No Need For A Core? 302: Jumping and Sprinting

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~Zagaroth

Moriko had enjoyed spending the day with Kazue, even if her little fox had started off grumpy about Mordecai being off on a mysterious errand. Admittedly, Moriko wasn't super happy about that either, but she found it easier to accept than Kazue did, and it had been entertaining to break Kazue out of her bad mood.

Now, however, Moriko found her own mood souring over this stupid little tiff. What was this woman's problem? Kazue seed ready to try taking the lamia on solo, but Moriko doubted that was a good idea and she was trying to figure out how much of her attention she could divert to helping Kazue without letting the barrier drop. She hadn't gotten a good look at who or what was moving among the plants, but she was betting on snakes.

Then shadows twisted to allow two more people to enter the now crowded feeling nursery. One was a pretty man who looked like he was perpetually rumpled, as if he'd just gotten out of bed. "Well," he said, "I think I know which one decided that taming a storm was a good idea." His voice was soft and caressing, almost seductive, in stark contrast to the tense situation.

The other was Mordecai, who was shaking his head in disbelief as he tried not to laugh. Which brought a lot of context to the 'taming a storm' comnt from a stranger. His presence combined with that voice distracted her with brief, half-ford images involving Mordecai and his pretty friend, so of them involving Kazue and herself as well. Great, the pretty boy dripped sex appeal almost as much as Satsuki did.

Moriko frowned at Mordecai and said, "I'm glad you're here, but even you shouldn't have been able to get here this fast. What is going on, and can you or your friend get that woman to stand down? Kazue's choices are limited."

The beautifully rumpled-looking man replied first, calling out to the lamia, "Would you please do as she said, and apologize to the nice faerie?"

The woman practically spit with how thick the venom in her voice was as she replied, "Seshadri, you know how much I hate noble brats, and these ones are worse — they reek of royalty. You may run the clan, but this is my shop, and I am not going to let any of their sort just run off with my plants. I could sll their royal blood before they even ca in."

Seshadri's voice beca softer, but it sohow suppressed all other noise even more, making his words stand out against near silence. "Their husband is a personal friend of mine, and he is my guest, which makes them my guests as well. Which tilts this even more in their favor; she's not just fey-touched, she's a faerie queen. That's what your nose is slling, not their heritage. Now, back off and apologize."

"I-" The woman wavered, then slowly and reluctantly bowed her head to Kazue. "I apologize for calling you a liar," she said through gritted teeth. "This is my mistake and I must ask for your forgiveness." The lamia transford again as she spoke, reducing in size until she had just a single pair of arms, though still in her lamia form. Which made Moriko realize just how big she had been, if her snake portion was still that long after shrinking.

Kazue shook and Moriko could feel how hard she was straining; Moriko hadn't been the one insulted and the fae compulsions were not affecting her as much. So she withdrew her lightning cage and walked over to slide her arm around Kazue's waist. "It's alright love, we're here for you. She's asked for the favor of being forgiven, you can do that, right?"

The kitsune finally took a deep breath and held it while she regained control of herself, then nodded and said, "Yes, I can do that, I can grant the favor of forgiveness for your transgression." As soon as Kazue spoke, the pressure of her faerie power cracked and dispersed, and Kazue staggered under the sudden change. "Oh goddess, I hate that so much. Stupid bloody faerie rules; I hate being compelled to do sothing. This screws with my head so much so tis."

The lamia looked like she was going to be ill. "Wait, does this an I now owe a favor to a faerie queen?" she asked as she looked at Seshadri.

"Yes," Mordecai replied as he walked over while putting his earring back on and then stood at Kazue's other side, "it does. But I think my wife will try to make it as small a favor as possible, for her own peace of mind if nothing else."

Kazue shook herself as she dismissed her wings and brought herself back down to three tails again. "Maybe, but now I really want to know what you've been up to that brings you coming here, trailing after a pretty boy like that one."

Mordecai winced. "All I can say is that I was talking with Seshadri, who is a very old friend of mine, when your auras clashed. Seshadri had a good idea where you were and his shadow jump range is much larger than mine right now, especially in his own territory."

His core whispered over the links, "Oh good, my other self is back. We couldn't calm Fuyuko down, I think you need to catch her, she took too long a jump."

Catch? Moriko started to turn toward the door and was about to ask where Fuyuko was going, but Mordecai was doing sothing else. He simply turned and reached up, seemingly grabbing at air, but faint shadows along the ceiling rippled in response and pooled toward him before bulging and bursting, to deposit a panicked-looking girl into his arms with enough montum to knock Mordecai down as he caught Fuyuko.

"What's happening?" Fuyuko said as she tried to get to her feet, but Mordecai simply tugged her back down into his lap.

"Stop. Everyone's fine, let examine you," he said with a frown as he placed his hands on either side of her face and made her look at him. He examined her and stared into her eyes, then muttered a brief spell. A mont after that, he let go with a sigh. "You aren't allowed to shadow jump again until tomorrow morning. You took too big a jump and I had to rip you out."

Moriko felt her heart skip a beat and she gasped. "Fuyuko! You know better than that!" Kazue dropped to her knees to begin fussing over Fuyuko imdiately.

Moriko didn't have the knack for shadow jumping, but she and Kazue had both made sure to learn what they could when Mordecai had been training Fuyuko. Taking too large a jump, especially while tired, was a good way to get lost in the shadows. This wasn't unrecoverable, but if Mordecai hadn't been able to do whatever he just did, they would have had to do a full expedition into the shadow realm in order to search for her. During that ti, Fuyuko would have been all alone, and the shadow realm was more dangerous than the mortal realm, though arguably not more dangerous than the Other Side. Just differently dangerous.

Fuyuko grimaced and looked down. "I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I was just so worried when I felt Mama K get angry like that, and when I was trying to get here, I felt your lightning and I got even more worried. I'm sorry Mama M, Mama K, Papa."

"Oh, Mordi love, I'm looking forward to hearing how all of this ca about."

Moriko jumped when Seshadri spoke; she hadn't noticed the man taking a seat on the table next to her, which not a lot of people could have done so easily. She was even more annoyed by not noticing his movents because his scent was so very noticeable. Great, another one. First Gil with all his brute power, then Satsuki being... herself, and then this guy just slipping around completely unnoticed.

Seshadri continued as if he hadn't noticed her reaction, "It wasn't until I saw your wives that I realized your aura also held a faerie king's power, you'd been suppressing it fairly well. There has got to be quite the story behind how this happened."

While Mordecai briefly summarized the past year and a half of events, including Kazue's death, Moriko went to fetch Lightning and Thunder, and see if she could calm down Carnelian Fla while she was at it.

Her two-headed familiar was still riled up as they glared around at all the plants, looking for a target. "Sparks," Moriko said, "co on, the danger is passed. The lady over there apologized to Kazue and Kazue accepted the apology."

Thunder and Lightning both eyed her before Thunder said, "You shooed us off when you wanted to play with her, then you did boring stuff all day, and then ca in here without us and got into a fight."

Moriko blinked. Were her familiars pouting? Oh, they were, and Moriko had not given them much attention today. "I'm sorry guys," Moriko said, "I got a little distracted, and that was my fault. How about after we are done here, we go find so food for you guys? We got so sweet treats for ourselves, but I bet Fuyuko will know where to find so tasty at for us to buy."

They perked up at that and nodded. "Yeah," Lightning said, "she always knows where to find the best at." The long bodied dragon sward up Moriko's arm and over her shoulder while Moriko smiled at how easily bribed her little boys were. They didn't want to be mad, they had just felt ignored.

While giving them both head pettings, Moriko turned toward Carnelian Fla. "How about you? I bet Kazue would be just as happy to get you treats."

Carnelian sniffed before her fur rippled with fire, and then she was gone. Moriko paused in petting her familiar to rub at her eyes. First of all, when had Carnelian learned how to fire jump, especially without an external fire? Second, Moriko was fairly certain that Carnelian's darker stripes had faded away first, before her paler orange stripes had faded.

"Ow, ow, ow, settle down you!' Kazue said as Carnelian Fla crawled out of her hair and onto her shoulders.

Alright, third thing, how was Carnelian using Kazue's hair as 'fire' to teleport to?

Wait, no, Moriko was beginning to see the pattern now. It was just surreal and maddening enough to be related to Kazue's day-dream magic. Moriko found herself suddenly worrying about what things Thunder and Lightning might be learning from her. None of her powers were as weird as Kazue's, right?

Moriko decided to not ask either of her spouses that question; she had a feeling that she might not appreciate the answer. She shook her head free of those thoughts and made her way back to where Mordecai was talking about what happened with Carmilla, while Seshadri was laughing at Mordecai's chagrin.

anwhile, the lamia woman had reverted entirely to her bipedal form, though retaining her more youthful appearance, and she looked rather embarrassed. Almost shyly, she stepped closer to Moriko and leaned in to whisper, "So, um, none of you was any sort of nobility a year ago? It's all just titles from being recognized as sovereign and then having that princess make that oath to Mordecai?"

At Moriko's nod, the woman seed to almost deflate. "Hells. You all sll of pure blood royalty, even the girl there, Fuyuko. But I can hear the street in her voice, even if it's Trionean. I-" She shuddered briefly then said, "When I was young, before I could take on a lamia's form, I had so problems with a group of young nobles who were making a tour. After that, I never wanted anything to do with any of them and made myself a pain if I did have to deal with them. It's only a problem with visitors, we don't have any nobility here, and I eventually developed the ability to sort of sll them. So, well, I'm sorry, again, you sll like any other royal. I hadn't t anyone who was, um, elevated before. I didn't know you'd sll the sa."

Huh. Moriko hadn't realized so bloodlines could awaken full lamia forms later in life. But in many ways that was the least important part of the story.

There was a whole lot that could be fit under the description of 'problems', but relatively little would cause that strong of a reaction. Hmm. Moriko was becoming a lot more sympathetic to her reception of them. "You know, before I t these two," Moriko said, "I had a noble brat try to make so trouble of his own. I dislocated all the major joints in his arm and broke a few bones, and he got sent back ho. He did sothing even stupider to get back at later, only I wasn't even ho at the ti, and he's been stuck in a prison cell in the depths of our nexus for more than half a year now. He's also beco leverage on his father, which we are going to be using to rescue soone."

Moriko smiled at the woman's surprised reaction and added, "I am a priestess of Sakiya. If you want to talk more about it later, I can lend an ear."

The woman nodded and said, "I think I would like that." They both then turned their attention back to the others; Mordecai had just finished talking about what happened with Kazue and Satsuki.

Seshadri was laughing so hard he was crying, but he managed to say, "Oh, Mordi, I want to visit just to see her expression, but I think that old vixen might murder if I started laughing. Oh, wait, what would she do if I just had myself practically draped over you?"

"Probably try to murder us both," Mordecai replied wryly. "So please don't."

Hmm. "Hey," Moriko said, "just to clarify, are you one of Mordecai's exes too?"

Seshadri grinned at her and said, "Only recreationally. More like friends who enjoyed each other's company now and again. I adore him, but for , Mordi was always a sotis-treat. Being together all the ti? No, that would have gone poorly. I am glad to see him settled in with you two; I think you've been good for him and I hope he's been good for you."

That was good. Moriko didn't need to deal with a second Satsuki.

A faint sound distracted Moriko from the conversation at hand; heavy footfalls of soone running up stone stairs, irregular as if from fatigue. It was only her attunent to air that let her hear them at all. She glanced at Mordecai, who still had a tired Fuyuko curled up in his lap, and he nodded. Moriko wouldn't be surprised if he'd heard them first.

"Fuyuko," Moriko said as she turned to make her way to the door, "where did you last see Amrydor again?"

"Huh?" the girl replied, "Um, I had just given him and a girl so money so they could go buy each other stuff on their date, so back at the market near the food stalls."

"I see," Moriko said and then she waited a mont until the footsteps were just outside the door. She pulled it open to reveal a rather sweaty young man who was gasping for breath. "Hello Amrydor. Don't worry, Fuyuko's safe. Not a bad ti for running all the way up here." She was pretty certain that it was Fuyuko's panicked stunt with the long shadow jump that had grabbed his attention.

Amrydor just looked over at Fuyuko, who now looked even more embarrassed. Then he nodded and collapsed to his knees, before rolling forward onto his elbows as well as he continued to gasp for breath. Moriko hoped he wasn't about to get sick.