The Ruler of Ruin

What preparations did Arx Maxima even expect us to make? Not many, it turned out. Each of our party, even Miyuki who had not officially joined up with us but did intend to lend a hand, were assigned a room in the floors beneath the command deck of the spire and instructed to clean up. I didn’t complain, after a few days of gladiatorial bouts I was happy to jump into one of the well-lit showers. All of officer suites had amazing bathrooms connected to them.

As for the efficacy of a shower, I wasn’t certain. I had scales and I did not sweat, but it remained enjoyable to have warm water pour over me, even if it didn’t do anything truly useful. With the Belt of Diana I could equip and unequip my armor in seconds, and Arx Maxima said she would polish it while I cleaned up.

“You only have four abilities separating you from Citrine,” Arx Maxima pointed out while I gargled water.

“Bleh,” I spat water out after almost choking. I’d forgotten that the golden diamond floated outside the shower. “Is that a hint?”

“I strongly suggest you activate at least the final slots of everything but vitality. The assault on Solarias will require as much of your strength as you can wield,” Arx Maxima answered directly.

“Why not vitality?” I asked curiously.

“I have already engineered your final skill for vitality, naught is required there but the triggering scenario,” Arx Maxima said.

I wasn’t happy with that answer. It was vague, and when things were vague and ill defined, I got surprised. Yet, before I could even make a stink about this, Arx Maxima moved the conversation on.

“Chrys and I have finished sorting the items you all looted from Alrik. Much of it was arcane in nature and useful only to your uncle. I have removed the curse from one of the rings, and Chrys would like to keep it, it allows for phasing.”

I considered for a moment but nodded. Chrys alone was the only one of us who didn’t have an escape skill of some sort. It’d be good for her to be able to walk through walls if the need arose. She didn’t breath, either, so maybe she could maintain it longer than one of us air breathers.

“Makes sense, give it to Chrys. What else was there?”

“An Ethereal Lantern. It reveals hidden paths and secret doors. I have marked it for distribution to Claire. Miyuki has laid claim to the sole bladed weapon, a life draining scythe. Xian has suggested he has no desire for anything of Alrik’s, and I have already given Remy the arcane artifacts,” Arx Maxima said.

“Nothing for me?” I asked, a little saddened. I turned the water off, and the shower switched modes. Warm wind and strange sensations caressed my body, and in moments I was dry and able to step out of the shower. I had remembered to cover the mirror, so there was no reflection of Amaranthine to fluster me. A set of black clothes with grey accents in the style of the Stellarae Enclave hung on a hook, the Belt of Diana on the next hook. Before I could reach for anything though, Arx Maxima spoke again.

“Within the sub-space of the fragment you recovered from Alrik I found this,” Arx Maxima chimed. A flicker of light accompanied the manifestation of a choker. The sinister accessory looked to be made of fine chains of metal and glistening obsidian. Each of the pieces of obsidian had a nearly imperceptible sigil inscribed onto them.

“The sigils are the names of my envoys, from Azazel to Vapula. It is called the Choker of Ruin and bolsters the power of the Tenebrous Dragons. Perhaps it will hasten the acquisition of your breath.” Arx Maxima kept the choker dangling before me, as if she expected me to take it before I dealt with getting dressed. I grasped it and struggled to put it on. The precise latch was a horrendous challenge without the ability to use a mirror. After minutes of stumbling around like an idiot I finally got it to click into place.

Warmth flowed through my body immediately. I felt the phantom presence of wings come and go, and my throat felt like I had eaten a bear and got its furry hide stuck. I coughed, and spat, and coughed, but I couldn’t get whatever felt stuck in my throat free. I turned the sink on, and tried to drink water, but that just made things even worse and I hacked and spluttered like a dying man.

“Breathe in deeply,” Arx Maxima instructed me. The idea of breathing in sent shivers of panic through me, I couldn’t breath at all, and she wanted me to breath in? She repeated herself.

“Breath in deeply, Emery.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and after I finished a particularly violent, lung aching cough, breathed in.

“Exhale lightning,” Arx Maxima commanded, but then added clarification to her order. “Exhale lightning into the shower.”

I imagined black lightning, arcing and crackling, and breathed outward with as much force as I could to dislodge what I half expected to be a clump of Howlister’s feathers. Instead, like Arx Maxima commanded, it was black lightning. An electrical storm filled the shower and then faded. Black smears covered the tiles of the shower, but none had broken or been damaged in the act.

The final ability of my envoy concept crystalized with the breath attack; the ability Ira Draconis formed. I let my mind dwell on the final point of the pentagon of envoy. With Ira Draconis I could turn any element or ability I had into a breath attack. I envisioned myself breathing a plague of spears at people, although I had my suspicions that Delirium of Ruin probably wasn’t the sort of ability that would work with Ira Draconis.

“You know, Arx, maybe the bathroom isn’t the most suitable place for someone to learn to spit lightning,” I muttered a little testily.

“I strongly disagree. Tenebrous Dragons were known to be violently ill for days when they developed their breath attack. If you’re going to be spewing bodily fluids, dangerous energies, and partially digested food everywhere the bathroom is the perfect place to do it.”

“Okay, when you put it that way it is a bit harder to argue with you,” I acknowledged.

I dressed in the black and gray Stellarae Enclave uniform, with the additions of the Belt of Diana and the Choker of Ruin. My armor safely rested inside the Belt of Diana, where I could swap it out for the uniform with little notice. I looked forward to increasing my wardrobe just so I could have a wider variety of outfits available to me to show off the quick-change ability of the belt, which I found to be absolutely miraculous.

If you ever get a tail, scales, and a slightly different shaped body than the one you were born with, you need a piece of gear like the Belt of Diana to get you through. It was a life saver, and meant I didn’t need to break down and get Chrys or Remy to help me get dressed.

Shortly after I exited the bathroom Chrys entered my suite with a knock on the door, and entered. I didn’t point out the rudeness, since I was fairly certain Arx Maxima had told her to enter somehow. I didn’t know how the two communicated so easily, but they had a running line of dialogue that I wasn’t involved in. Not that I felt left out, or anything.

“What do you think, Chrys?” I asked and gestured at my outfit.

“You continue to slosh, and the outfit is very nicely tailored,” Chrys answered in an mixture of annoyance and amusement. Her perception of the world primarily relied upon vibratory senses, not light. Maybe she wasn’t the person to ask.

“I don’t slosh, what did you come down for?” I looked around my large suite, one of the largest on the floor with its own sitting room, in addition to a bedroom and bathroom.

“Arx Maxima asked that I come over and use Morphic Resonance on your new attire,” Chrys answered as she stepped up to me. I felt like she was studying the new choker I wore, and after a few moments her blue-green hands lifted up to touch the choker. Swirls of colors filled the air, my heart beats accelerated a little, and then my throat felt a little more comfortable.

“Purple accented, very nice. Now the clothing, please.” Arx Maxima complimented the addition of purple to the previously all black of the Choker of Ruin.

Chrys ran her fingers along my chest, touching the different sections and colors of cloth. Once more shimmers of color filled the air. This time I could feel the materials of the outfit change subtly, and with my head craned down I watched as the gray of the uniform was replaced with a deep purple and piped in gold.

In seconds, the entire look of the outfit changed. The material of the outfit switched to gloomweave, to match the fondness I had for the material, perhaps.

“How does your power know what to do with these things? Do you control it?” I wondered.

“I have no control over it at all, so if you have any complaints, please lodge them with your essence. Since we do not always enjoy what we most strongly resonate with, not all entities are happier when an item has been modified by Morphic Resonance. Those who fight themselves tend to hate it the most,” Chrys mused.

“All the changes you’ve done for me have been fantastic,” I assured her, but then I wondered. Did I like them all because I was in touch with myself, or because I was just a simpleton? Did I lack the complexity of thought and character to not be myself? No, surely not. Even a simpleton could dislike themselves or fight their nature, so all that could be said was I truly enjoyed my own style?

“My job here is done. Good luck meeting Amaranthine,” Chrys barely contained her giggle at my expense.

“Wait, aren’t you going to be there with me? You’re part of my retinue!” I panicked, just a little.

“When one Mist Lord accepts another, it is tradition that they do so individually, then adjoin to a parlor for entertainment. This is a business meeting, but you are the Mist Lord of Monados, Emery. Thus, you and I will meet Amaranthine and Corvusol without anyone else present.”

I would have Arx Maxima with me, at least. I doubted my ability to not cave like an idiot before Amaranthine. I could still hear her whisper next time and feel the warmth of breath against my scales. Both of my hearts pounded at the simple recollection, or the visual input of the dream that I learned Lex Talionis in.

“You’ll be fine, big boy. Xian wanted me to look over some things for him, but we’ll be at the reception parlor by the time you’ve welcomed the fey. Maybe learn to not drool lightning before she arrives.” Chrys laughed and excused herself, while I touched along my jaw to find tiny sparks kept appearing when I exhaled.

“How do I make it stop?” I demanded of Arx Maxima.

“It may be in your best interest to take off the Choker of Ruin until you have time adapt to the additional power it grants your breath. Knowing Corvusol and Amaranthine, they would find your mouth adorned with copious amounts of black lightning to be a fantastic thematic declaration.”

“It’s not an anything declaration, it’s energy-drool!” I cried out in alarm. If there were any Tenebrous Dragons here, no doubt they’d tell me that slobbering lightning was akin to having a hunk of duck caught in your teeth.

“Take a deep breath,” Arx Maxima sighed.