Chapter 277: All night long (Patreon)

The wall-mounted black crystal still offers some resistance, but this time, I manage to push the jagged end of my chain through it, and into its interior.

The moment it enters, a connection snaps into place, and before I know it, a pulling force erupts from the crystal which starts to suck me in. My spiritform, which I would never have been able to condense to the size of this crystal myself, is gripped by the laws of this Realm, and seems to lose its structural integrity as it collapses in on itself and becomes One with its new ‘body.’

As soon as it does, new sensations come pouring in, forming a kaleidoscope of impressions, some alien, some familiar.

There’s Lavi, little green flecks of life, locked into place in a grid, but also joyfully dancing around the room. There’s Qi as well, little icy snowflakes, intermixed with the captive Lavi in a structured, orderly way, and out around me as well, in smaller amounts.

And when I say around me, I mean all around me.

My sense for energy fluctuations seems to stretch out in all directions around me, dropping off only with distance.

All at once, I can feel the various crystals around the room, the fields and tendrils Suri is using to move around, even Loudmouth’s surface Lavi Flows. It’s kind of overwhelming, so I instinctively lower my sensitivity using... using Meditation!

Because that’s another thing I’m suddenly much more aware of, my Skills. It’s like they lay dormant inside of my mind all this time, and are now suddenly lighting up again, stimulated by the presence of Lavi and Qi—or perhaps more precisely, by the presence of the laws of this Realm, which I can now sense lie deeply integrated into those energies.

Interesting. I’m not sure whether it’s due to my new body or my majorly improved Espir Pool, but while before I was only able to vaguely sense the existence of my Skills, they now seem like very clear, very distinct presences.

Much like my mental stats, they each have their own little section in my mind, and by zooming in on them, I can get a pretty decent sense of what each of them is about.

Anyway, it’s been way too long since I’ve had access to my Skills, so I decide it’s high time I made myself a nice little overview.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

It turns out this crystal actually contains both more Lavi and more Qi than my original body. Also, it naturally doesn’t have any Strength or Agility, only a rather insane Toughness.

Interestingly, it doesn’t appear to have Tolerances either.

I guess under normal circumstances, there isn’t much room for foreign energies in such a tight crystal lattice.

That’s not to say my new crystal form is invulnerable to all energy; they can still ablate the surface and wear away at me, it’s just hard to inject them.

Anyway, it’s pretty clear why the Peilor became this Realm’s dominant life form. It kinda feels like spiritual attacks using Espir are their only weakness.

Good thing those are my specialty, then.

As my condition stabilises and I grow a little more used to my new trappings, I carefully allow a little more of the external impressions into my mind, and only then notice Kaitlynn smiling at me, still hovering in front of me in spiritform.

I could exit in spiritform as well, but getting used to my new body should probably be a priority right now. Therefore, I decide to first do something about the fact that I’m currently stuck in a wall.

I turn some of my Qi into Spatial Energy—the regular kind—and form a Spatial Boundary around myself. After taking a moment to bask in the nostalgic feeling and get used to this method of bending space again, I shrink myself down.

Aether rushes into the room that opens up behind and around me, and ends up pushing me out even without any further interference on my part.

Once I’m out of the wall, I allow my boundary to return to its regular size, but maintain it to negate gravity.

“Congratulations, Emma,” Suri chimes. “How do you feel?”

“Unbreakable,” I reply. “I’m starting to get why you’re all so friggin’ smug now.”

“It comes with the territory,” Suri chimes. “Welcome to the dark side, Emma.”

Kaitlynn fondly shakes her head. “Congratulations! Not to be a spoilsport, but... we should probably not linger here much longer. So, what’s our next move?”

I try to shrug, only to find that I have no shoulders. Right. “Well,” I start. “From what I understand, Peilor don’t usually float around without a host, right Suri?”

“Correct. Being seen like that is considered a terrible embarrassment.”

“Why is that, exactly?” Kaitlynn asks. “Is it like being seen naked in public for humans?”

“Worse. It makes you look poor.”

“Right,” I drawl. “Well thankfully, Loudmouth here is a real stud.”

At the mention of his name, Loudmouth shoots upright from his drooping position on his chair. “Aack!” he croaks, surreptitiously wiping some drool from the corner of his mouth. “Loudmouth great stud, yes, and definitely not sleepy! Loudmouth very strong thighs, can squat all night!”

I cringe mentally at the unwanted reminder of what Kaitlynn told me about the Hoig reproductive cycle. “Thanks for that mental image, Loudmouth, but I was actually talking about your two lovely, Yin companions, which appear to be lacking any Peilor...”

We find Bulging-Eyes and Smooth-Cheeks lounging contentedly in the bath, still under my Command.

After a quick discussion, we come to the conclusion that we can’t ride out on them without any form of Commands to prevent them from accidentally—or purposefully—giving us away.

Still, we decide it can’t hurt to give Kaitlynn some time to engage them in conversation and request their permission.

Bulging-Eyes startles when I remove my Command, seeming alarmed and confused, and it’s probably only Loudmouth’s presence that keeps her calm. Smooth-Cheeks seems to take it more or less in stride, in comparison.

Both of them visibly relax, however, the moment Kaitlynn starts to speak. To be honest, they probably never stood a chance.

Even in Spiritual Realmspace, Kaitlynn’s Persuasion is a force to be reckoned with, and now that she’s Yang again, her prodigious Persuasion stat has turned into Radiance. And these Hoig are both Yin.

She gives them the short version of the situation we’re currently in and how we got here, to which they listen with rapt attention.

They both seem rather freaked out to hear the kind of things the Peilor get up to, and how their precious Loudmouth was actually being used by Lyrack.

It seems they, at least, were not under any Commands. Reading between the lines, I suspect Lyrack simply didn’t bother, as they were easily plied with food and drink.

Still, their affection for Loudmouth seems genuine, which is a relief. In fact, after Loudmouth assurance that he’s okay now, and that we’re ‘good Friends’ of his, they readily agree to help.

It turns out there’s a Lavi-based Skill known as ‘Transform,’ which allows for the reshaping of physical bodies. It’s more or less the next step after Regeneration level 3, and apparently what the Peilor use for most simple cosmetic enhancements. It’s also what Suri uses now to shape spaces in the foreheads of the two Hoig for me and her to nestle in.

She subsequently plants herself on Smooth-Cheeks, while I get more closely acquainted with the frontal lobes of Bulging-Eyes.

Not really, of course, as having a hole in the skull like that would be both unnecessary and dangerous. Suri actually deformed their skulls inward a bit, moving the brain matter safely out of the way in the process.

My new body slots nicely into the formed notch. What keeps me in place, however, isn’t the bone, but mostly just layers and layers of forehead fat.

I can’t help but find the whole experience a bit icky, which just makes me feel more like a Peilor.

Note to self: If I start referring to organic beings like ‘fleshbags,’ it’s already past time to abandon this crystal.

Interestingly, the Transform Skill does actually work on our crystals as well. Which is very handy, as it means Suri is able to reshape not only her own crystal, but mine as well, to give it the proper faceting. It turns out Faceting is an important social cue in Peilinor, in the sense that more complicated patterns indicate higher status, and that it’s not done to facet beyond your station. Suri gives us both relatively simple cuts, that indicate that we’re both Flawed-tier. It wouldn’t do for Lyrack to have mere Solith-tier servants, after all.

Finally, after our new hosts willingly receive some simple Commands to ensure our stealth, we’re good to go.

Loudmouth hops the halls proudly with his chest puffed up and Bulging-Eyes and Smooth-Cheeks each clutched to one of his arms.

Moving together while hopping requires a bit more coordination than walking does, but they seem perfectly accustomed to doing so, and nobody comes along to stop us.

I was a little worried that the fact that there are suddenly Peilor installed on Loudmouth’s two companions might raise some questions, but no one seems to blink an eye at it. Might be another one of those, ‘refuse to look at lower-tier Peilor’ things.

“Have a nice day, sir!” the receptionist calls out to ‘Lyrack’ when we enter the foyer.

“You too, Shelly!” Kaitlynn chimes back in Lyrack’s jovial voice.

She took some time earlier to study recordings of him and question Loudmouth about Lyrack’s interactions with the staff, and I have to say, it’s a passable impression. Espir does make such things much easier, of course.

It’s almost anti-climactic when we exit the building unchallenged, but we’re not there yet.

Kaitlynn quickly establishes a gravity field, and smoothly pulls all of us up into the Aether, and into the direction of Clarity Cove.

Despite what Suri said about the Peilor mostly self-regulating based on social pressure, there are still some security posts around the home of the Pellucid. Thankfully, they barely spare us a glance, just nodding at Lyrack in passing.

While the space between the landmasses we crossed before this was sparsely populated, once we fly over Clarity Cove, Pellucid-tier Peilor start showing up.

Hoig still appear to be one of the more popular hosts here—seems like they have broad appeal amongst the Peilor, probably because they’re relatively capable of gaining Skills—but the ones the Pellucid use are bigger and burlier, and look more well-fed.

We spot other hosts as well, of course. There are a couple of Pellucid-tier Peilor cruising together in large, brightly feathered birds. There’s also some riding a kind of dolphins, ensconced right before what may very well be the blowholes.

From what I gather, these kind of hosts are like sportscars to the Peilor: sleek, fast transport that’s nice to look at, but not convenient around the house in terms of manual dexterity.

We also spot our first human, an unfamiliar blonde woman.

I have to suppress the urge to try and send her some kind of message as we pass by.

It’d be nice if we could free her eventually, but in the grand scheme of things, she is not worth blowing our cover over. I’m sure she’s perfectly content at the moment anyway.

Everything goes smoothly, right up until we approach the building Loudmouth indicated as Lyrack’s mansion. Just before we reach it, however, an otter-like creature leaps up from a neighbouring garden, and comes floating over.

“Howdy neighbour! How was the show?” a deep voice chimes from its forehead.

Crap!

Author's note: 

Thanks for reading! ^^