A visitor [Tuesday 1/7]

John woke up, stretched, sat up and looked around. Gnome was laying at his side or had been as she was hugging his arm so tightly that she sat up with him. “Noooo, no more cake,” she mumbled in a voice that sounded like she REALLY wanted more cake, “I caaan’t.” “You can!” Sylph mumbled, as in response, sleeping on top of her sister’s head, “You will eat all of those muffins, or the gummy bear king will have our heads!”

John giggled, they were apparently easily influenced by things that happened outside their dreams and now shared some kind of sleep talking experience. Either that or the mental bond they shared had synced up their dreams. Either way, it was funny. He didn’t immediately see Undine until he saw the blueish mass sticking out from his pillow. ‘That explains why it felt so weird,’ John thought, ‘not bad, just weird.’ Undine had hidden inside his pillow as a very dense slime, making it as though he slept on some kind of memory foam. It had been rather pleasant. The two girls missing from his bed were Aclysia and Salamander, the former was no wonder, Aclysia didn’t need to sleep in the first place and just rested her mind while snuggling up to John. Salamander however usually could be found lying on Gnome somewhere, so this was surprising.

John carefully wiggled himself out of Gnome’s grasp. She made a very unpleased noise and her arms desperately grasped for something. Picking up the pillow with Undine and placing it for Gnome to cuddle with, he got out of bed. He got his clothes and equipment on and checked the clock. Tuesday had begun about thirty real minutes ago, so he had slept roughly eight hours. That was a bit longer then he had wanted, but he felt well rested. ‘This day is going to be good!’ He decided and searched for Salamander. He had a mental glimpse of the outside plain, so he left the house.

He found Salamander looking up at the stars, or better what little there was to see of them between the midnight clouds. She was just lying in the air like other people might on a couch, burning like a little red star herself. “You like looking at the stars?” John asked as he stepped closer. “Nah, it’s just something to do,” Salamander said without turning to him, “So how do you feel now, John?” “What do you mean?” “Now that you deepened your contract with Gnome, how do you feel?” “Oh, I don’t know, more in sync with everything? Collected?” John could still not accurately describe his newfound earthen connection. “I see,” Salamander just said before changing the topic, “Following that list of yours I am next on the list to ‘evolve’ am I not?” John checked his skills, Salamander with her 74 levels was indeed the highest skill of the elementals. “It will take a bit of time though,” he said in affirmation. Salamander sighed, “Well, maybe I have some time to get my lesson into that skull of yours then.” “Your lesson?” “I won’t tell you, that’d defeat the point.”

Well, that made sense in some way. Salamander was probably talking about the event that would be needed to max out the skill, just like he needed to understand the earth before he could evolve Gnome. John remembered with terror the visions he had seen before the contract. Salamander was unique amongst his elementals in regards to that. Gnome had shown him the life of earth itself; Undine had been a vision of a drop of water that traversed from the oceans to the cloud only to fall as rain and begin the cycle anew elsewhere, while Sylph’s contract had shown him how the wind endlessly played. They had been broad visions of the elements in their natural cycle. Salamander had been none of that, what he had gotten from her was specific, manmade destruction. From the first cannonball to the only nukes ever used to kill, he had seen war. Whatever could the lesson of hers be?

Salamander knew what he was thinking, “are you afraid of me?” she asked. There was no anger or fear in her voice; it was like she was asking if he wanted another cup of coffee. “A bit,” John answered truthfully, “what you have shown me, the way you fight, your destruction and passion. I am not sure whatever that lesson of yours is, but I am unsure whether or not I want to learn it.”

Salamander slowly nodded, “you will understand the necessity. You will witness the truth. Whatever though, this whole serious shit is getting me all bored. I wanna burn some shit; I miss your girlfriend, dude, she was always ready to get into action, you are all cautious and stuff.” John honestly wasn’t surprised to hear that, Salamander hadn’t been fond of him being mindless, but she also wasn’t very enthused by his lack of aggressiveness. “I really wonder sometimes why Krieg gave me to you.” “Krieg, what is he in the first place?” John wondered, the name was on her character sheet, but that was about all he knew of him. “He is my dad and a god of war, don’t know more.” “That seems to be very little for somebody who is your father,” John wondered. “Oh shut it, gamer boy, I was born the moment you summoned me. My wonder is directed towards the fact that he thought I was good for you. There are way calmer fire elementals with a lot more patience out there.” That was indeed a good question, one he had a partial answer for, “I met a dragoness called Nathalia before I made an attempt at summoning you,” he explained, “the mother of fire told me you would be a good fit.” “Well, we will see if she was right. If I get the message into that skull of yours, she was,” Salamander dropped the point.

Aclysia chose that moment to open the door and inform John about the fact that breakfast was ready. He went back inside, Salamander followed him and flew close by his ear, “Let’s fuck something up today!” “If that is your version of having fun, sure,” John agreed with the hint of a smile, he disliked what she stood for but not Salamander herself.

After breakfast, they did their usual routine. John made sure he had the right items on, didn’t want to miss any stat bonuses, especially not the one from the Necklace of the World Ender. He also looked over Aclysia’s weaponry again. As the fights continued to get more superhuman, at this point they were occasionally toppling buildings, the equipment couldn’t keep up. The Sword of Glory was barely usable after every battle, and they were in need for a replacement.

John sighed, “If only we could get you some equipment that is like you,” he lamented. “Like me?” Aclysia asked, her head slightly tilted. “You know, living material. If I could just get you a sword that grows with stuff we feed it we would have at least some equipment I was sure you could ALWAYS use.” “Master, I would be more comfortable if you made armor for yourself with such a thing,” Aclysia shared her opinion on the matter. “Would be a waste, I am a backline mage, giving me costly armor is something way down the priority list, while you as our melee damage dealer and main tank really need a good and reliable weapon,” John argued. “I do not know if I fall under the description of ‘tank’ you categorize me as,” Aclysia said, “I don’t spend a lot of time protecting you.” “Ah, and that is where you are wrong, my dear noob,” he raised a finger, “Let me explain, while you might not be directly protecting me you are drawing the attention of people away from me by performing on the front lines. As long as they are concentrating on you, I am safe, and the few that are coming through will then be deflected by…” “WE KNOW!” Salamander interrupted, and a tiny fist hit John on the cheek. 3 damage. “We have been doing this for a week! Aclysia is the main-tank, Gnome and Undine are your Protectors, Gnome actually doubling as middle range Damage now, while Sylph and I are doing close quarter DPS. We fucking know, we are part of your thoughts!”

“But she asked,” John said, intimidated by the fire spirits outrage. What made Salamander so pissy today? “Aclysia just asks because she knows that you like explaining stuff and she likes when you like something,” she opened the truth up to him. “Ehm, really?” John asked Aclysia. No answer, Aclysia just turned the slightest bit red while maintaining a straight face. Well, that was all John needed to feel disheartened, when did she learn that trick? “Now get to it, I wanna fight something.”

Salamander flew directly towards and then through the gate, vanishing from sight, while the rest of the group slowly followed her. “She is pissy today, wow, totally unacceptable,” said Sylph, “Dump her ass! Make me the new concubine!” “What is it with you and concubines?” John wanted to know. “It is just a cool word!” “You are aware what it means tho?” “Something something sex, I don’t care, I just want to be called it,” Sylph flew by his face and winked, “So be sure to make me bigger soon, so I get that title, Jonathan Money. That aside tell me what irks her today, she is a bitch but she is still my quote-unquote-actually-do-not-quote-because-it-is-true-so-what-are-the-quotes-doing-here-elemental-stuff-is-confusing-oh-my-Gaia-i-can-do-this-forever-because-i-don’t-need-to-breathe-how-cool-is-that sister, and I am worried about her.” “Apparently she is trying to get this whole ‘lesson for me’-thing sorted out.” “Oh, okay, I can understand that,” Sylph said and whirled away. That was uncharacteristically short for her. “That’s all you got to say?” John shouted up to her. “Yeah, I mean, it’s really not easy to do it correctly, you know? Planning that I mean,” Sylph laughed back. “Wait, you all have a lesson for me?” “Why yes, silly, dunno why but we kinda were made with the purpose in mind to teach you a thing or two,” Sylph said, “nothing major, just, uhm, Undine you are better with words, say something.”

‘Something that you already know but not truly awoke to yet.’ A full sentence of Undine’s serene voice filled his mind. “Yeah, that!” Sylph supported the statement. All John got out of that was cryptic Yoga nonsense. He refused to think about this more than necessary; he had other things to worry about now. “I will just let it come towards me,” he decided and nodded to himself. “That seems best, master,” Aclysia agreed, she had no idea what the elementals were on about either. Evidently, they were not in sync in all regards.

John finally reached the gate and was about to walk through when it flickered. He froze. It had never done that before. Should he be worried? Well, whatever had happened, it was over after just a second, so maybe it was safe now? Rumbling and heavy steps, the sound of a door being thrown open and of Magoi bursting outside. The Fateweaver was breathing heavier than a run down the stairs should make a person of his strength level. “GET AWAY FROM THAT TRANSDIMENSIONAL OVERBRIDGE!” ‘So that’s what they are actually called!’ John thought in a brief moment of satisfied curiosity before the seriousness of Magoi’s tone dawned on him, and he raised his foot to take a hasty step backward.

The gate flickered a second time, and a black scaled human hand burst out of it, grabbing John by the wrist and then pulling at him with undeniable strength. Before he even knew what was happening, he was sailing through the air like a bullet straight out of a pistol. Speeds he never experienced before, quick enough to make the air friction strong enough to be physically painful and actually cause slight damage to him tore at him as he sailed over a ripped and destroyed landscape filled only with ash, stone, and lava.

“I finally got in here,” he heard the husky voice of an older woman, a much older woman in everything but appearance. She flew by his side, her wings had a skeleton made of obsidian, membranes made of streaming magma. Her form was enticing, her skin of light brown and clad in black scales that looked very dangerous and sharp. In her chest, where a person’s collarbone would be, a stone was part of her body instead, sharing its colour with her burning orange eyes.