" Tess asked, looking around.

"Haven't found her yet," Joyona replied, her head on a swivel. Was she searching for Gwen or for threats?

Tess' heart sank and she looked around, trying to hear. There was nothing but the wind. She looked back at the other two and insisted, "We need to find her."

"Of course," Mairaela replied with an easy smile at first, but concern grew on her face after a time, "So... no gift, huh?"

Tess and Mairaela both were looking her over. Nothing but simple garb. "I guess not," Tess replied, feeling like the swell of hope that Scirocca had given her was immediately deflated. She was supposed to have magic, but how was she supposed to use it? What if she needed to practice it? Why did Scirocca tell her to come here?

"This was incredibly dangerous, Tess," Mairaela said with a frown, "Not only are you in danger, but because we do not have a capable fourth, we are all in danger."

Tess sunk due to the scolding. The guilt weighed her down. She knew Mairaela was right. Gwen could be judgy, but the Fey was polite and gentle in all of her recent interactions, so to hear this disappointment from her hit especially hard.

It was Joyona of all people who made her feel a little better. "Anyone, even giftless, can keep an eye and an ear out," the armored woman said, "You are more than capable of helping. Just stick by me for protection and watch our flanks."

"Thank you, Joyona," Tess replied. She bowed her head to Mairaela and insisted, "And I'm sorry. I-.. I think this was the right thing for me to do, though. I can't explain it."

Mairaela nodded, though her smile didn't convey that everything was peachy now. She said, "We'll do what we can to keep you safe."

Tess nodded her head, smoothing out the loincloth she was wearing and adjusting the wrap that barely contained her breasts. Mairaela seemed to notice Tess' outfit and her cheeks turned a shade of red. Tess smiled at that. The Fey was awfully cute with a blush on her face.

"So, about Gwen..." Tess' voice trailed off, hoping that someone else could point them in a good direction.

Joyona shook her head, "Neither of us have the survival gift."

"I may be able to do something..." Mairaela spoke, taking an arrow from the quiver by her hip and notching it into the bow. She drew it back, aiming almost entirely upward, before loosing it into the sky. The arrow whistled as it ascended and was beyond Tess' field of vision in an instant.

When she brought her gaze back down, she saw Mairaela, whose eyes were blank and white. "Mairaela?" Tess said with a worried expression. She reached out to shake the Fey by the shoulders.

Joyona stopped her, pushing aside Tess' arms like they were noodles. "I think she's looking through the arrow," Joyona explained.

Tess was dumbfounded, "But how?"

"Archery gift. She can do the impossible with a bow and arrow."