Edge Cases Chapter 26: Fear

Histre hung in the air, vibrating with fear and paranoia and anger.

Derivan wasn't sure how he knew. Physical Empathy, likely, though he couldn't begin to guess at how he could read the body language of a creature that was more windchi than person. Histre floated in the air in front of them, wings spread in a way that was unnaturally still almost like they were hung from invisible strings in the air. Golden cylinders rotated agitatedly around one another, swinging back and forth and producing, strangely, that sa sound of a ticking clock.

And then he realized that Jero was moving to the sa ticking of that strange beat.

The system screen flickered in front of him; a notification. He barely spared a glance for it he knew what it would say, based on everyone's faces as they stared at their own notifications.

"You're an angel?" Max asked; she was the first one to find her voice, and she seed almost indignant that this was who Histre had turned out to be. She was the least affected, too, by the strange pressure the angel seed to give off. Derivan himself could feel a distant sort of version of it, but Sev, Misa, and Vex all seed more strongly affected. He could see the way they winced slightly every ti the angel ticked, one second passing over into the next. "Why the hell are you here? What are you doing with Jero? What do you want with the dungeon?"

"You claim you do not know," Histre growled, the words reverberating against the walls and crashing into them. There was no physical force involved just pressure, fierce and twisted and wrong.

And yet... afraid.

"But it is you. It must be. You are taking them. You want to take him. You cannot. You will not be allowed."

"We don't know what you're talking about!" Misa finally burst out, the words a half-growl from her position. She'd been forced halfway to the ground by the force of the angel's words, each one of them searing their way into her mind. But now she forced herself to her feet and glared, standing strong in the way that she usually did.

Below the angel nearby, but not attacking Jero stood. He was still twitching in sync with the angel, in a way that was frankly rather ominous, if Derivan chose to pay much attention to it. He decided not to.

"We're not we don't want to take anyone," Vex offered from his spot. He'd collapsed, and he didn't bother trying to get up but his words were sincere. Kind, even. "We just wanted to undo what you did to Jero."

Histre wasn't attacking. They had revealed themselves, using shock and awe to freeze all of them in place, and indeed their very existence seed to scrape against their minds. And yet... they weren't attacking.

Even Jero wasn't attacking, seemingly at Histre's behest, though no words were exchanged between them.

"We helped him," Histre said. "You will not turn against the Gold. No. You will not take him. We will defend. We will protect."

"You are afraid," Derivan said softly.

"We have nothing to fear!" Histre's words were screeched in response, and even Max winced at that sound; Derivan wasn't affected quite as strongly, and stared instead at the angel.

What was Aurum's domain? Gold, obviously. But there was sothing secondary there, sothing in the angel's movents and sounds. Sothing about that endless, chanical ticking.

Ti.

"No. You are afraid," Derivan muttered softly, the words gentle, like he was speaking to a frightened animal instead of the eldritch spawn of a god. "And it cannot be your fear alone. Aurum must be afraid, too, or he would not send out so many..."

The angel swirled aggressively, chiming but then it paused, peering at him more closely. He got that impression anyway; Histre didn't have the eyes for him to tell. They didn't answer him, but they seed to be waiting for him to speak.

"Does he see what will happen?" Derivan mused aloud, then shook his head. "It does not matter. You must stop this. We cannot be divided against whatever cos."

"Then you know about what cos," the angel declared, as if triumphant.

"Only because we have seen it with our own eyes," Derivan said. "We have seen a god wrapped in chains and hung for display. We have seen the form of his prison and fought against it. Won, if barely."

Histre swung forward suddenly, rapidly; the movent was so quick that Derivan almost didn't catch it himself. The angel suddenly converged on him, away one mont and right in his face the next, and the armor had to take a startled step backward to avoid being hit. "You have seen," the angel hissed at him. "You have seen past the end. You have seen past the Forgetting. We need to know what it is. Tell us!"

"I... that is all we know," Derivan said, startled. "The god was in chains, kept within an abomination of mana. He told us we would find answers in "

Ah. That was why Aurum was so desperate to send Jero into the dungeon.

"Yes," Histre said to him, hissing out the worlds; liquid gold dripped out of the cylinders as they spoke, hissing as it touched the ground. Derivan wondered briefly if it was actually molten gold. "You understand. You have seen. If you are not the ones that wish to take Aurum, then you see why we must know."

"But you cannot do it this way," Derivan said. He glanced at Max, who was frantically gesturing, and also seed unable to speak. "...Did you silence all of my friends?"

"I needed to know," Histre said. "I need to know your words. You who have seen a Forgotten God. You who are linked to that which has been taken."

"What?" Derivan said. Max gestured even more frantically. "...Please allow my friends to speak."

"As you wish," Histre told him.

Just like that, the oppressive aura that seed to stagnate the air around all of them seed to fade away. Max gasped for air, seed to genuinely consider giving an angel the finger, then gathered herself and spoke with authority.

"Aurum is infringing on every treaty the mortals have with the Gods," Max said. "You need to withdraw the geases you have placed. The one on Jero especially, but all the others, too."

"We need our answers!" Histre didn't seem to like the words; they swirled into the air, chiming with a terrifying anger. "We must know"

"Jero as he is right now is a threat to any dungeon delving operation we could possibly consider conducting, even before Elyra is involved!" Max snapped out the words so harshly the angel actually flinched back. "I don't know what the damn geas is that you put on him but I want it gone!"

"Aurum gave him the help he wished for!" The angel argued. "He wished for confidence!"

"Confidence doesn't an you just make him think he's right all the ti! That's not how that works!" Max groaned. "And did you consider just asking him for help with the damn dungeon?"

Histre paused.

"Please tell you at least tried to ask," Max said.

"There was too great a risk that he would refuse," Histre eventually said. For an eldritch, terrifying angel, it now sounded all too awkward.

"Did you consider that that might have been because you made him think he was right all the ti?" Max groaned.

"You were right about the magically reinforced narcissism," Misa whispered to Sev.

"I fucking knew it," Sev whispered back.

"Look. Let us take the damn geas off, and then if your paladin still wants to worship and help Aurum after all that, we will see. It depends on how he acts once it's removed. He is not cleared for the dungeon until the Guild approves of it and did you consider just asking these guys what they find once they get into the damn dungeon?"

The angel was silent.

"Seriously! They're terrible at keeping secrets!" Max complained.

"Max, this feels like a bad ti to roast us," Sev tried.

"We admit that we may have made... a mistake," the angel said.

Sev sighed. "They're both ignoring us and this is definitely sohow working."

"Good! Now let us take the geas off, pull back your damn agents, and we can figure out how to get you what you want." Max seed all business; she gestured for Derivan to go to Jero. The paladin was still frozen in place, and he didn't seem to be focusing on anything. Was it sothing about the sight of Histre?

Or... a compulsion of so sort related to Histre.

Derivan shook his head, touched his gauntlet to Jero's chest, and pulled.

Just like before, the geas present in Jero began to glow, originating from deep in his chest and stomach and just like before, as Derivan began to pull out the geas, the effects of it on Jero's mind seed to begin to fade. The change was less prominent than before, since the paladin's expression was more of a bland nothing compared to the arrogance he'd previously held, but the life coming back into his eyes was a good sign.

That life was quickly accompanied by a retching sound, as Derivan began to pull the geas the rest of the way out of the paladin.

For a Gold ranker, he didn't seem to have a very strong stomach.

This ti, nothing new happened to interrupt them. Histre simply watched Derivan as he pulled out the geas the armor suspected the angel could have done it themselves, but had elected to watch him to do it instead, perhaps out of so petty sense of spite. What he ended up with in his hand was less a thin thread of gold and more a solid block.

It crushed just as easily between his fingers, though.

Golden Geas: 103

The stat increase Derivan wasn't particularly surprised by he kept his eyes on Jero instead as the paladin began to heave. It took Jero a mont to finally gather himself, and he slowly got to his feet, staring at the Silver rankers that had bested his party.

There was a long pause. Derivan waited for Jero to be angry, or scared, or any number of emotions he expected soone to feel after having such a strong compulsion removed.

"Uh," Jero said, a little awkwardly. "Do you guys mind if I put my armor back on? I feel kind of naked without it."

Well... he didn't seem like that much of an asshole.

Jero was, as it turned out... less of an asshole without a geas ssing with his brain.

Not completely. He'd leered a little bit at Misa, then imdiately lost all confidence when she raised an eyebrow at him. He'd made a bit of a shitty remark about Elyrans, but seed suitably cowed when Derivan spoke up in Vex's defense. He'd worried about Eleisse and Syra, his elven teammates, until he found out they were just sleeping and had had their geases removed from them as well.

He didn't seem to be a paragon of humanity, and was perhaps a little bit more of a dick than not, but he didn't seem...

He didn't seem like the kind of person to threaten lives to get what he wanted, basically. Or to take credit for soone else's discovery. Mostly, he seed kind of awkward.

"You don't seem to mind that Aurum put a geas on you and turned you into a giant dick," Misa said, raising a brow at him.

"I'm trying not to think about it," Jero said. He fidgeted. "It doesn't really feel like I did those things."

"I'll get him a Guild therapist," Max sighed.

"Why is Aurum so scared, anyway?" Jero asked. He glanced at Histre, who floated ominously and refused to answer him, or even look at any of them.

"...I think he's next in line for the system to erase," Sev finally answered. "It would explain the fear."

"What?" Jero stood very still for a mont. It was very clear he had no idea what Sev ant, but 'erase' didn't invoke good feelings in this context. "No. We gotta stop it."

Histre twitched, a bit guiltily.

"Uh..." Sev glanced at Jero. It wasn't that he didn't agree; he was just surprised that the paladin seed to care so much.

"Aurum's just a kid!" Jero said indignantly. "I'm not going to let a kid be erased!"

Chalk that up for another mark in the 'not a dick' category, Derivan supposed.

Though what was a 'kid', in the tiscale of the gods?