Orphan At The Edge Of The World

Crossing his arms, Orison said darkly, "I definitely want to hear the can"t list."

Still fiddling with his appearance to strike a better balance between his natural "glory" and his current environment, the ifrit said, "Like the sea, creation"s dark tide has an ebb and swell. Such a thing is measured in years, not hours. You can step into a dying reality any time you like but the only safe times to leave are during the height of the swell or the lowest point of the ebb. There is a moment of stillness within both where pressure and current are at their gentlest.

"The second reason is a tad more complicated. The last stand is about to take place soon. The fate of this world hasn"t been completely decided yet. It"s not so much whether it will continue to live or finish dying. It"s more like who gets what."

Orison looked dully at the ifrit and said, "Just enough truth to not be complete bullsh*t. The big guys are so worried about each other that the little ones are left to wreak havoc. Out of the ones who slip the guard, some of them can threaten you even if you ran from them but you could slip line between without too much issue, I bet... Now what you said DOES apply to me. Thanks for the info."

The ifrit grimaced and then smiled widely. "I"m glad my service pleases, MASTER."

It was Orison"s turn to smile. "Improper address of an employer const.i.tutes hara.s.sment. That"s terms for dismissal without benefits."

The ifrit"s eyes became wide and said, "Where in our contract is that mentioned!?"

Orison said, "By contract, I am defined as employer and you are my employee. Intentional defamation of character was definitely mentioned in the contract and calling me "master" defames my character when the law of the land has made illegal the ownership of slaves."

The ifrit looked a little lost as he communed with reality around him. "Alright, what do you want to not dismiss me?"

Orison said, "I"m a.s.suming you now probably know more about the law than I do since you can just zip up language, appropriate dress and the like... I don"t want to play lawyer games with you. I just want to know why you willingly stay in my service when you"re free to go?"

The ifrit sighed. "Fire clings to the bosom of its wood... Outward travel right now would be...expensive. With the state of the world, there"s not a lot to be gained being a free agent. On top of that, sticking by you might earn me some more resources.

"There"s opportunity to be had in a dying world as well. Returning home empty handed after all this time is a bleak proposition. Surviving until now wasn"t without cost to me."

Orison rolled around the idea of keeping the ifrit around and what it would take to make that safe. Then inspiration struck.

The young mage said, "I won"t dismiss you if we change the nature of our arrangement to older and simpler rules. By the old ways, oath to be my va.s.sal. All due sincerity and t.i.the will be upheld to the utmost spirit. Address may remain informal."

The ifrit spoke the oath so quickly that it took Orison"s sub-mind to register it. With a predatory gleam, he stalked up to the young mage.

While the ifrit wrestled with the wording of challenge necessary to "depose" his lord and claim his holdings, Orison called his "son-in-law" and daughter to bear witness.

With a deep Baritone chuckle, a projection of Herne appeared with Flora. Both of them were doing quite well for themselves, particularly Herne. Orison didn"t know what all the hunter had taken from him but it incurred a certain amount of familial duty since it was claimed under dowry.

Catching the drift, Herne said, "Welcome to my father-in-law"s service... Lord Father, I have yet to add the heart of an ifrit to my collection. I would greatly appreciate news of his fall from grace, should there be one."

Flora was going to congratulate the fiery man before Herne interjected himself between the two. Realizing that all wasn"t as it seemed, Flora congratulated her "father" and stepped to the side. The young mage wasn"t thrilled about the courtly manners it seemed Herne expected of her but Orison wasn"t going to b.u.t.t into her affairs, merely sent her a silent nudge of support and welcome should she need a break, temporary or otherwise, from attending her lord husband. Herne was no less keen on subtext but didn"t pay it much mind.

With their projections fading away, Orison looked back at the ifrit. "I"m sorry. You were about to say?"

Plastering on a weak smile, the the ifrit said. "I was about to warn you not to give me a stupid name to use while I"m in your service... How did you get an aspect of the hunter archetype as a son-in-law?"

Orison pondered and then said, "Well, Ignatius Burns, I defeated him in single combat. I dragged his remains from the reality he was trapped in and accepted his service. Then I built him back up and he seduced away my spiritual, uh, daughter. Believe me, the dowry was killer! I think I might aim for marrying off a son next time."

Ignatius said, "That"s a name that could grow on me... Really now. Babies having babies, what"s the supernatural world coming to?"

Orison shrugged. "I was a human first. Add it all together and I"m pretty advanced... I joke... Flora"s a bit of a fluke. She"s an aspect, herself."

Ignatius shook his head like he was trying to clear out water from his ear. "What I don"t understand is why you"d go from a better deal to a worse one. There are countless little ways to get around fealty. At least with the employer thing you had going on, I was the one playing catch up."

Orison said. "Because it would take you all of a few hours to a few days and you"d have me screwed over. Now, I can can dismiss you without any rules. Now, as long as I give you a reason to WANT to be my va.s.sal, you can be useful. Most of all, I needed an emergency reserve tank that"s compatible with issues I might have in a minute. Tell me, can you handle raw abyss exposure? Like, can you handle unfiltered abyss tainted essence and can you resist automatic suppression by an abyssal plane?"

Ignatius smirked, "Abyss taint? You mean abyss spice, right?... Naturally, abyssal will wouldn"t suppress me but no planar lord would feel safe with one of my kind roaming around. We have... a reputation."

Orison nodded. "I hope you weren"t lying, for your sake. Get ready to catch."

The young mage called t.i.the. Nothing happened. Calling again, he reached out and caught the hollow connection. Pulling closer, he could see that the will still existed in a sickly, faint form. Right before he was about to just give up and chalk it as a loss, the controlling orb for the plane slurped up its remaining planar material and s.p.a.ce before shooting through Orison"s line.

Although it wasn"t completely clear, it seemed that when Amoril ascended, it had shaken off such places like so many fleas before going through the greater boundary. Being cast away so violently, it was set adrift with connections to nothing, abandoned by all but the few remaining "pet.i.tioners" Roz had chosen to leave behind for one reason or another. Refusing to play host to malevolent forces, no matter how weak, Orison shunted the abyssal will to Ignatius in its entirety.

As Ignatius looked at Orison in confused wonder, the young mage suppressed his disappointment. "There you go, a build your own abyss box set. Go bananas."

Throwing the young mage for a loop, Ignatius completely misunderstood Orison"s intent, mostly because he had overestimated Orison"s understanding of just about everything related to greater reality and planar knowledge. "I will work hard to carve out a barony so your generosity isn"t wasted on me. I know what you meant by t.i.thing and all that... I know I"ve shown my a** but I didn"t think you were... Sh*t man. If I"d known this was how things were going to play out I"d have popped out of that rock with tongue swinging to polish those boots... Well, not really but you catch my drift."

The ifrit"s 180 turn in temperament made Orison more than aware he may have made a huge mistake but didn"t know enough to even guess what kind. Whatever the case, at least for the time being, he"d accomplished the goal of earning some loyalty from Ignatius. Before he had a chance to turn from the unexpected ordeal that the ruby ring had thrown into his life, Ignatius dropped a fiery seed from the center of his being into the abyssal orb and tossed it through the building and into the ground.

Orison looked down at the solid, unbroken floor and back up at the ifrit. Ignatius looked at Orison and tilted his head slightly to the side. Not wanting to look ignorant, Orison just took it that barony building wasn"t as hands on as he thought or that it took time for an abyss to reestablish itself. The young mage sighed internally and adjusted to the reality that Ignatius was going to hang from his a** like hemorrhoids for the time being. He hoped that the ifrit"s presence wouldn"t end up as painful when left untreated.

Going into Jimmy"s room to check on the guy, Orison saw that the young man"s "familiar" was completely formed. It was also fairly worn out trying to burn off the excess vital water and eternium energy that it couldn"t hold and that Jimmy hadn"t been able to process much of before it became something that could threaten his life in all kinds of minor ways. To a.s.sist, Orison cast a heal on the young man focused primarily on his still rather weak comprehension of cure disease due to runaway bacteria and fungus trying to take an invisible hold on the sleeping man.

Making a note to add some supernatural antioxidants to Jimmy"s promised "medicine", Orison swore he"d never push raw vital water or eternium at another mundane again, even through a "familiar". It was too dangerous and ran the risk of causing serious complications much later in life if left unchecked. Without a hard working outlet, Jimmy would have woke up covered in bacterial and fungal infections while riddled with cancer. Instead, he was going to wake up to his entire pile of broken appliances fixed.

The young mage examined the familiar. Directed to represent all that Jimmy liked about himself as a primer, the familiar should have taken a creative and symbolic form like a dog for people who were loyal and dependable or at least that"s what Orison expected. Behind all the bl.u.s.ter and show, the guy had such low self esteem that the only thing his inner self took pride in was fixing things. Instead of a flashy "spirit animal", his familiar turned out to be a six inch tall mechanic.

The familiar had so little to work with that it built the rest of it"s representation off of the things Jimmy most wished to change. It would be comical if it wasn"t sad. The half foot mechanic hefted around a obscenely symbolic monkey wrench that was over half as tall as itself and nearly half as wide, slung over a bare shoulder from its set of overhauls being half stripped down. Despite that, there wasn"t anything c.o.c.ky or arrogant about the little familiar. If anything it was easy going and exuded a palpable kindness.

The Jimmy that Orison remembered from before falling into the spatial crack was a little backwards and shy. It was rea.s.suring to Orison that the man still valued things like kindness and innately preferred to seek peaceful solutions rather than go straight for the angst. One thing was certain, Jimmy was not cut out for the supernatural side of things. The world Orison lived in would finish ruining the best parts of the young man that his brother"s betrayal had seriously damaged but not destroyed.

Determined to minimize the danger he himself represented to the young man"s potential peace and happiness, Orison wanted to get out of his life as soon as possible. He quickly whipped up a few things for the young man and laid out half of his remaining cash. With day breaking outside, Orison woke Jimmy up, ran him through the medicine"s usage and told him where the money was stashed.

Rubbing his eyes, Jimmy said, "I thought you said it would take a couple of days."

The mage said, "I managed to get a hold of my a.s.sociate, Mr. Burns, earlier this morning. He"s in the living room waiting on me."

Becoming a lot more awake a great deal more quickly, the young man asked, "You"re leaving? I thought we"d at least be able to swing by a few old haunts, maybe go see Jacob."

As nicely as he could, Orison said, "People like me trail problems like comets. Sure, our lives are exciting and eventful but they"re also terrifying, filled with pain and madness. Please believe me when I say that leaving as quickly as possible is because I"m looking out for your best interests. Once I know my situation and I think it"s safe to do so, I might swing through again... Until then, I"d appreciate it if you could keep my resurrection from the dead a secret.

"Not to be too nosy about things but after looking your familiar over, I"d say your real pa.s.sion isn"t music. He"s an expression of the best parts of you, as you see it. Take from that what you will."

While Jimmy examined his familiar who was looking back at him with a friendly smile, Orison added. "Day four"s medicine might not give you a, er, monkey wrench but you should be a bit more... confident the next day. If anything happens to day three"s, leave a message with Neil. It"s not just about giving you a little bit longer of a life, it"s to keep it from being possibly very short and painful at the end."

Red faced at the beginning of Orison"s add on speech, Jimmy paled noticeably from the last reveal. "Is there something wrong with me?"

Orison shook his head. "No, but there could be a couple of years down the road. Just... make sure to get a hold of Neil if something happens to it. Also, don"t give them to someone else or take them in any other way than I"ve directed you to. You"ve been warned."

Seeing that Orison was getting ready to leave right then and there, Jimmy jumped out of bed. "Wait. I may have shredded your duds in a wreck but I still got your steel."

The young man riffled through a drawer and brought out a belt sheath that had the two daggers still in it.

Orison said, "Just out of morbid curiosity, when you had the accident, did it feel like something invisible slammed into you?"

The guy looked at Orison a little shocked and said. "How"d you know that?"

"Where were you driving at the time? You know what, it doesn"t matter. Let me see the necklace for a second," the young mage said.

Jimmy reached under his shirt and pulled out the bronze medallion. Once it was in Orison"s hand, the young mage erased the deflection portion of the enchantment off and tossed it back.

Orison finished extending his arm out to Jimmy and shook hands with his puzzled rescuer. "Thanks for yanking me out of there. Keep the necklace. It might stop an angry witch from cursing you bald early or something... Oh, I know I told you most people won"t be able to see your familiar but cats and little kids might. I don"t really know what that"s about but keep it in mind."

The young man was obviously reluctant to let Orison leave but other than drawing out their parting to a painful degree, he didn"t do or say anything overly obnoxious, so the young mage let it slide.

Ignatius commented, "I prefer the mortals that p*ss themselves and run away in fear over the ones that cling to your leg."

Orison wanted to call him a liar and a hypocrite but settled for pointing it out nicely instead. "The fearful ones might make you feel powerful but they make the loneliness underneath a little more bleak. The clingy ones are annoying but they make you feel special."

Ignatius gave off a snort of impressively heated air. "Let"s see if you feel the same when an army of enemies scatters at your mere presence, saving lives and effort. When thousands of the vain and greedy claw at your feet for more power, privilege and more wealth when they already possess more than most, you"ll understand."

Orison quipped back a little melancholy, "Let"s see if you feel the same way when the last small group of allies you have, abandon you or a person you love has a hard time letting you go, knowing that you may not see each other again."

The human disguised ifrit stared at Orison with an unreadable face. "We speak of a truth that lies on the side of the coin, rather than its faces, it seems. I know of what you speak but it has been millennia since it had meaning to me."

The young mage stopped walking, partly because he saw a "for sale" sign in a decent looking car"s windshield. "How do you deal with the weight of time? I feel I"m more of the "letting the past go to face the future" type. You know, intentionally forgetting things and repeating mistakes but still keeping the emotions alive."

Ignatius became even more inscrutable. No emotion on his face or in his voice, there was just the sense of ancientness. "The fire burns, the winds and sand scatter what remains. From time to time, the dunes shift and reveal something thought lost forever. Sometimes pa.s.sion reignites briefly, giving rise to more that will fall to ruin. The only constant is the core, the center and innermost nature. I am blessed by creation to be a creature of the flames.

"You have been generous so I too shall be. Flame"s pa.s.sion, water"s adaptability, wind"s curiosity, earth"s acceptance... These are the four corners, the wisdom pa.s.sed from the elementals to the jinn and their kin. It is a key but not only to power, to endure and weather time."