9 - Growing Pains (Patreon)

Dazien grimaced at Kara’s warning, already knowing she wasn’t wrong. His ascension to Crystal had been one of the most traumatic experiences he had gone through which said something for both how bad it was and how few traumas he had actually experienced before, especially when he compared it to that of his party members.

Saiya and Rayna losing their entire clan as children and their previous party shortly before arriving in Tulimeir must have been devastating, while Uriel’s time as a captive was entirely horror-filled in itself, having to watch his parents die in his arms. 

Dazien hadn’t considered losing his parents to be traumatic, at least not on that level. He had been too young to understand why they hadn’t come home one night and didn’t fully internalize they were gone forever until he found himself at the temple of the Parent for much too long.

Phoenix also seemed to be a never-ending parade of traumatic events, even before she arrived in this world, some of which he had been peripherally part of when he thought his party members and mentor would –or did– die. Having a rough ascension didn’t hold a candle to those events but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to it.

The redhead glanced over at him again, this time with wide mossy green eyes, and asked, “She’s joking, right? We don’t really need the danger room. Do we?”

His frown didn’t dissipate as he admitted, “I hadn’t thought about the screaming. It’s a good idea if we don’t want to disturb the family and staff.”

“Wait, I know Saiya didn’t have the best ascension with the sensory overload but even she didn’t scream.”

“It’s not my perception ability I’m worried about,” Dazien explained, “Paul seemed to know about it, but we didn’t have time to explain it better to you…” he trailed off. Glancing back to the mentor floating in the room he had really wanted to witness this moment in his life. Knowing that he would have been there as a support who had knowledge, maybe even experience with another of his species going through an ascension, had been a relief.

The Defender’s gaze trailed over to Kara and Everin. The Obsidian seemed to have the experience at least, but he couldn’t find comfort in her presence. A stranger who likely didn’t care about him in the least, aside from his connection to Phoenix. It probably didn’t help his own disposition towards her when she felt like a replacement for the man they all wanted there instead.

“Why don’t we start heading downstairs to prepare?” he suggested, turning toward the Wayfarer, “I’ll explain on the way while Paladin Fairweather retrieves the others as she suggested. I’ll warn them she’s on the way.”

The others agreed with the plan, and he used his [Noble Subjects] ability to mentally inform Uriel, Rayna, and Saiya about their incoming kidnapper, as it looked like he would need to move up the timeframe of his ascension. 

The Paladin hadn’t been wrong about him being dead on his feet. Every blink was a threat to remaining awake at this point, he wasn’t sure how Paul had managed the feat of staying awake well beyond the normal limits on the other side of an ascension.

As he made his way to the lift at the center of the hall that stretched out from Paul’s quarters, Phoenix walking alongside him, she prompted, “I remember Paul saying gemites had more magical physical properties that might interfere with ascending. But is it really as bad as Kara is making it seem?”

“Probably worse,” he admitted in complete honesty, “Before it felt like every Mundane bone I had in my body shattered before being remade. This time I expect the same feeling, only it will be already magically reinforced Crystal Caste bones that will be destroyed in the process.”

At her horrified look, he tried to offer her an out, “Uriel’s face looked like yours does now when he witnessed it. You don’t have to be there if you don’t want to. I wouldn’t want to be the cause of more nightmares for you,” he said gently.

Phoenix seemed to shake off her fear as she replied stubbornly, “No. I’m going to stay by your side,” she looked back up at him with a shy grin, “That’s what good sisters do, right?”

He chuckled and did what he had seen Paul often do and rested a hand on top of her head, the soft red curls bouncing under his palm as he ruffled her hair, “You’re doing a pretty good job so far.”

As they entered the lift with Everin trailing after them, he leaned against the back wall as the glass doors shut them in and asked, “Would you like to hear a little history lesson about gemites?”

Phoenix perked up at that and he wondered why she didn’t just join Scholar’s clergy already with how much she seemed to love learning things when she wasn’t busy fighting monsters, “I remember Patricia saying they were one of the newer species created by a Wayfarer.”

“That’s true,” he nodded in confirmation, “What she didn’t mention were the Wayfarer’s other partners or why we’re a bit different from the other Wayfarer-forged species.”

“Partners?” she asked curiously, and he was glad she had caught the word, “As in plural?”

“Correct,” the Defender acknowledged, “Magic can accomplish wonders, and gemites were the result of the union between a Wayfarer who obtained the Treasure Hunter Class, a black-scaled draconid man who became a Rage Blade Defender, and a cicada faeforged woman who was a Play Mage blessed by the Gamer.”

He paused for a moment, glancing towards Everin, who simply nodded encouragingly towards him, and he hoped it was the goddess within the voxen letting him know it would be okay to continue, “It’s speculated that our origins are one of the reasons most of us are not concerned with gender at all and normally have multiple partners. Triads are commonplace within gemite society, sometimes more.”

Phoenix’s eyes went wide in surprise, but he was relieved that it wasn’t disgust painting her features as she said, “I’ve heard of, um, relationships like that in my old world, but it wasn’t as widely accepted. I remember they called it ‘polyamory,’ but I don’t know much about it. It was kinda peripherally mentioned in LGBTQ circles online. I was only really interested in the T part, though. Is it really common here?”

“More in certain places than others,” he replied, feeling the tension leave his muscles that he hadn’t even realized had been there, “Here –in Tulimeir specifically– not really, but the world is a big place,” he said then added with a soft smile, “Eventually, we’ll go see more of it together.”

She returned his smile with a sad one of her own as she said, “I hope so. So, explain what all of this has to do with ascending.”

Dazien was glad that she didn’t seem judgmental about his culture. It was fifty-fifty here on the tundra if people cared or not about his preferences and he wasn’t sure what a Wayfarer like Phoenix would think about it. 

Even though he wasn’t interested in that kind of relationship with her, it still would have hurt to know a friend, especially one he wanted to be family with, thought he was some disgusting degenerate like Priestess Yavuz at the temple of the Parent had. That woman had often reprimanded and even went out of her way to degrade and belittle him for something he couldn’t change about himself.

He shook the memories away as he refocused on the explanation, “Well, the faeforged are descendants of the fae –who are usually attuned to Arcane magic– and are also a Wayfarer-forged species, so there’s speculation that her inclusion helped ‘ramp up’ the magic within us.

“Draconids are said to be related to actual dragons, much like the voxen are to kitsune,” he added with a nod towards Everin, who seemed content to listen so far. “Dragons are often Gem-attuned, as are the draconid, so that connection isn’t hard to believe.”

“Same with the kitsune? What are they attuned to?” Phoenix asked.

“Illusions,” Everin offered up, “It’s often present in all voxen and kitsune, no matter if our subspecies might add another type of attunement.”

“So, Gem plus Arcane plus Wayfarer-ness equals gemites?” she questioned, turning back to him.

“Yes, but not quite,” he tried to explain, “I said the Wayfarer in question was a Treasure Hunter Class. He was attuned to both Gem and Metal, which is what gemites often have. I myself have the Treasure Attunement.”

Dazien jumped slightly at the appearance of Phoenix’s [Guide Book] floating in front of him, and he raised a brow towards her. She quickly raised her hands in surrender and said, “I swear, I didn’t ask it to do that.”

 He chuckled and obliged the curious book by touching it while focusing on the talent.

Natural Talent: Treasure Attunement

Increased resistance to negative Gem and Metal effects. Gem and Metal abilities have increased effect.

“It’s a fairly simple talent and really only half-useful for two of my abilities,” he admitted sadly, “But we don’t choose what we’re born with and can’t force a Talent to cultivate.”

“So, really, it was the Wayfarer that helped determine what the gemite became?”

“I believe they did play the biggest part in it but it truly is a combination of all involved. The fae are often said to be beautiful in addition to their magical prowess, and the Gem attunement is much more common than the Metal.”

The lift doors opened at that moment, interrupting the explanation as they exited onto the floor with the warded training room and made their way toward it, “Anyway, that’s the brief history of my species and why this is not going to be pleasant for me or anyone who watches.”

“Which will not be me,” Kara said from the other end of the hallway, in front of the doors they were heading towards, a Sandstep voxen held under each of her arms and looking worse for wear, their fur poofed up and disheveled. 

Rayna was grinning, however, as she said, “Now that was fast. I can’t wait to hit Obsidian.”

Dazien stared, still processing the idea that anyone could… run across the city and back in the time it took him to ride down a lift. Then he finished parsing the Sunlight Champion’s words and asked, “You won’t be joining us?”

“I’ll guard the door,” she said firmly and offered a softer smile at him as she added, “You should invite the other people that care about you. Like the family you claimed.”

He knew his surprise showed, but he returned her smile, thinking perhaps the brazen voxen might not be completely inconsiderate of those around her, “Thank you, Paladin Fairweather. That’s a great idea.”

Phoenix sat nervously between Uriel and Saiya as the Healer held her hand for comfort, and she found herself reaching over to hold the Mage’s hand as well, seeking even more comfort as she watched Dazien sitting in the center of the mat and her heightened expectations of impending horror.

Uriel looked down at her with a quirked eyebrow but didn’t pull his hand away from hers as he asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Just worried about Daze,” she admitted, “It feels kinda terrible to watch someone hurting and not being able to do anything.”

Saiya snorted from beside her and the rest of her party, Everin included, moved slightly to stare at the Wayfarer with pointed looks and she gave a small huff, “Look, I don’t try to make you all worried about me… and I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, sweet flower,” the silky voxen said, rubbing a soft head against her shoulder, and she felt the familiar tickle of a long, furry ear against her neck to be comforting as well, “We’re all worried about him, but that’s why we’re here to support him. It’s the best we can do.”

She nodded, falling silent, and glanced over to see that most of Patricia’s immediate family had opted to join them when Dazien had asked one of the staff on their way to let her know what they were using the room for and extend the invitation to the other Waylands.

The fact that Dazien had voiced his worry about the potential trauma to the younger children she had brought did nothing to make Phoenix less worried about the whole thing, but Patricia had seemed unconcerned, stating that they would be there for him and it would help all of them better understand what gemites like him had to go through; that learning other species’ difficulties and experiences were important to grow themselves.

As the Defender sat there in a lotus position, dressed only in the Sliksilk shirt and shorts he wore when training, she noticed he seemed to be struggling to relax enough to fall into his meditative trance.

It surprised her when Everin was the one to stand and move to Dazien’s side, kneeling beside him, setting a hand against his back, and speaking quietly, but the room was already silent enough to pick up the words as the Avatar said, “It’s alright, Dazien. I’m going to stay right here to catch you when you fall. Scholar is watching and letting me know what I need to do for you. You don’t need to consciously control and force the process like you’re trying to do. You can let Saiya’s aura in and relax now.”

Phoenix felt herself sympathetically breathing out and relaxing as Dazien did, and it was almost instantaneous that the pale blue flames burst into existence, engulfing the gemite within them.

At first, she thought everything was fine, and perhaps the pain was more internal than she was led to believe. That was until Dazien began to tremble, and she heard the first sickening crack in the silent room. The pain was apparent on the young warrior's face as he clenched his jaw in an attempt to remain quiet.

He failed to keep silent.

When the second crack filled the room, Phoenix covered her own mouth to contain her horrified gasps as she could see his skeleton now glowing from within as a purple-tinged blue light filled them. It was his ribs that the sounds were currently coming from and she could see them shattering, one at a time, like little fireworks before the flames mended and strengthened them.

She understood why Everin had repositioned himself as the screams drowned out the gasps from the other onlookers and Dazien had fallen backward from the shocks of pain. Everin slowly lowered him to the floor and helped straighten his limbs before they, too, began to get shattered in meticulous fashion.

Phoenix felt like she was going to lose her lunch when his hands began to experience the process, and the plethora of shattering Crystal bones shredded the muscle and skin on them, briefly showing the glossy gem-like skeleton itself rather than the glowing outline of it. The regenerative Sapphire flames quickly repaired the destroyed tissue, however, and Phoenix thought she’d rather have a hundred hugs from a goddess over ever going through what Dazien was now.

She could barely hear Rayna saying, “Those are the worst growing pains I have ever even heard of before.”

“I’m glad our tails don’t break like that when they grow in,” Saiya agreed, sharing the stunned look on her sister’s face.

“This is already worse than what happened at Crystal,” Uriel said. It sounded like a warning, and she soon realized that was exactly what it was when the process reached the strong Defender’s femurs.

Phoenix thought it might have been better if her leader would just pass out from the pain as a high-pitched screeching sound, like metal being twisted in order to tear it, came from the gemite’s legs. The screaming stopped, despite the man still trying to do it, and it was like his voice finally broke from the effort as the bones took up the task instead. It appeared as if the magic went into overdrive to break those thick thigh bones and make them even denser and longer, and it didn’t care how Dazien felt in the slightest.

As Phoenix realized only Dazien’s skull remained, Everin’s rainbow tails moved to cover the gemite’s head from the rest of the room’s inhabitants. It seemed that Scholar thought the children had suffered enough trauma in learning how gemites ascended as they heard what sounded like tiny firecrackers going off –her unhelpful mind counting thirty-two of them– before a louder crash, like a large glass window being shattered, echoed through the room. She heard the younger kids whimper slightly, apparently not needing the visual to understand what had happened.

When it was finally over, and Everin removed his furry shield, she wasn’t sure the new beauty that lay immobile on the floor –hair practically glittering in the soft light, the even smoother skin completely unblemished, and the lean muscles even more defined and strengthened– was worth the minutes of torture the gemite had to endure, unlike his peers.

Everin moved to lift him, one arm behind the back and the other under the knees, as the voxen clarified with Patricia, “Which room can he rest in for the next few days, or should I take him back to his apartment?”

“His room is across from mine,” Phoenix interjected resolutely, looking toward Pati as if daring her to say otherwise.

The runeforged smiled indulgently at her and said, “It is as the Regent says. Our home is his home.”

“And yours,” the Wayfarer added, giving Uriel’s hand a squeeze and looking up at him, “I’ll help you get settled in while we wait for him to awaken.”

The cinderen chuckled, “We don’t get a say?”

“Not this time,” she said stubbornly, then tried to tease, “After all, I’m a Regent now, remember? Maybe I should try being a bit more bossy about the things I need.”

“As you command, Princess,” Uriel replied with a laugh.

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