Mcmolly

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

It was over.

It didn’t feel like it was over, and in all honesty, expecting the boss’s death to mean the dungeon was done trying to murder them seemed outright silly considering things were all around generally fricked right now. Who was to say for certain the glitch hadn’t just stuffed the place full of giant rock demons? Who was to say there wasn’t another small army of gnolls or goblins waiting for them at the exit? Who was to say there was even an exit at all?

Only one way to find out, she supposed.

The dust was settling, and Seele felt a withering inside her at the thought of what came next. This was usually her favorite part of every dungeon. The boss was dead, the party would gather and gradually log out or leave, and Seele would wait until she was the only one left, in case any of her team had questions about the encounters, or strategies, or simply wanted to talk. She’d loved the talking. Many hours had been spent just sitting around the boss rooms, swapping stories and making friends until the server would boot them out to reset the instance. There wouldn’t be any of that today. There might not be any of that ever again.

People were injured, but most, she gleaned, were merely exhausted. There wasn’t much she could do for either aside from offer kind words and smiles. Those would come, but later, once they were out and at least safer than they were right now. She’d make them dinner, it would be bad. In a few days, or weeks, someone might even smile and mean it again. For now, they still had work to do.
It's...cold...
Seele thought of the dead.

On her way towards the room’s entrance, Seele tossed Rael the Amulet of Adala with a grateful nod. It had been useful in the in-betweens, but she was all too glad to separate herself from the playstyle an artifact like that would engender. If having more reserves to help the others meant taking a little risk, she’d take a little risk. The lot of them had done such a phenomenal job protecting her and Kazuki anyway; she almost felt guilty for how little injury she’d sustained, but she wouldn’t spurn the effort her new friends had shown. She was so proud of them all.

Finally, Seele came to stand before the body of a man she did not know, and would now never know. Enos's eyes were wide, empty. Shock had softened the pain from his face, left him looking tired and, she thought, worried. She felt the urge to console him anyway, to tell his body that the fight was over, in the hopes that his spirit would rest easy. But she knew better. Instead, she closed his eyes, and noticed his hands were clutched in a death-grip. Gently as she could, she pulled his fingers open to reveal the copper key inside. An artifact? Or just a keepsake? She pocketed the little curio and made a note to hand it over to one of the remaining members of his guild once…once all this was done.

With a flick, Seele buffed her own strength and pulled Enos off of the stalagmite. It was hardly necessary. He was a healer, and thus already predisposed to lighter garments, but besides that he was also just light. Lighter, in fact, than someone his size ought to have been. His skin was too pale for how soon-ago he’d passed, almost to the point of exsanguination. Indeed, as she carried his body back into the room, there seemed to be hardly any blood left to stain her with. She put the unsettling implications of his condition aside. She’d still need a wash.

With as much care as she could, Seele set Enos’s body down by Aaginim, she hoped with enough space to be considerate. Another of their group was missing, but she guessed their body was either too far back to retrieve now, or was in too poor of condition. Someone would say a prayer for them later, and at the very least, Aaginim and Enos could be buried with some ceremony.

She noticed Kazuki then for what felt like the first time since the battle had started. Luci had him by the arms with a grip like Enos, and the look in her eyes…You are sinking.

Quietly, she came over to them and placed a hand on the healer’s shoulder. “Kazuki, sweetheart, we should…help the others.”

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“You know, I had a dream the other night that I was a shipwreck. The S.S. Missy, right there at the bottom of the ocean, lost in this forest of seaweed. And I was old, you know? Like, I’d been there for so long that I’ve got algae growing all over me, and mollusks on my hull. Inside me there’s this whole, complex ecosystem of coral, and anemones, and those, uhm, those spiny things. You know what I’m talking about? Spiny—sea urchins!. And all the time I had fish coming and going, big old schools of’em, every kind. Sharks, too, and octopi, and now and then a whale would drift over me and I’d hear this deep, lonely crooning that shivered the rust off me.” She took a bite of bread, then tore off a small chunk and tossed it to the ducks gathered in the river below. “But there was this huge hole blown in my side, like someone had shot me with a cannonball and I thought ’huh, that’s weird. What did that? Cause it’s a dream, right? Maybe I’m a boat with amnesia, I dunno. Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Like, clearly this is what had sunk me, don’t I have the right to know how it happened? Who’d done it? Why? Then out of nowhere this anchor drops next to me, and I see these people diving down into the seaweed. At first I was thrilled. They were gonna fish me up, and figure out what had happened to me. But then I thought about all the fish, and the mollusks, and the sea urchins. The whales. And I got really sad. And then I woke up.”

“Missy?”

“Hm?”

“You sleep too much.”

--

When the shock left her, Seele moved quickly. The options cycling in her mind where nearly too fast to grasp, the choices too varied—the consequences, too dire. A mistake here, even just a simple misjudgment, could prove fatal to any of them. The bodies were already too many. The bodies…

This was not the time for doubt. If the punishment for erring was going to be severe, then she simply refused to err. As she had chambers ago, when the announcement had been made, Seele doffed her panic, her anxiety, her fear. They were as silly and impractical to her now as her hat. She needed clarity, and focus, and to be unencumbered.

She did not think of the dead.

As the demon reared on Alja, Seele snapped her fingers and a darkly shimmering barrier coalesced around her tank. With her other hand, she took aim at the beast with her finger gun and invoked the Fivefold Path again. Anger. She didn’t know its resistances, the hit to its strength could have been negligible, but experience had taught her the value of even the most minor of buffs and debuffs.

And speaking of.

The Shackles manifested about her wrists. She’d shed the pilfered amulet back in the goblin room. Between it and Kazuki’s pleasantly catchy lyre-work, she felt perfectly healthy, and going into this she was glad to have more of that strange, arcane will to pull from. Her spell-power took a hit—a feeling she still had trouble articulating; it was somewhere between bodily exhaustion and the mental withering of inadequacy—but she ignored it and brought her fingers back up. The chains made it impossible to dual-target, so she’d have to quick-fire with just the one.

The imaginary cylinder of her finger-gun spun, clicked shut. She abandoned the Path and embraced the Thrill. Her first target was Alja again. Her thumb flexed, and she shot the icy warrior a buff to her strength, and what portion of it the Shackles weakened, Seele supplemented with her own. The feeling that left her with was much easier to describe: weak. But she didn’t need muscles right now.

Next in her sights was Leaves, who caught a minor buff to her agility. Seele kept her stat on that one, in case she needed to move and move with what little nimbleness she had. To compensate, she snapped her fingers and supplied the archer with a Shackle-diminished shield. The chains grew weaker. Seele felt her power simmering, nearing a boil.

She saw Graves rush in, arms viciously blooded, and grab the demon’s hand away from Alja. His grip held, but for how long? The look on his face was anguish and fury and relentless, suicidal determination.

Seele ripped her hands out wide and the chains shattered. Dark-bright light flared in her eyes, and she lifted one hand up against some unseen weight. Absolution. The ghostly violet mist encircled Graves’ feet, crawled up his armor and for the a single, fleeting moment, the guilt that weighed heavy on his shoulders lifted away. Strength flooded him like foreign blood, and somewhere in the furthest reaches of his mind there was a soft, unintelligible whisper. Promise me…

That done she refocused on the demon. The Broken Chains were fading from Absolution, and as the saying went: “Use it or lose it.”

She jutted a single finger out at it, evoking for a moment the very image of a spiteful witch cursing its victim. The Path was walked, there was only one way ahead. Guilt.

A wicked bolt of devilish light arced from her fingertip and struck the beast through. No damage had been done, but if it failed to resist, it would suffer the weight of all five debuffs her Path had to offer, which she hoped would be enough to help her allies get a foothold against it.

The effect of her chains vanished as quickly as the light, and a sudden, terrible sensation of brittleness washed over her. Acceptance. She nearly fell to her knees, only just managing to stay upright. Something screamed at her in her mind, she shut it out.
youpromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedyoupromised
Despite how shattered her own defenses were, she still felt a decent chunk of her will remaining, enough at least to press on. Good. She had a feeling this fight was going to run the wind out of them.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Blood flew, screams from man and beast echoed in the cavern, the ringing of metal and the sounds of rending flesh were savage to the senses. More than once Seele nearly slipped on the slick, red carpet spreading across the stony floor. The gnolls had almost reached her many times, but each attack was thwarted before it could land, be it by Benkei’s earthen assault, Alex’s keen eyes and keener reflexes, or Graves’…

That boy worried her.

She fired off a few shields to those closest to the gnolls, but her reserves were thinning out. With a flick of her wrist, Graves’ wicked blade grew wickeder, its curved edge wavering like a ghostly, serrated tide. If more damage meant more life, then hack away, she supposed. A snap brought one more shield to Benkei before the direbat let out an absolutely horrifying shriek, and her attention whirled around. She half expected to see it there, rearing on them, but instead it was up above, and it looked very, very hurt.

As it slammed into the far wall, Seele saw her. Rael. The wild girl had practically pinned herself to the thing with her spear, but not tightly enough. Lightning sparked from her, it was clear she was trying to bring the thing to heel, but its pain and panic had rendered it utterly uncontrollable. The direbat thrashed and plummeted towards them, and like a magic trick, Rael was gone. A cold fist gripped Seele’s heart, stole a beat. No, not gone. That smudge in the dark, trailing traces of bright static, that was her. She was falling like a ragdoll towards the chasm. She was—
I can hear—
“Stop!”

What a silly thing to say.

Seele dashed like a madman for the chasm’s lip, nearly tumbling over. She shoved herself off the stone, pushed off the balls of her feet. If she’d still had her hat, it would have flown from her head, impractical thing. The direbat careened past overhead, tattered wings and broken claws scraping by her; she didn’t even hear the impact. She made it within feet of the edge and skidded to a halt on her heels, hand thrusting out.
PLEASE
The chain coalesced from her sleeve, flew with the speed of an arrow and sunk into Rael’s body, as if it meant to anchor in her very soul. Seele felt the will there—thank god—and ripped her arm back so fast and so hard she might have thrown her shoulder out of socket. The chain retracted, Rael’s vertical journey took a sudden, horizontal detour.

Directly into Seele.

Normally the spell would have deposited her target safely and gently before her, but, as she was now discovering, that was going to require a little more explicit focus than she’d applied. Thankfully, Rael wasn’t particularly big or heavy, but that didn’t stop her from taking Seele off her feet, and the two of them tumbled back onto the ground.

To her credit, Seele did technically catch her.

Things were sore. She’d cushioned their fall with her, well, herself, and as she found the air to groan, she realized she was clutching Rael with a grip like a corpse.

“Sohry…” she wheezed. Nope, not ready for words yet. She let go of the other girl and let her head fall back against the stone. The direbat was still there, somewhere. To heck with it. If she had to choose right now between moving and dying, then at least she wasn’t going to have to worry about resetting her shoulder.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

The Moonlight Potion had tasted bad enough that she nearly preferred the darkness. Nearly.

While Alex drew his bow and took aim at the “weird stones” across the room, Seele meandered to the chasm’s edge, giving Graves a warm smile as he passed, and joined their tank at the cusp into the dark. Before the glitch, a pit like this might very well have gone on forever, and players unfortunate enough to take the plunge would just be code falling into code until the system decided to spit them back out at the entrance. Now though, she wasn’t so sure. Was there suddenly a bottom? Had the glitch tacked on one more pointed, ugly facet of reality to this place? Or was it still as she’d imagined it was; bottomless, not from code but from…well, magic, she supposed. That was the only explanation in her mind.

The saying was: “It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the landing,” but they appeared to have found the exception. It made her teeth itch, made her brow damp, but it wasn’t fear. She was no stranger to heights, in fact there had always been something serene about them to her.
…you… …promised…
She would have taken the moment to chat Rael up—they hadn’t said too much to each other so far that wasn’t strictly-business. The girl at least looked like she was holding up spectacularly well, but it never hurt to reach out and make sure.

It’d have to wait.

Expecting there to be only the puzzle was perhaps a bit naïve, it hadn’t even been deadly. When the direbat’s shriek filled the room, Seele backed away with the group, only to find gnolls waiting for them. She’d mispositioned herself wandering off from the backline, but while she was here she might as well make herself useful.

“Alja! Rael!”

With a turn of her wrist and a flex of her fingers, Seele cursed their weapons. Ghostly vapor drifted from the haft of Rael’s spear, warm to the skin like mist from a bath, and the sharp point of its tip glinted with an uncanny glow. Her Moonlit eyes would find sudden difficulty in defining its edges, as though they were sucking what little light there was away.

Alja’s great flail was touched differently, being a thing of magic. Umbral light budded within its icy frame like the embers of a newborn fire, growing steadily into a violet roar that emitted no heat. The same ethereal mist wafted from its bulk, thicker than Rael’s spear, almost like smoke.

That would do for now. She’d gleaned that the direbat was wounded—strange, but undeniable—so she hoped they’d be able to handle it well enough. Part of her wanted to throw Alja an extra shield, but with how close those gnolls were getting, she had to trust the icy warrior would be able to handle herself.

To her relief, Kazuki stepped in and with a curt incantation, brought a fury of wind to bear against the incoming creatures. It granted Graves a moment of reprieve, and herself an opportunity to compound Kazuki’s efforts. Seele took a strong stance and whipped up her hands, aiming finger-guns at the recovering gnolls. Dark-bright light flared in her eyes, and she invoked the Fivefold Path. Denial.

Thin, quarter-sized rings of arcane light flashed into being at the tips of her index fingers. She flexed her thumbs, the rings flashed violet, and one by one the gnolls caught in her manicured crosshairs would find themselves fighting a devilish affliction to their speed.

The amulet’s effects were beginning to show themselves. The spells she’d casted were minor, but she’d thrown a fair number of them out, and the frayed end of her inner power was closer than she was used to, or comfortable with. She’d have to be a bit more conservative with her efforts going forward, or risk running herself empty.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Slowly, things were starting to happen again. The group was composing themselves, working out strategies; Kazuki even had the emotional wherewithal to strike out on his own and scout ahead for them. Between the efforts of Benkei and Rael, the world—the world of Pariah, anyway—seemed to be returning to normal. All of them who had said it were right, of course. They’d need to move forward and push through what remained of this horrible place in order to reach safety. Aside from some new, admittedly cumberson…mechanics, they were going to have to go about it the same way they’d have approached any challenging content. Well-prepared, and as a team.

They were good. She’d have to thank them afterwards, maybe with sandwiches or a nice stew—one of the only other rudimentary things Seele could, to put it generously, “cook.”

Her attentions remained with Alja for a while, as the young woman got back up to her feet. Seele had to catch herself to stop from thinking of her as a girl. She didn’t know how old Alja’s player was, or even her real name—something she’d at least try to remedy once they were all out of here. But the way the ghosts of panic still clung to her, and with how small her voice sounded when she’d squeaked out: “Thank you, Seele,” it was almost impossible not to see the human within that great warrior. She wanted to throw her arms around Alja, tell her how proud she was already. Tell her she’d make it.
…you’re…
Later.

Instead, Seele gently patted Alja’s arm and gave her a bubbly smile. When Graves plopped down beside them, she jutted a thumb at him. “He’s right, you should eat up,” she said, and gave his newly-patched boot a playful nudge with her foot. “Just maybe not so much like a goblin.”

With that she went about following Benkei and Rael’s directions. Based on the way that Moonlight Potion had staggered Rael earlier, Seele was expecting the mana draught to fight her on the way down, but she was surprised to find it was…well, certainly not good, but not terrible either. Bitter, bubbly, with a sort of ethereal aftertaste that caked a bit too thickly the throat. The earthy scent of petrichor was strong in her nose. She shut her eyes, and the pleasant chill of a passing rain swept through her.
…cold…
Last was the amulet, which was a bittersweet gift. Immediately a distant, inner piece of herself was reduced, but at the same time the rest of her was refreshed. The last, nagging effects of her exertion in the spike room evanesced, and she felt more or less like new again. An odd thing to feel, all things considered.

All said and done, she made her way over to Benkei and Rael. Her hand came up in salute, but her expression was anything but formal. “Ship-shape, captains.”

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Seele had a lot of breaths to catch, and too many things to say with them. She wanted to shower her group with praises and thanks, especially to Graves for pulling her out of the dreadful position she’d found herself in at the end. Benkei too had saved her skin with that fancy rock-foolery. Were things strange? Sure. Was she in pain, and did it feel like someone had reached into her lungs and scooped the wind out of her? Yeah. But otherwise, things had gone exactly as she’d hoped they would. A slew of different, even clashing personalities working together to solve a deadly problem, and she got to be there to help.

Okay though, ow. She laid back against the wall, nursing her…unhealthy looking hands close. When Graves came to her, she meant to rise and thank him, but he seemed pretty firm that she stay put. She couldn’t pretend to understand his particular brand of magic, and while she was sure he knew what he was doing, it still concerned her to see him wound himself, especially given how serious things seemed to be.

But she didn’t protest, even when he commanded the blood onto her wounds, and the magic burned in her veins, she bit her lip and only let out the smallest squeaks of discomfort. Gradually the skin began to repair itself, and the blackness in her veins faded. It wasn’t perfect, and it didn’t relieve the fatigue, but for such an unconventional healing method, it was surprisingly effective.

As the pain faded to a dull throbbing, she found herself smiling again. She turned her hands over, inspecting the ghosts of arcane scaring, and looked up at him gratefully. “Well you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

None of them were as bad as their reputations would have suggested, Seele was sure of that. No one had lost themselves to panic, or tried to leave anyone behind, or shouted anyone down. In the face of a challenge—a real challenge—people would always come together.

Gosh, she felt like singing, and she was an awful singer. Even through the strange happenings and fatigue, it would have taken a miracle to bring her mood down.

“Greetings, wayfarers from all walks of life! We entities from beyond…”

Missy listened in silence as the moderator explained what was happening to them, before they vanished into the dark. Her budding enthusiasm withered into an empty stare, in the back of her mind she felt an itch begin to spread that she would have to tear through her skull to scratch. The realization was rapid, the emotions she felt came and bloomed and died within blinks. The sensation was dizzying, sickening, and it was…familiar.

They weren’t real, it took only a moment of reflection to understand that. These emotions, the panic and confusion, the fear, all loud and hollering and then suddenly silent, like actors forgetting their lines in a play.

Like rain off a parasol. …Missy……please…

Missy closed her eyes. Seele opened them again.

The sound of Graves throwing his fist against the wall startled her almost more than the moderator’s appearance had. She blinked, looking around at the rest of them as the message would doubtlessly be sinking in. Graves fell to his knees, Alja was backing into the dark, and even Kalie fell straight into tears. This was her team. These were her friends.

There was a dissonance between her mind and movements as she got up to her feet, but she quickly reeled herself together. She reached down and placed a hand on Graves’ shoulder, and her voice—steady, she found, without even a trace of panic—lowered to a gentle whisper.

“It’s okay. We’re all here, take your time, hun.”

She looked back to the others, intent on making her way to someone else—Kalie, maybe, the poor thing—when Alja let out a horrible scream. Seele’s eyes flew to the shadows the giant of a woman had retreated to, prying her huddled form from them. Not too far away, Rael had approached Kalie, and Seele immediately noticed their tank’s collected demeanor. Had she been unfazed as well? Was she just good at hiding her fears? She supposed it didn’t matter too much right now; they needed that sort of resilience, and if Rael was able to do her part, Seele would do hers, too.

Running a hand through her hair, Seele noticed her hat was gone. Lost to the spikes, it seemed. It stalled her a moment, she felt somewhat plain without it, funnily enough, but then, maybe plain wasn’t so bad right now.

Gathering herself, she made her way into the dark, to Alja, where she found the woman balled up against the cold stone wall. Seele dropped to a crouch beside her, tentative at first about reaching out to someone who was very clearly in the throws of panic. Just to be on the safe side, Seele quietly snapped her fingers, and gave herself a small boost to her defense before she placed a hand on Alja’s knee.
…I’m…scared… …don’t…leave…me…
“Alja, sweetheart. Shhh, shh. It’s okay. Look at me,” she said softly, trying to angle herself to be at eyes with her. “Right here, hey. You’re okay. You’re okay, you’re going to be okay. I promise.”

More than once, Seele had been derided for her optimism. People had called her naïve, blind, outright stupid even, for how often she hoped for the best. It was reflex to act this way, to make promises against the odds. But Seele wasn’t acting on reflex. This wasn’t an empty platitude, Seele didn’t make those.

She made promises, and she kept them.

She always kept them.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

She was so proud of them.

She was also, frankly, terrified, but even in the midst of impending, unprecedented danger, Seele couldn’t help but beam as the group managed to figure out the room’s tricks. She wanted to shout out some kind of encouragement, or congratulations, but when she opened her mouth all she managed was a choked gasp.

Right, the shield. The effects of her Broken Chains spell had worn off long ago, and now the barrier above her existed only by the loophole of the fact that she was still channeling it. The spikes had gradually bored through the cumulative power of the shields she’d applied, and she’d had to start funneling her own health into it. It felt…awful. Seele was used to the fatigue brought on by this sort of exertion, but she wasn’t just feeling exhausted, she was downright hurting. And it wasn’t hard to see why.

Her uplifted hands were shaking against the continued pressure, and her skin had begun peeling off. Black veins snaked down her fingers, her palms, and were even starting to creep down her wrists, leaving the flesh around them pale and burned. She was burning from arcane aftershock. And…she felt a slight wetness on her lips, and on her ears. A quick flick of the tongue confirmed her suspicion: blood. …it…hurts…

"Drop it! Your--We have to run!" Kazuki shouted to her.

“Door…go…right…behind ya!” She’d wanted to say more, but it had taken a fair amount of composure just to squeeze those words out. She could make that run, totally, sure, absolutely. Probably. But speed didn’t look like the forte for some of them, especially with recovering wounded, and she was going to give her team as much time as she could to get to safety before she let that ceiling drop one more inch.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Seele proceeded cautiously, keeping within the flickering pool of light cast by Kazuki’s torch. It was a silly thing, really, for someone like her to be even mildly afraid of the dark—someone with a literal affinity for it, who was also, allegedly, an adult. But she couldn’t help it, it’d been that way since she was a little girl, and the only thing that had changed was that now she was better at pretending it didn’t faze her as much.

Suddenly, something snapped behind the group and filled the dark room with a horrid, echoey grinding. Someone shrieked and jolted like a startled cat.

It was Seele.

She quickly clapped a hand over her own mouth, and her brief flash of surprise devolved into embarrassed giggling. Oh gosh, she’d actually just done that. What a way to inspire confidence in the others.

Before she could apologize however, there came the familiar croaking of goblin voices from…the walls? From somewhere that wasn’t right here, charging at them, which was abnormally strange for the earlier mobs.

Quickly, though, she understood why. As the room’s sinister designs revealed themselves in a flurry, Seele’s mind raced for answers. She made to run through her spells but—no console? Was this part of the apparent glitch? Shoot. But she knew her spells at least, she’d been doing this long enough, and the first thing that came to her was simple, and disconcerting.

She had no answer for this.

But that was fine. She didn’t have the answer to most of Pariah’s problems, that wasn’t how she played the game. She didn’t make the plays, she helped other people make the plays. If there was a way out of this, then the best thing she could do was make it easier for her team to find it.

Seele straightened up and took stock of her allies. “I think I can handle the ceiling,” she said, and with a flair of her sleeves she brought her wrists up parallel to each other. Chains coalesced from the dark, sloughing off shadows for ghostly violet light, and in the work of an umbral moment, her hands were bound.

The effects were immediate, she felt weaker, even more so than she usually did when the shackles were summoned. This was strange. This was worrying.

This was not the time for doubt.

One by one she angled her shackled hands to her allies and snapped her claw-ringed fingers. The tinny din of the metal was different this time, its echo a warble of arcane devilry. Light shimmered around each of them in turn, and though it took a few moments, soon enough most of them had been surrounded by a faint shell of violet, which just as quickly faded out of sight, only to flicker back into being if struck. The shields were not very strong, but they also weren’t very expensive. The drain Seele felt from each cast, she knew, was more from the effect of the shackles than the cost of the shields.

Cracks formed in the chains between her wrists, leaking iridescent vapors to the floor. She threw buffs to a few them, negligible and quickly vanishing thanks to the shackles, but they did their jobs. After several moments of focused casting—a luxury she didn’t often get—the chains suddenly shattered into mist.
…Mis…sy…
Now she did not feel weak.

Another round of metal snaps brought new shields to a few of them—not many, she couldn’t afford to do too much lest she run herself empty or break the phase. Darker, almost void-like, only to be sucked away back to Seele an instant later as she brought one hand up towards the ceiling.
…please…
A dome appeared around the few of them who had stayed towards the back, and with some effort its shape changed, becoming more taller, narrower. It connected with the descending ceiling, and she felt an uncanny pressure within herself as the spikes met the shimmering, abyssal light. Truthfully, she didn’t know if it would hold for long, or if it would even hold at all, but the best she could do right now was try.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

As the group began dividing itself to discuss duties, things finally started to feel like normal. This was one of Seele’s favorite parts, getting to know her team’s strengths and weaknesses, figuring out where she could best fit in to help the others. Whether the challenges ahead were conventional or not, some level-headed planning and practicality would see them through.

Graves hollered some fun, good-natured banter their way, and she gave him a placating wave in return. But when Benkei came asking after…what was tonic water? She felt a little hiccup catch in her throat. Oh, oh no. He thought she could cook. She’d brought sandwiches to the Wayfarer’s Retreat and now her group leader thought she could cook.

Shoot.

“Ahm…aheh…well—” she started, but then Benkei’s attention turned to Rael, and the two discussed some sort of artifact. Rael turned him down, downed some sort of potion, and then did some spectacular work with her spear. Electric light emanated from the runes, and while it wasn’t perhaps enough on its own, it was better than the tonic water Seele didn’t have.

Kazuki spoke up again, a welcome change of thought. She was surprised to hear that this would be his first rodeo in a dungeon like this, but that was fine. Keeping Kazuki and Alex together would benefit them both, and splitting her focus between Graves and their backline wouldn’t be too difficult.

“Perfect! You two can watch each other’s backs, and I’ll do what I can to mitigate some of the damage you’ll have to heal. Alex, give me a great, big holler before you throw out your strongest attacks, alright? Oh, and Kazuki—”

Seele paused as the lanky healer produced a torch from his bags, and she audibly sighed with relief, hands clasped as if in a grateful prayer.

“Oof, you lifesaver. Anyway, if you know someone’s about to need major healing, just point’em out and I’ll try and throw some big defense-buffs their way. Hopefully that’ll make it a bit easier on you. And one more thing, both of you. If you feel a chain pulling you—”

She flicked her fingers, the ring-claws clinking faintly together. A thick, ghostly chain manifested from beneath her sleeve, wafting dim-violet light, then vanished in an instant.

“Don’t fight it. I know it’s not fun getting yanked around, so I promise it’ll only be for emergencies!”
…they’re not…coming…
Seele started a bit when Kalie spoke up. The girl was something of a shadow it seemed, but she supposed that was a given considering her role. Perhaps she had an affinity for the dark as well, or perhaps Seele wasn’t nearly as observant as she thought she was. Likely a combination of the two.

“Now now,” she said, a bit stern, but not unkindly. “Let’s focus on the enemies ahead. Experienced or not, with all of us working together, I’m sure there won’t be any reason to panic.”

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

It had been a long, and unusually uncomfortable walk to get here as far as the weather was concerned, and once the raid had moved inside, things had only gotten…stranger. Seele wasn’t blind to patterns, and one was certainly forming here. Between Alja's inexplicable drunkenness, the stark humidity, and now this horrid odor, she couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. A glitch, certainly, but not one she’d encountered before, and from the wary looks spreading amidst the raid, she assumed it was a first for them as well.

An uneasiness was beginning to take root. Benkei was doing his best to soldier through it, and so Seele decided to do her part and share his resilience.

She waved farewell to the other group, finding a warm respite seeing Aaginim and Luci together. Then she turned her attentions back to her own team, and clapped her hands together.

“Eyes bright, everyone! Strange or not, there’s new content ahead. Aaginim’s counting on us to do our part, so just follow Benkei’s lead, watch each other’s backs, and everything will work out great!”

Seele believed her own enthusiasm. She sort of had to, as a support; sometimes people could get so down on themselves walking into unfamiliar territory, and it wouldn’t do for her new friends to be doubting themselves now.

She made her way to the lanky, quiet beanpole called Kazuki, nodding gently. She often sought out her fellow supports and healers before raids, especially new ones. Coordination was key to these sorts of things, and she didn’t want to be the cause of any potential problems.

“Hey, Kazuki!” she said. Her voice was a tinge quieter now, given they were in a dungeon and things could get…echoey, otherwise. Still, she kept her tone bubbly. “Looks like Benkei’s got me off in the flank with Graves, and pulling some add-duty. How are you with healing big groups? I was gonna try to stay close enough to throw a few buffs off your guys’ way, but if you’d like, I could probably focus on fortifying some of our squishies.”

She brought her fingers into the air, daintily-clawed rings poking at some invisible diagram in her head. “Alex might need some extra attention. And Kalie will probably be fine on her own so long as Rael and Benkei keep aggro, but I'm sure she'd appreciate a boost or two as well.” Seele blinked, shrugged, gave Kazuki a smile. “What do you think, though? Really, my job is to just make yours easier so you can keep our friends alive, so whatever would make you most comfortable, I’m good with!”