I helped Burin and Terry prepare a soup from some of the critters, as well as some edible tubers that Burin had found. While we were doing that, Gregor and Emily used the box to turn the rabbit fur into shoes for Emily.
I figured they could do it on their own, so I didn’t interfere. In hindsight, maybe I should have.
The first I heard of what was going on was Emily’s excited squeal. “I LOVE THEM!” she shouted. Terry shot me a worried look.
“I’ll go check,” I said. I left the two men to the butchering and went to check on the kid. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when I got there.
“Look!” Emily said, holding up a pair of bright pink fuzzy bunny slippers.
Where to begin with that? “Those aren’t going to do any good out in the snow,” was what I ended up settling on.
“They won’t?” Emily asked.
Gregor sighed. “No, she is right. These are not what I was trying to make. I told the box to make rabbit shoes, and this is what it made.”
I did my best not to laugh. “I see.”
“But… I love them,” Emily protested.
I thought about it for a moment. “I’m pretty sure I can have Cortana modify them so they’re an outdoor version. It’ll take me a bit of time, though,” I said.
“I understand,” Gregor responded. “I’ll go help finish the soup.”
Daddy had shown me how to do this, but I’d never really done it on my own. Now was as good a time as any. “Cortana, be a dear and access design mode. I want to make a cross between some snow boots and the bunny slippers you just made.”
A holographic image appeared above the box, displaying what I asked for. “Those aren’t as cute,” Emily complained.
“That’s why we’re here,” I said. “Let’s start by making the ears a little bigger…”
Ten minutes later, Emily was the owner of a pair of bright pink bunny boots that she absolutely adored. She put them on immediately. “They’re so soft!” she cooed.
I grinned at her. “Go show the boys. Showing off your pretty clothes to boys is half the fun.”
“Okay!” she said, running to show the others.
As we ate, we devised what to do next. “We need to get into those buildings,” I said. “But they know we’re here. So I’m thinking maybe going straight to them might not be the best idea. We should come at them from the other side.”
“There are a lot of patrols,” Terry said. He would know, having done a bit more scouting while the soup cooked.
“There’s a good chance we’ll get spotted if we try to circle around,” Gregor agreed.
“That’s not a problem,” I said. “We’ll just teleport over there.”
“You can do that?” Terry asked.
“If I tap into that inner storm of power, yes. I’m pretty sure.”
“The place doesn’t sound that big,” Burin said. “If we get into a fight, surely defenders from the other side will come as well.”
“Then we should draw them off, perhaps into some traps, before we teleport?” Gregor suggested.
“Ooh! We could bring them here and set off a fire!” Terry suggested.
“I can dig some holes for them to fall into,” Burin offered.
“Then all that we need is some way to get them here,” I said. “Do we still have those old stick grenades from the village?”
“I have them,” Terry said, rummaging through his pack.
“Gregor, how many do you think you need to get their attention enough to chase you back here?”
“Three, maybe four,” the fighter said.
“Good. Then, Terry, you can use the rest as part of your own traps. We have just a couple hours til nightfall, so let’s get prepped and we’ll go when the sun has set.”
“What should I do?” Emily asked.
I considered the tasks everyone would be working on and picked the one she could likely actually help with and wouldn’t be as dangerous to work on. “Help Gregor set up some snares,” I said.
“Yay!” Emily cheered, jumping up onto Gregor’s back. The fighter obviously decided the extra weight would help with his training and bounded out of the cave. Burin grabbed his shovel and followed after.
“What will you be doing?” Terry asked me.
“I’m going to see if Daddy left any helpful suggestions for this situation in his notes.”
“Let me know if you find anything.”
Sure enough, Daddy had suggestions, and after not too long, I had a number of high-tech magnetic anti-tank mines to give to Burin to bury. They were designed to completely annihilate themselves to prevent their recovery so they wouldn’t mess with the timeline. They would also blow themselves up in thirty six hours so they wouldn’t become a long term problem like minefields had been back in the twentieth century.
Just after nightfall, we decided we were completely prepared and set about to begin the operation. “I wanna go with Mister Gregor,” Emily declared.
“I do too,” Burin said. “But we’d just slow him down. Don’t worry. He’ll be back in a couple minutes.”
“Okay,” Emily said, looking at the ground.
“Be ready,” I said. “There may still be a few defenders on the other end when we get there. We can’t assume they’ll all follow Gregor.”
“What do I do if there are bad guys there?” Emily asked.
“Look for cover,” Terry said. “If you don’t see any, hit the ground until we’ve killed the enemies.” He was trying, at least.
“It’ll be okay,” I told Emily, squeezing her shoulder.
“We’ll be there to protect you,” Burin agreed.
A few minutes later, Gregor came flying through the forest. “They are not far behind,” he said.
“Alright, everyone hold hands,” I said as I drew on the power within. Everyone grasped hands and I released the power. Moments later, we were miles away, on the far side of Rasputin’s compound. Everything was going according to plan.
“Your shadow told me you would do this very thing, but I must admit that I did not believe it,” said the voice of the projection of Grigori Rasputin standing between us and the trench around the compound.
Okay, so not EVERYTHING was going to plan.
“What?” Burin asked, genuinely confused. “The shadow predicted we would come and defeat you?”
Rasputin didn’t know how to answer that. “Who is that?” Emily asked.
“That is the projection of the Man Who Would Not Die,” Gregor answered.
“Then why are you fighting him? If he can’t die, then you can’t kill him.”
“He just hasn’t been punched hard enough.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“Just stay back and observe.”
“But if he’s just a projection, who are you going to punch?”
“I tire of this prattle,” Rasputin said. “And I am still annoyed with this child for throwing a blini at me.” He turned to the watchtower on the other side of the trench. “Shoot her.”
Adrenaline flashed through my body and I could hear my heart beating as I looked up at the watch tower and spotted some kind of undead sniper rising up and taking aim. I desperately tried to think of what spell to cast to prevent it, but I couldn’t think of anything I had prepared that would help.
Thankfully, Gregor was able to act. He swung his hand out with the sound of the gunshot, striking the bullet from the air with his bracer inches from Emily’s face. It startled Emily so much that she fell backwards on her butt, looking like she was about to cry.
“Polkovnik, bring me their corpses,” Rasputin said with a laugh. His projection disappeared, reappearing on the far side of the trenches. Behind where he was standing, flames ignited, revealing the unearthly form of a dullahan.
The dullahan charged striking Burin with his lance, a glancing blow at best and continued riding by. Meanwhile, another trio of snipers rose up from the trenches and began firing at us. This time, Gregor wasn’t fast enough to block all of them, and two bullets struck Emily. Three struck Burin, but he just shrugged them off, running over to help Emily as Terry took a bullet of his own while he took aim to shoot the sniper on the watch tower that was still firing at Emily.
Emily, in pain from the bullets, did the appropriate thing for a child in that situation. She began to cry. “Momma!” she blubbered.
And then the manticore appeared. Yeah, you read that right. Emily cried for her mother, and a massive manticore appeared standing over her. It let out a roar as its body shielded her from fire as its glowing golden eyes surveyed the battlefield. It then shot off like a rocket, straight at the watchtower, where it began clawing and biting at the undead sniper within. The impact as it hit the tower nearly tore the structure from its foundation.
I rushed to help Burin and Emily, unleashing an intense fireball over the trenches as I ran. On the way, I passed Gregor, who was dashing after the mounted dullahan, and actually easily outpacing it.
That fireball may not have been the best move, in hindsight, as it got the attention of one of the snipers. Hot lead tore through my body and stopped me in my tracks a few feet from Emily. I can’t describe how much it hurt. I wanted to cry. In fact, my eyes actually watered and my vision became blurry. And even that blurred vision darkened around the edges as tunnel vision set in.
I saw a soft light glowing at the center of my vision, where Emily had been, and felt a mild relief from my pain as positive energy washed over me, lightly healing my wounds. At the same time, I heard Gregor slam into the dullahan, and the headless undead’s nightmare steed whinnied in pain at the impact. Just after, I heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. It was likely Gregor had at least finished off the one foe.
“Drink this,” I heard Burin say to Emily, and I felt a paw on my cheek as Nebbie prompted me to drink a potion she had pulled from my bag. I gulped it down and quickly cast an illusion spell, surrounding myself with numerous fake copies of myself to reduce the chance that the sniper could hit the real me again.
I should have done that before the fireball, if I’m being honest.
“DAMMIT!” I heard Terry shout. I blinked the tears from my eyes and turned quickly. He was dealing with another jam in his gun. I was starting to wonder if he hadn’t been taking care of it properly.
I turned back to Emily. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she said. “But you’re still really hurt. I don’t want you to hurt anymore.” She closed her eyes and began to glow softly, and relief washed over me as more positive energy enveloped my body, healing my wounds.
What the hell was going on with this girl? First she summons an eidolon – a powerful eidolon, at that! – and now she can channel positive energy? Did Terry know she had power like that, or was this a new development brought about by her death and resurrection?
I didn’t have time to consider it, as bullets continued to whiz by me, striking several of my illusions. I quickly turned, just in time to watch Gregor fling his hat. It bounced from the sniper in the tower to the nearest one in the trench and back again before returning to Gregor’s hand. At this point, that doesn’t even surprise me.
I launched another fireball over the trench, torching a sniper as Burin sprouting white dragon wings and charged the final remaining one, cleaving it in half with his axe.
The enemies defeated, the enraged manticore turned and saw me standing next to Emily. And apparently it didn’t like that, because it charged right at me, snarling and with hatred in its eyes. “NO!” Emily screamed.
The manticore stopped inches from my face. I had already begun casting a defensive spell, but it fizzled as I lost concentration. I would have screamed, but I was too startled to do so. And then there was a really loud sound as Terry shot into the air. “HEY!” he shouted.
For my part, the sound was the last straw. My knees gave out and I fell to the floor, hyperventilating while seated in a very undignified manner. I was so freaked out I couldn’t do anything. But I could watch.
So I watched as the manticore spun and stamped over to Terry. Terry leveled his gun at it. I tried to tell him it was Emily’s eidolon and not to shoot it because that could hurt Emily, but I couldn’t speak. So I watched.
And I saw him suddenly lower the gun and tilt his head inquisitively. “You?” he said, reaching out and brushing the mane from the covered side of its face. Emily walked over and gently patted the manticore’s side. “Sleep, Momma,” she said. At the girl’s words, the manticore faded away, with the glow from the eyes disappearing last.
I finally caught my breath. “I think I need healing,” I complained weakly.
“Right,” Burin said. He marched over to Terry, who didn’t react as the dwarf grabbed the nanite gun from his holster. He then came over and injected me, then Gregor.
Emily nervously closed the distance to Terry, who had now taken a seat and was staring at the hand that had touched the manticore. He didn’t look up at her, but acknowledged her presence. “You okay?” he asked.
“The magic potion fixed me,” Emily answered. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” he answered. “Just very confused.”
“I know you missed Mom, so I brought her here for you?”
“How?”
“I don’t know. I just figured if Lyriana could bring her kitty here, maybe I could bring Momma here.”
He looked up at her. “Why as a lion?”
Emily shrugged. “I don’t know. But she’s less scary that way than she was before.”
Terry laughed at her joke, causing Emily to laugh as well. “Can I sit with you?”
“Sure,” Terry said. Emily sat down next to him, a tragic few inches maintained between them.
My nerves finally calmed, I assessed the situation. “Sorry, you guys, but we should get out of this open field. Let’s head towards that building on the other side of the trench.”
“Burin goes first, in case of more land mines,” Gregor suggested.
Burin shrugged. “Okay.”
I didn’t laugh as we headed towards the buildings clustered around the ethereal floating monastery I hadn’t noticed until that moment. Instead, I noticed that Emily had nervously grabbed her father’s hand and was holding onto him as the two followed behind me and Burin.
But I wasn’t distracted by the heartwarming nature of that. No, I had yet another thought on my mind. Was that eidolon really Emily’s mother, or was it another planar entity impersonating her? And which was the worse option? I mean, on the one hand, it could be a harmful entity trying to corrupt the child.
But on the other? Well, humans, even human souls, couldn’t become eidolons. And if what happened to Emily is any indication, her mother had not been sent to a good place. Emily had resisted… but what if her mother hadn’t been able to?
How was I going to tell Terry that his wife was already at least part demon?
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