Chapter 49: The Gauntlet
The ‘leansídhe’ – or whatever it was – would be toying with the girl’s head, but this was the only way to break the influence on all of them. Shimomura lifted the flute to her mouth, hands trembling, and began to play a few basic notes. Pushing her own thoughts of inadequacy away, and a feeling of intense embarrassment, Lyra began to sing a quiet melody herself. It was the sort of gentle song she would sing in private, when she could relax and not worry about people hearing her. It was a far cry from the violent, screaming lyrics she was used to belting out in public.
“The hell, I didn’t know you could sing,” said Armstrong, not making the situation any better. Lyra ignored him and kept going, encouraging Shimomura to play.
The melody grew and began to fill the cavern, obscuring the voices in her head. As soon as Shimomura was playing without hesitation, Lyra leapt down into the river and pulled one of the used crystals from her pocket. Clasping it tight in her hand, she began to chant a simple binding spell under her breath – the same kind of magic she’d used to empower the crystals with her own chi in the first place Whether it worked on this ‘leansídhe’ thing was a gamble, but with Shimomura’s melody stirring the others out of their despair, the vampire would be weakened. She just had to adapt the magic a little, add a little bit of exorcism to it, let the crystal connect with the dark shadow rather than her own aura.
Shimomura’s notes began to falter, he natural self-consciousness overriding her initial bout of courage, and as the music began to fade the whispers began to grow. Lyra increased the volume of her chanting until it became an aggressive shout echoing around the tunnels, drowning out the voices.
And then everything was silent. No music, not chanting, no voices – just a crystal glistening with contained magical energy. Lyra fell to her knees, the water washing over her chest and splashing against her face. It had worked.
“Dude, that was some proper deja-vu,” said Gibson with a loud yawn, as if he’d just woken from a nap, “Like I was back in the club and everything,”
“So that’s what a leansídhe attack feels like,” said Blumstein.
“But we proved that the ‘leansídhe’ has no power over us!” said Rogan.
Lyra rolled her eyes but refrained from verbally lashing out at the idiots and their delusions. They’d learn the hard way one of these days. A shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Armstrong holding out his hand to help her up.
“I ain’t a clue what that shit was about, and that chanting weirded me out a bit, but it’s pretty damned obvious that whatever it was drained the hell outta you,”
Lyra took his hand and pulled herself to her feet. “The shit ain’t even started yet, Armstrong,” she said, “You be taking that as a warning ’bout who we’re up against,”
“These guys try anything like that again and I’ll get out one of these sonic grenades,” he said, patting the bandolier on his chest.
As the group continued on, Lyra approached a nervous Shimomura, who hung at the back of the group with a red face, flute still clutched tight in her hand.
“Ah, cheer up, Kao,” she said, “You did good,”
~ Pushed to their limits already, and yet danger still awaits! ~
~ Next: Confronting the Golem! ~
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Chapter 49
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Stretching the ‘trials’ out over two chapters was never planned, but they developed enough to allow it. These things happen! I does mean I get to put the focus on more characters, though. This chapter deals with Lyra, the next covers Theseus and John. The funny thing is that none of these characters had such spotlight focus in previous drafts – Lyra especially was only a background character, whereas now she’s grown into some kind of anti-Ceres…
Things to note:
~ Lyra’s effectively using a type of dowsing to trace the leylines, hence how she figures where they have to head next
~ For those wondering about the terminology, chi (which should really be spelt ch’i, and is pronounced ‘ki’) is a person’s own ‘magical energy’, while their chakra are the nodes around the body through which it runs. Basic Eastern mysticism.
~ In case anyone was wondering, ‘shaman’ is an acceptable plural. I might have used shamans a couple of times in the past, but I’ve settled on this now.
~ Lyra’s glove isn’t as special as you might have thought :p It’s just a charm that helps her focus, decorated with gems that she’s imbued with her own mana previously. She has a whole stock of them. Common practise among her tribe would be to store excess chi in various gems for later use, so it never went to waste.
~ Also, it’s decorated with the rune of tiwaz, which represents the Norse god Tyr and protection, and is befitting the situation according to my ‘consultant’ on these matters XD
~ I’ve gotten into the habit of having Lyra refer to most people by surname, except when she genuinely likes them.
~ ‘Techie’ would probably be a term analogous to ‘geek’
~ John’s propulsion-pack is the same thing his dad was seen using in #37. I know, I called it a jetpack then
I figured there might be something more advanced in the future. It uses magnets. Or something.
~ The spider-bot is capable of adapting its body to swim, turning into some kind of mini hovercraft. It really does cover all terrain!
~ The leansidhe here was feeding off of despair
~ Kaori (and Lyra) aren’t using audiomancy, at least not consciously. The music just drowned out the leahsidhe’s ‘voice’, effectively creating a barrier. It would have been discovering things like this that led people into experimenting with the empathic power of music, and thus the development of audiomancy.
~ Lyra usually sings punk
Questions to ponder:
~ What is Phoenie’s “quest for justice”? What justice is she seeking? Does she have ulterior motives?
~ Why are the traps so basic? Why do they get progressively more dangerous? Are they being tested, and if so, why? Is the test even designed for them?
~ Theseus is immune to the leadsidhe, as has been noted before, but what about Katrina?
Yay, lots of Lyra, she’s my favorit!
Am I first to comment? Anyway, I thought this immunity thing was connected to the chi, and in the grade charts it did say Katrina had some strong chi in her. I’d also guess that being with phantasya in godhands custody opened her up to it a little. Got to say, I love this story. (Only thing I really don’t like about this universe is the picture of Kaori Shimamura. Can’t help it, to me she looks different.)
Don’t worry, I expect most people visualise the characters differently to how I draw them. Hell, I visualise some of them differently! Contrary to what it might look like, I don’t see everything in my head as a cartoon XD
Interesting chapter with a lot of character focus although I would have preferred some more specifics on the traps and how they get disabled. Most of the time it’s just John pushing some buttons or Lyra mumbling under her breath. At least that’s how I imagine things.
Also somehow the gradual increase in dangerousness doesn’t carry through up until the point where the traps get really bothersome. The three traps which where carried out in more detail where cool though. I would have set the illusion a lot sooner (first or second magical trap). The gas was great! Low-Tech is the gadgeteers demise! And how Lyra handled the Leadsidhe made up for a lot of the left-outs up to that point.
But aside the downside mentioned beforehand the chapter goes a long way in shaping out the characters – some more, some less. Lyra gets some levels in arrogance but in awesomeness as well. John and Theseus gradually appear to accept at least the possibility that there is more going on then what meets the eye (or the sensors for that matter) which makes them more likeable to me (but being a techie myself I always had a soft spot for John). Phoenie is again pretty useless aside from her pushing influence. Joel is once more driven by his machismo in conflict with the emo in him. Kaori gets a little bit of needed spotlight and hopefully a little bit reassurance out of it. The other two sadly remain in the background. Andromeda (Blumstein? The surname is missing in the characters page) may need some attention. She is in danger to appear as useless as Phoenie.
Some characters are becoming more balanced in my opinion. Not just shedding themselves of their flaws but just not tripping over them constantly. Some however have to still face their flaws which are gradually becoming more prominent and thus getting in the way.
I did originally have more detail on the earlier traps but there wasn’t really much to them other than, as you say, Lyra mumbling a bit and John pushing some buttons. Figured I’d rather spend more time on the character development than detailing how John jams yet another set of lasers XD
As for Phoenie and Andromeda…neither is really that useful in the current situation. Phoenie’s more an investigator/researcher (in a way, her contribution was setting this all up in the first place, as none of the others would have put the jigsaw together), whereas Andromeda deals better with people than adventure (very much the opposite of John in this case). They do get to do something later, at least, though it also means they manage to avoid certain events that definitely leave a lasting impression on everyone else! It’s ironic in a lot of ways…
Thanks for the analysis btw. I not only like reading how others view events, but it goes some way to informing me if I’ve been successful in developing the characters the way I set out to!
You are welcome. Getting involved is my way of showing the appreciation for your story. I find it pretty good. At the very least at par to most “professional” fiction novels I read in the last couple of years. So keep it up!
Yea, pushing the buttons and mumbling isn’t a great plot. You could have used the minor traps as a device for interaction between the believers in magic and the techies. Like John rambling a bit about the last trap and Lyra telling him to shut up. He doesn’t listen and walks right in a minor magical trap…
I fear in the current deadly situation there is not much time for such antics but I’m looking forward to see a little bit more from the Veritas team!
that would be totally epic… XD
I see you caught up!
Thanks for pointing out some of the mistakes. It doesn’t matter how many times I go read through a chapter, things can’t help but slip through ¬_¬
And now for something completely different:
I think the golem will pose the greater challenge. Not because it’s that much more difficult to overcome but because Lyra is pretty much drained so John and Theseus have to do (most of) the work.
They may have a lot of sweet stuff to cope with almost every non-magical situation and a giant robot would likely not really pose a threat. But that’s the thing – the golem is a >magical< device.
I think what will happen is that they weak the golem with their gadgets but in the end Theseus has to use his chi to finish it. And for that he will likely have to finally accept the magic.
As we know it is the corrupted faeries behind this, and that the one making the golems, or at least the one that attacked the school, is capable of making one that can reform, I don’t have much trust in the explosives taking it out. I realize it is quite likely this golem won’t be that advanced, but as none of the group have dealt with one before and they had encountered a Leansidhe I think the golem will be more dangerous.
As far as the traps go, I think a little more detail on the first traps and then let it go with the mention that there were several more would have been better. Then at least we as readers would have a better idea of what they’re doing, more than just ‘pushing buttons’ or ‘focusing’.
I love the character development, learning more about the characters is fascinating. As to Katrina’s immunity to the Leansidhe, I think that Rafun Li’s comment in the first post that it is due to the chi sounds good. My gut says there is more to it than that though, although I’m not sure what.
Did I miss something? I didn’t know that the renegades are responsible for this mess. And I thought the golem up ahead will be an ancient model like the one below Phantasias church.
All the golems seen thus far are of the same basic design, created by one of the renegade faeries (Tirio, formerly a prince of the Earth Queendom). Why they’re here and how things are tied together will be revealed over the next batch of chapters.
Suffice to say this underground excursion is pulling various plot strands together (the leansidhe, the ruins under the church, renegade faeries, and Titania’s illusion, among others) and wrapping a lot of them up in time for the second half of this arc. That’s when things step up a gear. Or three.
If I remember correctly, during the brief bit we got of the renegades talking they talked about summoning something, and I believe mentioned the shamans. I may have just made a wrong assumption, but I got the impression that what Phantasia and her friends are trying to stop is the renegades summoning their boss into our world.
I’d say the leech was harder; they’ve collected all the traps from earlier, after all, so why wouldn’t they use them against the golem? Problem is, they will alert the shamans once the golem is destroyed. Then thing will get REALLY tough, methinks.
Hm, I’m sure I said the symbol represented guidance and courage and protection AND shit! Pay attention!! I’ll let you off this time, May! :p
If you could update the characters page to say Andromeda’s family name (I assume it’s her, anyway) that’d be awesome.
When it came up in an earlier chapter, I couldn’t figure out who “Blumstein” was, so I looked over the character sheet, and was still stumped. Then it dawned on me now that she was the only female of the current group that didn’t have two bits to her name on the sheet…
It might’ve been mentioned in a far previous chapter, but my memory’s not that good. D: