Without so much as a twitch of the finger, I appeared in a flash of brilliant light, reaching for my will, prepared to strike whatever had caused Teddy such wordless anguish. His roar shook everything.There was a flicker of power, the sa essence I’d noticed before hearing Teddy’s call. Sothing shot through the cricket tank, rocketing away from the bellowing bear faster than a bullet. I caught it in one hand, glanced down, and raised a protective shield when I felt the damage being done to its freshly ford core.
“Uhhh,” Maria said.
“Uhhh,” I agreed.
Teddy’s roar continued shaking the world outside my barrier. A voice called out to my mind, so I brought him here. Pistachio appeared in a smaller flash of light, his intense gaze locked on the regular-sized lobster I held out in front of .
I passed it—no, her—to Maria, knuckled Pistachio’s claw in thanks for his tily assistance, and took a single step through space, landing before Teddy. His eyes were pressed together, his vicious maw facing the heavens, spittle flying and deadly teeth reflecting the few lantern flas that remained alight.
In the ti it took to wrap my arms around him, I understood, his red-hot flashes of self-directed anger containing the mories of what assailed him. He had been lost in thought for only minutes, but that had been enough for almost all the lobsters to be destroyed.
I squeezed him tight. “Mate… this isn’t on you.”
“My fault!” he ntally scread, sending glimpses of the daydream he’d been having. Sha fed his guilt, which further fueled his distress, a vicious cycle of self-castigation he couldn’t escape.
I used chi to softly slap his brain, then did the sa with my hand on his cheek, picturing Claws’s lightning and the resetting effect it had. It worked, his mind going blank for the briefest of monts.
“On my way!” Claws screeched in my head, which I emphatically declined, returning my attention to Teddy.
Before he could swirl back into a spiral of punitive despair, I wrapped him in another hug and flooded my fondness for him into his core. The others joined in too. Love from all my bonded pals assaulted him, each of us broadcasting our genuine feelings and showing him the grace he wasn’t giving himself.
It took a mont for us to break through, but when we did, I could tell it—
A fucking otter crashed through the building’s southern wall.
“Master beseeches!” Corporal Claws trilled. “We answer!” One forepaw was already drawn back, and with as much power as she could muster, she launched her payload. RPM’s eyes were aglow, his larcenous little grabbers grasping, ready to apply a five-finger discount to anything he could get a hold of. The fun-sized bastard was going to steal the very anguish from Teddy’s soul.
I caught him before he made it. “Sorry, buddy. I appreciate the sentint—really, I do—but this is sothing he’ll have to work through on his own.”
I had sensed the currents lurking beneath the surface of Teddy’s core over the past weeks. He’d co to the Church of the Leviathan in search of purpose, hoping that caring for the crickets could provide what he hadn’t yet found.
This temple had been his place of refuge. A safe harbor from the storm of his emotions. And in letting most of his charges get dispatched, the tempest outside had found its way in. Teddy stood up, his head hanging. “Walk,” he growled, his tone as low as his spirits.
“A bit of a stroll is a great idea. Is it okay if so of the Buzzy Boys accompany you? I’d worry otherwise.”
“Yes,” he conceded. “From afar.”
One of said Buzzy Boys, who’d already made it halfway into the building, froze mid-flight and let out a sad note. He’d wanted to ride behind Teddy’s ear.
“!” Claws screeched. “Ride on !”
The armored insect readily obliged. With a raccoon pulled back into her core and an awakened bee happily buzzing behind her ear, Claws trotted out through the hole of her own creation, chest proud and chin high.
Her pomp made Teddy’s massive lip tug up in the facsimile of a smile, but it was for show. I patted him on the shoulder. “We love you, buddy. Take as long as you need. And when you’re ready to talk, you know where to find .”
He nodded, let out an apologetic growl, and cast a aningful glance. I gave him one last pat for good asure and inclined my head, happy to oblige. He disappeared in a flash of light, and as he landed in the far-away forest, I withdrew my senses, giving him space.
Maria and Pistachio had wasted no ti in wrapping the newly awakened lobster in a cloud of pink essence, then running to the rescue of the yet-unsnipped crickets. She scooped a couple off the floor, returning them to the larger section of tank free of bodies and broken glass.
The damage to the now-regular-sized lobster’s core had been healed, but it was still in a state of distress, its form frozen as it took in the size of the leviathan holding it.
Pistachio gave her a sup nod.
Sup, she imdiately nodded back, politeness overriding her terror. The token gesture seed to actually make her fear recede a little.
I was too worried about Teddy to enjoy the mont as much as I usually would. I’d also made a discovery, but that fell flat as well. The shield I had surrounded them with—it was stopping the universe’s knowledge from streaming into the half-ascended lobster. If I wanted, I could delay it as long as I deed necessary. Perhaps I would do so to future animal pals, making the transition less jarring, but I’d need ti to consider the implications. I dismissed the barrier with a minor flex of will.
Thick tendrils descended from the heavens, and unimaginable amounts of information stread into the confused creature. It reminded of Pelly’s awakening so long ago—of the complete dissociation her face had montarily showed. But it was over in the blink of an awakened lobster’s eye. If they had lids, that is.
She peered at Pistachio, at Maria—stole another quick glance at Pistachio—then gazed up at . As our eyes locked, sothing familiar and entirely unexpected occurred. We bonded. It wasn’t the laborious and exhausting process as it had been with the rest of my animal pals and Maria in the sky. We still communicated the sa depth of mory and aning, though. It just… happened in a flash.
She knew all about , and I knew all about her. The ti in the tank. The hunger, retreat, and indignation of having her little patch of paradise invaded. The first male she’d severed in two. She understood the weight of what she had done. Part of feared she’d go full introspection like Teddy, Snips, and… well, —I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
She held no regrets. They had tried to end her when she was smaller, and when the tables had turned, she decimated them, painlessly executing any of her brethren that scuttled overtop the walls of her ho. Would she do the sa with the knowledge she now possessed? No. Not at all. But neither did she hold her past self accountable for ending any interlopers and eating their spheres of power.
“Wait, what?” I shook my head, clearing her mory of those translucent orbs. “They had cores? Cores you could eat?”
I couldn’t yet interpret her sounds as words the way I could with the rest of my animal pals, but the aning of her soft hiss was nonetheless clear. Delicious. Again, she felt not a hint of self-reproach. It was a fact. The bubbles of gelatinous essence were tasty.
I broadcast all of this to Maria. Unfortunately, the other being bonded to my wife’s soul also caught the ssage.
“Hiiii!” He jiggled atop her palm. “I’m Slis! I’m a boy! A gelatinous boy!”
The lobster seed to chew on this statent. The cogs of her mind whirred, every last grain of newly acquired knowledge used to reach her decision. She pointed up at Slis and hissed. Not food.
Pistachio blew an affirmative bubble. “Good.”
The homie was playing cool, but I could feel the emotions he was hiding deep beneath his mighty shell. Maria did too. We exchanged a flicker of a glance, our excitent so similar as to be one.
But then, as so often happened on the shores of Tropica, the mont was ruined.
The leader of the Church we stood within ca barreling through the front door, thick bands of connecting tal warping around Gary’s face, hips, and leading leg. It was a well-constructed entrance—perhaps a little too well constructed. The fra and part of the building’s facade ca with the Gary-shaped strips.
Pistachio had to grab two massive stones from the air before they could destroy what remained of the compromised tank, and the female crustacean that had not so long ago lived within stared at the leviathan lobster in open awe. To her senses, he must have basically teleported, moving with far more haste than sothing his size should possess.
I tore my eyes from the two lobsters and grinned at Gary. “I’ve got good news, even better news, and a little bad news, mate. Which would you like first?”
He also had to tear his gaze away. He answered my question with a soundless nod toward the lady lobster.
“Wonderful. She’s the even better news. Looks like you have a second leviathan in the making, my man.”
He licked his lips, staring at her once more. “What's the good news?”
“That’s simple.” I gesture all around. “Despite your church having lost two load-bearing walls, it’s still standing. Definitely made of sturdy stuff.”
“What are you—Oh.”
He spotted the side-breach first, only turning to spy the hole he’d made when my wife pointed over his shoulder. “I did that…?”
Maria barked a laugh. “You seriously didn’t notice you tore the fra off the wall?”
“The first one was Claws,” I added. “Not you.”
He frowned, his eyes flicking around at the different piles of rubble strewn all over, gaze always returning to the lady lobster before leaving once more. The thing that finally sobered him was the tank. He dashed over, filled with more chi than ever before. “The bad news…” He took a steadying breath. “Teddy blad himself?”
“Damn. Rather insightful of you, mate. He did. That’s not the bad news, though.”
It wasn’t just Gary who gave a confused look; both lobsters did as well.
I held up my hands placatingly. “Okay, don’t get wrong, it’s objectively bad that they’re dead. But it was also what facilitated the awakening of Pistachio’s lady friend.” If not for my giant pal’s many hours of practicing stoicism, I was sure his entire shell would have blushed even redder than it already was. “The bad news is related to that essence running through your veins right now.”
Gary’s eyes drifted toward his abdon, lingering there before tracing lines up his chest and down his arms. “What? Where did…?” His mouth hung open as he searched for the correct words. “How?”
I gestured all around us. “I’ve felt the power of this building before. Next door is the sa. Since Ellis and the rest of my treasonous followers stamped with this damned god-king mark, I now know for sure what I’d only suspected previously. Both the Church of the Leviathan and the Church of Carcinization are separate entities from mine…” I held up a finger, needing a second to gather my thoughts.
Gary blanched, his enhanced mind latching onto the worst possible interpretation, then sprinting away with it. “Do I have to leave Tropica…?”
“What? No, you goose. You’re still a part of the village—and a mber of my church—but there’s a different source of chi flowing into this building.” I nodded toward his naval. “For whatever reason, it flooded your body with that strength, possibly so you could get here and defend your new leviathan? I can’t say for sure.”
He tensed his arms, assessing the palpable power still coursing through him. “If I don’t have to leave… what’s the bad news?”
“You’re on the edge of a breakthrough, mate. That alone is great news. The negative bit, though, is that I have to sign off on it.”
Of all the outcos I expected this revelation to lead toward, his imdiate acceptance wasn’t one of them.
“That makes sense, actually,” Gary said, troubled thoughts nowhere to be found. “We’re in your Domain. If the System still sees as your follower, of course you’d have to give permission to beco even higher in a different church.”
“Huh.” Maria pouted, a brow slightly raised as she looked at . “He gets it.”
“He does…”
Pistachio just nodded, clearly understanding the man better than either of us.
“Can I ask why I must wait?” Gary asked.
“My every instinct is telling it isn’t the right ti to let it happen. Even if it was, I reckon it’s only prudent to confer with Ellis…” I trailed off, tilting my head in thought. “Actually, there might be another pair who knows.”
My awareness traversed Tropica’s streets in an instant. I found Fathom and Cal with the alchemists. Both recognized , acknowledged my presence, then sent the ntal equivalent of a polite ‘get lost’.
“Never mind,” I said, rolling my eyes above a slight smile and filing their secrecy away for later consideration. “Guess we just leave it for now. You want a hand fixing the church up, Gary? Happy to help.”
“No,” he imdiately replied. “I think I should do it myself. Both for penance, and in hopes of better understanding the power coursing through .”
It was the second rebuff of a friendly offer in so many minutes, but that bothered none. I took a deep breath, letting the salty air of the nearby ocean wash over my senses. I grinned at Maria. “You know, my love, I was really worried about the work this whole god-king- and god-queen predicant would lead to, but nobody wants a damned thing from .”
“Oh.” Gary’s eyes widened. “I didn’t an—”
“Don’t worry, mate. It’s wonderful. Besides, the weather is perfect…” I turned to look at the lady lobster, who was peering over at Pistachio. “Sorry about the chaotic awakening. I’d say it’s not normally this bad, but it’d be a lie.”
“Yeah,” Maria muttered from the side of her mouth. “It’s usually worse.”
“Which is exactly why, on afternoons like this, we need to make the most of our free ti.”
The smaller crustacean cocked her head at , curious. Though she now possessed the world’s knowledge, she was still acclimatizing to it, mapping her different areas of understanding.
I felt the mont she realized what I was alluding to. “Yuuuup. With any luck, we’ll catch sothing for dinner.” I didn’t hide the shiver of excitent that ran through .
“Clear your schedule—we’re going fishing.”
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