Out of Body Experience

The last few weeks had been crap and Marcy had been looking forward to just getting to unwind at the club with some of her friends. Life, however, decided to keep being a bitch. First, all her friends ended up canceling. Then, her favorite club had some sort of plumbing disaster and had to close for repairs. And the cherry on top was losing her contact lenses, forcing her to wear her glasses if she wanted to see.

Despite the setbacks, she was deadset on having fun. Work was crap, family was being their usual overbearing selves, spurred on by Mary, her own twin, becoming more focused on her studies, leaving her as their mother’s sole focus. It was so frustrating!

So, alone, she took a cab downtown and sought out a club or bar that was to her liking. She looked at her reflection in a window, smirking as she checked herself out. Black skinny jeans hugged her legs and made her ass look fantastic. A small red top left her midriff exposed, showing off her toned core. The gold bangles contrasted wonderfully against her dark skin and her eyes twinkled with satisfaction.

As she struck out, heading for the first bar on her list of potential party spots, she caught something off out of the corner of her eye. A plain looking man seemed to just appear behind her, as if he’d just walked out through a wall. A sudden sensation ran down Marcy’s spine, like a piece of ice was sliding down her skin and her heart began to inexplicably beat harder.

Before she could even try to shake this mysterious follower or still her sudden anxiety, everything shifted. The sidewalk under her feet seemed to tilt nearly ninety degrees and Marcy stumbled before everything righted itself. Only, things weren’t right. The sound of the city around her was gone. No cars, no distant conversations or music. No smell of food coming from the restaurants. Everything was just blank.

Except for the two sets of footsteps approaching her.

Marcy turned to see the plain man and another drawing closer.

“Told ya I’d find ‘er,” the plain man said in a thick, guttural accent as his boring features began to peel away, revealing tough, scarred green skin and a mouth full of crooked and sharp teeth.

“Never doubted you, my friend,” the still human looking one said. “Now, you’ve given us quite a bit of trouble, miss. Changing up your style ain’t enough to throw us off your scent though.”

Marcy took a step back, heart racing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she stuttered out.

“Sure ya don’t,” the green skinned thug growled. “But we’re ‘ere to make sure ya do.”

Marcy bolted. It was the only thing she could think to do. Her mind raced in time with her legs.

‘What’s going on? Why is that guy green? Where is everyone?’

The streets around her remained empty and eerily quiet. The lights from inside every building looked off, too muted or oddly colored. She tried to escape into one of them, but the door wouldn’t budge, almost as if it was only for decoration.

She turned down a sidestreet, hoping that breaking line of sight would help, but her hopes died as she saw a dead end ahead of her, a wall too tall for her to climb over, not with only a few rusted trash cans at her disposal.

“Look at that, nice and trapped,” the human said as he and his monstrous partner rounded the corner. Marcy turned to face them, grabbing a trash can lid to put between her and them.

“Ha, like that’s gonna be of any use,” the monster laughed.

Marcy backed up until her back hit the wall, hands shaking as she gripped the lid like a lifeline. Her mind was blanked by fear. No ideas of how she could escape or fight back entered her head, only that she was going to have something horrible happen to her.

Then heat, like she had just drunk a fresh pot of coffee, began to flow through her, starting from just above her navel and spilling out across her body. Then a tingling like static started running down her arms and up her head, followed by actual red lighting flowing into the lid in her hands, causing it to warp into the form of a hammer.

Knowledge flooded Marcy’s mind as a nude, white skinned dwarf shimmered into view.

‘Wait, how do I know she’s a dwarf? How do I know her name’s Narine?’ Panicked thoughts flew through Marcy’s mind.

“Well, looks like she’s deciding to fight,” the human sneered, bringing his arms up into a loose fighting pose. The air around his fists began to shimmer with heat. “And here I thought she was going to be an easy bag.”

The other inhaled through his snout-like nose. “Her scent’s changed a bit. Got more of a metal to it.”

“Well, look at what she did to that lid,” came the retort. “Boss didn’t really say what this bitch could do, just that he wanted her taken care of.”

While the two assailants had their back and forth, the nude figure approached. With everything going on, Marcy was too stunned to really react.

“They can’t see me,” Narine quickly said. “I’m not physically present and my magic seems to have resonated with yours rather well. Just think your reply to me, I think I’ll hear it.”

‘Magic!?’ was the first thing Marcy could work into a coherent thought. ‘Magic isn’t real, right?’

“It is real, clearly,” Narine answered, proving she could hear Marcy’s thoughts. “I didn’t realize you didn’t know. I’m guessing you don’t know how to fight either.”

‘No, I don’t!’ Marcy responded. ‘I have no idea how to use this thing!’

She shook the hammer that had been a trash can lid a few seconds ago. That was not the right thing to do as the two thugs saw her movement as her getting ready to fight. The human guy decided no more words were needed and advanced, fist cocked back.

Marcy reflexively brought her arms up to block, her bracelets jangling. She wanted to be safe, to go home.

Heat bloomed through her body once more, flowing into her arms. The hammer melted, its now liquid form flowed over her arms, mixing with her bracelets. The fist met her forearms and the man let out a howl of pain as flesh met metal.

Marcy looked at her arms, now coated from wrist to elbow in a swirl of steel and gold. Then her eyes flitted to her assailant and was shocked to see his hand covered in a thin layer of frost.

“Interesting,” Narine remarked calmly. “It seems you absorbed the magic he was using and the heat transfer was intense. I don’t think you want to get hit by him.”

‘You think!?’ Marcy shouted in her head.

“Fuck, that hurts!” the man shouted. “Bitch fucked with my magic.”

“Can see why boss wants her taken care of,” the other grunted.

“Just get her, Grek,” the human hissed as he shook his hand, steam coiling off it as heat returned to it.

“Can’t handle a little girl with a bit of bite, Jake?” Grek said with a bark of laughter as he stepped forward. “I’ll show ya how it’s done.”

‘Can you do something?’ Marcy pleaded with Narine as the green skinned man approached.

“I’m not sure,” the dwarf responded. “I’m still not entirely sure how my magic worked. It didn’t have an effect on them and might not do more for you after igniting your magic.”

‘Then how…’ Marcy’s attempt to think of a way out was cut short as both thugs snapped their heads back towards the entrance of the alleyway. Her eyes followed their gaze and her jaw dropped. Standing there was her sister, but in a way totally foreign to her.

Normally mousey and a bit shy, Mary stood with her back straight, a hard look on her normally soft face. Her sleeves were rolled up over her elbows, her forearms bare except for something written in green letters on each. And a bold streak of green ran through her bangs that hadn’t been there the last time she’d seen her, only half a day ago. The unusual changes clashed with her usual work attire of a grey skirt, white blouse and black vest.

“There are two of them!?” Jake exclaimed.

“Thought it was a bit weird this one seemed so green,” Grek grunted. “I’ll tackle this one. See if you can deal with her.”

Before Jake could make a retort, Mary surged forward, her body a blur of unexpected speed, closing the distance between her and Jake. Before Jake could even raise a defence, Mary slammed her palm into his back. He twisted from the impact, nearly folding in half the wrong way.

The sudden display of power caused Grek to turn his attention to Mary.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he remarked before something dropped on top of his shoulders. She was a small, lean thing, only about four feet tall, with a mop of hair the same green as the highlights in Mary’s hair. Her skin was shockingly grey, darkening to black at her hands and feet. Most striking were her very large ears, red eyes, curved black horns and small black wings and tail. And the fact that she was utterly naked.

“Time to sleep, big boy,” the demon-like woman cooed as her fingers began to trace something across Grek’s forehead. Red letters followed the path of her fingers, spelling out the word ‘Awake’. Once it was done, Grek began to stagger, suddenly looking like he hadn’t slept in days. A second later, he toppled over.

“Done here,” the short woman called over to Mary.

“Memories, Nista,” Mary said dispassionately as she threw Jake to the ground with ease.

“Like you need to tell me,” Nista snarkily shot back as she began to draw on Grek once more.

Marcy was too stunned to say anything as she watched Nista write the word ‘Memory’ on Grek before doing the same to Jake. Then her eyes landed on Mary. The words on her twin’s arms had faded, and as she walked over to her, Marcy noticed a red word written on her forehead, small and mostly hidden by her bangs.

It read ‘hesitation’ and was slowly fading away. As it did, Mary’s cold expression softened, relief and nervousness coloring her face.

“Um, so, I’m sure you have questions,” Mary sheepishly said.

“That seems like an understatement,” Narine remarked, unheard by everyone but Marcy.

Exhaustion pulled at Rowan’s eyes, but she fought to keep herself awake. Talks between the Lord Protector, the dwarven council and Pruzonia were still ongoing, mostly focused on how they were going to tackle things now. But those were things that a squire, even one as connected as she turned out to be regarding a possible ally, were not meant to be privy to.

So she had been ordered to rest, taking up residence back in the room they had adjourned to right after returning from the trial. Only now she was alone. Which meant staying awake was harder. But she had to remain alert. She couldn’t let herself slack off. Not when there were questions of her loyalty and commitment to the Order in the minds of her superiors.

But as time dragged on, the quiet of the room weighed on her like a cozy blanket and Rowan found herself drifting off. Then a wave of heat and the scent of sulfur shook her from her rest.

Her eyes snapped open, not to see the rather plain room but an open and hazy sky. And instead of the chair she was seated on, she was on a hard warm stone. And she was naked.

Rowan surged to her feet, hand reflexively reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. She stood in what might have been an expansive stone yard at one point, given the weathered and ruined remains of numerous buildings surrounding it. The ground around her was broken up by cracks and pools of bubbling lava, all seeming to come from the mountains all around.

Her initial panic began to abate as her training took hold and she started to notice odd things. Despite the lava flowing dangerously close to her, the heat wasn’t too intense. High, yes, but not liquid rock levels. Then as she surveyed around, pivoting in place, she realized she wasn’t casting a shadow.

“Is this a dream? Or a memory?” she wondered, recalling how Gep’kes Ani had said the dwarf connected to her was a monk of some flavor. “Is this her home?”

Further questions went to the back of Rowan’s mind as a crashing sound rang out from some distance away. Curiosity and her sense of duty and honor drove her to head for it, carefully moving around the lava filled landscape. Around the back of one of the smaller buildings that dotted the yard, Rowan came upon a battle.

A large, spider-like elemental of animated stone with smoke pouring from its joints was fighting a dark skinned, redheaded dwarf. In an instant, Rowan knew it was who was connected to her through the relic blade. She wore only a ragged skirt, footwraps and a strap around her chest, leaving her most striking feature, her silver mechanical arms, laid bare.

She held a short sword in each hand, the same copper color as the relic blade, and was conducting herself with skill. She ducked and weaved through the spider’s limbs, carving deep furrows as she danced around, sending molten blood and steam into the air. She slid under the monster as the wounds to its legs caused it to dip low and drove her swords into its boulder-like abdomen.

Its heated viscera dripped out from the wounds, falling harmlessly on her metal arms before she wrenched the blades free and dipped out from under the spider. She wheeled around as the spider wobbled, its lifeblood spilling out like water from a punctured jug.

With a mighty loud shout, the dwarf launched herself into the air, blades switched into a reverse grip, so with the aid of gravity, she drove them into the back of the arachnid. The blades sank into it all the way down to their hilts.

Rowan had no way to know what sort of bodyplan the monster had, if there even was one, but that final attack seemed to strike something important.

‘I need to brush up on common, non-humanoid elemental physiology,’ she idly thought as the elemental gave up the ghost and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

The dwarven lady let out a whooping cheer, arms held up in victory, her head thrown back.

“Yeah, that’s more like it!” she shouted up into the sky. “Definitely feel something shift with that one.”

Then she looked down and her green eyes met Rowan’s, a big smile breaking across her face.

“Oh, something did happen!”