[center][h2]The Way is Open[/h2][/center]
[center]Themerlinhawk, Monochromatic Rainbow[/center]
[center]Urthar, Adéla [/center]
[center]Day 3, Noon[/center]





So many people. It was incredible that Shard had managed to build the Tower in such a manner that Urthar could open a Way large enough to move this many people without burning out his magic in one fell swoop. The floor of the room was basically a massive staging area. Shard had only ever used it once before and it had been to assault a Stygian Blade stronghold. Now it was being used for wedding transportation. Urthar had changed his appearance on the Shard’s request. The Aberration was now a much younger version of his normal human appearance. The medium length brown hair had been pulled back and confined high off his shoulders. The wrinkles and scars were gone from his face and it was clean shaved. Urthar had done some restructuring of the face as Shard had informed him that the point of changing his appearance was to be more physically appealing. As a result Urthar had fixed the symmetry of his mortal coils appearance and made sure the outer musculature was well defined.

The end product was a younger more handsome version of the Master of Words mortal form. Absently he looked over the crowd as he worked magic into the concentric rings in the floor of the floor. They had been systematically spread out to provide an even distribution of magic. Urthar went back to studying the floor and he continued to channel magic into it. This was going to be interesting as it was more people to move than he’d ever tried moving at once.
 
Adéla brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She felt more than a little out of place in her finely tailored military uniform when almost every other woman was wearing an elegant dress or other more traditional attire. In a moment of hesitation she’d decided to curl her hair to downplay the otherwise masculine appearance she was presenting. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Urthar looking as though he was preparing to do … something. She quirked an eyebrow, trying to discern what exactly he was doing, and at the fact that he was decidedly more attractive than he usually looked when presenting as a human.

Craning her neck, she realized for the first time that the floor of this room had large concentric circles on it, well distributed too. It didn’t remind her of any of the Aberrant magic he had showed her yet, so, with curiosity buzzing in the back of her mind, she ambled over. “So, want any help?”

Urthar quirked an eyebrow at the surprising appearance of Adéla. “yes.” Urthar took her by the arm and pulled her in front of him. Placing his hands on her shoulders he pushed her head gently down so she could see the floor. “I'm going to open your eyes again.” With gentle hands he moved her hair and pushed on her temples gently. With the gentle pressure and a surge of magic he opened her magic sight again. The only difference was this time she could see the strings of reality that ran through Galendar. 

“I’m preparing the circles to channel Aberrant magic. We’ll use it to fold reality, punch a hole in it and then move everyone through it. It requires a lot of magic. We have to use magic to pull reality, then more magic to punch a hole and then finally we have to cocoon the others and move them through the hole.” Urthar removed his hands and stepped next to her. “Make sense?”

Adéla’s eyes widened as Urthar ‘opened her eyes again’. She gazed around absentmindedly for a moment, absorbing the new dimension she could suddenly see in with astonishment. “You’re going to have to tell me all about this later, you realize, yes?” She muttered out of the side of her mouth to Urthar. “You never mentioned all of… this, before!”

Her eyes snapped back to focus on the Master of Word as he explained his intention. Nodding at his explanation, she raised an eyebrow, “And… what exactly do you need me to do? I doubt I have the power to fold space or cocoon everyone.” Pausing, she added uncertainly, “From what I recall of my readings I might have the power to punch the hole though, but I doubt I have the control needed.” She broke eye contact, studying the circles surrounding them and taking mental notes of their magical properties. “Seriously though, your brain is mine to pick once I have the chance.”

A smile crept across Urthar’s face at Adéla’s respons. “All in good time. It is probably easier for you to absorb everything a little at a time. That being said, Yes. You may.” With a twist of his left hand Urthar manipulated the energy in one of the circles. “What you can do is direct magic. All you have to do is release the magic in one of the circles. It will punch through reality and then I’ll pull them through.” With a gesture Urthar motioned at one of the circles. 

“Have you been practicing your other magic?” Turning his head Urthar looked Adéla up and down. She was certainly different. “This whole affair is something entirely new for me. I didn’t think that Shard ascribed to the rituals that went along with the other mortals of Galendar when it came to mating” His attention returned to his preparation as he finished filling the remaining circles and preparing them to open a Way.

Adéla raised an eyebrow, “I’ve spent my entire life completely devoid of magic. I’d wager that you that if you transferred every iota of information you had on magic over to me, I would still crave more.” She nonetheless quieted down, letting him explain her task. “Right, so I’m an interdimensional sewing needle? Gotcha. Just tell me when and I’ll take care of it.” 

She was good at punching holes in things.

“And yes, I have been. In fact…” she fished out a small boxy contraption, tossing it to Urthar. “Railgun ammunition, imbued with Aberrant magic. Tell me what you think of it some time? In theory it should function like the void blast with an inbuilt airburst detonator. Will punch a hole in something, but not before completely removing a section of the armor of whoever’s being hit.” She pulled another out of a second pocket, “These are more experimental things I’ve been tampering with and building a custom weapon for. In theory this would allow a mind fray like charge to be delivered to a target with the same accuracy as a regular sniper rifle. In addition…” she held up her hand, the air shimmering around it, “I’ve managed to make a sort of ‘blade’ that I can conjure around my hand. It’s still a work in progress but it’s had some interesting results.”

It was certainly impressive results for such a short time. With a flick of his hand he called an ephemeral item into his left hand. “I graduated from weapons like that a while ago.” The smile on his face was clearly an impressed one. “You’ve done incredibly well in the last weeks. I did not think that someone who started out as human would ever have been capable of this sort of thing. Very impressive.” Urthar eyed the ammunition. It was a great attempt given that she’d only had a few weeks to play with the magic. It was certainly excellent workmanship. The only flaw with it was that it wasn’t hardened against attrition.

Holding up the ammunition he gestured to her. “It's excellent, the only problem is that this one is going to deteriorate over time.” With a compression of his hands he sealed the ammunition against the pull of Galendar’s magics. “In essence all you need to do is craft a shell like you wear around yourself for the enchantments and it will prevent deterioration.” Handing it back Urthar appraised her again. “Impressive, very impressive.”

Adéla blushed at his praise, unsure of how else to respond she stammered out a self effacing reply. “Well I mean it just came pretty naturally! And it’s not as though it’s anything that impressive! I just imbued some items with Aberrant magic! It’s not like I’m opening portals to beyond the Outer Gate or anything! Just adding some Aberrance to mundane items!”

She coughed, still blushing at at the compliment. “So what was that you had just then, by the way? You’ve never mentioned temporary item… summoning? Conjuration?”

Urthar gave a sly look. “Oh no you don’t. You aren’t suppose to know anything about that.” With a smug look Urthar turned back to his workings with the portal magic. For some reason it came off as almost...playful? Narrowing his eyes a little it dawned on him that this was something totally different than he was use to. Looking back over his shoulder at her Urthar nodded at her hand. “Same principle as the imbue items. You need to construct an outer shell to contain the magic and prevent deterioration.” 

“What do you mean I’m not supposed to know this?” Adéla looked genuinely confused, raising an eyebrow. “It all seems so obvious. I looked into a few terms I was unsure of and such, but most of it’s just like sculpting clay or something.” She shrugged, “I mean you can do so much more, I’m just barely able to do anything in comparison.” Her blush only grew stronger, and a mild stutter crept into her words at the novel experience. Gratefully she seized upon something else to respond to. “And I’ll keep that in mind, thanks. Would it be possible to construct a shell that would violently decompose and release a void blast on someone? Like a grenade?”

The look on Urthar’s face was genuine surprise. “Your mortal upbringing fabricates very interesting uses for out magic. I’d assume that is possible; I’ve personally attempted such a thing.” With a flick Urthar conjured the strange slash of empty seeming space. It was as though reality simply. Ended. It sat in Urthar’s hand as he looked at her. “This. Its why I no longer need conjured weapons. And don’t even think about looking at it with your eyes open. I’m just starting to appreciate you and it would be unfortunate if it eroded your mind.” Closing his hand the strange mass of emptiness disappeared. “Your weapon will be impressive though to be honest you’ve done an excellent job of constructing it with no assistance.”

Adéla could tell the moment Urthar conjured the… void, in his hand that looking at it would be a terrible idea. Despite that, some primitive part of her mind nagged at her to stare at it, but she paid it no heed and looked anywhere but the small piece of reality warping nothingness. “What… what is that?” She looked up at him curiously, “It looks like a small chunk of the Void or something, sitting right there in your hand… could you potentially show me how to do that? Or at least tell me a bit more about it?” She paused, “Or, failing that, any pointers on improving what I’ve managed to do myself? I’m not exactly happy with it at the moment, it’s got more flaws than I can keep track of… any pointers would be greatly appreciated.”

“Its called the Reaper’s Scythe. It is totally unique; it's a piece of the space between reality and it's been weaponized.” As he finished the last of his preparations Urthar took Adélaby the arm and gently lead her to a bench to sit down on while he waited for the last of the stragglers. “Frankly it is a matter of practice. A Void blade like yours is going to need to be stabilized. And as far as the flaws go again.I’ve never encountered a mortal with your capacities so I wouldn’t worry about it. If you’d like I can show you how to stabilize the blade.” Urthar rested the walking cane he normally used against the bench. 

Adéla raised an eyebrow at the name of the technique. It was… a slightly corny name if she said so herself, but the actual mechanics were absolutely fascinating. A piece of space between reality… weaponized… she was practically salivating at the thought of how she could harness something like that. 

As he took her arm she realized he’d never actually touched her before. His skin was… surprisingly normal. Which shouldn’t have surprised her as he was in his human form, but it was still a mild surprise all the same. “Of course I’d like that!” She replied enthusiastically, “Anything you can show me would be wonderful.” After a moment’s pause she added, “And really? No other mortals with my capabilities? There are billions of people out there, surely there are plenty of people who can do far more?”

Urthar shook his head, “There are maybe a dozen like you in the entirety of Galendar. So not exactly a high standard.” A sly grin crossed his face. “But you’ve certainly come far. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this quick of progression.” Taking her right hand he flipped it over in his hand and forced his own magic through through her hand prepping it for projection of magic. “Reconstruct your blade and then I’ll help you structure the projection. Then we’ll contain it and you can replicate it in the future.” 

Adéla was surprised to say the least. Only a dozen like her? In all of Galendar? She’d grown up with absolutely nothing distinguishing about her, and even as she grew older the only interesting things about her had been how young she looked and how ruthless she could be. Immediately the flush returned to her face and she coughed awkwardly. As Urthar took her hand and channeled his own power through it she closed her eyes, focusing on the magic running through her own system and pushing it towards her hand.

The air around her hand shimmered and distorted as the blade emerged around it again, roughly two feet long and lacking a distinct shape. “Well… there it is…” She murmured uncertainly.

Tilting his head Urthar tweaked the blade’s form until it had a vicious curved edge to it. Stabilizing the form slightly as he did it. “What form do you want for it?” Urthar continued to tweak around the edges and form of the blade. “And for the record you’ve done excellent on your own. I think it is really just a matter of deciding on form.” 

Looking her up and down Urthar cocked an eyebrow. “That is an interesting color your face has taken on. Are you well? I know that occasionally mortals end up with sickness.” The actual fact of what was happening to Adéla went almost entirely by Urthar; however his gaze did seem to linger before returning to the blade. 

“It’s just uh… a thing that happens to uh…” Adéla blushed even harder and covered her face with her hands reflexively. “It’snothingdon’tpayattentionatalljustkeeptellingmewhatyouweregoingtosay.” After a moment’s pause she peeked out from behind her hands, noticing Urthar lingering on her for a moment. “It’sjustathingpeopledowhenthey’reembarrasedlet’sgetbacktotheswordokay?”

Coughing awkwardly again, she regained some composure. “I was ah… thinking more of a straight form for thrusting with plus longer reach. Does it really matter though? This isn’t mortal steel, it’ll dissolve mundane matter all the same, as far as I know.”

“Well yes and no. It is a material and it can break. That being said, it is quite durable.” With a flick of his hand Urthar extended the blade and gave it a double edged tapering it to a point. “Is this more in the line of what you were thinking?” His gaze returned to her but he didn’t comment on her red face or her sudden change of syntax. In his years in Galendar; Urthar had found that all too often mortals and those who had started out as mortals were given over to odd behaviors from time to time. 

“Shard asked me to change my mortal form to something more appealing. Was I correct in the assumption that symmetry and average features with the occasional varying feature is also appealing in the male form?” As he asked the question Urthar thickened the base of the blade, hinting at a crossguard should she indicate it was desirable in the blade. “Frankly I’ve always found symmetry oddly appealing in the biped races. There was a world of giants we descended upon once. It was also the case there that it was appealing in the female half of the populace but oddly not so in the males. I personally didn’t bother to select any of the males to add to my warrior stocks. Aberrants tend towards asymmetry so it is refreshing to find something less so.” With a pointed look Urthar gave Adéla’s chest a nod. “Strangely that part of your appearance was absent in the Shi’an’ti. Their female form was muscled similar to their males, lacking the adipose tissue. Probably a more efficient form but it certainly lacks something aesthetic. Perhaps it is simply an aquired view from so much time on Galendar”

If it was at all possible, Adéla’s face flushed an even darker shade of scarlet at Urthar’s mention of her… frontal assets. Why was she getting so flustered? She was used to commentary on them - she’d been a prostitute for over two decades for heaven’s sake. 

Then again, she hadn’t regularly “entertained” millenia old Aberrations as customers either. Or at all. Or even known they existed. 

“Well I mean,” she stammered, uncertain of how to continue, “Yes symmetry is good you should definitely go with symmetry if you want to appeal to people here why are you asking me you should really ask someone else who knows more about this than I do…” she trailed off, clearing her throat all too conspicuously. She would never admit it - but Urthar intimidated her. Even though he had just praised her accomplishments she was all too aware of the gap that existed between them in… everything - age, power, experience…

Adéla was silent for a moment as she waged a brief mental war over how to continue. “Breasts are for eh…” she flushed a deep scarlet again, “providing milk for children after pregnancy, technically speaking. It’s a pretty universal mammalian thing. And ah… as to the sword! Yes, that’s what I was thinking, something useful for thrus- stabbing.” 

Urthar finally stopped focusing on the sword and gave her another look. Without warning he leaned in and pressed his left hand into the hollow of her throat and found her pulse. “You are acting rather strange, I’m not sure what this response you are having is so you’ll have to forgive me for not offering a remedy. I’d say it was fear judging by your elevated heart rate and stuttering but I’m not sure what there is to be afraid of.” 

Something seemed to dawn on Urthar as he took in her response. “I’ve broken some sort of social convention haven’t I?” Pausing he contemplated the conversation up until now. “I’m sorry for asking you about symmetry. I simply thought you would be the best to ask since your form contains it; that and most other individuals are less willing to spend time in my company.”

Noticing the sword again he pointed to it. “Try stabilizing the form.” 

“No no no it’s fine just… unexpected, is the word.” Adéla blurted, “Technically you did sorta kinda but I mean you probably chose the best person to do so with because reasons and oh look what a wonderful sword!” She focused intently on the weapon, channeling more energy into it as she pictured the end result in her mind. Gradually the blade seemed to gain more substance and definition without nearly as much of the weight as a normal sword. 

After a little while she looked back up at Urthar. Her face had more or less returned to a normal color and she spoke with a considerably less nervous tone. “Symmetry is all well and good, but there are considerably more things to take into consideration regarding your appearance and such. I used to ahem… hold a profession where knowing that was essentially mandatory, just don’t expect me to be able to explain every social nicety - I’m still learning that myself.” After another moment’s pause a question that had occurred earlier nudged at the back of her mind. “You mentioned you had ‘warrior stocks’? What do you mean?”

Reaching out again this time Urthar pressed his thumb to her temple. 

[i]An army of beings stood on a barren field bathed in blood. They were as varied as the stars and included everything from beasts, to bipeds, to asymmetrical formless beings hundreds up hundreds stretched out before her as she stood on a rock outcropping.[/i]

“My children and my army. They are the spawn of my harem. Breeding stock taken from a thousand worlds and given form. They are the finest warriors in the whole of creation.” With that he sat back from her. “And no they are not all directly my children. Infact I have maybe a dozen children. My Warrior stocks are largely for breeding amongst themselves to produce desirable traits.” 

Looking at the sword he quirked an appraising eyebrow. “Well done. I am incredibly impressed. Such a feat I thought might be beyond you but you seem to prove me wrong at every turn. Clearly I underestimated you. I should not have done so. And I will not hold back in your instruction in the future.”

Adéla’s eyes were wide as dinner plates as the images she had just seen reverberated through her head. Thousands of purpose bred warriors as a part of a conquering army, all apparently in some way distantly related to the being sitting next to her, for all the world looking like a regular man.

“Wait wait wait - breeding stock? Your army? Thousands of worlds?” Adéla asked him incredulously. “If you have an army, why are you here? I presume you were trapped somehow, but, well, the ‘how’ part of that somehow is the important part. Were you trying to conquer Galendar?” After a moment’s pause, she raised an eyebrow, “And I’m guessing you would’ve taken ‘breeding stock’ from it too?”

Settling back against the bench Urthar nodded. “Yes, I was one of the three commanders that were sent to subjugate Galendar several thousand years ago. Suffice to say it did not go well; largely do to the fact that at the time Galendar’s Gods were free to roam the surface of the mortal realm. So as you can imagine it was difficult for us to fight Gods on their own turf. In the end we sealed away Galendar’s Gods but the damage was done and the armies of the Outer Gods were driven back through the Outer Door and it was sealed. I remained as at the time I had been retrieving something from the surface. When I got word that the invasion had been defeated instead of attempting to flee back through the Outer Door I went to ground. It worked out well for a long time but living in this reality did not go well as I couldn't replenish my magic. At which point I met Christian a few thousand years ago and the rest is history.” 

At her second question he pursed his lips. “I doubt it. Well. At the time I think I doubted I’d find anyone worth while. Humans and the other indigenous of Galendar have not always been as well adapted. Frankly not many beings can actually breed with Aberrations and produce a being capable of using Aberrant magic. At the time I didn’t know humans could. Frankly the warriors we were facing at the time weren’t terribly impressive since the largely relied on their Gods for magic and strength. If I’d taken anyone from Galendar it would have been a waste as their magic is not compatible with the realms beyond Galendar. In much the same way that You and I can not replenish our own magic naturally the same is true for a being from Galendar leaving this reality through the Outer Door.”

His thought trailed off as he gave Adéla a thoughtful look. “If you are wondering the answer is: yes.” Urthar left the single phrase hanging in the air between the two of them.

Adéla stared at Urthar for a moment. She [i]had[/i] been wondering - and that wasn’t really the answer she’d been wanting to hear. She could always put a positive spin on things and interpret it as her being exceptional among humanity - but she found it hard to find satisfaction in knowing that she would’ve been taken as breeding stock to pump out armies of warriors for further conquests. Before she could stop herself from thinking aloud, she murmured under her breath, “Why did you even have breeding slaves?”

Her face once more flushed scarlet and she seized on a less awkward and sexual topic instead. “What were you retrieving at the surface?” She coughed out, trying hard to keep the tension out of her voice. Her head was filled with images she would’ve rather forgotten - and images she would’ve really rather her imagination not conjure for her. 

“The God weapon. And you misunderstand. Not as a breeding slave. You are unique. It would have been a waste to have you used for breeding. Additionally if you think it involves breeding like humans do such a thing then you are quite mistaken.” Urthar chuckled “Humans are highly inefficient. That and my breeding stock lives far better than human slaves.” With that he stood up and stretched. “We should probably finish preparations if you have no further questions.” 

“If not as a breeding slave, what then?” In spite of herself, Adéla couldn’t help her curiosity. “Just what do you mean by saying that I’m ‘unique’? You just said that there were others like me, or with my capabilities. Would they not be just as ‘unique’ then?” 

Quirking an eyebrow at Urthar, Adéla stood up, offering a hand. “Regardless, we probably should go and finish up.”

“Agreed, we are just waiting on a few more. I’ll let you know when we are ready.”