Vol.4 Ch.7 – The Price Of A Name VII

Chapter 7: The Price Of A Name VII

The little mouse spun around in a panic, turning to face Typhon. He was more wryly amused than truly angry, though he wouldn't mind if this Mare thought he was furious. He had, after all, interrupted her while digging through Elaine's memories. Her intimate memories.

Of course he knew everything that was going on with and around Elaine at all time and so he knew about their deal. But he hadn't expected her to just start looking at Elaine's sexual encounters.

If it had been any of Elaine's girlfriends diving into her mind he would have been certain to find them perusing those memories in particular but Mare was a stranger. Not only was she here for something very specific and not at all carnal, but this was invasive. It was tipping an invisible scale. Mare was viewing intimate memories without having provided any of her own.

Oh, he could see that she wanted to. She was crushingly lonely and desperate to be loved. This had clearly been as much about satisfying her curiosity as it had been about scouting out a potential partner, even if it was an off-putting way to do so.

But this put Typhon into an unusual position. Normally he couldn't affect the outside world unless Elaine gave him express permission to do something, like when she asked him to weave complicated spells for her while she did something else that required her concentration. But Elaine's inner world was different. Here he could act. Not only could he talk to Mariana, he was pretty sure he could do horrible things to her mind if she gave him cause to, for example by trying to tamper with Elaine's memories. Not that she seemed like she was going to.

But here he was, seeing someone expressing interest in Elaine without Elaine even having realized it yet. And he could do something about it. Oh, he wasn't going to drive her away. He liked the idea of the body he was stuck in having as many lovers as possible. So long as Elaine never forced anyone to be her lover he would be happy with her bedding every person she found appealing.

And Mare was certainly appealing. In his form as a collection of Soul Shards he had met millions of people and there had been a few gypsy princesses among them. All of them had been gorgeous and radiant free spirits and Mare could be more radiant than most of them if she didn't have negative self-confidence.

And so he was going to encourage this Mare in her attraction. Because he was certain that as one of Elaine's partners she would be able to truly blossom.

“Wh-who are you?!” the little mouse squeaked out.

Typhon grinned.

**

Mare was inside someone's mind, searching someone's memories. There was no way there should be anyone in here. What was going on? Had Elaine built a defense system into her own mind to deter the kind of snooping she had been doing? Was that even possible? And anyway, who was that guy? He looked like a male version of Elaine, without breasts and with a more masculine bone structure, narrower hips and broader shoulders and a stronger jaw, and his skin was more Mediterranean than Elaine's northern European skin tone.

“I am Typhon, son of Gaia and god of rebellion,” the man said, in a voice that sounded like Elaine trying to affect a male voice, “and you are looking at memories you have no business looking at.”

She flinched at the accusation. Yes, she had been. She hadn't even tried looking for the spell she wanted yet, she had simply been digging around for intimate encounters to live vicariously through. At the same time, what was a Greek god doing inside Elaine?

“Elaine is an Awakener, not a Shard Bearer,” she said. “And how can you talk to me like that? My Soul Shard has never talked to me.”

Typhon smirked. “I could give you the same explanation that Stollos gave Elaine, that Awakener potential is much rarer than having a Soul Shard of any relevant size but, let's be honest here, could you imagine Elaine letting herself get bossed around by any of the Awakeners at the base?”

Mare thought about the tall, confident brunette, imagined her obediently following Alejandro's orders, and then almost burst out laughing. “Point taken,” she said. “But the other question remains.”

“Why do you think Elaine was able to beat Jeanne in a duel?” he asked by way of answer.

“Because she's built different?” Mare asked, not quite able to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. Elaine was certainly... built different but she was sure that had nothing to do with it.

Typhon chuckled. “Elaine performed a ritual called the Oath of Crystal Tears. The ritual made her much stronger and it also made her much more in tune with her Soul Shards, which is how I am talking to you. But that still leaves the question of what you were doing snooping here.”

“I...” Mare whimpered, surprised by the change in topic and unable to come up with a proper explanation.

“You're a voyeur, aren't you?” he said, then began walking around her. They were floating in a dark void surrounded by memories but still, somehow, he was walking on air as if it were solid ground. “You're always watching people. Elaine never really took notice of you but I did. In the training grounds, in the cafeteria, you're always by yourself, watching life around you unfold.”

Mare shrank in on herself.

He continued: “So of course, when you had the opportunity to look at someone's dirtiest secrets you leapt at the chance. You were looking forward to a nice evening of immersing herself in all the crazy sex that Elaine has had, both before and after the side effects.” As he said the words 'side effects' he cupped his crotch suggestively. So did that mean Elaine hadn't always had that huge thing? Not that that was relevant now.

“I... I was just trying to find the right memory,” she defended weakly. “I haven't used this power much so it's hard to find the right one.” It wasn't even a total lie. She was more or less only taking stabs in the dark. Of course, she didn't mind the low hit rate and it provided her with a good excuse if anyone ever suspected that she'd looked at things she hadn't been supposed to.

He snorted. “Sure, let's go with that.” She was about to relax when he said: “Now give me a reason why I shouldn't tell Elaine about what you were doing here the moment she wakes up.”

Her breathing hitched, so bad that she was sure her real body had experienced the same thing. If he told Elaine about this... “Please don't.”

“Why shouldn't I?” he demanded.

“I...” She whimpered, then decided to come clean. “I want to switch Awakeners. Alejandro is a good man but I want an Awakener who will...”

“Plow you the way he plows his vampire boyfriend?” he finished.

She blushed. “Not just that but... yes. I want someone who cares about me, someone I can be close to and yes, someone who will make love to me.”

“There's a chance Elaine won't want you,” he said, now much gentler. “You made a rather terrible first impression.”

She winced. “I did, didn't I?”

“I'm sure she'll get over it,” he said. “Evelyn made a much worse first impression. And Elaine can't resist pretty girls throwing themselves at her.”

“Pretty girls, huh?” she muttered. She didn't consider herself particularly bad-looking but compared to the others in Elaine's team she was a wallflower at best.

“If you're wondering whether she finds you physically attractive, the answer is yes,” he interrupted her self-deprecation.

She looked back up at him.

“So, here's your options,” he said. “Either you ask Elaine to join her team within a day of waking up from this memory dive or I tell her that you were snooping.”

A day was way too quick. These things needed time. She needed to... She paused herself and took a deep breath. No. She needed to find an Awakener who didn't consider her an afterthought.

“Okay,” she said. “I'll tell her when I wake up.”

He nodded as if he'd expected nothing else. “Good.”

“So, can I go back to memory diving now?” she asked.

“Kind of,” he said with a small smile. “I'll guide you to the right one. Wouldn't want you to stray from the path too much now, would I?”

She blushed but when he turned and walked away she followed him, over to a string of particularly vivid memories.

**

A minefield. Next to a fucking school.

Elaine was fuming about it, her teeth making grinding noises she was clenching her jaw so hard. The locals had only asked for help after the second time a child had been blown to bits by running to grab a ball that had rolled a bit too far from the safe space.

“When I signed up with the army I didn't expect to be put on fucking minesweeper duty,” the loudmouth said. He had mellowed out considerably after the little bar brawl, if it could be called that, but he was still a cunt. But for once Elaine couldn't really fault him. Sweeping for mines was one of the most tedious and boring things a soldier could possibly be sent to do, right up until the unfortunate point where it stopped being tedious and boring.

Fortunately Elaine had a way to make the process a lot more efficient and a lot less tedious but unfortunately she couldn't do it while others were watching.

“Fuck off back to camp then, if you're too much of a pussy for it,” she said.

“You callin' me a wimp, Caldwell?” the loudmouth growled back.

“Fucking let her,” Martins said. “If Caldwell wants to do it alone I'm not going to argue. I want to be out of this heat as soon as possible.” The words were harsh but he didn't mean them. Elaine had saved Martins' life once, cutting the fuses of a suicide bomber's belt with a crystal sword. He knew how she was going to get rid of the mines.

“Fair point, Martins,” the loudmouth replied. “Let's get back to base. I'll be watching for any fireworks, Caldwell.”

“Fuck you, too,” she said.

She didn't wait for them to leave, given that normal people couldn't see her reaching for the Winds of Magic anyway, but she still needed the storm of frustration they'd all called up. It would make this much easier.

The Winds swirled around her, denser and denser, and by the time she'd heard them leave she had an almost opaque wall of white threads surrounding her. She peeled a tiny bit of it off and, as she let out a breath, she sent the breath and the thread of magic off to map out the area. It wouldn't do for her to accidentally damage the school building.

When she had a map of the area ready in her mind's eye she started weaving earth and air together into a complex working that would reach under and ripple through the soil.

Land mines were pretty stupid contraptions, all things considered. Essentially they were bombs with a big button at the top that would make it explode when pressed. Yeah, sure, there were other types of mines, like AP mines that used a tripwire to trigger, but those weren't usually hidden underground as part of a minefield.

The important thing about the design was that they didn't require a human to press them. They would explode if enough pressure was applied to the trigger. And that meant that if Elaine could apply enough pressure across a wide area she could make them all blow up at once. Of course that meant they couldn't be reused but as far as Elaine was concerned nobody needed these things. Unless you spread them very densely it was entirely possible for a charging enemy unit to avoid them by pure luck and once the war was over they simply presented a massive safety hazard, as they did here.

And so Elaine let her spell loose, letting a wave of force loose right beneath the soil, earth rippling and air crushing. It looked like the ground was doing a Mexican wave for a couple of seconds and then the fireworks started.

More and more of the things blew up, blasting dirt and debris high up into the air, and by the time Elaine was done the ground was peppered with holes to the point that, if viewed from the air, it might trigger trypophobia.

If this had been a combat situation she would have called it a day here but it wasn't and so she sent out another ripple underground.

The second spell had been mostly to make sure she hadn't missed any but it had the fortunate side effect of evening out the ground so that it didn't look so much like a magically detonated minefield.

Satisfied with her work she turned back to the one jeep they'd left her. Not only had this been a lot less work than if they'd done it manually, she had also done it without putting any of her squad in danger.

**

“Why did you show me that?” Mare asked as Typhon led her past the memory.

“If you're going to join Elaine I want you to know what kind of person she is,” he said. “Don't worry, we'll be at the acid spell soon.”

She nodded. She didn't mind learning more about Elaine at all, though this guided tour irked her. She would much rather have gone exploring on her own. But, then again, that was precisely why Typhon was giving her a guided tour in the first place, wasn't it?