Catgirl System

Quest: Explore the Vencian Wood
Progress: 37% (11/30)

Current Location: ??? (S.A4)

Here at the western edge of the Kaugs was an awkward cut-off to the haze we’d spent hours wandering through, and on the other side were towering pines. Not nearly as towering as the mountains, of course, but robust and vibrantly green. A few meters out, they were intermixed with the typical oaks and maples. Then they gave way to the expansive fields that marked off these woods from the wider world.

And to the south, I knew, was a similar view. Again, just beyond that veil of trees.

Reed and I were sitting on a big rectangle of a rock, eating snacks before dinner. The light streaming through the thin clouds—both near and far—almost looked fluorescently white, raw light before it hits a prism and splits into a rainbow.

For the first few seconds after taking our seats, we ripped out our snacks, almost furiously. Reed chugged from her canteen with a vengeance. I gnawed on the crispiest edge of a nova bull flank steak.

And then we spontaneously stopped. I looked at Reed. And she looked at me.

…As usual, I couldn’t speak to her. But I was used to it. I was standing on the verge of that not bothering me.

Now that Reed was carrying poledust, we’d be going home with the final ingredient for my first-ever cantrip. That boded well for things to come.

Even if a lot of the other stuff we’d just been through had been less comprehensible.

Well, at least for likewise-incomprehensible reasons, my Evolution pop-up wasn’t just blaring in my face twenty-four seven, like they usually would. I’d only have to remember about it to summon it before my face again. But for now, I wouldn’t disturb this moment of wondering about Reed, and of just hoping she could get home and get rested soon. (Something I wouldn’t mind doing myself!)

But for now…yes. I looked at Reed.

She looked at me. Took a drink. Stopped.

I gazed over her bruises, her twinkling eyes, her rose shirt and hair.

And she swallowed awkwardly.

“Um…I don’t mean to be pushy…but do you know what that book was? That I think you have, right now, in your Inventory?”

Crap.

Yeah, the mysterious “TIME?” book. Time book huh? Mhm, just what I’d expected: no answer.

I still felt too conked-out to want to deal with it, but not only did Reed deserve an answer…so did Destiny! Or whatever.

I hopped down onto some icy dirt, avoiding the slippery patches, remembering just how huge this thing was. It hit the ground like a mallet. Reed flinched—so did I.

Hm, had I missed something earlier, or did this cover just…change between now and me finding it? Because it had words on the cover. Fancy calligraphic silver words with letters like loping slides.

Letters that I could read.

Letters that I could read.

Universe, were you not paying attention? I was on my way to get the power to read, I didn’t have it already!

Reed leaned over. “It says…” She scratched her head. “What language is that?”

“Meow,” I said confidently, for it was all I could say.

Whatever language it was, I could read it

The message on the cover was:

The Book of Sister’s Shadow

…well, I didn’t have any sisters, so that was clearly irrelevant no matter the language. So instead of lingering on this, I just swatted the book open.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t giving! I swatted a few more times in utter confusion, until I realized I was hitting some sort of lock. Then I actually looked at the side of the tome. There, keeping the pages closed, was a little lock-and-chain mechanism.

I could swat harder…but the chain did look very pretty. It shone like platinum, and maybe it was platinum. The lock part had a keyhole, and also gleamed silver. Just to mess around until we found a locksmith, I stuck my claw in. And heard a delicate music-box click.

That actually opened it.

The light of the sky was dimming. The blue skies were getting bluer, and faster than I’d anticipated. Had we really spent that long exploring, fighting, debating strangers?

Suddenly I felt a bit feverish. It was crashing down on me how big this day was—and while all along I’d known exactly how monumental getting this reading cantrip was, and approximately how major spending time with Reed and learning about DeGalle would turn out…I just did not know what I was in for.

Maybe, like my yet-unused sword, it would be a big TBA. But I did not know.

And time flies.

I threw the book open with both paws. The cover hit the ground with another little thoom, feeling like leather but landing like a slab.

We saw a lot of unceremonious nothing on the first page.

Reed and I stared (not at each other—at the page).

Then a crack of thunder split the sky. It sounded so close that we flung our heads upward to see, and yet all we caught was the normal drifting of mist. We could even hear the normal, untouched birdsongs and goat calls behind us.

But the book had changed.

Emblazoned on that page, searing as if burnt in, were fresh words. More words that I alone could read.

But before I could, all the book’s pages whirred before me under their own electric power, their white edges going blue-black and seeming to burn, morphing into one near-cohesive blur. I was overcome with a surge of someone else’s power, of someone else’s fury tamped down and honed to a finish—and I couldn’t explain how I got so much personality from a disembodied feeling.

But no doubt the book was speaking to me.

I stared into pages that seemed as deep as a chasm.

As I gazed, more words spooled out before me in brief patterns of wrought silver, and I caught whatever I could catch:

Hello there

Uh, hello, I guess—

Hahahahahaha

—but I, uh, why would you—

Heeheeheehee

—at least, I don’t know why you would—

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

—until the book flipped back to around the beginning, stopped itself, and went still.

I was back to the first page with any writing on it. The margins were huge, the ink was silver mercury, and the letters were blackletter, bold as iron.

This page could’ve been written by a completely different person.

It read:

I was born in thunder; you were born in peace. I seek to end you as you seek to end me. Devour the contents of this book so that you shall become my equal, my worthy.

“I-I don’t know what to say,” Reed mumbled. “I-I-I wish I could read it with you, but…I have a feeling Bayce’s cantrip can help us with that. Should we set up a tent, or…”

Hold on, Reed, I thought. I’m not finished yet.

I’d feel remiss if I didn’t at least glance at the pages to come. Because even though that seemed to be falling right into the hands of an anonymous evildoer, curiosity was…uh…

I did have more lives, in case this killed me, right, Sierra?

No answer, naturally.

So I pawed through. This time, the book didn’t force-flip me to a dramatic opener or anything like that. It just allowed me to peruse.

I deliberately skipped anything that looked like more laughter. Fine, maybe there was like a laughter-code in there, but I didn’t know Morse code. And who makes codes out of “hee hee, ha ha, ho ho ho”? Who thinks any of this is a good idea?!

So I had no guilt whatsoever about looking elsewhere. Plus, I was finding that almost none of the pages in this huge book had text on them, even after that whole big magical lightning-y show. In fact, after about thirty pages, words stopped dead.

I did, however, find another text block, and it went like this:

Day One

I am born in thunder; she is born in sun. I can feel it in my spine in the same part of myself that senses the rain.

My Maker wants me to train so I can become human more often. I feel alarmed. How can I save anybody when I am overwhelmed by feelings I had never known and never had to know in my former life, in my normal form.

I have the capacity to feel more than fear and comfort now and I think this has to be honed and trained, like a different weapon.

Insects are taking a liking to me and some are stronger than others.

This was information I could understand…halfway.

It was written in the voice of some mysterious entity who, through this book, was claiming to know me on a deeper level. Given the emotions I had sensed when the book violently opened itself, that might even be true. So…that would mean I was a “sister born in sun” to…yeah, it had to be her: the sapphire queen I’d encountered on the lake, who was friendly with lots of particularly strong bugs.

Now I had her book, a book that maybe she wanted.

And if I had to fill in more blanks, I could assume that she liked stopping time? Maybe?

There was nothing else I could do now besides close the book, scoop it back up in my Inventory, and give Reed a placating “meow.”

I’m sorry I can’t explain this stuff to you, but it’s not like I know that much myself!

She, with a cautious hand, stroked delicately down my back. I relaxed tense muscles, wishing her soothing hand could go soul deep.

Inventory: 4/5

Chora’s Crystal Ring

Debug Blade

Minor Heal x3

Book of Sister’s Shadow
Much of this diary has yet to be written.