Amrydor did not have to wait too long before he felt the shifting shimr of Klastoria's life pattern.
He'd never interacted with her much, though his party had fought their way past the sli boss once. She had been full of surprises and a difficult fight, constantly shifting between fluid and crystalline forms. She had also been able to escape the combat with a strange sort of jump that seed almost like she'd shot herself off of the ground like a cannonball.
That had signaled their victory, but all of them had multiple injuries and acid burns from the fight, and if Klastoria had battled to the death, it would have been worse.
Now he got to watch as she took her massive volu and compressed it tightly, while shifting a portion of it into one of those odd directions while she assud a humanoid form that matched him in height. She also managed to shape her outer layers into a glistening 'dress' of blue and green hues, edged with a silver iridescence. It was a rather impressive display of control over her form, as she was not using shape-shifting magic like kitsune did.
"Hello, Amrydor," Klastoria said as she walked closer. "Sarcomaag says you wish to talk with while studying ?" She seed puzzled by the idea.
"Yes," he replied. "I've been doing a lot of studying lately, and recently had a long discussion with Crizdirk. Now, um, well, I used to be a lot more confident about my understanding of life and death and what my powers were sensing. Now I am not sure what I actually know, and you are a lot different from everyone else."
"So, you would be staring at to figure out how I work?"
He shook his head at that. "No, I don't even need to have my eyes open. Well, I guess it would be sort of like staring, only it would be my other sense. I don't just see life; I see the pattern of it."
That seed to amuse her, and she pointed at her eyes. "Sort of like how these aren't real eyes; I see in all directions. These are just to make look right to everyone else."
He hadn't thought about that before. "Yeah, that seems similar."
"Alright, but I want to try sothing too. I want to offer you a bonus challenge, because it might be dangerous to you." She hesitated a mont, then spoke softly. "This is a little complicated. So, I didn't choose to think of myself as a woman — that happened because Lady Kazue decided to call princess, while the nexus was helping establish a personality imprint for . I adore her, but I think it might have been easier for if she had not been so impulsive."
She shuffled in place before continuing. "I can't really be female, in a physical sense, whatever I look like. I'm also not sure what I want to do about it, but there is a concern I need to overco before I consider further options. I need to make sure I am safe for other people who aren't part of the nexus. Contractors and inhabitants are safe, but that's from the influence of the nexus keeping from reflexively harming soone. Right now, while you are delving, you don't have that sa, automatic protection. So I want to test myself, and make sure I can not hurt you even when not thinking about it. Um, to start, I think holding hands would actually be good, because of how fingers interlace. I need to be able to keep my fingers from rging together or anything while not paying attention."
The danger part seed pretty obvious. "And if you fail, you end up eating my hand before you know what you are doing."
"Yes, or maybe more, depending on what you agree to try. Ah, if things go poorly, and I think you are suffering a lot, should I just make things quick and let the nexus manifest you a new body at the next reset?"
In other words, should she kill him if she'd eaten his arm and part of her acid was eating him from the inside out. Whatever his powers relating to life and death were, the idea of dying was still unpleasant even if he knew it would be temporary. Still, the other options could be very painful, and might kill him anyway. "That seems like it would be a good idea, and I really don't want to experience any of that. But yes, I am willing to take your challenge." Risks gained rewards, in this case, and he was fairly certain that Klastoria ant what she'd said about her intentions.
She nodded in a nervous-looking jerk of motion. "Yes, of course. I guess we can sit down over here to get started? Then you can ask any questions you want while studying ."
Interlacing his fingers with hers was an interesting sensation. The surface of Klastoria's skin was perfectly smooth like glass while being just soft enough to give properly, and she felt a little cool to the touch. Amrydor found it pleasant overall.
"Well," he said, "I hadn't planned out what to ask you; I just thought talking would be better than silence. But maybe you could tell about how the world looks to you, since you ntioned that you see in all directions."
"That makes sense — I've noticed most people like to talk when around other people. Um, I'm sort of good either way, I think, but maybe I'll change my mind at so point. Anyway, as for my vision, I've had to figure out a lot about what other people an regarding things like color, and I'm still not sure I can see color the way most do. Light isn't my primary sense though; I'm more focused on vibrations. What you call 'hearing' is simply part of 'feeling vibrations' for , whether through the air, ground, or water."
She paused there, watching him, and Amrydor took that mont to think over what she'd said. "Alright, that makes sense, but to be sure, you are saying that you don't make sound to then hear it, like bats can?"
Klastoria smiled and said, "That's right, which is why it is good that I am not limited to just passive vibrations. I also don't feel things the way you do; everything I touch I also taste and sll, the sa way I taste and sll anything that cos to through the air. It's a single sense to ."
"So, you're tasting my skin right now?"
"Yes, but don't worry, you're not too much tastier than most people I've t or fought. And I rember your taste from when I fought your party, before the tournant."
Which ant she did find him a little tastier than most. He was pretty certain that Klastoria was teasing him, but only by telling a piece of truth that she didn't have to tell at all. Amrydor was amused by that though; maybe Kazue was right to call her ‘princess’. He’d only ever experienced this type of teasing from won. Of course, that could be the result if her being influenced by Kazue's impulse.
"As for sight," she continued, "it's a little complicated. Being able to feel the warmth of light is as normal as my other senses, so I can feel shadows and changes in light just as well. Being able to get more information from light than that took work and experints. Hmm. Before I show you sothing, I want to know, do you think I look pretty right now?"
"Yes."
She looked and sounded skeptical as she said, "That was a rather quick answer."
Amrydor shrugged and smiled. "Well, I already knew that I thought you were pretty, and I like the way you shaped and colored your dress."
"Wait, do you an you find this form pretty, or my normal form?"
That one he had to think about a mont to make sure he understood his own thoughts. "Both, really, but differently. Your other form I can recognize as pretty in its own right, like a living, liquid jewel. Right now, you are a beautiful, if unusual, woman. Why?"
"Interesting. I wanted to get your opinion before I changed anything. So, once I understood that light has colors in the sa way that sound has tones, I was able to start trying to feel light better. Eventually, I found I could 'see' best if I made myself like this."
Klastoria's colors began to slowly shift and darken, turning ever deeper until she was so black that he couldn't make out her features, with both her skin and the fluid flesh beneath absorbing all light that touched her. "This," she said, "is what I need to do in order to be able to see clearly and in full color. If the light passes through , I can't really see it, but if I absorb it all, I can see very well, as long as I pay attention. So, is this prettier than before? Or is it maybe scary?"
She sounded genuinely curious, so Amrydor did his best to answer. "I think that if you weren't quite so absolutely black, it would be fine. I can't make out your face at all, and you sort of look like a flat outline, which is disturbing. Um, it might be scarier if I couldn't make out so of your shape from my life sense."
After a mont of consideration, she nodded as her color shifted once more, turning into a less intense black. "Is that better?"
"Yes, a lot. Though do you need all of you to be black? We see pretty well with just our eyes."
She sighed before she said, "Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be as efficient as eyes, though I don't understand why. The less of that is dark, the less well I can see light. That might be sothing we can figure out later. Now, tell what you have been learning from studying ."
"So much, yet so little," Amrydor replied. "I can tell that your mind is mostly in your core, but nothing else is so centralized. Most species have many specific organs, doing specific tasks, but for you, all of those processes are spread throughout your entire body." Not that he knew what all the organs did, or even most of them, but he was aware that dedicated healers usually did know the functions of most or all organs.
They continued talking for about an hour more, mostly asking questions to better understand how the other sensed the world, then Klastoria said, "Well, I think this first part of my experint has worked. I was fairly certain it would, as I can maintain a rough version of this shape even when in my resting state, but that did not account for having my fingers in contact with what my instincts register as food." She visibly hesitated before continuing. "The next stage is much riskier. My control over my tabolism is precise enough that I can choose to not harm sothing inside of , but I am not sure how well I can do that with sothing living, while I am resting. Basically asleep, though the state is technically different. So, if you agree to it, the next step would be for to engulf your hand, and then for us to both lay back and, well, take a nap. I need to remind you that right now, you don't have any of the protections from that a proper contractor would, so the danger to you is as large as it would be for any other delver."
Amrydor didn't respond imdiately, and took the ti to consider the situation properly. If his life were in true danger, then he would have said no imdiately. Instead, the risk was the experience of death, and probably more pain along the way, but to be restored to full health and life later. And unlike a normal delver, who had a one year period during which they could not benefit from Kazue's boon, he would always be restored on the next nexus reset, thanks to his tie through Fuyuko. Who would almost certainly be hosting his soul instead of the core. Amrydor briefly wondered how much that would annoy her before focus back on his situation, which seed higher risk than Klastoria's first proposal.
If it was just a matter of gaining wealth, refusing would have been easy, but there was sothing he wanted and a limited ti to get it. Well, he could always get it in the future, but he wanted it for a specific occasion, which was his real ti limit. It might only be a want, but it was a strong want, and the risk was of a temporary sort. And no matter the results, he would still gain value toward his goal. The only 'penalty' would be a potentially very unpleasant experience.
"I'm willing to take the risk," he said.
Klastoria nodded, then asked Sarcomaag to grow enough mushrooms to give them a private space, so that no wandering delvers interrupted. Then they laid down on a soft section of the fungal matting and held hands again. Once they were settled, Klastoria's arm oozed out a pool of her fluid to flow over their joined hands, wrapping his hand and part of his arm inside this new layer while maintaining the structure of her hand at the sa ti.
The difference was imdiately clear; whereas her hand felt solid but malleable, this was very clearly a thick, viscous liquid encasing that part of his arm. She was still relatively cool to the touch, but she didn't seem to wick heat away as quickly as water would, and he found the sensation reasonably comfortable.
Now it was ti to take a nap, and find out if he was going to wake up or get eaten.
Not the most comforting thought to lull himself to sleep with. However, he'd had a full day and was tired, so all it took was a light ditative exercise to let that thought go and drift off into dreams.
This set of chapters with Amrydor do take up a bit more space than I had originally intended, but as a bonus, we get to learn more about Klastoria. I didn't even fully realize everything until I started writing this.
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