Mia quietly waits in anticipation for Ada to make her decision. The absorption of the anchor will help her be able to communicate with them for a longer period of time, potentially an indefinite amount if her body stays alive.
It’s also quite likely that the absorption will strengthen her own connection to Ada, or rather, Ada’s space. Not just based on what Ada has told them, but the information she obtained from Anya seems to corroborate the concept as well. Though that information has several holes in it, not just the intentional ones Anya left, but also those where Anya seems to not fully know just what Ada has become, and what her capabilities are now.
After a few minutes, the little one finally comes to a decision. Ada eyes look into the empty air, as she speaks. She somehow always finds the origin of Mia’s viewpoint, even though she’s fairly sure Ada does so subconsciously, it is an impressive feat regardless. “I’ll absorb it! But I am not sure what exactly is going to happen when I do, since it’s so different and… feels much more potent!” Ada looks towards Naya, a flash of inquiry crossing across her skin. “Can you make sure I am okay? I’d ask Mia but… I don’t think she can do much as is!”
Naya on their part just gives a small nod. “Sure can do. Try not to take too long, we’re still pressed for time, even if Mia is here right now. I doubt this state is something she can keep after her body dies.” Mia confirms it with a small shift in her presence.
Ada curls into a small ball on the ground, while one of her tails grabs the anchor for. “Okay. I’ll try my best!” The process is much the same as with the other trinkets before, at least at the start. Ada opens up her mouth and swallows the anchor whole, sealing off any outward perception of it. It’s something Mia has only noticed since joining them in this state; but while she can slightly sense the inner workings of Naya, Ada is a complete black box. It’s a rather stark contrast.
Mia and Naya wait patiently in the room as Ada rests on the ground. She’s silent like when they first found her after coming back. Her mind is occupied with something else, eyes glazed over by a black haze that is eerily familiar to Mia still. Naya does notice too, but they do not know it like she does, they’re too young, born after the Genesis.
It’s unsettling still, even though it is a much smaller display than the cocoon. But then again, neither of the instances had the same effect on Mia as the Genesis; where the Genesis was like a mindlessly raging beast, the magic exuding from Ada is a predator. It’s there, she knows it’s there, but the threat is not to her, she is not its prey. There’s a small soothing quality to that thought for Mia, but it only masks the terrifying reality of consumption. She has seen it firsthand already, and as Ada continues to absorb the anchor, she is sure that she, as well as Naya, will be witness to another display of it. A qualitative change to Ada, a step closer to being something greater.
The magic of the anchor finally makes itself known a slight bit later, though even as it does it is a subtle change, one Naya takes a bit longer to pick up on than Mia. Patterns that the two of them would usually associate with Ada displaying her mood play across her skin, forming into complex patterns. But, unlike usual, there is no intuitive understanding of their meaning. Neither is their color the same crimson as usual, instead each of them is different, tinted by colors neither of them have seen before. These patterns are different, and they stick on her skin for a long while, longer than any before. They continue to flow across her skin, shifting and weaving from one shape into another. Though even for Mia, watching these patterns is headache inducing, despite her familiarity with her own shifting magic.
“The start and end point. They’re the same for every line.” Naya is the first to notice, possibly due to not observing the patterns directly, the pain they induce too uncomfortable. When Mia looks to confirm the statement, the patterns on Ada’s skin are indeed flowing from one point to another, from the tip of her scale to her eyes, though none of them make it past the haze. The moment they touch it, they shift and twist into a new line, seeking a new path towards their destination; almost like someone mapping out a route, looking for the perfect path.
The process continues for a few breaths before the first line sticks around after finding its way past the haze and towards Ada’s iris. The strange color of it stands out behind the darkness, and as it draws closer to the iris, it slowly shifts into the crimson of Ada.
The solitary first line is soon joined by another, and then another a bit later, the process becoming faster with each until there is a veritable deluge of them. It continues for only a moment before coming to a total halt, and the lines fade away alongside the Haze in Ada eyes. There is another flash of patterns, but this time the intuitive understanding is there for Mia and Naya; excitement! An excitement that doesn’t really need the patterns to communicate as Ada jumps up and scurries up to Naya before throwing a look towards Mia. “We did it!”
Naya looks at us with a slightly concerned expression, though they do not voice their worry. Instead, it is Mia that addresses us. “Well done Ada. That was quite the display. A bit headache inducing though. Are you alright? You’re energetic which is a good sign, but still. Your eyes were hazed over by magic, and the patterns on your body were… different.” We tilt our head at that statement, the process of absorbing the anchor took a while, and there were many parts, so we did not pay attention to what is visible to the outside.
We know that there have been outward signs of the change, but our patterns being different is concerning, but also not. They’re not supposed to move on their own, to be used by something else. However, if the magic we ate is as useful, as encompassing, as it feels, then it affecting our body as a whole is not unexpected. It’s a point of concern for only a moment, for we know that we are fine, that our body is unharmed, and that we need not worry about hostility from our friends. But we should be sure to have awareness in the future, should we do similar with strangers around.
“We’re okay! It was just more magic than we thought, so we took it deeper into us than planned. It’s alright though, it doesn’t harm me!” I feel the unity between us, my magic and I, slowly fade away again. It’s still a curious sensation, and I somewhat miss it, despite its strangeness. It is a state that does not feel wrong, and the magic does not seem to try and subsume me either, merely be one with me. I choose not to worry about it for now, other things have priority.
Naya scrunches their brows a little and shakes their head. “You’re behaving a little strange. But if you say you are alright, then we must trust you. Can’t exactly check.” They stretch and crack their neck. “Mia, do you have a better connection now? Can we get moving?”
Mia’s presence fills with an affirming sense. She is much more here to me now, and I can see where exactly her focus is at any given time, how her focal point moves about the room, how it radiates her presence. “Yes, we can go now. I can’t quite tell how effective it has been while we are here, but I am certain that it has worked.” The orb that is Mia moves closer to me as she speaks. “There shouldn’t be anything else here of interest.” Naya gives a nod to the empty air and heads for the door out of the room.
I follow them as I consider the place again. It looks different to me now, there are little veins and veils all over the place, formed by magic. It’s foreign, not from the world we are from, but still it has a familiarity to it, fleeting as it may be. Though I am not sure whether it actually is magic, really. The familiarity is not that of magic, it is a different familiarity, the same kind that allows me to know where Mia is, to recognize her. Though, of course, it is not familiarity in the sense of knowing it, like I do Mia, it is a familiarity of the essence, of the… lifeforce.
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A small shudder goes down my back as I recall the stray thought from when we fought the magehunters, of how they lacked the lifeforce of the planet. This lifeforce is different, it is not of our planet, it is some other place. Though Mia, too, feels different to Naya now. She feels like someplace else too, but a much closer place, a place that is still here, but not.
Eventually, we step out of the building, and I turn around to take one last look at it. It’s beautiful, though in its beauty, it poses many questions. Where did it come from? Who built it? Can I meet whoever did? I want to meet them, to see who they are, what their magic is like. My tongue darts across my lips before I speak. “Mia, do you know where these are from? I want to find them, I think. Once this is over.”
Mia’s presence is still strong next to me, despite us now being away from the nexus of the anomaly. “The Fae. I am not sure why Anya thought that information pertinent, but she did. We can try and find them sometime. Apparently they’ve had magic on their planet for a long time, long before the Genesis happened here on earth.” She falls quiet for a short moment. “Maybe the folklore speaking of the Fae has some truth to it? These anomalies should’ve been happening since before the Genesis.” I can feel her curiosity in her presence as she considers it.
“Oh! Fae! I want to meet the Fae! I loved books about the Fae! I wonder how much of it is true!” Excited patterns wash over my skin, ones I pay a bit closer attention to after what the others mentioned, but I do not find anything off about them; they’re the same crimson as always for me.
Amusement fills Mia’s presence at my excitement. “The Fae, yes, maybe they’d be interesting to meet. Hopefully they’re the more friendly kind and not the ones that trap you in eternal suffering.” Her voice darkens a lot halfway through before she stops herself. I flicker concern across my skin and look towards where her focal point is. It takes her a few moments before she continues. “Apologies. I just got reminded of the curse. It’s not a pleasant experience. I’m sure the Fae are going to be much nicer than that, otherwise Anya would not have told us about them.”
She seems to brighten up a little bit, but her mood is clearly a bit down still, so I decide to distract her instead. “You said you were in some kind of vast space, what was it like? Oh and are you sure it was actually all that vast? I feel like Anya wouldn’t be able to fill all that much, no matter how much she tries.” A flicker of amusement goes across my skin as I speak, Anya taking up a lot of space with her presence is of course not something strange, she’s always been the more confident of us two, but she’s also always been a bit more on the thin side, not unhealthily so though.
Mia’s presence clear up a little bit. “Silly Ada. Her presence is what filled up the space, I didn’t actually see her. And I only remember little bits, a representation of the planet that she used to show me things, a model of… the universe? I am not quite sure, actually. It was a bit strange, like an interconnected web of worlds with vast voids in between. But it wasn’t the same way you’d look at a star map, it was different somehow. I am not even sure that the Fae have a planet. And now that I think about it, Anya said world, not planet. The information she gave me doesn’t really elaborate on it, though, not yet at least. Although that would also explain why the barrier between worlds is weaker in the ruins. If the Fae ruin is from another world, and not another planet…” She pauses for a long moment as Naya and I continue to walk away from the ruins. So long, in fact, that I start to get concerned and I am about to nudge Naya about it when Mia continues. “I thought the barrier being weak only mattered for… wherever I am, and some other places. But that would’ve either made the Fae ruins less helpful, or it’d have to be intimately connected with one of these other places. Which, from what I can tell, would be an exceedingly bad thing. I wish your wife had given me all the information instead of doing it this way, it’d help a lot.”
“What other places? You make it sound like there’s some danger lurking out there that might come haunting us. Are you sure the enchantment Ada carries is safe?” Naya’s concern is blatant in their tone of voice.
There’s a short flicker of uncertainty in Mia’s presence, but it’s quickly replaced with confidence. “Oh yes, it should be safe. We didn’t skip any of the protective measures, and there is also the size factor to consider. I’ve encountered many of these ruins on my missions, some smaller, some bigger. The biggest I’ve seen was a fortress the size of a mountain. From what I understand, anything from beyond our world that is interested in this place, would attempt to enter through something much bigger and more stationary than Ada. The planet itself does its best to keep unwanted visitors out, and Anya does her best to help. Also, with how big everything is now, even if one manages to slip past, it might just not be noticed for a long time.” There’s a difficult to place emotions hat flickers through Mia. “Which… might be an issue actually. But that also means that they’d try not to be noticed, so entering where we are would be counter productive. We should still keep an eye out though.”
Naya, on their part, lets out a little huff, clearly not entirely satisfied with the reasoning. Me though, I am just happy to have Mia with us, and to learn more about what Anya is up to. Sure, I’ve met her in my dreams a few times, and I am fairly sure there were some encounters during the time I was unconscious too. Those have likely been what has helped me process her death, well, not-death, before regaining consciousness, something that I am quite grateful for as otherwise I’d likely have been a complete mess upon waking up. I hope I can finally meet her again soon though, I do miss her a lot still. My musings are interrupted when I see a small shimmer in the air. One that is familiar from when we were at the ruins; the only difference is that the feeling is even more foreign than that of the Fae world. “Mia, Naya! I think I can sense where the barrier is weaker. There’s a tiny bit of a weakness here. Different than at the ruins, it’s from some other place!”
That piques the interest of them both. Naya turns around and heads back towards me where I’ve stopped. “What does it feel like? And what did the Fae ruins feel like?” Naya seems unexpectedly curious, they’ve been rather cagey about this whole thing so far, but been going along with it regardless. Maybe they’ve accepted that we’re safe? Or there being more spots like that helps soothe their concerns?
“Oh, uhm, I am not sure how to describe them?” The feelings that the weaknesses give off, and the planet itself for that matter, are strange to me. My brain tries its best to parse them, but still comes up short despite the aid of my magic, and instead just gives me different tastes. “I guess it’s kind of like, a different taste to the air, more spicy than the fruity earthy taste of the Fae ruins. It’s not a good comparison, but it’s better than nothing. And it’s not really a taste, I can see them but also not…” Naya seems somewhat amused at that, and doesn’t push me. Mia, though, already more familiar with my senses, is more intrigued.
“That’s interesting, so your new magic sense tries to use your original senses to help you parse what it tells you? But you were able to actually see my halo, even when mostly inert. When I use a lot of magic it actually does become visible to others, so maybe there is a connection?” The excitement in her voice is rather endearing. “I wish we could test around a bit. But, that can wait, I think. For now, you said this one is from another place? Do you think it’s dangerous as is?”
I take a closer look at the weakness, and don’t really find anything standing out. It’s feels more spicy than the earthy fruity taste of the Fae ruins, but it doesn’t look sinister. “I think it’s probably fine? We can’t do much about them right now anyway, right?” Naya on their part seems a bit unsure but also mostly unbothered, as Mia seems to confirm my statement with a small shift in her presence.
“We can, probably. I’m fairly certain your wife would’ve given me the knowledge in case we need it. But I do not know how long it would take for that knowledge to come to me.” There’s a slight sense of exasperation, or worry, to Mia’s presence, but it quickly fades away. “So, if she deems it not necessary for now, we should not concern ourselves with it. There are other things that need to be done. You, Ada, need to hunt, and get to the grove. Grow stronger, and save me from dying if you would.” A bit of amusement colors her voice. “It’s apparently the only chance I have. Naya, I trust you to keep her safe in my stead for now. I don’t think I can exert much of my magic through this connection. And even if I could, I am not sure how it would affect my body.”
Naya nods at her words. “Of course, that’s why I am here in the first place. Celine also cares about her, so I see no reason to not do what I can.” There’s a small pause before they shake their head and mutter a few words under their breath. “Also she’s frankly too adorable to leave alone. No wonder you seem so infatuated with her.” I pretend to not notice, though a short pattern of embarrassment still crosses across my skin. One that luckily goes unnoticed by Naya as they start moving again. “Come on then, we still got plenty of light today.”
