Chapter 46: A Warped Jigsaw of Human Reasoning
“Your outpouring of distress was too loud to ignore,” she said, replying to Katrina’s very thoughts, “It is not my nature to provide comforting words, and I do not have enough evidence to form a reasonable explanation,”
“We gotta see it with our own eyes first,” said Phantasia, “It could be loads of things until we can narrow it down, right Faye?”
“Indeed. I believe it is safe to say, however, that Dante Orpheus is not a demon. That assumption lacks evidence and you should not concern yourself with that possibility until it has been proven true,”
It wasn’t much of a relief – after all, how much could she trust these strange creatures with their inhuman morals – but at least Katrina had some comfort in knowing someone who understood all this magic stuff was watching out for her surrogate brother.
“So, will you two be okay ‘surveying the area’, as you put it?” she asked, changing the subject before Faye could start prying into her private opinions.
“We shall be better suited to such an investigation than you and your friends,” replied Faye, “Although I do not expect Phoenix Rogan to refrain from such an activity,”
Katrina smiled, the last of her stress slipping away. “The worst thing you could have done was tell her to stop. You’ve made her more determined than ever!”
“Then perhaps I might make a suggestion?” asked Faye.
“S-sure,”
“Make sure you prepare yourselves well for your coming investigation. We can only do so much to protect you,”
***
As Katrina shuffled off after her friends, Phantasia turned to her handmaiden and smiled. “You promised Katrina you’d protect everybody,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting that from you,”
Faye’s expression was blank, as usual. “First, it was not a ‘promise’,” she replied, “Second, it would not be in our best interest to allow these students to come to harm. If one should suffer, the others shall be drawn in, much as demons are attracted to corruption in the leylines. Indeed, should your friends suffer enough trauma, they themselves will become beacons to the darkness. So you understand it is in our best interests to prevent unwanted situations,”
“Always with the logic,” said Phantasia, rolling her eyes.
Her handmaiden replied with a curt nod. “Naturally,”
Phantasia took another look in Katrina’s direction. The lumbering girl with messy hair and baggy clothes had disappeared from physical sight, but her aura was still quite visible, surrounding her like soft fur. Faye had helped soothed its agitated state – a few minutes ago, as Katrina slipped into despair, it had stabbed at the air like the hairs of a trapped cat. It was common knowledge that potent auras attracted one another, just as demons were attracted to corruption – maybe it was no surprise that Katrina cared for Dante so much…
But that was an issue for another day. Right now, the two faeries had to focus on the situation at hand: Phoenie was going ahead with her investigation, despite Faye’s plea to reconsider. Phantasia didn’t need to ask why Faye had acted that way, knowing it would only encourage the humans – she knew it was all part of her that great game of chess Water faeries played by nature.
“So, you got a plan yet?” she asked her stoic handmaiden.
“We must hope that your friends are delayed by their preparations,” said Faye, “While they are busy, we investigate ahead of them,”
“Is that all? Shouldn’t we stop the ritual before they get there?”
“Informing you of my strategy is itself not a part of my strategy,” replied Faye, “And yes, I am well aware that you do not approve of such behaviour,”
Phantasia grimaced, but she knew it Faye’s behaviour something she’d have to accept, just as her own unpredictable eccentricity was something Faye had to.
~ The race is on! ~
~ Next: Return to the World’s End! ~
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As you can see, Phoenie’s meeting grew well beyond inclusion into the previous chapter! Having them come to a completely wrong conclusion was quite entertaining to write – in the last draft of the story, this meeting had nothing to do with the larger plot and was just another “we heard of something odd happening and are off to investigate” scene (which is why it was much, much shorter!).
Andromeda’s one of the last students to get a surname. It’s nothing meaningful, but is also an obscure homage to one of my degree coursemates (who is now going through old chapters as an editor so I can revise them!). There are lots of little injokes like that scattered around the story XD
You might have noticed this whole ‘nanotech’ thing getting brought up more and more in recent chapters. The main reason is because I didn’t want to bloat the early story with too much high technology, the same way I didn’t want to bloat it with magic. one of the reasons it skews into the ‘high school’ setting, and having the teenage characters ignorant to a lot of stuff, was to help people reading to settle into things. You’ll be seeing more and more stuff get introduced over time – in a couple of chapters there’s a robot spider…
The final scene did feature more about Dante until a few hours ago, when I excised it in the final edit. It didn’t really fit, and came across more as Faye/Phantasia explaining theories on his ‘power’ for the benefit of the audience, rather than Katrina. It didn’t suit Faye’s character, either: she has no logical reason to list a load of theories she cannot prove to a human who doesn’t understand what she’s talking about: “he’s not a demon” suffices.
Another thing I thought I might raise here is that I’m contemplating a subscription service. The story will continue to be release as it is now, free of charge, so don’t panic! But with advertising only scraping in a few dollars a week, I could do with a way to earn more XD A subscription service would basically allow those who subscribe to read about a month ahead of the regular schedule, along with some other extra perks. One thing I’m really against is having content that is permanently subscriber-only, so again, don’t worry about me cutting everyone else out XD
If it happens it won’t be for a couple of months, anyway – gotta get enough chapters completed first! And I’m still nowhere near finished with the database thing… :/ there’s a long list of artwork that needs working on too… revising early chapters so I can publish a hardcopies… AND MORE!
*collapses at desk*
I dunno about Faye NOT promising to protect them,she did say that to Katrina after all, and we all know the… many flaws of Human logic. lol
Another well written chapter, I was drawn right in, about started laughing when Pheonix let the cat out of the bag on Phantasia and Faye XD Ooo And I think it
s about time for the 3 eye’d cat to make another appearance =D
I’ve read the entire story this far and it’s one of the best sci-fi fantasy stories I’ve read so far. Well thought out, steady with the facts and logically made up while remaining mysterious and with potentially huge world to explore. The bringing of Faye to the world axis was the best move thus far although it most likely has more to do with feelings of a vague similarity instead of objectivity.
Thanks! I’m just trying to tell the sort of story I’d want to read, since I find myself getting horribly disappointed with most other stuff that’s out there XD
“Informing you of my strategy is itself not a part of my strategy,” replied Faye.. Lol ^^
lol…. I loved that line too
First, my answer to the vote. They will only ‘be prepared’ if they continue to work together. If they splinter when everything goes to Hell (or it comes to them as the case may be) then they will have to rely on luck/unforeseen circumstances.
And a comment on Faye’s plans. I hate it when entities do that. I completely understand why she finds it necessary, but I hate it.
I completely agree with you Atrun. It annoys me to no end when entities leave me out of things.
i think the voting is weighted, because most people can’t resist voting “they’re so screwed.”
guilty >_>
Also guilty. XD
john was the most prepared during the God hand incident. his team was the only one that actually got further in than godhand planed.
@alanek ya thats very fun to say.
He also didn’t believe in magic. That disbelief is starting to crack, although he won’t admit it to himself. The sight of the demon will possibly be enough to shatter that disbelief completely. Thrown up against a magical being of that caliber I don’t think that his preparations will hold. I doubt he would shatter, but he would fall to the level of everyone else. The same goes for Theseus.
I’m pretty sure John could find a way to explain a demon (mutant, nanotechnology…). Sufficiently advenced technology being indistinguishable from magic and all that. As I understand it, he doesn’t have a problem with weird things, he has a problem with superstitions and people telling him NO amount of scientific knowledge could explain it because it’s “magic”.
Also, I think there’s a mistake in the last paragraph.
“but she knew it Faye’s behaviour something she’d have to accept”
by the way, another minor error?
“she knew it was all part of [her that] great game of chess Water faeries played by nature.”
thinking there should be a comma between “her” and “that”… that, or leave out either word >_>