New Feelings

“So much for all that energy you drained out of the Barrier monsters,” John noted as Orria finally stirred awake. He looked lovingly down at the blonde elf as she awoke, stretching and luxuriating in the soft covers as she let herself slowly recede from slumber.

“Well, someone certainly did their best to wear me out last night, I'll admit that," Orria replied, giving John a playful grin. "Though, I wasn't complaining. I feel very satisfied this morning."

"That makes two of us," John replied, smirking as he gently brushed the hair out of her face. John planted a soft, tender kiss on her lips before continuing, "But, if you're feeling tired still, I could always bring you breakfast in bed."

"That sounds heavenly, but shouldn't I be getting ready for more training?" Orria asked curiously. "I assumed since yesterday was technically Sophia’s you’d still want to have a proper group training day.”

“Ah, sorry, I thought you would have heard me when I was talking to Sophia and Lerianna yesterday. There will be training, but it’s not going to be here, and probably only a couple of us,” John murmured, crossing his arms as his eyes wandered along the wall. “I need to go back to the old world for a while, ask a few favors. Mostly information. While I’m there I’ll probably end up training with Moira and Kim, which means I’ll only be able to call at most two of you to join us.”

“Understood. We can always run our own training Barriers if need be,” Orria noted, stretching a bit. While she was still relaxing on the bed, John strode to the door and turned the lock to the room open. Doing so dispelled the soundproofing enchantments in the door and walls, and he was immediately greeted by the distant mewling of kittens who were awake, energetic, and no doubt extremely hungry already.

“Go on ahead,” Orria said when she saw his eyes rolling. “I’ll be down for breakfast in a bit, once I finish waking up.”

“Don’t be too long if you want there to be any food left,” John warned as he strode for the door. He took his second step into the hallway and then paused as he noticed an unusual shape in his peripheral vision. When he turned to see what exactly it was, his eyes fell upon a most unexpected sight.

Farrah was seated on the floor next to their room, her eyes closed and her breathing even. She didn't even stir as John shut the door behind him and knelt down to her eye level, peering curiously over her peaceful form.

"Well, I've gotten used to finding Lerianna like this, but somehow it feels different when it's her," John thought with no small amount of curiosity. Lerianna often fell asleep in a similar - albeit lewder - pose when John forgot to lock the door. Sometimes even when he did lock it… John wasn’t sure whether her hearing was keen enough to pick up something his enchantment let through or she was using other senses to tell what was going on. Hell, maybe she was just letting her imagination run wild. John didn’t ask too many questions about Lerianna’s masturbation habits unless he was in the mood to get yelled at.

"Farrah? Come on, wake up, silly. That can't be comfortable," John said bemusedly, rocking Farrah's shoulder gently until she started to stir.

"Mmm? Oh, good morning, John," Farrah said, blinking sleepily. "Sorry, I didn't mean to block the hallway."

"I'm not worried about the hall, I'm worried about you, silly," John said. "Is there a reason you decided that the wood floor was more comfortable than your bed?”

“Oh, well, after I napped most of the time that you were training, I had a hard time staying asleep overnight. I think I might have messed up my sleep schedule,” Farrah admitted sheepishly, grinning and tilting her head in a way that made a part of John’s heart throb. “I was going to go for a walk like you did the other night, but as I was heading downstairs, this part of the house just felt… nice. Comfortable. I’m not sure why, but it was right here that it felt strongest.”

“Right here? Right outside my room?”

“Mmhmm. Like I told you about that sense of foreboding the other day, it was kind of all over the house, but it was strongest right here. It felt so nice I just sat down to enjoy it, and… well, I guess I fell asleep. Sorry if I worried you.”

John smiled at Farrah while his mind began to consider what she’d just said. The enchantment to his room soundproofed it, but he’d never bothered placing any kind of wards to prevent magical intrusions, if that was what this was.

“Farrah, could you wait just a moment? And pay attention to how this area feels to you,” John instructed, already re-opening the door to his bedroom.

“Uh, okay?” Farrah said questioningly, rubbing sleep from her eyes as John returned to his room. Orria glanced over at him with a questioning look when he re-entered, but John could tell by the way that her pointed ears were twitching that she had heard everything.

“One second.” John slid the lock shut behind him before speaking again, striding quickly across the room, “I want to test something.”

“Oh? You have an idea on how we can-”

John’s lips silenced Orria’s words with a passionate kiss and gently played his tongue along her lips. She didn’t hesitate to part her lips and greet his aggressiveness with her own, their mouths playing a song of desire that only they could hear. John didn’t stop the kiss until he could feel Orria’s pulse racing and hear her whining as she fought between her urges for more and the urge to breathe again. Even then he felt Orria chasing his departing lips for a moment before she gave in to her body’s demands and began to gasp for air.

“That was… a very pleasant… method of experimentation,” Orria said, managing a playful but genuine smile.

“Let’s see if it got results,” John responded, giving Orria one last gentle kiss on the head before heading to the hallway once more.

When John opened the door and turned to Farrah, for a moment he almost thought she had fallen asleep again – but her soft smile and the way her eyes cracked open as he stepped out made it clear she was just relaxing.

“Did you feel anything that time?”

“Mmm, yeah. It was great. Just after you shut the door, I started to feel all warm and fuzzy, and all…” Farrah’s words cut off as she blushed slightly. Despite her eyes remaining locked on John’s, she squirmed as if she felt suddenly awkward. “I don’t really know how to describe it. It just feels nice. So nice I forget about how I’m sleeping on a hard floor, though my spine seems to disagree once I start moving…”

“I’m sure it does.” John sat there a moment while Farrah stood, his eyes measuring and weighing the woman as she slowly straightened up and stretched out her weary spine. “I think I might know what’s causing these feelings, Farrah, though I’m not entirely sure why, or how to stop you from sleeping out in the hall if you really want to…”

John let the last part hang in the air as Farrah blushed slightly, still twisting her back to loosen herself up. “Even knowing why I’m feeling this way would be a relief. What do you think is causing it?”

“From what I can tell so far, you seem to have some kind of empathic abilities,” John mused, glancing toward the door to his room. “I don’t know how or why, but it’s the most reasonable explanation. You’ve felt apprehension before major conflicts, warmth and comfort when love and pleasure were shown, and you seem pretty attuned to people’s moods. Before, I just thought you were observant or had some pretty impressive emotional intelligence, but now… I think you can tell what people are feeling.”

“You think so?” Farrah asked, putting a finger on her lips as she considered John’s words. “It doesn’t feel the same as when I feel something, though.”

“That’s not surprising. Your abilities are probably quite blunt and need some practice. My own spells and skills are a bit different since I usually acquire them by level, so my jumps in power and ability are kind of sudden and drastic… but Moira and Kim have told me a bit about how much work it takes to develop these kinds of abilities,” John said, offering an uncertain shrug. “You probably don’t feel the same way as the people you’re reading, but you could, in time. I’m sure you could also learn to tune those feelings out with enough time; it’s all a matter of what you want to do about it, if anything.”

“So you think I could become more aware of these feelings… or I could learn to tune them out?” Farrah asked, eyes wavering and uncertain.

“Well, they might not be entirely exclusive – I really can’t say without knowing more about your abilities,” John admitted. “Based on limited experience you’re definitely the strongest empath I know, and it could be that in time you’ll get used to those feelings on your own – or it could be that you’ll have to train and work to ignore them. It’s hard to know for sure.”

“I don’t mind feeling the warm and fuzzy moments. I just… don’t want to get **** out like the other night,” Farrah admitted, sheepishly wrapping one coiled band of brown hair around her jaw and over her lips, giving it a gentle and protective nibble.

“Well, if I have anything to say about it, you won’t feel anything like that while you’re here in our little private world,” John promised, running his fingers gently along Farrah’s shoulder. “That wasn’t something I wanted or intended to happen to anyone. I appreciated having your company for my late night walk, but I never wanted you to feel like you had to follow me just to get away from things around here.”

“I don’t really know what happened either myself…” Farrah began, her green eyes falling to the floor uncertainly, “...but if what you say is true, how do I tell the best way to proceed?”

“That’s a question we’ve been trying to answer for a long time,” John responded, smiling despite himself. “All I can say is that, whether you want to feel these things more precisely, only feel certain things, or shut them out altogether, the best way to do it is to focus on those feelings and try to train the ability. Even if you want to shut it out, the best way to do that is to train it until you can control it.”

“I would prefer if I could just feel like this all the time…”

The way that Farrah was pouting as she glanced over her own shoulder made John’s smile break even wider. John leaned forward and embraced the uncertain woman gently, patting her back.

“Well, the way things go around here, you’ll definitely be feeling things like that a lot more in the future.”

“Hm? Wait, what does that mean? John???”

John just laughed as he released Farrah and made his way toward the stairs. He could already hear the impatient calls of kittens who had heard their father speak for far too long without being fed.

After an enjoyably rambunctious breakfast, the adults had gathered in the common room while the kittens flurried about with their post-meal energy.

“I plan on meeting up with Moira and Kim while I’m out today and training, which means I’ll only have room for two more. Anyone want to volunteer? If not, I-”

“I need to go!”

Lerianna’s voice almost startled John with its eagerness, none of her usual sass or sarcasm present as she eagerly leaned forward. She seemed to realize how much of an outburst she had made a moment later, straightening up her spine and repeating the words again more calmly.

“I need to go. Tricia thinks she has something for me. I need to go to her lab to see if it works properly.”

“That’s not an issue, you won’t even have to be in the party if you’re not taking part in the training,” John noted. “So that still leaves things as they were, just with one less option… and since there aren’t that many fighters left, whoever I take, Orria, can you watch over things here as usual?”

“I promise I’ll keep everyone safe,” Orria said, nodding firmly.

“Good. Sophia, Shishun, any objections to a little more training today?” The assents he received were so expected, John didn’t take in the words as much as their stoic, amusingly similar nods.

“What about me, Myaster? Myaera wants to see the nice Order people again,” Maera interjected, pawing lightly at the air.

“Hm… I suppose I could call you over if Glenna is free. She seemed happy at the idea of getting to see you again, the last time we spoke,” John mused. “Mithra, are you okay with staying behind and watching over the kittens?”

“Nyaa, won’t be a problem. I’m sure I can talk them all into a nice group catnap,” Mithra said, brushing off one of her shoulders. “They get a lot calmer when you’re not around anyway.”

“Not sure if I’m happy about that or frustrated,” John sighed. “Just one last thing to take care of before we go, then. Aclysia, would you mind coming with me?”

“Of course, Creator John. Is this another ‘walk’ before you leave?”

“No. And… don’t say it like that, it sounds like we’re doing something sketchy when you do.”

“I see. How should I say it then, Creator John?”

“I-” John paused, not seeing any point in trying to change the intonation of a woman who barely understood emotions. “Never mind, don’t worry about it. Just come with me. Everyone else, get ready to leave – we’ll head out when I get back.”

With Aclysia close on his heels, John made his way out of their home and over to their makeshift prison, the place where Arista’s cell still stood empty. Aclysia’s eyes swept neutrally across the room, only pausing long enough on the large, enchanted steel to examine it as casually as if it were a table lamp.

“Give me one second, I’m about to get a lot more for you to eat, Aclysia. I used up most of our old enchanting stockpiles to make this thing; I just hope I can get a decent amount of them back. Make yourself comfortable while I mess with it for a bit.”

“I am already comfortable, Creator John.”

John didn’t try to argue as Aclysia stood in the corner of the room, as still as the statue she had once been. He focused his attention instead on the monolith before him, traipsing through his menus and trying to figure out the best way to salvage the whole thing. Using his Craft and Salvage he could break it back down into scrap and then turn that scrap into something usable, but it was incredibly inefficient. He’d get maybe thirty percent of the materials he put into it back.

Thankfully it didn’t seem to matter whether he did it all at once or piece by piece – a quick estimation showed they were probably equal in returns. The benefit to doing them one piece at a time was that small enough pieces were almost instant to disassemble, while doing the whole thing together resulted in a two-hour queue, similar to when he used his Build ability.

“Aclysia, it looks like this is going to take a while to finish breaking down. Once it does, go ahead and help yourself to whatever you want to eat from the ingredients left over. It should be more than enough to give you a few levels, since you already got one just from the scraps we had left over.”

“Thank you, Creator John. What would you like me to do while I wait?”

“Huh? Oh, do whatever you want. This isn’t an urgent task. You can go hang out with Farrah or Mithra, help take care of the kittens… I know you don’t quite get ‘wants’ yet, but just pick one at random if you have to. You could just sit here, but I’d prefer if you at least went back to the main house so you won’t be alone.”

“I see. Very well, Creator John.”

“I’ll see you when we get back!” John called out as he headed for the door. “Just find someone around who wants company. You can at least communicate with nodding and shaking your head. You can definitely find someone who doesn’t mind talking, even if you can’t talk back well.”